The Card Boarded Collection (Update)

All the way back in November of 2012 I posted about a PC collection website I created called "The Card Boarded Collection" where I could share all of my scans in one place. Well, five years later I am still using it, but have made a ton of minor tweaks along the way.

I am now in the process of updating it to include my latest pickups and a lot of other things that have been shown on the blog but not uploaded to the site. It is a pretty basic looking site and I wanted to keep it that way since it's purpose is just to show off my collection.

I set up each collecting project with it's own page. Beyond that there is only a quick description at the top and then a gallery filling up the rest of the page. I think this is the best way to do it so I don't have to get into pages and pages specific to inserts, autos, etc. It's a nice way to be able to take a quick look at my collection without actually having to physically be in my basement where all the cards are stored.

This site was built using the free Weebly service. Anyone else still use this or a similar type of site to show off their collection all in one place? I highly recommend it since it's free (at least for now) and relatively easy to use. Click here for more info.

Jimmy Howard: New Additions

It's hard to believe that I've been collecting cards of Jimmy Howard for seven years now. Time flies, doesn't it? While there haven't been a ton of new additions in the last couple of years, he is still one of my favorite players and one that I will continue to collect. Thanks to Chris over at The Collector, I have a bunch of awesome new Howard cards to show off.

The first one and my favorite is this cool die-cut card from 2015-16 Upper Deck MVP. Technically it is a Level 1 Purple Colors & Contours parallel. Talk about a mouthful there. I love base set parallels so this one was perfect for me. The die-cutting is a bit crazy and reminds me of some of the great stuff from back in the 90's.

Up next is another colored parallel from the same MVP set. This time it is the green version of the base card. From what I remember, these could be obtained by combining 20 digital copies of any given base card on Upper Deck's ePack site. The green gives a nice contrast to the red and white of the Wings uniform, perfect for the day after Christmas.

Here we have the Silver Script version of the base card. It helps that Howard has a nice signature for cards like this. The other thing I like is that they decided to go with the silver foil on the MVP logo. If only they had done the same for the Upper Deck logo in the corner.

More 2015-16 MVP, this time the regular base card. While this base design is a bit nicer than some of the other recent versions, I still miss the days of the older MVP logo and the foil on the front of these cards. They just seem cheaper to me without any of the foil.

This post is definitely heavy with MVP. Here we have another Colors & Contours parallel, this time from the 2016-17 version. This is a Level 1 Teal version. The die-cuts are just as crazy with this set. Howard is also shown with his Christmas mask, so that's cool too!

Here is the green version of the base card for 2016-17. Unlike the previous season, this time they included a green facsimile signature on the front. I just wish this and the MVP logo were done in a green foil, that would look sweet!

The last of the MVP's is this Silver Script version of the same card. Again, I wish they would've done everything in the silver foil. It just does not seem like as nice of a card without it. Does anyone else really miss the older MVP sets now?

Moving on, we have this nice card from 2014-15 SP Authentic. While there are a lot of lines going every which way on this card, I really like the overall look. The red accents really help too. This is one of the better looking base designs I've seen for SPA.

More SP Authentic, this time from the 2015-16 base set. This one is really nice too and I love the use of the team colored accents. This even features one of Jimmy's best mask designs, so it is definitely a great addition to the collection.

Up next is another base card, this time from 2015-16 Upper Deck ICE. This is a pretty cool looking set and the blue elements of the design just work really well for whatever reason. The only thing I don't understand with this one is them shortening his first name to Jim. I haven't seen that on any of his cards since his rookie season back in 2005-06.

Here is another cool one, this time from 2014-15 UD Masterpieces. I think this is the first painted design like this for my Howard collection, so that's neat. I just wish they would've done a picture with his mask on to showcase the great paint job.

Champ's is another set that I do not have much of in my collection, so it was nice to add this one of Howard. This one is from the 2015-16 version. The design is very nice overall and I love the effect of making the background of the picture black and white. It really make the player image pop against the rest of the card.

This next card is one that did not scan the best, but looks awesome in person. It is a base rainbow parallel from 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum. It's kind of like a refractor and changes color as you turn it in the light. Now I just need to find some of the other versions to go along with it. The Black Ice and Traxx versions are pretty sweet looking.

