Friday morning repack fun

A hanger of card from Dollarama. My favourite cheap drug.

2008 SPX Chris Phillips
2007 UD Manny Fernandez - The two visible cards. One for the Sens collection and one for the masks binder. Perfect!
1990 Bowman Paul Fenton - Naturally.

1998 UD Tomas Holmstrom - I haven't seen too many of cards from this set in these repacks.
1991 UD Rick Tabaracci
1990 Pro Set Mark Osborne - 3 Jets in 4 cards.

1989 7th Inning Sketch - Rick Corriveau
1989 7th Inning Sketch - Scott McKay - Back to back cards from the same team and the same set. Rick was drafted by St. Louis, and later Washington, but never played a game in the NHL. Scott McKay did play one NHL game with the Ducks in 1993-94.
1994 UD Vladislav Boulin
1990 OPC John Druce

2001 Parkhurst Doug Gilmour - He had a lot of short-term stops as his career wound down. Chicago. Buffalo. Montreal.
1991 UD Craig Muni
1990 Pro Set Andrew Cassels

2008 Heroes + Prospects Kyle Okposo - This one annoyed me. I'd just sent a 500 ct box to Scott Crawford on Cards, with some nice Okposo goodness contained within. Then, a few days later, this one falls out the repack. Argh.

2009 OPC Teppo Numminen - A final card for a veteran.
1990 Score Hall of Famer - Fern Flaman - For the counting impaired, that's a 16th card in a repack that should only have had 15. Yay?

Basketball Repack Fun! - Part 3

I've done the pack portion of the repack purchase. Now, off to one of those 100 card hanging packs.

I actually did hit on the 1 in 4 jersey card odds this time. Mind you, it isn't a household name, but it is still a nice looking card. It's even numbered /499. I could definitely do worse, since at least this guy is still in the league.

Bonus! A new Tyus Edney foy my 2/14 binder as well. I'm probably the only person on the planet that pulls a Tyus Edney card, and gets more excited for it than I do for a hit.

Also in the pack was this nifty hologram insert. And as a bonus, it is from the Italian release and has a bilingual back.

One of the better, or should I say, more interesting names in basketball. My favourite Doble-A card of someone not named Arn Anderson.

There always seems to be one from this set in one of these repacks. This was the oldest card, and I definitely like it for the old San Diego uniforms.

Hall of Famers? 5 of them on solo cards. I completely blanked out on Jerry Sloan when scanning these. I'm not sure if the goggled James Worthy or the dark-haired Phil Jackson is my favourite from this grouping.

Here are probably the least flattering cards in the pack. That's a horrible photo for Strickland, and one of my least favourite uniforms on the Wilkins.

Does a WNBA card count as an oddball?

How'd I do for my favourite teams? Considering that there can be a lot of junk wax era stuff in these, a pair of cards from a team that didn't exist in that era is better than can be expected.

Considering that, finding only 2 Celtics cards was surprising. Reggie Lewis is another guy that, when I come across his cards, can still be a downer.

Here's the 5 promised rookie cards, and I'm just calling them such because they were grouped together. I wouldn't have minded to find the Okafor at the time. Podkolzin only played 6 games in the NBA. Acie and Rudy are playing in Europe now, but Rudy's card in #'d to 2008.

Again, lots of fun thumbing through these cards.

Trade w/ 2*3 Heroes

In the process of busting my box of Score Jumbo, I can across a SP'd red-back of Brian Bickell of the Blackhawks. Interest was expressed, and a small trade ensued. I sent the Bickell and a small array of Blackhawks stateside. This is what came my way.

This was the one I was most interested in. My first card of EJ Manuel, who I'm hoping will lead the Bills to respectability this season, if not the playoffs. Considering recent Bills QBs, I'll settle for "performs better than JP Losman or Trent Edwards".

There were a trio of set builders for Archives. which I've already filed away in my set building box before getting to the scanning. RA Dickey does knock my wants for Blue Jays from the minis down to only Bautista and Rasmus.

Despite busting more than a couple jumbo and rack packs of Score hockey, I didn't pull a single parallel from the Senators. I guess with his being in Dallas now, I still haven't, but this was still a nice addition.

I'd recently divided my masks binder into two. One being cards featuring photos from before the season ending lockout, and one for after. The former was the barer of the two, but this mailing filled up some pages.

I've already gone off to add the rest of the mask friendly cards from this set to my zistle wantlist. I love the Tim Cheveldae, as we get both his Wings mask and his then-current Jets one on the same card.

