I'll be Judge and jury for that transatlantic triple break

It was Matt's turn to chose a box for our box break, and after much debate with himself, he picked a box of Panini Chronicles. The card Gods were with me this time especially, as I ended up with the box's 4 guaranteed hits. I actually felt kinda bad about it, I prefer when our boxes are more balanced, but ah well, still nice to be lucky and I know my friends don't mind the least !

I'm pretty sure I already ot a David Dahl auto in one of our previous breaks. I have no idea who Andrew Toles is, but it's a very low numbered auto of a major franchise, so that always makes good trade bait !

I wasn't impressed with the base cards (and even less with their gold parallels), but as I looked at them closer, they grew on me. Why not, after all, at least some thought went into those cards.

 Here's the third hit of the box : a (ok, boring, but still) swatch of Mister Tony Gwynn. Always a cool addition.

And finally, the kind of pull we always hope for in a box break but hardly ever happens. Matt jokingly wrote in the email presenting the box he picked that he hoped there would be 4 Aaron Judge autos. There was one. We'll take it ! It's a sticker auto on a Panini product, so it won't reach amazing heights in terms of value, but you can hardly dream of a better pull, and it's all mine, MINE ! Well, if they do send the card to me one day, but I don't think that will be a problem.

The package Matt sent me was also loaded with a few more blasts that he always so carefully choses, thanks to his great knowledge of sports and of everybody's collecting needs :

 Sometimes, I think Matt can perfectly read my mind. Alomar was at the very top of my list of desired autos, and eventhough there are quite a few available now (maybe he needs the money...), I never actually pulled the trigger because they were all out of my price range, or I'd always lose the betting on ebay. It's a gorgeous card with an amazing on card auto. I love it !

More from Immaculate, this time with a very nice Encarnacion swatch.

And finally, I never ever thought I'd receive a Carmelo auto in a trade with my baseball budies one day, and yet there it is ! I wasn't exactly sad to see him leave New York for OKC, but he's still a major NY player from the past (ugly) years and a major addition to my collection.

I'm once more baffled

thanks a lot Matt for the break (wooohoooo, Judge auto !!!) and for the incredible extras !

Julie takes me to her LCS

Fresh out of (too) early retirement, Julie sent me one of those packages only she knows how to put together. A small box with something like 300 (!) cards, 2/3 of which I needed for my collection. And that's not easy to achieve ! I can't show everything here, but all the cards I scanned are new to me and were really fun to sort and look at.

Yay, Knicks cards ! They have been abysmal for the last few years (decade), but when you're a fan...I'll never collect current basketball cards, though, as Panini isn't exactly doing a stellar job...

 Always excited to get new Griffeys !

Julie is my official supplier of goofy cards (that Vicejoy is a refractor !) and anything French related.
The 'love locks' phenomenon is actually a problem, as they make grids very fragile (parts already fell in the water), because they aren't built to support 50 tons of locks. People and their clichés...

A bunch of PC ! Some old, some new...the joys of collecting a variety of players

I'm really glad I'm not an Ichiro supercolletor. There must be an insane amount of his cards out there.

Some Mets cards (I really like Topps Archives, especially the early sets) and a newly inducted HOFer !

Now, some Blue Jays cards. There were something like 160 blue jays cards I needed for my collection. That's a lot. Really. Many are from 2017, which is easier to find since I only have a handful (58 according to my spreadsheet). I haven't been really active on the trade front !

A couple of autos from players who only lasted a couple of years in the minors. But hey, it's better than I ever did !

*sigh*

Fan favorite from my collecting days. Nice variety of brands and styles

Calling Clemens a fan favorite would be the overstatement of the year. He did bring amazing numbers to Toronto, though. Never easy to collect someone with such an abrasive personality. But it could be worse, he could be Curt Shilling.

More beautiful cards from the 90s ! (and one from the 80s) Those were the days...

 I keep discovering new sets from the years 2000. So much to chose from...those SPx are really great.

There was a complete team set from 2015 mini, before they got all confusing with the 2017 release. I didn't know what those '51 topps heritage cards were, so I did a little research, and found out they're from a factory set. I always love getting cards I need from factory sets, without actually having to buy the whole set.

This is proof that Panini (!!!) actually gets things right sometimes. I'd never seen those America's pastime cards, and they look quite nice.

Parallels, chrome, high end, low end...the usual mix !

And finally, some cards from 2017 :

You'd think Panini would've bothered to change the photo for the Donaldson card...they changed the blurb at the back, after all. And you can give a chrome aspect to Donruss to make it cooler, it'll still be ugly. Nice try, though.

Great looking high end cards, and I especially like that National card from Bowman.

Thanks again Julie for a wonderful box of cards to sort through. It's like making a trip with you to the local card shop !