Ahead of the Game

Since I'll probably be tripping over discarded hobby packs/boxes at the Expo, I figured I'd do my duty as a Canadian and avoid the rush by busting a pack beforehand.

And my first card is...

Patrick Marleau! A nice appearance of your typical UD photography to start this off, with a non-standard photo choice. I'm assuming that is one of Marleau's sons. There might be a little to much border at the side, but I do like the full-bleed the rest of the way. And the border will likely not obscure the puck being at the side as opposed to the bottom.

The backs are typical for this set. Re used photo and full stats.

The second will be really popular among people who have always wanted to look up Shane Doan's nostrils. I assume there are at least 3 message boards out there devoted to this already.

The most generic of the photos so far, but you get a nice look at the Beliveau memorial patch.

Zzzzzzzz.

And now, the card everybody wants.

From the Edmonton Oilers.

Young Gun!
.
.
.
.
.

The just sent-to-the-minors Anton Slepyshev!

YES!

Senators content! In the background at least. This is from the California road trip last season that launched Hamburglar-mania in Ottawa.

Another great photo, especially with the Bruins logo in the sky as Marchand enters.

Every year there seems to be at least one card that gives the Canadiens torch ceremony a cardboard appearance. This year, it is Max Pacioretty. Obviously, this is not a photo from early this season, as Max had yet to be awarded the captaincy in this shot.

And there you have it. I've done my job in showing off the new product, and can mostly avoid the product at the show as best I can. Except for Sens singles.

Not Exactly a Plain White Relic

Nope.

There are other oddball relics in this collection. A championship flag (also from the Captains), a souvenir store sign, and a pitching rubber.

Kudos to Topps for bringing something other than jersey swatches to collectors!

The Expo is this Weekend! Any Requests?

And any comments along the lines of "PLAY FREEBIRD!" will result in my ignoring your request, as well as forwarding any cards I may have already set aside for you to my COMC account.

With the Expo coming up, I always want to help my fellow collectors out by hunting down cards for them. I already have some collectors on my list. If I've traded with you in the past, and one of the following seems familiar, then I'm looking out for you.

1) Whalers
2) Wolverines Alum
3) Lightning
4) Guelph Storm Alum
5) Ducks
6) Blackhawks

That's it for now. Just a couple things to consider when you make your request.

A) Although other sports are available, it is hockey that is the most prevalent at the show. Non-hockey requests are less likely to be successful.
B) If you want a specific card that should be priced at $15 or higher, I might ask for Paypal-led money before or after as opposed to a trade.
C) General requests (EG: Flyers autographs) are more likely to honoured than specific ones (EG: 3 colour John LeClair relic)
D) Be sure to leave some contact info!

That's it.

Hope I can help you out!

ObCard:

It doesn't matter that he never played a game for the Raptors after the trade (he was cut in preseason), and that his total NBA experience is 1 game more than yours truly during a 10-day contract with Charlotte. This is still a Raptors card, and once again I believe I have at least one base card of anybody who had one issued listing them as a Raptor, up until this season.

Finally! An Update Pack!

Finally, I find the time show off my one jumbo pack of 2015 Update that I picked up.

Josh Donaldson - A great start with some Blue Jays content. It is also nice to get a photo from the basepaths as opposed to a slugging photo from the plate.
Asher Wojciechoswki

Danny Muno - And some Mets content as well!
Rick Porcello
Juse Urena

Carlos Peguero - And the first really memorable photo of the pack.
Delino DeShields Jr
Zach Duke

Sean Gilmartin - And a second Mets card in the pack! Great start!
Justin Upton
Yunel Escobar
Josh Rutledge

Zack Greinke - I'll second/third/whatever all those that are saying those caps look ridiculous.
Pedro Ciriaco

Ryan Tepera - And some Blue Jays content.

Kelly Johnson - The Mets love continues.

Justin Upton - A Justin Upton hot pack!
Jason Frasor

Ben Revere - More Jays!
Giovanny Urshela
Mike Moustakas

Juan Uribe - And the opening base portion of the pack wraps up with my 4th Mets card! Best pack ever!

Inserts:

Highlights - Fernando Valenzuela's 1990 no-hitter

Zach McAllister - Gold - And a bonus throwback jersey with the Cleveland Buckeyes!

Rookie Sensations - Bryce Harper - Probably the least interesting on the inserts to me. It just seems like this is this set's excuse to have more cards of certain players.

Scott Oberg/Deolis Guerra - Black Parallel /64 - I guess this is the pack hit. The back contrasts the time these two players took to reach the big leagues. Guerra is also a former Mets minor leaguer.

Rarities - Anibal Sanchez

Whatever Works - Wade Boggs - I just hope there isn't a Moises Alou insert in this set.

