Some More 2018 Artifacts

This product has been pretty good to me this year, landing me low-numbered auto-relics of Steve Yzerman and Shayne Corson, as well as plenty of swatches. I opted against picking up another box, and grabbed a couple of low-end teams in a case break - Dallas and Anaheim. Let's see some cards from those teams!

There were no true hits among the Ducks cards, but there were these two numbered parallels. They're not green and red parallels, they're emerald and ruby. Classy!

This is the second straight post with a rookie redemption in it. This should turn into a Maxime Comtois card. I've got to be approaching double digits with these by now.

It was a Tyler Seguin hot case! In the sense that I landed two numbered cards of his. The /45 card is an Aqua parallel.

The emeralds do look real nice with the Stars colours.

Here are some hits. The left swatch isn't 2 colours, they just miscut or misglued the swatch. The Benn is actually two colurs with a slight piece of a patch.

Hey! Here's another autograph from the legends portion of the set! I don't have too many autographs featuring the Minnesota North Stars in my collections, so this is a pretty cool addition to the ol' PC! I'm just a wee bit disappointed that 'Guffaw' wasn't included, but this is still a pretty great hit.

And there you have it!

Sensational Group Break Cards

Today, I'm catching up in one collection by posting Senators cards from a bunch of group breaks from the locals at C&C. On tap are cards from a case break of Trilogy, one of SP: Game Used and a 'Monster' break, which includes about 25-30 boxes.

SPGU sees what will probably be the only appearance of Ben Sexton in the collection. He played 2 games for Ottawa in 17-18, and was sent to the Penguins in a low-level trade back in December. He was originally a 7th rounder of Boston, so any NHL experience at all is uncommon at that level. He was only the 7th player in the 2009 7th round to play at least one NHL game.

Max Lajoie was the big winner here, with a trio of hits. This includes my second autograph of his, and the first of him with Ottawa.

There wasn't too much of note in the Trilogy break, but there's a couple more Brady Tkachuks for a developing PC.

Off to the Monster, and here's just a little taste of the base cards in there. For someone who left the Sens under the cloud he did, perhaps I should not have had half the cards being Hoffman for this scan.

Here's a sampling of the inserts and SPs from the boxes as well. Surprisingly, I hadn't acquired that Lajoie YG card before this.

This card will turn into a Drake Batherson at some point.

It may only be a base card, but any appearance of a card from The Cup is worth highlighting. That is despite the rather basic design in 16-17.

I only landed two autographs in the Monster break. This becomes my second Formenton auto, joining another on-card auto from Ice.

Autograph #2 is a pretty rare one, numbered 3/15. While Lazar isn't saying "Go Sens" at this point, these inscription autos remain chase cards in Trilogy. And this wasn't even the big card in the break for me.

That is because this gorgeous patch card was the big addition to my Sens collection. Not only is this large patch numbered to just 6 copies, one can look at it and know exactly what portion of the card it came from - the lower right portion of one of the numbers on the shoulder of the jersey. What a keeper card for the Spezza portion of my Sens collection!

And there you have it! More group break stuff next post with some Artifacts.

Annual 2/14 Post - 2019 Edition

As with previous years, I'll be spending 2/14 recapping my favourite cards I've had to add over the past year. Also, as with previous years, these are the rules:

1) The card must have been released over the past year
2) Only one card per player

We're off!

10)

This one is a holdover from yesterday's box break, which had a trio of 2/14 babies among the base cards. This one has a nice, simple intense photo, and a nice look at the Jets shoulder patch.

9)

When Marian Gaborik moved on to the Sens this season, he became the 6th person in the collection to get a card on Ottawa. It is hard to leave any cards of people on my favourite teams out of the Top 10.

8)

Case in point, here's the second of 3 Senators cards in my Top 10. Since last year's Series 2 released on 2/14, both Upper Deck Series 2 releases manage to qualify for the annual recap post. Jack Rodewald is one of two new faces to make this year's Top 10.

7)

While Danai Gurira was previously in the collection off her work on the Walking Dead, the release of Black Panther, and their e-pack cards allowed her to move to the top of the list volume-wise in the miscellaneous portion of the collection. And I have a couple more Okoye appearances in my COMC to-be-posted box.

6)

The second of the new faces in the collection. He gets the nod over Senators prospect with a nice looking design with a black and white photo combined with an autograph. This is only one of two hits to make the Top 10.

5)

The final Senators card in the countdown. It might be a little loud, but the Retro parallels were generally quite well done this season.

4)

Coming off the Super Bowl win, Alshon made a lot of appearances in sets this season. The only question was which one would make this countdown. While I really liked his appearance in the Celebrations subset in 2018 Score, I decided to just use a Super Bowl celebration photo.

3)

This was such a great design this season for Classics. I just knew that the annual Jim Kelly appearance on this list would have to come from this.

2)

My first Blue Jays card to make the collection! While Clippard was also in Update, I just liked the Heritage look better.

And #1..

