2017 Adventures in Repacks - Part 26 - Mid-Week Repacks Again

It is time to show off another pair of Dollarama repacks, starting with the hanger pack.

2010 ITG H&P - Sergei Shirokov - As the Moose set to return (as the Jets AHL affiliate), I'll grab this one for the visible card of them pre-Jets.
1990 Bowman - Doug Bodger
1991 Parkhurst - Peter Bondra
1993 Score - Sergei Zubov
1991 Score - Todd Elik
1992 UD - Mike Richter

2004 H&P - Robbie Schremp - At least he ditched the -bie.

2004 H&P - Martin St-Pierre - Lots of Heroes & Prospects stuff in this. And I've got an additional card for my next OrlandoBolts mailing.
1990 Score - Rick Corriveau
1993 Premier - Adrien Plavsic
1991 OPC - Laurie Boschman
1992 Topps - Ray Whitney
1993 Score - Petr Nedved
1991 7IS - Troy Sweet
2011 UD - Steve Sullivan

The Heroes & Prospects stuff really was the only thing of note in this rather dull repack. Maybe the Surprise Bag can save it. Here are the contents:

I'll start with the Pro Set.

There are about 10 million of them out there, but a Jagr rookie is a fine way to start things off. Although I'm sure it is in the binders, I'll also welcome the Steven Rice card to that collection.

The Chara is obviously the promised Superstar, but back in the day it might have been LOD line member Renberg. That's my second Kiley Hill card I've pulled in a repack. I still think he looks 12 in that photo. And a nice look at the Rimouski Oceanic logo makes this an interesting foursome.

We have some more interesting cards in the 6 pack. There's a pair of mask binder cards to start things off. Jason Firth is a Kitchener Rangers alum, and yes, OHL cards from other teams count for the binder. He never played a game in the NHL, but still earned a wikipedia article. According to it, he's the 10th leading scorer in minor league history. Ending it is a legendary player from the distaff side.

A rough start, but a nice ending. And I'll have a nice card for that holder to show off next time.

A 2 card mailday

There were only 2 cards in the most recent envelope from Shane @ Shoebox Legends. But, I knew they would be nice ones after being promised a suitable return for sending a Pat Verbeek stick relic stateside.

I knew this one was one the way, having mentioned my love for the picture chosen for this Stadium Club card. It just seems to be a perfect way to wrap up Duda's tenure with the team than with an iconic part of the Mets franchise alongside him.

And card #2. Yes, that's a nice addition to the ol' Mets collection. An on-card autograph of a HOFer pictured (or at least listed) as a Met. Warren's time with the expansion-era Mets wasn't the most spectacular, but he was there long enough to get a card in the 1965 set, and thus get a reprint autograph in the 2001 Team Topps Legends release in that design.

I may even have this encased, it really feels like a special addition to my collection. Thanks so much for this!

Outgoing Mail Alert

It is rare that I'm dropping off more than one or two packages at the post office. So, with a 5 pack heading out today, I'll let the readers know that if these codes seem familiar, watch your mailbox!

S0K4V0
02919
19713
33323
60586

ObCard:

Sometimes, you just have to grab a card because the design looks cool. This is a layered acetate card. The top portion contains the autograph and the left photo, while the second acetate photo is encased below it. Finally, the patch is on the bottom. It makes me miss Topps in football.

Too Many Set Builders

I've got to start recapping one of the bulkier envelopes that showed up recently. A majority of it was devoted to making major dents in the set building wantlist at the side. It goes from whatever number it was down to only 19 (with two of those being a result of incompetence on my part).

Time to dig in!

Starting with one that was also in my Top 10 most wanted for a bit, since it was the final SP needed to wrap up the 2015 GQ set. This isn't just my 350th cart for the set, this was also card #350 in the set numbering. A strange coincidence of set building.

While I did the SP thing with '15, I'm not doing so with this year's release? I'm not sure why, since this year's portion is only 20 cards deep. Maybe I'll just continue to pick up COMC credit and eventually just add the rest.

