2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 4: 2 of a Repacked Kind

A pair of two pack hangers from Wally World. They contained these packs. 

Only the Chrome Platinum is a product I've opened previously. I have opened the previous year's Topps UK, and the non-Chromed NPB, so much of this break is new to me!

Repack #1:

And that's a really solid grouping of players. A couple HOFers, A Met. And some shininess. Every card has something interesting about it.

I didn't bust too much '22 flagship, so pretty much everything in this will be new to me. Much like this year, I went all-in on Heritage. So I can savour some of the alternate uniforms that show up here. That Chisholm was one of the few cards here that I do recall actually pulling from a flagship pack.

A couple of the cards here, namely the Cronenworth and the Smith, will be bound for stateside trade partners in the future. There's the only Jays card of the break - at least it makes for an interesting photo, despite the Jays seemingly being cursed to lose every time the red alternates come out.

Repack #2:

I guess if I could pick any player to land a parallel of in these packs, it would probably be Tanaka. This is an Aqua refractor, numbered /199, and they fall 1:15 packs. Not a bad get for the only pack I've done of this. People who busted products in the early 2010s would also notice Jerry Sands' appearance, since he was a mainstay of that time, especially in Bowman releases. 

Even with the Mets card, this was a pretty boring group of photos unleashed on an unexpecting UK baseball card fan base. I guess the Giolito is the most unique of the group. But still, blah.

And the second batch isn't much better, but at least I get a nice insert for my CanCon collection. And there's a City Connect jersey in the mix.

Still, nothing was going to beat that Tanaka parallel.

There you have it.

My Newest MST3K'ed Auto

 

Marcy Lafferty!

She was in episode #1204, The Day Time Ended. Although she was probably better known for being the wife of William Shatner for 20+ years. In addition to Star Trek the Motion Picture, she also appeared in Kingdom of Spiders with him, a movie featured on Rifftrax.

She's #13 in the collection, with #14 currently sitting in my COMC inventory awaiting my decision to hit ship. And that one is so fine, it will blow my mind.

There you have it! 

Optimism

 

Even when you're on the losing side of 4 straight Super Bowls, you might eventually come out on top of one of them.

That losing string even made the back of this card. 

Also, I must point out that this Super Bowl result did inspire all the riffs from the Giant Spider Invasion MST3K invasion.

WOOOOO!

Raptors, of the COMC and mailbag variety

 Despite the misery of the season, the almost-complete moving on from the championship season, I'm still tuning into their games with hope for a victory. And I'm still acquiring cards for their binders.

I was optimistic about Koloko after his rookie season - a perfectly fine one for a second rounder. And then the injury bug bit and he didn't play a game this season. Then he was waived in the aftermath of the Siakam trade. Yeah, this post and its collection of players no longer on the roster will depress me as I go through it.

Justin Dentmon played in two games for the Raptors. But that still means I want one of his cards in the binder, even if there was no chance of him being in Raps colours. So, a UD e-pack card of his time in the EuroLeague is a cheap addition.

The name Freeman-Liberty sounds like it belongs to some survivalist compound in the Utah desert, but it is of one of the rookies on the Raptors this season. The name is definitely long enough to defend signing only his initials to the sticker. He's mainly been with the 905 this season, but did get into a game long enough to record his first NBA points against Miami. 

Speaking of the 905, how did I not know there were G-League cards until just before I added this into my COMC inventory? He may not have played a game for the team, but this naturally still counts as a hit for the collection.

The Raptors might not be that interesting now, but at least they aren't as bad as they were in the times of 2002-03 Topps Ten. That was a set with one card for each player in the top 10 of a bunch of categories. The only Raptor that qualified was Chris Jefferies, who was the 9th Small Forward drafted. 

And now, some Raptors from some PWEs from Kerry @ Cards on Cards.

The only numbered card in the bunch was this Kyle Lowry entry out of Cornerstones. This was a short-lived high-end release, which one can tell because the base cards were /165. I tried a box once and the best card was a Walter McCarty auto. 

Ouch.

Here's a bunch of Raptors out of the Hoops Winter edition. This is 5/8 of the team set, missing Trent, Schroder and Barnes.

But Schroder still did make an appearance in the envelopes on this purple base parallel. 

And here's Gradey Dick again. He's having occasional games where he's living up to his draft position. So there's optimism. Take what you can get.

Scottie Barnes may not have been a part of the winter cards, but he was still there as well. Here he is in rookie form.

And here he is in Chronicles form. He's definitely the man in Toronto now, moreso after getting named for the first time to the All-Star team days ago. 

There's always room for a Fred VanVleet appearance, especially out of Court Kings.

And a scanner bed worth of the rest. Parallels, base cards, purple unis! 

There you have it!

Good Grief! Another 2/14 Post?

After a pair of one-person posts, it looks like it is time to power through the remainder of content in the to-be-posted box so I get through it before the day rolls around.

My first Topps Now card in the collection! I guess his debut was too late for inclusion in 2023 products, but also guess he'll be all over releases in 2024. With the star power in Anaheim greatly reduced, maybe the Angels will also be a reasonable price in 2024 group breaks, making chasing nicer cards of his feasible.

This Cosmic Chrome entry is probably one of the gaudier 2023 entries. Yes, adding Moreno DBacks cards into the collection are still painful reminders of that Varsho trade. 

And that does include the background on this Finest autograph of Ethan Small. I'm legitimately surprised that he didn't have any autographs available in Chrome, given how rookie-centric the product is. But at least there was shininess.