Here we have a UD Canvas parallel from 2015-16 Upper Deck. It has an awesome photo of Howard entering the rink next to a stack of pucks for warm-ups. It's kind of neat that you can see a bunch of fans taking pictures in the background.

This next card is probably one of the worst looking scans I've had in a while. It comes from the 2015-16 Upper Deck Full Force Blueprint set and actually looks pretty cool in person.

Last but not least we have a silver foil base card from 2015-16 Upper Deck. This was another one of those ePack deals where you had to collect so many digital copies to be able to redeem them for a silver foil version. I actually did quite a bit of trading on ePack back then and have one of these in my account there (along with most of the other Red Wings from the set), I just never got around to redeeming them.

This will likely be my final post for 2017. I'm not really sure what I will be doing as far as collecting in 2018 as I am still using most of my hobby time for building my model railroad. I do still plan on reading card blogs and searching for the right deals on eBay though, I just don't know how often I will be posting on here. 

Thanks for reading and have a happy new year!

Predators: New Additions

Finally, I have some cards to show off for my newest side project. It was back in September that I decided to start this one, then I got busy with model railroading and never really bought anything to get started. Well, thanks to Chris over at The Collector I was able to get some very nice cards to get my Smashville project started.

These cards were part of the prize package from his Great Trader Giveaway Contest. The first one features Pekka Rinne and comes from the 2017-18 MVP.

Up next is a Filip Forsberg from the same set. While this MVP design is not my favorite, I do like how much the gold jerseys stand out from the rest of the card.

This one is a Roman Josi silver foil base card from 2016-17 Upper Deck Series 2. I like how the player image stands out from the background here. It also helps that the base set design is blue so it works well with the Preds color scheme.

Up next is a UD Canvas card with a sweet picture of what I believe is P.K. Subban celebrating his first regular season goal with the Predators. He became one of my favorite players to watch on the Preds during the playoffs and I even bought one of the jersey shirts with his name and number on the back.

Here is another Subban card, this time from 2016-17 OPC. This card has a great look at the Predators gold uniforms. It's too bad they had to change things up for the switch to Adidas this season, I really liked these ones.

Up next is the retro version of the same card. Not sure I really like the color combination here, but the overall retro design is pretty cool.

The last card and my favorite of the bunch was this Subban from 2016-17 OPC Platinum. It is serial numbered on the back and comes from the Red Prism parallel set. 

So that's it for the new additions to my laatest side project. One of these days I will have to do some searching so I can put together an actual want list for this one. There will likely not be that many cards since I am focusing on pictures exclusively from the 16-17 season. 

Predators Collection Total: 7

Goaltending Gallimaufry: Cujo

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

It's been a few months now since I've been able to post one of these. This is still one of my favorite collecting projects and I love finding new cards to add to it. I was able to make this latest addition thanks to Chris over at The Collector. I was lucky enough to win the 50/50 contest recently and this was part of the package he sent my way. Thanks Chris!

This card from 2015-16 Upper Deck SP Authentic is one that features one of the equipment mismatches that made me think of this project in the first place. You can maybe get away with some very minor black accents or trim with the Red Wings uniforms, but is a little extreme. The pads are half black and stick out like a sore thumb.

I find it kind of odd that this was the picture they chose to use considering there was plenty of time for Cujo in Detroit where he had normal looking pads. I guess I shouldn't complain though since this card fits perfectly into this project. I wonder how many more there are like this. I believe I only have one other one at this point.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 191

Masks: 2003-04 BAP The Mask III

I've been pretty busy with my model railroading hobby lately so I haven't been buying many cards. I also had some issues with my scanner a while back so I never scanned a few things I had in my queue. One of those is a complete set I picked up on eBay a few months back. It is the Mask III set from 2003-04 BAP Memorabilia.

Here is a look at the first nine cards. I already had a couple of these so they're not all new to my collection. That's ok with me though as at least now I can say I have the entire set.

The next set of nine has some pretty cool masks too. My favorites of this group are probably Kolzig and Turco. It is just me or does the Hedberg mask in the middle seem like it is on a very weird angle? I wonder why they would've done just this one differently.

