Fall Expo Post #3 - Retro for the Mask Binder

While some of the offerings from O-Pee-Chee this year are nice in terms of mask binder cards, the retro parallels for the set are cropped for a closer view, henceforth I added those to my wantlist as opposed to the regular ve3rsions.

Hey! A chance to use the BRUUUCE tag on a post that has nothing to with Bruce Smith. Pavelec used his mask last year to show off his love for Bruce Springsteen, with Born to Run era Bruce (and the Big Man) on the side visible on this card, with art of River, Born in the USA and Magic era Bruce on the other (seen on his MVP card, which is in my COMC inventory).

Sergei goes for the simple with the cannon logo, but you can still see a little bit of Russia lurking on the mask, with a Russian nesting doll looking like it is ready to fire the thing.

So, this one's dated already. But it is a nice version of the classic where the creature that is the team's nickname is devouring the the player's face.

With the team's move to Brooklyn last season, the Brooklyn Bridge making an appearance on Thomas Greiss' mask was perfection.

Of course, the Hamburglar would be lurking on Hammond's mask.

Why shouldn't a Swedish player salute another famous Swede on his mask? If you look at the bottom, one can see The Swedish Chef lurking on the chin. One of his unfortunate chickens is very visible atop the mask.

BORK! BORK! BORK!

Fall Expo Post #2 - Hoops and Pigskin

Yes, the football content and the basketball content from the weekend was so minimal, I'm able to squeeze both of them into one post. At least baseball will get a post of its own.

The total additions to my football collections from the day total 3. First up, some vintage CFL niceness from 1972, the year Hamilton hosted and won the Grey Cup. Emery passed away in 2005, and here's a link to a nice article about him.

Then, as now, players received an allotment of tickets for home games, which they were expected to discreetly sell at inflated prices to alumni and boosters. Hicks, as far as I know, never sold his tickets: he either gave them to his friends or traded them for pot. The result was he had to earn his pocket money hustling pool.

And here's a card of Dave Gasser, because I'm incredibly immature and giggled at the name Gasser. His alma mater of West Texas State has produced an intriguing group of professional wrestlers off its football team, and the legendary Terry Funk would have been a teammate of Gasser there.

And of course, here's a 2/14 card, one of only 3 I picked up that aren't bound for the hockey folder. You saw one Friday. One more to go with the baseball.

Basketball singles? More like single, as this one card dropped off my wantlist for my Hoops set. Looks like 3 more to go, and I'll probably handle that through sportlots sooner rather than later.

With few basketball singles in my possession, I added this retail hanger of 2013 Titanium for $10.

2 standard base cards.

And one numbered veteran base card. This was probably my favourite of the cards from this box, if for nothing else than the classic Magic uniforms.

Hit #1. I really like how the rookie card logo is the same colour as the team colours, and in this case, the swatch. Snell has since been traded to Milwaukee.

But Zeller is still in Charlotte.

And there you have two sports wrapped up with a single post. I'll probably wait on the baseball just so you don't get a steady diet of hockey over a weeks plus worth of posts.

Fall Expo Post #1 - A 'Mic Drop' kinda box break

Upper Deck had a redemption program at the Expo, with a silver pack containing some combination of a /25 Midnight parallel from S1, a Victory rookie or a Priority Signings auto. It was available with a box purchase of either 2016-17 Series 1 or Artifacts. I went back and forth between the two, but settled on Artifacts. Maybe it is because I love the set build of S1 and S2 and don't want to go through it in one shot.

PCs hit via the base card. A Kitchener Rangers alum and a pair of Senators cards, or a pair of Kitchener Rangers alum and an Ottawa Senators card. Either or.

Getting into the numbered cards portion of the break, here's the veteran content. The Forsberg is the base silver version, while the Roenick is an emerald parallel. The green looks really nice with the slight green portion on the shoulders of the old Coyotes jersey.

Here's the numbered rookies. Nylander is one of several Leafs rookies that are nice to see pop out of a pack this year. The Fasching is the ruby parallel.

And my redemption is for an emerald parallel of a Dallas Stars rookie. The youngest player on the team this year to be making his rookie debut and not have a card is Gemel Smith. I'll guess it is him, but who really knows?

Hit #1. A nice double relic, and since it features Larry Robinson, it will be bound for my Rangers alumni collection.

And one card with a Hall of Famer deserves another. Right? Grant will be bound for the hits portion of my mask binder with these two nice blue swatches.

And the boom of the box. A pair of all-star patches, and there really is no doubt that it came from the same jersey pictured on the photo. I'm yet unsure if I'll be keeping or COMCing this card, as Brodeur makes a lot of appearances in the base card portion of the mask binder, and there is still one more amazing card to come.

But before that, there were a couple bonus packs with the box.

A group of Oilers cards associated with the Heritage Classic held a few weeks back in Winnipeg.