Finally, 20 years in the past with a group of stickers from 2003. Callix Crabbe was the 2/14 baby on this grouping, and as best I can tell, the only one of the four to reach the majors. I also now realized, even though it should have been obvious at the time, that his Topps rookie card with the Padres has somebody else's picture on it. Maybe I just thought the lighting was really off on the first photo.

Off to a single soccer entry, and a Gao Lin card, from something called "Chncard CFA Team China" that is so obscure, TCDB doesn't even have it listed. Still counts for the collection, though!

I didn't land this card in one of my Metal Universe box breaks, and really wanted to add it to my binders so it would be eligible when I do my countdown in a couple weeks. Flash the Glove might be a cheesy name for an insert set, but at least it includes some glovework in the photo.

A couple new Rip Hamilton cards to continue his domination of the basketball portion of the collection. The Title Waves (groan!) insert is an acetate card out of Elite. 

Instead of Gremlins providing me with the newest Zach Galligan card for the Miscellaneous portion of the collection, this comes out of Gremlins 2. It's my 5th card featuring him.

Much like how Richard Hamilton rules over the basketball portion, Danai Gurira is the big name in terms of volume in the Misc portion of the collection. These Black Panther 'Behind the Scenes' card might be my favourite of the non-auto'ed portion of the collection, since these feature her more as herself as opposed to featuring one of her characters. It is probably because they aren't defined as Okoye cards that took me longer to notice that this insert set existed.

And there you have it!

Welcome, Ryan Greenhagen!

 The second new face of the 2/14 collection who made their cardboard debut over the past year is Ryan Greenhagen!

He wasn't drafted by a team in the NFL, but still went the pro route, spending last year with the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL. Upper Deck did release some USFL cards last year, but the card count was so sparse, there were no options there. Instead, here's a reason to be glad that Sage is still making cards with incredibly questionable licensing. I now have my first Fordham Rams card in that PC.

Another new face just before my annual 2/14 post, even if neither him nor Kahili have a chance at the top spot.

There you have it!

Welcome, Kahili Blundell

The newest member of the 2/14 collection comes from 2022 Goodwin Champions, even though it was released in 2023. She is a model, and has been a ring girl for the UFC. Perhaps that's why her cards are listed as MMA on both COMC and tcdb.

It is Kahili Blundell! She joins Natasha Wicks as the second ring girl in my collection.

TCDB lists 4 MMA people with the 2/14 birthdate. 2 are ring girls, 3 are women, and the only male listed I can't even find cards of on ebay. Montana de la Rosa is the only fighter I have cards of.

This card is not a die-cut. It just looks that way. I wish it was, only so I could submit it for grading. I'd probably receive a mail bomb in return.

Damn, UD really got a lot of mileage out of that one photo. Did they think that if it was merely reframed over several insert sets, nobody would notice?

Let's throw in an autograph as well! Same photo. Her signature isn't horrible - I can sort of parse it as the first initial and last name. But she really doesn't compare to Natasha in terms of complete legibility. She also becomes the third Aussie to join the collection in the past few months, alongside soccer's Mary Fowler and cycling's Cadel Evans. 

So, as much fun as it is to welcome her to the collection with 5 cards, I really would have rather seen at least one other photo on the cards.

Not a RANGE of reasons

 

Nope! There was only one reason I added this SSPC card of Jim Tyrone to my collection. I was watching an early 80s episode of The Price is Right on the roku channel, and he was called to Come on Down by Johnny Olsen. He'd win his way up on stage, and play the Range Game, and it was one of the handful of the times it would be played for a car.

You think I'd make that up?

He'd win at the Showcase Showdown, and talk a bit more about his career in the States and Japan while there. But he'd lose the Showcase.

Still, that's as good a reason as any to get one of his cards. 

Brandon Alexander: Penmanship Hall of Famer

 

To have such a long name and to be able to fit it legibly on the sticker and still include the jersey number? That's what I love to see from an auto'ed card! I imagine that it would be even clearer if it was on-card.

There you have it!

Leftovers

 Just a bunch of packs I set to the side after opening, probably from retail or repacks purchased long ago.

These 5 are the packs in question. 4 different years covering more than 20 years of hockey. I'll go through clockwise from the top left, which looks to also be reverse chronological match.

It might not have been the Dallas Stars YG people are looking for from this, but there was one nonetheless. I love how the collation had two photos with some pretty impressive whip on the sticks back-to-back. Still, Gusev's entrance is the most interesting photo in this pack.

Bland base cards in the Donruss packs. Maybe the throwback Bruins jersey is the best, but still pretty dull.

The insert was something pretty nice, though. It's a goalie themed insert set, with the title of the card representing the respective goaltender's native language. Les Gardiens for Quebecois players, and Jonas gets Swedish, naturally. If I hadn't received the entire insert set ages ago in a TMV mailer, I'd chase these.

Oh yes - the "how much border can we get away with?" era of MVP. At least the rookie is a recognizable name.

O-Pee-Chee was pretty much the same this year. There was this foil-y Micromotion parallel, however. That's not enough to lower the effect of seeing the infamous Buffalo Slug.

All the way back to 1999 for my first Sens card of the packs. As well as the obligatory player I had no memory whatsoever of - Mark Lawrence. 

And the obligatory appearance of a player that I had no memory of on that specific team - in this case, Kevin Hatcher's one season with the Rangers.

Nothing too special in any of these, but I guess that's to be expected when I waited however many months/years to show everything off.

There you have it!