Bills! Bills! Bills!

 The mailbag opens up once again, and this time it is another mailer from Dennis in Michigan, filled with a whole pile of goodies! Enough to break into several posts. Today, as I try to forget last week and look forward to SNF, the Bills content.

The reason for the size of this package was this lenticular poster? Large thingy? Man cave content? I don't know what to call it, but it is definitely a nice little display item. 

Yeah, there was cardboard too.

I may have minis in my Bills collection, but until this, no oversized cards. This 1996 entry, out of Pacific Pure NFL Gridirion is my first. And wow, is that ever a 90s Pro Bowl jersey. 

These were dupes for the 2/14 collection, but they are still perfect for my Bills collection!

Time for the volume portion of this post. I like that 1000 yard club of Thurman Thomas for the photographic oddity of having a QB cameo on the card that isn't Jim Kelly, but Frank Reich. 

Remember when Action Packed was the peak of card technology for base releases? And then we'd get shiny cards, and die-cut cards and acetate cards and relic cards and so much more. Rob Johnson might not be anything close to the most popular player in franchise history, but at least that card hits the sweet spot of having infield dirt on the photo. 

Sure, I may have played as many downs for the Bills as Jake "Elite White Person" Fromm, but that doesn't mean I don't want cards of his. I like how on the Illusions card, they handled team RB history with a quality, but surprising choice of Willis McGahee over the usual Thurman Thomas. They did use the far more expected Jim Kelly to combine with Josh Allen elsewhere in the base set.

And the only hit from this portion of the set, but there's more to come! Even if Singletary didn't really make an impact with the Bills, instant or otherwise, that's a nice-sized swatch.

There you have it! 

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 28: Refilled

 And just like that, I've got a bunch of new repacks to show off!

Starting with some baseball.

This contains three hits, two relics and an autograph. For the cost of a hobby pack, and the results will probably be more interesting.

A Bat Kings bat relic where the photo features the bat right in the middle of the card. It's the focus of the photo and that goes just right with the relic choice. That's what a bat relic card should look like! 

Here's an odd one. This is kind of a double relic. The swatch on the right is obvious jersey swatch, but the photo portion gives a manurelic vibe, as it is printed on some sort of plastic-like material. That's definitely something different, and I wouldn't mind seeing that. 

And the autograph. Brian didn't have the most notable MLB career, but at least he was able to utilize the space available for the autograph quite nicely. 

Pretty much what I expected in terms of player content, but that Game Face Gear might be one of my favourite designs for a one colour swatch I've seen in ages.

There you have it!

A Sens-ational Season Starts

Maybe, maybe not for the title this season. I'll have to wait and see. Even with games last night, the season really starts for me tonight with the Sens puck drop. Since for me, until your team has played, it hasn't started.

This does give me the excuse to pull out the Sens stuff in my COMC to-be-posted box. Most of which were less than 30 cents there because of epacks.

This was the only one that broke the $1 plateau, coming from their weekly game-dated moments release. The Sens only seem to warrant one of these per season, and this Jake Sanderson was the only "pack-pullable" one in 22-23. There are 'achievement' ones, but those have no appeal for me. 

This might have been a penny or two above the 30 cent level as well, but it is worth it for the facsimile signature on the card being his older one, umlaut and all. His recent sigs have deteriorated greatly, but that just makes the older ones more special.

As with the Logan Stanley I showed off with the Kitchener Rangers puck-drop post, I love the fronts of these Retro Ultra card, with the slightly shiny rainbow backs being just right for an update that doesn't distract from those the collected back in 1991.

As for the backs - either go all in or don't bother.

It is all Metal Universe stuff the rest of the way. Here are some alternate jerseys that were somewhat SPd in the regular set, but are super common on COMC.

Let's take a relaxing trip in the time machine back to 1997 with some Retro stuff. Since the names are illegible, starting from the top left we have Jacob Bernard-Docker, Lassi Thomson, Shane Pinto and Filip Gustavsson. Thompson had a very intriguing past few days, being waived by Ottawa, claimed by Anaheim, only to be reclaimed by Ottawa days later.

Ooooo! Premium! 

For a set named Neon Icon, this card is very subdued. But at least that means this scans nicely and isn't extremely gaudy as a result.

There you have it!

Amazing NBA Action!

 

Not pictured.

Mailbag!

 The mailbag opens up yet again, this one coming from Night Owl!

And the mailbag opens up with a 2/14 card from the short lived Alliance of American Football. Jeff has an autographed card in this release, which I've added previously. But not his base card! Until now. 

Here's a 2/14 guy that could fit into either this or my Bills collection. No matter, Jim Kelly could be the leader of either collection with 242 cards total of his in my possession. Not counting dupes that are in both. 

That's a nice lead-in to the Bills portion of the mailer. It might not be the best card here, but that Bruce Smith Sack Attack is easily my favourite since it was one of only a few cards I have on my TCDB wantlist randomly. I also like that Tim Anderson, since I had no memories of him on the team at all. But linking to some of the mid 00's team might just mean I've completely blocked him out of my memory.