And here's a sampling from the post-lockout cards. I really like the Nabokov, since you can see the Jawsesque shark on his chin.

Thanks for the trade!

The new oldest card in my 2/14 binder

Move over Tom Borland. Ronnie Knox has you beat. Your 1960 card is nice, but this one is from 1957.

I didn't have much hope in finding a card of his when I saw his profile at football reference consisted of 1 game. But, sometimes it still does pay to look, and I was able to get my hands on this one for about 70 cents plus 1 dollar shipping.

Now that I had one, I was interested in finding out more about him.

He came out of UCLA but only played for one season due to financing issues. He came to the CFL, then quit to become an actor. He then signed with the Bears, but got suspended after his stepfather's open criticism of the team. He then went back to the CFL, and played for a couple years with the Argonauts,  including a 522 yard passing performance, before trying the Hollywood thing again.

He did get a few roles. There wasn't anything major, but if you're a fan of the cheesy 60s Batman TV show, you might remember one of them. He played Skip Parker in "Surf's Up, Joker's Under", in where he was kidnapped by the Joker and had his surfing knowledge transferred out of him with a Surfing Experience and Ability Transferometer.

See! I'm not making any of this up!

Anyhow, after that, we move to a stage that wikipedia titles "a drifter, and a poet". Which seems accurate to describe his life until his passing in 1992.

He has a lot more written about him than you'd figure someone with 1 NFL game to his credit would, and it is an interesting read if you've got time to kill.  He's definitely among the more interesting characters in the binder.

Ronnie Knox, Rest in Peace
The Sordid Tale Of Ronnie Knox
Some Thank Yous and More on Ronnie Knox
Poetry in Motion

Less than $20.00 at a card show - Part 2

Again, the joy of staying to a budget.

OK. 50 cents might be too much to pay for a base card. But when the card is as spectacular as this, and a sure thing for your keeper binder, you've got to spend a smidgen more than you normally would. Plus, I could have paid for it there, or headed home to pick it up off sportlots, and then kept adding cards until shipping became more reasonable. This seemed like a better idea.

Just a great throwback card of H. Sedin rocking the Vancouver Millionaires jersey. And something I didn't know until I bothered to wiki the team. Jon Mikl Thor once owned the Millionaires name and logo. For you MSTies out there, that's the guy from Zombie Nightmare. There should have been a card of someone posing by the Twist & Creme.

I grabbed pretty much all the Sens base set from OPC, unable to find only the Chris Phillips. I'm highlighting the now former Sen in Benoit, since I also picked up a second card of his for my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection. He was yet another member of the Memorial cup winning team in 2003 to reach the bigs.

Speaking of Sens OPC base, I'd love to why there's no Jason Spezza in the base. There's this sticker. There's a glossy. No base card. What the hell?

But another new Spezza card for his PC is always welcome. Here's an insert from 2008 that highlights his background in Mississauga. Think the 2011 Hometown Heroes for Ginter, and you've got this insert set.

And my current favourite name in hockey, at least when it comes to my inner Beavis.

Why should I let something as simple as his departure from the team stop me from picking up a new card of his?

A trio of new cards for my masks binder. Congrats, Wade. You made the forgettable Islanders fisherman logo look completely and totally badass. Bonus: There's a callback to the team's 80's glory years on the side of the mask.

Hits? A few more of those as well. I picked up a Denny Lambert card on sportlots a couple weeks back, and was disappointed to see that although he was wearing a Sens uniform, he was listed as being with Nashville. Since the swatch they used for the hits was a Sens uniform, and he was listed as being with the Senators, and the same photo was used on those cards, I'm comfortable calling this my first Denny Lambert Ottawa card.

And to wrap up the awesome, here's an auto of the Grim Reaper himself, Stu Grimson. A great lunatic in hockey's history, and the man who gave the world this quote:

"That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes."—Stu Grimson, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker.

How could I not shell out a toonie for one of his autos?

That's it for this show's goodies. There's more cards, but you'll have to watch for other people's posts to see them.

Less than $20.00 at a card show - Part 1

The Fan Expo is coming to Toronto, and there's a sports element this year. Fortunately, you can pay only to go to that portion of it, so I'll do that and hopefully grab some nice goodies sometime over the weekend. But, I still had the local show to hit on Sunday, and did that with a limited budget. I ended up spending about $14.00 on myself, and about $6.00 on hockey hits that are on their way, or will soon be on their way to others.

For this post, I'll post some of the cards with specific binder homes already planned. Next time, the miscellany.

