Champ's Box Break - The Top 10

I know I just got done with an onslaught of wax busting, but there was a sale at the LCS - so why not bust an inexpensive favourite? Although I have already done the regular 180 base set, I can always add some SPs to it. I'll do this in a top 10 format.

10.

This would have been higher (but not too much so) if I hadn't already prepared an outgoing package filled with Wolverines for Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams to go out later today. The gold parallels of high numbered SPs are also 1:100 packs.

9.

While Claude Giroux is a fine player, this is just a plain white swatch. The fact I have this card in 9th position should be an indication of how well this box went.

8.

Maybe if there'd been a better view of the mask, this would be higher.

7.

A SP base card of my favourite active player. I'd actually landed the gold parallel of this from a group break, so I was really happy to see this one come out of the packs.

6.

The on-card autographs in this set are really nicely done. I especially love how most of them use photos of light-coloured jerseys on the card to really make them pop. While Shore isn't a spectacular pull, this gets points for the look.

5.

The final of the 4 hits in the box (only 2 relics are promised) would be a nice fit in my Sens collection, if I already didn't have this Puempel there. I didn't have this in my Kitchener Rangers alum collection, so it is a nice card for that binder.

That's actually it for the hits, and I've just passed the halfway mark. What kept these out of the top spots?

4.

An insert that falls at a rate of 1:200 packs.

3.

Firstly, a /25 parallel that will join the Puempel in the aforementioned Rangers alumni binder. Faksa has an atrocious-looking auto, so I'd rather have a low numbered parallel than one of his actual hits.

2.

I've busted two full boxes of this stuff, along with a few miscellaneous packs. Both of the boxes contained this McDavid rookie. At least now I'm able to throw one of the two onto my COMC account.

1.

These are part of the "rare stars" portion of the base set. Rare might be an understatement. These fall 1 in every 1200 packs. At 24 packs per box, and 10 boxes per case, that's 1 in every 5 cases. So, not easy at all. It is a 5 card portion of the set, so the Gretzky itself would be one in 25 cases. The only one I could find on ebay was for $150 CDN.

So, I'm guessing I've paid for this box with this one card. As an interesting aside, these cards have a bright glossy back as opposed to the cardboard one, and the Gretzky and Crosby were in the exact same pack.

The Two Torontos - Part 2

And the rest of the Toronto stuff from the group break, this time some Raptors from a case break of Excalibur.

Here's your base cards. Nothing too spectacular or awful about them. Just more Raptors for my binder. This also the first appearance of Serge Ibaka as a Raptor in my collection. More of him to come.

The parallels aren't entirely colour-based this time around, instead they go through various levels of royalty. All I got were the unnumbered Count parallels, but they go all the way to 1/1 Emperor versions.

I'm not sure if comparing a player to a part of a castle is a good thing. Good for defense, but not so much so for mobility.

My last time in this product I didn't get any of the Crusade inserts. Here, I get the team set. More Ibaka too!

And a parallel version as well. The red looks really mice with the white Raptors uniform. Reds are /99.

Some hits. I'm grouping these together since all of them came from the exact same box during the break. 3 hits per box, and this time, all of them went to my Raptors collection. Although that's an Orlando uniform, that's still my first Ibaka hit.

But I also got this other Pascal Siakam auto from one of the other boxes. These are my 3rd and 4th autos of his, all from group breaks. But that will change with a 5th card later this week.

And there you have it. Probably no more Raptors breaks for me until the 17-18 product drops. But you never know.

The Two Torontos - Part 1

Time to start catching up on the mailbag with the box breaks out of the way. First up, some group break stuff from the local teams I cheer on, specifically the Toronto ones. The Raptors go tomorrow, and the Blue Jays from a mixer go today. There were 6 boxes in it, and only 2017 Tier One failed to land me a card. I'll attack these chronologically.

The wayback machine goes to 2015 for the first card, and an on-card autograph from Dalton Pompey. His 2017 has not been good. He got injured during the WBC, and has spent the season on the 60-day DL. Rehabbing in AAA did not go well, so I'll just assume he won't see action until 2018.

Fast forward one year to 2016, and some Bowman's Best. There's the start of the great expansion to my Josh Donaldson collection, with a base and a refractor to go alongside another shiny card with the Alford.

Just one card from 2016 Elite Extra Edition, but this appearance of the 2016 2nd round pick out of Ole Miss squashes the Bowman's Best in terms of loudness. If you want accuracy, this is an Aspirations Purple parallel.

And there's 4 more Josh Donaldsons. Red-framed parallel. Aurora insert. Base card. Photo-variation base card. All from 2017 Diamond Kings.

Here's your final Donaldson of the break, here with a Sapphire Blue parallel /150. And another hit, with what looks like a piece of the logo on this thick patch card from Devon Travis. Much like the other hit, he's also a member of the 60-day DL, although he has seen some action this season.

And there you go. Excalibur Raptors tomorrow!

Stacks of Wax - July 2017 - Part 7 - Score Jumbo - Packs 9 and 10

And the latest blowout order draws to close.

As I've done a couple times so far, I'm leading with a photographic favourite. Not only do you get the tri-coloured Hokies helmet, but you get a situation where the photo gives a look you don't see much of on cards - a quarterback trying to work his way out of their own end zone.

My favourite name of the 2017 rookie class is Teez Tabor. He's actually a Jalen, but I admit I would chose Teez as well.

