A Delgado sort of Sunday

While I'm busy wondering what team, the Jays or Mets, will break my heart first (and second) this season, here's a bunch of Delgado cards for a not-too-verbose Sunday.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 28: Rainy Day Repack

To recap, Target Canada closed its doors earlier this year. I picked up a pile of their discounted repacks as they went through liquidation, with the plan to post them as the year went on. I've still got about 10 or so to go, so I've really done a good job making them last. Now, time for another one - this one a hockey repack with 3 packs and a relic hit.

Starting off with the blandest of the packs - 09-10 Victory. It is rare that I came across a hockey pack repack that didn't include at least one pack of this. They're nicely colourful, and I kinda with that UD had brought this low-end hockey product back as opposed to MVP. As for the cards, I really like the colour usage on the Clowe, and I can think of someone that would like that Cammalleri.

Probably blander, at least aesthetically, is 08-09 Artifacts. But, a pair of Hall of Famers, a Rangers alum and a mask binder card make it more interesting. As usual, the Sedin is the odd man out.

And the big winner pack-wise was the 08-09 UD. A Young Gun (albeit not a major name) and an Alfredsson wins it. Actually, the Alfie card would be enough to take the title even alongside a quartet of bland base cards.

And the hit:

I hope that's a food stain from the locker room...

2013-14 Contenders Box Break

While I've busted plenty of hobby boxes so far this year, it hasn't been through trips to the LCS. I'd picked up boxes at Target during their liquidation. I'd picked up boxes at the Expo, and turned my COMC credit into cards from Blowout Cards.

But no LCS boxes since Boxing Day.

While I won't post the base cards, I did well enough that, when combined with some cards I already had, to put myself only 10 cards away from the 100 card unnumbered base set. Which I took care of with a sportlots order.

Here are the numbered cards and inserts I ended up with. If you don't think my favourite in this bunch is Brad Richards looking a serial killer, you don't know me.

Here's the first of my autos. It is on-card, which is always a bonus. And it is of a guy named 'Bang'! A great name, if not exactly a major name in the NHL. He spent 8 games with the Preds in 12-13, and has been in Switzerland the past two season.

Still. BANG!

The on-card Predators content continued with the second auto. He has 4 NHL games to his credit, again during 12-13. But he did pot a goal during this time. He's been in the Dallas system the past few years. But, more importantly to me, he's a Kitchener Rangers alum! He spent 3 seasons here in the mid 2000s. So, while this wasn't a big super big money pull, hitting my PC is nice. And he does have a nice initials only autograph.

This is also my first card of his in the collection, auto-ed or otherwise.

My first auto of a guy with more that a single digit worth on NHL games to his name. I was hoping he would be the son of one of my favourite crazy Senators alum in Mike Peluso. Sadly, that is not the case. 3 for 3 for on card autos though.

One of the packs seemed thick when I opened the box. I assumed it contained a patch auto, and it did. This is the type of card that feels like a special pull, even if it is not the most marquee of names (2 NHL games only). The white jersey works beautifully with the background on the black parallel, and the gold pen works even better. I'll have to look closer, but this might be the first gold pen auto for any sport in my collection.

So. Nothing major, but one card for a PC and an aesthetically pleasing gold auto still made it a nice break.

And there you have it.

M! V! P! M! V! P!

The first hockey set of the new season has dropped (although there still are some higher end offerings from UD still to come to close off last season), so it is time to bust my first pack of the new year.

Wow. Crosby on the pack. What a surprise.

And here's my first card of the season. Typical MVP in that it brings a lot of border to the table. But, the photo is nice and clear, which is all one can hope for.

2nd up - a card for the mask binder.

And they go back-to-back.

I think everything above #100 in the set is a short print. They fall one per pack, so here's mine. #131 on the back.

This is technically part of the main set, but is even more SPd than the regular ones, falling one every 8 packs. Given the 93 Leaf vibe from it, I can see myself at least trying to add cards from this portion of the set. Considering they don't fall that rarely from a lower end product, it doesn't seem to daunting.

Back to the regular base.

And one more.

And here's the last card of the pack.

The backs are exactly what you expect from this product. Limited statistics, with the logo popping against a very bland background.

With that out of the way, it has to be puck dropping time soon, right?

And the Newest 2/14 Hockey Guy is...

Nikolaj Ehlers!

All of his cards from ITG list his birthday as 2-13-1996, but this card, as well as the first 6 links to him that come up on googling list him as 2-14-1996. That's enough for me to welcome him to the binders! He'll also tie Ryan MacInnis as the youngest person in the collection - both born the exact same date. However, Nikolaj was born in Denmark, and Ryan was born in St. Louis. So, time zones might make Ehlers slightly older, but I'm not going to get that detailed in my research.

He was a first round pick of the Jets, 9th overall, in the 2014 draft. Best of all, I can now add a Halifax Mooseheads jersey to the binder. This one might qualify as an oddball. The Post logo in the bottom right gives away that this came free in a box of cereal.

And here's the back, in all its bilingual glory.

Elvin Hayes, binder victim

Elvin Hayes is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He is in the College Basketball Hall of Fame. He was a plyer of the year, won a championship, was a 12 time All-Star, has had his number retired in Washington, where he remains their all-time leading scorer.

And as long as I keep acquiring cards of his with these great old school logos, I'll have to keep putting his cards into my "Misc. Basketball Cards" binder backwards.

Maybe my third card of his will be the charm.

This Wasn't Junk! Part 2! - Nothing 'bout the Hits!

What better way to take advantage of the time between the end of the Blue Jays game and the start of the Tiger-Cats game on a Simcoe Day afternoon than wrapping up this trade?

Starting off with the highlight of a small # of cards destined for my mask binder, with this card of Peter Mannino. Who? I admit I hadn't heard of him either, but he only has 6 games to his credit. 3 with the Isles, 3 with the Thrashers/Jets. But the reason I like this is that he only 3 licensed NHL cards to his name. This one, a parallel and a card from 2008 Power Play. In a time where anybody who has their skates on the ice in an NHL uniform gets a rookie card, this is a nice rarity.

One more hockey card, this one coming out of the Upper Deck's 25th anniversary release. It is a product that covered several different sports. But, looking through the checklist, it does beg one question. What type of photos of Upper Deck executives did Tim Couch have to get into this product?

Only 3 Mets base cards in the package, but a nice diverse grouping. It is really tough to pick a fave of this threesome with the cityscape background on Carter, and an appearance of 2001 ARchives.

But there were a couple parallels in there. A Target (Damn, I still miss their card aisle) parallel and a numbered pink parallel. And they're both still on the team! Bonus!

And to wrap it up, a nice shiny Bills parallel of TJ Graham.

And a trio of numbered parallels.

Thanks for the goodies, JBF! I hope you like the cards i selected from COMC and have on the way as I type this.

Sunday Insanity

The fun of 1998 Metal means you see a card featuring a giant (in more ways than one) player running all over the floor of the NYSE, and think nothing is wrong.

The Disappearance of Cartoons on Cards

In some cases, it can be a very good thing. If this card could talk, I'm sure it would be doing the Krusty the Clown "Me So Solly" bit.

RIP: Rowdy Roddy Piper

Dusty Rhodes dies. Hulk Hogan is a racist. Now this. Boy, my childhood sure has taken a beating over the past month and a half.