2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 8 - Another Hanger and Hit

 Another one of these, specifically this one:

Starting off with a visible defensive player.

This is everything I love about repacks. 8 different sets and the cards include such a fun variety. Not just one kicker card, but two kicker cards. Including a Bills representative. A referee. Tim McDonald positioned in such a manner that it appears he's being kicked in the ghoulies by a teammate. And a design that just screams mid 90s with 1994 Score.

And here's the hit. You can't go wrong with a Contenders auto, even if it is initials only. Jerome Harrison holds the Browns single-game rushing record with 286, which is also third-overall in NFL history. He'd suffer a brain tumor, discovered during a post-trade physical, but seems to be doing fine now. If I break out google and find out interesting things about the person on the hit, that's a good one!

OL mojo! Woo-hoo! That Andre Rison is definitely an interesting design choice.  Some would say ugly - but I'll say interesting. 

Pro Set provides the most interesting photo of the repack - it just looks like the start of some massive scramble after a loose ball. Even if it is a shared card, how can anybody not like adding a card of someone named 'Tank' on their card into one's collection.

Your finale.

Lots of keepers in this, even among the junk wax era stuff. And an interesting player for the hit as well!

3901. 3902. 3903.

 I'm going to continue my quest for 4000 cards in my 2/14 collection with a trio of new faces.

All three come from the hockey world. But in any portion of the collection, Enrico Scardocchio would be the most aggressively Italian name in the collection. He represents the long gone Saint Jean Lynx of the QMJHL. No, they didn't French-ify Saint John New Brunswick. They played out of Saint-Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec. And did so until they moved to Rimouski, where they remain the Oceanic.

Despite a very good effort with a last name like Paolucci, he didn't have a chance. His Hull Olympiques also don't exist any more, but that's because the city itself was renamed Gatineau. 

I could have also used a CHL card to end this to make it complete, but why would I forgo an opportunity to add another defunct team to the collection? I could use a Guelph Storm card from about a dozen years prior to this, but they're still around. The Greensboro Generals are not. Plus, that's the team he spent the most games with.

The inability to find his Alexandria Warthogs card on ebay - also a factor.

But there you have it!

Another Raptors Mega-Post

Time to highlight all the Raptors content in recent incoming mail, consisting of the box posted yesterday, and a trio o'PWEs from Kerry @ Cards and Cards. 

I originally planned to show off everything but the hits in several scanner beds worth of post, but this Vince Carter is just an incredible photo for a base card. This looks like a photo you'd see today on some rookie photo shoot card, but this is an in-game gem. Charles Oakley looks completely wowed by what is happening in front of him. As for Andrew LeClerq, he's more "how am I supposed to defend that?". This was definitely worthy of the #1 spot in the set.

I didn't get the Raptors in any Prizm group breaks, so this is my first chance to see some of those releases. Even with his brief stop with the team, I do hope to see a Schroder card where he's pictured in Raptors colours. The Vince Carter here is one of the Promotional Sample versions.

ULSACTORPF?

Bring on the parallels, and ignore the Dino-Might pun. Even if the photo comes from a Canadian Team battle against the Grizzlies. While there's some nice shininess, especially with that silver Siakam, my favourite might be that Zan Tabak, which is a Players Club Platinum parallel and were box hits at the time. 

Nothing but dino jerseys in this group! AWESOME!

Here's the PWE finale. There's the base version of the Tabak parallel. Stadium Club during the Raptors' first season just used simple headshots of the players on the new team instead of bad airbrushing. That's probably for the best. It is really just a coincidence that I ended this part with a pair of Scottie Barnes appearances, since after all those trades, it really is his team now.

And now the Raptors content in the box.

Given all the departures from the team, it is depressing to look at even recent cards to see how few of the players are still on the team. The Vinsanity is some sort of parallel, and I can kinda get behind nickname parallels. Even if the jersey is conveniently edited. 

Even base cards can provide shininess.

Finally, a Raptors card in this bunch with a player still on the team. Although with the time he's getting together, you'd barely know it. The Orange Siakam is a retail parallel, and the Illusions entries here show you can put together a nice design when you use multiple, non-repeating images on a card.

Let's see some relics. Although he's not pictured with the Raptors here, this might be as close as I ever get to owning an actual Peja Stojakovic Raptors card. The only one I know of has been on my unrealistic want list for ages, and there are only 35 out there. Although Novak is pictured with the Raptors there, that's a Knicks swatch. I don't really care - another hit for that binder!

Let's end it with a 1/1 plate! Kyle Lowry in all his magenta glory. I have 232 cards of Lowry in my collection based on what I've put into tcdb, but finally I now have one of his plates! WOO-HOO!

