Card Boarded

Thoughts: What Tops Your Want List?

2012-02-01T12:36:00.000-05:00

I was doing one of my daily eBay searches the other day and came across a card that I'm still looking to add to my Jimmy Howard collection. It's one of the biggies, an ARP (Auto Rookie Patch) from 2005-06 The Cup. It's a beautiful card, depending on the swatch, and is definitely his most desirable rookie card.

The only problem I have is trying to get one for a decent price. This one here just sold for more than $350. I know that's nowhere near the insane numbers the Crosby's and Ovechkin's go for, but it's quite a bit for a recent college grad that's just getting started in life. I don't have the ability to just throw money at this hobby without being conscious of what I'm actually spending. I mean so far the most I've spent on a single card has been $50.

That said, this card still tops my want list and probably will for a while, unless I come across a deal that I can't pass up. While I could go for a cheaper plain white swatch, that just wouldn't cut it, so I'll hold out for a decent one like this.

Now I'm curious, what is that one card you just have to have for your collection, and more importantly why? Is it a high-end rookie like this, a hard to find vintage card, or just something to complete a set you've been working on?

Jimmy Howard: From AHL to All-Star

2012-01-31T16:17:00.000-05:00

When I decided to start collecting Jimmy Howard stuff a few years back, he had gone from being just another Wings "goalie of the future" to the go guy when Chris Osgood faltered during the 2009-10 season. Before that, I was aware of his presence as a prospect in the system, but not much more than that. Ever since he was drafted, there had always been high hopes for him, but nothing really materialized over four seasons bouncing between the Grand Rapids and Detroit.

Even after he'd taken over the starting gig, a lot of people in Detroit were skeptical of Howard being the long term number one goalie, at least that's what it always seemed like. At the games, in the media, everywhere there still seemed to be many doubters.

I think that's changed by now, especially now that Jimmy can add an All-Star game nomination and start to his increasingly impressive NHL resume. Even I didn't think he would be an All-Star when the season started, I mean even with back-to-back 37 win seasons, Howard was not really considered a top goalie in the league. I obviously stand corrected now as he made his first All-Star appearance this past weekend.

One thing that's pretty neat about this is how he was "helped" into the game in part thanks to a "Vote for Howard" campaign held by a local radio station here in Detroit. Click here to check out the story. They even had a giant RV with the slogan plastered on the sides driving all around the city, take a look below.

Here's a cool moment from the skills competition where Jimmy took on Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings in the goalie race. While he didn't win the race, it was still pretty neat to watch. I've played a bit of goal in the past, I can't imagine having to skate full steam like that with all that gear on. I'd be worried about wiping out.

Other than the fact that Howard was the starter for Team Chara, the highlight of the game would have to be his stop on Steven Stamkos' penalty shot attempt, only the second one in All-Star game history. Stamkos tried his spin-o-rama move, but was denied.

Sometimes things take a while to work out the way you want them to, and Jimmy Howard is the perfect example of that. He was drafted by an organization that likes to keep their top prospects in the minors until the right time comes along. When that time came, Howard fit right in as the number one goalie and hasn't looked back since. The only downside to all of this, the price of his cards is going up and up every day.

My Picks # 83: Wes Walz

2012-01-30T11:22:00.001-05:00

Every now and then you come across a card where something just doesn't seem right. This pick is definitely one of those and has an error that I didn't even notice for the longest time. It's a Wes Walz from 2001-02 Upper Deck Vintage.

This set was the second iteration of UD "Vintage" as it followed the 2001 version that was competing with Topps Heritage. Now that was a great looking "vintage" set. This one not so much. I think it may just be this card, something seems off about a Wild jersey paired with a "vintage" card design. If it were an Original Six sweater, I may think differently.

Anyway, if you look at the bottom of the card, you see "Wez Walz" written. Hmm, that seems a little odd doesn't it. The correct spelling, Wes, isn't all that common of a name as far as I know, so how does it get misspelled like that? Was it because of the "z" at the end of Walz, and the designer somehow subconsciously thought it looked better that way?

Here's a look at the back of the card, where Wes' first name is actually spelled correctly.

Not sure what happened on this one, as the front is wrong, but the back is right. I guess nobody's perfect and this one slipped by the quality control process.

Designing and editing cards is something for which I would love to know how the process works. Is there one person who does all the work for a given set, and how do they go about proof reading / spell checking everything? How often does something like this get by?

Hey, I could start another mini-PC project of cards with misspelled names on the front. Nah, I better leave that for someone else, I'm already busy enough with my other projects. So someone feel free to steal that idea and run with it. By the way, do you guys have or know of any other examples of misspellings like this?

Super Script Update

2012-01-26T22:34:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I've had an update for this set, so I'm definitely glad to be able to knock one more off the want list. This is one of two I was bidding on and the one I was lucky enough to get with my opening bid. The other was a Jarome Iginla and I ended up losing it in the closing seconds of the auction. Oh well, I'm happy with just one for now.

Here's the latest addition, an Owen Nolan numbered 16/25:

I was lucky enough to grab this one for just $8 plus $2 for shipping. That's about in line with the average I've paid for the rest of the Super Scripts to date. This one is the 23rd I've picked up now and the third San Jose Shark, along with Mike Rathje and Alexander Korlyuk.

Jimmy Howard: Trade Pickup

2012-01-23T18:50:00.000-05:00

You may have seen on his blog already that Justin (from The Hopeful Chase) and I worked out a trade recently. He received his end of the deal and now I've got mine. It started as a 1-for-1 swap of the Certified Mirror Blue parallel of Lecavalier and a Jimmy Howard red border rookie from Beehive. Well, it turned into a multi-card deal and in return for sending a few unwanted Bolts cards his way, I got some excellent additions to my Red Wings PC.

First, here's the Beehive red border rookie:

This is a great looking card. It's extremely simple and the red border works very well with the red and white of the Wings uniforms. The only aesthetically unpleasing thing about this card is the mask, but it's hard to complain when it was all he had to wear when getting started with the Wings back in 2005. Great card, thanks again Justin!

Here's the other Wings cards that were thrown in:

I really like the look of these Champs cards, especially the different colored parallels. They will go nicely with the rest of my growing non-Howard Red Wings collection. I guess I've started a kind of side-PC with Red Wings stuff now, so anyone looking for trades keep in mind I'd love to take any extra unwanted Wings cards off your hands.

Gold Script Update

2012-01-21T12:02:00.000-05:00

When I bought my last box of MVP Stanley Cup Edition, I knew going in that there was little to no chance of pulling any of the Gold or Super Script parallels. I've done two boxes in the past and got nothing. In fact, the two Super Scripts I did pull back in the day, came from two random packs at the LCS.

Without further ado, here it is, a David Legwand Gold Script numbered 030/100:

This is a nice pull for me, especially because he's a local guy, from just a few miles away from where I grew up. Player-wise I don't really care who I get, that's the beauty of building a set. I can't get upset if I pull a scrub versus a Steve Yzerman or something, they all have their place in the set and are equally important.

This one brings the Gold Script portion of the master set to 36/220. It may not seem like much progress, but I've got all the time in the world and I don't like to overspend on them, so it may take a little extra time, but it will all be within a budget I set for myself.

Box Break: 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition

2012-01-20T12:27:00.001-05:00

The first thing I'm going to say here is I'm glad my latest eBay gamble didn't backfire on me. If you saw my last "Thoughts" post then you know I bought this box on eBay for just $9.99 plus a few bucks for shipping. That's about 25% of what I paid for the last one, the seller only had 80 some total feeback, and the listing showed the box was slightly damaged.

Well, when I got home yesterday there was a large shipping box waiting for me. I knew it was this box and was kind of nervous to see what was actually in there. I opened it up to find the box far more damaged than shown in the listing, which definitely worried me. I mean one end of the box was completely ripped open. I was worried packs were going to be missing or have been tampered with.

Luckily, that was not the case as I counted them up and all 28 of them were there and seemed pretty safe. That was a huge relief because the last thing I wanted was to have to start a mess with the seller and open a complaint and all that jazz.

This is technically the third box I've busted, but the second since I started Card Boarded. The first was way back when this stuff came out and I was like 12 years old. Man that seems like such a long time ago now. Anyway, since it was such a steal at $9.99, I figured it was worth it to make a dent in my master set needs. Plus who doesn't love busting a fresh box full of packs? I know I do. Here's what I got:

249 Base Cards

15 Silver Scripts (1:2)

5 Stanley Cup Talent (1:5)

4 Cup Contenders (1:9)

2 Golden Memories (1:14)

2 Clutch Performers (1:28)

1 Second Season Snipers (1:28)

1 Playoff Heroes (1:84)

1 Gold Script

That last one is the best of the bunch, and the first Gold Script I've actually pulled myself, from any of the three boxes or other loose packs now. Other than that I feel like this was a pretty good box, especially looking at some of the odds on the inserts.

Here's a look at some of the stuff I needed for my master set project:

Out of this first group, the Yzerman Golden Memories is probably my favorite, along with the Kariya Playoff Heroes. These bring me to 2/10 for Playoff Heroes, 8/10 for Golden Memories, 6/10 for Clutch Performers, 4/10 for Second Season Snipers, and 18/20 for Cup Contenders. Not a bad group of inserts if you ask me.

This time around I ended up only getting 15 Silver Scripts, 10 of which I needed for the master set. That's perfectly fine with me though, as the one Gold Script more than made up for that fact. When it was all said and done, I was pretty impressed with this box. I didn't really expect to get this many cards that I actually needed for my master set.

I am definitely glad I went for it on this one despite the sketchy eBay listing. This just goes to show you that sometimes you have to take a bit of a risk for any kind of reward. In this case the risk being damaged cards and the reward being a heck of a steal for a box that rarely appears for sale. By the way, stay tuned for the Gold Script...

My Picks # 82: Blaine Lacher

2012-01-19T09:37:00.001-05:00

This pick is just another one of those cards that caught my eye when I was sorting through my base card collection. It's a Blaine Lacher (anyone remember him?) base card from the 1995-96 Fleer Metal set. This card is probably more about the mask than anything, as it's one of the better ones from the 90's.

Lacher went undrafted and after two superb seasons with Lake Superior State of the NCAA was signed by the Boston Bruins. There he took over the starting job during the shortened 1994-95 season, helping the Bruins into the playoffs. For a little more about Lacher, click here to check out a great "Absurd Goalie Monday" post over at The Strangest One of All.

This set was the precursor to the Metal Universe set I've been working on building. The biggest difference between the two is that every card in the 1995-96 version had the same background design. While it's nice, it's not even close to the Metal Universe design.

As far as the mask on this one, it's pretty cool and one of my favorites of the 90's. Here's a better look at the mask itself. I couldn't really find a decent closeup of either side of the mask, but that's alright as the most important part of the design is prominently displayed.

It's hard to beat having a nickname that can be represented like this on a mask. Can you guys think of any other goalies who've had anything similar in the past. The first one that comes to mind is Ed "The Eagle" Belfour and his famous mask design.

Stop SOPA/PIPA

2012-01-18T10:37:00.000-05:00

Like a lot of others in the world of sports card blogs, I try to stay away from any kind of political or social issues and stick to what it's all about, the cards. However, when something comes up that could affect every one of us, I don't want to remain silent.

I won't get into too much detail, but SOPA/PIPA are both bad news for us bloggers, so do yourself and the rest of us a favor and first find out what it is, and second do something about it and contact your congressperson.

Night Owl said it best, "I like my blog ... please let it live."

Click HERE for more information.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: A Few Wild Ones

2012-01-17T12:37:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

The last post in this series had a common theme, and this one is no different. As you probably deduced from the title, they all feature goaltenders from the Minnesota Wild. I found four of them grouped together in my stack of cards awaiting to be scanned.

The first one is this Manny Fernandez from 2001-02 Upper Deck. Fernandez was traded to the Wild from Dallas in June of 2000. If you look closely, you can see Stars logos on the side and chin of his mask. I believe the pads/gloves are also from his days in Dallas, but they don't contrast the Wild green all that much.

This one is pretty much the exact same thing, only from another angle this time. One thing I will say is I really miss those jerseys. Before the edge-ification at the hands of Reebok, the Wild had some of the coolest jerseys in my opinion. I even had a home white version when I was younger and loved it.

Here we've got a bit of a lesser known goaltender, Derek Gustafson, who went undrafted and only played in five NHL games over two seasons with the Wild between 2000-2002. The reason he's included here is the mask he's sporting on this one from 2001-02 Pacific. It's from his time with St. Lawrence University (ECAC), where he is best known for a record setting four-overtime win against Rick DiPietro and Boston in the 1999-00 playoffs.

Not sure if anyone else noticed this, but isn't it kind of odd that Gustafson has Eagle leg pads and blocker, but then a Koho glove? I'm sure it was just a personal preference thing at the time, but for some reason something always seems off when the brands don't match like this. I mean, don't these things usually come in sets? Here's one from 2001-02 Topps.

That's it for now. These four were welcome additions to the project from a collection of cards that would otherwise never see the light of day, let alone their own post on the blog. They also bring me four closer to my goal of 100 cards for the project. Only 44 to go.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 66

Thoughts: You Win Some, You Lose Some

2012-01-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

How many times have you been sitting on an eBay auction until the very end with the highest bid, only to be outbid at the last possible second, even when you though your max bid was enough to ensure you don't lose? Well, this happened to me the other day with a lot of MVP Stanley Cup Edition cards I stumbled upon during one of my daily searches.

The title of the auction was not very descriptive of what the lot actually contained. It said something along the lines of "Lot of 11 MVP SCE Inserts/Parallels." It mentioned nothing about the five Super Script "parallels" that were actually listed in the full description. I thought this was great, it was a mislabeled listing that not many people would likely come across, plus it was at $0.99. The only problem was the six days left in the auction.

Fast forward to the other night. I was watching the dwindling auction time on my mobile eBay app and thought I was in the clear with only several minutes left and no other bids above my initial $0.99 opening bid. Well, that all went out the window sometime between 1s and 0s left on the auction clock. I was "sniped" and outbid by the typical $0.50 increment.

Here's a look at the auction:

Not sure if it was a legitimate bid or not. I'm leaning towards not because it popped up with half of a second left, although I guess it could just be someone with quick hands on the mouse, right? What do you think? And how often does this happen to everyone else?

This post isn't all about the bad, like I said you win some and you lose some. After losing the lot of Super Scripts, I was back searching the bay and came across something I've been looking for now for quite a while. It's another box of MVP Stanley Cup Edition. At this point I've opened two of them and have nearly two complete base sets (one for the master set and one for my Inkscript project). I know it's not the smartest idea to buy a box like this hoping to hit a decent insert or parallel (i.e. Gold/Super Scripts or any of the Game Used Souvenirs) but I can always hope, right?

Anyway, last time I purchased a box of this stuff on eBay it cost me $29.99 plus $15 shipping, a bit much but well worth it for the fun of opening it and making a decent dent in my master set project. This time, I found one listed for only $9.99 plus $4 for shipping. Fast forward to around 3:45 AM today and I won the auction with my one initial bid of $9.99, awesome. Now I'm just waiting for it to show up.

Here's a look at this auction:

So, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I may have missed out on a nice lot of inserts, but I think I won big with a great deal on another hobby box that should be a load of fun to open. Stay tuned for another box break post once it arrives.

Edit (12:41 PM): I feel even better about the $9.99 price tag on this one now, as I just found another one listed on eBay with a starting bid of $47.99 or BIN at $84.99, wow...