Also, jersey #69 - nice.

The Vladdy that didn't have me wincing a few days back. 

The Jays portion features the Vladdy that did. Robbie Ray hits the most obscure parallel in this mailer, being a Black & White, Mini Diamonds Refractor. Whew. I hope things change over the next year, but wow, is that Varsho trade look depressing in retrospect, especially with how Moreno's post-season has gone so far. 

At least the Mets imploded early before I could get my hopes up.

And I can use an autograph of one of their outfielders of the future of the past to take the edge off.

There you have it!

Welcome, Mary Fowler!

 The final newcomer in my COMC shipment comes from the world of soccer.

She joins cyclist Cadel Evans as the second Aussie to make their debut in the shipment. She's also the third in the collection overall, alongside Evans and cricketeer Brett Swain. She also joins Erica Skorski and Anootsara Maijarern among the lady soccer players. 

Mary helped Australia to a 4th place finish at the recent World Cup. She does have a sticker in the set associated with that, so I'll probably hunt that down too.

All that deserves a card back too!

3 Downs. 2 Boxes.

 

With the set reduced this year from 200 to 100, and with there probably being 75ish base cards per box, taking inserts/parallels into consideration, I figured I'd be able to put a complete base set together.

I am so naive. I still need 7 cards.

But instead of focusing on what I didn't get, here's what I did get. The base set is, like in previous seasons, just a swap of the hockey design. 

Players don't get photoshopped over into their new uniforms. Just a small update to the team name and colours on the bottom of the card, and the back. Look at some Bowman Draft, and this is probably for the best. 

But at least we get the best thing about the set and its checklist: Despite the smaller card count, there are still cards for Special Teams/OL guys.

Speaking of checklists - they're rather odd this year. I'd complain that they re-used a photo from the main set on the checklist for Dennis' appearances, but it almost makes sense that would be a place to re-use a photo. The other oddness? Bethel-Thompson isn't on the main checklist, but does appear on the front of a checklist card.

There are parallels, as expected from any modern release. Golds are the most common, and I ended up with about a dozen of these.

Exclusives have come over from the hockey releases. Just like in there, these are /100.

As were the /10 High Gloss parallels, which really don't seem glossier than the regular base cards. Unlike with Exclusives, these were available in a previous release before their return last year. You could find them in 2016.

I guess I can consider the Autographs portion to also be parallels, since they keep the numbering scheme/photos from the regular set. The best name here is Adam Bighill, being a 3-time Most Outstanding Defensive player winner. But that Tanner Doll is easily my favourite of the bunch - a long snapper autograph! 

There's an actual non-hit insert set this season, for the first time since O-Pee-Chee retros vanished from the set. CFL Greatness is pretty generic, but I'll take what I can get.

Yup, there's parallels to these as well. As always, the colour-match ones look really nice. Although the golds fall at the same rate as the blues, the latter are numbered and the others aren't. Why? Who am I, a mere collector to ask?

The Greatness insert set has also been repurposed for the relics portion of the set. And they don't forget about the OL guys here either! I'm probably one of a handful of people happy to get an OL guy as a hit.

Patch! 10/35! That's his jersey number! Ebay1/1! WOO-HOO!

The 7 guys I still need cards of have been added to my wantlist over at the linked side list.

There you have it!

Welcome Daniel Michaud & George Diaco

A couple new faces to the hockey portion of the 2/14 collection courtesy of Upper Deck's CHL release. 

Neither is on a roster this season, although Michaud has moved on to play University hockey instead. They both represent, at least in terms of their logos, doggie teams - the Niagara Ice Dogs and Hamilton (now temporarily in Brantford) Bulldogs.

Fortunately, due to e-packs, even the lower-numbered parallels are inexpensive through COMC. 

Even autographs!

This release has now provided with four new faces in the collection, joining Colby Barlow and Nolan Lalonde.

2023 Adventures in Repacks - Part 27: Stopgap

 

The fresh supply of repacks has been ordered, but here's one I picked up at Wally World to tide me over.

Here are the packs.

And the Bonus Card? Even if LaFreniere hasn't lived up to his initial hype

It doesn't matter if it is retail SP or hobby SP authentic, this is the absolute dullest base design of the hockey release calendar. 

But at least the blue parallel of the Laim Foudy colour matches with the jersey shown, and is pretty sharp. 

The first batch of Parkhurst - pretty blah. Boring lockdown era photos weren't just for flagship - they were everywhere. 

Promised rookie. At least he's still playing on this side of the Atlantic, even if he's taken three seasons to break into the double digits of NHL games played.

At least the guy on the shiny insert stuck around, even if he's a stay-at-home defender and rarely makes it onto the score sheet.

All is not lost though! A big name with Marner, a sorta-throwback Whalers/Canes uniform and a Sens card is a perfectly fine way to end this little break.

There you have it!