There you have it!

"No boy's ever brought me literature before!"

 First time - and likely the last time - I'll use a Kelly Bundy quote as a post title.

But there's method to this madness.

You see, in addition to this box of goodies in my most recent mailer from Too Many Verlanders' Dennis, was this!

Now, the title is a lie, as books have shown up before in mailers from bloggers, and not just booklet cards, but I figured this one would be worthy of a post. 

I hoped that there would be a card of RA Dickey among the cards contained in that box. Alas, no. So here's a bunch of other cards of guys who doubled up by playing for the Mets and Jays.

There you have it!

Series 1! Finally!

 

While others are out chasing their Bedard dreams in Series 2 UD, I'm perfectly happy with one retail hanger of Series 1 baseball. You got start somewhere if I opt for a set build!

And my first card is a guy whose name I would barely recognize if it weren't for the fact he had quite a few RCs in sets last year.

My first (and as of yet, only) Jays card of 2024 actually doubles as my favorite photo in the pack. If they'd managed to align it so the glove was perfectly between the E and the J, it could be an all-timer.

First 2024 Mets card and my first Rookie Cup card of the year as well.

As for my favourite thing about this year's base cards?

The small player photos that are on the reverse of the Team Leaders cards.

Off to the inserts!

Of course, I landed a couple Stars of MLB inserts. 

Oh, and those have Chrome parallels as well. Apparently, these have been around for a couple years now, but this is my first time pulling one. I guess if I'm going to get one, it might as well be an Elly de la Cruz one.

1989s? Maybe if the border were a little more off-white than white to salute the feel of the cards, I'd like them more to note that at least these haven't been done to death like 1987s.

Not one, but two parallels! WOO-HOO? I guess if I were trying a set build (and TBH, I still might depending on the price point of Heritage) I'd wouldn't be as excited. While the Thomas is the more standard rainbow foil parallel, the Diaz blue holofoil is /999. If I'm expecting zero numbered parallels and land one, I guess that's a win!

There you have it!

A Penmanship Posting

 Back to the ol' penmanship binder, which simply means I love something about this person's signature, regardless of anything else.

With Van Jefferson and Cam Akers in 2020, and with Tutu Atwell in 2021, the Rams went on a good run of drafting players with nice handwriting for their signatures. While some might balk at his using a lower-case letter for the first letter, it does allow for the single line to be used to cross his Ts. And if you're actually taking the time to make such a quality signature, you can at least cut corners in one place.

It might not have been like father, like son for their MLB careers, but it was so for their autographs. I'm guessing that dear ol' dad passed Harmon Killebrew's wisdom down.

Usually, a player will use the initial for the first name and do a little more for their last name. Rodolfo Castro went the other way. And it looks really nice, especially how he uses much of the space allotted for his signature.

And as I showed when I added Brandon Alexander's auto into this binder, arranging your first & last name vertically can make for a more legible auto. This also a nice way to add my first VCU Rams card into any binder. He'd end up with the Grizzlies, and is seeing a lot of court time in his second season. I always like it when guys with a nice signature get some level of success.

There you have it!

Random Retail

 There were no 2024 S1 packs on the shelves when I got these in order to scratch my urge to bust something.

One discounted, one not at all discounted. 

Since we're already on to people showing off their 2024 pack contents, I'll be brief in showing off the contents from the 2023 S1. There were a couple interesting collation moments, such as it being a Phillies card such as both the first card and the last card.

Or 3 straight Twins cards.

If I had to pick the most interesting photo in the pack, I guess it will be this one.

And the inserts. Stars of MLB is still so generic for an insert, but at least I landed a Mets card in there.

I guess a Trout appearance is kinda nice too. 

Now, let's look at full-price Prizm.

This pack probably wouldn't be recommended for anybody set building. 15 cards, but only 8 base cards. 

But there were lots of base parallels. 

Some shiny.

Some colorful and shiny.

Some of which extend into insert sets. Green is pretty close to a colour-match for a Dolphins card.

And one more insert. 

Well, that was pretty bland, although that might have been influenced by landing nothing for any of my PCs in this. At least I  have a trade partner that should like that shiny Eagles card.

But there you have it!

3900!

Yes, I've reached another double-zero milestone in the 2/14 collection. And whose card was it that put me there?

It's Fred Scott, a star in Western films from the 30s and 40s. Some of those films were produced by Stan Laurel. Yes, that Stan Laurel of and Hardy fame. Some of his movies are on youtube - I guess they've lapsed into the public domain. 

As you can see, there were 6 cards in this portion of the set to salute Mr. Scott. I picked this one because I just liked the factoid on the back here more than the others. He could make the term 'horse opera' a literal one!

There you have it!