Cardboard Conundrum Group Break Goodies and MORE!

Nothing beats the arrival of a bubble envelope full of group break goodies. CC did a hockey break that included Totally Certified 13-14, Enforcers 2 and Rookie Anthology 13-14. I also had a few cards thrown in to wrap up some other trades. Let's look at the goodies!

First up, TC.

Since my beloved Senators were pretty short on hits on these products, I opted for the slightly less beloved, but still loved Boston Bruins. The Ducks and Jets came my way through the randomizer. While no hits came out of this, the Spooner rookie is still a nice get.

Up next, Enforcers II. What came my way from that box?

Thanks, Kuni!

Thankfully, Rookie Anthology was much better.

I still don't know if I'm going to finish the base set of RA, but I did need the Hiller.

The inserts were a nice variety. The Iginla is a great picture choice, and I've now got a second John Gibson for my Rangers alum collection. The fact he's sporting his Duck Asylum mask in this one gives it a big plus over the Young Guns card.

I busted two boxes of Rookie Anthology myself, and didn't pull any of these Titanium cards numbered to the player's draft position. I've got one of those now.

This was the only hit to come out of the break that went my way was this Sheldon Souray stick relic. While it is probably a relic dump on Panini's part, it is nice that the design of the stick matches the Ducks colours. There's also some mystery black gunk on the upper left of the window on the stick. I'm not sure what it is, but I probably don't want to.

There were also a few packs of Artifacts retail thrown into the break. Only two cards came my way out of it, but I'm always happy to welcome new Cam Neely cards.

So, that's it for the break, but I have been sending set builders Matt's way for the past little while. So, a few bonus trade cards came my way.

My 61st card of Marian Gaborik was one of the three trade cards. It is numbered 44/99 as well. Much like with many shiny scanned cards, it looks nicer in person than in my scan.

Next up is a nice, basic relic for the masks binder.

And a mess of a sentence on the back where Luongo arrived in Florida in a trade with themselves in 2006. Yikes.

But hey, at least I finally got a Craig Anderson relic, manufactured or not, that is unquestionably tied to the Senators.

Thanks for the break, and the trade!

COMC Challenge Cards Part 29: The Joy of a Completed Frankenset

Back to my COMC cards, as my third envelope of goodies courtesy of the COMC challenges showed up today. The highlights of this package included a pile of set builders for Heritage, which I won't bore you with, and a pair of Mets autographs from last year's Archives set.

With the addition of the Orosco and Darling autos (Maurice!), I've now got a complete set of autographs from the Mets contingent in the insert set. I really like that they're both on 1986 designs, appropriate for both the team and a Fan Favorites subset. And that there are no numbered parallels like this year to slightly dull the pleasure of the completion.

And, I'll highlight the back of the Orosco to show a third card that arrived in the bubble envelope.

This just seemed like a fun addition after seeing it posted at This Way To The Clubhouse. And I didn't even notice that the 86 Orosco and its 2013 version mentioned Piersall's backwards home run trot until the package arrived.

And now, I still have about 120 cards in my COMC Challenge box. With 31 currently in inventory and about $36.00 of credit. I should be posting COMC Challenge cards well into fall. And probably 2015.

Retail hanger break of 2013-14 Panini Contenders

I didn't think stuff this came out until later in the week, but maybe the retail version dropped earlier. Or my local yokel Wally World is a rebel and put this stuff out early.

Two guaranteed autos for the cost of a couple hobby packs. Well, if I want to sample the product, this might be a cheaper option and I'll at least get a couple signatures. Even if the autos aren't the most spectacular names.

Spoiler: They weren't the most spectacular names. But at least I'd heard of one of the two guys!

Let's see. 20 cards per box. 2 autos, so that means 18 base. Perfect for scanning all the base cards into two images. Sam Gagner is my first card of the set. Much like with many of the mid-range sets, the look of the base is pretty much the same as the football contenders. At least this design can make for some good cards for the mask binder.

7 cards out of 18 are mask binder worthy. Fresh cards for that is always good. It's like Masked Monday without it even being Masked Monday.

And, now, the autos.

I have no idea who Matt Tennyson is. But his autograph was one of two in the hanger. He played 4 games in the 2012-13 season, and spent the entire 13-14 season in the AHL. But, maybe there's a completist Sharks fan that will want it.

Here's the back of the cards. Again, pretty much the same as the base and the football issue. I'm not sure if they are using the same gimmick as the football set with autographed cards without stars on the back being SPs.

And here's the other hit. I only know of Michael Hutchinson because his rookie card was one of the last cards I got to complete my Score set. My 2012-13 Score set, mind you. His only experience prior to that was as a backup who never got ice time, but still got a card. I didn't even know that he'd moved on from the Bruins.

At least with this card, he has seen some action in the NHL, playing 3 games for the Jets this past season.

Since I love adding hits to my mask binder, I'll give the nod to the Hutchinson in the battle of the stickergraphs.

Redemption Time!