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Mismatched Masks

2012-01-13T12:35:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

Back when I started this project, the first thing I did was sort through all of my three-ring binders and monster boxes of base cards looking for the perfect candidates. Well, I ended up with a stack of about 40 cards, a lot of which I've already shared as part of the project. Without anything else to post for today, I decided to take a look through what's left of the stack and found three cards that have one thing in common: mismatched masks.

I know that's stating the obvious when it comes to this project, but there's something to be said about three random cards for which the only discernible reason they're here is the exact same thing. If you look at all three, the mask is the only piece of equipment that doesn't match, although I guess that could be questionable with the second one.

Anyway, the first one is this Rick Tabaracci from 1997-98 Score. As you can see, he's playing for the Flames in the picture, but the mask from his time in Tampa Bay remains. Other than that, he's got matching glove and blocker, and I'm guessing the all black pads were just a carry over, but I can't find any pictures to confirm that.

The second is this Mike Dunham from 2006-07 OPC. As you can tell from the mask in the picture, Dunham played in Atlanta before signing with New York in September of 2006. The only other minor mismatch would be his glove, as the rest could go with either Atlanta's or New York's color schemes.

The third, and most blatantly obvious of the three, is this Robert Esche from 1999-00 Upper Deck. I really like this one because it's got a close up of the mask, yet you can still clearly see the Phoenix uniform and know that something isn't right. That's because he's wearing a Plymouth Whalers mask from his days in the OHL. Here's a little something fun: my high school graduation was held in the same ice arena (Compuware) where the Plymouth Whalers play. Kind of cool that I shared the same venue as this mask for a day.

That's it for now. I've got one more of these posts lined up with a few more cards from the original stack I have left, so look for that in the coming days. Until then, I'm just glad it's the weekend and I have another roller hockey game to look forward to on Sunday, plus I get to try out my new Reebok 5K stick and 7K gloves for the first time.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 62

New PC Project: 05-06 UD Showcase

2012-01-09T11:28:00.001-05:00

I thought two weeks of vacation over the holidays would've given me more time for this blog, but in reality it gave me less (travel, family gatherings, etc.) so I want to get caught back up on a few posts I started before the break. This one adds another PC project to the blog, which as you can tell by the title is going to be the 05-06 UD Hockey Showcase set.

A while back you may have noticed one of "my picks" featured the Chris Osgood card from this set. It's a great looking set, especially considering it was a NPN (no purchase necessary) redemption program UD held around the beginning of the 2005-06 season. I think is was meant to be a nice gesture by UD to fans of the game, or something like that.

You may have also noticed that my latest Jimmy Howard pickup came from the Rookie version of this set. The only difference between the two is the outer border color and the title. Here's a look at the two of them side by side:

There are 36 cards in the Rookie Showcase set and 40 in the Hockey Showcase set. Where this will get interseting is the parallel promo versions that are out there. Apparently, you could get the promo versions in copies of Beckett Magazine. The only difference between a promo and regular card is the color of the inner background. I've read in several places that the darker "bronze" is the regular and the lighter "pewter" is the promo. Any of you guys know anything about it?

You may have also notices that I added another tracker to the sidebar of the blog for this project. It looks like it's just for the Hockey Showcase set, but I'm lumping in the Rookie Showcase set so I don't need to mess with two separate trackers.

At this point I have 20 or so of the regular Hockey Showcase cards, plus a handful of duplicates. See, I had the bright idea of entering the NPN two or three times each week, having the cards shipped to different family members. This way I got around the one-per-household limit. Shhhh, don't tell UD that ;)

One of these days I'll scan in the one's I have so you guys can get a bit of a better look at the set, plus that way I'll be able to know all that I've got and what's left on the wantlist.

Until then, if you've got any of these you are willing to part with, drop me a line and I'm sure we can working something out. By the way, did any of you guys take part in this NPN?

Thoughts: Double Duty

2012-01-02T12:37:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been in a situation where you've got a player collection and a set collection project that overlap? I am right now with one of my recent Jimmy Howard pickups, from the 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Showcase set.

I should back up here for a second and say I've started, or really continued, another PC project and by that I mean I'm building both the 05-06 Hockey and Rookie Showcase sets from Upper Deck. I'll explain more about that in another post here soon.

So back to the dilemma. I bought the Howard Rookie Showcase card for my Howard player collection, before I decided to add the Rookie Showcase to the set build. Now that I've added that set, do I let this one card do double duty and hold a place in each project? Or do I go out and get another one for the set?

Anyone run into this problem before? I know whatever I want to do is all that matters when it comes to my personal collection, but I wanted to get some feedback on this issue anyway before proceeding.

Box Break: 2011-12 Score Blaster

2011-12-31T17:56:00.001-05:00

What better way is there to close out another year of collecting than with a good old fashioned box break? I happened to have half of a $25 Target gift card left over from Christmas yesterday, so I decided to use it on a $9.99 blaster box of 2011-12 Score, just on the off chance that I pull a Howard base for my PC. Well, that didn't happen, but I did manage to get a few nice ones from the box, more than I expected for sure.

First, here's a look at the box itself. This is something I want to do for this and any future box breaks, to differentiate from pack breaks. Plus the box top is something that most people don't show with their posted breaks, so it's something else to look at.

I won't bore anyone with scans of all the base, highlights, or glossy parallels. Let's just say I ended up with a nice mix of the following:

52 Base Cards

10 Glossy Base Cards

2 Season Highlights

3 Playoff Highlights

1 Glossy Playoff Highlight

6 Hot Rookies

1 Making an Entrance

1 Sudden Death

1 NHL Die-Cut

I did end up getting at least two duplicates of base cards that I can remember from just 11 packs, so that's not all that bad I guess. Anyway, here is one of the Hot Rookies I pulled and the rest of the inserts.

While it's not "The Nuge," this Cody Hodgson was the only name I recognized out of the six Hot Rookies I pulled. I have to say that the design of this set is about on par with last years the more I look at it, but could still use a bit of work for next year.

I really like the idea of the Sudden Death set, but I think the execution was a bit off the mark. I don't know what it is, but there's just something off with this design in my mind. Maybe it would look better as a vertical set. Who knows? Since there isn't a Howard card in it, I'm not all that concerned with it at the moment.

This next insert is also a neat idea and the Lidstrom that I pulled looks great and is a nice addition to my general Red Wings collection.

As I mentioned earlier I got one of the NHL Die-Cut's and me being a Wings fan, take one guess at who I managed to pull. None other than Sidney Crysby, err I mean Crosby ;)

If only this were the Ovechkin. Oh well, what can you do. If anyone wants this, I'm willing to trade it for pretty much any Jimmy Howard card I don't already have, including base cards. This should be it for me as far as packs/boxes of Score for this year, as now I'll just focus on tracking down the Howard singles I still need for the PC.

Happy New Year!

My Picks # 81: Dmitri Mironov

2011-12-30T01:06:00.001-05:00

It seems like it's been forever since I've done one of my picks, so here goes nothing. This is another one of those cards that I thought was the coolest thing as a kid in the late 90's. It's a Dmitri Mironov from the 1998-99 Upper Deck SPx Finite set.

This one happens to be the Radiance version as evident by the "Radiance" text on the left side. You can't tell from the scan, but that this thing is numbered out of 4750. That's insane compared to some of the print runs in today's world. I should also note that the "base" versions were also numbered, to 9500.

As far as the design of the card, I definitely like the fact that they went with the horizontal setup, as it allows for the massive ice rink shaped gold foil stamp on the left side. The stamp itself is probable the only downside, as it takes up I would say at least 1/8 of the total surface area of the card front.

I think there is one more tier of this set, the spectrum version, numbered to just 300 copies of each. That definitely tells you what era these things are from, when the lowest print run of a rainbow is 300, compared to the bazillion 1/1 parallels that are out there today.

Dmitry only played 11 regular season and 7 playoff games with the Wings after being traded from Anaheim during the 1997-98 season. He would go on to win the Stanley Cup that year and move onto Washington, the team the Wings swept in the finals. Since he only played a handful of games in Motown, I wonder how many cards were actually made featuring him in a Wings jersey, like this one.

So there you have it, a bit of a blast from the past that shows where this hobby has gone as far as parallels and serial numbering. What are your thoughts?

Jimmy Howard: UD Rookie Showcase

2011-12-29T17:10:00.000-05:00

Now that Jimmy is becoming one of the better goaltenders in the league (22-8-1, 1.95 GAA, and 0.927 SV%) there is a lot more competition when it comes to collecting his cards. This is a double-edged sword, because on one hand I want Jimmy to succeed and get better, while on the other I'd like his cards to stay in my price range.

Gone are the days of 1-2 years ago when I could sit on an eBay auction until the last minute at $0.99 and either win outright or maybe deal with a few last minute bids. Now, if I'm lucky I can get away with a so-called "steal" like the one I believe I have here at just $5.

This one is from the 2005-06 UD Rookie Showcase set. I believe it was released in parallel with the Hockey Showcase (shown here) set that could be obtained through the mail from Upper Deck around the beginning of the 2005-06 season. I've read in several places that there were only 1000 copies of these produced, but they're not serial numbered.

I love the look of this set, there is just something about the blue edges and the bronze/black combo that go together well. Not sure if this one is considered to be a true rookie card, as it was not part of a widely available base set. Either way, a card from Jimmy's rookie season is always a welcome addition to the collection.

This one brings the collection to 106 cards total including duplicates. Now that I've got a bit of Christmas cash to play with on the bay, I'm hoping to add a few more cards here soon as gifts to myself, but we'll see.

Hockey Cards Make Great Christmas Gifts

2011-12-28T16:42:00.002-05:00

When it comes to Christmas gifts for me every year, people usually go with the generic gift card kind of stuff, which is perfectly fine with me, as I'm always in need of new music, movies, etc. However, there is one gift that I always love receiving, and that is anything to do with hockey cards.

This year was no different and I came home with a couple of nice singles for the PC and a few packs to bust. Here's a look at the card related stuff I received:

These four were wrapped together as a single package and I must say they were definitely a nice, unexpected addition to the collection, especially the Yzerman jersey. In addition to these I also received four packs of 2010-11 Pinnacle.

Here's some of what I got from the four packs:

As you can see, nothing too spectacular. The Saving Face is a nice set, but I still wish they would've brought back some incarnation of "The Mask" like the old Pinnacle sets. Other than that there were just a lot of 'unique' photos like the ones shown here.

Now I have a question, did you receive cards as gifts? How do you feel about people buying cards as gifts, as most of us collectors have very specific wants and collecting needs?

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Two From The Old IHL

2011-12-27T00:51:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

Hope everyone one had a good holiday weekend. I know I did by spending the last four days in Michigan's Upper Peninsula with family and friends. It was nice to get away from things like work, television, and even blogging and the hobby in general to some extent. Now I'm back and have a few posts lined up that I want to get out of the way before my vacation time is over come January 3rd.

Now for what you came here to read. A little while back I logged into to Blogger and found a comment awaiting approval from Jon over at JonWayne's Autographs. He informed me of two cards he had that I could use for my Goaltending Gallimaufry project

The two cards arrived the other day and fit perfectly with this project. The first is this Bob Essensa from the 1995-96 Edge Ice set. Essensa, a former Red Wing as evident by the mask, is pictured with the Fort Wayne Komets. He played 45 games there in 1995-96 before returning to the NHL with Edmonton the following season.

The other one, from the same set, is this Allan Bester. He finished his playing career with the Solar Bears from 1995-98. What I don't get is why he still wearing a Red Wings mask at this point. He last played for Detroit in 1991-92 then the Adirondack Red Wings in 1992-93. After that it was a stop in Dallas Stars after two seasons with the San Diego Gulls. Did he have this mask through all those stops?

Jon was also nice enough to throw in this excellent autographed card of future Wings netminder Thomas McCollum. He's currently in the Wings' system bouncing between the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL and the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL. Thanks again Jon!

Anyway, these two additions bring the Gallimaufry project to just under 60 cards. Not bad considering I only started this project a little while ago. I'm really hoping to be able to hit the 100 mark with this thing, then we'll see what happens from there.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 59

Jimmy Howard: More eBay Pickups

2011-12-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

Now that I'm done working for the calendar year and I finally got around to getting a new computer, I have some time to get a few more things posted here. I'll start today with a couple of eBay pickups for my Jimmy Howard collection. They're nothing spectacular, just some base and inserts, but still something to show.

The first one was this Masked Marvels insert from 2011-12 Certified. It set me back all of $0.01 plus $2.50 for shipping, which isn't all that bad considering that card would cost me at least around $3-5 at any local card shop or show anyway. Plus this saves me the cost of driving anywhere to get it.

Much better than last year's design if you ask me, although I still think they could have done a bit better job of capturing the mask in the upper photo, but I guess its close enough. I also really like the upgrade on the "Masked Marvels" logo at the bottom.

The other purchase I made was for a lot of eight cards, some of which were duplicates. I also already had a few cards in the lot, but I needed the others and I couldn't go wrong at $0.99 plus $2.25 for shipping, especially when one of the cards was another RC.

The first new one was this base card from 2010-11 Donruss. This is one of those sets that was just ok when it comes to the design. Nothing fancy here, but it's still another one to cross of the want list. Now I just need to find the proof and die-cut auto versions of it.

The next two have been on the radar for quite some time now, I just could never find a good enough deal to justify picking them up, plus they're not exactly easy to track down. The first is this AHL Top Prospects from 2005-06 produced by Choice Marketing.

The other one was the same set, this time from 2006-07. This one has a much better design and the picture looks just that much nicer with Jimmy's Red Wings colored gear instead of his old college gear shown in the other one.

The others, which I already have copies of in the collection, were a red border parallel from 2005-06 Beehive and a base card from 2010-11 OPC. I don't mind having doubles like this, because I might eventually send some of these out for some TTM action.

The most important part about this pickup is crossing the 100 mark when it comes to total number of cards in the collection, including duplicates. These nine bring that number to 105. I'd have to go back and look to see how many of those are dupes, but I would guess at least ten by now, so I've got around 95 unique pieces in the collection.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: A Pair from BTP

2011-12-08T18:57:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

If there's one set I would expect to find stuff for this project in, it would be any of the Between the Pipes sets from ITG, because well, they're all goalies and feature a lot of minor league goalies that seem to change teams quite a bit between all the different levels and leagues, so you never know what you'll find.

Before anything else, I have to thank Rob over at Rob's TTM Graphs for poiting this one out to me in the first place. I looked at a pic of it, then realized I busted a box of the same stuff and sure enough, it was in my "recent box/pack breaks" row of my primary monster box. That led to one more too, but that was all. Kind of surprised I didn't come across any others, but hey two is better than none, right?

This one's got a lot going on. The first thing I notice is the set of yellow pads Neuvirth's sporting. They don't go at all with the Spitfires look. I'm not really sure where they come from, because before playing with Windsor, Neuvirth was with the Plymouth Whalers, as evident by the Whalers mask he's wearing. So that's three teams in there: Windsor, Plymouth and some mystery yellow/white/black team.

Here's the other one I thought I would share. This time it's Ondrej Pavelec of the Chicago Wolves. It's a bit less obvious here, as I almost missed it myself, but if you look at the side of Pavelec's mask you see the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles logo. It also looks like he's wearing pads that go with the mask, but they could be for Chicago, hard to tell.

So there you have it, two more new additions to the project that were found by someone other than me. That's what I love about this hobby, people are always looking out for and willing to help others, well for the most part at least. Thanks again for the heads up Rob!

