A Canadian Canvas Legend Cutie

 Time for a quickie. This card came from sportlots from a quarter auction. It is an Upper Deck Tim Horton's card. Now I don't normally pursue Tim Horton cards mostly because they are Canadian imports and hard to find here in the US. Anyway here it is.

2023 Upper Deck Tim Horton's Hockey - UD Canvas Legends CL-15 Manon Rheaume Team Canada

Niche PC 001: Some Tennis Lovin

Niche PC 001:

Some Tennis Lovin'

[No Niche Logo Yet]

When I was a kid I used to pronounce the word niche as "Nitch" since I had never seen the word written and had only heard a mispronunciation of the word.  I associated it with a similar word "Nook" as in a book nook. Personally I think the nitch mispronunciation sounds better for the physical divots when referring to the word's noun usage as a "shallow recess" like a nook. When referring to the adjective use of the word's "small specialized appeal" the real pronunciation of "neeesh" is preferred especially with trading card PCs. OH maybe it was being pronounced as "niissh" and I heard a T.

When it comes to collecting cards there are many collectors who have niche sub-collections in their PC, or they may concentrate only on their niche. There are as many niche categories as there are collectors. Just as there are team collectors and player collectors there are odd ball collectors, perhaps that is the biggest type of "niche" collection? There are collectors who niche collect their local college, or their college Alma mater, players from their hometown or state, players from a specific country, players with the same first name, last name, birthday, birth month, birth year. Cards that show their sport's championship trophy, players chewing bubble gum (or chewing tobacco), players not wearing a cap or uniform, players in a different sport uniform, Baseball players with a gigantic glove, Baseball players with two or more bats, players holding a ball, Well you get the idea.

For many years I didn't have what I would call any niche PCs. Sure I PC'd my homie DC and Baltimore teams and many many too many players I liked. For the most part I still collect those same players and a bunch more. I have always been into some of the "odd ball" cards of various kinds. It wasn't until recent years after seeing several bloggers talk about their niche PCs that got me into the more obscure or finer detailed niche collections. I forget who the first blogger was that coined the "niche" category but at first I thought some of the categories were very silly even some of the categories I now collect myself. At one time I tried to niche PC players from the general DC area (including Maryland and Virginia Suburbs) but that is too large a scope for a niche PC, I now limit the local "homie" players (from my home area) mostly to those who attended The University of Maryland or are originally from Silver Spring Specifically.

Other than My Homie Teams (DC and Baltimore teams) and Players I PC my niche collections include: My birthday 04 April, Players from the University of Maryland (preferably in a Terps Uniform), mascots, players with similar names to myself both first and last name. Sometimes it opens the scope of the niche up a bit too much. It also opens up my collection to other sports and more odd ball things.

So this post is labeled as the first episode of a series of "Niche PC" cards.

The FIRST card for this post I got from Sportlots from an auction in their "other cards" section since it is of a sport that is not in the Big Four of Baseball, Football, Hockey and Basketball. As it is a Tennis card, yes Tennis I'm not into that sport (even though I love the women's short short short skirts) but this is a niche card so specific sport be damned.

This tennis star has my first name incorporated into her last name. Jessica Kirkland.. So it falls into the Kirk Name Niche Collection.

2013 Leaf Ace Authentic Grand Slam Tennis: Autograph: BA-JK1 Jessica Kirkland

I got the card for the opening bid of 25¢ + $3.39 shipping. It was one of three packages or PWEs that arrived on my Birthday (04 April). This particular PWE or rather PYE (Yellow/Mustard/Gold instead of plain white) came from Ontario, Canada with a cute little stamp.

On a side note I do find Miss Kirkland attractive. Now now maybe its just the little white short skirt. Since starting the draft for this post I have added another Jessica Kirkland card to my Name Niche PC

2007 Ace Authentic On The Line: Autograph: OT-8 Jessica Kirkland RC

This one came from Ebay for $5.99 Free Shipping on the First of May. Not from Canada but from the Other Washington, Washington State. From Shoreline to be more specific (Approx 9 miles North of Downtown Seattle according to Wikipedia). Believe it or not the sticker is silver/chrome not lime green as it appears due to the reflective scanning. I'm not sure if my scanner has the ability to adjust light refraction, it might, I haven't really bothered changing many of the settings for fear of putting my ancient Epson Flatbed Scanner permanently out of alignment.