Buyback - Dick Billings - He just looks like a 70's baseball player.

Back to the base cards

Jonathan Herrera

Danny Dorn/Danny Ceciliani - And another half a Mets card.
Miguel Cabrera
Amazing Astros
Kris Bryant - You knew he'd be all over this base set.
Carlos Correa
Trevor Rosenthal

Rookies Rising - More Bryant...
Anthony Ranaudo
Tommy Hunter

Young & Relentless - The Mets appear on 18 base cards in this set. I got 6 of them. WOO-HOO!
Todd Cunningham
Josh Fields
Jose Iglesias
Billy Burns
Kevin Siegrist
Alcides Escobar
Yasmani Grandal

Todd Frazier - Probably the best photo out of the vertical portion of the second half of the pack.
Michael McKenry
Francisco Lindor
Eddie Butler

And there you have it. While I didn't hit any of the big Mets rookies, I still got 1/3 of the set. The low numbered parallel did not hit my PC, but the subjects were interesting. I guess the big card for me was the appearance of the Buckeyes uniform. That is enough to make the pack worthwhile.

The Blaster of Regret

I've had this post on the back burner for two months. Might as well do it on a Monday.

In the card aisle. Want to bust something, but not hockey. That basically leaves baseball, or the various games available. The only baseball there were blasters of Series 2 and hanger boxes. I opted for the former. I'm not proud.

So, here are my top 5 cards in the blaster, based solely on my discretion and in the order they upload.

Since the file was named andrelton.jpg, this is first up. This is actually a pretty good card, since it is one of the SP variations. They fall at a rate of 1:67 in the retail packs, which is about 1 in 5 blasters, assuming I correctly remember how many packs were in this thing. I'm torn between "I really wish such a beautiful card were not a short print" and "A photo like this makes a tough pull even more special". Anyhow, nice to land a keeper.

Nice to get some Expo content in this box. Combining with his appearance in Stadium Club this year, this marks Floyd's first Expos card from Topps since 2002.

From a first home run insert card to the promised first home run manu-relic, here's the latter. I really, really like that it features a defunct team on the logo. I just wish the back had more about his first home run instead of the bog standard Congratulation spiel.

Mets insert content!

Not quite Mets content yet, but I'll take a new Tyler Clippard for the 2/14 collection. Especially since there won't be a lot of cards of him as an Athletic.

So, a variation and the Harmon make this a little less shameful of a purchase, but I still am not proud of myself.

I Need A Pick Me Up

And if anything Bayley-related can't give you a boost, nothing will.

And now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to drown my sorrows in 5 and a half hours worth of Forensic Files.

2015 Adventures in Repacks: Part 43.2: Another Repack Wraps Up

Time to hit the rest of the repack box. 7 packs of cards, 12 packs of stickers and a relic remain. Let's see if I can power through this codeine-induced haze and get these posted.

The 7 remaining packs:

2008-09 Victory * 3
2010-11 Victory
2008-09 Masterpieces
2010-11 UD Retail
2007-08 Ultra

And all the stickers were from 09-10 Panini.

Masterpieces is always a great way to start.

Bonus! The wrapper said 4 cards and I got 5! And with this edition of Masterpieces, you can't go wrong with a bonus card.

For the rest of the packs, I'll only hit the highlights/inserts/parallels.

2010 UD retail did land me a new card of Rollie the Goalie V2 (V1 being, of course, the legendary Rollie Melanson), and an interesting photo with a great use of the horizontal option.

3 packs of 08-09 Victory landed me one each of the three potential inserts. Game Breakers. Stars of the Game. Rookie. Great variety. Since 08-09 Victory has become a patron saint of repacks, I've vowed that if I can find a full box of it for 20$ or less, I'm going to scoop one up.

Much like with the 08-09 Rookie, the one I landed from the 10-11 pack was not familiar to me. I checked though, and he played 9 games with the Avs, and has bounced between the AHL, ECHL and European teams ever since. He did spend 12-13 with a German team called the Wolfsburg Grizzly Adams, which is great. Even greater, one of his teammates that year was 2/14 baby Norm Milley. I should try to do 6 degrees of separation more often with 2/14 binder members.

All that's left is Ultra. And a gold parallel of Mats Sundin.

Now, the stickers.

4 Sens from 12 packs with 5 each is pretty good. Especially when one of them is a shiny Alfie. It is a dupe for the Alfredsson binder, but would still go just great in the Sens collection.

More shiny!

But this sticker here was the best of the bunch.

Since this...

Completes this:

AWESOME!

And to wrap it up, here's the promised relic.

Someone who's still active? That's all I can ask for.

And there you have another repack.