SCE Super Script Update

Wow, I just realized it's been over two years since I posted an update for my 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Super Script project, again. That was about the same gap between my previous update and the one before that. Talk about slow progress. I guess time does fly by, but for whatever reason it doesn't even feel like these have been that infrequent. 

I still consider this my favorite set after all these years and do not plan on stopping any time soon. They just don't show up for sale all that often. Sometimes when they do they are out of my price range so that makes them even harder to snag.

Luckily, 2019 has been good to me so far. I've been able to add three more to my set, all thanks to eBay. If I had to guess, I would say at least 75% of these things have come from there. For me, its the place where they show up the most.

Up first is card #78 in the set featuring Viktor Kozlov of the Florida Panthers. This one is serial numbered 19/25. I was able to grab this one for just $3.50 back in April.

 

Next we have card #47 featuring former Blackhawk Dean McAmmond. This one is serial numbered 05/25. I really like those old black jerseys Chicago used to wear. I was able to get this one for $9.99 just a couple of weeks ago.

Last but not least is another one of the CHL prospects cards. This one is #198 and features Ryan Jardine. It is serial numbered 22/25. Jardine was drafted by the Panthers 89th overall in 1998, but only played eight NHL games. Unfortunately, he never scored a goal and finished with two assists. This one cost me $3.19 back in March.

That's it for now. It feels great to finally post another update for this set. I've know all along this set would take me quite a while and that's fine with me. It gives me something to search for at shows and on the internet. Its still exciting every time I see a new one pop up.

These three bring me to a total of 62 for the set, which is just over 28% complete now. I've definitely got my work cut out for me tracking down the remaining 158 cards.

Jimmy Howard: 18-19 MVP Gold Script

Additions to my Jimmy Howard collection have unfortunately been few and far between recently. I'm not really sure why, but this has become somewhat less of a priority over some of my other collecting projects. Howard is still my favorite current Red Wing though and I hope he is able to finish out his career here. At this point, it would just be odd to see him shown on a card with another NHL team. 

In fact, the last time I did post something was December of 2017. I have taken some breaks from collecting between then and now so it's really not as bad as it seems. Anyway, there were a bunch of MVP in that post and today's post will be more of the same. 

This time however I have a serial numbered MVP parallel to show off. This one is a Gold Script from 2018-19 and is card #185 with a serial number of 061/150. I bought this on eBay for just $0.99 back in March of this year. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

This is my third Howard MVP Gold Script along with 2013-14 and 2005-06. I have to say this is the nicest design of the three and probably one of the better MVP designs of the last five years. I just wish the gold foil would show up a little better with my scanner. 

Jimmy Howard Collection Total: 179

Tea Cards: Transportation Through the Ages

Tea cards are something that I have next to no knowledge of, so when I received these three cards below as a gift recently, it was really cool to be able to add something new and unique to my card collection. Beyond that, these aren't even hockey cards and actually feature my other main interest, trains, which makes them even cooler.

The three cards below come from a 48-card set called "Transportation Through the Ages" produced by the Brooke Bond tea company. This set was originally issued in 1967 and features many different types of transportation, hence the name.

These are significantly smaller than your traditional 2.5" x 3.5" trading cards. They are approximately 2.75" x 1.5" overall. Also, the corners are rounded, which I tried to emphasize by placing the cards onto a black background for scanning. The border is white, which made the edges and round corners hard to see when initially scanned.

The first card titled "Diesel Locomotive" is #20 in the set. This one features an excellent illustration of a Canadian National (CN) GP30 locomotive. The GP stands for general purpose. These locomotives provided 2,250 horsepower for pulling freight. 

The next card titled "Modern Steam Locomotive" is #19 in the set and features an illustration of a Canadian Pacific Class T1B Selkirk 2-10-4 steam locomotive. The 2-10-4 designation refers to the wheel arrangement. This means there were two leading wheels, ten larger driving wheels, and four smaller trailing wheels. This particular one, #5921, was built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1938.

The last of the three is titled "Gas Turbine Locomotive" is #21 in the set and features a nice illustration of a Union Pacific locomotive. Number 61 shown here was a second generation unit and delivered in 1954.  These locomotives provided 4,500 horsepower, but did not last all that long on the rails. They were all out of service by 1970.

Below is a scan of the back for the card above. It has the card number and set information at the top, a paragraph about the subject in the middle, and some company information at the bottom. Its neat that they have it printed in both English and French. This was done because they were made for distribution with Tea packets in Canada.

