Perfect Timing

I knew there was a reason I had yet to show off the Jays content from the Too Many Manninghams mailer. Timing.

If it was Sam Dyson pitching at the end, this might have been a better way to lead. Still, I'll admit to never knowing that he was with the Jays at one point, but did recall that Matt Bush was once with them in Spring Training (2009). Sam's time in Toronto was not memorable, as he pitched 2/3 of an inning over two games, and gave up 3 ER over that time.

My 3rd Mookie graph! Awesome! This is my first one of his on Toronto. He's had a few recent entries as a Jay, but all are buybacks from Leaf or from Archives Signature Series.

Here's another post-season Jays hero. The card does have a foil in the background, and it comes off obnoxiously loud in the scan.

There are three Jays alumni that I power collect, and all three of them were in this envelope. More foil backgrounds as well. And the folks at Pinnacle were correct, he was a can't miss prospect, but not as a catcher as was expected.

Back to the hits, here's the other Jays one in the bubbler. Travis seemed to be a perpetual outfielder of the future, but never really clicked. He was traded to the Pirates for Brad Lincoln in 2012.

And the rest of the Jays content!

And now, I just have the 2/14 and Mets content to get to in order to finally wrap up the trade.

Hardy additions to my Bills collection

The Bills might manage to get above .500 today, thus giving me optimism before they kick me in the stomach by winning 3 more games for the rest of the season. That said, here's the Bills content from my latest Too Many Manninghams.

i'll start with a former Bill, and his card from 2014 Crown Royale. They really don't mix up things too much with designs, aside from a horizontal design in 2012, so you do have to check to see which year it is from. Spiller is now in Seattle, and picked up a TD this past weekend.  This is a gold /99 parallel.

Here's their current RB. LeSean does appear to be back to his old self in his 2nd year in Buffalo.

A note in the package mentioned that I could start myself a James Hardy super collection with this package. It is certainly off to a good start with these. Going around the horn, the manupatch auto is /100, and all the others are /25.

And now, I just have the 2/14 content, the Mets content, and the Blue Jays content to get to. I should have at least one of those done this week before the Blowout shipment arrives mid-week.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 39.2 - Something New in the Aisles

And now, the other 5 packs.

2014 Perennial draft Picks *2
2015 Heritage High #s
2013 Series 2
2011 Elite Extra Edition (I think this was the promised hobby pack)

A lot of stuff here I've never busted. I've busted hobby (but not retail) Perennial, and 2013 S2, but everything else is new. In fact, through the whole box, only that and the Babe Ruth were old hat to me. I don't know if I'd do this again, but did enjoy the break.

As I said, S2 was a familiar bust. I'm still going to be happy landing this sweet die-cut of Ernie Banks from that pack.

Gettys was the only guy I'd heard of from the first pack of Perennial. However, reading the back of Malik Collymore's card showed he will be a new addition to my CanCon collection. New, and unexpected, PC cards are always nice.

At least the PC card in the second pack was more obvious - a shiny addition to my Mets binders.

Here's the Heritage High #s. Another new pack for me. There's a Blue Jays card in here, but the Jerome Williams with his famous pink glove is my favourite in this batch.

And the hobby pack produces a hit. Erik moved on from the Sox to San Diego this past season, and on the same day I pulled this card, had Tommy John surgery. But it is still a hit from a repack!

There you have it - my newest repack. I don't know if I'd opt for this one a second time, but I don't regret pulling it off the shelves.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 39 - Something New in the Aisles

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know I will buy at least one of any repack that shows up in the aisles at Wally World. I saw this type for the first time on Thursday:

Baseball repacks aren't that common on this side of the border. Why not?

Here were the packs:

2012 Triple Play * 4
2016 Babe Ruth * 2
2014 Perennial draft Picks *2
2015 Heritage High #s
2013 Series 2
2011 Elite Extra Edition (I think this was the promised hobby pack)

Some dupe packs in there, but at least they are all different years, and there was no 1990 Donruss. I'll lead off with the Triple Play and the Ruth packs.

A few weeks ago, I had never busted any of Panini's Triple Play. Now, I've gone from never busting any of this a few weeks back to getting both years of the product in the past few weeks.

