Drugstore Cardboy

Yup. More 99 cent hanger packs from the Shoppers Drug Mart.

While there aren't too many chase cards in this set, it is still nice to pick up a pack of cards for 99 cents + tax.

The Victory Update cards are 1 per pack. Brett only played 11 games in the NHL and spent last season in the Czech league. Ovechkin's base card is a pretty nice celebratory photo. I think the Rivet is also a celebratory photo, but he does seem pretty reserved.

The second pack was probably the best of the bunch when it comes to my PCs, as both inserts hit them. Halischuk is on his way to my Kitchener Rangers alum binder and the card even includes his 07-08 OHL stats. That Gaborik is 119th appearance in my 2/14 folder.  Dumont is the winner of the photo battle in this pack.

Hey! A gold parallel! The pack only lists the Victory inserts as 1 per pack, but don't mention the parallels. Watching some breaks on youtube makes it seem like 1 per box, so it looks like I hit 3:24 odds in getting one of them from my packs. Best card here photo-wise? I do like the crowded nature of the Cleary.

3 packs of fun!

A Raptors post!

Time for some Raptors goodies from the COMC shipment that almost wasn't.

Most of the cards were group break cards that I used the COMC Mailbox in order to save on shipping. This was the only one that was an actual COMC card, and it was part of my quest to add at least one card of every player who had one issued as a Raptor.

BJ Armstrong was selected in the expansion draft. He didn't want to play for an expansion team, so he was shipped off to Golden State for 5 players. The only player of note in that trade was Carlos Rogers, as two never played for Toronto, and two only played a handful of games.

But, this still counts as a Raptors card.

And now, all the group break items.

I did want a base set out of the Excalibur and got the 7 card part of it.You can tell this was a later season set because Norman Powell started to show up in these sets with base cards.

Every 2015 break seems to land me at least one Delon Wright hit. This one seemed to end that streak, as the rest of the breaks landed me some non Wright Raptors hits.

Such as this from Luxe. It is a higher end release, with there being only 4 cards per box, two autos and two relics. But I ended up with one of the Raptors cards in this, getting this silver-framed auto of DeMarre Carroll. This was the first card I got using the mailbox feature, and it is pretty nice in hand, and the ink colour pops nicely on the dark background. I'm not sure if this will fit in the binder, but I'll still make an effort to store it somewhere.

I jumped into a case break of Spectra after seeing that every break seemed to include at least one Norman Powell auto/relic. And sure enough, one did come out. Powell's stuff has dropped in value somewhat in the off-season, but his hits are still well beyond what one would expect from a second rounder. He's already part of the fan favourite grouping, along with guys like Jerome Williams and Matt Bonner.

After getting the Powell, anything else would be a bonus. And I landed a second card from Spectra. While Terrence's stock has dropped a bit over the past bit, this is still a nice patch and the card is far more garish in hand that it appears in scan. As with most gold parallels in the Panini brand, this card is /10, and along with the Carroll comprised the numbered cards in this post.

And there you have it!

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 30.3 - Target Flashback

In good news for me, a neighbour dropped off my COMC package yesterday evening. It was not exactly a next door neighbour, as he had to drive to make the delivery. So, at least that is solved, and I can start posting stuff shortly from it. I still have the repack to finish, after all. 3 packs remain, 1990 Donruss, 2013 S2, and 2007 UD S1 Rack Pack.

Do I have to post something from Donruss?

Fine.

Here's an Expos card.

NEXT!

Although I shouldn't complain too much. 2013 wasn't that much more interesting.

But at least I got a couple interesting photos, although that really is more of a bat toss than a flip. Still, I like this precursor to Bautista's 2016 issue. And I pulled a mini!

And now, what I was really looking forward to busting, along with the Fleer Legends, the rack pack.

A Mets card is a nice way to start off the first part of the pack. There are nice photos in this group as well, and Scott Moore gets a nice one on his rookie card. Casual Pedro is also pretty nice.

Mets love continues in the second part of the first part. I really like getting Julio Franco cards from his time on the Mets. The Molina will likely end up in my mask binder. The Star Rookies card were one per half of the rack pack.

Reyes wraps up the Mets content here, with the 5th card for that binder. Although it is a dupe for me, the Zambrano combo of the pitcher at the plate/broken bat is pretty blog famous.

The Jeff Cirillo does have the vibe of him trying to look a foul ball back into fair territory. But, I'll give the nod for my favourite card in this bunch to a former Met, as Ty stretches out in the visitor's dugout.

And there you go!

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 30.2 - Target Flashback

Continuing to work my way through the 10-pack repack, this time with the three packs in which I can scan all the content. 2012 & 2013 Heritage and 2003 Fleer Greats.

Good thing about the 2003 Greats: My first Boston Beaneaters card!
Bad thing about the 2003 Greats: Dupe! In one pack! Ouch.

2012 Heritage was very yellow and very red, with only one card deviating from that look. But I did land Mets content, although I'm sure I've got several of those already.

I guess they really wanted to get me Miguel Cabrera Heritage cards. That cameo by Encarnacion is the only Blue Jays content in these packs.

And there you have it. 3 more packs to wrap it up tomorrow.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 30 - Target Flashback

I thought I'd be showing off some cards from my latest COMC shipment by now. But, Canada Post thought otherwise, and delivered my package to Parts Unknown. At least I only used COMC credit on that purchase. I'm still going to give it another week before contacting COMC about this.