To open up, here's the only Alfredsson card I picked up yesterday. I still think these retro designs are a little loud for my taste, but I really wanted the parallel of his last OPC card as a Senator.

The 2/14 binder got a lot of new members. First up, here's a red parallel of Milan Hejduk. If he latches on somewhere, much like with Alfredsson, it is going to be strange collection card of his where he's not in Avalanche colours. Although there is a draft rookies card of his where he's wearing the Nordiques uniform. But I don't think that truly counts.

There will be lots of new OPC content in the binders. Including a pair of parallels. I can't complain too greatly about the colouring on the retro of Alfredsson, since that green on the Hejduk is positively hideous.

Hits? I picked up a couple of  as well. Here we have my first Hejduk autograph for the binder.

And my second Rangers era relic of Gaborik. I really need to get my hands on a Columbus one. But, given that I'm still seeing Oilers colours on Dustin Penner hits, and Avs colours on Craig Andersons, that might be a bit of a wait.

The mask binder also got a small # of new members. Here's a nice close up of the reigning Vezina winner.

And a new one of my favourite current mask - Mike Smith.

These two will look great beside one another. Star Wars fun from Ilya with both sides of it highlighted.

And to wrap up this up, here's a pair of Ben Bishops. I love these because he's still rocking his Senators mask post-trade. Not to worry, Bolts fans. He's got his Tampa mask ready to go.

Total cost of everything on this post? Less than $7.00.

Basketball Repack Fun! - Part 2

This time, starting with the Skybox.

38 Bill Cartwright
101 Mike Smrek
280 Erik Johnson
115 Rickey Green
95 Tim Hardaway
11 Dominique Wilkins
161 Brad Lohaus
62 Brad Davis
163 Paul Pressey
237 Drazen Petrovic
261 Rod Strickland
78 Fat Lever
112 Otis Thorpe
28 Dell Curry
41 Michael Jordan

I don't care what the brand is or what the era is. It is always great to pull a Michael Jordan card from a pack. Past that, there are two more HOFers here with Wilkins and Petrovic (who I'd completely forgotten had played for the Blazers at one point), as well as Mike Smrek. Back when he and Bill Wennington were the only Canadians in the NBA, their stats would always make the paper. And something I didn't know unitl I wiki'ed him - Rickey Green scored the NBA's 5 Millionth point.

Off to Fleer!

181 Nate McMillan
130 Kenny Walker
60 John Salley
160 Charles Williams
96 Orlando Woolridge
28 John Paxson
57 Vinnie Johnson
12 Patrick Ewing - All Stars Insert
149 Kevin Johnson
25 Craig Hodges
93 Earvin Johnson
157 Jerome Kersey
165 Rodney McCray
101 Glen Rice

Ugh. Dupes from the other pack. Still, you gotta love Sky Walker rocking the flat top.

Adrenalyn.

237 JJ Redick
180 Corey Magette
218 Jannero Pargo
6 Rafer Alston (Shiny!)
84 Wayne Ellington
92 Rudy Fernandez

I'd say next please, but I do like the photo on Ellington, and the fact the inset picture does give a decent look at the '00' memorial stripe for Kevin Duckworth.

Absolute Memorabilia.

66 Jonny Flynn
8 Deron Williams
50 Andre Iguodala
92 Darren Collison
69 Rudy Gay
10 - All-Stars - Chris Bosh
88 Robin Lopez
31 Chris Bosh
17 Kevin Love
59 Jason Richardson
82 Juwan Howard
12 Dirk Nowitzki
54 DeJuan Blair
96 Emeka Okafor
39 David Lee
26 - All-Stars - Steve Nash
35 DeMar DeRozan
78 Chris Kaman
63 Jamal Crawford
21 Kevin Martin
5 Kobe Bryant

A Raptor! A former Raptor! A future Raptor! Good star power as well, but that's to be expected with a non-SP base set of only 100.

And finally, Classics.

90 Gerald Wallace
48 Deron Williams
6 Tim Duncan
64 Andre Iguodala
22 Blake Griffin
106 Nick Anderson /250
56 Toney Douglas
14 Aaron Brooks
71 Joakim Noah
28 Monta Ellis

I'm not a fan of having the action behind the featured played removed, but here, they really work with the solid team colours. Looking at some of the COMC scans, it is even better with teams that have very distinctive colours, such as the Celtics and Lakers. And the closest thing to a hit in the re-package with the numbered Anderson.

