2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 6 - A Super Bowl Sunday repack

And this repack is a flashback to the last repack from 2015, one I picked up at the local card shows. $3 lands a repack with two visible hits, and some cards in the middle. I grabbed two at the last show, one football and one baseball (although this one didn't have two hits, only one, but that's for a later post).

There's the first hit. As a fan of drawn cards, picking up this one was an easy decision. And I get this card, which included a nice coloured swatch to go alongside it. Unlike the base cards, which does include information on the artist, here, all you get is the 'Congratulations!' spiel.

The cards in the middle lead off with this hologram. I really miss these inserts.

From there, a bunch of 2010 Platinum.

These ones were the most interesting to me of the bunch. A Bills card and Creamsicle uniforms start off. The Ronnie Brown passing photo is an interesting one to me, since he was a running back who would occasionally pass the ball out of the Wildcat formation. I love how the ball is highlighted away from Maclin's body on his base card.

Here's the rest of the platinum.

And the other hit. 2011 was not a good year for Lions second round draft picks, but at least he had a slightly better NFL career, and the first image that comes up when googled isn't a mugshot or an article about being arrested for assault, again. Instead, you get an article that he's bound for the BC Lions. Welcome to the 3-down game, Mikel!

And there you have it.

Commence 2016 Set Build!

Time to finally get my hands on some Series 1 down at the LCS, and to commence working on this set. After working on Archives and Heritage in '15 and '14 respectively, it is nice to return to flagship for the first time in a few years.

Unlike the other blogs that gave you Bryce Harper's mug on the package for their cards, I figure you've seen enough of him, and will instead show you my first card of 2016.

And since it worked out pretty nice in terms of fitting cards on the scanner, I think I'll just scan everything in this pack. The first group of your standard vertical cards is pretty bland, but I did get my first Blue Jays card of the year. Josh gets one of the positions of honour in the set, with the #200 on the card back.

Things get much better with the horizontal cards, photographically speaking. The Ben Revere was nice, but the Puig is even nicer. The white background in the advertisement gives the card a complete full bleed feel.

Commence inserts!

These perspectives cards are gorgeous, and really the only subset I could see myself making an effort to complete.

With the back of the card giving some information on the player and the set this was from, I kinda like this reprint set, and could at least see myself going for the interesting designed cards from the past. Although I would rather not see current players in the reprint set.

Rainbow parallel!

Given that this particular card does salute 90's players, I like that the middle of the card has quality on par with trying to watch a RealPlayer video from the 90s.

Miss California first pitch.

And if you thought the first part of the pack was a little short on base cards, you'd be right, since this thick card was right in the middle of the pack.

My first metal framed card! I love the photograph on this as well, so despite it not hitting one of my PCs, I'm still pleased with this pull. Of course, should there be a Braves/Maybin fan out there that has a Jays/Mets version of one of these, I'd be all ears for trading.

And there you have my first Mets card of 2016 (although since I was in the Nachos Grande break, I'm not too concerned about acquiring their cards). The Goldschmidt is probably the first vertical card in this that I really like.

And more Mets as the pack wraps up. Nice farewell card for Cuddyer.

And that's the pack, with exactly 10 percent of the base set done. More next week.

With Apologies to my Larkin-collecting trade partners

But I think I'll keep this one, featuring an amazing feat of balance on the part of Mr. Larkin.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 5 - Back to the Dollarama

Let's stay true to the name of this blog with a hanger repack and a surprise bag from the Dollarama.

Starting with the 15 card hanger:

2014 MVP - Dennis Wideman - It wasn't this one that made me opt for this repack, but it is of someone who has been in the news lately.
1989 OPC - Allan Bester

1995 Upper Deck - Pavel Bure - 5th Anniversary - This one threw me at first, since the font seemed off at the top of the card for UD's first hockey release. I turned it over and was reminded about this subset.
1991 Parkhurst - Evgeny Davydov
1990 Score - Tommy Albelin

1991 Parkhurst - Rick Wamsley - A great photo from the junk wax era.
2008 UD - Petr Sykora
1991 Score - Jaromir Jagr
2014 OPC - Drew Doughty
1990 Score - Vincent Damphousse
1991 UD - Jason Cirone
1989 OPC - Brian Mullen - It is pretty rare to get more than 1 card from the same set in these. This repack had that happen 3 times.

1993 Parkhurst Emerald - Mike Rathje - The one per repack emerald parallel I've been seeing lately.

1996 UD - Wayne Primeau - Why does it look like he's wearing an airbrushed Oilers jersey?

2005 MVP - Martin Biron - And here's the reason I got this repack, a new mask binder card.

A few keeper cards in here, but that's below average for me in one of these.

Let's see what the surprise bag brought forth.

Up first was a 2008-09 Collector's Choice pack. Very Carolina and Detroit in this one, but some good stuff in this pack. I've heard of Boychuk, and he's still active on this side of the Atlantic. So that is always a plus with the rookie card.

90s means junk wax in this universe, and it was for the most part. But I did land a Senators card, and a parallel rookie card of a decent player. And there were a couple of mid 90s cards. And the look with the white on the border on the Arnott makes me think of the white portion on some of the corners in the new flagship release.

Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams would be happy to know that the repack makers now consider Max Pacioretty is now considered a Superstar.

And the goalie pack saves it for me. 4 for 4 in mask binder cards. I like that average!

Maybe I'll finally bust and show off some 2016 Topps by the weekend.

Non-Series 1 Pack busting

No S1 at the local Wally World yet, and I haven't had a chance to drop by the LCS yet, so I guess I can post the results of a couple of Panini packs grabbed at the LCS.

First up, Elite Extra Edition. Prospects ahoy!

No autograph, but a nice looking die-cut in this one. The New York in question on Desmond Lindsay is the Mets, so I can add that to the Mets binder. And Robles is a pretty good looking prospect for Washington, so this wasn't bad for a hitless pack at all.

The other pack saw me fishing for an auto as well.

And I landed one! As a bonus, it is one of the numbered versions, and it is on-card! Not the best looking auto, but the initials portion looks nice. And in terms of guys named Mike Davis, it is a big improvement from the Mike Davis that debuted in 2014.

And there you go. Hopefully I'll be able to hit the LCS on the weekend and get some S1. And Saturday is National Hockey Card Day. Which will make it worth the wait!

Super Bowl Week 2-14 cards

Perhaps this would have been better suited for Sunday, but I'm feeling the necessary verbosity now.

Thankfully, I don't need much verbosity for the first item, since it is a CollectABooks card of Jim Kelly.

While most of the 2-14 guys either don't have booklet cards, or they're too costly, this one is just right for the collection in terms of cost. And unlike the booklet cards, this one fits nicely in the binder.

Of course, I must scan the inner portion of the book. Literature!

And the back, in all its 2-14ness.

Much like with the dual relic I have of Marian Gaborik and Milan Hejduk, the 2-14 birthday is the only thing that really connects these two players. There were other black starting QBs at the time, weren't there? Culpepper? McNabb? Vick? I'll just pretend and hope that it was a 2-14 connection for this card, and that it was created just for my eventual purchase 12 years later.

And for the count, this one counts as a single card for both players, since that's what I do for the Hejduk/Gaborik cards.

This completes my mainstream Larry Seiple collection from his career. He also had a card in a Pro Set Super Bowl 25 release. He also the first guy in this post with a Super Bowl ring, 2 in fact.

And, another player completes his run with my 5th Jeff Dellenbach card. He's an OL guy, so despite being the all-time leader for games played, he gets no hobby love. Jeff also has a Super Bowl ring from his time with the Packers.

The Hefty Lefty!

And this is his Q&A. He's also the final guy in this post with a Super Bowl ring, grabbing one as Eli Manning's backup on the Giants.

My 8th card of the former #1 pick.

Only my 3rd of Roy Barker. He had a 9 year NFL career, but not really a lot of options in terms of cardboard either. This is my first card of him on the 49ers, though.

Now with Alshon, I have many option for cards. This is my 35th card of him, a new issue from this past season. This Clear Vision card is very Tek-ish, with the white portion of the background in this scan being acetate. I think this card might be making another appearance when I do my "Top 10 cards from the past calendar year of releases" on 2-14.

Finally, since this was from a football release, this one can be added to the football portion of the binder. This is my second Frederick Douglass, joining a card from an Allen & Ginter.

And there's the new binder cards, putting the total at 1263.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 4 - Commence Flea Market Repacks 2016!

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 4 - And The Rest!

Not counting the Target repacks I have placed away for when the urge hits, I'm planning to post my Adventures in Repacks repack recaps in the order in which I acquire said repacks. So, that means this flea market repack from about 10 days ago precedes the repacks acquired at the show yesterday.

To recap what these are: $5 lands me a brick of cards, usually base cards from recent low to mid range base sets, with a hit in the middle.

And we're off!

Firstly, the obvious reason I opted for this repack was on the front with the Turris out of last year's OPC Platinum. That was the only Sens card in the repack. The Brandon Sutter is a dupe for my 2/14 collection, unfortunately. But I did need that Pavelec for my masks binder. The Clarke from 04-05 UD Legends was the oldest card in the repack, and one of my favourites within.

I really lilke the design and texture of the 2008-09 Ice cards, even if the photos are pretty bland. I do like the fact that a card of the PIM leader like Daniel Carcillo make the set. There were a couple more PC hits in this with the masked Ellis and Kitchener Rangers alum Roy.

Very Artifact-y. The bottom cards are from 15-16 Full Force, which is basically this year's version of Ultra in that it is a set based around inserts that aren't necessarily hits. I prefer this colourful release over the bland Ultra base from last year which didn't even have photography to save it.

And there's the hit! A nice patriotic addition to my mask binder, and I really like getting hits of the ladies for the obscurity factor.

Outside of the hits, these two past groupings were pretty dull, but about half of these will find themselves in future envelopes, so these are still nice acquisitions.

And the last batch of cards. I'm a sucker for third/throwback jerseys, so I like the post-career photo choice for Sundin. I can't hate any of the Parkhurst cards, especially ones with a Bruin on it and a Nordiques jersey lurking in the background. And it wraps up with my 3rd Bergeron of the pack, not a bad way to end things!