Reds, Bengals, and Blue Jackets from Canada

Well, this was a surprise. I was expecting two packages to come in but then the same day the cards from P-Town Tom arrived, so did a surprise mailer from Canada, the land of ketchup flavored potato chips, poutine, and LaBatt beer. Of course, with it being from Canada, I knew right away it was from Doug at Sportscards from the Dollar Store, who always sends good stuff.

It's been a while since I've been able to add any nice Bengals cards to my collection via trade. These will fit in quite well in the Bengals section of my football binder. I'm really hoping that the Bengals have a decent season this year. Also, this is my first look at 2019 Score, I kind of dig it. It's got an old school look to it and features some great photos.

Some Reds Bowman cards. I couldn't begin to tell you what year these cards are from. A lot of the Bowman design look the same to me. The two prospects, Jeter Downs and Shed Long, are no longer with the Reds. Downs was part of the mega-deal that brought Yasiel Puig, Alex Wood, Matt Kemp, and Kyle Farmer to the Reds while Shed Long was shipped to the Yankees in the Sonny Gray trade who then shipped him off to Seattle.

Another Jeter Downs card, this time from 2018 Pro Debut and a Raisel Iglesias green parallel from this year's Gypsy Queen. That reminds me, I've got five packs of that to rip into soon.

Some cards from the revived Panini Prizm line. This is my first exposure to these cards and I gotta say, I really like what I see. I've always been a sucker for shiny cards and the two Luis Castillo cards go really well together with the colors.

Doug is also the only regular dude who sends over hockey cards. Here's a smattering of random Blue Jackets. I like the triple exposure Panarin. I knew he wasn't going to stick around Columbus once free agency hit as he signed a 7-year deal with the Rangers almost as soon as free agency started.

Some selections from last year's Upper Deck set.

These are from 2018-19 Upper Deck MVP but they're not the standard cards found in the pack. These are actually from the factory set found in retail. I'm not sure if the factory set was distributed only in Canada or if maybe just in hockey heavy areas because I sure didn't see any of those out here in southwest Ohio. Regardless, these are pretty cool looking cards and I actually these blue ones look better than the standard MVP cards.

Occasionally I see a random blaster or jumbo pack of Parkhurst on the rack at Walmart. I've never bit on buying them but now I can say I have some more modern Parkhurst cards.

Upper Deck ICE cards are always welcomed.

So are UD Artifacts.

My favorites though have to be any sight of O-Pee-Chee. The 2012-13 version especially screams vintage with the silhouetted player on the front and the general look of the card. You may not be able to see who the player is on the blue border OPC but I like it because it's the old Blue Jackets logo and I don't see much of those.

And finally to wrap things up, some OPC from last year's offering.

These are all great cards and I appreciate Doug sending them down from the Great White North. While it's tough for me to afford shipping a bubble mailer across the border, I'll definitely get a few PWEs over as thanks.