I thought that these stickers would complete my 1989 album. I was wrong. I didn't include the needed Cubs stickers in the wantlist. So, the album still lacks Andre Dawson and Mitch Webster. Yay to incompetence!

I'd picked up enough of the 2009-10 stickers through repacks that I decided to get the album and give them a proper home. I really like how the headers for the various pages are done with the team logos in the top left position. A nice nod to history as well. The retired 8 for the Senators actually goes back to the original version of the team, and Frank Finnigan.

A sampling of some of the player stickers in there. A mix of shininess, mask binder candidates, a 2-14 baby and some rookies as part of them.

The French version of the 2010 UD Series 1 also got wrapped up. I rarely add Young Guns (or Jeunes Lanceurs), so this is complete enough for me. Plus, that Bolland is a great photo to be among the final additions.

And it ends with a smattering of football, as 2017 Score goes by the wayside as well. Another sampling of the large # of cards among the set completers is shown, covering some of my favourite themes. Bills. Alternate uniforms. Weather. Players not touching the ground. Defensive players with the ball. I'm happy with that mix.

And there you go! There's still more to get to from that envelope, and that will come sometime in the next week or so.

Better Set Building Through Blasters

Time to put a dent in my set build with the first blaster of 2017 O-Pee-Chee of the season.

And here's the box bottom cards.

Pack #1:

I'm only hitting the highlights through this, and a pretty great way to start this. I've got a mask binder card, featuring Peter Budaj's usual Ned Flanders themed mask, and since he is with Tampa Bay, Ned is shown as Thor. Because why not?

Pack 2:

Each pack in the blaster will either have a short-print or a retro parallel. Here, I got one of the former, a Marquee Rookie.

Pack 3:

There's a theme in this pack. Stars goaltenders and Senators.

Pack 4:

When in doubt, scan the Retro parallel. Even better when it is a mask binder certainty of Jimmy Howard. Nice look at the "Mr. I" patch, too, as well as Gordie Howe lurking on the side.

Pack 5:

MINI! And a short-printed rookie.

Pack 6:

A shiny. Brandon Dubinky appears in the easiest game ever of "which road game was this photo taken during?". Plus the knowledge that they use different photos on the box bottom cards than on the regular cards.

Pack 7:

There's one of the better rookies to land. And a second mini! This is the standard mini, which fall 1:7 packs in the blaster. The Brett Burns is one of the SP minis, and those are 1:68 in the blasters.

Pack 8:

My first SP that isn't a rookie - the Hawks team Checklist. And a regular checklist thrown in for good measure.

Pack 9:

A rookie card and a retro parallel as well! Sweet, and of one of the more hyped rookies in the early releases. Ben Bishop is also kinda interesting, as it is a 'traded' card, very much a rarity in hockey releases.

Pack 10:

I hope this isn't Jagr's last OPC base card. But he did go out with a nice mullet-y entry. Connor is also from the SP portion of the set.

Pack 11:

More shininess, but this time in playing card format. These are 1:66 packs for blasters, so along with the Burns mini, I did land a couple of tougher pulls from the retail product. The regular cards are 1:17, and I struck out on those. Which makes sense given the better pulls from the rest of the packs.

Pack 12:

I'll end with another mask binder retro in Kincaid.

There you go! I have no clue when I'll get the wantlist up for this, but I do want to get more than 80 percent of the way through first.

3 Weeks Later (almost)

I posted the first part of a trade envelope from Night Owl Cards back on the 3rd of this month. Maybe I should get to wrapping it up?

The total number of Ginter purchases I've made this year total zero. Therefore, this is my first card from that set this year. I do like the framed motif, and I kinda regret now not getting to the LCS while this was on the shelves there. Or maybe I did, and I just opted for something else. Likely the latter.

And more minis!