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 57

Jimmy Howard: Card Show Pickups

2011-12-06T12:37:00.000-05:00

It's taken almost two weeks now, but I can finally be done with the posts featuring pickups from my recent Gibraltar card show trip. The first of the lot was this base card from 2011-12 Upper Deck Series 1, featuring a nice low-angle shot that you don't see all the time. I just wish it didn't have the same picture as this year's Score design, oh well what can you do?

Next was another card from 2011-12 UD Series 1, the canvas version of the base card, which features and even better action shot of Jimmy, as you can see he just barely made a reaching glove save on the shot. I will say I like the idea of this parallel set, as it gives me something to chase that's not serial numbered in addition to the numbered Exclusives parallels.

This one just perplexes me. It's a base card from 2011-12 OPC, but has a picture of Jimmy from the 2005-06 season on the front. I don't understand why UD couldn't have gone with a newer picture, but it is what it is I guess. Other than that the design isn't the greatest, but it could have been worse. They just really need to reduce the size of the OPC logo on these things, don't they?

This is just the rainbow parallel of the same card. It's printed on shiny card stock and has a rainbow tint to it. The only major difference is the color of the text on the front beneath the OPC logo. Now I just need to track down the black border and blank back parallels.

Here we have another Net Cam insert, this time from 2011-12 Score. At least this one has a different pic than last year, unlike the Rinne I pointed out a few weeks back. As overdone as this idea is, I still like these cards for some reason.

Now were getting to the better stuff. This was the only memorabilia card I picked up at the show. It's a single color jersey card from 2006-07 Between The Pipes. The swatch is actually from one of Howard's Grand Rapids Griffins jerseys, which explains the blue color.

Here's the card I got as part of the trade I mentioned earlier. I took some of my Wings traders with me hoping I could use them for something this is what I came home with. It's the premier date parallel, as evident by the Dec 14, 2010 at the bottom, and is numbered 095/100. It's hard to see in the scan, but this is in fact another sticker auto.

That's it for now. These latest pickups bring my Howard collection to 96, including duplicates, so it's more like 90 unique pieces overall. Now I definitely have 100 in my sights and hope to get there sometime before Christmas rolls around.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Card Show Pickups Pt. 3

2011-12-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

I was hoping to get this posted yesterday, but ended up being busy with out last roller hockey game of the regular season. We won 10-3, getting us a bye in the first round of the playoffs. I got four of the goals, one of them being possibly my best goal ever. I found myself in alone from about the red line and I thought I would try something fancy. Well, I ended up doing the "Marek Malik" move between the legs and somehow the puck found it's way through the goalie. Like I said, best goal ever, at least for me ;)

Anyway, instead of putting all of these last seven in with the last post, I figured I'd spread it out a little bit, but these are the rest of the quarter and dime box pickups from the Gibraltar show for this project. I don't usually like to be this repetitive posting-wise, but I wanted to get these out of the way before showing off my Howard pickups from the same show.

This first is this "Moose" from 2001-02 Topps Chrome. These cards tend to not scan very well, but in this case it wasn't an issue becuase you can clearly see the contrast between his black/white/yellow Penguins gear and his blue moose mask.

Next we have another former Penguin, Peter Skudra. This one is from 1997-98 SP Authentic. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be that much of a mismatch because the glove, blocker, and pads are plain black and white. If you look closely, you can see Skudra is still wearing the mask from his timw with the Hamilton Bulldogs.

This next one is another one from the 1996-97 Pinnacle Summit set, featuring Chris Terreri of the Sharks after being traded from the Devils. This is clearly evident by the red seen on both his glove and blocker in this picture.

This one is from 1996-97 Donruss Elite, which is an awesome looking set if you ask me, featuring Jim Carey of the Washington Capitals. This one is here not because of a team change, but because of a jersey change. The Caps went to their new uniforms for the 1996-97 season, but Carey's old red and white gear came along for a little white.

Yet another one from the Pinnacle Summit set, seems to be a common them with this one when it comes to goalie pictures. What I find odd about this one is the fact that Carey is wearing a different mask than in the other one, but neither mask really goes with the revamped Capitals jerseys.

This last one is the perfect example of a set I had never seen or heard of before stumbling across it while searching the dime and quarter boxes. It's from the 1996-96 Parkhurst International set and shows the same mismatch as the first Carey, but stands out a bit more with the Black Diamond-ish background effect going on.

That's it for the Gibraltar show pickups as far as this project goes. Since then I've actually come across two more I want to share, but I'll save those for a little bit later on. Next up will be the Howard stuff I got from the show, so stay tuned for that.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 55

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Card Show Pickups Pt. 2

2011-12-03T09:47:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

This is going to be the second part of the biggest influx of cards to the project. They make up half of what I found at the only other dime and quarter box table I stopped by at the Gibraltar show last weekend. If there's anything this project has done, it's made me want to check out every quarter and dime box now. There's just something fun about thumbing through tons and tons of cards, most of which I've never even seen before, and as always, you never know what you'll find. Here's a look at what I got:

We'll start things off with Chris Osgood, who was one of the inspirations for this project with the setup you see here. He's obviously playing for the Islanders, but still sporting his Red Wings glove, blocker, pads, and even pants. That's the one I don't get. Don't they make shells that just cover the pants for when guys change teams like this?

This next one, from 2001-02 Vanguard, shows Osgood a bit more into his Islanders transformation. He's got blue and white glove and blocker as well as blue pants, but he's still sporting his red and white Vaughn's from his time in Detroit.

Got one more for Mr. Osgood, showing the same setup as the last card, except for the home white jersey of course. This one comes from 2001-02 Topps, a set that always makes me wonder, "what were they thinking" with the blue borders.

Now onto Damian Rhodes of the Senators. As you can pretty obviously see in this one, he's pictured still wearing his pads and glove from his time in Toronto. This one comes from the 1996-97 Leaf Steel set, which is an awesome idea if you ask me. I mean come on, how cool is a card printed on stainless steel?

Here's another one of Mr. Rhodes from 1996-97 Donruss. It features the same setup as the last one, but is a little bit harder to notice at a glance because the pic is a bit darker. The only thing I don't get about this card, is why the decided to place the picture so far off center.

Here's one that looks familiar. That's because it's the shiny parallel version of the 1996-97 Pinnacle Summit card I already have in the collection. This one is cool because it almost looks as though he's got a half and half thing going on, as his right pad is hidden from view.

Got one more here, this time from 1996-97 Upper Deck. He's still wearing the blue pads in this one, but what I find odd is that Rhodes had the time to use two different masks before getting rid of the blue gear. Must be easier to break them in or something.

Now for another guy wearing blue and white pads with a team whose colors are red, white, and black. It's another Mika Noronen for the collection, this time from 2000-01 Topps Heritage. This one is similar to the Premier Plus with the blue and white Heaton leg pads along with red, white, and black glove and blocker.

Here's the last one for today, a David Aebischer rookie card from 2000-01 Topps Stars. It's got him pictured with the Avs and he has matching pads, glove, and blocker. It's the mask that's the focus here. It's hard to see in this pic, but on the back there's a closeup. It's from his time with the Hershey Bears of the AHL, where he played prior to Colorado.

That's it for now, another nine welcome additions to the collection. I've still got more that came from the same table at the show, so stay tuned for those, if you're interested of course. I'm sure some people think this is a dumb idea, but I don't and I know some of you don't. Regardless, I'm going to keep plugging away at this and see where it takes me.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 49

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Card Show Pickups Pt. I

2011-11-29T19:23:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

One of the things I like about this project is the fact that it's unique, at least I think it is. So far the only people who have seen and know about it are you guys, until my recent card show trip that is. After scoping the place out I settled in at one particular table ready to thumb through thousands of dime and quarter singles.

Midway though, I was the only one left at the guy's table and he asked me if I was looking for anything in particular and I told him I really wasn't. Then he looked at some of the cards I had set aside and asked me why I chose them, as they're a pretty random mix. I told him about the criteria for the project, photos of mismatched equipment, and he seemed kind of dumbfounded at first, but quickly said, "hey, that's actually a pretty cool idea, I've never heard of that before" or sometning similar.

I thought that was pretty cool. Not only did the guy take an interest in what I was looking for, but we ended up talking for a good half hour while I continued to thumb through monster box after monster box. I'm not normally one to talk much to dealers, but this guy was alright and it made the buying experience that much better.

Okay, I'm sure you've read enough of that by now, let's get to why you really came here, the dime and quarter box "gallimaufry" pickups from the Gibraltar show last weekend.

The first one is this Kevin Nastiuk from 2005-06 MVP. As you can see, Nastiuk is pictured with the Hurricanes, but his gear is obviously a mismatch with all the black and orange. That's because he came from the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL before suiting up with Carolina after being drafted in the fourth round in 2003.

Next we've got one of Johan "Moose" Hedberg from his days with the Penguins. When he burst onto the scene in 2001, he was wearing his blue Manitoba Moose mask, hence the nickname, and it stuck with him for a while, resulting in plenty of cards like this one from 2001-02 Top Shelf. As far as I'm concerned, this one is perfect for the project.

Here's another one of "Moose" with his blue mask, this time from 2001-02 SP Authentic. These ones are a bit of an oddity for the set, if there is such a thing, because Hedberg purposely stuck with the mismatched mask if I remember correctly. That is until he debuted the Penguin-colored version of the mask the following season I believe.

I've got one more of these, and boy is this one shiny. It's another "Moose" from 2001-02 Pacific Heads Up. I think this is the set that came with bobble heads in every box, but I could be wrong, 2001-02 was such a long time ago ;)

This next on features a goalie that's already part of the collection, Olivier Michaud of the Montreal Canadiens. Check out that post here. This one's not much better or worse than the first one, although it does give a better overall look at his equipment mismatch. It comes from the 2001-02 Topps Young Stars set, which is actually a pretty sharp looking design.

Here's another one of Michaud, this time from 2001-02 MVP. Not much different here, only this time you see him in the home white uniform, which if you ask me, makes the equipment mismatch a little less noticeable.

I managed to find one more of Michaud at this table and it's pretty much the same as the MVP one above, although it comes from the 2001-02 Victory Prospects subset. That makes four Olivier Michaud's in the collection, which I think gives him the lead by one.

Now for the last of this first group, and I think I saved the best for last. It's a Jim Carey Future Game Winners card from the 1995-96 Pinnacle McDonald's set. As you can Carey is picured with the Capitals, but his equipment was a holdover from the Caps original red, white, and blue look. Doesn't go to well with the blue, black, and copper does it? And is that a tiny Marty Brodeur I see in the background to the left?

So there you have it, I actually found a use for some of those unwanted dime and quarter box cards that seem to go completely untouched by most collectors at most shows. Everyone is so caught up with the high-end hullabaloo that they forget about the foundation of this hobby, base cards like these. Whatever, I'll take it and I'll continue to enjoy looking for more cards for this project.

I'd say I did pretty good for around $2, wouldn't you?

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 40

What Does $21 Get You: Card Show Edition

2011-11-26T23:04:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of the "What does $25 Getcha" series over at Collecting for Kicks, I thought I would do the same kind of breakdown for my latest card show trip. The show I made the trip out to was the same as the last few I've shared here, which is pretty much the only show I ever go to, at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor, MI.

It was your typical three day weekend show with plenty of dealers and all kinds of cards and other memorabilia (i.e. photos, jerseys, action figures, etc) on display. The shows gotten noticeably bigger the past few times I've been there, so that's kind of nice to see. There was a decent crowd today, and I think I'm glad I chose today because Nicklas Lidstrom is the featured signer tomorrow and that could get pretty hectic.

Anyway, here's what $21 got me at the show:

Admission / Parking = $2

Five New Jimmy Howard Cards = $15

27 Dime & Quarter Box Pickups = $4

Here's a quick look at the stack of cards I came home with:

On a side note, I did manage to make a trade with one of the dealers for another nice addition to my Howard collection. That'll also be part of the show and tell from this trip to the show, but not included as part of the $21 I spent there.

Stay tuned for what's in the stack...

Jimmy Howard: One Away from a Rainbow

2011-11-23T21:41:00.000-05:00

What better way is there to start a nice four day break from work than with another PC mailday? Today's mail brought me another nice piece for my Jimmy Howard collection. It also brings me one card closer (three out of four) to my first Howard rainbow. The card I'm referring to is a Ruby parallel from 2010-11 Black Diamond numbered 070/100.

One thing I will say is that I hate scanning anything from Black Diamond. There is just something about the cards from this set, no matter what year it is, that my scanner does not like. I always have to go in and mess with the contrast and brightness just to get something that's halfway decent. Even then it's not that great looking.

Anyone have any tricks for scanning BD cards? Here's my attempt at it:

Now I just need to track down the Gold version numbered to just 10 copies. Easier said than done. I actually found one on eBay a few months back, but ended up missing out on it, so I'm on the lookout again. I think this is one of those things that I won't see that many times, so next time I want to win at any cost, well almost any cost.

For all of my friends in the States, have a Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow, and go Lions...

Cardboard Creations: Clear for Takeoff

2011-11-22T08:15:00.000-05:00

Seeing the latest custom design over at My Hockey Card Obsession, which is pretty impressive I might add, is what motivated me to finish the latest custom set idea I've been working on and finally share it with everyone. This is another one of those ideas that just came out of nowhere and I just started throwing things together and what you see below is the final result of a few different iterations and a few hours work.

Here's the first card in the set, featuring Valtteri Filppula of the Detroit Red Wings:

While this one wasn't the inspiration for the set idea, it ended up being the best picture and my favorite of the bunch. As you can see, these cards deal with pictures in which the players are airborne, whether that means they are scoring, taking a shot, or just avoiding an opponent. Also, if you don't know, the picture above was taken as Filppula beat Marc-Andre Fleury in game two of the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals.

As far as the name, Clear for Takeoff, it just kind of popped in my head and I stuck with it. Now I know it's not that original, but sometimes things just work the way they are and I think that's the case here. Or should I have gone with Cleared for Takeoff, oh well, who knows? It is what it is now.

Anyway, here are all nine of them together:

Beyond the Filppula, the Colby Armstrong has to be my next favorite, and that's the one that was actually the inspiration for the entire set. As far as how that goes, well I came across a Puck Daddy article on the top hockey hugs and some of them featured players leaping into the air. Well, at first I thought I would do that for the set, but then I came across the Armstrong pic and changed my mind to what you see here.

After a little searching for a generic airport runway/takeoff pic and the clipart pilot's wings, I threw everything together and came up with the basic design you see here. I played around a bit with different fonts, but ended up settling on the one you see, called "Bigmacca" from Dafont.com. I though it went well with the whole airplane theme.

The five stars were the last thing I added as I felt the name bar just needed a little something extra, and they fit the bill perfectly. The only other thing I made sure to do was include a nice full color team logo on each card, and the circle in the center of the pilot's wings worked out just right for that.

So what do you guys think? I was going for something that was a bit different and I think I accomplished that, wouldn't you say?

Thoughts: Seeing Double, At It's Worst

2011-11-18T13:34:00.000-05:00

A little while back I wrote a post about some of Jimmy Howard's cards from different manufacturers using the same picture on multiple occasions. I only brought that up because I like to see a variety when it comes to cards of a single player, and two different cards with the same picture just make things a bit repetitive.

Now, for a little background first. I don't know why but for some reason I've become a Nashville Predators fan, unless of course they're playing my Red Wings. I know that sounds weird coming from a Wings fan, but there's just something I like about that team now.

