Jimmy Howard: 2014 Winter Classic Mask

In my last post I showed a few pictures of Howard's new Christmas mask. Well, that's not the only new mask he has this season. In addition to that, his primary mask and special breast cancer mask, he has a fourth to add to the list for this season. That of course is the mask for the upcoming 2014 NHL Winter Classic in Ann Arbor. 

This one is once again painted by Ray Bishop of Bishop Designs and looks awesome. It makes great use of the new Red Wings logo on the Winter Classic uniforms. It also uses the vintage white which goes great with this shade of red. 

It's even got some similarities to his other masks with the old school "D" on the chin and the stripes running up the center and along the sides. I love the addition of the spotlight reflections all over the mask. 

Hopefully Howard is back and ready to play in this game. If not it would be a shame to see this mask go to waste. It'll look great with the retro themed pads that he has in the works. Click here to see a picture of those. 

Jimmy Howard: 2013 Christmas Mask

Since I am still going to focus on collecting Jimmy Howard, I thought I would continue posting any new masks of his here on the blog. In this case Howard and Ray Bishop of Bishop Designs have come up with something pretty neat for the holiday season. Here is a look at the pictures posted on Bishop Designs Facebook page:

Not something you see everyday is it? I love the idea of doing a Christmas themed mask like this, especially with a team like the Red Wings that has red as a primary color. I like how the old fashioned "D" is showing through on the chin an how the Wings logo was worked in on the bottom of either side. What do you guys think of it? 

According to this article from The Windsor Star, Howard was supposed to wear this mask earlier in the season and auction it off for charity. That hasn't happened yet because of his recent knee injury, but he may be able to get it some game action here soon. 

Super Script Update

Man it's been a while since I got myself one of these for my collection. In fact, the last time I did land one was all the way back in April of this year. That was about when I started to get bored with collecting, so one of the last sets I bought things for is the first set I've jumped back into this time around.

This one comes courtesy of eBay and features Byron Ritchie of the Carolina Hurricanes. It's card #41 in the set and is serial numbered 18/25. Here's a look at it:

This brings me to 51 for the Super Scripts. 51 out of 220 may not sound like much, but it's still far more than I ever imagined myself getting to with this set. I guess with a little patience and a lot of time, you can pretty much go after any set out there. As long they're not all 1 of 1's though, right?

Refocusing My Collection

I've had a few months away from the hobby now and honestly it's been awesome. I found myself a new hobby (model railroading) this summer and really just lost interest in collecting cards for a while. Not sure why, I was totally into it from late 2009 through April of this year.

I even contemplated giving up completely and selling off my collection to help pay for my new expensive hobby. I came close but decided to hold onto everything and just wait until I felt the need to collect again. For whatever reason I think that time is now. The new hockey season is in full swing and I've been trying to follow the Red Wings as closely as possible, which has refueled my interest in hockey in general.

Now that I've had a chance to take a step back and look at my collection as a whole, I think there is some cutting back that can be done. I think having three separate player collections is too much for me. I think having so many set projects going at the same time is too much for me. All that being said, here's what I plan on reducing my primary collecting goals to:

1) Jimmy Howard
This has been the main focus of my collection for the last few years and I plan to keep it that way. Howard is still my favorite player and even though he's having an off-year, I still want to keep adding to the collection. He has some really neat cards out there right now and I've got almost a year's worth to catch up on at this point.

2) MVP Stanley Cup Edition Parallels
This set is one of the reasons I started the blog and it remains a top priority, although with a slight change in direction. Rather than trying to go for the master set, I'd like to focus on only the Silver, Gold, and Super Scripts for now. I'll hold onto the other inserts and what not, I just won't continue to pursue the rest of them. This makes completion feel a lot more attainable and the parallels are the only reason I started going after this set, it just got out of hand when I thought to do the entire master set.

3) Detroit Red Wings
I've been collecting Wings cards since the day I got into hockey cards. I like the variety that you get when collecting a team, especially one of the Original Six. I don't plan on going after any big ticket items, but I will continue to be on the lookout for cool base and inserts to add to this ever expanding part of my collection.

4) Metal Universe
Here's another one that I plan to stick with, only with more changes. I'm going to forget going after the inserts and focus solely on the base sets. I say sets because I'm adding the 12-13 set from UD Fleer Retro. I love the look of both sets and they would look great next to one another once completed. I'm just three cards away from having the original 96-97 set done and there are 60 cards for me to go after with the new set.

5) Side Projects
I'm going to lump together my Goaltending Gallimaufry, Captured on Cardboard and Masks into this category. I'm no longer going to keep track of which Mask cards I need on the sidebar, I'll just keep a count of what I have and add them as I come across great deals. The other two projects are probably the most fun I have collecting since they give new life to base cards, so I really want to continue to pursue both of them.

So that's the plan for now. I am not planning on coming back into the whole collecting thing at the level I was at before. Now that I have another time-consuming and relatively expensive hobby competing with this, I will be a lot more selective on which cards I buy and when. That being said, I do not plan on getting back into a post per day pace or anything, I'll just try to be more active than I have been for the last 8 months or so.