And the rest of the Mets. Archives is the only product pictured here that I've seen on the local shelves here. My foray into that consisted of two packs, and while I didn't land any Mets, I did get a Peter Gammons auto instead. So, all these here are welcome additions to my Mets binder.

I've yet to check as to which, if any, of these Takashi Saitos are needed in my 2/14 collection. So, all I can say is my binders will contain either 22, 23, 24 or 25 cards of his when all is said and done. Edit: 2 needs in the bunch - only the 2008 UD base was a dupe.

Sticker! Expos! Powder blue uniform! Ellis Valentine! Flashing back to Archives, I'd love to see Ellis among the Fan Favourites autos in a future release of the product.

More Expos in their 1971 best! Boots Day would be another name that might be fun to see in Archives. If you can have Rusty Kuntz in this season for his name, surely you could add Boots in 2018.

Ending with some set builders. Combining this with an envelope I'll get to shortly will finally put the nail in the coffin of the 2016 base set.

Until I double check and find I accidentally included a foil parallel among the base and then need 1 card to finish the set.

Nickel Box Chronicles - Part 4 - Miscellany

And the rest! Of course, other blogs might also be showing off cards from this in the future.

I'll start with a card from a set I had no idea existed until coming across a card from it in the nickel box. This was some sort of Quebec-excluxive set honouring Quebec-born players. Oddballs are always interesting ways to start posts.

Since these were nickel boxes, I felt little guilt about grabbing a bunch of Daniel Alfredsson cards. I needed one of the eight I grabbed. Oh well.

A really cool outdoor game card. I've already got the base card in the non-YG base set, so I might as well add this Stadium Series card to my misc. collection.

Random Perez Diamond King...Ice Masters card!

I've had this Portfolio base card on my wantlist for a bit - and couldn't even find it in the bins at the Expo. Turns out I just had to wait until the nickel bins at the local show.

Another (sub)set I'd had no clue about until seeing it in the bin - a nickel card that saluted the Fox broadcasts of the games. I don't think the more hardcore fans thought that it was a beautiful thing at the time.

Your official DERP-face card.

And a few cards to end it with one of my favourite design options - the team logo in the background.

And that ends the run through the nickel box. Back to the mailbag next time!

Nickel Box Chronicles - Part 3 - The Ranger Roundup

The last of my groupable cards from the nickel box. Some miscellaneous goodies up next. But first, some Rangers alum.

I'm doing this by volume, so unfortunately, that means 2 straight days leading with one of these OPC retros. I'm sorry.

A pair of Boedkers up next in both base and parallel form from last year's MVP.

A big jump in volume for the next group with a scanner full of Jeff Skinners. A nice mix of year's as it goes from 2010 Score all the way up to some fairly recent releases such as Platinum and SPA. I don't have too much in the way of Overtime or Tim Horton's releases, so those are my faves here.

The green might be  the least obnoxious of the retros. If that's such a thing. The Champs card is from the SP portion of the Champs set, so that's a nice little nickel box find. Nice. And the best thing about Landeskog is that I can easily send these to dupes to Mark Kaz, collector of all things Gabriel.

And there you have it!

Nickel Box Chronicles - Part 2 - 2/14 newness

An insomnia special!

Not quite on the level of my masked post yesterday,  but still worthy of a post of its own.

Yes. These are hideously loud. But it was only 5 cents. And I did grab a second one for a future TMM mailer. I do like how the puck was also taken from the original photo for usage on this design. This is my 21st card of Nystrom in the 2/14 binders.

Back to back days with that Artifacts Mrazek card. Unfortunately, he only hits 2 of my PCs so I'll need something new next post. Mrazek moves to 15 cards with this trio.

And the king of the binder with 161 cards continues to pad the lead with these 5 new cards. Pretty much all those Kings cards qualify as "how did I not already have that card?". Except maybe that SPA card.

Sorry. That's 162 Gaboriks! Not a nickel box card, obviously, but a nice colourful design on this relic card.

There you have it!