Man those Tennis card makers sure do love those silver/chrome stickers for the autographs. Of course I prefer real ON-CARD Autographs, but for the card makers the sticker-autos are more efficient. Topps and the other big boys mostly use clear stickers now, the silver ones are more often for higher end products. The On-Sticker Autographs or Stickergraphs as one blogger calls them. I forget who coined that one, or was it Labelgraphs?

As I said this is the first of a new post series that may or may not have any additional posts. I like the idea of a series of niche PC cards. My first draft of this post I had titled it "Name Niche PC 001: Some Tennis Lovin'" but that would mean I would have to start some other Niche PC series: Birthday Niche, U o MD Niche and maybe a few others. 

2015 Upper Deck CFL Football Box Break: Part 2

(Part 1)

Here is the pack-by-pack play-by-play Box Break of 2015 Upper Deck CFL Football: Part 2.

Box Break: Opened packs starting form bottom left stack working down top to bottom, then to bottom right stack working down top to bottom, then to top left stack working down top to bottom, and finally to top right stack working down top to bottom.

Pack 1: (7 cards including only box HIT)
156 All-Stars Clarence Denmark West Division Blue Bombers

Game Jersey GJ-CK John Chick Roughriders all-green swatch
63 Matt Nichols Eskimos
31 Terrence Toliver Tiger-Cats
43 Jerome Messam Roughriders
24 Jordan Lynch Eskimos
83 Greg Ellingson Reblacks

Pack 2:
138 Jerald Brown Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
51 Devon Bailey Eskimos
94 Pierre Lavertu Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 33 Ricky Foley Argonauts
56 Samuel Giguere Alouettes
34 Terrell Sinkfield Jr. Tiger-Cats

Pack 3:
Star Rookies: 189 David Beard Eskimos
White Blank Decoy
18 Chad Owens Argonauts
93 Jeff Keeping Argonauts
3 Weston Dressler Roughriders

29 Brandon Banks Tiger-Cats (Redskins NFL)
15 Fred Stamps Alouettes

Pack 4:
103 Trsitan Jackson Roughriders
74 Danny O'Brien Redblacks
52 Chris Williams Redblacks
O-Pee-Chee Retro 46 J.C. Sherritt Eskimos
44 James Rodgers Alouettes
72 Jeremiah Johnson Redblacks

Pack 5:

Star Rookies: 184 Jeff Mathews Tiger-Cats
White Blank Decoy
10 Anthoney Allen Roughriders
42 Kendial Lawrence Eskimos
14 Vidal Hazelton Argonauts
99 Brendon LaBatte Roughriders
46 Rob Bagg Roughriders

Pack 6:
All-Stars 158 Adam Bighill West Division Lions
White Blank Decoy
77 Brett Smith Roughriders
23 Clarence Denmark Blue Bombers
6 Austin Collie Lions
47 Brad Sinopoli Redblacks
92 Chris Van Zeyl Argonauts

Pack 7:
128 John Bowman Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
67 Chad Simpson Eskimos
28 A.C. Leonard Lions
59 Nick Moore Blue Bombers
38 Johnathan Crompton Alouettes
84 Trevor Harris Argonauts

Pack 8:

All-Stars Brandon Banks East Division Tiger-Cats
White Blank Decoy
57 Kenny Stafford Eskimos
91 Tyler Holmes Argonauts
O-Pee-Chee Retro 21 Chris Williams Redblacks
25 Henry Burris Redblacks
36 Jamel Richardson Roughriders

Pack 9:
146 Greg Jones Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
33 John Beck Lions
89 Tiquan Underwood Tiger-Cats
20 Jeff Fuller Stampeders
64 Cody Hoffman Alouettes
53 Darvin Adams Blue Bombers

Pack 10:
Star Rookies: 199 Kevin Elliott Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
82 Tryell Sutton Alouettes
70 Stefan Logan Alouettes
96 Stanley Bryant Blue Bombers
37 Mossis Madu Tiger-Cats
48 Mike Reilly Eskimos

Pack 11:
124 Swayze Waters Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
61 Wallace Miles Eskimos
95 Jeff Perrett Alouettes

O-Pee-Chee Retro 11 Chris Getzlaf Roughriders
39 Manny Arceneaux Lions
68 Darian Durant Roughriders

