Pack Break: 2014-15 Fleer Ultra

The third pack to come out of the Target value box was 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. This is another product that I haven't opened before, so I've done pretty well as far as that goes with this box. I wasn't even sure what this set looked like before opening this one. This time there was only six cards with likely a very small chance at anything spectacular. 

Again all I could hope for was something for my side projects. Turns out my luck ran out with this pack as none of the cards really fit into any of my projects. That's ok though, it was still nice to open another pack of something new to me. The set isn't all that bad looking, but I will likely just stick to looking for singles from this set from now on. 

That's three down and one more to go. I'll try to get the cards from the last pack scanned and ready to post as soon as possible. I had forgotten how much fun it can be just to open a few simple packs of cards. I'm not going to go crazy and buy a bunch now as these few will fill my pack breaking needs for the foreseeable future.

Pack Break: 2013-14 Score

The second pack to come out of my Target value box was from 2013-14 Score. I'd have to go back to check for sure, but I think this is the first time I've opened any of this stuff too. Again, I went into this pack thinking I would be happy with any Red Wings or goalie cards. With 12 cards per pack, the odds of getting at least one desirable card were pretty good.

While there ended up not being any goalie cards, I did mange to pull a card of Damien Brunner. That one is definitely the keeper of the group. I liked him when he was in Detroit and remember him most from an overtime goal against the Ducks in the 2013 playoffs. Other than that the two other nice ones were a RC of Vladimir Tarasenko and a Score Black parallel of Andy Greene. The other non-base was a Gold parallel of Tanner Glass.

Not bad for another pack of Score. There are some nice looking cards in this set, especially the black parallels. Everything other than the Brunner is going into my traders pile. I really have no use for any of those cards and I'm sure there is a better home for them out there. Plus, it helps cut down on space needed for storage if I skip over these kinds of cards.

Pack Break: 2012-13 Score

The first pack from my Target value box was 2012-13 Score. It's kind of funny that two of the packs in the box have Pavel Datsyuk on them with all the news lately about him retiring from the NHL. That's too bad because he was one of my favorite payers. Anyway, this pack has seven cards and I'm not sure I've opened any of it in the past.

Score is a pretty basic low end set with some parallels and simple inserts. There are some autographs, but I'm sure the odds of hitting one of them are not very good. I would have been happy with a Red Wing and/or a couple goalie cards from this pack.

Well, I think I did pretty good with this one. I got Pavel Datsyuk for my Wings collection and two nice cards for my goalie collection. The base set is not too bad for this version of Score, although I think the conference name at the bottom is kind of a pointless addition. It would look better without the extra words below the picture.

Overall not a bad way to start off this particular value box. I got some nice cards for a couple of my side projects and the rest will go into the traders pile for now. That's another thing I need to get back to, I have so many extra cards that don't fit into any of my collecting projects. None of it is really worth trading so I'll have to think about what I want to do with all of it. For now its just taking up space in my man cave.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Between the Pipes

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

Along with the other projects I've been posting about, I've gotten back into things with this one too. This has always been my favorite side project so it's nice to finally have some new cards to show off. These all come from the lot of 03-04 BAP Between the Pipes I bought recently on eBay. I didn't specifically buy the lot for this project, but figured there would be at least one or two good candidates in the mix. Turns out there were seven!

Up first we have Steve Shields of the Florida Panthers. This setup has been featured on here before and is one of the more obvious mismatches of the group. Shields is pictured in the Panthers white jersey, but clearly his equipment shows that he belongs in Boston. Shields was traded to Florida back in October of 2003. 

This next one features Blackhawks goaltender Michael Leighton. He is shown in their red uniform with blue, white, and yellow equipment. The mismatch is because he had been with the Norfolk Admirals of the AHL . Click here to see a picture of him in an Admirals uniform with this same setup.

Up next is Josh Harding of the Minnesota Wild. He is shown in a black Wild practice jersey with blue and white gear from his time with the Regina Pats. This almost needs its own sub-category for guys shown in practice jerseys. It is very similar to this one I posted of Gerald Coleman back in 2013.