Pack #1: Carlos Quentin looks like look some generic comic book mafia underling. But I do like the Tulo. As for the rest of the pack, I get a hit! Sort of. The real feel cards are actually part of the base set.

Since this isn't from a specific player, the back gives some history of the manufacturing of bats.

Pack #2: I didn't think there even were actual photos used in any player cards in this set. The Boggs card proves me wrong.

Pack #3: The only Jays card in these 6 packs. Still one more than the Mets I pulled.

Pack #4: Shouldn't the home run card actually show the ball clearing the fence?

Pretty much what I expected from these packs. No complaints about the content, except maybe some 2013 could be mixed in for variety.

Time for the Ruth packs.

I didn't need to scan this one. That's because this was a card-for-card dupe pack of the only other Babe Ruth pack I had busted previously, coming from a repack earlier this year. What are the odds? (Rhetorical question. Don't go all mathy on me)

Second one is better. The photo with Jack Dempsey is easily my favourite of the Ruth cards, but the Quotable insert is also neat, especially since the design has the quote on the front of the card as opposed to the reverse. A great recovery from the dupe pack.

5 packs to go.

Catharsis

I lamented the lack of Mets cards in my COMC To Be Posted container yesterday, and thought that that fact didn't bode well for the Mets. And I was right. Still, with the injury bug that obliterated the starting rotation, I'm still happy they saw at least one post-season game.

And since I have no Mets to post, how about a cathartic post of the Giants cards in the box? All 3 of them!

Definitely not the type of slick defensive type action you usually see on a card, but I'll definitely add it to my collection of interesting card photos without a second thought.

Pitcher at the plate, on a card that celebrates his batting acumen? Seems like a good way to follow that up.

The photo on the back might even be better, showing a celebration shot after a successful at-bat.

And a throwback uniform. I hope that wasn't a warm, sunny day that the teams decided to turn back the clock, since those look like they'd be scorchers to wear. But, Oakland's uniforms that day only seem more comfortable based on being light coloured.

And there you go.

Time to drown my sorrows in 6 hours worth of Forensic Files.

Seems Appropriate

I'm on such a high right now, sleep won't be coming too fast without the assistance of drugs, so I guess now is as good a time as any to reach into my COMC box and post some Blue Jays cards. Unfortunately, I have no Mets cards in that box, so that doesn't bode well. But there is my "cards from Too Many Manninghams" box as backup, should it be needed.

I love that some of the autographs in Panini's Cooperstown set included non-players who are among the inducted. While I'm certain there are collectors that would be not be happy to pull an auto of a GM, I'm more than happy to get a good price an auto of a Jays Hall of Famer (he is listed as with Toronto on the back of the card).

Diegomar Markwell, on the other hand, never made it above AA ball. It is still a Jays autograph though, and I'll add it to the hits binder. Even though I only got because of the nice view of the stadium in Dunedin behind him.

I've got several of these Fire Safety sets, and I use them to fill in the gaps in my "Every Jay Ever" collection. While Brenly does have an appearance in 1989 Bowman, those are a pain to store in box or binder form. This is a much better option to commemorate his half season in Toronto.

Sal Butera didn't even have the Bowman option. This was his only Jays card (unless you count Syracuse Chiefs minor league cards).

At least Carlos Diaz got a Topps card. This was his only card that recognizes his 3 AB and 1 hit in the bigs.

And there you have it.

Must Have One

As a fan of the odd, I figured I should get at least one of the Spokane Indians go to the mall cards. I originally planned to add one of the shots with the mannequins, since those are the type destined to show up as a future Exhibit A at a trial involving a shoe camera. 

And then I thought "Do I really want some archaeologist 2000 years from now coming across that?"

So I opted for the dude named Squeezer.

Not Quite a Masked Monday

But this is a really nice card from Pinnacle Inside featuring Hasek sporting what looks like a very St. Patrick's Day hat. That still leaves way too many cards from my latest TMM emvelope to post, so here's one that's more on-topic.

Jim (yet to acquire the my) Howard in an example of Goaltending Gallimaufry (tm: Card Boarded) as he is still sporting his gear from the Maine Black Bears.