Your Bills content. All dupes for me, so they'll be regifted elsewhere.

The first rounders in these packs include two that were basically traded for each other in Trubisky and Thomas.

I'll never be able to come across a Kiko Alonso card without thinking about this story. Never.

Your inserts.

And your hit. A mid-round pick to the Cowboys is a step down from the beauty from the last two packs, but a hit is a hit. And I can read um....4 of the letters.

And now, I can start catching up on the ol' mailbag.

Stacks of Wax - July 2017 - Part 7 - Score Jumbo - Packs 7 and 8

The home stretch!

Photographic excellence leads the way in this group of cards. This one, with the wall in the background, the goal line, the end zone and the uniform creates a perfect melding of blue and white as Hilton goes in for a TD.

Honourable mention to this JJ Watt and his intense eyes as he closes on poor Jay Cutler.

The extent of Bills content over two packs. At least it was their first rounder.

Speaking of first-rounders, here's their appearances over the 2 packs.

And your inserts. Two Trubiskys and a Newton make these a very North Carolinian pair of packs.

No parallels for regular cards.

But the best hit of the box was a parallel of an auto. This one will be bound for Dennis @ Too Many Manninghams in my next mailer, and I can't think of a better aesthetic card for a Wolverines collector. A nice looking auto, and I especially like the loop back at the end. It might only be a first initial, but you can make out the letters in the last name. Also, the colour is just perfect, and the shade doesn't seem too far off from the actual jersey colour. It actually works nicely with the actual colours on the card.

Since if you can't pull a great card for yourself, you might as well pull it for someone else.

Last two packs in the next post!

Stacks of Wax - July 2017 - Part 7 - Score Jumbo - Packs 5 and 6

The halfway mark of the box!

I'll start with an interesting quirk in the collation. Two players that were once traded for each other back-to-back. That was also the only true Bills card in the base.

However, this would technically count as a Bills card as he was drafted by them when the product was released. With the Cardale trade, he probably moved up on the depth chart as well to at least clipboard holder.

Best photo in the pack goes to this card with Brice Butler trying to avoid both the tackle and the strip.

Honourable mention to Malachi Dupre stumbling his way to some yardage. He was a 7th rounder for the Packers.

Packers! WOO!

A whole bunch of first rounders in this pairing of packs with this group of six. Nice to knock a trio of Top 10 picks off a potential wantlist.

Here are the parallels in this.

And the inserts. 1/3 of a card featuring Jim Kelly is still enough to qualify it for the 2/14 collection, but with it featuring the offensive icons of the early 90s makes it more of a Bills card. Maybe I should get a second at some point.

And there was a hit in these packs.

Sorta.

Stacks of Wax - July 2017 - Part 6 - Score Jumbo - Packs 3 and 4

Yes, I'm well aware it is August now - but since the cards arrived in July, I'm keeping the title as is.

With that out of way, the next 2 packs.

I'll start with my photographic fave this time around. A rather generic "player running with the ball" is greatly enhanced by the desperate attempt  to stop him by a Rams tackler.

Since OL guys get no hobby love, I might as well highlight this one.

Frederick Douglass Elementary School? I could shoehorn this one into my 2/14 collection! I won't. But I could.

Here's some actual 2/14 content.

A quartet of first rounders highlight the rookie portion of the pack. Interestingly, while there was only a couple of dupes among the veteran portion of the set, each of the 20 rookies over the two packs was a dupe.

Your parallels. That Eifert will be on its way to the Cardboard Clubhouse in its next mailer.

No autos in this portion of the break, so this wraps up with the inserts.

Pretty blah portion of the break gets livened up with a bit of colour. 2 more packs in the next post.

Stacks of Wax - July 2017 - Part 5 - Score Jumbo - Packs 1 and 2

I'm doing this several packs at a time to wrap up this grouping of stacks of wax. I'm also not going to recap every card I pull, because that would be 40*whatever per post, and I'm feeling pretty lazy at this point.

First card out of the box is a TE from Tampa Bay. The best thing about a large base set (330 vets, 110 rookies) is that people that usually don't get base cards get them. He was undrafted in 2014, signed w/ Tampa, spent time on the Saints practice squad, then returned to Tampa, finally seeing action with them in '15, and getting a rookie card in 2016 Contenders. 

Bills content in the two packs consisted of 2 of 3 guys no longer on the team. That's so Buffalo.

But I did land a 2/14 card as well.

Of note among the rest, I land my first Los Angeles Chargers card, an OL guy, and the best photo in bunch goes to this Matt Jones. I always love photos where the helmet can't restrain the hair from flying.

Of the rookies, there was variety here, as I got Mr. Irrelevant in Chad Kelly and a quintet of first rounders. 

Inserts! No dupes in this group, although I can't say I'd want to highlight the colour rush uniforms via a subset.

Interestingly, the only jumbo pack of this I busted prior to this via the LCS also contained both a /10 parallel and a /50 parallel. If I had to follow a US college team, it probably would be Virginia Tech as it is Bruce Smith's alma mater. It is at least more interesting than my actual Canadian university alma mater, who regularly loses by scores that should be accompanied my "This is not a misprint." in box scores.

And an auto from the first two packs! Jamal Adams went 6th overall to the Jets, so that does make this the highest picked rookie in this pack. Not bad, even though defensive players get little hobby love.

And there you go. More packs next time. Maybe 2. Maybe 4. Maybe all 8 left.