This next one features former Panthers goaltender Jani Hurme. Prior to playing in Florida, Hurme spent a few seasons in Ottawa. You can clearly see his Senators themed mask on this one. It also appears that his red and black gloves would have been from Ottawa as well. The funny thing about this card, and something I didn't even notice at first, is that Hurme is listed with the Atlanta Thrashers as evident by the team logo on the card. 

Up next is Zac Bierk of the Phoenix Coyotes. He is shown in their white jersey with black, white, and silver gear. The pads aren't as much of the mismatch as the gloves are, since silver isn't even a part of the Coyotes color scheme. His mask also appears to be from his time with the Detroit Vipers.

This one has former Mighty Ducks goaltender Martin Gerber. He is pictured in the dark eggplant Mighty Ducks jersey, but is wearing all black pads and gloves. I know technically there is black in the team logo, but it was not one of their primary colors unless you include that awful black and purple third jersey they wore back then. Maybe his pads were meant for that. Even if that's the case, I'm still including it because it just looks strange. 

Last but not least we have Ryan Miller. He is shown wearing a white Sabres jersey with red, white, and blue pads. It's not the most obvious mismatch, but still a good one for this project. Click here to see a better look at these pads clashing with the Sabres uniform.

 

That's it for now. These are some nice additions to the project and its got me wanting to get out there and find some more. Maybe a card show is my near future. I haven't been to one of those is what seems like forever now.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 177

Pack Breaks: $7.99 Value Box from Target

It's been a long time since I've opened a pack of cards. The last one I bought was a single pack of 14-15 MVP all the way back in August of 2014. The one before that was all the way back in May of 2013. So packs are something that I just haven't been all that into lately. 

That kind of changed today when I decided to pick up another value box from Target. For $7.99 I got four sealed packs and 50 random cards. I went back through my posts here and I bought the exact same thing way back in November of 2012. 

The pack you can see here is 2015-16 Artifacts. The other three included 2012-13 Score, 2013-14 Score, and 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. Not a bad mix considering sometimes these mix packs have things from the 90's and early 00's thrown in. I know for a fact that I've never opened any packs of the Fleer Ultra or Artifacts so that's nice. I'm not even all that familiar with those sets having been in and out of collecting the last two years. 

Then there is the 50 cards. Last time that was a mix of mostly early 90's junk with a couple newer cards thrown in. I'm expecting the same here, but hoping to at least grab a few cards for some of my side projects. I'll get everything scanned in here soon and I should be able to get the results posted soon.

Goalies: 03-04 BAP Between the Pipes

I forgot just how much fun this whole blogging about cards thing can be. The past two weeks I find myself just sitting and sorting through stacks of cards whenever I get a few extra minutes at my desk. There are just so many cool cards out there and I've found myself wanting even more of them now. This post is about my first impulse purchase of cards in a long time. I was searching eBay the other day and came across an auction for a partial set of 03-04 BAP Between the Pipes cards. It was only at $0.99 so I threw up a bid and just waited to see what would happen. 

Well, I ended up winning the auction and now I've got 67 new cards for my goalie collection. A couple are dupes of cards I've gotten randomly over the years, but most of them I am seeing for the very first time. This set is nice for me because it comes from the time I was most into hockey as a kid (end of middle school and on into high school) and it brings back good memories seeing some of the names included in the set. 

I'd like to share some of the cards from the set on here starting with some of the names I am most familiar with from that time period. The first featuring Curtis Joseph is one of the cooler looking pictures in the set with him firing the puck around the boards.

Up next is a goalie that I will always associate with the Red Wings even though he wasn't in Detroit at this time and that is Chris Osgood. It's always weird seeing him with the Blues or Islanders. At least he got a chance to come back and win a second Cup in Detroit.

The next guy is the great Patrick Roy and I will always remember him from the rivalry between the Red Wings and Avalanche. The first thing that comes to mind when I see Roy is game 7 from 2002 when he was pulled after six goals in the loss to Detroit. The second thing would be his statue of liberty play from the game before that.