Anyway, because of this I found myself looking for some Pekka Rinne stuff on eBay the other day (maybe the start of another PC...) and came across what I tought was the same exact card twice, at first. However, upon closer inspection I realized there was no incorrect listing or anything like that, just two different cards with the same picture.

Here's Rinne's Net Cam insert from 2010-11:

Now, here's the same insert from 2011-12:

Good work Panini, how pathetic is that? I'd be slightly annoyed if I were actually a Rinne collector. It's forgivable if two companies just happen to use the same picture, but this? I don't know, but it just bugs me for some reason.

How difficult could it have been to find a new net cam shot of Rinne. There has to be more than one out there from the last year of action, right? What do you guys think? I know I shouldn't let things like this get to me, but for some reason I can't let it go.

Jimmy Howard: An Ultimate Mailday

2011-11-17T18:38:00.000-05:00

Well, it looks like I've got another first for my Howard collection. This time, as you probably deduced from the title, I've ventured into Ultimate Memorabilia territory for the first time. More specifically, I've made my first addition from the 10th edition of the product, from 2010-11, in the form of an Ultimate Autograph numbered to just 24 copies.

Normally I look at box/pack breaks of this stuff on the forums and don't care for a lot of the designs, but this one is different. I like it. I really like the nice closeup showing Jimmy's mask as well as the simple, non-obnoxious color scheme and overall layout of the card. I also like how they worked in the giant "X" behind the player number and team text, to coincide with this being the 10th edition.

Now, I've got two minor issues with this card. First, it seems as though Jimmy's signature is interrupted by the edge of the cutout window. You'd think they could bring the edges of the sticker and the cutout window a bit closer together. I would understand if the auto went outside the edge of the sticker to begin with, but here that doesn't seem to be the case.

On a side note, it's kind of funny that the auto has his number 33 from Grand Rapids, rather then the 35 that's printed on the card and part of the picture on the card, as he's always worn 35 with the Wings.

The second is actually on the back of the card. To me it looks like it was printed kind of off center, but maybe it's supposed to be that way, I haven't really seen any other card backs from this set to be able to compare the two. Here, take a look:

Other than that, I'm thrilled to have this card in my collection, as it still is an auto numbered less than 25. Oh, almost forgot to mention this, but I ended up getting it for just $14 on the bay. Is that a good deal, or what? If not, let me know because I don't really have a sense for what these things usually sell for.

Finally. a question for you ITG collectors out there: how do you store these slabbed cards? This thing is a bit wider than the one-touches and top-loaders I store in my standard monster boxes, so I don't really know what to do with it. Are there boxes with wider slots out there to accommodate these things?

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Scored Myself a New One

2011-11-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

There was one other good thing to come out of my three pack break of 2011-12 Score and that was another candidate for my "Goaltending Gallimaufry" project. It was this Craig Anderson, featuring him wearing the remnants of his Colorado gear after being dealt to the Senators back in February.

As you can see, this photo was taken sometime after Anderson switched to his Senators themed mask, but before he made the full transition to Ottawa colors. Either way, this one still meets the criteria for the project and is a welcome addition for the new season.

If anything, this card gives me at least somewhat of a reason to keep busting packs, as I never know when I'm going to come arcross one of these. That's the nice part about this project, as it covers just about any base set out there.

That's it for now. Since I wasn't able to make it up to Toronto for the expo recently, I'm hoping to hit up one of the local shows with my upcoming vacation time, but we'll see. This time of year is busy enough, so trying to squeeze it in will be interesting.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 32

Pack Break: 2011-12 Score (x3)

2011-11-15T12:49:00.001-05:00

I made a trip to the LCS the other day to pick up some top loaders and one-touches for my recent Howard pickups, but they were out of the 180 pt so I grabbed some 75 pt top loaders and a few packs of 2011-12 Score with the cash I had in hand.

This was the same LCS I found a few weeks back, Stadium Cards and Comics. The cool thing was that this store is where the 1978-79 Montreal Canadiens mini Stanley Cup redemption was pulled. Click here to read about it over at The Knight's Lance.

Let's start with the base design. Overall, I kind of like it because it's different enough from last year, but still has a bit of an old school Score kind of feel to it, or at least that's what I think. Here's my favorite of the lot:

Now for the glossy parallel. Am I the only one who thinks this is an absurd idea for a parallel set. I mean come on, you can't even tell the difference on the front unless you tilt the card in the right light. Whatever, at least they put some kind of note on the back this time around, unlike last year. Here's one of the one's I got:

This next one is one of the "Season Highlight" cards, featuring Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks. This one is kind of neat because the photo actually matches the moment on the card and features Niemi in his very first game as a Shark.

As far as rookie cards go, Score brought back the Hot Rookies again with a design pretty similar to last year. Of course I ended up getting two no-namers again, and here's one of them. Who else has heard of Matt Campanale before?

Finally a decent insert, well at least I think it's decent. I don't know, you tell me. It's an Alex Ovechkin card from the Score B set. These are actually pretty cool and rank up there with the Net Cams as my favorite Score inserts.

Let's just say this is another reminder of why I tend not to buy single packs, hoping to get something good out of them (i.e. something for my PC or something of great trade value). At this point, I'd rather put the money towards singles for my PC, but there's always something about busting packs/boxes that brings me back for more time and time again.

All is up for trade if anyone's interested. I'd be looking for the usual stuff in return (i.e. Howard, MVP, etc).

Gold Script Update

2011-11-14T19:00:00.000-05:00

Like I said in my last "Goaltending Gallimaufry" post, good things come in three's. This time however, as you can probably tell by the title, it's all about my MVP Gold Script collection. These next three make up another trio I purchased on eBay in the last week or so.

The first was this Cliff Ronning numbered 062/100:

The second was this Vladimir Orszagh numbered 032/100:

The third was this Travis Green numbered 030/100:

So, not really any huge names there, but that's part of the fun that comes with building a set like this. The best part is these are the ones that come at a great price, I'm not really looking forward to tracking down some of the bigger names (i.e. Yzerman, Roy, Messier, etc.) as they're going to get pricey.

Anyway, these three bring the Gold Script total to 34 out of 220, that's just about 15.5% of the entire set. I'll just have to hope I can keep picking them up in small lots like this, as it helps save on shipping quite a bit. These three set me back about $3 and the shipping was only $2. Not bad if you ask me.

Thoughts: Seeing Double, Again

2011-11-09T12:49:00.000-05:00

Sometimes there are things in this hobby that I believe are okay to complain about, and these are things like receiving damaged cards among others, but specifically for this post, I'm thinking of pictures being reused. In this day and age, is it really that difficult for card companies to use different photographers when putting together card designs?

Let me preface my latest findings with something from the 2010-11 season. In that case, UD Series II and Pinnacle made use of the exact same picture of Jimmy Howard. Not sure which came out first, but I still find it kind of annoying as a player collector that I've got two different (well, more like 12 different with all the parallels between both sets) cards with the same picture on them. Take a look.

Now, as far as 2011-12 goes, here's what I just noticed on eBay just today during one of my daily searches (sorry for the awful quality on the UD scan). On the left you have a Gold parallel from Score and on the right an Exclusives parallel from UD Series I. Those look like the exact same picture to me, wouldn't you agree?

Am I way off base here? Any of you player collectors out there probably understand, so I'd like to get your thoughts on this. Am I in the right to be a little annoyed here, or should I just chalk it up to dumb luck that the pictures are the same and not worry about it?

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Three More

2011-11-07T22:34:00.001-05:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

Good things come in three's, or at least that's how the saying goes. Today, since I've yet to receive the two packages I'm waiting on from eBay, it's three more additions to my gallimaufry project. These three are again from the stack I came up with when searching through my binders and monster boxes.

I'm sharing them in three's because I would like to keep the length of these posts manageable. That said, here is the first of the three, a Chris Terreri from 1995-96 Fleer Ultra Extra. In the photo you can see he's still wearing his gear from his time with New Jersey, where he spent only four games in 1995-96 before being traded to the Sharks. As a plus, it seems as though his Osgood-style mask didn't have to change.

Next we've got Olivier Michaud of the Montreal Canadiens featured on the front of a card from the 2001-02 Between The Pipes set. It looks as though he came from Edmonton, except for the sticker job on the mask, but he in fact came straight out of Shawinigan in the QMJHL for just a single game with the Habs back in 2001-02. So, I'm guessing that's where the Oiler-ish equipment comes from, but I could be wrong.

Here's another older one for you, a Ron Tugnutt from 1993-94 Donruss featuring him with the Mighty Ducks. That's significant because he only played there for 28 games, which I guess was not enough time for him to get new gear after being claimed by the Mighty Ducks in the 1993 Expansion Draft. Although, you would think being picked up during the off-season would allow time for that. I guess not.

That's all for now. These three bring the gallimaufry total to 31. This project is also proving to be a lot of fun as it's something different and it's neat to see all of them together in the binder. It may not be the prettiest looking set of pages, but it's definitely something to look at. Now, I'm hoping I'll be able to make it to a show here soon to see if I can find anything in the dime and quarter boxes, but we'll see.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 31

My Picks # 80: Martin Biron

2011-11-06T19:31:00.000-05:00

Well, just got done with another roller hockey game in our fall season. It was a pretty boring game, but we ended up getting the win 14-6, in which I managed to net six goals and two assists. I say boring because the other team's goalie didn't show up, so we were shooting on a defenseman the whole game. Don't you just hate when that kind of stuff happens?

Anyway onto today's post. By the way, I can't believe I've already done 80 of these so far, the first one just seems like forever ago now. This one is another pick that focuses on a base card with a pretty cool picture on the front.

Its a Martin Biron, from 2010-11 Pinnacle, which has quite a few interesting pictures, that shows him shoveling some hats around the MSG ice, presumably after a hat trick by one of his teammates. Now that's something you don't see everyday on the front of a card, is it?

As far as finding out who score the hat trick, look no further than the back of the card, as each one in the Pinnacle base set has a short description where and when the photo was taken. This is probably the only time you would have to have the same picture on front and back, just to avoid confusion with the description, wouldn't you agree?

After reading the description, you see that the hat trick was scored by Biron's teammate Marian Gaborik. Since the specific date is listed, it wasn't that hard to look up the clip on YouTube, so here it is:

I can honestly say this is the first time that I've been able to post a video for one of these things that doesn't involve the player actually pictured on the front of the card. There were a couple of nice goals there too, nothing better than being in alone on the goalie like that, as long as you bury it of course.

Gameday: Wild vs. Red Wings

2011-11-03T18:53:00.000-04:00

Well, this post is a little less satisfying to write because of the eventual outcome of the game, but I had a pretty good time down at the old Joe Louis Arena the other night when the Wings hosted the Minnesota Wild. I ended up getting the four seats my company has so a friend from the office and I each brought our significant other along. The seats were in the 10th row of section 207, right about on the red line.

First, here's a look at the ticket. The Wings usually have some kind of design to these things and they often feature one or more of the players, in this case Drew Miller. $65 face value is a bit much for regular season hockey if you ask me, but I guess people are willing to pay it.

Here's how the first period action looked from my seat:

I don't remember which period it was, obviously the first or the third, but this picture shows the aftermath of Harding getting drilled by a Red Wing behind the net, from which he hit the ice like a sack of potatoes. It was kind of funny because after he laid there for a couple of minutes everyone started to boo him.

With this being a Wings game and all, I got to see my man Jimmy Howard play again. This picture is just another one I got during a break in the action. He played a great game and kept it from being a 3-1 Minnesota lead or something like that for most of the game.

This last one was taken during the third period with the Wild attacking to my right. I don't know when this was taken during the period or what happened on the play, but it's a nice shot of the action.

Just for kicks, here's the highlight video for the game. Too bad they didn't put Harding getting drilled in there, oh well. They did however, show the Wings getting royally screwed on a goaltender interference call as the Wild scored in overtime.

All in all, even though the Wings lost and kind of got screwed in the process, it was still a great night out in the city of Detroit. Yes, that is possible.

Jimmy Howard: My First Dominion Pickup

2011-11-01T08:54:00.000-04:00

I can admit that I'm not one of those collectors that can afford to blow thousands of dollars on case after case of products like The Cup and Dominion, so I have to rely on the secondary market for anything from either. Today marks my first venture into one of these "super premium" products and I think it's a good one. Take a look:

Guess how much this one set me back? Keep in mind it's from Dominion, it's numbered 22/25, it's a nice two-color split, and I'm a Howard collector so I didn't want to let it get away. I'll let you think about that for a minute before I tell you.

Anyway, the first thing I noticed about this card when it came out of the bubble mailer is how massively thick it is compared to anything else in my collection, except for maybe my Hot Prospects auto patch. It's just got a higher-end kind of feel to it, although the design is definitely not as sharp as The Cup, but UD decided to exclude Mr. Howard from that set.

On the back of the card you can see the serial number 22/25, so no eBay 1/1 here (i.e. 1/25 or 25/25). One thing I did really like about this card is that it uses a different picture than on the front, something that seems to have been lost with most releases lately.

The only thing I would change about the back is the way the card number is written. It could be confused with the player number, which is written the same way with the "No" as on the front. Other than that, it's a pretty solid card back design.

Oh, almost forgot. I only ended up paying $4.29 for this one. I thought that was a steal, but after sharing it on SCF and getting some member feedback, I'm realizing Dominion is just kind of "cheap" and this isn't what everyone would call a steal. Oh well, I'm not everyone, and what I think is all that matters when it comes to my collection, right?

My Picks # 79: Jonas Hoglund

2011-10-31T16:04:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween! This pick is another one that's only here because of the photo on the front of the card, and it fits perfectly with the theme of dressing up as something different for just one night. It features something that you don't see everyday on base cards, and that would be a specialty jersey.

The card itself is a Jonas Hoglund of the Toronto Maple Leafs from the 2002-03 Topps set, although that's not the team he's playing for according to the jersey in the picture. It's actually a Toronto St. Pats jersey that was only worn for one game on February 14, 2002.

I love that they went with the brown pants, gloves, and helmets here as it just completes the look. One thing I do wonder is what the leafs goalie (I'm assuming it was still Cujo at that point) did as far as the brown equipment. Here's a better look at one of the jerseys from that game, courtesy of Third String Goalie.

By the way, here's a link to the post over at Third String Goalie that explains a little bit about the St. Pats and these jerseys. Take a look, it's definitely an interesting read, as always with TSG. Also, has anyone seen any other cards featuring these jerseys, this was the only one I found in my collection, although I think there were a few more from this set.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: A New Trio

2011-10-29T20:26:00.000-04:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

It's been a while now since I've updated this project, so it's nice to finally be able to do so. Back when I started the project, I searched high and low through my binders and boxes for cards that fit the requirements, and I did managed to come up with a few. That's where this trio comes in, they're were just the next three in the stack I had waiting to be scanned.

The first is this Mikael Tellqvist from 2005-06 Upper Deck. This one is a bit unique as he's not wearing different color equipment from signing as a free agent or being traded, as I believe they are from international competition with Sweden. Someone correct me if I'm wrong though, I'm not that in tune with what goes on in Toronto.

The second one is this Dieter Kochan from 2002-03 Between The Pipes, back when they actually had and NHL license and could show the actual team logos. As you can see in the picture, Kochan is shown with the Wild, but obviously has equipment from his time in Tampa Bay, where he spent the previous three seasons.

Finally, the third one is this Jose Theodore from 1996-97 Pinnacle Summit. The picture is from his rookie season with the Habs, but you can see that he was still wearing his silver and black gear from his time with the Hull Olympiques of the QMJHL. I really hope I can find more cards from this time period, as there were some crazy base designs back then.