This redemption has been stewing over at Panini for a bit, which was supposed to turn into a /744 card of Mets catching prospect Kevin Plawecki. Since I was awaiting the actual card for more than a year, I was certain it was going to be replaced with another card.

It turned out I didn't quite get what was promised. Instead of a Kevin Plawecki auto numbered to /744.

It was only numbered to /344. And on card as well! On-card autos are always worth the wait!

Rookie Anthology Case Break Goodies: Senators and Devils

For less than half the cost of a box of Rookie Anthology, I jumped in another mojobreak case break of the product. I grabbed the Senators, and on a lark, picked up the Devils as well. I ended pleased with the Sens cards I grabbed, and REALLY happy with Devils.

But, I'll start with the Senators.

With their license on their way out, I wouldn't blame Panini if their photo choices for the Update Series were bland. But, at least for this card, they really weren't. This is a gorgeous addition to my 2013 cards, and really follows the theme of celebration cards set out in the original base set.

His Prizm card is nice, but isn't really close.

Another really nice Senator card for my hits/numbered card collection is the /100 gold parallel of Jason Spezza. Even if Jason is on his way out this off-season as the rumours indicate, this is a nice addition to the guy whose is second overall numbers wise in my Senators collection.

One more card, kinda:

Hopefully, Cody signs his stickers sooner rather than later. I really wanted to get a Ceci hit from this product, and I'll wait as long as it takes for the redemption to come through. He's the only Senator rookie with hits in the set. Kinda. The only other player making his Sens debut in the set is Alex Grant via Select, but he's pictured as a duck, and has not played a game yet for Ottawa.

I also got the base cards, which means I've currently got enough Erik Karlsson 2013-14 Rookie Anthology base cards to wallpaper a small room.

So, the Senators performed nicely, but it was the Devils that really came through.

An interesting start to it with a variety of inserts, including one of two shiny Prizms that came my way. The other one?

A beautiful gold /10 of Ryane Clowe. Panini might be parallel crazy, but this really does feel like a special card.

And now, on to the Devils hits. Here's some more Clowe love, with an auto of his. *cough* Sticker dump.

Second up is a card I'd love to keep, but won't. Jon Merrill is a Wolverines alum, and this card will join the Chris Brown auto on its way to TMM. He might have problems staying on the sticker, but those are 2 nice, thick swatches.

One more hit to go, and it was easily my favourite pull. Even moreso than the Cody Ceci.

It is a stickergraph, but that's the only bad thing I'll say about this. Jaromir Jagr does not have a lot of autographs out there, although they've become a little more common over the past season. Either way, they still aren't cheap. But, it is an autograph of someone who is surely going to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame, should he ever retire. As always, I can be had, but this will not be easy to pry from my grasp.

So, 4 hits for half the cost of a box, and a pair of numbered parallels. I'm happy with these goodies.

6-21 Flea Market Finds

I didn't have too much available time this Saturday morning, but I still had time to head off to the flea market to grab a few things. Blackberries. Corn. And, of course, cards.

Firstly, although this specific card wasn't on my wantlist, this mask was. This photo has made several appearances on ITG cards, but I had yet to add one to my collection. It is definitely a memorable mask. and one of the classics from the 80s. It makes an appearance as well in the 84-85 OPC/Topps set, but I'll take this one for the close-up.

As well as the story of the mask on the back of the card.

With the World Cup on, it seems that every third non-food booth had something related to it for sale. Mostly jerseys that look like they'd come apart in a stiff breeze. The WC stuff continued with the cards, as I looked to add some soccer to the 2/14 binder. I knew of two players that had cards in the Prizm set, and I was able to snag base cards of both of them. These are my 4th soccer entries into the binder. Unfortunately, he didn't have any of the stickers, so the soccer total remains at 4. Both players have stickers as well, along with previous 2010 sticker entry Philippe Senderos of Switzerland.

I went on, and picked up a repack that contained some 1995 Action Packed.

This was the visible card. If the visible card is one of my favourite players, and it is a new card, anything beyond that is gravy. In this case, a visible Bruce Smith card was the purchase guarantee. Even if the photo isn't as Action Packed as the brand name would indicate.

And here is the gravy in the repack with an appearance of the Chargers throwbacks.

Blame it on The Raz

Seriously. Blame The Raz. Of the Raz Card Blog.

All the fault has to be placed right there.

Raz is one of the bloggers to chase down their very own version of the Jim Moore 1985 TCMA Ft. Myers Royals card after it was first posted here. As should everybody. It is the most surreal piece of cardboard I own.

In his post after acquiring the card, these two sentences appeared:

The card is in pretty good shape. Is it crazy to think about sending it in to be graded?

Uh oh.

And then I remembered there was a Beckett booth at the Expo last month. Where people submit their cards for grading in person.

Yup.

I went for it.

In the area, where people will submitting all their Young Guns cards of Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones and Tomas Hertl, I proudly handed over my Jim Moore.

And in the area, the booth workers were passing the card around and showing it off to everyone who would look. It produced usually laughter or amazement or some combination of both. I mean, it had to be by far the absolute strangest card they received that day weekend. I'm guessing the same thing happened at Beckett HQ.

