The Trout turnaround

When I busted my first jumbo pack of 2015 Topps Series 1, I pulled one of the sparkle variations of the Mike Trout base card, albeit a dinged one. I ebayed it. Due to the damage, I didn't get top dollar for it, but got enough to add a few nice cards to my collection via sportlots, and still have some cash left over in the ol' Paypal account.

I saw this one going through the COMC Challenges. Even with shipping, and throwing in a few extra cards, it was still cheaper through a dealer at sportlots. And I can imagine trying to put  that attire on my Airedale.

An unfortunate facial expression, but an interesting side-arm delivery photo.

And two more Marzanos for my 2/14 collection. The first card had me checking out the album to confirm that this was the first Sportflics card in it. Next to it, a minor league card. This is my first Marzano minor league card as well. Much like with Jericho, this one was a fraction of the cost at sportlots, even with shipping.

Time for the other envelope:

An alternate jersey card that was on my Top 10 wantlist for a week or so until it became the 10th card in a 10 card envelope.

The other 9?

My O-Pee-Chee wantlist dropping from 17 to 8. As a bonus, only one rookie left to complete that portion of the marquee SPs.

Only Because of Liquidation

And only because of liquidation at Target did I take a chance and pick up one of these:

I wouldn't try one of these retail only products at full price. 40 percent off? I guess I'll take the risk.

They promise 11 rookie cards, and the only thing in this product. 9 base cards. 1 mini. 1 auto. That's it.

So, what did I get for my 40 percent off the regular cost?

Here's the base cards. None of the cover boys, but a couple names that have potential with Carey and Savage. Maybe some of them could use a little less yellow, but that's my only complaint about these.

Here's my mini. There are 78 auto cards, and 100 minis. At one per pack, these might be a little scarcer than the autos. And my mini was a top 10 pick, so this one isn't too bad.

And my auto. How very Detroit Lions this pack was. While I don't like autographs where there are only initials, I'm OK with this one that uses three initials. That's probably because of my wrestling love with the RVDs and JBLs of the world.

So, there's my Turkey Red box. I don't think I'll try another one until they drop to 60 percent off.

Insomnia Surprise Box Special!

It is 4:45 in the morning as I begin typing this up, so I guess that makes it the right time to show off the contents of the latest Surprise Box picked up at Ye Olde Dollarama.

This one contained 3 packs (89-90 UD, 90-91 Pinnacle and 13-14 Score) and a 4 card goalie pack. Chronologically seems the best way to go through the sealed pack portion of this before I reach the repacked cards.

The UD pack was incredibly dull, but there were a couple keepers with this sketched card of Ray Bourque, and this card of Rangers alum Don Maloney. One other thing about Maloney I learned thanks to the awesome @opeecheestars on twitter: I can shoehorn him into my 2/14 collection as well, as he made his debut on 2/14. And if you're not following that twitter handle, you should be.

I think my favourite of the packs would go to Pinnacle, which is surprising, considering how much I liked the last Score hockey release. You've got throwback unis (including another alum in the late Shawn Burr), a nice shot of Vachon's classic mask, one of those Sidelines card with diving aficionado Brian Benning, and it wraps up with one of the more horrific looking cards of the junk wax era. Kelly Miller might be a good guy, but he looks like a human Pez dispenser.

Score's photo choices last year were so great. For a card with a player who has his back to the camera, and is only in a small portion of the photo, that Foligno makes that work.

And the goalie pack was a Jim Carey hot pack! But, I will never say anything about a pack that includes a McDonald's 3D Pinnacle card. Even if the other Carey is a dupe, and another of the 4 cards doesn't really work as part of the mask binder.

And there we go. Now let's see if I can salvage an hour of shuteye.

Trade w/ Kyle W.

A simple trade. A couple big hits for a lot of little ones for my PC.

I'll just start with some base, and a little damage to my set building of S1 UD flagship. Classic Devils green from the Stadium Series game at Yankee Stadium is a great way to start off some UD.

And honourable mention to this nice second year card of local boy Tanner Pearson.

One more UD card of note, this being a nice new addition to my 2-14 collection. From the always fun Canvas subset, nothing beats a card with a playoff beard. And judging by that patch, this was from the final round.

A couple Alfies that were on my zistle wantlist have dropped off.

Time for a few new additions to my Sens collection. Starting with this Curtis Lazar out of the National Hockey Card Day set. This is my first base card of his. There are a few more people who have made their Sens debut that I've got to look for cards for. David Legwand and Alex Chiasson have cards in S2 of UD, and I'll be looking for their cards. Also, Matt Puempel, Shane Prince and Chris Dreidger all made their NHL debuts this year. Even though the latter has stayed on the bench, that should still be enough to earn him a card. But, I do always have his 'drafted by' card from ITG Between the Pipes. Puempel and Prince are also Kitchener Rangers alums, so I'll be looking for more than one card of them.

More Sens! With a nice relic of Erik Karlsson. The white relic actually works much nicer with the design than a coloured swatch.

And here's an on-card Lehnergraph.

Continuing with the hockey theme, there were a couple of new additions to my aforementioned Rangers alumni collection, starting with a rookie card of the only player to win a Memorial, Calder and Stanley Cup alongside Olympic gold. Wiki says he is the only player to have won the first three, but Kitchener Rangers alumni Wendell Young also achieved that feat.

Also going to the Rangers collection is my first Nazem Kadri hit.

To finally wrap up the hockey is this, which will be a nice addition to my collection of obscure birthplaces. While Nigeria itself isn't an obscure nation, it certainly is for hockey birthplaces, with Aliu and Rumun Ndur being the only NHLers with that as their birthplace.

