2013-14 Rookie Anthology Case Break - Box 2 of 12

Here's the second one.

These are considered base cards in the whole numbering process of this set, so I might as well lead with this. This would have been a good pull at the time. Now, he's over in the KHL.

The Score inserts.

A gold parallel. Austin Watson was trending on Twitter last night. That's gottabe a good thing as training camps open right? Right? Right...oh fuck. You asswipe.

Score redeemed itself with the autograph. Johansen was sent to the Predators in the trade that brought Seth Jones to the Jackets. This is probably among the better available autos in the Score Signatures checklist.

Speaking of Seth Jones, here he is again. These aren't the same cards as yesterday, but both he and Gibbons make their second appearance in the break. Update dupes two boxes in? Ouch.

Select has some shininess in their inserts.

While not a hit, these numbered Titanium update cards are nice bonuses. After spending part of the 13-14 season with the Canucks, it took until last year for Archibald to return to the NHL with the team, seeing 27 games of action.

With apologies to Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams, I should probably keep at least one or two of the Jacob Trouba pulls I seem to be a magnet for.

The big winner in this box wasn't a card with an autograph attached to it, but this sweet stick relic. Getting a piece of a HOFer's stick is always a nice way to end a post and a box break.

There you have it!

2013-14 Rookie Anthology Case Break - Box 1 of 12

Let's get this started!

I'm not going to do twelve straight posts of this, but will mix things up with recent maildays, COMC stuff and retail breaks. That's about all the preamble needed - time to start.

Here's the Score update base cards. I wrapped this portion of the set up with my previous case break, so any of Shoebox Legends' needs for this portion of the set will be sent it that direction. Not too bad of a grouping here with some good rookies and a nice photo of Iggy.

The gold parallel, which is a dupe. My plan for this was to send all the dupes off to my COMC account, and keep all the other inserts. There will be one exception to the 'keep' promise. That will be shown later.

The Score autograph was this hieroglyphic display from Eric Hartzell. The extent of his NHL appearance was on the bench, but it is still a nice mask binder card.

Prizms! All three of these were dupes, but a Seth Jones dupe isn't a bad one to get.

Prizm also landed me an autograph. Tardif was a career minor leaguer who reached the bigs for a pair of games with the Bruins. He only played for Buffalo's AHL affiliate in Rochester, which sorta makes this a zero-year (tm: Nick @ Dime Boxes) card.

And the Selects.

My Rookie Selection base card is a redemption. I also pulled this redemption last case. It never came through, so it turned into a Daniel Alfredsson auto/relic numbered to 25. So at least some good might come from this.

The Rookie Gear relic was at least of a decent player.

Luxury Suite nets another auto with a swatch attached. Tye has bounced around, spending all of the past few seasons in the AHL.

So, on the surface, this was a really rough start to the case. But there's one more card to show off.

Well, that's pretty shiny and patterny. It is a Michigan Wolverines alum, so this one will be in the mail to Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders. That's a nice dual PC hit for him, being a Wing and a Wolverine and...

it is also a 1 of 1.

That's quite the way to save the box!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 33.3 - Pre-RA Repacks

The case of Rookie Anthology will start next post, but I have to wrap up this trip through repacks with a pair of Dollarama Surprise Bags.

We're starting off with this foursome. I'm pretty happy to get my hands on those sleeves, TBH. I'd just done a 200+ card submission to COMC, so was just about out. As for the rest...

Yup. These are definitely six cards from the 90s. I'm not really surprised by 5/6 of the sets seen here, but I guess some random Limited is unexpected.

And these are definitely six random cards. We're right up to the most recent season of releases with the Parkhurst of Horvat. There's an emerald parallel there for Garth Butcher, but the big winner here is an AHL card. That's something that rarely makes repack appearances.

And the 1000pt pack, and it isn't the HOFer here with the 1000pts, but Rod Brind'amour. He's shown on a Gold Reserve card (another repack rarity) from 1998.

Not as much card content in the second repack, but at least I'll land a hit!

Among the miscellaneous cards this time, the clear winner is the Richter, with a nice close crop giving a great look at his classic mask.

The 1000 pt guy in this foursome is a little easier to spot.

The memorabilia edition card isn't a relic but an autograph. I have no memories of Brad Bombardir except that he had a cool name. Sometimes, that's all the matters when determining a card is a keeper!

