Super Script Update

This year has definitely not been one of the busiest for me when it comes to collecting, but I have managed to pick up a few nice things here and there. I'm always on the lookout for stuff, but for whatever reason, I'm not buying as much as I would have in past years. Anyway, today I have another card to show for my favorite set. I found it on eBay the other day, made an offer, and got the card in the mail two days later. 

This one is card #31 in the set and features former Flames center Cory Stillman. It is serial numbered 03/25 on the front and will be the third Flame in my set. 

I got this one for $8 including shipping, so not a bad deal at all. It is the fifth one I've been able to land so far in 2014. That's not bad considering how often these things pop up for sale at the right price. I've actually seen quite a few, but they were more than I was willing to pay. This one also gives me 54 out of 220 for my Super Script set. 

Pack Break: 2014-15 Upper Deck MVP

The last time I bought a pack of cards was well over a year ago. I've kind of forgotten what it was even like to open one at this point, so it was nice to finally get one after all this time. The other day I was at Target and wandered down the card aisle on my way out. I happened to see packs of 2014-15 MVP for just $0.99 so I figured why not? 

Here's a look at what I got:

Nothing spectacular, but not a bad pack overall. I really just bought it to get a feel for the design of the set. The base cards are decent, but are lacking a bit by not having any type of foil on them. That is something I always associate with the MVP sets I collected in the late 90's. The silver scripts are a good example of what I mean. Back then, the base cards would've used bronze foil for the logo and trim. 

Jimmy Howard: Panini Prizm Cracked Ice

This is the card that I was referring to in my last thoughts post. I purchased it on eBay for $2 a few weeks ago and the card arrived with a strange orange staining on the back and edges. After some back and forth with the seller, I decided to keep the card and I removed most of the staining with a magic eraser. The only evidence is a faint orange mark on one edge of the card. I can live with that considering the price I paid and the rarity of this card.

This card is from 2013-14 Panini Prizm and is part of the cracked ice parallel set, which I believe was tied into the spring expo in Toronto. They are numbered 30 and of course feature the "cracked ice" effect on the front. These things are acutally pretty nice looking when you hold one up to the light. 

This one is also an "eBay 1/1" if you want to call it that. It is numbered 01/30, although that can't be seen here because it is stamped on the back of the card. It definitely goes nicely alongside the blue parallel that I have of the same card. Now I just need to work on tracking down some of the other parallel versions of this card.

Thoughts: What to do About a Damaged Card from eBay

After the last Super Script I posted, I had been waiting for one other card from eBay and it happened to arrive today. I was excited to see the bubble mailer in the mailbox and of course ripped right into it. I slid the card out and the front was exactly what I remember seeing in the auction listing. The back was a different story though. I turned it over looking for the serial number and found a bunch of orange stains in the middle and along on edge. Here's a look. Click on the image to see it full size.

Here is what the seller had listed in the description:

- Up for auction is a pack fresh 2013 - 2014 Panini Prizm Hockey Exclusive Cracked Ice Jimmy Howard #30 SSP
- This card is very rare and only available at the 2013 Toronto Fall Card Expo via the wrapper redemption program.
- This card is extremely limited with only 25 produced.
- C ard went from pack to sleeve and top loader.

Then there was this listed under the "condition" section:

- Like New: An item that looks as if it was just taken out of shrink wrap. No visible wear, and all facets of the item are flawless and intact. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections.

I don't see anything written about the condition of the back of the card, so I'm wondering what the best course of action is in this case. My first thought it to see if I can get a refund, but at the same time I really want to keep this card for my Howard collection as there aren't exactly that many of them to go around.

I guess my first step is going to be letting the seller know that there was some damage to the back of the card and see where it takes me from there. Any thoughts or advice on the situation would be appreciated.

Super Script Update

Time for another update on my favorite set. I was beginning to think I wouldn't land too many more of these this year, but that changed last weekend when I came across one with a decent BIN price on eBay. It is my fourth of 2014, so I'm not quite on pace for 11 like last year, but this is still pretty good in my book. 

This one is card #135 in the set and features former Red Wings and Flyers center Keith Primeau. It is serial numbered 15/25 and will be the second Flyer in my set.  

