Nickel Box Chronicles - Part 1 - Masked Monday

Better than a dime box - a nickel box! I found one at a show this past weekend. While some of the cards are already marked to head elsewhere, I did add a few new ones into my varied collections, and I'll be showing them off this week, interspersed with 2 and a half trade envelopes I still need to get to.

The mask binders were the big winners in terms of volume, landing over 100 cards between them. And darned if I'm not going to show them all off here. I know the Lalime technically isn't one, but it is interesting enough to count for the misc binder. And that isn't even the best photo when it includes that Belfour. Fave mask is Antero's Frank Nitti mask.

Nikolai Khabibulin pictured by an advertisement that makes it seem like he'll be hit by a train? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. And it is appropriate that this group of cards ends with Marc-Andre Fleury...

since he was the big winner in terms of volume with 9 cards bound for the binder.

Now, onto the 9 card scans. A nice mix here with a legend in Hextall, a current star with a trio of Pekka Rinnes, a guy I'd completely forgotten about with LeBrecque, and a stint I'd completely forgotten about with Wregget pictured with Calgary.

Upper Deck really with a lot of close-ups of masks in the mid-late 90s on their base cards. No complaints here. I really like the Belfour the best in this group, as I have no memory of him in a black version of his classic design while in Chicago. 

Petr Mrazek will also be making an appearance when I get to the 2/14 portion of this box. I'm unsure why Wade wanted to sport the Gorton's fisherman logo on his mask, since I don't think he ever had to wear it as a jersey. 

Retro designs! Both real and imagined! There's a good reason why Chicago's logo is seen as a profile and not from the front, and Thibault's mask shows the reasons why.

I've posted that Jaks mask before, since I like that he's still wearing the Phoenix Roadrunners design while in a Kings uniform. Fichaud also goes for a minor league look as well since he's still in the Chicoutimi Sagueneens design. My favourite is the Corey Hirsch 'Psycho' house design, and it turns out there may have been a little more behind that than just a movie reference.

Is the loudest card in this group the Tallas jersey, the Smith design or the Pacific of Mike Vernon? Any answer of the three would be acceptable. I already had the Ryan Miller retro look on a Portfolio issue, now I've got more of a close-up as well.

The box did have a nice selection of 1997 base cards.

The Glenn Healy won't count for the binder, but much like the Lalime at the top, the photo was too perfect to pass on. Even cards from the past season could be found in that nickel box, as shown by the quartet of 16-17 UDs. More of those loud 13-14 retros as well. 

The final nine-pack! Brathwaite is a dupe, but I can have one of the only guy that can logically not use Jason as the slasher-movie icon in both my mask and miscellaneous binders. 

And that's it. My scanner needs a rest after that. Something a little smaller tomorrow, maybe from this show, maybe not.

Seeing Silver - Part 4 of 4

Time to go back one year for the final NSCC break, where the randomization Gods were on my side, and gave me the chance to add to my Bills collection.

While I usually lead with the base cards on randoms where I get base cards, not so much this time. Kyle Williams has been with the Bills since '06, but does not have a lot of cards to show for it. He's gotten a couple Pro Bowl relics in recent years, but his last solo non-hit card was in 2011. It is nice to fianlly welcome him to the binder.

Here's the base cards. Of the 6 guys here on a year old set, only Lawson and McCoy remain on the team. In fact, of their draft picks between 2013 and 2016 inclusive, only 6 remain Bills. Ouch.

The parallels. Adolphus is not one of the 6.

A couple more inserts. Normally, I'd also highlight a Bruce Smith card on its own, but there's a better one to come.

Only one autograph came my way, but it is my first Bills auto of Kevon Seymour, and my second overall of his. He's now with the Panthers.

Williams was a late release from training camp this year. Here's only my second relic of his, and my only non-autoed version. He's with Denver now.

I've got a trio of Cardale swatches, all of which include a 4-coloured patch. He was traded to the Chargers during camp.

Not ending with a hit, but ending with a bang. This is a beautiful gold parallel of Bruce Smith, limited to /25. A shiny, low-numbered card of my favourite Bills legend? That's a suitable way to end the Bills portion of this.

But there's more! I still have 3 more silver packs.

Probably the least interesting of the bunch for me.

And there's some more Deshaun Watson in a third straight post. This relic has a sponge-y feel to it, so I'm guessing it is part of a glove.

And an ebay 1/1 of Larry Legend from the Legends subset seems like a good way to wrap things up.

I promise. No more Deshaun Watson in my posts for the next while.

Seeing Silver - Part 3 of 4

And now, let's meet some 2017 Denver Broncos.

Here are the inserts and rookies from the group. Chad Kelly is 2017's Mr. Irrelevant, and he's also the nephew of Jim Kelly. That's easily my favourite of this group, although I'm sure someone would prefer the card in the upper left.

Here are the parallels. Sanders is gold /50, while Henderson is purple /100.

And this time I get a pair of autographs. Neither has worthwhile penmanship, but if I had to pick the better of the two, I'd go for Walker. At least he lifted the pen off the sticker at one point. Walker was a 2nd rounder in the past draft, while Henderson went in the 3rd.

And the silver packs:

As I wrote last time, those in the Legends portion of the set that are still active have their photos in colour. The /99 versions are the Rapture parallels.

