Down with O-Pee-Chee!

It is the big set build of the year for the hockey types. 600 different cardboards to make the set. While I haven't officially planned to build this set for 15-16, I can at least sample some. 1 pack, and 4 singles for my PC seems like reasonable start.

At least Upper Deck didn't have to change their packaging for this to put Toews on the front.

The first card out of 2015 is a card perfect for my mask binder should I not build the set. The Ovie is card #400 in the set, meaning that O-Pee-Chee has lifted from Topps this year and put the biggest names in the '00' spots (Stamkos, Price, Toews, Ovechkin and Crosby respectively). Checklists are 51s this year. The V Series minis fall at a rate of 2 per hobby box. They seem very argyle this year. I really like the retros this year, and can see at least trying for the Sens team set.

A here were the 4 sample cards I got. A new Gaborik for the 2/14 collection. It is nice to see Mike Hoffman make his OPC debut after a good full season with the team.

And the card backs. Nothing too special here other than the full career stats on both the retro and the standard base cards.

So, 9 down. 591 to go.

Under $20 at a card show

Another small local card show on the cheap. I'm not including the single pack and few singles of OPC 2015-16 I picked up. Since that's better for a post of its own.

I'm leading with this because not only was this the only hit I picked up, but it was also the only non-hockey card I picked up. It is a small show in Ontario, after all. This one was card #X in a #X for $Y box, so I figured I should at least have one card outside of the hockey additions.

I managed to hit a lot of my PCs.

The mask binders gained 7 new cards, and I became a Tyler Weimann super collector.

6 new cards were welcomed to my 2/14 binders. 3 new Marian Gaboriks.

And 3 new Milan Hejduks. Total # of 2/14 cards is now over the 1080 mark.

Here are the 2 newest Alfredssons for that binder. It is nice to get a triple diamond card from a quarter bin.

And a few general Senators for that collection.

Rounding out the PC additions were these 2 Kitchener Rangers alum.

To wrap up stuff for me, here are some of the cards entering my misc. binder.

Whether it is 1993 Leaf, Metal Universe, or some random insert set, I love cards that use the player's city as part of the design. As usual, these look far better when in hand than scanned.

Horizontal goodies! The Neely is quite thin, and as a consequence thereof, is badly bowed. But that won't keep me from adding it to my small Cam Neely collection. I assume that's the arena behing Nabokov on his card.

And some vertical goodies as well. Fake vintage and real vintage. I love the Tough Times insert. Since I've never pulled one of the red parallels from any repack Victory packs, so I decided a quarter bin was a good a choice as any to grab one. And that Tim Connolly is the shiniest card of the day.

Finally, some cards for others:

Such as a collector of Wolverines alum,

or Whalers collectors.

There you have it. All that's left is one dozen OPC cards for tomorrow's post.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 33.2 - Cube or Cards?

Might as well wrap this one up.

1990 Bowman - Tom Barrasso -  I have no idea why, of all the cards to make visible among the random mix, it is usually 1990 Bowman.

2011 Score - Zac Rinaldo - The rookie card is of someone still active. That's a plus!

2008 Power Play - Henrik Zetterberg, Henrik Lundqvist, Chris Drury, Stephen Valiquette, Nigel Dawes, Lauri Korpikorski - While I'm not a fan of oval-vision, I do like the colourful design, as well Stephen's Spiderman themed mask.

2011 Score Rookie/Traded - Al Montoya, Tomas Kaberle, Marco Sturm, Jordan Caron, Dustin Penner, Brandon Pirri - There's my second throwback Kings jersey in this.

2012 Upper Deck - Keith Yandle, Henrik Lundqvist, Kris Letang, Victor Hedman, Andrew Ladd, Dustin Brown - More nice photography, as expected from Upper Deck. The big winner here is that hat trick card of Dustin Brown, although they're all contenders.

2012 Artifacts - Milan Lucic, Henrik Zetterberg, Kevin Shattenkirk, Ryan Kesler, Jonathan Toews, Dale Hawerchuk, Paul Stastny, Tyler Myers, Bobby Orr - This is pretty boring, although you can't hate getting an Orr.

2009 Coll. Choice - Michael Frolik, Jason Arnott, Milan Hejduk, Vaclav Prospal, Scott Gomrz, Dan Boyle, Brad Boyes, Marty Turco - WOO-HOO! This repack cube has netted me two new Milan Hejduks for my 2/14 collection. This is another one I'm surprised I didn't have in the binder already. This solidly puts the cards as more interesting than the cube.

2009 Black Diamond - Matt Stajan

2007 Black Diamond - Marc Savard   - I like the fact there is some colour in the base design in this year.

2007 Parkhurst - Dino Ciccarelli - A classic uniform.

2011 Victory - Jeff Carter, Alexander Semin

2011 Pinnace - Nicklas Backstrom, Ryan Malone, Henrik Sedin - Pinnacle, as a whole for their base sets, may have had better photo choices than Upper Deck, at least in terms of uniqueness.

2009 Upper Deck - Dustin Penner, Niklas Hagman, Kimmo Timonen

2011 Score All Goalies - Joey MacDonald, Jordan Pearce, Thomas McCollum, Nikolai Khabibulin, Devan Dubnyk, Martin Gerber - I had no idea who Pearce was. It turns out he was one of those guys whose only NHL experience was on the bench, but that was still enough to earn him a card.