If anyone is wondering, I was able to land this one for only $10, which is right in line with the average I've paid for these things. It will be the 55th in my set out of a possible 220, which puts me at exactly 25% completion so far. 

Red Wings: Card Show Pickups (1970's)

Time for some cards that are older than me. Most of them more than a decade older than me. In the past I've never really been into the vintage cards, but now that I'm working on a team collection more actively, its kind of neat to see some of the older designs and players that came before I was born. These will be the oldest cards I've ever shown off here.

Up first is a good size lot from 1976-77 Topps/OPC. This one was my favorite of the group since it was the only goalie card with a good look at the old school gear. It features Jim Rutherford who played ten seasons with the Wings, with stops in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, and Toronto in between. Detroit drafted him 10th overall in 1969.

Up next is Bill Lochead. He was drafted 9th overall by the Wings in 1974 and went on to play five seasons in Detroit followed by time in Colorado (Rockies) and New York (Rangers). 

This one features former defenseman Bryan Watson. He began is NHL career with Montreal in 1963-64 before ending up with the Red Wings for the 1965-66 season. He would bounce around a few teams after than and returned to the Wings in 1973-74.

Up next is Buster Harvey, who I had never heard of before seeing this card. Harvey was originally drafted by the Minnesota North Stars in 1970. He would only end up playing two seasons with the Wings between 1975 and 1977. 

Finally, an in-game action shot, something that seems to be fairly rare in this set. This one features Dan Maloney, who was originally drafted by the Blackhawks in 1970. He would play three seasons for the Red Wings between 1975 and 1978.

Up next we are back to the plain background photos with this one featuring Danny Grant. I didn't know this before now, but Grant won the Calder trophy with Minnesota in 1969. He also scored 50 goals in his first seasons with the Wings in 1974-75.

This one stands out from the group a bit with a different colored background. Hextall began his career with the Rangers, but spent most of it between Detroit and Minnesota. He is the uncle of former Flyers goaltender Ron Hextall.

Here's another one that stood out, but for a different reason. Gotta love the airbrush job that was done on this one. Ed Giacomin was with the Rangers his entire career until being waived and picked up by the Wings in October of 1975.

Up next is Michel Bergeron. He was drafted 63rd overall by the Wings in 1974 and went on to play parts of four seasons in Detroit. 

This one is kind of creepy looking if you ask me. The picture of Nick Libbet on this one was taken at exactly the wrong time.

Time for some great 70's hair. This one features Rick Lapointe who was drafted 5th overall by Detroit in 1975. He would only go on to play two seasons with the Red Wings.

Finally, another on-ice action shot, this time of former Wings captain Terry Harper. Gotta love the old school gear, especially the gloves. Things sure have changed a lot since then.

The last regular card from this set features Walt McKechnie, another name I had never heard before finding these cards. McKechnie played five seasons with the Red Wings between two stints, one from 74-77 and the other from 81-83.

Here is a pretty cool card. It's the team checklist from the same set and is definitely hard to miss with the green coloring of the ice. Not sure if this was done to the photo or if the rink was actually painted that way. 

Here is another one of Buster Harvey, this time from 1977-78 Topps/OPC. 

Here is the team card from the same set, this time without the green ice. 

I don't have very many cards from 1979-80 Topps/OPC, so this one of Dan Bolduc is a welcome addition to my collection.

This next one is from 1974-75 Topps/OPC and features former Wings center Henry Boucha. The head band is definitely an interesting look, isn't it?

Last but not least is one of the greatest hockey hairdos I have on cardboard. This one from 1975-96 Topps/OPC features former Wings defenseman Larry Giroux, who played four seasons with the Wings during the 1970's. 

Talk about a time warp, most of these came out more than decade before I was even born. I'd never even heard of some of these guys before. That said, these are still some pretty sweet cards to add to Wings collection. Kind of makes me want to go out and get some more old stuff like this just to get more of a variety in my collection.

Red Wings: Card Show Pickups (90's and 00's)

In addition to the Howard cards and the goaltending gallimaufry stuff, I was able to grab quite a few new cards for my Red Wings collection at the last Gibraltar show a few weeks back. All of these came from the same quarter box, which ended up being five for a dollar with the bulk discount. I'll start with the cards that came from the 90's and 00's as that was about half of the cards I came home with.