Pack 12:
All-Stars 174 Swayze Waters East Division Argonauts
White Blank Decoy
80 Curtis Steele Argonauts
12 Nate Coehoorn Eskimos
22 Brandon Whitaker Argonauts
69 Tim Brown Stampeders
13 Travis Lulay Lions

Pack 13:
Star Rookies: 176 Alex Mateas Redblacks
White Blank Decoy
87 Julian Feoli-Gudino Blue Bombers
5 Bo Levi Mitchell Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 39 Ted Laurent Tiger-Cats
45 Matt Carter Redblacks
71 Paris Cotton Blue Bombers

Pack 14:

119 Kyries Hebert Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
98 Josh Bourke Alouettes
85 James Franklin Eskimos
41 Taj Smith Roughriders
100 Checklist cards 1-100 Zac Collaros Tiger-Cats and Jon Cornish Stampeders
19 Chevon Walker Redblacks

Pack 15:
132 Shea Emry Roughriders
White Blank Decoy
35 Cameron Marshall Blue Bombers
90 Peter Dyakowski Tiger-Cats
54 Ernest Jackson Redblacks
16 Drew Tate Stampeders
27 Andre Durie Argonauts

Pack 16:
114 Keon Raymond Stampeders
White Blank Decoy
Three miscut cards don't know card # (guessed using checklist)
?75? Anthony Parker Stampeders
?62? Rob Cote Stampeders
?9? Brian Brohm Blue Bombers
100 Checklist cards 1-100 Zac Collaros Tiger-Cats and Jon Cornish Stampeders (dupe)
19 Chevon Walker Redblacks

Pack 17:
All-Stars 162 Rob Maver West Division Stampeders
White Blank Decoy
Two Miscut cards
?78? Drew Willy Blue Bombers Miscut card
?32? Anthony Coombs Argonauts Miscut card

O-Pee-Chee Retro 2 Luke Tasker Tiger-Cats
76 Andy Fantuz Tiger-Cats
7 Adarius Bowman Eskimos

Pack 18:
140 Khalil Bass Blue Bombers
White Blank Decoy
55 Maurice Price Redblacks
88 Cory Watson Eskimos
Miscut Card
?1? Ricky Ray Argonauts Miscut card
60 Joe West Stampeders
26 Ryan Smith Roughriders

Pack 19:
Star Rookies: 193 Brendon Morgan Blue Bombers
White Blank Decoy
Two Micut Cards
90 Peter Dyakowski Tiger-Cats miscut card (dupe)
54 Ernest Jackson Redblacks miscut card

O-Pee-Chee Retro 9 Bear Woods Alouettes
99 Brendon LaBatte Roughriders (dupe)
46 Rob Bagg Roughriders

Pack 20:
134 Bryant Turner Jr. Blue Bombers
2 more miscut cards
?65? Nik Lewis Alouettes miscut card
?66? C.J. Gable Tiger-Cats miscut card
O-Pee-Chee Retro 20 Tim O'Neill Tiger-Cats
16 Drew Tate Stampeders
27 Andre Durie Argonauts

Pack 21:
Star Rookies: 187 Brandon Bridge Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
?73? Rory Kohlert Blue Bombers miscut card
?97? Jovan Olafioye Lions miscut card

?81? Eric Rogers Stampeders miscut card no number can't even see first name
45 Matt Carter Redblacks
71 Paris Cotton Blue Bombers

Pack 22:
136 Chip Cox Alouettes
White Blank Decoy
11 S.J. Green Alouettes
40 Shakir Bell Eskimos

Grey Cup Moments: GCM3 Brandon Banks Tiger-Cats
21 Zach Collaros Tiger-Cats
50 Bakari Grant Tiger-Cats

Pack 23:
Star Rookies: 181 Rakeem Cato Alouettes (right bottom corner a bit nicked)
White Blank Decoy
49 Marquay McDaniel Stampeders
2 Jon Cornish Stampeders
O-Pee-Chee Retro 6 Zach Collaros Tiger-Cats
79 Courtney Taylor Lions
8 Luke Tasker Tiger-Cats

Pack 24:
113 J.C. Sherrit Eskimos
White Blank Decoy
58 Shawn Gore Lions
4 Chris Getzlaf Roughriders
17 Andrew Harris Lions
30 Kevin Glenn Roughriders
86 Marco Iannuzzi Lions

Totals:
23 White Blank Decoys: So one in each pack without a hit.