These will go great with my other two sets of railroad trading cards. Special thanks again to the person who sent me these. Gotta love the people in this great hobby!

Golden Knights: February Card Show Pickups

Along with the Predators cards from my last post, I was able to snag a nice group of base cards for my Golden Knights collection as well. While there is nothing amazing among these, it is still nice to get a variety of sets and at great prices too. The card shows I go to are always in metro Detroit so any base cards that aren't Red Wings never cost much. 

Up first is my favorite card of the bunch, a Marc-Andre Fleury from 2017-18 SP Authentic. I feel like if I had to put a priority on any one Golden Knights player it would be Fleury. I never liked him during his time with the Penguins, but once he became the guy in Vegas my opinion has changed. Plus I love goalie cards, so that makes it even easier.

 

The second of three from SPA was this one of Reilly Smith. I always forget that he is the brother of former Red Wings Brendan Smith. I guess Reilly has become the better of the two based on the last couple of seasons. He's been excellent for the Knights.

To finish off SPA, there was this one featuring James Neal. I have to say I don't understand why some people had such a problem with the whole white glove thing Vegas went with for the away jerseys. I think they work pretty well with the overall look. 

I showed off a couple of these Trilogy cards in my previous Preds post and the same thing I brought up there is true here. This would look a whole lot better if Fleury was pictured in the dark jersey. And is it just me or does the cropping look a bit odd on all of these?

I think this is my first non action shot on a Vegas card. The photo on this one from 2017-18 Upper Deck featuring Brayden McNabb appears to be from the 2017 Expansion Draft. He was there in person along with several other players including Marc-Andre Fleury.

Moving onto 2018-19 Upper Deck we have this one featuring one of the newer Golden Knights, Max Pacioretty. He is pictured skating against the Minnesota Wild. Notice the camera guy and the huge camera in the background?

Up next is Paul Stastny. Not sure which team they are playing in this one. Who knows, maybe its the same game as the Pacioretty above.

Then there was this Brayden McNabb, tying him with Fleruy for the most cards in this post so far. He is shown skating against the Sabres. Upper Deck must really like Vegas' away uniforms. All but one of these have shown it so far.

Here's an interesting close-up shot of William Karlsson. I'm assuming he's looking up at the jumbotron or something. One neat detail that you probably wouldn't see on a standard shot is the gold accent on the corner of his visor. Don't see that every day.

Continuing with the white jersey trend, there was this one featuring defenseman Nate Schmidt. Hopefully he can play the entire year this upcoming season after being suspended to start last season. He is an important part of their defensive core.

Finally, back to the awesome home gray jerseys. These are still my favorite in all of the NHL at the moment. I've only bought one brand new jersey in the last 10 year or so and it was this one right here. I can't wait to see what they do for their upcoming third jersey.

Not a major. That's all I can think of now whenever I see Cody Eakin. If you're wondering, I'm referring to the major penalty he received back in round 1 against the Sharks this year. I don't blame him at all for what happened, it was just an unfortunate series of events. Thankfully the Sharks stuck to their ways and didn't win much after that anyway.

My Golden Knights collection is coming along nicely now. It's great having a couple of other teams to chase now after 20 years of collecting nothing but Red Wings stuff. Even though none of these new Knights cards are really high-end, I'm glad to have them in my collection representing my second favorite team. 

Golden Knights Collection Total: 19

Predators: February Card Show Pickups

Better late than never with these. I meant to scan and post these back in February when I got them at a local card show, but never got around to it. Rather than breaking this up into multiple posts for each set as I was doing recently, I thought it would be easier to throw the rest of my new Preds cards all into a single post. 

Up first is my favorite photo of the bunch. This Pekka Rinne is a base card from 2017-18 Upper Deck. Normally net cam shots are during play and all you see is the back of the goalie, so this is kind of neat to see Rinne from the front here.

Next we have another card from the same set, this time with a great shot of Predators Captain Roman Josi just before entering the rink. Its kind of nice how he has been isolated in this shot as there are no fans or other players visible in the shot.

This Calle Jarnkrok, also from 2017-18 Upper Deck, is another example of the excellent photography we've come to expect from the flagship set. The only downside to this one is that the white helmet, jersey and socks all blend right in with the boards.

Up next is Filip Forsberg from the same set. This one has a great shot of Forsberg after what I assume was a goal for the Predators. I wonder if it was Forsberg who actually scored it, hard to tell for sure here. Still a nice looking card though.

