Welcome, Lucy Boryer!

 

The latest addition to my 2/14 collection, and the third, joining Frank Collison and Allen Miller that makes it in via an autograph from a Star Trek themed set. She's probably best known for a few seasons on Doogie Howser.

Although I do wonder if this card exists more for the last name of the character she played.

As best as my non Trek-watcher's research can discern, she's no relation to the more famous Janeway, but I guess this card could be desired by someone who envisions some sort of connection. And goofs that collect cards of people born on 2/14. 

There you have it!

Even Nicer

Sure, seeing this card pop up for the Bills spot in the group break was nice, but getting it in hand is even nicer. I love how it is shiny, but not obnoxiously garish. Also, seeing it written out 'One of One' is so much classier than a simple 1/1.

As to whether this is a card for my Bills collection or my 2/14 collection, I'm considering it as both. Since there is no way this is a binder card, it can be classified either way. 

Because a magnetic is a far better home for this beauty!

There you have it!

Bills! Bills! Bills!

 Kick-off is only a handful of days away! Let's see what Bills goodies were in the TMV mailer! 

Holograms are always welcome. It would be even better if these were more common in modern releases.

Oh, those heady days of pre-season greatness for AJ McCarron in 2018. It is a good thing there wasn't any rookie waiting in the wings that year. Then again, I probably thought Peterman had to have shaken off the rust entering his sophomore year.

The Bills portion of this was either parallels, inserts or hits. Except the ones shown so far, all the parallels were unnumbered. The garish Marquez Stevenson in the top-middle spot is an Astral parallel. Don't confuse it with Astro parallels - those are in Revolution. 

Stevie Johnson and JP Losman ruled the numbers game with 4 numbered cards each.

But there were a few players that made one or two appearances. FYI, this post was already partially written prior to the news of Mike Williams' passing yesterday. How sketchy was the Bills QB situation where Trent Edwards might not even make the top 3 of misery-inducing Bills QBs from the post Kelly, pre Allen era? 

Hit parade! That Singletary would look so nice with a blue swatch, though. Or a different background colour. Other than that, a nice grouping of players I have varying memories of in Buffalo. 

There you have it!

More Retail Ripping

 

My favourite release, or the product with a Bill on the packaging? Let's bust both! 

First out of the Chronicles is the base design. With a late/post-season release date, that's plenty of time to include a photo of an alternate jersey sported during the season.

A bunch of base cards from the non-foil portion of the set. I didn't even notice that I got an Andrew Nembhard for my fledgling Canadian-in-the-NBA collection from the first pack of these, so I'll point it out here on the Pinnacle card. There's my first Vertex card from this, and a nice selection of cards with nice full-bleed photos from Luminance. 

Only one teal card in this pack, but at least it is (sort of) a jersey match.

Two foil/chrome/prizm/metal cards, both providing repeat players from before. Since those had alternate jerseys on, those are easily superior to these. 

The hanger exclusive Classics.

And their back facts end the pack.

Off to Score - 30 is a little too many for scanning - I'm only hitting the highlights here.

First card out - an OL card! That's a nice little modern set rarity.

Not too much in this pack in terms of interesting photos - I guess the best in this one goes to Jones' cradling the ball like he's holding his first born while running across a battlefield in some cheesy 80s film.

Alternate uniforms/helmets are in this set too! 

Even with a far, far scarcer parallel on the way, it is still nice to pull a Bills card here.

Somewhat surprisingly for a Panini release, where the rookies are usually SPd in relation to the rest of the base, here they do make up the most numerous part of the base cards in the pack. And for those who like interesting collation, Johnson Jr, Wilson and Robinson went back-to-back-to-back in the draft, 6 though 8. LaPorta and Mingo were second rounders, while Dye was undrafted. 

Here's the parallels! A nice mix of players too with a current star, a retired legend and a rookie. The best thing here is the listed position of 'Return Specialist' on the Hester. That's a position that probably appears less frequently than even an Offensive Line one.

These packs tend to be rather insert heavy. Fortunately for me, my favourite one in Celebration is the one that made the most frequent appearance. Jaylen Waddle appeared in this insert set last year - but this year they finally decided to use his Waddle celebration.

Here's the rest. That horrible 'Protential' pun needed to disappear the first time it was even proposed. Bijan Robinson was the only player I doubled up on in this pack. Given the size of the base and insert sets, doubling up on anybody in a Score pack seems rare.

There you have it!

On Labour Day

 

Get out there and labour!

Sportlots 2/14s

 Just a few random 2/14 additions I threw in while set-building through sportlots at 20 cents a pop.

Darrick Brilz has a grand total of 2 base cards out of mainstream releases. I now have both of them. Somehow, I got the Special Effects parallel of this before adding the regular base card. 

There's always room for David Garrard content. Both in parallel and base form. If I'm ranking 2/14 QB content, and David is the one I'd try to stash on the practice squad as the #4 guy, that's a really deep (imaginary) roster.

Sure, it isn't a vintage Obak. But reprinted fronts are fine.

Even moreso with that factoid on the back. And I'm sure any catcher that was a little too slow to get a bouncer in the dirt thanks him.

There you have it!

Family Matters

 

Imagine getting a baseball card,

Only to be told that you don't measure up to the accomplishments of not only one, but two of your siblings in the write-up on it. Thanks, Score biographer! 

Precipitation not Required

 

While rain or snow can make for an incredible visual on a card, it isn't needed. Of course, I needed to figure out which game this was where the temperature was the real star of the photo. The white jersey would indicate a road game. This being a 1995 card, it would have to be in the later half of the 1994 season. 

So, games in November and December included trips to Tampa, Miami and Arizona that were obviously out. Minnesota played indoors. So, all this could be was a trip to Green Bay on December 11. 

Which the Bears lost 40-3.

At least the Bears got a cool card out of the trip. Or at least Chris Zorich did.

2/14s from Michigan

 

Another return to the TMV mailbag, and the  2/14 content, which was exclusively-gridiron related. Such as that Steve McNair opener. Another "my binders, my rules" quirk is that cards such as this, which specify a limited run but aren't serial numbered, don't get put in the hits/numbered collection. 

Volume wise, the king of this portion of the package was Drew Bledsoe - with his numbers in the collection slowly moving towards the 200 mark at 173. Maybe by 2025?

Jim Kelly remains at the top of the football portion with 239 current cards. This is a numbered base card out of something called TX Exclusive. Veterans were unnumbered, with retired players at /1099 and the rookies varying based on how highly thought of they were considered. The lower end ones were /1049, with the more hyped ones at /399. 

With a name like that, you'd think a set like that would be like Leaf/O-Pee-Chee baseball in the 80s, with a focus on the hometown teams. But it didn't seem too Dallas/Houston intensive.

So, the unexpected lack of Houston cards in one set segues into a printing plate that can produce a Houston card several years later. That's Jadeveon Clowney among the yellow on this plate. He's recently signed with Baltimore, but I'm left to hope that someone will provide me with cards of his to chase there. 

This is supposedly a gold parallel, even though it looks more like a rather unappealing shade of green. 

Another plate to end this! I already have the black version of this plate (I assume from a previous Dennis mailer), so now I'm halfway there! Do you have the cyan or the yellow? Hook me up! 

There you have it! 

"This is going to fund my retirement!"

 I'm guessing at least one person said that upon acquiring this card:

I don't think anybody is going to retire on the single digit dollar value I paid for this. 

Also, enjoy one of the earliest on-card autograph certifications! 

It can go nicely alongside my Wander Franco redemption if I ever get it in hand.