145 cards (1 extra)
Base: 134: A full set is 200 cards so you need at least 2 boxes to maybe get a full set. Due to the randomness there is no guarantee of that even.
Protrait/Vertical: 120
Landscape/Horizontal: 14
5 All Stars: Average 6 per box
7 Star Rookies: Average 6 per box
10 Duplicates

Inserts:
9 O-Pee-Chee Retro inserts: Average 8 per box.
1 Grey Cup Moments
1 “Hit" Game Jersey: Average is 2 per box but not guaranteed

13 Miscut cards - That is way too many. They fell mostly in the second half of the box 8 in 4 consecutive packs and then later 5 more in 2 consecutive packs.

2015 Upper Deck CFL Football Box Break: Part 1

My last post was a little cryptic. I have done my box break and started to sort the cards, posted a little late and well now the cat is out of the bag.

OK where to begin?

The Beginning why not?

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” OK Wrong beginning.

Some weeks ago I got a surprise email from one of Upper Deck’s Marketing people. It began with a short introduction and then the attention grabbing “I wanted to reach out to you because I love what you do regarding your Upper Deck card set.” I’m not sure exactly which set is being referenced or what special thing I did to get on the marketing department’s RADAR. I just hope I stay there so I can get more goodies. (Topps, Rittenhouse and Panini would be Super as well)

Anyway continuing…

“We would love to connect with you regarding some other sets including 2015 Upper Deck Canadian Football League, 2015 UD Turkish Airlines Euroleague Basketball, and 2015 UD USA Football...I have a couple extra media review copies and wanted to see if you would be interested in receiving one each as long as you would write something up on the product to share with your audience.”

I replied positively to the email and included my mailing address. A few weeks later, on Wednesday 23 December 2015 the Eve before Christmas Eve I got my package from Upper Deck. In a sea of pale pink packing peanuts was this fine hobby box of 2015 Upper Deck Canadian Football League cards 24 packs with 6 cards per pack. Those other products would be fun to bust as well, but Oh well.

Since there are 24 packs I will have to post the pack-by-pack listing separately to keep this from being too long a post.

First off I really enjoy this product mostly for its simplicity. My box breaking experience has some positives and negatives that I will cover with this post.

The base set consists of 200 cards. Inserts include retro O-Pee-Chee cards (50 card set), autograph cards, game used jersey cards, #d GU patch cards, and team logo patch cards. Cardboard Connection has the full checklist and basic product details at this link http://www.cardboardconnection.com/2015-upper-deck-football-cards (you will have to click between product details and the checklist)

I like the plain simple design with the bottom corner framing and the opposite corner flush with the edge. I am glad there is no annoying silver or gold foil that is impossible to read. Sadly there is some white lettering on silver background where the player’s position is listed. 

The front of the base cards has a large picture of the player mostly in-game action shots. The Upper Deck logo is in the upper left corner and the top and left sides of the card the picture hits flush on the edge for the “full picture” feel. The Right hand border is a white background with some light gray/silver shadowing and some team color hashlines top and bottom with the player’s position in white lettering (hard to read and gets lost) in both English and French. The bottom edge has a border that matches the teams main color with the Player’s name in white letters (the name could be a bit bigger) under the player name is his team name in gray/silver, very tiny a bit harder to read than the player’s name. And in the right hand corner of the colored border is the team logo.

The back is pretty standard they repeat the head/bust part from the front picture. There is some matching of team colors with the general design.

Most of the base card fronts are regular portrait (vertical) orientation, but there are a few landscape (horizontal) oriented card fronts, the backs are all portrait. The Checklists have two players on the front in the landscaped orientation, with the checklist on the back in regular portrait orientation. I am glad there are no multi-parallels, and that the number of insert sets, are kept to a minimum.

The inserts sadly don’t list the team names, but do have the team logos on the fronts. There are two main insert sub-sets “All-Stars” and “Star Rookies”. Oops those are also base cards. Well they have a slightly different look so I mistook them for inserts they are actually two “sub-sets” within the main base set numbering.

The All-Star Cards divided in their coloring by East (red border) and West (blue border) Divisions. The color border runs along the top, left and bottom edges with the right side having the player’s picture flush against the card edge. Again the Upper Deck logo is in upper left corner. Top right of the card kind of hard to read is the Division (East or West). Left side again in tiny lettering is the player’s position. On the bottom is a gray/silver banner with All-Stars in black lettering with the player’s name in white lettering underneath, and team logo on left hand side. Oh and I just noticed the player’s number in the bottom right corner how nice, didn’t see it before.