1990 Bowman - Steve Yzerman - And another Bowman to end it.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 33.1 - Cube or Cards?

It's been a while since I picked one of these from Walmart. They're a cube of cards with 5 packs, a bunch of sticker packs, and 50ish loose cards. I'll cover the packs today, and will move into the other miscellaneous cards at a later date. Probably tomorrow, but that will change depend on my mood.

Here are the 5 packs.

1997 Certified
2006 Beehive
2008 Victory
2008 Upper Deck
2012 Score

All the sticker packs were 2008-09 Panini.

I'll post the cards in chronological order, and wrap up with the stickers.

Chrome/Prizm/whatever to start. Or at least they'll be chromier if I removed the protective cover. The Roy did have the cover on it, but it was partially off when I opened the pack. Other than that, this was the first pack.

Zzzzzzzzz. I think that Sundin has been in every pack of Beehive I've ever busted.

This isn't too bad of a pack. Valabik is a 2/14 baby, but that's a duplicate in that collection. But he's also a Kitchener Rangers alum, and it isn't a duplicate in that collection. I really like the Brodeur card since it really isn't the typical goalie shot in this set, with a photo from outside of the crease.

The last time I pulled one of these packs from a repack, I pulled a YG of John Tavares. Jay Rosehill isn't exactly on that level. But it did give me the only Ottawa Senators card in the break (although there were a couple stickers).

Two cards saved this Score pack. A nice photo on the Shaw and a throwback uniform are sure keepers.

A couple good cards, but I'm still preferring the cube at this point.

On to the stickers!

Way more than I can post, but I can hit some of my PCs. Masks, obscure hockey birthplaces and 2/14 stickers were all among the contents.

As were...

Turn back now.

You were warned.

Obnoxiously loud and shiny stickers.

I'm still voting on the cube as my preference so far. But, there should be some goodness among the 55 cards.

4 for the price of 2

This has happened before. There's a couple of autos I'd like in my PC, but they're part of a lot. So, I grab them, and send the others to my COMC account. Although I did have a home planned for one of the leftovers, it was a dupe for my intended target.

All of the cards were Champ's minis. That's another plus, since that means they'll also all be on-card. This was my first of the wants, adding an auto of former Kitchener Ranger Walt Tkaczuk. He spent his entire NHL career as a member of the New York Rangers, meaning that, except for a few games in the minors, he played his career with teams named 'Rangers' (There's no affiliation between the Kitchener and New York squads). Out of the 1076 games listed at hockeydb, only 8 were played wearing a uniform other than a Rangers one.

Second up, howzabout an on-card autograph of a Hall of Famer? The more affordable half of the Hull and Oates duo.

I had planned to ship that Bobby Ryan off to Greg @ P,TSiA, but I searched beforehand and found out that it would be a dupe for that collection. So, it joined the Mike Iggulden in my COMC mailer. I had never heard of him before, but he played 1 game for the Sharks and 11 for the Islanders, thus explaining the uniform not matching the team name on the card.

And there you go...

Stacks of Wax 2! Part 6: Crusading!

And now, the final box of my Blowout credit out of COMC credit shopping spree.

Pack 1:

6 packs in this with 5 cards each, with one hit (3 autos and 3 relics) and one crusade card per pack. The first auto isn't the best name, but things get better as the box goes on. There aren't too many chase cards among the base, but that Davis is one of them. And the Crusade is a nice shiny card of 'Big Baby', making the autograph the third best card for me in the pack.

Pack 2:

A nice colourful relic in this pack, and an alternate jersey on the Ibaka. Another decent pack.

Pack 3:

And now things really get good, with a card for my Celtics PC. The Brandon Bass is a red parallel numbered 82/99. And another colourful relic.

Pack 4:

WOO-HOO! An auto of a Celtic! And one with a pair of rings and their number in the rafters! I'll overlook the stray ink on the sticker if it means this one is on its way to my team PC. And the team collection goodness isn't over yet. But in the meantime, I know someone that would like that shiny Glen Rice Sr. card.

Pack 5:

Quite the Celtics hot box! My second numbered card of the break as well, with a nice thick patch card. I watched a couple breaks of this, and they fall at a rate of about two or three per case. So I beat the odds, and did so with a card for my PC. The Knight Court of Bosh was the only insert in the box outside of the Crusades and hits. And Steve Nash will make another entry into my CanCon PC.

Pack 6:

And that's the last of the packs, and it ends on a really strong note. Although the redemption is expired, Panini will still honour it. That's the reason I opted for Panini with the older boxes in the break. Just in case such a situation would occur. The card is up on COMC with autos, so I shouldn't have to wait to long for it. There's yet another Celtics card, my only base card addition for that team, and finally my only Raptors card of the break. While it isn't one of the major names, it is a nice shiny /25 card.

And there's the box break. When you count all the dupes out of the '15 Topps football, probably this was my favourite of the bunch.

Stacks of Wax 2! Part 5: More Jumbo-ness.

Another pack that I doubted I would find at Ye Olde LCS. And I haven't, at least yet.

Let's start with 5 base cards, highlighted by a pair of future Blue Jays.

My first shiny refractor.

And my second shiny refractor. This is a prism refractor, not to be confused with a Prizm. Because that would just be foolish.

And no hit in the pack, but a Met and a card of a guy named Scooter help take the edge off.

One more box to go, and that's tomorrow's box of 2012-13 Crusade.