Lots of fun with this one, with an interesting variety of sets. Every pack at least had something worthwhile about it, in terms of star power, or interesting photos. And that's what you want from repacks.

Basketball Repack Fun! - Part 1

About a week and a half ago, I purchased a repack box at Target with 10 packs of basketball cards. I guess I've waited long enough to post them! Mind you, I've still got a 100 card baseball repack box sitting to the side from June that I STILL haven't got around to posting the goodies from. Maybe it will be worth the wait when I finally get around to it.

Likely not.

Anyhow, here's the packs in the repack.

1 Pack 1990 Skybox
2 Packs 1990 Fleer
2 Packs 2009 Adrenalyn
1 Pack 2010 Classics
1 Pack 2010 Authentic Memorabilia (rack)
1 Pack 2008 First Edition
1 Pack 2009 First Edition
1 Pack 2009 Studio (rack)

I'm splitting it over 2 posts, so in attempt to keep the piles of cards about even, I'll start with the 2 UDs, the Studio, and 1 each of Fleer & Adrenalyn.

Oldest first, so let's go to one of the Fleers.

83 LaSalle Thompson
189 John Stockton
61 Isiah Thomas
131 Gerald Wilkins
152 Kurt Rambis
29 Will Perdue
97 James Worthy
161 Danny Young
10 David Robinson - All Stars Insert
52 Vinnie Johnson
127 John Newman
149 Kevin Johnson
25 Craig Hodges
93 Earvin Johnson
157 Jerome Kersey

Yeah. It's junk wax era. But, damn if I wouldn't have loved to bust a pack like this at the time. 5 future Hall of Famers out of 15 cards. There are also a couple of other memorable players in the bunch too with Kersey and KJ. And a cult favourite in the Rambis. Other than the era, I've got no complaints about the content with this one.

Time to jet off to 2008.

5 Josh Smith
69 Jermaine O'Neal
89 Mike Conley
263 Kevin Love
256 Richard Hendrix
170 Michael Finley (Gold)
SQ-24 Dirk Nowitzki
194 Antawn Jamison
133 Carlos Arroyo
136 JJ Redick

This was a little blander in terms of talent, but at least there are some great pictures to make up for it. And that's what you want from any sort of Upper Deck base product. And a Kevin Love rookie is still a nice card.

Same product. Different year.

60 Mike Dunleavy
24 LeBron James
155 Manu Ginobli
25 Mo Williams
195 Austin Daye (Gold)
SA-2 LeBron James
156 Roger Mason
117 Danilo Gallinari
74 Sasha Vujacic
27 Delonte West

Better star power here, although the drop off is a little noticeable after the pair of Lebrons. Still, it is a pair of Lebrons, and you can't really complain about that. Unless you really hated the Cleveland Cavaliers at the time. I really liked the picture choice for Manu's card.

Adrenalyn

186 Eric Maynor
246 John Salmons
12 Dwight Howard Extra Signature
292 Shawne Williams
263 Hasheem Thabeet
178 Kevin Love

This was annoying. No numbers on the game cards, so I had to look them up at COMC and zistle. A 300 card set with no numbers on them. How would you like to hand collate that? Apparently the Howard is a somewhat rarer parallel.

And let's wrap it up with some Studio.

50 Francisco Garcia
92 Andrea Bagnani
69 Derrick Rose
12 Tim Duncan
54 Shaquille O'Neal
131 Hasheem Thabeet
141 Taj Gibson
142 Jrue Holiday
114 Norm Nixon
113 Mitch Richmond
8 Devin Harris - Studio Essence Insert
45 Russell Westbrook
87 Luke Ridnour
30 Jason Richardson
73 Elton Brand
3 Kobe Bryant
61 Rashard Lewis
19 Jason Terry
42 Ryan Gomes
99 Caron Butler
115 Paul Westphal
116 Rick Barry
132 Jonny Flynn
133 Wayne Ellington
134 BJ Mullens
8 Brandon Roy
66 Dwayne Wade
24 Rasual Butler
81 Troy Murphy
38 OJ Mayo

I can't complain about too much here. A nice number of players. My first Raptors card of the bunch. And a bonus new card for my 2/14 binders with the Mullens. I'm the only person on the planet, who, when opening a pack that contains Shaq, Kobe, Dwayne Wade and Derrick Rose, is most excited about Byron Mullens. A nice variety of players in the veteran section as well, and major points for the usage of the older logo for the Westphal. It's nice not to see the usual suspects in that portion of the checklist. Although the collation of that portion was very questionable.