Easily the biggest hit from the packs was this Russell Westbook. 4 colour patches on NBA cards aren't that common in the first place, and to get one of the reigning MVP is even nicer. This is the Rainbow Spokes parallel, and is /25.

And here's the second straight post with Deshaun Watson making an appearance. Another Rapture parallel as well.

Autographs, a sweet patch and some low-numbered parallels. That's some good stuff. The last of the NSCC breaks show up in the next post, as I flash back one year to 2016 Rookies and Stars. Even better for me, the randomizer landed on the Bills, so I'll have plenty of keepers.

Seeing Silver - Part 2 of 4

And the football portion of the breaks starts now, with some Prestige. I got two slots here, and ended up with the Texans and the Broncos. Time to dig in.

And here's a sampling of the rookies and inserts from the Texans. A perfect size to fit into a single scan. I like the design of the passports this year to sorta resemble an actual passport. They're at least as legit-looking as some of the ones I've seen used by Nigerian Princes.

The only veteran parallel I landed was this green of CJ Fiedorowicz.

Seeing as I didn't get any autos for the Texans, this is the big hit - a Platinum parallel of one of the more hyped rookies this season. He's already in the starting role in Houston going into Week 2. More Watson to come as I show off future silver packs in the next two posts. 3 packs each the rest of the way home

I love that they opted for a black and white photo for the retired Legends cards. Looking at the COMC images, it seems that the retired players got B&W images, with colour being used for those that are still active.

Since 2017 rookie defensive players got little love in terms of appearances in the early releases this season, I guess I'll take any appearance of them in this.

And the theme of this grouping was a base card and a numbered card (there are all base packs).

There you go. Broncos up next. Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not.

A new 2/14 face!

I'm not going to have 4 straight posts dedicated to NSCC breaks and the silver packs, and a new 2/14 binder member is as good a reason as any to take a day off.

Making an appearance in the Marquee Rookie portion of this year's OPC release, we have John Hayden. He debuted late last year, and is a part of the carry-over rookie class in the early releases. At least I have one chase player for 2017 releases. Two if Ryan Johnston finally gets a card.

That Retro parallel though. DERP!

Seeing Silver - Part 1 of 4

I got into some group breaks (all random teams), during the NSCC back in July. Those included some Panini silver packs from the National as well. I got into some basketball and football ones, and now seems as good a time as ever to show off the basketball stuff.

I got Sacramento in the randomizer for the Spectra break. A good spot, and they do have a large checklist in the product...

One case later, I've at least got an auto/relic I can send to Condition Sensitive.

But there were still a quartet of silver packs that went with it. Let's see what those bring my way.

Pack #1:

My first silver pack card is a Met...errrr...a New York guy. I'll take a Thor anytime. The Truex Jr. is a rainbow spokes parallel.

Pack #2:

With two card packs, I can't imagine that there were too many out there that had both of the cards being of women. The Danica is an Escher squares parallel. It is 10/25. Do NASCAR fans consider cards numbered to the number of the driver to be ebay 1/1s?

Pack 3:

Panini always uses quality soft towels with these sort of relics. I appreciate that.

Pack 4:

And I hit base cards from two of my favourite teams in the first 4 packs. That offsets the lack of Sacramento that I probably would have passed along to CS anyhow.

Fortunately, the football goodies were much better. I'll be getting to those over the next week or so.

One Card Only: El Cheapo!

It can be fun to throw in a low ebay bid on a card. Sometimes, that can result in a really nice looking addition to a collection as well.

2017-18 OPC Hobby Box Break - Part 4 of 4

Pack 25:

And there's one of the case hits. Not the most spectacular, but there aren't the usual autographs in this year's release. At least this can go into the hits portion of the mask binder.

Pack 26:

A Sens card and a mini. Makes for a nice pack.

Pack 27:

When in doubt, post a Sens card.

Pack 28:

When in doubt, post a Sens card. Pyatt's also a 2/14 baby, the only one of these I landed in this box.

Pack 29:

I would have gone for a photo of him eating hot dogs from the Stanley Cup

Pack 30:

When in doubt, post a Sens card.

Pack 31:

Although he has no ties to the U. of Michigan aside from having a relative as an alum, someone might be interested to know that there's a new Comrie in the league.

Pack 32:

Start this box by showing the first card, end with last card of the box. Why not?

2017-18 OPC Hobby Box Break - Part 3 of 4

Pack 17:

There's the other black parallel in the box. Hossa looks about 60 years old in his photo.

Pack 18:

I guess the celebratory photo is going to be the theme this year again for the checklist cards.

Pack 19:

My first shiny rookie, as well as my first retro checklist. If they shade the checklists in the team colours throughout, I'll be happy.

Pack 20:

Are the Blackhawks retros going to be uber-creepy this season? Panik looks like he has to inform the neighbours when he moves into the neighbourhood. There's a marquee rookie to off-set that skeeviness.

Pack 21:

More mini content! The black foil are about 1:21 packs, so a slight bit of luck getting a second of these in the box. Those are what the retro parallels look like for the rookies.

Pack 22:

There are foil parallels for the playing cards as well this year. They're one per box.

Pack 23:

A pack so bland, I scanned a base card of a guy with Bland in his name.

Pack 24:

I like the all-star logo on the retro parallels. Another rookie and another mini to make up for the previous dull pack.

1 bunch of packs left, and there's a case hit in one of them!