My favourite release of the past year was Upper Deck's CFL set. After a horrible 2017 product, it really came through strong with this. Each pack would contain an autograph, relic or a numbered card, and no portion of the 200-card base set was short-printed. The deep checklist for autographs allowed for many players to get their first certified autograph, and one was Brouilette. Also, is there a more amazing translation from English to French than Safety with Marauder? Of course not. On a year with 5 appearances of cards from my favourite teams in the top 10, a slightly obscure release wins the year.

There you have it!

Series 2!

I generally don't do release day posts of boxes. But, with having to make my way through some sketchy weather to reach the LCS, I felt it was worth it.

My first card out of Series 2 is card #445 Jacob Trouba.

As for the rest of the box and its base cards, here are some of my favourite photographs in the bunch. The alternate Winnipeg Jets jerseys this season are spectacular. They also make an appearance on Patrick Laine's base card, but I opted for this photo from the anthems. I'll definitely be getting a second card of that Keith Kinkaid for the mask binder. He went a little old school with this paint job, doing up the Devils logo in 8-bit format.

There are 6 Young Guns per box, and these were my 6. Middlestadt is the big one in this bunch. Fogarty is also a pretty interesting one, having been drafted all the way back in 2011, before finally making his cardboard debut.

Staying with the Young Guns, let's add a parallel in there with a /100 exclusive.

There's more NJD content on the second base parallel in the box. The clear parallels aren't numbered, but fall 1:90 packs or about 3 per case of 12.

Off to the inserts. I'll start with one of the portraits cards I landed in the box, since these are so dull they'll give you something to look forward to.

Canvas cards definitely count as more interesting. That Trochek card is just perfect for a release in 2019. YG Canvas cards fall about 1 every other box.

While I didn't get any of the 3 1/2 Ottawa Senators cards among the YG content in the box (Tkachuk, Wolanin, Batherson and a checklist Brady shares with Svechnikov), Brady does make an appearance among the OPC Update portion of the box.  The #1 draft pick, a retro uniform, and the second appearance of Karlsson in Sharks gear in the box make poor Mikhail Vorobyev the dullest card among the OPC.

Retro parallels are also brought over from the original OPC release. You get a nice look at the Stan Mikita memorial patch here.

Finally, the silver parallels also move over from OPC into Update, falling at a rate 1:30 packs, or slightly less than 1 per box. I'm happy that the one I landed was the one I most wanted to see from this parallel, a second appearance of Brady Tkachuk in OPC form.

I'll probably pick up a blaster or two to round things out, and then just add the last of the non-YG needs to my wantlist after that.

There you have it!

2018 Chronicles 2 Box Break - Box #2

Box #2!

Pack 1:

A nice patch starts off this break. This is the Granite parallel out of cornerstones, and is /25. Since I'm building the Optic set, I might as well include the Update cards in this product like I included the Update cards in 13-14 RA in the set build of Score.

Pack 2:

I guess that Devers auto/relic is going to turn out to be the big hit in this box. I've already landed one out of Stadium Club, so this one will be off to COMC to recover a portion of the box cost.

Pack 3:

Some shininess here, with the Andujar and Bryant both being /299. There's the second auto of three in the box.

Pack 4:

Maybe it is just the holdover from when I purchased the Mets spot in a case break of this, but I really feel like a magnet for Smith and Rosario cards.

Pack 5:

One thing about the variety of sets available in this product is that you do get a lot of Ohtani cards, and they bounce between batting and pitching photos. There's the final hit of the break. Lane Adams doesn't seem to have any hits outside of Panini products, so at least I can look to that.

Pack 6:

And done. The final numbered card of the break is the Mike Trout, a Carolina Blue parallel /50.

I would have loved to have done a case worth of this, but things worked out OK in the long run with just these two boxes.

2018 Chronicles 2 Box Break - Box #1

My original plan was to celebrate my birthday by busting a case worth of this. Then I found out a case of this was 16 boxes worth, and went for $1600. I'll stick to two boxes. One today, one tomorrow.

Pack 1:

We open with a great pack for numbered cards, with 3 of them, including the hit. The orange parallel of Bryant is /199, with Fedde being /99. Illusions might be my favourite product in this product, (if that makes sense) and that Mantle base card looks really nice in that design.

Pack 2:

2 more numbered cards here, with the Cornerstones base being /99, and Robles being /50. There's also auto #2. The lack of logos does somewhat limit the photos that can be used, so great choices stand out. So, I do like the Torres photo as it approaches the moment of impact.

Pack 3:

This one is pretty basic, with the highlight here being a pair of shiny Manny Machado cards. The pink is the only numbered card, being /75.

Pack 4:

While it isn't the rookie autograph you really want when you see a Washington card come up, that's still a pretty nice one as the best card in the box. That Robles is a purple parallel /10. Again, the design highlight is the Illusions, especially since with the photos chosen, you really don't notice that the logos have been photoshopped away.

Pack 5:

Ohtani actually made two appearances in the Classics portion of the set, with both a pitching and a hitting photograph. That Hays is a nice enough looking card with the patch. Alas, it doesn't really compare to my previous Hays pull from this.

Pack 6:

The dullest of the 6 pack, unfortunately, was the final one. But at least there was some shininess contained within.

There you go! No complaints on the whole about this, with the Robles goodies contained with in. Box #2 tomorrow!