So there's another nice mix to add to the project. I would say of the three the Kochan has the most noticeable differences between equipment and uniform, but to each their own.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 28

Jersey Collection: Chris Osgood

2011-10-27T22:00:00.000-04:00

Last time around I showed off one of my many Red Wings jerseys. This time it's one of my many non-Red Wings jerseys. Well, kind of. It's long time Red Wings Chris Osgood, but from when he was playing with the Islanders. This one I also got as a birthday present, sometime around 2002-03 after the Red Wings acquired Dominik Hasek and Osgood moved on.

As far as why I chose this one, its one of those things where I went to the shop looking to buy a jersey, and once I saw it I needed to have it. For some reason, I love the look of this jersey, even though most everybody seems to hate it. There's just something neat about it being bright orange and its something not many people have, at least around here.

Jersey Info

Team: New York Islanders

Player: Chris Osgood

Number: 35

Manufacturer: Koho

Size: L

Acquired from: Fanatic U

The first thing I notice looking at the front, other than the obnoxious orange, is the blue and white triangles darting in just below the Islanders crest. They're kind of awkward looking, but just work for some reason, or at least I think they do. Another thing I like about this one is how it laces up at the collar. something that very few of my jerseys have.

Looking at the back, you've got the same triangle shapes darting in, this time just below Osgood's number. I should add that the color scheme looks great in person, as the numbers and letters really stand out with the blue body and white border. Also, like the Datsyuk, this one has the Koho word mark and logo at the top, followed by the NHL puck logo.

Finding a card to match this one proved to be much more tricky than with the Datsyuk. While there are plenty of cards featuring Osgood with the Islanders, most of them show him in either the regular home and road jerseys. And since I didn't have one in my collection, I had to resort to Google on this one and here's the best that I could come up with:

I've never seen any cards from this set before, but it's apparently from 2002-03 Upper Deck Mask Collection. Not the best view of the jersey, but you can definitely tell it's the same as I have above, minus the obvious fact that mine's a replica, of course.

My Picks # 78: Luc Robitaille

2011-10-26T22:09:00.001-04:00

It's been a few days now since I've have the time to put together another one of these posts, so it's nice to be able to sit down tonight for a few minutes and write something about the hobby I love. This will be one of the older picks I've done, as it dates back to the early 90's, also known as the junk wax era for hockey cards.

It's one of the awesome team checklist painting cards that Upper Deck used for a couple of seasons back then. This one, from the 1992-93 set, just happened to catch my eye when I was sorting through a box of base cards recently and I thought it would make a good candidate for this series.

There is really nothing bad to say about this card at all, well maybe except for Luc's hair, but that was the "in" style back then, right? I wouldn't know, I was only four years old when this set came out. Other than that, this is just an amazing looking card.

The colorful background really works well with the black and white of the Kings uniforms. Add to that the sprayed ice effect, as well as the whole thing set inside a simple white border, and we've got a winner. Even the UD logo doesn't look too out of place on this one, and I must say I like the addition of the "collector's choice" text at the bottom.

That's all I have to say about this one. What do you guys think?

Jersey Collection: Pavel Datsyuk

2011-10-23T11:28:00.000-04:00

Lately I've been thinking about expanding a bit here to include some items in my hockey collection other than cards, in this case jerseys, as you can tell by the title of the post. Over the years I've put together a nice little collection of replica jerseys and I thought it would be neat to share them here.

Rather than just pictures and a few words about each jersey, I'm going to try and do something a bit different and find a card that depicts each jersey for a nice tie in with my hockey card collection, because Card Boarded is a blog about hockey cards, right?

This first one is one of my favorites and the one I wear most when heading down to Joe Louis Arena for Wings games. It's a home red Pavel Datsyuk jersey that I received as a birthday present a few years back, although supposedly it came from a garage sale. Even if it did, I can't complain because it's in great shape and looks like the real deal as far as replicas go.

Jersey Info
Team: Detroit Red Wings
Player: Pavel Datsyuk
Number: 13
Manufacturer: Koho
Size: L
Acquired from: Garage Sale

First, here's a look at the front of the jersey. As you can see, it's your typical dark Red Wings jersey with the single white arm stripe on either side and the white bottom edge. Beyond that you have the crest in the middle and the small Koho logo on the left arm.

On the back, you've got Datsyuk's number 13 with his name arched in Red Wings' fashion above it as well as the Koho text and small logo in the center above the player name. Also, if you look closely, you can see the NHL puck logo in the lower right corner.

These jerseys were worn prior to the switch to Reebok after the lockout, so I believe the last season they saw action was 2003-04. This was back when CCM produced the road white jerseys for all the teams and Koho produced the home dark jerseys.

Now, for the part where I'm doing something more than just showing off the jersey. Here's a 2003-04 Victory card depicting the authentic version of my replica jersey.

Well, that's the first one down. I've got about 20 replica jerseys that I will feature in this series. A bunch of them are Wings jerseys, but I do have some pretty neat jerseys from other teams too. What do you guys think, is this a good idea for another topic on Card Boarded?

Thoughts: Hits Galore, Thanks to Uni-Watch

2011-10-21T07:51:00.000-04:00

Ok, so those of us using blogger have the awesome ability to track how many people view our blogs on a daily basis, as well as where those views come from. Yesterday I noticed I crossed over the 50,000 views mark just after lunch time. Pretty cool, right?

Well, when I actually looked at my stats for the day, I realized I had over 6800 views, for the day. I'm thinking to myself, "What the hell?" I've only had just under 50,000 total views since they started tracking stats last year. Well, when you get a plug (well, an indirect plug) on an ESPN.com article, you're going to get some additional traffic, wouldn't you think?

When I checked the traffic sources, I noticed a ton of hits from an ESPN.com link. So I click on the link and I'm taken to an article titled, "Uni Watch's 2011 NHL goalie gear guide," written by Paul Lukas of the website Uni-Watch.com.

The article is an awesome in-depth breakdown of goaltender's equipment for the 2011-12 season. The first part focuses on the masks for each team. About a third of the way down is the Detroit Red Wings. I see Jimmy Howard's name there with a click-able link. So I hover over the link and realized it's my post about Jimmy's new mask for this season. Awesome.

If you haven't already done so, go check it out.

Thoughts: eBay Strategy

2011-10-20T12:57:00.000-04:00

I'm sure most of us use eBay on a regular basis to help knock things off of our want lists. I know I use it all the time and it's where most of my main PC project cards come from. That said, I've got my own "strategy" if you will, and since I don't have anything else to write about, I'll talk about that today.

If you read this blog regularly, you know I've got three main PC projects: Jimmy Howard, MVP Stanley Cup Edition, and Metal Universe. So, these are usually the only things I'm searching for on the bay. In general, I usually search for a given project by first seeing what's ending soonest, followed by stuff that's newly listed. This covers both ends of the spectrum, and usually ensures I don't miss anything.

If I come across something newly listed, say for something like $0.99, I'll throw up a "placeholder" bid of $0.99 just so I can more easily keep track of the stuff I really want. Sometimes if I just watch something, I'll miss the ending soon reminder and completely miss out. So there's really no risk in doing this, as I'll either get the card for a nice $0.99 or I'll be quickly reminded the second someone outbids me. It's a win-win situation, unless of course I end up losing the auction because of a snipe bid at the end or something like that. I'll save my thoughts on that for another time ;)

Now, when I find something I like that's ending pretty quickly, I'll look at where the price is and determine whether or not that card is worth that amount of money to me. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. If I want it, I'll bid until I can no longer justify it, which usually lands me I'd say less than 50% of the stuff I bid on. That doesn't mean I'm cheap, it just means I'm trying to work within a budget, as I've got more important stuff to worry about like a new car payment and student loans at this point.

That's the easy part of searching. The hard part is knowing what search terms to use and finding stuff that is either poorly labeled or just completely mislabeled. I don't even want to think about how many listings I've seen for things like a "2009-10 Jimmy Howard RC" or "2000-01 MVP SC Edition." I know it's not a huge deal, but it's annoying when you do a search by year and end up missing a bunch of stuff because the seller doesn't know what they're typing in their description.

To make things easiest on myself, I will do two separate searches for Howard stuff. I will usually first search for "Jimmy Howard" and then search for "Jim Howard." I've talked about this before here, and doing both ensures I don't miss anything. Heck, sometimes I even just search for "Howard" in the hockey card category, which is normally ok, but does bring up some unwanted stuff.

When it comes to MVP stuff, I usually just search for "MVP" in hockey cards, but that becomes a problem when there is the regular "MVP" set from the same year, which basically doubles the number of results I have to sort through. To get around this, and knowing I don't need any base cards, I will search for things like "Super Script" or "Golden Memories" in hopes that the listings are accurate.

The Metal Universe stuff is easy because there's not much of it even on the bay, and it's a plus that there was only two years of it in hockey. In this case I just type in "Metal Universe" in the hockey cards and pretty much see everything of interest in the first page of results.

That's pretty much my eBay "strategy" in a nutshell. I'm curious, what is your general strategy or thought process when it comes to the bay?

Another thing I've discovered that I really like lately is the mobile eBay app for my phone. Just the other day I was sitting on the couch watching a movie and managed to find, bid on, and win a nice piece for one of my PC projects, all without even getting up.

For me this could almost be a negative, in terms of over spending, because now I have the entire bay at my fingertips whenever I want. It definitely requires a little more self control on my part, but at the same time it's brought me some nice stuff for the PC.

Have you made use of the mobile eBay app yet? Do you like it? And do you think it's a good thing or a bad thing being able to buy cards wherever and whenever you have a good signal?

Jimmy Howard: More eBay Pickups

2011-10-17T21:36:00.000-04:00

Sometimes, well a lot of times, there are things more important than a simple hobby like collecting cards. This past weekend was a great example for me. I spent Friday night with a friend over in Grand Rapids, which included a trip to the comedy club and a dueling piano bar, followed by a very windy nine holes of golf Saturday morning. All the while, this blog and the hobby in general didn't really enter my mind all weekend, which was nice for a change.

So with my mind free and clear in terms of blogging and hockey cards, I'm really only posting this today because of the latest bubble mailer waiting for me in the mailbox after work. This time it's another lot from eBay, and again it included at least one card I already had when I bought it. There were five in all though, so that means four new ones for the collection.

Let's start with the duplicate of the group, or should I say triplicate as I've actually already got two of these thanks to previous lots from eBay. It's a 2005-06 Trilogy Rookie Premier, this time numbered 371/999.

Next is another jersey card for the collection. It's a Rookie Uniformity from 2005-06 Fleer Ultra. This one is non-numbered and has a nice red swatch. The only thing I don't like about this one is that they have a picture of Jimmy in a practice jersey, while the card from the base set has a game action photo, although it beats a photo shoot, right?

Next is another RC that's been on my radar for a while, I've just never been able to justify the prices I see it going for on ebay. I'm talking things like BIN's for $30 or more, that's just a bit too much for me. So this one is a definite welcome addition, plus its an acetate card, and who doesn't like acetate cards?

Here's one of those pesky red parallels from Victory. These things were exclusive to the retail rack packs as far as I know and I was never lucky enough to pull one for myself. They're the exact same as the base version, except for the red border, which works quite nicely with this and any Red Wings cards for that matter.

Now for a love-hate kind of card. I love the look of this card when I'm actually holding it, but I hate scanning it and trying to make it look presentable. Not really sure about the name of the set here, or am I just missing something obvious, because it seems kind of dumb to me.

That's it for now, these five bring the Howard collection to 85 overall including duplicates, which means I've now got 80 unique pieces. Now, as far as what I got these for. The lot ended up coming in at just $16. Throw in the $3.50 for shipping and I got myself a nice five card lot for just under $4 per card, not bad at all.

Gold Script Update

2011-10-11T19:30:00.001-04:00

After reading Brett's latest post over at MHCO, I think I'm in a bit of a mini-funk myself. Since I posted my latest Howard stuff from eBay last week, I just haven't had any motivation whatsoever to write anything for this blog. Some of that is being busier at work and some is being busy with roller hockey in full swing again. The only reason I decided to post today is the package that was waiting for me when I got home.

It contained three more Gold Scripts for my MVP Stanley Cup Edition master set project. I was lucky enough to come across them a few days back when doing my daily ebay searches. Each was listed at $0.99 so I put a placeholder bid on each and wouldn't you know it, they all ended at just $0.99. Even better was the fact that these were all from the same seller, which meant combined shipping.

The first was this Daniel Alfredsson numbered 063/100:

The second was this Ray Whitney numbered 026/100:

The third was this Andrei Shefer numbered 096/100:

Here's a little something, can you spot the difference between the two regular golds and the CHL gold (no, I'm not talking about the big "CHL" and "prospects" at the bottom of the one). It took me quite a while to notice it at first myself.

These three bring the Gold Script total to 32 out of 220. That's just over 14% of the set. Hopefully I can find some more deals like this on the bay as I still have a long way to go for the set, but progress is progress, right?

Jimmy Howard: eBay Pickups

2011-10-06T11:06:00.000-04:00

Lately I kind of went on an ebay spending spree and ended up with a few nice pieces for my Howard collection, all of which came at a pretty good price if you ask me. Altogether, I made four purchases that brought me seven cards.

The first to arrive was this purple parallel from 2010-11 Crown Royale. Although it's not shown on the front, it's numbered 22/25. I love the overall design of this set and am looking forward to tracking down the base version as well as some more of the parallels.

The second to arrive was this 2005-06 Power Play Rookies. It's a lower end RC, but still a RC so I had to have it for the collection. The best part is I managed to get it for $0.99 delivered, although it was shipped in just a penny sleeve floating inside a 6" x 8" bubble mailer. I guess I can't really complain as it was unharmed and I technically didn't pay for shipping.

This next one was another single card purchase. It's a silver parallel from 2010-11 Artifacts numbered 17/25. In the scan it looks like the foil is silver, but when you actually look at it in the light, it's got a nice rainbow tint to it. I think it's odd they didn't just stick with plain silver foil for the silver parallel, right? I got this one for just under $10 delivered, not bad eh?

These last four were part of a lot I picked up a few weeks ago, they just took this long to finally arrive. This first one may look familiar and that's because it's the second copy I've gotten, the other being the card that started my Howard collection.

Of the four card lot, two were going to be dupes for me, but that's alright as it was more than worth it. This Young Gun is the other card I now have two of. The funny thing is I didn't even realize this was in the lot until after I paid. Only the other three were scanned and this was just buried in the decription text. Dare I say, winning! ;)

This is where the lot gets better, with a card that I didn't already have. It's a 2005-06 SP Game Used Authentic Rookie numbered 523/999. This is another one of the RC's that has been on my radar all along, I just was waiting to grab it for a decent price. I think I did that, you'll see when I tell you how much this lot actually set me back.

Now, for the best part of the lot. It's an autographed Rookie Jersey from 2005-06 SPx and it's numbered 0874/1499. Can you imagine sitting there and signing you name 1499 times, for just one card? Although I guess I wouldn't complain if I was getting millions to play the game I love, would you? Despite the all white swatch and the sticker auto, I really like the look of this card. It also helps that Jimmy's got a halfway decent signature.

Earlier I mentioned that I didn't mind buying two out of these four cards as dupes. That's because the entire lot set me back only $15 including shipping. I'm still surprised the final priced ended this low, but I'll take it as I don't come across many "steals" like this.