Now onto the first card of a former Predator. Here Kevin Fiala is shown skating with the Preds during the 2016-17 season. He was traded to the Wild back at this year's trade deadline in exchange for Mikael Granlund. Not sure if this was the best move though as Granlund didn't do a whole lot for the Preds down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Then there was this one of Austin Watson. He's had some ups and downs with off-ice issues the last couple of years, but appears to be back with the team for good and on the right track now. Hopefully that will remain true for as long as possible.

Its not very often that you see players shown on a card without a helmet. If they are it is probably during warm-ups like this one featuring Scott Hartnell.

Switching gears now, we have this Ryan Ellis from 2018-19 Upper Deck. This is a great shot of Ellis defending his team's end in front of Pekka Rinne.

Up next is this one with a great shot of Nick Bonino ready for a face off against what would appear to be the Carolina Hurricanes. The centering is excellent on this one and gives us a great look at one of the of the non-action moments of a game.

Here's another nicely centered shot, this time of Filip Forsberg. Those gold jerseys sure do look good on cardboard. As much as a prefer the previous gold jersey design, these things are staring to grow on me and I might even want to get myself one at some point.

If I had to choose a second favorite picture after the Rinne, this would be it. Here we've got a shot of P.K. likely right after he or one of his teammates scored against the Oilers.

This next one has a great close up shot of backup goalie Jusse Saros. The only thing that would make this better is if the two skaters were not in the background on the left. I get that these are supposed to be in-game action shots, but sometimes I feel like it would be more aesthetically pleasing if the player was isolated.

Viktor Arvidsson was the last of my pickups for 2018-19 Upper Deck. Here we've got another nicely centered action shot, this time with Arvidsson looking as though he is either expecting to receive the puck or just sent out a pass.

Going back a year now, I was able to get this excellent Pekka Rinne card from 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee Platinum. I don't have many cards from these sets in my collection so it was defintely a nice addition. The Preds gold jersey from that season really pops off the card.

The other card from this set featured Vikor Arvidsson. Its interesting to note that he is shown here wearing #38 during the 2016-17 season. He switched to wearing #33 the following season and has ever since.

The final set represented here is 2017-18 Upper Deck Trilogy. I don't know much about this set so it was nice to be able to add a few cards from it to the collection. I was able to get two of them and the first was this one featuring Ryan Johansen.

To finish things off, here is another Trilogy base card, this time featuring P.K. Subban. While these cards have a real nice premium feel to them, I feel like they would've looked a little better if they all used images of the players in dark uniforms. This is a good example of the white blending in too much with the card design.

Well, that's it for my Predators additions for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get back out to another card show here soon for some more. Now that I know there are several monthly and bi-monthly card shows locally that should be a little easier to accomplish. I just need to come up with the spare time for it somehow.

Predators Collection Total: 61

2019-20 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Tribute

While I'm not as active on here as I have been in past years, I still try to keep up with collecting the best I can. Its a little more difficult to find time for this stuff now that I have two kids and a house keeping me busy all the time. Even though I don't make as much time for collecting as I would like, there is one thing that might help make my collection a bit more of a priority again. That would be Upper Deck's first new set of the 2019-20 season. 

This year's MVP set is one that I've actually been looking forward to. Like last year's set they have a tribute to one of the original MVP sets from back in the day. In this case, it is the 20th anniversary of the Stanley Cup Edition set, which is my favorite set.

To this day, I am not exactly sure why I have such a fascination with the 1999-00 SCE set, but I do and it was the main reason I even started this blog in the first place. I'm still working on building the SCE script parallel sets and will probably be working on that forever. They are just really had to find these days. 

Even though I've been trying to keep my total number of collecting projects to a minimum lately, I feel like I need to make an exception here and start going after the 100-card tribute set. It even has its own sets of parallels so this could be a lot of fun. 

There are actually four version of the set: Silver Script, Super Script (#/25), Colors & Contours (#/249) and Colors & Contours Purple (#/9). Only 400 cards all together, not bad. I think I will just focus on the Silver Scripts and Super Scripts to start though. 

Below is a side-by-side look at the original set and the tribute version. Overall UD did a great job capturing the look of the original set.  There are a few minor things that I notice are different, but nothing too crazy. Can't wait to get started on this.

If I do stick with trying to complete this new tribute set, hopefully I won't still be working on it 20 years from now like I am with the original one today.