And a very Pavelski filled pack of 2016 Overtime.

And the UD box breaker bonus pack:

Card #1:

Here's one of the Midnight parallels, and perfectly enough, it falls right into my Senators collection. What more could I ask for?

OK. This will do. And easily so. And this is also why I'm waffling between which of the two cards to keep and which to COMC. While it is a sticker-graph it is a pretty nice addition to my collection as well. It is also probably the one I'm more likely to keep from the break, but either one should be able to put a major dent in the box price.

Things downscale a bit the rest of the way home, but I still have a lot to get to between then and now.

To The Expo Attendee Go The Spoils

There's a teaser of what is to come. Coming across a dime box really helped fill those those smaller boxes out, and the big box break of the day with the Artifacts was also really good. You'll be seeing this stuff over the next couple weeks, if not here, but on other blogs.

ObCard:

Only 1/3 of the card is dedicated to PC guy Derek Norris, but it still counts as 2/14 card. I wonder if this is a leftover piece of fabric from the jersey I got an earlier relic of his from.

This was only one of maybe a dozen or so non-hockey items I got, so be ready for some hockey posts!

For 11/11

An appropriate card:

The best Sens card of the 2016-17 season

Maybe the best card period for this season. I don't have it now, but should after tomorrow.

And Bobby did score:

And the puppy followed:

2016 Adventures in Repacks - Part 42: Being Prepared

The Expo is just one sleep away, and is time to make sure I have enough bubble envelopes for the aftermath. Although I tell myself I won't be doing that much hunting for others, I just know I won't be able to keep that promise. And since I'm in the Dollarama anyhow, let's grab some cards!

I started with the hangers last time, this time I'll open with the Surprise Bag.

Your contents:

And we're off:

I was hoping that Shane over at Shoebox Legends would need one of those two Whalers. Alas, it was not to be. The Jeff O'Neill is still an interesting photo, as a look at the clear ice and the goaltender in the background indicates it comes from the time in the game where the Zamboni has finished its work, but the period has yet to start.

The UD pack wasn't bad for what it was. #77 (Rod Buskas) seems determined to get a holding penalty. The Jiri Sejba, along with its French parallel, were the only NHL cards of his career. And Brett Hull rocking Cooperalls!

The 1000 pt card is the Gilmour. That's pretty blah of a pack.

But the 6 pack was much better. A Sens card. A Rangers alum. A 1990 Bowman insert instead of your standard base card. And a really nifty Glenn Hall card that I had to look up to find out what set it was from. And your winner was: "1994 Parkhurst 1956-57 Missing Link".

Big improvement over the last one with lots of keepers in this.

And the hangers:

#1:

2015 Overtime - Vladimir Tarasenko - Leading off with a product I never had a chance to bust.
1991 Seventh Inning Sketch - Ed Patterson

1996 UD - Jose Theodore - A mask card for my pre-2005 binder.
1992 Ultra - Tom Barrasso

2014 UD S1 Checklist - I see Marian Gaborik lurking on this, but I'm almost certain this is a 2/14 binder dupe.

2003 UD - Marty Turco - With apologies to Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams, I'm keeping this one for my mask binder.

2007 Ultra - Jose Theodore - It's a Jose Theodore hot (re)pack!

1991 OPC - Myles O'Connor - To make up for the Turco staying with me, this one's heading to Ann Arbor.
1989 OPC - Dave Ganger

2000 OPC - Mark Messier - I haven't seen too many of 2000 OPCs in these repacks to date.
1991 Parkhurst - Kelly Buchberger
1991 Bowman - Mike Modano
1990 Score - Jari Kurri
1990 Bowman Hat Trick - Mario Lemieux - And this Bowman insert appears in back-to-back repacks.
2010 Score - Ed Jovanoski - And the other visible card.

#2:

2011 Biography of a Season - Carey Price - Opening up with a mask binder card.

1991 SIS - Brian Purdy - The Brandon Wheat Kings!
1991 Pro Set - Brian Leetch
1992 Topps - Tie Domi
1992 Ultra - Eric Desjardins

2003 ITG - Wade Redden - A Sens card, but a dupe of one I got in a previous hanger pack.

2000 OPC - Sergei Gonchar - And now, these will probably show up in every repack I buy for the next couple months.
2000 UD - Andrew Cassels

1991 OPC - Ottawa Senators - 2 Sens cards, both dupes. Oh well....
1991 Score - Yves Racine
1990 UD - Vincent Riendeau
1996 Score - Dan Quinn

2007 Hot Prospects - Bill Guerin - Bill was far removed from a hot prospect at this time, but this is another set I don't see much of in repack land.
1990 Bowman - Dave Barr

2011 UD - Brian Campbell - Ending with an interesting photo.

And there you have it! Now, let's see if I keep my vow to get more goodies for me than for others tomorrow.