I've seen each of the four cards here listed individually for at least $15. I've seen BIN's of the SP Game Used RC for as high as $19.99 and the SPx auto jersey as high as $50. To each their own though, I'm not willing to pay that much, so I got pretty luck with this lot.

These seven bring the Howard collection to 80 cards altogether including duplicates. That means with the four dupes I have 76 unique cards in the collection. I've got the 100 mark in my sights now, so we'll see how long it takes to get there...

Jimmy Howard: New Mask for 2011

2011-10-05T08:40:00.000-04:00

It's not unusual for the start of a new season to bring a new mask design for goalies. Sometimes that means a complete design overhaul and sometimes it only means a few small tweaks. In the case of Jimmy Howard, it would be the latter of the two.

At first glance, you might think this is the exact same as last season, ignoring the back plate of course. It's got the same split design with the '67 Shelby on either side in front of the city skyline. It's also go the same old English "D" on the chin and the franchise's retired numbers.

Here's a look at old vs. new:

Now for the back plate, which would look awesome on a card (hint hint Brett). As I'm sure most of you know, the Locomotiv tragedy in Russia involved three former Red Wings: assistant coach Brad McCrimmon, goaltender Stefan Liv, and defenseman Ruslan Salei.

The back plate features black and white portraits of the three along with their names and the words "Forever in Our Hearts." It's an amazing looking tribute to three great men, all of whom will be remembered by Red Wings and hockey fans around the world.

Here's a look at old vs. new:

I wonder how long it will take for this mask to appear on a trading card. Last season, Howard wore his backup DocOc mask and that was featured in some early season releases, so we'll see. I really hope it makes it into whatever incarnation of a mask set In The Game has planned for Between The Pipes this year.

Here's a link to an article about the mask over at Puck Daddy. It also mentions Jaroslav Halak's back plate tribute to his former teammate Pavol Demitra, who was also lost in the plane crash. I think it's great that theyr'e using their masks for this, don't you?

Edit: Now that there are game photos avaiable, here's a good look at the front and back of the new mask in action:

Also, here's a quick video of Jimmy showing off the finished product:

Jimmy Howard: Trade Pickups

2011-10-04T08:01:00.000-04:00

Like I mentioned in the last Silver Script update, the last remaining part of the trade I completed with Brett was all Jimmy Howard stuff. I managed to pick up some nice pieces for the collection including a key rookie and some nice inserts.

Let's start with the one base card of the lot from 2010-11 SP Authentic. I never busted any of this stuff and I didn't feel like overpaying for shipping from ebay on a base card, so this is a nice addition. I love the simplicity of the design, although I think they went a little overboard with the fading. The scan just makes this one look worse for some reason too.

The next on is a retro parallel from 2010-11 OPC. I already have the rainbow version of this card, now I just need to track down the black border and the blank back versions. For some reason, I like the look of this one, especially with the yellow background and text for the team name, it give the card a more bold look.

This one is also from 2010-11 OPC, but this time it's an All-Rookie Team card. To me, it's still hard to think of Jimmy as a rookie for the 2009-10 season, but by league rules he was still considered to be one, despite the fact he played in his first NHL game way back in 2005.

Now we're getting to the good stuff. As a player collector, the all-important Young Guns rookie card has been on my want list since the beginning, so it was really nice to finally add this one to the collection. This one would make a perfect candidate for my 'Goaltending Gallimaufry' project, but I think I'll exclude rookies like this from that set.

This is another one I've been wanting for a while now. It's a Masked Men II from 2009-10 Between The Pipes. While I like the Masked Men sets, I still miss the old Mask sets where the mask was cropped out of the rest of the image. The card looks kind of dirty in the scan, but that's because it's got a mirror finish on the front and is impossible to keep pristine.

This one will go nicely with my Hot Prospects Auto Patch RC from a little while back, as they are part of the same set. It's got a nice red swatch, which is cool because it could have just been all white. I will say I do like the look of this set, especially the M-shaped window for the swatch inside the larger H.

Here we've got another nice jersey card, this time it's a First Exposures from 2006-07 BAP. Again, it's a nice red swatch as opposed to a more boring white one. I like that the swatch window is in the shape of the BAP logo, as opposed to a simple and boring rectangle.

The last of the Howard's I picked up was this Certified Potential insert from 2010-11 Certified. It's numbered out of 500 and is the start of another potential 'rainbow' for the PC, as it's the usual Panini parallel hell with this set, just like the base and Masked Marvels sets.

That's it for now. These eight bring the Howard collection total to 73 including duplicates, 71 not counting them. I'm well on my way to 100 different cards now, which will be the next major milestone in the collection. Having only started this collection just under two years ago, on my current budget, I'd say I've done pretty well for myself.

Silver Script Update

2011-10-03T12:25:00.002-04:00

Among all the other great stuff from the trade with Brett, there was another important piece to the Silver Script portion of the MVP Stanley Cup Edition master set project.

It was this Jaromir Jagr. Kind of weird thinking he'll be wearing the orange and black in Philadelphia this year after seeing this one, isn't it? I will say that Jagr definitely has an awesome signature, assuming of course that this is an accurate representation of it.

This brings the Silver Script collection to 112 out of a possible 220. That's pretty good progress, but I'd like to be further along given the fact that these were only inserted 1:2, but I'll take being over the 50% mark any day with this kind of project.

Well, this finishes off the non-Jimmy Howard portion of the trade. I'll have those cards scanned and ready to go in the next few days.

My Picks # 77: Jamie Storr

2011-09-30T12:36:00.000-04:00

What's in your wallet? That's what popped in my head when I first saw this one. I got it from Chris over at Confessions of a Hockey Card Addict as part of the trade we made a little while back. I'd never seen one of these "cards" before and decided it had to be my next pick.

In case you're wondering, like I was at first, this credit card shaped card featuring Jamie Storr of the LA Kings is from the 1995-96 Leaf Studio Rookies set. It's got rounded corners, the raised text at the bottom, and even a neat little hologram in the lower right corner, just like actual credit cards. The only major difference is the size, as this is your typical 2.5" x 3.5" hockey card, while a credit card would typically measure about 2.125" x 3.375."

I don't usually show off the back's of the picks, but this one definitely needed it. As you can see they really went for the full look of a credit card with the black strip across the top as well as the facsimile "authorized" signature. Pretty cool if you ask me, or at least it's something you don't see every day.

Not really sure about the motivation behind this design, but it's still pretty nifty. Apparently there are 20 of these floating around out there, yet this is the first time I've ever seen one. Anyone else have any of these or seen them before?

MVP SCE Master Set Update

2011-09-29T17:26:00.000-04:00

A majority of the trade I worked out with Brett focused on my MVP Stanley Cup Edition master set project. I was able to pick up a few of the regular inserts as well as a couple of nicer cards. All together, with the Scripts included, I added 15 cards to the set.

I think I've mentioned this before, but rather than creating a separate label for the rest of the inserts, I'm just lumping them all together under one label. Here's a look at what I got:

The first of the regular inserts is this Teemu Selanne from the Stanley Cup Talent set. This one brings me to 18 out of 20 in the set. Now I'm just missing Joe Sakic and Eric Lindros. This seems to be the easiest insert set, so hopefully I can finish it soon.

Next were a pair from the Golden Memories insert set, Eric Lindros and Mike Modano. These two bring me to 6 out of 10 for the set. Now I'm only missing Forsberg, Yzerman, Brodeur and Jagr. These are a bit tougher to come by, but definitely not impossible to find.

I like this set because it focuses on specific playoff performances and the design is fairly nice in my mind. In this case the Lindros focues on his 26 points during the 1997 playoffs and the Modano focuses on Dallas' Stanley Cup run in 1999.

The last of the regular inserts was this Mark Messier from the Second Season Snipers set. It's the fifth card in the set and brings me to 3 out of 10 total. The other two I currently have are Eric Lindros and John LeClair.

Now we're getting to the good stuff. This Taylor Pyatt is the first auto I've landed as part of the ProSign set. I really like the design of this set as it's got a nice full color photo and ample area at the bottom for some really nice on-card signatures.

These next two were the most important as they brings me my first memorabilia cards for the master set. The first was this one featuring Kris Beech of the Calgary Hitmen. Beech was drafted by Washington, but is probably best known for being part of the Jaromir Jagr trade.

The other one features Milan Kraft of the Price Albert Raiders. Kraft was drafted by the Penguins and only appeared in parts of four seasons before heading for the Czech league.

I really like the design of this set. It's simple and the colors in the background really allow the picture and the stick pieces to stand out. I wish there were more cards like this today, but I guess it's just too much work for the card companies to cut up those composite sticks.

In addition to those, Michael over at Collecting for Kicks was kind enough to send a couple of inserts my way as well. The first was this Steve Yzerman from the Clutch Performers set.

The second was this Jeff Friesen from the Cup Contenders set. Man, some of the cards in this set are a real pain to scan. Look at how horrible they look. Oh well, they still look great in my binder and that's all that matters, right?

That's it for now. I'm starting to make some decent progress on this set now, but I've still got a long way to go. That's ok though, I've got plenty of time to keep working on it.

Metal Universe Update

2011-09-28T17:23:00.000-04:00

Metal Universe is one of those love it or hate it kind of sets. Me, I loved it as a kid and I still love it now. That's why I decided to try and build the set, as it's something kind of unique with it only really being produced twice in hockey.

That said, it literally has been forever since I updated this project, but again as part of the big trade with Brett from MHCO I was able to add a few nice pieces, which I should say were thrown in as extras. Thanks Brett!

As you can see there is a nice mix of 90's goalies here. The designs in this set seem to be the coolest on the goalie cards, with things like brick walls and the eyeballs. What I did notice though, is that some are reused within the set, like the Barrasso and Fichaud.

These eight new additions to the set bring me to 66 of the possible 200 base cards, not a bad place to be at this point. I'd like to finish the set as soon as I can that way I can focus on some of the inserts, as I haven't gotten any of those yet.

Super Script Update

2011-09-27T17:17:00.000-04:00

This is yet another part of the trade I worked out with Brett over at MHCO. It was one of the most important cards in the trade as it brings me one closer to completing my Super Script set. Much like the golds, I haven't made any additions to the set since April.

Therefore this Filip Kuba, numbered 08/25 is a welcome addition to the collection:

This one adds another team to the mix and brings me to 22 total for the set, which is exactly 10% of the 220 card set. A bit of a milestone if you ask me, I mean 10% of a set numbered this low from 10+ years ago is pretty good, right?

This still isn't the end of the stuff I picked up in the trade, I'll have some more project updates in the coming days. This is when it's a good thing to be backlogged on posts.

Gold Script Update

2011-09-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

It's been what seems like forever since I updated this part of the MVP Stanley Cup Edition project. The last time I added any golds was back in April when I added five to the set. These pickups are a combination of some recent trades and a pretty good deal on ebay.

This first one came from another trade with Chris over at Confessions of a Hockey Card Addict. It's numbered 56/100 and features Ivan Novoseltsev of the Florida Panthers.

These next six are part of the trade I worked out with Brett over at My Hockey Card Obsession. This first is this Michael Nylander numbered 050/100.

The second is this Jonas Hoglund numbered 073/100.

The third is this Petr Svoboda numbered 078/100.

The fourth is this Peter Bondra numbered 010/100.

The fifth is this Radek Dvorak numbered 091/100.

The sixth and final one is this Pierre Turgeon numbered 040/100.

Then there are these last three from the bay. I ended up with the trio for less than $10 delivered. The first and probably the best is this Mike Richter numbered 022/100.

The second is this Tony Amonte numbered 084/100.

The last one is this Tim Connolly numbered 077/100.

That's it for now. These bring me to 29 total in the set. That's kind of further that I expected I would be at this point as these things are getting harder and harder to come by.

Thanks again to Chris and Brett for a couple of 'golden' maildays.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Recent Additions

2011-09-23T20:54:00.000-04:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

In addition to the Jimmy Howard Between the Pipes card Michael from Collecting for Kicks sent over, he sent two perfect candidates for my Goaltending Gallimaufry project. Again, this just goes to show how great a group of people the hockey card blogging world is.

The first was this Sean Burke from 1997-98 Pacific Revolution. As you can see he is pictured with the Canucks, but is still wearing all of his Hurricane gear. Why, he was acquired in January of 1998 and I'm guessing this set came out toward the end of that season.

The other one was this Martin Biron from 2007-08 Victory. As you can see, it's got him playing for Philadelphia and wearing what was left of his Sabres gear. He's got the "I've just been traded" mask going here as well. Biron was acquired by the Flyers in February of 2007.

Next are a few Brett from My Hockey Card Obsession threw in as part of a trade we completed recently. I'll have the rest of the stuff I got in a few other posts soon.

This first was this Jeff Hackett form 2003-04 Victory. I consider this to be the holy grail of "gallimaufry" as you've got almost a full mismatch of gear, and then the picture is featured on a card for a separate team altogether. During the 02-03 season, he was traded to Boston and then signed with Philadelphia the following off season, resulting in this monstrosity.

Here's another one of Hackett, from the 2002-03 Rookie Update set put out by Upper Deck. That explains why he still has all Habs gear on this one, while the early season Victory card allowed time to capture his Bruins colored glove and blocker.

This one's a bit older, but still works just perfect for the project. It's a Ron Hextall from 1994-95 Upper Deck. In this one you can see that he's still wearing his Islanders gear, as he was traded back to the Flyers after only one season in New York.

This next one is another Hextall from the same season, featuring pretty much the same equipment setup as the one before it. As you can see he's got the blue and orange pads and glove. He does have an all black blocker, so maybe this was the beginning of his transition to black and orange equipment in order to match his new team.

This one's an excellent piece for the collection, as I can't really think of a better contrast of equipment and uniform than black/red and teal/white. This one is from 1996-97 Donruss Elite and features Ed Belfour, who was traded to San Jose midway through the season after turning down a contract extension with Chicago.

Here's another one featuring Eddie the Eagle in his red and black Blackhawks gear while wearing the teal of San Jose. One thing I will say about this set is that I hate scanning them, you can't really get an idea of how the card actually looks without actually holding it.

Fast forward a few years and you have this next one featuring former Red Wings backup Kevin Hodson with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This one, from 1999-00 OPC shows Hodson with most of his Red Wings gear, most likely during the end of the 1998-99 season when he was traded in a deal that sent Bill Ranford and Wendel Clark to the Wings.

This one features one of the best mask designs ever, as Steve Shields was traded from Boston to Florida in October of 2003. The result was him wearing all of his Bruins gear with the Panthers, as evident by this card from 2003-04 Beehive.

Now, let's go back a few years to 1996-97, where this card from the Leaf Limited set features Damian Rhodes of the Ottawa Senators. As you can see, he still has his leg pads from Toronto. He was first traded to the Islanders, then to the Senators in January of 1996.

This next one involves another Maple Leaf, this time Tom Barrasso. The picture on this card from 2002-03 OPC features Barrasso in a Leafs uniform with red and white pads. Those are from his time in Carolina, from where he was traded to the Leafs in March of 2002.

This next one is a bit older and features Jimmy Waite of the San Jose Sharks. As you can see, he is shown in his Sharks gear minus the mask of course. It was the last piece of equipment he changed after he was dealt to the Sharks in June of 1993 by the Blackhawks.

Here's another one featuring Waite with the Sharks. This time you get a better look at the overall equipment set up and while the mask is the only mismatch, that is still enough to make it in the collection as it sticks out like a sore thumb against the teal and white.

This last one features Jeff Reese of the Hartford Whalers. On this 1994-95 Parkhurst card, he is shown in a Whalers uniform with contradicting white and red leg pads. That's because he was traded from Calgary in November of 1993.

