4 Years of Mischief

 

Another year, another time to show off the lovely curly lady dog in my life on her birthday. 

And to show off the cards I've added to her birthday bind, slider box. 

I feel I've been pretty good when it comes to not going overboard with this, at least in comparison to my 2/14 collection. But if something comes up that does hit the sweet spot of fitting in with this, and any of my other PCs, then I can justify getting one or two new cards.

Currently, the biggest name in the collection is NBAer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Historically, it probably is George Washington Carver. This comes from 2009 Topps American Heritage, which utilized a bunch of baseball designs in it, ala Archives. The only other contender historically might be Malala Yousafzai.

I'll note that Bill Cosby is also a 7/12 baby, and he could also have been a contender for a top spot quite a few years back.

Please don't send me any of his cards.

With Mischief being a little girl, I'm always looking to add cards to the ladies' portion of the collection. I still haven't added Hilary Knight, but here's an Inbee Park to add my first golf card. It follows the Upper Deck tradition of being ridiculously cheap because of e-pack availability. 

Shininess!

Another parallel. These golds might not be super shiny, but this one does have a nice throwback uniform going for it. This hits the 'interesting photo' motif, and is an exception to my request not to pile on cards of the people featured in the Mischief posts. When someone gets an interesting card, one is never enough.

Another 'cheap because of e-packs' entry features a first round draft pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets. When I got this card, my first thought was "That logo isn't long for the world". And yes, by the time I had it in hand, it had already been replaced. They did the Peoria Chiefs thing of keeping the name, but ditching the motif. With a name like Warriors, there were a lot more options. 

I don't have any Aussie NBL cards in my birthday collection. Mischief has one. 

More crossover here, and twice the crossover potential. Landon Leach could easily make the penmanship binder with his signature, but I could also have him in my baseball Canadians collection as well. His minor league career does appear to have ended in 2022, but for this collection, or any of them he qualifies for, that doesn't matter.

I'm quite proud of myself for not going too overboard with this mini-collection.

There you have it!

And here you have one more picture of Mischief, sharing a sweet moment with her fence-bouncy boyfriend, Oslo.

2024 Adventures in Repacks - Part 20 - More repacked Packs

 

One of baseball, one of hockey from Ol' Wally World. 

Other than the alternate red jerseys on the Jays (As usual when they sport them, I'll assume the Jays lost that day), and a different angle on the Jansen, nothing major in the opening group.

The helmetless photo of Arozarena is at least something interesting on the Stars insert. I still wouldn't weep if the insert set went away, or at least used a more interesting name. But that Puckett is just a beauty. The classic blue jersey makes it even better. The only thing keeping it from perfection is the less-than-perfect view of the shoulder patch.

The pack ends with a quintet of magnificent horizontal photos, all nicely using the format. With the rough start, that's a very solid ending.

Decent enough mix in the Platinum Anniv. pack. As expected, the Justice looks really nice in hand, as 

2021-22 Parkhurst was just as dull as the 2021-22 flagship release. At least this had the excuse of being Parkhurst, where you don't really expect anything spectacular from the cards in a photographic sense.

The insert was shiny, at least.

And the flagship finale has a mask binder card to go alongside with a superstar rocking an alternate uniform. Perfectly fine ending. 

Nice effort from hockey, but the second half of Series 2 is enough to make this one baseball > hockey.

There you have it!

Welcome, Brooks Lee

I check the various *-reference sites way too frequently when the seasons are on, just to see if some new 2.14 player has made their debut. Turns out there was a newcomer over the past few days, with Brooks Lee making his way to the Twins line-up, picking up a pair of hits in his debut game, and getting his first home run on the 6th. 

Best of all, I already had a card of his! I pulled this one from a box of Chronicles late last year, and had it grouped with the rest of the cards from that box - oblivious to the fact he was a 2/14 baby. No vital stats on the back, so I can defend missing it.

But not anymore! 

Although I did quickly did remedy the lack of a card of him on the Wichita Wind Surge.

Mets Miscellany

It seems the power of Grimace has worn off the past few days for the Mets, but it was fun while it lasted. That might mean I'm a little late in showing these off in terms of on-field success, but any time is a nice time to show off Mets cards. More specifically, the random stuff in my to-be-posted box.

Stadium Club is always a great start, even if it looks like that Rey Ordonez is performing the most awkward bunt in baseball history. Or the most spectacular bunt in baseball history.

Here's a little more flattering entry. Even it isn't game action, it still has a photo worthy of the SC brand, and uses the horizontal layout to let the stadium co-star alongside Wright.

Pennant design flashback!

And again! I have to give the nod to Alonso, since the 2021 redux issue has stats on the card, as opposed to the set info on the 70th year Carter.

And I can segue off that into a more literal appearance of a Polar Bear on this insert card out of Big League. I love the Topps Kids vibe on this, and it sorta fits nicely for Big League. Sadly, I've seen very little of it on the local shelves.

More Big League! 

And more Brett Baty. I've had this one sitting in the TBP box for so long, I can't even remember if I got this card on COMC itself or just had it shipped there after picking it up directly from Topps. Cool moment though!

Not only does this provide an interesting card for the collection, but it also comes in the form of a poster that looks like one for a film that would show up during a Season 4 episode of MST3K. 

There you have it!

When You Order Rollie Fingers From Wish

 

Sticker Time!

 Just a random sticker insert today.

I'm not sure too many children were excited to stick Morten Andersen (and Dan Stryzinski) on their binders back in the day, but there was still an opportunity. Even if the ball is visible both in the photo and separately on the sticker.

But looking at the checklist, at least it isn't a Yardmarkers card, or 'Referee', or 'Action Words'.

Or Anthony Smith.