There's two cards out of the many that showed up. At least I should make an effort to get through the mailing before my goodies from Blowout show up next week.

2016 Adventures in Repacks: Part 39 - Fleas!

More repack busting? Why not? This time, over to the flea market and a $5 brick of cards. As always, this is about 50 or so base cards from recent mid-range sets, with a hit lurking somewhere in the middle.

2015 Champ's - Brett Burns - Opting for this one to start, since Brett was one of the cards I needed to finish the base set. If my counting is correct, I think my last card in the lower 180 is Brendan Gallagher.

2015 Platinum - Max Pacioretty - Always nice to get a base card for someone who can't have too many Manninghams.

2015 Showcase - A great helmet-less photo with perfect hockey hair.

2015 Showcase - Mark Stone - Sens content!
2015 Showcase - Jakub Voracek

2015 Showcase - Jeff Skinner - And a Rangers alum!
2007 SPX - Martin Havlat
2015 SPA - Loui Eriksson
2015 SPA - Steven Stamkos
2015 Showcase - David Backes

2015 SPX - Erik Karlsson - WOO-HOO! Another Sen!

2015 Platinum - Pekka Rinne - Followed up with a nice card for the mask binder.
2015 Platinum - Patrice Bergeron

2015 Full Force - Jonas Hiller - That might be a little too much red for a card.
2015 Full Force - Patrick Kane
2015 Full Force - Ryan Johansen

2015 ICE - Terry Sawchuk - Strange to see a black & white photo given the acetate treatment, but this is really a beautiful card, and easily my favourite card in this repack.
2015 ICE - Luc Robitaile
2015 ICE - Jaromir Jagr
2015 ICE - Oliver Ekman-Larsson
2015 Champ's - Kevin Hayes
2015 Champ's - Mike Smith
2013 Select - Cody Hodgson
2013 Select - Niklas Kronwall

2015 Platinum - Martin Jones - Another mask binder card.
2015 Showcase - Derek Stepan

1999 SPA Sign of the Times - Patrik Stefan - Here's the hit! At least it is a really interesting one, featuring a former #1 draft pick/bust.
2015 SPX - Eric Staal
2015 SPX - Filip Forsberg

2005 ICE - Bill Guerin - The uterus logo!

2005 ICE - Dany Heatley - Sens card #3!

2005 ICE - Ty Conklin - Another card for the mask binder.
2005 ICE - Vincent LeCavalier
2015 Platium - Shea Weber
2015 Champ's - Jussi Jokinen
2015 Champ's - Aleksander Barkov
2015 Champ's - Semyon Varlamov
2013 Select - Jakob Markstrom
2013 Select - Mike Smith

2015 ICE - Luc Robitaile - Dupe within the same repack! Oh well...
2015 Platinum - Ondrej Pavelec
2015 Platinum - Wayne Simmonds
2015 ICE - Dion Phaneuf
2015 Champ's - Torey Krug
2015 Champ's - Roman Josi
2015 Champ's - Nathan MacKinnon

2015 Contours - Jamie Benn - The only die-cut card.
2015 Showcase - Alex Ovechkin
2015 Showcase - Daniel Sedin
2015 Showcase - Patrick Kane

2015 ICE - Dion Phaneuf. And it ends on another dupe. But at least the dupes were of a Hall of Famer and a future Senator respectively.

A great $5 pack with the Sawchuk, a set need and an interesting hit.

In which I wimp out

Considering I still had about 150 cards left to go, and that I still needed to pull some of the big rookies in the base set (Goff, Prescott, Elliott), I figured that this will be the better option.

At least I did pull that autograph of DMC from one of my packs. And that I now have plenty of base cards to send to some team collectors. I got this as part of a $250 Blowout giftcard/COMC cash out, so this should show up in about a week and a half with my pre-ordered box of 2015-16 Hoops.

And some other goodies. I haven't hit Blowout for a wax fix since March (and that landed autos of Larry Bird, Kyle Lowry, Gio Bernard, Paul Molitor and a suddenly-hot (at least in terms of ebay.ca buy it now) Spencer Ware), so I'll be waiting to dig in.