That's it for right now. These were some great additions to the project. I still have a few more to share that I found searching through my collection, but I'll save those for another post. Thanks again to Michael and Brett for these awesome additions!

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 25

It's That Time Again...

2011-09-22T07:37:00.000-04:00

It's that time of year again. Preseason hockey is in full swing and most significantly for me the Red Wings got things started in Pittsburgh last night. I've been waiting for what seems like forever since they were defeated by the Sharks in last years conference semi-finals.

If only I had the NHL network, then I could have actually watched last night's 3-2 loss for the Wings. Oh well, with the internet nowadays you don't really miss anything. This includes something pertaining to my main PC guy Jimmy Howard.

It looks like he's rocking some new pads and gloves this year, same mask though, which is fine because it's awesome. That's cool, I was hoping he would get away from those Vaughn iceberg pads and the new one's look great.

Another interesting picture is this one of #24 Pavel Datsyuk. That's right, 24, not 13. In case you didn't know, Datsyuk is wearing the #24 of his former teammate and friend Ruslan Salei during this pre-season. It's a nice way for Salei to be remembered. Hopefully either Panini or Upper Deck will use a photo from the pre-season. It would be the only other number he's worn since #56 in his first pre-season back in 2001-02.

I hoping to make it down to the Joe for one of the few home preseason games, but we'll see. What I'm really looking forward to is the regular season, which opens October 7th for the Wings. Only 15 days left...

Thoughts: Printing Plates

2011-09-21T08:45:00.000-04:00

Printing plates are one of those things in this hobby that you either love or you hate. A lot of people think they are legitimate 1/1's and a lot of people do not think they are legitimate 1/1's. Everyone is entitled to their own opinon, so here's mine.

The only issue I have with plates is the 1/1 stamp on them. Since there are four of basically the exact same plates for any given card, shouldn't they be numbered out of four instead? I know that's not as attractive as the 1/1, but I think the serial number should reflect what's actually there. Then again, this opens up another can of worms because any simple parallel set (i.e. blue, gold, emerald, black) could fall under the same line of thinking.

I guess if I'm going to consider something like my Howard Black Diamond Platinum 1/1 a legitimate 1/1, even though it's just another 'version' of the base card, then a plate would be a 1/1 in my book as well. That's the best part about this hobby, I can make the rules for myself and no one can make me say or do otherwise.

Just for kicks, here's a look at some Cup plates from the last six years:

I really like the idea of printing plates as they are a bit more exciting than a plain old white jersey swatch that's been done a million times before, although plates are heading the same direction now.

As a player collector I do not actively pursue printing plates for my Jimmy Howard collection. Why? Well, for one, I almost never see them and two, I don't consider them to be part of my want list. That's another one of the good things about collecting, I can set my own parameters for any given project.

What are your thoughts on printing plates? Ever pulled or bought one? Finally, do you think the 1/1 tag on these things is legit?

Captured on Cardboard: Owen Nolan

2011-09-20T18:48:00.001-04:00

I'm sure you probably know where I'm going with this one and that would in fact be the 1997 NHL All-Star game played in San Jose. This was the 47th All-Star game and ended in a 11-7 win for the Eastern Conference. Interestingly enough, Nolan wasn't the only player to score a hat trick in this one, Mark Recci also did it and walked away with the MVP.

That said, Nolan still produced the most memorable moment of the game. In front of his home crowd, he found himself in alone on The Dominator, Dominik Hasek, and pointed to the top corner before firing the puck past Hasek. That capped off the hat trick for Nolan.

First, here's a look at the card:

This is another one from 1997-98 Upper Deck with the Game Dated stamp on the front, although even without the stamp and description on the front, it would be pretty difficult to not realize where this photo was taken. So even though this one's a gimme, it works for this series and I wanted to show it off.

Now, here's a look at the video:

There are a few good looks at the point where the photo on the card was taken. The live action one is around the 0:48 mark. After that, there are plenty of replays that provide some different angles.

How about that Fox Trax, remember that? I thought it was the coolest thing as a kid watching hockey on TV at home, but now when I watch it I just think it's a bit much, don't you? This video makes me miss the old days of hockey on ESPN (and yes, I know this was on Fox) with guys like John Davidson...

My Picks # 76: Pavel Bure

2011-09-19T11:14:00.002-04:00

Here's another pick that shows how much better inserts were back in the 90's when jersey cards and autos did not come in nearly every single pack of cards. This one is a 90's Snapshots of The Russian Rocket, Pavel Bure, from Upper Deck's 1999-00 MVP.

The scan does not do all that much for this one, it looks much better in your hand with the light reflecting off of it as it's printed on a kind of rainbow foil board. Overall, I really like the design. it's simple and focuses the most on the four different images on the front.

This is the only one of these I have in my collection and I thought it was the coolest thing back when I pulled it from a box when I was younger. Like I said, inserts like these were what it was all about for me back then, so I can still appreciate it today.

What I really like about this one is that it shows the same player in four different jerseys. That's something you don't really see all that often. It's kind of neat to see the changes over time as the photos are in chronological order starting with the earliest one on the left.

Here's a nice little tribute video I found on YouTube. It goes along pretty well with the card as it's got plenty of Canucks highlights with some Panthers stuff thrown in, and no Rangers highlights. The only thing missing is the all star game.

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My Picks # 75: Curtis Joseph

2011-09-18T11:53:00.000-04:00

This pick comes from an interesting set from the mid-90's, Sky Box Emotion. This set was kind of unique at the time because it used adjectives like rabid, psyched, fearless, etc to describe what was going on in the picture.Sure, some are kind of corny and don't make the most sense, but some just made perfect sense, like this on featuring Curtis Joseph of St. Louis.

Besides the obvious meaning of the word, rabid can be defined as violent, raging, uncontrollable, extremely zealous or enthusiastic, or fanatical. How perfect is that for the mask he's wearing in the picture?

Now if there's one place in hockey that pop culture references are popular, it would be in the design of goalie masks. I've seen everything from television shows to movie stars and musicians represented. I think of all of them tough, Curtis Joseph has the best connection between his nickname, the Stephen King book/movie and the design on his masks.

With such a clever mask design like this that can be adapted to pretty much any team color imaginable, why wouldn't Cujo go with the same design from team to team? Here's a look at a the six other variations of the mask I know of, all the way from Edmonton to his second stop in Toronto.

For me personally, the Wings mask is the best. It is up there with the best in team history, even though it was only used for the better part of two seasons in Hockeytown. Which one is your favorite of the bunch?

Cardboard Creations: Last Line of Defense Part IV

2011-09-16T08:58:00.000-04:00

It's been a few days now since I've been able to share another set of these. This one's been sitting in the queue and I don't have anything else to post at the moment so it works. This set's got a nice mix, especially considering there are several types of mask styles represented and even two guys who went mask-less.

This will be the first set in which I've never seen any of the goalies actually play for the Wings. Reindeau would be the closest, but I didn't get into hockey until a few years after he moved on from Detroit.

It's getting to the point where it's even harder to find quality images for this set. It's even gotten as bad as taking a screen capture from a video in some cases.

It might be a while before I post another set of these as I don't have any pictures waiting to be used and I have a lot of projects to update in the next little while.

Project Status

Number of Former Wings Goalies Completed: 36
Number of Former Wings Goalies Remaining: 43

My Picks # 74: Arturs Irbe

2011-09-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Here's another card from the latest group I was referring to in my last 'my picks' post. I know I've seen this card posted somewhere on the internet before, but I thought I'd show it here anyway, and I think you can see why. By the way, in case anyone is wondering, this one comes from 1995-96 Topps Stadium Club.

Right away, one thing I believe is unique about this card is the fact that the picture is from the inside of one of these specialty entrances. Most of the time I've seen pictures of this kind of thing, it's from the outside looking in, the exact opposite of what you've got here.

I think of all of these entrances I've seen over the years, and even though I despise San Jose, they've had the best one by far. I mean how cool is it seeing the players skate out of a shark's mouth with all of those huge teeth?

Here's a better look at it from the outside:

It's also not all that often you see a picture of players from the backside, but in this case it works with the rest of the photo on the card. Click here to check out Puck Junk for a good example of when a photo from behind doesn't work, at all.

That's it for now, I've got a few packages recently and some more on the way so I should be able to update several of my projects in the coming days, so stay tuned...

My Picks # 73: Trevor Linden

2011-09-14T09:47:00.000-04:00

The other day when I was searching through one of my monster boxes of old base cards for stuff for my goaltending gallimaufry project, I came across a few more cards I thought I'd share as my picks. The first of the group is this Trevor Linden from 1995-96 Topps.

There are a few things to look at here. The first thing I notice about this card is the fact that it's horizontal, where most of the cards in this set are vertical. Altough, I guess with the photo they chose, this one would have to be a horizontal wouldn't it?

In addition to the photo just being a pretty cool action shot, it's got something you don't really see all that often on a card. Look closely at Linden's stick, the blade end is almost a perfect 90 degrees from the butt end. Now that's interesting, isn't it?

Now that I've found this one, I wonder how many cards are actually out there that capture the actual breakage of the player's stick mid follow through. Almost sounds like a good idea for a mini PC project. I'll let someone else take that one though, as my current goaltending gallimaufry project is enough for me.

Thoughts: The Cup vs Dominion

2011-09-13T15:38:00.001-04:00

A lot of people are building this up to be an epic showdown between the two highest-end card releases of the year. That's all well and good, but I've got my own take.

For me, it's not about the super high end stuff that you can get (i.e. Gretzky, Lemieux, Roy, etc), it's about my main PC guy Jimmy Howard. Whichever of the two offers me more in that regard, will be the winner of the two in my mind.

Now, I'm not afraid to admit I can't afford to go and bust case after case of this kind of stuff, frankly I think that would be dumb even if I could afford it anyway. Why? Because I care more about my PC needs than trying to make money out of busting packs and boxes.

In the case of The Cup, there are absolutely no Jimmy Howard cards to be found. Epic fail in my mind, so I'm going to steer clear of it altogether. Dominion however, is another story. I was just perusing the Dominion checklist put out on The Knight's Lance and I was pleasantly surprised. At first glance there were around ten Howard cards for me to chase.

I did a little more digging and found these 19:

Base /199
Sapphire /10
Emerald /5
Black /1
Jerseys /99
Jerseys Prime /25
Jerseys Prime Brand Logo /6
Jerseys Prime Number /25
Jerseys Prime Laundry Tag /5
Jerseys Prime Nameplate /25
Jerseys Prime Patch /25
Peerless Patches /19
Signatures Ruby /50
Signatures Sapphire /10
Signatures Black /1
Plates Black /1
Plates Blue /1
Plates Red /1
Plates Yellow /1

Immediately this makes Dominion the winner in my mind. Does that mean I'm going to bust any of it? Probably not, I think I'll wait until his cards hit the market and hopefully buy or trade for them. We'll see...

Jimmy Howard: Another Generous Acquisition

2011-09-12T08:30:00.000-04:00

I have to say one of the best things about blogging is the people behind it, hockey collectors especially. Since I've been doing this, I've found that this group can be a generous bunch at times too. This time I'd like to thank Michael over at Collecting for Kicks. If you haven't seen his blog yet, then what are you waiting for, go check it out.

Michael was kind enough to send this Howard base card from 2010-11 Between the Pipes my way along with a few other things (I'm saving them for later posts).

I'm not a huge fan of the design for BTP this year, but for some reason I like the photo on this one. Jimmy doesn't have many cards where he is mask-less, so this one's kind of unique in a sense. Regardless, its another one to add to the collection and check off the want list.

Thanks again Michael!

Thoughts: Found Myself a New LCS

2011-09-11T10:27:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend I made a trip down to Toledo, Ohio and on the way home I needed to pass through the Ann Arbor area, where I just happened to know of a new card shop, well new to me at least, thanks to the wonderful world of the internet.

As far as I've know for the last few years, where I live, there is not a single card shop within a reasonable driving distance. There is one that's about 50 miles west of me and there's one that's about 40 miles east of me. This means any time I need to pick up supplies and stuff I find myself driving at least 45 minutes.

Well, it looks like I won't be making that long of a trek anymore. The new shop I found is Stadium Cards & Comics out of Ypsilanti, MI and it's about 20 miles from my place. Much better than 40 or 50, think of the money I would save on gas.

This time I was just looking to pick up some top loaders for some recent additions to my PC projects as well as a few one-touch holders. Other than that I just wanted to check out the store and get an idea of how much hockey stuff they carried.

There was a decent amount, more than I expected actually. They had a lot of late 2000's sets for sale, lots of early 90's boxes for sale, a decent selection of singles, and of course the new stuff from Panini and Upper Deck. Pretty much all I could ask for being a hockey guy.

If there's one thing I really like about this shop, its the fact that they are connected through social media with a Facebook page as well as a website. I think that's great, it gives customers a way to stay in touch with what's going on, something that pretty much every card shop I've gone to in the past is lacking.

One last thing, I'm curious, what kind of drives do you guys have to your LCS? I'm sure all of you north of the border have an easier time finding them, especially one's with plenty of hockey stuff, but correct me if I'm wrong.

My Picks # 72: Johan Hedberg

2011-09-10T11:58:00.000-04:00

I just noticed this is going to be my 300th post on Card Boarded. I was kind of surprised that I even made it to 100 posts, let alone this far. That said, I'd just like to give a quick thanks to everyone that's stopped by over the last 22 months.

Now that I've got that out of the way, I love goalie masks, and that's why I've got back-to-back picks featuring closeups of these works of art. The best about these cards is they are simple base cards, not a set focusing on the masks themselves, so it's kind of neat that the manufacturer chose these closeups over the usual generic 'action' images.

This one comes from 2003-04 Topps and features Johan Hedberg of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Since this is one of my picks, lets look at the actual design of the card for a second too. This year, Topps went with a green border once again leaving plenty of room for great pictures like this one. I like the use of the gold foil as it provides a nice contrast with the border color.

Here are a few other incarnations of the Moose, beginning with the original of course:

Johan's got all kinds of different stuff here, everything from Indiana Jones to Spongebob Squarepants. My favorite is probably the Indy one, what about you guys? Are you fans of the Moose? And are you fans of goalies who carry a theme from one team to the next?

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Off to a Good Start

2011-09-08T10:38:00.002-04:00

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

I think I'm going to keep the definition at the front of each post in this series, just to make it easier for anyone that has no idea what the hell I'm talking about when I say gallimaufry. Now that I've made this another project, I find myself wanting to search through all of my cards again, and who doesn't love looking back through everything they've accumulated?

Here's some of cards I found while searching through my many binders of base cards:

1999-00 Omega # 102 - Mike Vernon

Here you've got former Red Wing Mike Vernon pictured with the Florida Panthers. The card is from the 1999-00 season and obviously features an image from that same season, as evident by the commemorative patch worn across the league that year.

As far as the reason for him having black/white/teal equipment in the picture, he had been traded from San Jose in December of 1999, so it makes sense that in just half a season Vernon would still be rocking his Sharks gear for some time with the Panthers.

2000-01 Pacific # 188 - Mike Vernon

This next one, also featuring Vernon with Florida, again shows him during the 1999-00 season again as evident by the commemorative patch. This time it's a bit more of a mixed setup, as he's got a Panthers mask and blocker along with Sharks leg pads and catcher. That led me to believe the picture was taken at some point during the season after the last one.