I was supposed to put the value of the card down on the sheet submitted. Damned if I know the financial value of the card, so I put the value as "Priceless".

I finally got this cardboard gem back.

If any card were worthy of being encased, this is the one.

Just 4 Packs ... of 2014 Score

While at the LCS yesterday sampling the new UD SP Authentic, I also grabbed a few packs of the new Score Football. I thought it was a retail product, but I didn't come across any at the local big box stores, so this will have to do. Much like last year, the set's checklist is put together pretty much the same way. 1-230 are the base cards. 231-330 is a Hot 100 subset. 331-440 are the rookies.

I love the low end base product, since I pick it up for set building, not the mega hits. So, what I look for with this is fun and interesting photos. If they don't have that, I might as well buy higher end stuff and try for a nice hit.

I probably should have tried a couple more packs of SP Authentic.

Out of 4 packs, this one was my favourite photo of the bunch. It is also the only one where the player wasn't closely cropped, ala Topps flagship. Out of the 23 base cards in the 1-230 portion of the set, only 9 of them used a photo where any member of the opposing team was even visible. No QBs remaining calm under pressure. No RBs busting through the line. No catches being made in double coverage. Just purely generic photos. Blah.

Here are the backs. They're nice and colourful, but only include 3 years of complete stats. Still, they are nice and legible, so there's at least one thing I can like about this.

Next up are the Hot 100 cards. Much like last year, this is just another excuse get more base cards of the big names out there. The only difference is the Hot 100 limits it to only one card per player. Last year, a QB could make an appearance in the base set, in the Airmail subset and the Franchise subset.The logo is the only difference between this insert and the base cards.

And just like last year, the rookies are generic head shots with the college logos photoshopped away. As always for me, I do like it when OL guys get a card in the base set, since they probably won't see too many more of those throughout their career. These are what they are for an early release. I'll take these ones that at least have the NFL logos.

So, the base set is uninspired at best. Can the inserts save it?

The Brothers in Arms seems just like the team cards in Topps last year. So, based on the first pack, the answer was no. 

I did get one of the numbered parallels. The blue does work beautifully with the San Diego uniform, so this does seem like a nice card to pull. I wonder if the other parallels stand out as well. 

Much like last year, the Hot Rookies subset just goes to show that they could have photoshopped the players into their new uniforms. I don't have too many problems with it, but I wish they had done like last season and use a significant departure from the base cards to make this feel like an insert.

But these two are gorgeous. Dez Bryant's BTN card incorporates his actual numbers into the design on the front, so it gets the vibe of some of the 1995 Fleer issues. With the card using very basic colours instead of the varied ones in that set, it doesn't get too obnoxiously busy. I'm not sure who the Bills cards are in these set, but I can see myself going after those.

*Checks set at zistle*

There are no Bills in these two subsets. FML.

Then I thought I was being too harsh. Maybe, I should pick up something to compare it to. While they didn't have regular packs of last year's Score, there were a couple jumbo packs. So, I tried one of those. How do the base photos compare?

OK. So maybe I should make the comparison using vertical pictures, since there were a grand total of zero of those in my 2014 packs. But before I do, I must state the obvious that the Randall Cobb card a beauty. On to the vertical cards.

So, it is 2013: 2, 2014: 0. Let's see...

Inserts! That's gonna be the ticket!

This just isn't a fair fight.

I think I'll wait for Topps flagship.

Just One Pack - 2013-14 SP Authentic

I was at the LCS today with no idea what to purchase. That's always dangerous.  I decided to sample some of the new Score football, and was completely bored by it. I'll post the goodies from the few packs I'll get at some point. But, SP Authentic 13-14 also dropped today. Maybe this will be better.

5 cards per pack. Or, in my case, 5 cards and an insanely thick blocker/dummy card. After watching a few box breaks, it looks like all the packs that don't have relics have blocker cards that could break your toe if they fell on your foot.

Starting with a base card. And it is yet another set where the name of the card is foil and illegible in the scan. It is Derek Roy, and it is another base card for my Kitchener Rangers alumni collection.

His time in town is even covered on the back of the card. You've also got your standard re-used photo as well.

Any time you pull a hit it is worthy of a WOO-HOO, even though I won't deceive anybody into pretending I'm familiar with Filip Forsberg. It's the Nashville thing, probably. Filip has spent most of the past two seasons in the AHL, but he's only 19, so I'm not going to complain about pulling an auto of his. On-card too! Although I couldn't parse that signature on a bet.

A Josh Harding is next. It's not the best view, but this might still make it into the mask binder.

Carl Hagelin. It is like I can't bust any hockey product without finding at least one Wolverine alum that gets put aside for TMM.

And to wrap it up, Brayden Schenn. The most legible of the base cards for reading the player's name.

So, 5 cards. 1 auto. 1 definite PC collection. 1 trade bait. 1 likely PC collection card. And poor Brayden Schenn.

But I did add another new Alfie to my collection courtesy of the quarter bin. And fresh Alfredsson cards always make it a worthwhile trip.