Just One Pack...of 2015 Allen & Ginter

Since I knew I wouldn't be able to resist at least one.

A rookie card of Trevor May leads what will likely be my only pack of this product.

Next up, another Twin? Hot pack? Not this time, as this was the last Twin in the pack.

Alright! A Mets card! Nice to get one of those in my only pack of the product. And a veteran like Bartolo Colon looks really good in a Ginterized format.

Here's the non baseball insert. And

So, if I ever find myself in a fight with a tiger, I know what I can use.

The mini!

A short-print!

And a couple appearances of shoulder logos wrap up this pack. Bartolo really saved this pack, and it really confirmed my decision not get more beyond select PC cards, and not bust any more packs outside of retail.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 31. A new repack! Let's try it out!

I'll try any type of repack at least once, as long as I don't break the bank doing so.

And this one definitely didn't. 3 packs and a carte spéciaux de Connor McDavid! And it didn't break the bank. You can see 2 of the packs, the 3rd was a Score 2013-14 pack. Also, there was a 4th in there as well, a pulsar red three pack, one that was included in target 3 pack hangers, was also in there. So, 4 packs was a better description.

Let's start with my Carte Spéciaux!

Well, I'm somewhat surprised by this. I was expecting some sort of unlicensed crapola, but it is a nice ITG card with visible OHL logos. And the Erie Otters logo is far more badass than you would expect any team called the Otters.

The 1999-00 pack was nothing but base cards. With UD, that can be a good thing, but 99-00 was a really dull year for photography in the flagship set. Excepting the Roman Turek, there is little memorable about the base cards in the set. But at least I can add this card to my masks binder.

Nothing that memorable in the Score pack either. But at least there was one keeper on the basis of it being a really great photo (and the ideal use of a horizontal layout).

And there were a pair of gold parallels. Nice abominable snowman on Pickard's mask. I should have tired of that motif on Colorado masks by now, but I do like seeing different takes on the beast.

I guess this was a Target pack at one point, so that explains the red Matteau parallel. I can't hate a pack with a nice shiny card in it.

And the bonus pulsars. I guess these aren't searched, as the Forsberg was a pretty good pull. In fact, I added it to the COMC submission I mailed out this morning. The only one there is going for more than I paid for the repack itself, so that's nice.

I don't know if I'd try another one of these, but if they all contain a pulsar bonus pack, I'd try another one.

Throwback Sunday!

For two reasons.

1) 2*3 Heroes already does Throwback Thursday
2) It is as good a day as any to show off some off some throwback uniforms from my COMC box

For some strange reason, it was cheaper to pick up this nice shiny /199 refractor of Aaron Hicks rocking the St. Paul Saints jersey than to pick up the regular base card. I won't question it.

And ditto for this /499 refractor of Ben Sheets. Again, no complaints

Even minor league cards can feature a throwback uniform. There are also ones out there that feature an autograph accompanying this uniform. I really don't know why I opted for this one as opposed to the autographed one. Probably cost. Or I didn't search beyond this card that came up during the challenges.

And the only thing better than a throwback uniform on the front...

is having the same one appear on the reverse.

How very meta

I'm sure it is just a coincidence that this close up of Mark-Andre Fleury's mask highlights an ITG card on the side.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 30. My Repack Has Fleas!

Another Flea Market repck. A recap of how these work. 50 or so base cards, maybe an insert or parallel, and one hit in a brick of cards for $5.00.

2012 ITG Heroes & Prospects Radek Faksa - The reason I grabbed this particular repack - a new card for my Rangers collection. He was a first round pick of Dallas, but has yet to make his NHL debut. A pair of Senators will likely be the newest NHL level card additions to that PC - Matt Peumpel and Shane Prince, both who are in MVP as SP'd rookies.
2011 SP Authentic Erik Johnson
2011 SP Authentic Michael Grabner
2011 SP Authentic Joe Sakic

2012 ITG H&P Derrick Pouliot
2012 ITG H&P Jayden Hart
2012 ITG H&P Damon Severson - One of the things I miss about ITG's merger with Leaf is that cards with interesting junior jerseys are harder to come across.
2014 OPC - Michal Neuvirth
2013 Titanium Brayden Schenn
2013 Titanium Niklas Backstrom
2014 Trilogy Bryan Little
2014 Trilogy Rick Nash

2013 SP Authentic Doug Gilmour - Another of my favourite jersey designs of the past.
2014 Platinum Jiri Hudler
2014 Artifacts Niklas Kronwall
2014 Artifacts Bill Guerin
2014 Artifacts Matt Read

2014 Artifacts Mike Richards - A Rangers alum, albeit one in a smidge of legal trouble right now.
2014 Artifacts Trevor Linden

2014 SPA Mike Richter - Maybe I grabbed the "cool uniforms" brick.

2010 Black Diamond Team Canada Die Cuts Mark Messier - Cool die-cut insert!
2013 Crown Royale - Anze Kopitar
2013 Crown Royale - Milan Michalek
2013 Crown Royale - Roberto Luongo
2013 Crown Royale - Matt Duchene

2013 Crown Royale - Mike Cammalleri - Of course I pull a Wolverine alum to pass along to TMM. Why wouldn't I?

2012 Upper Deck Signature Sensations Francis Waither - Here's the hit. Not a major name, and likely a sticker dump, but autos were always tough pulls from flagship, so this is a pretty good sure hit.
2013 Totally Certified Robert Luongo
2013 Totally Certified Martin St. Louis
2013 Totally Certified Ben Bishop
2014 Ultra Sergei Bobrovsky
2014 MVP Chris Kreider
2014 MVP Justin Abdelkader
2014 Platinum Drew Doughty

2014 Upper Deck Team Canada Haley Irwin
2014 Upper Deck Team Canada Austin Lotz - I really didn't sample enough of this product when it was released. Nice to add a couple random ones here.
2014 Masterpieces Taylor Hall
2014 SPX Kyle Okposo
2014 Platinum Tyler Myers

2013 Team Canada Dan Boyle - The only drawback is the on uniform advertising has all the subtlety of a fart in a diving bell.

