Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 11 - Field Access Case Box 5

The next box!

Pack 1:

I'll start this pack with another photo I've highlighted before here in a previous break. Much like the Silas Redd from earlier, it also deserves a solo appearance.

A Bills card!

And the autograph. He's already out of the league, and is now a college football commentator. He's also someone with wildly different autographs. He has a nice full-name auto on some cards, and initials-only on others, including within this very subset.

Pack 2:

I'll start this one with a unique trophy photo. He's holding what he received for becoming the all-time rushing leader.

The auto here was much better, although this flashes back to two boxes ago as he's also out for the season. At least Hill made it to mid-season before that. This green parallel is /50.

Pack 3:

Starting off with a really great photo for the weather types.

Another gold parallel.

Another appearance, this time on the base version, of that Len Dawson photo.

And the auto. Much like with the Cassius Marsh auto from Turkey Red earlier this week, Field Access is the only option available for someone who wants a certified NFL auto of Anderson. Much like Hill, he's out for the season after a mid-season injury.

Pack 4:

The stadium might be the real star of this Eli Manning card.

A green parallel /50, but it is a green parallel of a guy named Greenberry! Perfection! Mind you, he was undrafted, and never played a game in the NFL.

And the final autograph. The only player of the 4 in this who played last week.

And there's another box recapped. Next up, I'll probably do the repack thing to take a short break from the Black Friday breaking.

RIP: Zarley Zalapski

RIP to one of my favourite names in hockey.

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 10 - Field Access Case Box 4

Time to slip back into the case of Field Access for a box or two.

Pack 1:

Starting off with an All Access insert. Hall of Fame induction photos, complete with the bust, really can't make enough appearances on cards.

Another gold parallel /99.

And the auto! Not a bad one either. At the very least, Kirk Cousins is a candidate for the penmanship binder with this entry.

Pack 2:

Bills content!

The insert is pretty nice here, being a Dwight Clark that doesn't feature 'The Catch' but does feature a Jerry Rice cameo.

And a nice rarity up next in the second pack with an offensive lineman auto. And pretty good penmanship as well.

Pack 3:

I haven't highlighted the backs of these too much, but really should when one includes "strong-but-pillowy".

The auto? A guy named Storm.

Pack 4:

I'll start this one with Jerry Rice on a card where he doesn't have to share the cardboard glory with anybody else.

The autograph is a Bills one! I think this is the only one where Clay is both pictured/listed with the Bills, so I didn't have too many options when adding one to the collection.

Bills content is always a great way to end a post!

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 9 - A Turkey?

These were $5.00. I had a little less than that left on my gift certificate for after shipping. That's a perfect way to wrap up a shopping spree.

9 base cards. A Bills card, and a future Bill. Just fine for a rookie-themed set, especially since Sammy was the only Bill featured in it.

There's one mini in the pack. That's probably one of the better ones to get from that parallel set.

And the autograph. Not the best player, but interestingly is that this seems to be the only NFL autograph that a Cassius Marsh collector can add to their collection. Even with the goofy, overused photo from his rookie year.

Not bad. I definitely could have done worse for $5.

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 8 - Clearly

This is a low cost box, but riskier as there is no guarantee of a hit per box. Spoiler: I didn't get one. But I will add some acetate cards to my collection.

The first card out of the packs. The silver strip and the player's image are raised on the acetate, making for a different feel to these cards.

That portion just appears as white on the back. I hope you weren't expecting stats.

With no hits, I had to look for something interesting out of the base cards. The closest I could get was with only 16 base cards, I did land the complete Atlanta Hawks base set. All 3 of them.

Each of the 5 packs contained either a rookie, an insert or a parallel. Neither of the first option were that spectacular, but at least both are still with their pictured team.

The parallels. At least that Jason Kidd Mavericks card will find a nice home with a fan of Jay Barker/Josh Willingham, once a package from Panini arrives and I can forward on the goodies.

And the only insert card. A binoculars look for the background is a great choice.

And there you go! That's the only basketball I busted over Black Friday. I'll probably shift back to football for a bit.

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 7 - Found While Mining for Gold

There were other inserts/parallels I came across while on my golden quest. I'll mention that I'm not making a major effort to acquire the gold. Despite this purchase, I'm really limiting my acquisitions to repacks/dime boxes. Nothing too major. I still have about 250 cards from this parallel set, though.

Aside from the Derek Grant parallel, this was the only other Senators card of note among the cards I got. The Check-It inserts are one of the more popular ones, so I lucked out getting the PC team.

Dupes.

A dupe. I've been a Yakupov magnet lately. 4 years too late.

More dupes here, except for the Ryan Miller.

These are both new to me! Looks like at least the Tarasenko photo is actually from the first goal he scored.

I didn't get any of the red back cards, but got 2 of the black parallels instead. Neither a major name, but I do only have a couple of these anyhow, and it is nice to add a couple.

The two autos, both bound for my mask binder. As an even better bonus, both are still active in the league, albeit as backups. Grubauer is still with the Capitals, while Nilsson is now in Vancouver.

And a really interesting Team 8s card ends this post. It reminds me of something you'd possibly see in the Forever Rivals ITG release, something that even shows up in this card's numbering scheme. The only complaint is that it isn't the matching jersey for either JVR (Flyers) or Armstrong (Thrashers). This is considered to be a SP in this, so it will be off to COMC to recoup some of the box cost.

And there you go! Something else tomorrow!

Stacks of Wax December 2017 - Part 6 - Mining for Gold

I'm on somewhat of a Quixotic quest to assemble as many of the gold parallels from 2013-14 Score hockey as feasible.

So, with this box available cheaply (about 1/3 of what I paid for one on release), and 8 golds per jumbo pack, why not add a bunch to the collection of cards I'm trying to convince myself I'm not really collecting?

Pack 1:

This is the second hockey post in under a week where I land a Yakupov and think "that would have been a really nice pull at the time". In terms of needs, this was probably the worst of the packs, as the Bouwmeester, LeCavalier and Kundratek were all dupes. For the whole box though, there were 70 that weren't.

Pack 2:

The collation for the gold parallels seems to be bunched up, which means you'll be seeing a lot of cards for the same teams throughout. That can be good or bad, depending on how these fall with regard to set needs.

Pack 3:

I really did love the photo choices in this set upon its release, and this break allowed me to remind myself of my faves. Both Caps cards are really nice in the horizontal format, especially the full extension on Orlov.

Pack 4:

Galchenyuk was another dupe from this, but at least it will go nicely into my COMC shipment.

Pack 5:

The only Senators gold card in the box.

Pack 6:

The photo on the Kulemin card was also used on his Upper Deck base card.

Pack 7:

That Eric Fehr was another one of my favourite photos in the set, and a perfect use of a horizontal medium to highlight both the goal celebration, and the dejected goaltender in the background.

Pack 8:

Check out Schneider's concentration on the puck!

Pack 9:

Sedin sweeping the puck into the net was another one of my favourites in this set.

Pack 10:

And it ends with an example of Goaltending Gallimaufry (tm: Card Boarded) as Ben Bishop was still rocking his Senators mask while in Tampa.

And that's 80 gold parallels. There was a lot more in the box in terms of inserts/parallels/hits as well, and those will be up tomorrow.