2000-01 Premier Plus # 92 - Mika Noronen

Time to switch gears a little bit and show off a bit of a lesser-know goaltender. Mika Noronen was drafted by the Sabres 21st overall back in 1997. He would make his debut with the Sabres on October 5, 2000 against Chicago. He would only go on to play two games during the 2000-01 NHL season, but did manage to play in a solid 47 games for Rochester of the AHL the same year.

That brings me to the photo on this card. In it you see Mika has Sabres colors on his glove and blocker, but extremely contrary blue and white on his pads. I'm having trouble finding a picture to confirm, but I'm assuming these pads were from his time with Rochester, as their colors are red, white and blue.

2000-01 Stadium Club # 238 - Mika Noronen

This one is pretty much a carbon copy of the last one. It pictures Noronen with his Sabre color blocker and glove combo, along with the same blue and white Heaton leg pads. These would not have looked as bad if the Sabres were still in their blue and gold.

2001-02 Victory # 364 - Mika Noronen

This was the last of the Noronen cards I could find. As you can see, it shows him with the same mask, glove and blocker as the previous two cards. The only difference being the leg pads, if these ones don't scream Rochester Americans, then I don't know what would. The only thing I don't know is why he had two different sets of mismatched pads with the Sabres.

1997-98 Donruss # 200 - J-S Giguere

For some reason I tend to forget J-S Giguere actually started his NHL career in Hartford, albeit for just eight games in 1996-97. Prior to that, he spent three seasons with the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL, which is where this card comes into play. Obviously the Halifax colors of red, white and green do not match the Hartford colors.

1997-98 Donruss Canadian Ice # 146 - J-S Giguere

One thing you may notice that's different on this one from that last one is the fact that Giguere is actually wearing a Whalers themed mask, as evident by the Whalers logo on the chin. Other than that, the rest of his equipment is the exact same and is a complete mismatch with the uniform he's wearing.

2002-03 BAP First Edition # 414 - J-S Giguere

I think of the three Giguere cards I came across, this one is the most blatant mismatch, probably because the red pads stand out much better against the white Whalers jersey. This one also features the Halifax mask he has on the first card.

1999-00 MVP # 47 - Jocelyn Thibault

One thing I'll always remember about Jocelyn Thibault is the cool throwback mask he wore while with the Canadiens. Well, when he was traded to Chicago in November of 1998, that mask along with his other Habs equipment went with him, hence the mismatch on the card.

1998-99 MVP # 42 - Jocelyn Thibault

As you can see, this one is the same as the one before it and gives a better look at the overall mismatch, which is odd because you would think after a year Upper Deck would have gotten a picture of Thibault in Hawks gear for the 1999-00 card.

That's it for right now, mostly because I didn't want to write up more than ten of these things at a time. I've got a bunch more in the queue, probably close to 20, but for now the collection stands at ten.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 10

My Picks # 71: Trevor Kidd

2011-09-07T12:03:00.000-04:00

I think I've done one or two picks like this before, the reason I chose it again being a nice closeup of another goalie mask, of course. This one is from 1995-96 Score featuring Trevor Kidd of the Calgary Flames.

First, lets look at the mask. What goes better with the Flames than a fire breathing dragon on either side of the mask? Beyond that it's got his nickname "Kidder" on the chin written in a neat font. The white cage also works pretty well with this mask design.

Now let's look at the card itself. I remember getting a lot of these Score cards as a kid and I always liked the design for some reason. It's got a simple black and white outline that leaves plenty of room for the photo, always a good thing. I also like how they alternate the lower and upper case font on the team and player names.

Aside from some cool masks like this one, if there's one thing I will always remember Trevor Kidd for, it would have to be his checkered pads. Here's a look at what I'm talking about:

It's probably not the best thing if the only reason I remember a goalie is his pads, but hey at least he's know for something, right? I always thought these were the coolest thing as a kid, as not a lot of goalies had this loud of a design on their pads. The best part is that he carried the design from Carolina to Florida to Toronto.

Captured on Cardboard: Dustin Byfuglien

2011-09-06T12:37:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a while now since I've done one of these, but as I was perusing Shoebox Legends the other day, I noticed a Dustin Byfuglien card from 2009-10 Upper Deck. It stuck out to me because it features a shot of him during the Winter Classic from Wrigley Field, which with me being a Wings fan and all I watched every minute of.

I quickly dug through one of my monster boxes to make sure I had one before starting this post, and sure enough I did have it. Actually I had two as there was a dupe nearby.

At first glance, you see Byfuglien celebrating a Blackhawks goal in front of Ty Conklin. Other than that there isn't a lot going on in the picture on this card.

Now, as far as where the moment captured on the card takes place in the video, look closely around the 2:46 mark, just after Martin Havlat put the puck past Conklin. There are a few things that confirm this. First look at Byfuglien's arms and stick in the air. Second, look at the kneeling position Conklin is in. Third, look at the Verizon ad you can see on the card, which can be seen from the broadcast camera right behind the net.

Here's the video, it's a bit long, but any Wings fan will enjoy:

So there you have it, another moment "Captured on Cardboard." Pretty cool, eh?

Cardboard Creations: Last Line of Defense Part III

2011-09-03T18:41:00.000-04:00

One thing I'm learning about really quickly with this set, other than the history of Red Wings goaltending, is the fact that there are not a ton of usable pictures for a lot of these guys. Some only played a few games, others only one. Luckily, I've been able to continue using The Goalies Archive, but soon I'm going to run into some issues with a lot of the old timers.

Right now that doesn't matter, I'll figure out something when it comes time for all of the real old timers in this set. That said, I've got the next nine ready to go.

Once again, I would like to thank people for their suggestions for this growing set:

bamlinden (Edwards)
JGBlargh (Stefan and Maracle)
Sal (Millen)

As far as modern goaltenders go, that was pretty much all I had to work with, so I just filled in the remaining five spots of this page with a few picks of my own. Take a look.

As you can see, there's a nice mix of goalies here. I've got some from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's. It's kind of funny that the first two are both righties named Greg. There's four of them all together, seems like there were a lot more right-handed catchers back in the day. I wonder if there's any reason for that...

Anyway, of this group, I was only able to watch Maracle, Wregget, and Lamothe. Maracle served as the third goaltender during the 1997-98 season and became Osgood's backup in 1998-99, after which he was claimed by Atalanta in the expansion draft, 2nd overall I might add. Wregget was signed as a free agent in 1999 and only spent one season with the Wings. Finally, Lamothe was the Wings fourth goaltender in 2003-04, but managed to make two appearances after Hasek and Joseph both went down with injuries. Man is it weird to think of those two as your goaltending duo, albeit for parts of one season, isn't it?

That's it for now. What do you guys think, should I keep this thing going? If so, I would like some more suggestions for the next set of nine, even if the choices are becoming more and more limited.

Project Status

Number of Former Wings Goalies Completed: 27
Number of Former Wings Goalies Remaining: 52

My Picks # 70: Kariya / Selanne

2011-09-02T11:32:00.001-04:00

This pick is a card I remember pulling from a box of Topps I got for Christmas a while back, I believe its from the Combos insert set from 2000-01. I know I have some more cards from this set somewhere, but those are not nearly as cool as this one.

The first thing I notice about this card is the obnoxious green background on the bottom of it, followed by the semi-painted look of the picture. If there's one thing I don't like, it's that you can tell they just plopped these two images together on a neutral background.

As far as the naming of these 'combo' cards, this one is the best. To get an idea why, here are some of the others:

Hasek / Joseph = Creased Lightning
Roy / Brodeur = O' Canada
Lemieux / Jagr = Penguin Pride
Hull / Yzerman = 600 Club
Lecavalier / Thornton = Young Ones
Amonte / LeClair = Red, White and Blue
Bure / Bure = The Fabulous Bure Brothers
Modano / Forsberg = Men in the Middle

I don't see a lot of creativity or originality there, although the Bure one is kind of funny, I'll give them that. But seriously, how is 'Quack Attack' not light years beyond the others there?

On a side note, when I see 'quack attack' all I think of is the Disney Mighty Ducks movies. Those were awesome back when I was a kid in the 90's. If I had to choose, the second film would be my favorite, followed by the first and the third. Click here for a great article about the movies I happened to stumble upon.

Finally, I thought I would show this Kariya/Selanne compilation I found on YouTube. Man these guys were good together, kind of reminds me of Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

This post brings me to a few questions for you guys. First, who is your favorite dynamic duo? Second, what are some of your favorite hockey movies, other than the Mighty Ducks?

Goaltending Gallimaufry: A Mini PC Project

2011-08-31T11:02:00.001-04:00

Gallimaufry - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

Now that's a word you don't associate with much of anything nowadays, let alone hockey cards. How many times have you seen pictures of goalies with mismatched equipment (i.e. orange pads with a red jersey, teal blocker/glove with a blue jersey, etc.)? I know I've seen quite a few and it always intrigues me, as there is just something neat about it.

That said, I've decided I want to start a mini-PC project focusing on cards that feature goalies in their mismatched equipment, as such cards tend to stand out to me right away. Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about:

One of the neat things about this project is going to be determining the reason why a given set of equipment is such a mismatch. For example, Osgood signed with the Islanders and just took a little while to change his color scheme, he was even rocking the red pants for a while. Then there's a case like Cujo, where I've heard he just wore the black pads out of spite for the organization with the goaltending carousel that year of Hasek, Joseph, and Legace.

As far as examples of actual cards, I have a few I came across the other day, but no scans yet. I would say I've got at least ten or so waiting to be scanned and cataloged.

Since I've already got two set projects going, this is nice because it gives me something to do as far as other base cards. Now I find myself sorting through binder after binder and box after box looking for more of these things.

Finally, I'm going to lay some ground rules for myself on this one:

At least one piece of equipment must be a significant mismatch in the photo.
Things like throwback and all star jerseys clashing with equipment do not count.
Old school pads/gloves/blockers (the brown ones) obviously don't count.
I want to keep this exclusive to base and very low-end inserts only.

That's all I can think of for now, should be an intersting project. What do you guys think?

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: TBD

Cardboard Creations: Last Line of Defense Part II

2011-08-30T12:35:00.000-04:00

This set is quickly becoming one of my favorites of what I've done so far, as it provides a good look into the history of the team I grew up loving and still do to this day. Last time around I asked you guys for some suggestions and now it's time for my end of the deal.

First, I'd like to thank the following people for their suggestions:

Dirty Dangle (Vernon)
Captain Canuck (Sauve, Low, and Rutherford)
Sal (Chevrier and St. Laurent)
Brad (Hodson)

I should mention there were a few others I wasn't able to get to as by the time I read them I already had a few designs completed (in this case the Essensa and Hanlon). So without further ado, here are the next nine cards in my 'Last Line of Defense' set:

Out of this group, the only two I was ever able to watch were Vernon and Hodson. Other than that, I just have a few cards of guys like Hanlon and Essensa in my collection. The rest are, well, just part of history to me.

So what do you guys think, how did this round turn out?

Project Status

Number of Former Wings Goalies Completed: 18
Number of Former Wings Goalies Remaining: 61

My Picks # 69: Steve Shields

2011-08-29T09:46:00.000-04:00

This pick involves two of my favorite things about the game of hockey: jerseys and goalie masks. The card I'm referring to is a Steve Shields from 2003-04 Pacific, one of the best Pacific base set designs in my opinion. It's really too bad that they got out of the hockey card business, as they had some great stuff over the years.

As you can see in the scan above, this card depicts Shields during his time with the Boston Bruins. More importantly though, it shows him in one of my favorite mask designs of all time as well as one of my favorite third jerseys of all time.

First, lets start with the goalie mask part of the equation. This card features probably the greatest tribute mask I've seen, so much so that I even did another 'My Picks' showcasing it on another card altogether. Check out that post by clicking here.

Here you can see a closeup of Shields "tribute" mask on the left and on the right you can see the actual mask worn by Gerry Cheevers during his time with the Bruins.

I don't think Shield's mask could've been done any better. It's got a great level of detail to it, all the way down to the hair and ears painted on the sides of the mask. It's also a plus that he went with the white wire cage as any other color would have clashed too much with the white painted mask design.

Now, for the second part of the equation, the third jersey. This one is a bit on the older side, at least in terms of third jerseys, as it debuted back in 1995-96. For a better look, click here to head on over to Third String Goalie, where this picture is from.

This one is definitely at the top of my replica jersey want list, right up there with the Islanders "Fisherman" jersey and the Kings "Burger King" jersey. I just love the color of it, especially the brown bear face on the front. Then there's the unique choppy-edge pattern on the bottom and on the arms. Somehow it all just works together.

So there's my take. What do you guys think of both the mask and the jersey?

Cardboard Creations: 66-67 Parkhurst

2011-08-28T11:05:00.000-04:00

When it comes to custom card designs, the easiest thing to do is take an existing design and either completely recreate it or use it as a starting point and change it up a bit. This edition of Cardboard Creations would be the latter. If you don't know, this set is based on the Parkhurst design from 1966-67.

I wanted to do something a bit older than 1997 this time around so I figured I'd fire up the Delorean and go all the way back to the 60's. Not as far as my 54-55 Topps creations, but close enough. As usual, here's a closer look at the Howard I came up with.

Here are some of the originals:

At first glance these look pretty much like the originals, but if you take close look and compare the two, mine have a couple of differences. The biggest thing was layering the pictures behind the left-side team color borders, where the originals are on top. Other than that, I decided not to tint the background, leaving them a neutral grey color.

Here's a look at the rest of them together:

One thing you may notice is that I actually stuck with nothing but Original Six teams this time around. That just made sense for some reason, as you can never go wrong with any of these teams.

So what do you guys think, how do they look?

By the way, I've taken some of you suggestions on my 'Last Line of Defense' set and worked up another set of nine cards, looks for those in the next few days.

My Picks # 68: Ray Ferraro

2011-08-27T01:00:00.000-04:00

At first glance you may wonder why the heck I would choose this card as one of 'My Picks', but there's a good reason for it, I'll get to that in a minute. I looks like just another one of those cards with an awful off-ice shot that seemed to be a pretty common thing in the 90's.

It's a Ray Ferraro base card from 1994-95 Topps Stadium Club. This is one of the sets that were a key part of my collection as a kid. Back then all I could get were random grab bag boxes containing stuff from the mid 90's and I remember having a ton of these ones.

While it's not the greatest design in the world, mainly because of the randomly placed rectangles of red, blue, and green, it could have been worse. I do like that there is plenty of room left for the picture, even though some of them weren't the best. That said, this one is kind of unique.

Similar to the Patrick Kane pre-rookie card, seen here over at MHCO, this card features a potential future NHL'er as a young kid. According to Wikipedia, Ferraro has two sons from his first marriage, Matt born in 1988 and Landon in 1991. That leads me to believe those are the two featured on this card with their father. If someone knows otherwise, please let me know. There's a chance this could just be Ferraro posing with two random kids, in which case I'll look like an idiot for doing this pick.

If you're thinking so what, it's a guy and his two kids, why is that significant? Well, if you follow the Red Wings at all (or the draft really closely for that matter) then you probably know what I'm getting at. Landon was drafted by the Red Deer Rebels in 2006 and then the Detroit Red Wings in 2009 (2nd round, 32nd overall).

Ferraro is still in the farm system at this point, looking to make the team in Grand Rapids for the upcoming season. Hopefully he can do that and soon be wearing the winged wheel on the ice, making for another father/son combo to have made it in the NHL. Red Wings Central projects Ferraro as a second line center, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Besides the Patrick Kane, do you know of any other cards that feature NHL'ers as kids?