Backs are nicely done, except nowhere is the team name actually written out, just the team logo on front. After opening a few packs I got used to the various teams. I don’t follow CFL as closely as I do the NFL so I am not as familiar with the 9 teams in the league. I really wish they would do some expanding and have 12 teams to make things a little more exciting.

The Star Rookies cards again follow the regular base card team colors design. The front player picture is flush with the top, bottom and right edges the left edge has a color bar that matches the player’s team colors. The usual Upper Deck logo in left corner Star Rookies reading bottom to top vertically along the bar and team logo bottom corner. Player’s position reads “under” the Star Rookies “banner” along with a series of stars. The player’s name is in silver across the bottom. Team name not listed just team logo in corner.

Back looks like the regular base backs.

The Retro O-Pee-Chee cards remind me of a cross between the 2009 Philadelphia retro cards and 1960s cards. They have an all white border, the upper left corner has a retro looking OPC logo, The player’s photo outlined in white against a solid color background. The player’s name is in white letters on a black bar above a white bar with the player’s position in black. The team logo is in the bottom right corner. The team name is not mentioned.

The back is raw cardboard brown with black lettering. I really like this insert set and plan on building it.

Here are my basic totals from the box:

Totals:

23 White Blank Decoys: So one in each pack without a hit.

145 cards (1 extra)

Base: 134: A full set is 200 cards so you need at least 2 boxes to maybe get a full set. Due to the randomness there is no guarantee of that even.

Protrait/Vertical: 120

Landscape/Horizontal: 14

5 All Stars: Average 6 per box

7 Star Rookies: Average 6 per box

10 Duplicates

Inserts:

9 O-Pee-Chee Retro inserts: Average 8 per box.

1 Grey Cup Moments

1 “Hit" Game Jersey: Average is 2 per box but not guaranteed

13 Miscut cards - That is way too many. They fell mostly in the second half of the box 8 in 4 consecutive packs and then later 5 more in 2 consecutive packs.

(Miscut cards Shown here fronts and backs)

All-in-all I liked breaking this box. It is a fun product. Being a football fan that is more NFL than CFL it did teach me a few things, or reminded me of a few things. Like a fave homie player that I had forgotten plays in Canada now. Let’s see the positive:

• Nice design. Not to busy or complicated. Some little reading problems but not like the years when silver or gold leaf/foil is used
• Bright colors in design. Very few variants in design features
• Inserts fun and also bright colorful designs
• OK correlation, low percentage of duplicates

Now the negative:

• Player position very difficult to read with color design
• Insert cards don’t mention team name, only show team logo
• My box had a very high percentage of miscut cards. 13 total from 6 packs
• Player vitals read vertically
• Back picture takes almost the full top half of back and is duplicate of front picture (I don’t mind that too much but some people do)

I will keep a handful of the base cards, the Brandon Banks cards because he was a Redskin, and one of the best punt returners they ever had. They never should have gotten rid of him. I am also keeping the OPC Retro cards I plan on building that 50 card set. I will be trading or giving away most of the remaining cards.

My next post will have the pack-by-pack play-by-play and will show some of the cards I didn’t show here.

Mascot Monday: BJ Birdy

BJ BIRDY

Toronto Blue Jays Mascot 1979 -1999

(Portrayed by Kevin Shanahan)

OK so in 1977 MLB started up two expansion teams the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays became the second team from Canada in the league. Since the Montreal Expos left the country to become the Washington Nationals in 2005 the Blue Jays are now the ONLY Canadian team in baseball's Major League. In 1979 University of Toronto student Kevin Shanahan made his debut as BJ Birdy The Toronto Blue Jays mascot on 11 September. For a full bio/history see The Wikipedia page for the Blue Jays Mascots.

For this installment of Mascot Monday I have decided to show BJ's card from the 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness mini-set a five card set of popular MLB Mascots. The big "WOW Factor" of the set is the holographic picture on the front. I will show off that set on this blog sometime in the future.

 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness 4 BJ Birdy

(Front and Back)

On the front image that white spot on the hologram in the center is unfortunately a spot where the silvery material for the holographic image has flaked off. The design of the set has the mascots in front of a star filled background I guess to help with the holographic effect.


I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.