 

There were two more cards in the set, but in the interest of saving time I left those off. One thing I will say is that these cards look much better in person than they do in the scans. The masks really pop aginst the blue background when you are holding them in your hand.

All Aboard: Railroad Collector Cards Series #2

Thanks to another eBay purchase I now have the second set of All Aboard railroad collector cards from back in the early 90's. These just arrived yesterday and this set is a great follow up to the first one. This appears to be the last of these sets so it might be a while before my two main hobbies can cross paths like this again.  

Same as with the first set, I bought two sealed copies and opened one of them. These are also limited to 10,000 total sets, I have #1256 and #1272. The pair set me back around $8 so not a bad deal considering there were some sellers asking a lot more than that.  

The cards in this set are again all horizontal with a simple design that focuses on the actual photos of the trains. This set has 50 cards instead of the 46 that were in series 1. Not sure why they would have changed that, but I'll take it.

Since this set focuses on the northeast, none of my favorite railroads were focused here so I'm just going to show off some cards by picking the best looking photos. The first one features an awesome bridge shot of six Central Vermont GP9's near Claremont, NH.

Here is a look at one of the card backs. Just like series one, each card has a short write up about the photo on the front. In this case, the border design is carried over from the front of the card giving it a simple look. The ghosted image is the same for all cards.

Back to the fronts, we have another great bridge shot, this time with four Grant Trunk locomotives pulling a mixed freight train through Hartford, VT.

Up next is yet another bridge shot, I guess I really like these. This Boston & Main train features an interesting consist of locomotives, all of which happen to be different colors.

Here we have another Boston & Main train, just not on a bridge. This is a great shot of another mixed freight being led by an interesting consist of locomotives. I like that there really isn't anything but nature in the background of this shot. 

 

Finally, we have this one featuring the Bangor & Aroostook railroad and their sharp red, grey and black paint scheme. This train is bringing pulpwood to a paper mill in East Millinocket, ME. This is another one with a great blue sky in the background.

So that's it for my latest non-hockey purchase. I really like these cards and wish there were more sets like this for the trains of today. I'm not sure if there is anything like this today, anyone seen anything recently? I could always come up with my own custom set too.

Red Wings: 50/50 Trade Pickups

In my never ending quest for Red Wings cards, I was lucky enough to get quite a few from Chris at The Collector as part of our recent 50/50 trade. There was a nice mix of recent Red Wings and I've decided to show them all off here in one post. 

The best of the bunch was this Pavel Datsyuk Shining Stars from 2015-16 Upper Deck. Looking at COMC, this appears to to be the Royal Blue version. I didn't even know there were different versions of these things. This is definitely the nicer looking version.

 

Up next is a run of 2013-14 Score cards. The first one features Damien Brunner. I really like watching him play for the Wings and will always remember the OT goal he scored against the Ducks during Game 4 of the 2013 playoffs. Here is a link to the replay.

Then there was this one featuring Johan Franzen. This has a great action shot of Franzen shooting the puck right toward the camera.

Continuing the trend of home jerseys, this one features Kyle Quincey during his second stint with the Red Wings. They originally drafted him, but he spent some time with the Kings and Avalanche before returning to Detroit in 2012.

Here is one featuring Mikael Samuelsson. I will always remember him for scoring the first goal of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final against the Penguins with a sweet wrap around.

 

The last of the regular Score cards is this Hot Rookies card featuring defenseman Brian Lashoff. He was part of the dual RC class as evident by the logo in the upper right corner. 

 

In addition to the Score base cards, there were a few gold parallels included. The first was this one featuring Justin Abdelkader. You can also see just a tiny bit of Jimmy Howard in the background. I've seen some others turn that into a project in itself for their main guys.

Jordin Tootoo is another player that was a lot of fun to watch while he was with the Red Wings. He may not have been the most talented, but he added some grit to the team and that is never a bad thing. It's also nice that he was able to wear the #22 in Detroit. 

The last of the golds is this one featuring Brendan Smith. It is another nice horizontal image and would look even better if the referee hadn't been in the background.

Finally we have this Kris Draper from 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Chrome. This is a great looking card in person and does not scan all that well. I don't have many Wings cards from this set, so it was nice to get one as part of this package.

