Jimmy Howard: Card Show Pickups

Going into the show this time around, I was really only hoping to add some singles to my Howard collection and maybe a few cards for some other projects. Well, I managed to do pretty well on the Howard front, but not so well on the others. I ended up with 15 new cards, 13 of which were Howard's, for about $35. Now that's just a coincidence. 

Let's start with the base cards. First, I got this 2011-12 Victory (that's right, the first 2011-12 product is out even before the last of 2010-11, pretty stupid if you ask me) as a toss in when I bought ten or so of these cards from the first table. It's not the best Victory design, but I've definitely seen worse, they really need to stop using the huge Victory text behind the player images. Regardless, this one kicks off another year of player collecting. 

What do you know, another Victory (see what I mean about the huge Victory text, it's just awful). This one is from 2009-10 and helped me complete my first Howard rainbow. What I like about this one is that it shows one of his older masks, and any Wings mask that uses an octopus is cool in my book. Either way, it's still another one off the want list. 

Card number three, mask number three, I'm kind of liking this trend. Anyway, this one from 2008-09 Between The Pipes is probably my favorite Howard base card from ITG. There's just something about the design I can't get enough of. It's not overly complicated and the colors work well with the picture, and all the red really pops on the lighter blue background. 

The next one is from 2010-11 Panini All Goalies (I almost bought a box of this stuff for $13, but decided against it). I actually like the look of this set, especially the way the background fades to white all around the picture. Now I just need to track down the up-close parallel. 

This one's a bit different. It's a base card from 2010-11 Adrenalyn XL, the card game from Panini. Now, I have no clue how this game works, I'm not even sure why I bought this, I mean it's not really a card, right? Or is it? I'm leaning toward yes, because unlike a sticker, it's the same size of a normal card and on regular card stock. I don't know, what do you guys think of Adrenalyn XL, does it belong in player collections?  

Now onto the inserts. This one's a Netminders from 2010-11 Upper Deck. I'm not a huge fan of the design on the front, as it looks like it was thrown together in like five minutes. Regardless, its another card I'm glad to add to the collection for a decent price, especially not having to deal with shipping charges. 

This one's kind of neat. It's a 2010-11 Certified Mirror Red that doesn't seem all that special on the front. The neat thing, which I didn't even notice at first, is the fact that it's numbered 035/250. Sweet, my first jersey numbered parallel for the Howard collection, or as some would call it, an eBay 1/1. 

Earlier I mentioned the 2009-10 Victory base helped me complete my first rainbow, well here's the third and final part of the rainbow (I've had the black for a while now). 

To add to the Adrenalyn XL debate, I picked up this 'Special' parallel as part of the same lot. It's not serial numbered or anything, but I guess they're twice as rare as the base with odds of 1:2 packs. One thing I do like about this one is the fact that a completely separate photo is used for the parallel version as compared to the base. 

Here's one I've been looking to add for quite a while now. When these came out, I really like the look of the set, but wasn't lucky enough to pull one in the box I broke (I ended up with Vokoun instead). I know the idea is the newest in the world, but Panini managed to pull it off quite well this time around. 

This is another one I really like, although I've seen plenty of people call these 'pointless' or 'useless' inserts. Maybe to the ones all about the money, but not to me as they give me more cards to chase. I'm sure most of you player collectors would agree, am I right? 

That's it for the inserts, now it's time for a couple of autos. The first is this one from 2008-09 Between The Pipes. One thing I will say first is that ITG is pretty good about hiding the fact most of their stuff like this has sticker autos, you can barely tell it there with the border job they've done. Despite that, it's still another nice looking auto from Jimmy, unlike the next one, you'll see.

Here's the one that doesn't look so good, I guess this was one of the last stickers in a batch because it looks rushed, but hey another auto is another auto for the PC, right? One thing I don't like about this one is I wish they used a picture that better shows Jimmy's mask. 

That's it for now, 13 new cards for the collection, bringing me to 63 overall (61 unique). Looks like I might be able to get to 100 quicker than I thought, we'll see though...