More Budget Prospecting

With another box of 2023 Elite Extra Edition that I busted a while back, and am finally getting around to scanning.

Usually, I try to maintain the cards in pack order for this product. But I mixed things together while scanning some for tcdb images, and they ended up out of order. Fortunately, these packs were predictable with how they were assembled. One base card. One insert. One numbered parallel. Two hits. So I can at least maintain some sort of order in showing them off.

These are the base cards. Wyatt Crowell is a Dodgers pick, so that will probably be part of a future Night Owl mailer. Austin Troesser is the first Mets card I'll end up with this. The only non-pitcher in this group is the highest draft pick among these, 25th overall to the Padres.

Your parallels. Even if he's listed as an International, Rodriguez is my second Mets card of the post. He's a 17-year old prospect out of Venezuela. If he makes the big leagues, this will be a nice little item in the team PC. It is numbered to just 10. The Hales is also interesting, at least if you have a bit of immaturity in you. Those particular die-cuts are numbered to the player's jersey number, subtracted from 100. Hales wears #31.

So, it is numbered /69. Nice.

And the inserts. Nothing mind-blowing here aside from my first card of Dylan Crews. That's Blake Mitchell of the Royals on the unreadable foil on the Future Star Status card.

The relics. I guess patches aren't a thing on DPL uniforms, because that /7 parallel is built for a really thick swatch to be attached, but it is just a multi-color piece from the jersey. It is still a neat little item.

The first auto is one I'll be waiting a little bit for. But it should eventually turn into a Night Owl bound Dodgers-graph.

A couple DPL signatures. Sure, you might have to wait until the international signings period to find out if/where they are heading to in terms of MLB affiliation, but at least they have more interesting signatures than most of the other autos in modern releases. 

And one of them has the initials ZZ. That can't be anything but great!

Hidden Gems probably is just a nicer way to say "We still have some of their stickers around". White (Marlins) is still doing the minor league thing this season, but DeVos (Astros) has been injured. 

Mets card #3! Williams has struggled a little this year with a move up to AA, but a move up the ladder still means their first rounder from '22 is progressing through the system. And given the up-and-down nature of his full name, the signature does look kinda readable. As long as I don't look for the M or any of the vowels in his last name. 

Finally, a couple die-cut autographs to end the box. With guys named Jett and ZZ already showing up, Roccaforte still might be the best name in the box. These are also the only two numbered autographs in the box, with Winokur being a far rarer /35. 

But there you have it! 

Canada Day Randomness

 

There wasn't too much in my COMC to-be-posed box that would count for an appropriate post today, but here's a relic and ticket stub saluting the pride of Victoria, BC - Rich Harden. 

Unfortunately, the ticket portion doesn't give the date of the game the stub is from, but if this was from the previous season to this release, it was a 9/19/2008 2-0 victory over Seattle.

And there you have it!

Basketball Miscellany

 Just a bunch of basketball cards in the to-be-posted box that I can't really combine with others for a post anyplace but here.

I came across one of his cards in a basketball repack. When I looked for other cards of his, I realized I kinda liked his autograph. Sure, it's little more than the initials and the number, but he nicely combines both into a single creation. I like the uniqueness.

I have no idea why I suddenly decided I needed a Richmond Spiders card in my collection.

But given how basic, yet great, their logo is, I'm glad I did.

Alternate jersey!

Alternate jersey #2! As a bonus, I can also commemorate the 2 1/2 weeks Wallace spent affiliated with the Suns, as he ended up released shortly after being part of the Shaq trade to Cleveland. Zero-year basketball!

And back-to-back posts with Jamal Murray making an appearance. I only had one in the box, therefore nothing to pair it with other than the other basketball content. So, a guy I super PC gets grouped with some very random cards.

But there  you have it!

Mailbag: Cards on Cards

 Opening up a recent bubbler from Kerry @ Cards on Cards for this post.

First up was the only football card in the pack. I love the Valor design from this release with the logo background, but was certain I already had this card. Turns out that was a numbered parallel, so this is a new addition to my collection. 

I've come across a grand total of zero cards from the Zoos Who portion of the Heritage set in the wild. Anywhere. So I welcome this Blue Jay card from this portion to my collection. And this will be added into the misc insert portion of the Heritage collection instead. 

I'll switch from the Jays to the Mets with these cards. I have no clue at all what these are, or where they are from. While there are logos on these, they still look mindblowingly bootleg. But they are amazing additions to the collection, despite Edwin Diaz having a Yankees logo on his card. 

Numbered Mets! 

I have the base version of this already, and now I have the shiny/holo/prizm/whatever parallel of it. That means I have 2 Jordan Yamamoto autos - one card for every game he appeared in as a Met. I kinda enjoy the accomplishment.

Back to 2/14 land with a pair of Nolans! He's all over releases this season, and as one of the more high-profile rookies this season, thanks to his quick trip through the minors, means he's all over releases this season. All the better to fill up the collection - he's currently at 12, with an autograph sitting in my to-be-posted box. 

Basketball was the king of the PWEs, with these 3 new additions to my Jamal Murray collection. He may not have picked up a second championship ring, but maybe he'll earn an Olympic medal later this summer.

But it was the Raptors that easily won the volume contest with this nice collection consisting of shininess, parallels and inserts. A couple trophy appearances are a wonderful way to start, even 5 years removed from the victory. It really is a modern card collecting problem to receive 3 cards with the same image, since now you have to find out what parallel each is. The darker one is a blue parallel, while the only numbered card is a White Diamond. Vince Carter's dino uniform is on a Red Ice parallel. It's a little hard to see, but Siakam is a pink parallel. With RJ Barrett to close, it's nice how quickly the new arrivals were added in the product with their new team.

So, thanks for all these goodies! I've got something packaged up to return fire - just need to get to a post office. 

There you have it!