Up first is one featuring Steve Yzerman from 1996-97 Fleer Ultra. I was really into this set as a kid in the late 90's and remember having a ton of these. There was just something about the design that I really liked then and still do to this day. 

The next one also features Yzerman and comes from 1996-97 Donruss Elite. This was a set that I did not have much of back then, so its nice to add one to my collection. These things definitely look better in person with the full foil finish.

Here we have another one with The Captain. This one comes from the 1997-98 Upper Deck McDonald's ICE set. I remember having a bunch of these back when I was a kid and still really like them. There is just something cool about the acetate cards, right?  

Continuing the theme I have going here, this one comes from 1992-93 O-Pee-Chee and is a reprisal of Yzerman's rookie card from 1984-85. The design is the same, but the pictures have been changed. Gotta say I like the original more. Click here to see what I mean. 

As far as Yzerman, last but not least is this one from 1997-98 Pacific Dynagon. This set definitely screams 90's with intricate gold foil design, the burst effect coming from the team logo and all the random circles placed. That said, I really like sets like this and am glad to have this one in my Wings collection now. 

Here's another one from the same set, this time featuring Chris Osgood. I think this one looks a bit better overall than the Yzerman because the white jersey tends to stand out from the background a bit more than the red. 

Speaking of Osgood, here is another one from the same year, only instead of Dynagon it comes from Invincible. The cool thing about this set is that the circular window with the head shot is actually see through. Not sure how or why they came up with the idea, but it does make for a pretty cool card. 

Jumping forward a bit to 2001-02, this one also feature Ogsood. It comes from the retro parallel portion of the Topps set from that year. Definitely a card that's hard to miss when sorting through a stack of random cardboard. 

When I found the Osgood above, there was also another card from the same set right next to it so I made sure to grab both. This one features Sergei Fedorov. 

Up next is another Fedorov, this time from 1994-95 Topps Stadium Club. Its got a cool picture of Fedorov celebrating one of his may goals with the Wings. It is also stamped with a note about his first hat trick and that the team were conference winners. 

Here is an Osgood from the same set. This one is a pretty neat picture of him doing stretches during warm ups. A lot of times non-action shots like this can be boring, but this one is kind of cool because of the angle and the closeup look at the goalie gear.

Up next is a Super Team redemption card from the same set. This one has a different type of foil on the TSC logo and text on the front. I don't know much about these, but apparently you could redeem them for a special set of cards if the team won either the division, conference, or the Stanley Cup.

I'm guessing that's where the two cards above came from since the Wings won the West in 1995. Here is a link to the cards on COMC if you are interested in reading the back. If you look at the first one listed, it does not have the conference winner logo and is not marked as "redeemed" on the back like mine is.

Up next is a card of a guy I had never heard of before, which is strange for me because I tend to remember most every player that suited up for the Wings since around 1997. It comes from 1999-00 Ultimate Victory and features Marc Rodgers. Apparently he played 21 games with Detroit that season. 

Here we have a bit of an older one from 199-96 Upper Deck Collectors Choice. It features Keith Primeau and comes from the platinum players club parallel set. Its the base design with a silver foil treatment and the extra words added along the top. 

Also from 1994-95, there was this one of Sergei Fedorov. It comes from 1994-95 Fleer Ultra and is part of the Premier Pivots insert set. For whatever reason, I really like the background design on this one. The red and white of the Wings jersey provides a nice contrast to it. 

Up next is a newer one from 2006-07 Upper Deck, specifically the Shootout Artists insert set. It features Jason Williams who was actually pretty good at the whole shootout thing with the Wings. He went 5 for 7 (71.4%) the season before, so I'm guessing that's why he was included in this set. He was even better than Datsyuk that season in the shootout.  

Finally, the last card I have to show for these two decades comes from 1994-95 Pinnacle, another set I remember having a ton of as a kid. This one though, is a Rink Collection parallel which I did not have many of. It features Dino Ciccarelli and definitely looks better in person than in the scan. The silver foil pattern is actually pretty cool. 