There you have it. The case awaits!

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 33.2 - Pre-RA Repacks

They'll be some variety in the cards in today's post, as 7 different sets remain.

MVP definitely brought variety in terms of the cards themselves. A silver signature parallel (along with two of the regular base cards of Muller), a shiny insert, an interesting photo on Travis Green, a Swedish league card of a Sedin, Alfie, HOF netminders and players I don't remember. That's the fun of opening older packs.

But there were a few negatives. The insert in the 09-10 pack? The same as in the previous 09-10 pack from the previous repack.

14-15 Series 2? Again, a repeat insert.

At least the last of the flagship packs landed me a new canvas insert, along with a pretty interesting photo of Giordano. Now there's a camera angle you don't see a lot of.

O-Pee-Chee wasn't too bad. Roenick as a Shark seems so wrong, but I can't imagine my miscellaneous hockey binders have any cards of him on San Jose. 2 of the other cards will fatten up my next package to Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams.

Only 4 cards in the Platinum. And here they are!

The second Sens card in this portion came from the most recent pack - the Parkhurst. I seem to have been a magnet for those Protectors of the Net cards in recent repacks. And hey, there's a pretty good rookie card in the middle of those two cards as well.

And there you have it. Some Dollarama repacks tomorrow, and then finally I'll start posting from my case of RA.

2018 Adventures in Repacks - Part 33.1 - Pre-RA Repacks

I've got another case of Rookie Anthology 13-14 to post, but I've had a few repacks waiting their turn for longer. I'll start working my way through that next week, but for the next few posts, I'll go repack crazy.

And those 16 packs are comprised of:

99-00 MVP Stanley Cup *2
09-10 O-Pee-Chee
09-10 UD Series 2
12-13 Score * 8 (!!!)
14-15 UD Series 1
14-15 UD Series 2
14-15 Platinum
16-17 Parkhurst

At least this will be pretty easy to split into groups to post half of each day. I'm not overly creative today, so I'll just start with the 8 Score.

I won't focus too much on the regular base cards, but still thought this one was worth noting:

A Bernie Parent base card in a 2012 low-end set is always worth showing off.

The Hot Rookies weren't overly hot. Of this fivesome, only Matt Donovan made appearances in more than 1 NHL game.

The gold parallels. That Myers photo makes the arena look huge.

And an auto from one of the packs! I busted a lot of this stuff building the set back in the day, and never landed an auto from any of the packs. Chet's NHL experience was nothing more than time on the Preds bench, but the long odds at pulling an autograph from this makes it a really interesting pull. I don't even think they were guaranteed one per hobby box.

So allow me a second or two to savour this auto before I post the other 8 packs tomorrow.

2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Box Break #2

What awaits me in the second box?

Up first, nine base cards. Why these nine? These were the only non-SP'd base cards from this box that were not dupes from the first box. Now that is ghastly collation. But at least the team collectors on my trade list will appreciate it.

At least the SPs weren't dupes. I really like this card since you can see the banner behind Blackwood and trace the card to a specific game, namely the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville pre-season game in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island. Blackwood didn't see the ice in the game, as the Devils crushed the Senators 8-1.

The Silver parallels. The big one for me is the John Hayden, being the 3rd new 2/14 card from these boxes.

A pretty good player for the 1-per-box gold parallel.

It took this box for me to land my first regular Senators retro card.

I didn't land the regular rookie card of one of the more hyped players going into the season, but I did get his retro parallel. I like the design of the black portion where the player's name is, since it kinda gives a vibe of gum being in the pack.

For those that just had to see what the Season Highlights cards look like in retro for, you get your wish!

The black parallels.

Your minis.

And your playing cards. Carey Price might be the product's cover boy, but he still only makes King status in the deck.

But here's an Ace for you! Aces are slightly SPd when it comes to the other playing cards. On the whole, they're 1:120 packs, while the 2-K group are 1:5.

Another rare pull? These retro award winners are one-per-case, if they're at the same rate as previous years. Because of the nature of this set, you're pretty much guaranteed a big name for the card as well.

After only pulling one manufactured patch in previous seasons, I get two this year. While these aren't as rare as the Mario from yesterday, they're still about one every four boxes.

So, despite all the base dupes, there was still a lot of good stuff in this box. I guess I'll have to get my hands on some retail to work on the base set. Repacks up next!