So, time to dig into the past. When Target closed its doors in Canada, I pretty much bought out their repack stock for future posts. Now, about a year and a half later, here's one of them, a repack with 10 baseball packs.

These, to be precise:

1990 Donruss
2003 Fleer Greats of the Game
2007 UD Series 1 Rack Pack
2012 Topps Heritage
2012 Topps Series 2  * 3
2012 Topps Update
2013 Topps Heritage
2013 Topps Series 2

Let's flashback to 2012, and the various packs from the flagship sets.

Pack #1:

Eric Hinske - Starting off with a former Blue Jay and a nice sliding catch for their former Rookie of the Year.
Juan Francisco

Evan Longoria - They really liked sliding catches for this set. Or at least this pack.

Gordon Beckham - Seager is too far away to make this a turning two photo.
Mike Moutsakas

Tim Lincecum 1987 Mini - MINI!
Matt Kemp - Career Day
Ramon Santiago

Daric Barton - There were some really nice photos in this pack.
Gio Gonzalez
Rafael Furcal
Buster Posey

Pack #2:

Josh Beckett
Homer Bailey
Ryan Vogelsong
Jonny Venters
Andrew Bailey
Ryan Howard - Career Day

Yu Darvish - I assume this was a pretty big pull at the time.

Rafael Dolis - Probably the most spring training card of the set. That tree in the background doesn't look native to Illinois.
Joel Hanrahan

Andres Torres - A Met!
Clayton Kershaw
Don Kelly

Pack #3:

Ramon Hernandez
Carlos Santana
Matt Thornton
Tommy Hunter
Francisco Cervelli
Eric Surkamp
Carlos Gonzalez - Career Moments

Topps Pennant Ad - Yes. This is a Mets card.
Coco Crisp

Roger Bernadina - The most interesting card in this pack. Yup, this was pretty blah.
Jonathan Lucroy
Carlos Marmol

Kelly Johnson - But at least it ended with a Jays card.

And finally, the update pack.

John McDonald - Start of with a nice horizontal pack of a future Blue Jay.

Todd Frazier - Two cards, two nice photos.
Kevin Millwood
Adrian Beltre
Craig Stamen

Brad Lincoln - A Blue Jay!
Clay Rapada

Joey Votto Sparkle - Shiny Cancon!

Miguel Montero - Gold parallel 1519/2012
Fernando Rodney
Jose Veras
Matt Kemp

And there you go. More variety with tomorrow's post. In addition, I still have 7 or so more repacks to post at some later date. I should be through them all by 2018.

Up Yours, Canada Post

I'm glad there wasn't anything too important in my recent COMC package, since it sure as heck wasn't delivered yesterday. Or today.

I've got a bad feeling about this. Fortunately, this package was most set builders and mailbox items, although a couple folks that I was waiting on this for to fatten some envelopes (Night Owl, TMV, ARPSmith, to be exact) might be SOL.

ObCard:

I just finished watching Rifftrax Live: Miami Connection, and wanted to post something with UCF ties. So heres a towel relic from one of their alum.

COMC Pick 6

It has been a bit since I've done this. Basically, I just count the # of cards in my COMC To Be Posted box, and use random.org to select 6 numbers, and post those in the order they come up. Easy, and with a package from COMC likely to show up this week, I have to make a small dent in the bunch.

The only hockey card in this post. Why a Mike Green card?

There's your answer. It commemorates an event that happened on 2-14. Yes, this qualifies this card for my 2/14 binder. If Michael Jordan wearing #12 cards count, so should this.

Is it really a Bipping when you Bip yourself?

I came across a card of his while doing his entry on my 1994 Collector's Choice blog. While looking up more cards of him, I realized I liked his signature. SO I picked this up for under a dollar.

His first non-Fausto Carmona card.

And I'll wrap things up with a pair of gold parallels, all acquired because they were cheaper than the base. I kinda hope that's not Bob Welch's son that he's pitching to, because that would be a little depressing in retrospect.

I love how the splinters of the shattered bat are not part of the golded-out background.

And I still have about 50 cards to post in the TBP box.

Just one Pack Each...of A&G and Optic

Unfortunately for Ginter, the release of it couldn't have come at a worse time. It came right in the middle of two releases I was and am really excited about - 2015-16 Champ's and 2016 CFL. But, that doesn't mean I can't at least sample a pack or two.

I was actually planning on getting two Ginter packs, but then I saw Donruss Optic's pack...

Hey! That's a Met on the packaging! Or at least a New York Baseball Club guy.

And for one pack, getting an auto is a pretty good score. I've already got an auto of Edwards in my collection, so one of them will be supertraded away in the future. The Burns is also a holo variation, so that's a hit and a parallel in the same pack.

There is one problem with the Diamond King cards, though.

The space bar for the guy who wrote up the backs of the cards only worked periodically.

Off to Ginter!

A little more colourful than previous years, but still nice. A very A's and Rays two pack break.

But that's only 6 cards. The pack did read 8. That means 2 for 2 with packs with hits!

And it is definitely a very Ginter hit. Ernie Johnson is a basketball/baseball broadcaster on TNT/TBS. I don't get either of those channels, so I seriously thought for a bit that the TNT was an abbreviation for "The New Testament", which would have been odd.

But it looks like my ability to pull hits from random packs at the LCS still holds true! I am willing to rent out my services to anybody wanting me to grab packs for them at their LCS. Just pay for my first-class airfare and hotel and I'll be there.