2013 Team Canada Kyle Clifford - But there are still some nice photos.

2013 Team Canada Milan Lucic. but some are also like this.
2013 Black Diamond Shawn Horcoff
2013 Black Diamond Brandon Saad
2014 OPC Elias Lindholm
2014 OPC Matt Niskanen
2014 OPC Marc Methot
2013 OPC Joffrey Lupul
2013 OPC Kyle Clifford
2013 OPC Jimmy Howard

2013 Titanium Cory Schneider - And the last card.

Another pretty good repack!

PWE Chronicles

In this case, the chronicles of yet another PWE from Shoebox Legends.

Like with yesterday's post, there was only one hockey card in the pack, but it is this nice addition to my 2/14 collection. The middle of this card is acetate, so it creates a really nice look when paired against the white scanner background. This is my 89th Milan Hejduk card in that collection.

Baseball was far better represented - as in that was the rest of the envelope. First up, a really nice shot of one of the newest Blue Jays in Troy Tulowitzki. My guess is that I'll be waiting until Update for an actual Jays card.

Next up, two new Vladdies for that collection. Zistle puts my total at 187 cards of his, but I figure that's low and I just haven't updated due to laziness.

And how about a bunch of Mets to wrap it up. Inserts! Faux-vintage! Junk Wax! Shiny! And all needs, at least it appears to be so via zistle until I cross-reference it with the binders.

And there you go.

"Come Sit Under The Learning Tree"

And I will show you all the great non-baseball cards I got in a trade with Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle.

There was a point behind my title. That was a favourite saying of the pictured Ernie Ladd, who would say that when he wanted to educate youngsters about the goings on in wrestling - frequently, accompanying a screw-up on the part of the young wrestler. As you might have figured out, this is another addition to my small collection of non-wrestling cards of pro-wrestlers. He joins football cards of Wahoo McDaniel and Angelo Mosca, and an acting card of Robert Maillet. It's small, but I like it.

There was only one hockey card. It was a /10 of Erik Karlsson. If there is only one hockey card in the package, that's the type you want it to be.

Basketball was a little more represented, with a trio of cards. Here's a 2/14 card.

Here's a Raptors card.

And a relic to close the deal.

Next up, a small sampling of Bills. I vaguely remember the Quinn Early time in Buffalo, but at least he got a nice card from Collector's Choice out of the time. And it inspired me to google him, and come across this gem on his wiki entry:

"He currently teaches Choy Li Fut Kung Fu in San Diego at White Dragon Martial Arts [1] and has wri. tten . published in Inside Kung Fu magazine."

Quinn, I loved your time in Buffalo and it wasn't long enough. I have nothing bad to say about it. Nothing at all.

I guess this is technically a Chargers card. But I'll still put in my Bills collection. Because the uniform/helmet is enough for me.

All the baseball stuff coming at a later gate.

All About the Penmanship

Time to show off some more cards I picked up for no other reason than because I loved the penmanship of their autograph.

But, this one, I just wanted an autograph of. The fact that Cornette's penmanship is beautiful is just a bonus. Jim was a manager during most of his days on camera in wrestling, and, as one of the better talkers around, could go off on a rant about anything.

Here, just listen as he drops by the commentary table for a Midnight Express squash match:

If I ever win the lottery, I'm going to hire Cornette just to rant about things that piss him off.

Great penmanship and the Montgomery Biscuits logo? What more could you want?

And on-card autograph can improve things. And he's still in the bigs!

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 29: Hey! I think I need that card...

Another case where I'm scanning the repacks and one of the visible cards is one I might need for my base set.

2014 UD Chris Kreider - And it is a need! WOO-HOO! And if it wasn't, it is still a great photo that I'd want dupes of anyhow.
1990 Bowman Allan Bester - Getting the required 90 Bowman card out of the way early.
1991 Platinum Leafs Team Card

1991 Future Trends French - This is from a set saluting the 1972 Canada/Russia series, this one featuring the openiong faceoff from Game 1. And we also have Pierre Trudeau on the card. I really wish his son had a 'just watch me' moment in him. And that's about as political as I'll get here on this blog.

1990 Score Walt Poddubny - A dupe for my 2-14 collection.
1990 OPC Michel Petit

1993 Parkhurst Emerald Michel Petit - A Michel Petit hot pack!
1993 UD Pat Peake

1993 Leaf Mike Donnelly - 1993 Leaf means I post the back of the card.
1991 Stad. Club Rich Sutter

2000 MVP Brett Hull - Actually, this is a third star parallel. Getting parallels from repacks is always nice, whether it is Brett Hull or Michel Petit.
1992 UD Drake Berehowsky
1990 Score Brain Mullen

2013 SPX Pascal Dupuis - The presence of a re-used B&W photo makes this card fairly reserved as far as SPX releases go. Although still pretty obnoxious.

A card for a base set, and a pretty nice Brett Hull parallel. That's a good repack!

Just One Card

I don't know if Hayward's San Jose Sharks mask was the first one to use the design where it looks like the mouth of the creature represented on this mask is devouring the wearer's head, but I still couldn't resist showing off the newest mask binder card.

Even if Masked Mondays isn't a thing for me anymore.