Up next is Nikolai Khabibulin, who had one of the cooler mask / nickname combinations from that time period. While he is shown here with Tampa, I remember him more from the 1998 playoff series between the Wings and Coyotes. 

Marty Turco is another guy who had some really cool masks back then. One thing I will always remember him from is the crazy goal that Pavel Datsyuk scored against him on a breakaway in Dallas, one of those 'Datsyukian' dekes that are likely done in the NHL now. 

Up next is a guy who I remember most from a playoff series against the Red Wings. That would be Jean-Sebastian Giguere, who pretty much beat the Wings all by himself in the Ducks sweep of Detroit back in the first round of the 2003 playoffs. 

If there is one guy who had as good of a mask / nickname combinatio as The Bulin Wall, it would be Olaf Kolzig of the Capitals. His 'Godzilla' masks were awesome back then. I will always remember him from the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals when the Wings won in a sweep. 

Okay, maybe there is another guy with an even better combination. Ed Belfour and his eagle masks are something I definitely associate with this time period. I remember him most from playing against Detroit in the 1998 western conference finals.

Last but not least we have one of the best goaltenders ever, Martin Brodeur. He was a player I really liked in the late 90's and early 00's, so this is a nice card to add to my collection. One thing that always comes to mind with Brodeur is the first goal he scored against Montreal back in the day.

Now that I've gotten this far with these, I'd like to get a few more scanned and ready to show off. Who knows maybe I'll end up scanning and posting every single card from the set. That's how into this stuff I am at the moment, plus it's always fun to get a good look and entire set of goalie cards, right?

Duplicity #6: Martin Prusek

Duplicity - The quality or state of being double or twofold. 

It's been just over three years now since my last post for this project. I've actually had these two cards for set aside for well over a year now, but between my breaks in collecting and focusing on other projects, I had kind of forgotten about them until the other day when I was sorting through a stack of cards on my desk. 

This time we have two cards of former Senators goaltender Martin Prusek. The one on the left is from 2002-03 Upper Deck and the one on the right is from 2002-03 MVP.

Technically the Young Gun's card has the same picture twice by itself, so that makes that one even better for this project. At least with this card the effect of the second image is nicely done and helps complete the overall look of the card. Now I just need to find another copy of each so I can include them in my Goaltending Gallimaufry project.

Dominik Hasek: Stoppers

Now that I've decided to keep adding to my Dominik Hasek collection again, I thought I would start showing off some more of the cards I've had just sitting around. This card comes from a set that I remember having a ton of as a kid. I thought these Stoppers cards were the coolest thing back then so it's nice to enjoy it all over again now.

This one comes from 1995-96 Score and is part of the Stoppers 10-card subset. They are the last ten cards of the base set numbered 316-325. The others include Roy, Brodeur, Richter, Vernon, Vanbiesbrouck, Burke, Carey, Belfour and Potvin.

I think I have the whole set of ten cards somewhere, I may have even posted it on here somewhere in the past and just forgot about it. Either way, I still really like this card and it is one that I'm happy to have in the collection.

Refocusing My Collection Again

Now that I'm kind of back into the whole card collecting thing for the time being, I have decided to slightly adjust the focus of my collection, again. I've done this before and it helps keep things interesting after an extended absence. I haven't bought cards on a regular basis for almost a year now, so this should also help me ease back into things. 

This list is what I plan to focus on from this point forward. It's basically the same as what I had been doing, just with a couple of additions.

1) MVP Stanley Cup Edition Parallels (Silver, Gold, and Super Script)

2) Goalies (Base, Inserts, Parallels, Mask Cards, etc.)

3) Red Wings (Base, Inserts, Parallels, etc.)

4) Side Projects (Goaltending Gallimaufry, Duplicity, Captured on Cardboard)

5) Jimmy Howard (Base, Inserts, Parallels, etc.)