And that wraps up the hockey. On to football. Not long after this card's arrival, my 2013 mancrush was off to Philly. At least I only have a couple cards of his in my collection, and not this shameful jersey.

TJ Graham is also no longer a bill, but I love that there are 3 colours on the Triple Threads relic, and an on-card autograph on the second.

And to wrap it up, a pair of wrestling relics. The last ring mat piece I pulled was a Randy Orton one from Wrestlemania 27. I couldn't get that out of my house fast enough, since he's been the guy to make me change the channel to anything else for years. Ryback has a goofy charm to him, as does Khali, who was a slight guilty pleasure of mine, is also a welcome. And it is a two colour relic, probably the same one as in the photo.

So, thanks for the goodies!

Heritage!

Although I'm not as excited about this as last year due to the design, I'll still try a some packs. In this case, 3 from the LCS, since I'm fairly certain I won't be seeing much of this in a retail environment.

And here's my first card out of Heritage. And it is kind of an interesting one photo-wise, as the position of the necklace with the lights perfectly placed in the background makes it look like it is swinging in the breeze. Hey. You take what you can get from a set like this that isn't exactly known for photography choices.

No hits or numbered cards or anything of that nature from those 3 packs. So, I have to look for additions to my personal team collections to save it. 1 Met will help.

But that is dwarfed by a trio of Blue Jays, even if 2/3 of them are photoshop specials. I do like the casual dugout photo for Dioner.

But Toronto wasn't the only team to fall at a rate of one per pack. That really isn't great collation, even if one of them is an insert.

SPs fell at 1:3. With 3 packs, I got this one.

And the worst photoshop job of these 3 packs goes to this Brett Lawrie. There's something about the elephant logo that just seems off. Beyond the fact that it obviously wasn't there in the first place.

My favourite cartoon? This, for nothing more than that Yankees factoid that accompanies it.

But I think this might be my favourite card in the packs. It is the 2015 equivalent of the Rolling Stones card.

While I think I might pick up a pack or two here and there throughout the year, I'll probably not chase more beyond the PC guys. Both 2/14 babies are in this set with Tyler Clippard and Derek Norris...

Trading Across the Atlantic

Most of my trades involve crossing a border. Not all of them involve crossing the Atlantic, but a recent trade with The Card Papoy meant a Blue Jay oriented trade that saw my package cross the Atlantic to France. Here's the highlights of the return package. I apologize for the brevity. I'm just not feeling chatty tonight.

Let's lead wiuth a card that I wanted upon release, but never got around to adding until this package showed up. I really like that Roy got a pair of base cards in 2014 as a Blue Jay. While this is not on par with his first pitch card from Stadium Club.

Speaking of SC:

I love the red jerseys, and cannot get enough of cards that have them. There always seems to be one every year.

It wasn't just baseball, as my mask binder got some new (caged) faces. The Muzzatti is a dupe, but that cards also deserves to have a copy of it in my "cool card" binder.

But back to the baseball, which saw my Mookie collection grow. Even though he only spent a little time in Toronto, the ratio of his Mets cards to Blue Jay cards is still way out of kilter.

Diamond Kings!

But the best of all:

Lots of Delgados! There were 20+ Delgados in this package, and only a couple of them were dupes. I'm really tempted to try to swipe that Delgado studio card in a random credit card machine to see what happens. Maybe I'll have a Santos L. Halper moment and clear out the LCS.

And there we have another post. Thanks for the goodies! I'll try look for some more of those team sets at the Expo in May!

COMC Challenge Cards Part 84: 2/14 hockey

A new face. An old face in an unfamiliar jersey. Team-issued sets. And 6 more new cards in my 2/14 binder to put my overall total at 957.

I'll start with the unfamiliar jersey. This is my first Milan Hejduk card in which the NHL jersey he's wearing is not an Avalanche one. While I guess it technically is one for the same franchise, this is still a nice oddity in my collection. I don't think he has any other cards out there where he's pictured in the Nordiques jersey, and the only other ones out there are international or all-star jerseys. So this is a special addition to the Milan Hejduk portion of the collection. I can also see how his autograph has gone a wee bit downhill over time.

Now this is a little more familiar to the 2/14 collection. A Hejduk Avs card.

Here's the other one I mentioned in the opening paragraph. Mike Bishop of the Kitchener Rangers, in a local police set from 1984. I probably already have this card somewhere, seeing as I had cards from this set back in the day, but it is nice to have one in my actual binder.

And one Kitchener Rangers alum from a local set deserves another. Here's the late Walt Poddubny on a card from a 1990-91 Devils team set.

A nice shiny rainbow card is up next, featuring Matt Campanale, who has played in one more NHL game than yours truly. But, it doesn't matter if he played zero games, he's still welcome in my collection, although getting his cards would probably be tougher. Interestingly, I've got the foil parallel from this set and the retro parallel, but not the base card. Matt is playing in Milan now.

A non gaudy Pacific card. Say it ain't so Jo-hansson!

Another obscure set for the collection. This time the Swedish edition of 1997 Collector's Choice. Amazingly, this is my second card of Marko Jantunen, considering he never had any cards released on this side of the Atlantic.

And much yesterday's Raptors post. Start with an auto. End with a relic. This isn't game worn, instead coming from a reunion game. But, since there don't seem to be too many game worn relics out there, I'll gladly take this instead. At least it is Montreal red.

And that's the latest addtions to the binder.