That's it for the 50/50 trade. I love that I was able to stretch it out to four separate posts on here. For just a few bucks in postage and a stack of cards that I didn't even need I was able to get some great stuff for my collection and have some fun writing about it.

Dominik Hasek: 50/50 Trade Pickups

In addition to the one Jimmy Howard card, I got three new cards for my growing Dominik Hasek collection from Chris at The Collector as part of our recent 50/50 trade.

My favorite of the bunch was this one from 2000-01 Topps Stadium Club. It is card #12 in the set and has an awesome overhead shot of Hasek in his black Sabres jersey. Other than his Red Wings jersey, this is the one I associate with him the most because it was around that time that he became my favorite player when I was a kid.

The next one is a bit older and shows Hasek in the older Sabres jersey. This card is from 1995-96 Pinnacle Summit, which is nicely pointed out in the upper left corner. One thing I like about this card is how the background is cropped out, but only on the right side.

The last one is this Skilled Stars insert from 2000-01 Upper Deck. We're back to the black sabers jersey here and this card definitely looks better in person than in the scan. The border on the left fading to red does make his block look a little funny, doesn't it? 

So that's three cool new cards for my Hasek collection. I'm not even sure how many I have at this point, so I really need to get on that and come up with a count. Same goes for my other player collections. I also need to work on getting all of my Hasek base and insert cards into a binder so they are easier to look at and organize.

Jimmy Howard: 50/50 Trade Pickup

I can't believe it has been over three years now since I last added a Jimmy Howard card to my collection. Between the multiple breaks I took from collecting and the Wings bouncing between Howard and Mrazek, I guess this project just became a lower priority. He is still my favorite current goalie so I don't plan on giving up on this project or anything like that.

Thanks to my recent 50/50 trade with Chris from The Collector I now have this awesome new 2013-14 Score base card to add to the mix. I usually don't buy single base cards like this because the shipping isn't worth it and his stuff is always overpriced at and of the Detroit area card shows I go to. Getting this in a trade is the perfect way to go.

I love the photo on this card as it shows Howard diving to make a save on what appears to be a breakaway for the Avalanche. Not sure if he mad the save or not, I'd have to try and track down the highlights for that particular game to find out. 

I'm not really sure where this puts me as far as the number of cards in my Howard collection, so that is something that I need to figure out one of these days. Then I need to work on tracking down the other versions of this card: Red, Gold, Black and Red Back.

50/50 Trading: Hockey Mystery Lot

Its been a long time since I've done any trading so it was nice to get in on some of the 50/50 trading action courtesy of Chris over at The Collector. I sent some of my unwanted Devils cards and a few other things in exchange for a mystery hockey lot. This sounded like a great idea and its fun not knowing what to expect in the bubble mailer when it arrives.

When I did finally open the package there was all kinds of great stuff inside. There were plenty of cards for my Hasek and Red Wings collections along with a nice mix from various years and sets. I've decided to pick a few of my new additions and show them off here.

My favorite of the non-PC cards was this Radek Faska from 2015-16 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection. It is a super thick base card serial numbered 260/399.

This one from 2002 Topps Archives featuring former Maple Leafs goaltender Ron Low really stuck out when I was sorting through the stacks of cards I received. I don't have many cards like this so it was neat to be able to add it to my collection. 

Up next is a card that stuck out because of the photograph on the front. This David Backes from 2013-14 Score has an awesome shot of him skating at Joe Louis Arena. Its a great low angle shot and the ice spray just makes it that much cooler.

Another entry from Panini, this time it is a Goalie Pulls card of Semyon Varlamov from 2012-13 Certified. These are neat because you can actually pull out the photo area of the card using the tab on the right side. I have one for my Jimmy Howard collection too.

Finally, we have this Tommy Salo from 2003-04 Pacific Crown Royale. This was one of the few Crown Royale sets not actually cut into the shape of a crown. It is die cut around the shield on the left and along the stepped sections at the bottom. I chose this one because I really liked the primary logo on those old Oilers third jerseys.

This was just the random stuff that didn't fit into any of my specific projects. It's always fun to show off some oddball things like this. As I mentioned, there is still more to show for my PC projects and I've got separate posts lined up for those.

Thanks for the trade Chris!