That's it for now, man this post took a while to put together now, but it was definitely worth it. I love getting to show off cards from my favorite team like this. I also picked up some even older Wings cards from the quarter box, but didn't want to cram them all into one super long post, so those should be up here soon. Stay tuned for that. 

Gold Script Update

This year has definitely been a bit slower for me when it comes to collecting, but I have other priorities taking up more of my time, so even if I can get in a few posts here a month I'm happy. Today's post is one that I've been looking forward to since I found out I had a couple of cards coming my way from bamlinden over at My Hockey Card Obsession. 

The first one is card number 66 in the set and features former Red Wings goaltender Chris Osgood. It is serial numbered 046/100 on the front. 

The second one is card number 120 in the set and features former Rangers defenseman Brian Leetch. It is serial numbered 006/100 on the front. 

These two bring my Gold Script total to 63 out of 220. I've still got a ways to go on this set, but that's something I like about it. Plus, who doesn't love getting free cards in the mail. Thanks again bamlinden for the help with this project!

Gold Script Total: 063/220

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Card Show Pickups

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

In addition to the Howard pickups I showed off in my last post, I was also able to find some great pieces for this project from a couple of quarter and dollar boxes. This project is one of the reasons I love just sitting and sorting through boxes and boxes of base and low end inserts. You never know what you're going to find. 

Up first is one of four Upper Deck Young Guns I was able to find in a dollar box. This one is from 2006-07 and features Adam Dennis. He is pictured in the Sabres dark blue jersey with maroon, white and yellow gear. As far as the reason for the mismatch, I was stumped at first. Then after some research I realized that it's not even Adam Dennis pictured here, it is actually Adam Berkhoel. Dennis wore #35 for the Sabres and Berkhoel wore #31. Click here to see the actual picture used on the card from Getty Images for the proof.  

A little more searching on this one and there is more proof in the fact that all of Adam Dennis' other UD rookie cards show him wearing his #35 with a plain white mask and white/grey pads. Click here to see his RC from SP Authentic and click here to see it from Hot Prospects. Kind of feel bad for the guy if his RC doesn't even have his picture on it. 

Now onto one a little less exciting from the same set. Here we have former Flyers goaltender Martin Houle. He's been featured here before with the same setup. He is pictured in the Flyers white jersey with gear that almost matches perfectly, except for the purple accents. Those are thanks to his time with the Phantoms of the AHL. 

Up next is another one from 2006-07, this time featuring former Wild goaltender Miroslav Kopriva. He is pictured in the Wild's white jersey with matching pads and gloves. The mismatch comes in the form of his mask. It is from his time with HC Rabat Kladno of the Czech Extraliga where he played from 2003-05. 

Here is the last of the four Young Guns rookies. It features the late Stefan Liv of the Detroit Red Wings. Tragically, he was a member of the KHL's Lokomotiv Yaroslavl when the team plane crashed in 2011. He was only 30 years old at the time. As far as the card goes, it shows him in a lot of Red along with Detroit's white jersey. The only thing out of place is the orange, white and black glove. This one I cannot figure out. 

Now onto something a bit older, but still related to the Red Wings. He is shown playing for the Adirondack Red Wings, who had jerseys identical to those of the Detroit Red Wings. His pads are black and white from his time with the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL. 

Up next is another oldie, this time from 1992-93 Parkhurst featuring former Whalers goaltender Sean Burke. He is shown in the Whalers dark blue jersey with a plain white "just got traded' mask along with white gear that has some red accents. The mismatch has to be from when he was traded from New Jersey to Harford in late August of 1992. 

Lastly, we have one of the great Patrick Roy. This one comes from 1995-96 Bowman and shows Roy in the Avalanche dark maroon jersey with what appears to be his blocker and glove from Montreal. The pads look to be changed over to Avs colors at this point. He is also sporting the plain white "just got traded" mask after being dealt to Colorado in December of 1995 after getting lit up for 11 goals by the Wings. 

That's it for now. I wish I had been able to find more than seven of these at the show, but I will definitely take what I can get. I will continue to be on the lookout for these things at shows and hope to close in on the 200 mark for the project here soon. Only 30 more to go. 

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 170