6) Dominik Hasek (Base, Inserts, Parallels, etc.)

I've added goalies to my priority list because it has always been my favorite position and there are just so many cool goalie cards out there. Even the base cards are great just because of getting to see all of the unique equipment and masks. Just looking through one of my boxes of unsorted base cards I found a stack of about 200 goalie cards and I really enjoyed just flipping through them. I'll have to see how many more I can find here.

I've also added my Hasek collection back into the mix. I was actively looking for his cards at one point in time, but lost interest and never ending up doing anything else with it. I kept all of the cards and plan to focus on base cards, inserts, and parallels. Hasek has so many cards out there and he seems to keep getting new ones even now, so there will be plenty for me to find. He was my favorite player when I was a kid, so it's kind of neat to get his cards from the late 90's and early 00's. 

I know none of this is really set in stone, but it will help keep my focused. After deciding to go after goalie stuff in general, I actually just made my first card related eBay purchase since June of last year. That was for a nearly complete set of goalie cards from the early 00's, a time when I was into hockey more than anything, so a lot of the names are very familiar to me. I can't wait for it to arrive so I can start scanning and showing them off.

Jimmy Howard: Masks

It's been way too long since I posted on here. I've been away from collecting cards for a while now, but have started to think about buying some again recently. With playoff hockey just around the corner, I've found myself much more into following the Red Wings. That has gotten me back onto eBay and what not looking for some cool new stuff for my collection. While I don't have anything to show just yet, I thought I would catch up on posting Jimmy Howard's masks that I've missed during my latest card blogging hiatus. 

Up first is Jimmy's current mask and probably my favorite of his so far. I would even go as far as saying this is in my top three Red Wings masks of all time. As usual, this one was custom painted by Ray Bishop and looks amazing. The lion isn't something we've seen on many Wings masks. It kind of reminds me a little of CuJo's mask from his time in Detroit. Click here for an excellent write up on this mask from InGoal Magazine.

Jimmy's 2015-16 regular season mask.

Up next is Jimmy's 2016 Stadium Series mask, also done by Ray Bishop. While Howard did not end up playing in that game, he still had this painted and I have to say it looks pretty good. I like the pin striping and how the stitches of the baseball are worked into the design. Also, the new "D" logo they came up with for the Stadium Series looks great on the top. Click here for the write up from InGoal Magazine.

Jimmy's 2016 Stadium Series mask.

Continuing with the Bishop designed masks, this next one is Howard's primary mask from the 2014-15 season. It is a pretty simple design overall with the Wings logo on either side and the "D" shield logo on top. It's not my favorite of his, but still pretty nice.  Click here for the InGoal write up for more information.

Jimmy's 2014-15 regular season mask.

Last season Jimmy also sported a pink mask for Hockey Fights Cancer. It is bascially the same as his regular mask with the two large Wings logos on either side and the "D" on top, although this time on a ribbon instead of a shield. Howard even went with matching equipment for this mask. Click here for another great read from InGoal Magazine.

Jimmy's 2014-15 Hockey Fights Cancer mask.

Getting back to the current season, Howard and Petr Mrazek both had special masks painted for Military Appreciation Night. This mask was painted by Jason Livery of Head Strong Grafx. I really like this mask and I'm hoping it will get onto a card or two for Howard so I can add it to my Goaltending Gallimaufry project. Click here for a quick article from The Hockey News about this mask. 

Jimmy's Military Appreciation Night mask for 2015-16.

Lastly we have Jimmy's cancer awareness mask from this season. This one was painted by Sylvie Marsolais of Sylabrush. Click here for link to a post over at I Love Goalies! for a better look at this one along with some in game photos. This one is pretty cool with the chrome wheels on either side and the flames on top.

Jimmy's cancer awareness mask for 2015-16.

All this talk of masks has got me wanting to start searching for more Howard cards and definitely some Gallimaufry candidates. I know there are a few out there with these special occasion type masks. Now i just need to actually get other there and pick up some new cards for the first time in almost a year.