Jimmy Howard: Limited Gold Monikers Auto

While this will only be the fourth Howard card I've bought in 2019, it is definitely a nice one. I've always liked a lot of the Panini designs that came out between 2010 and 2014. This was back when Howard was playing pretty well and seemed to be featured in almost every one of their sets. My favorite part of the Panini sets would have to be the parallels. 

Today's card is a Gold Monikers Autograph parallel from 2011-12 Limited. This was one of the higher end sets Panini produced back then. If I remember correctly even the base cards were numbered to 299 or something. They definitely have a higher end look and I would say this was my favorite of the Limited sets they released.

The best part is it only cost me $0.99 plus shipping.

This card goes nicely with the Ruby Spotlight parallel (click here) and the Materials jersey parallel (click here) that I bought way back in 2012. There are still several others I would need to complete the rainbow. Those include the base, Gold Spotlight, Prime Materials and Platinum Spotlight. That last one is a 1/1 so I will probably never see it.

Also, this is one of the nicest looking autos in my Howard collection. If it weren't for the sticker, this would be my favorite. At least here the sticker doesn't distract too much from the design. It is nicely centered and only covers up a small portion of the image.

Jimmy Howard Collection Total: 182

Red Wings: Trade Pickups

It's been a while since I've been able to post a good batch of new Wings stuff on here. The last time was all the way back in September of 2017. I've gotten a few random Wings cards since then, but nothing that gave my hometown team collection a significant bump.

That can change now thanks to Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders. I sent a bunch of Michigan alumni stuff his way in exchange for some Wings stuff. There was no set list of cards coming my way so it was fun opening up the package and sorting through everything.

We'll start things off with my favorite nine cards of the package. It actually took my a while to decide on these as there were a ton of sets and players that I haven't added to my Wings collection yet. I don't buy much of the newer products and stay away from overpriced Wings stuff at the local shows so I don't have many cards of the current team or even former players from the last five seasons or so.

These first nine provide a good mix. My favorite would have to be the Nyquist Young Guns, since I it was my first Wings YG from that set. The Athanasiou and Nyquist Artifacts are pretty nice too. As far as design, I would give a slight edge to the AA.

Going back a few years, there were some great cards from the mid to late 90's. My favorite of these would probably be the Lidstrom from Pinnacle Inside. That was the set where the cards came in cans. I remember getting a few of those cans as a kid and thinking they were the coolest thing. The Larry Murphy in the middle makes me wish Topps would produce hockey cards again. Their sets were a big part of collecting for me back then. 

Lastly we have some great early 90's stuff. The Yves Racine from 91-92 Score and the Yzerman from 90-91 Score bring back memories of collecting Red Wings when I first started in the hobby. Those are two set designs that I will always enjoy having in my collection. There were even a few featuring the current head coach of my other favorite team.

These were an excellent boost to my Red Wings collection. I'm not even sure how many cards I have at this point, so I've decided to start sorting and counting again. I started this in the past, but never finished. That's why the total still says TBD on my collection tracker sidebar. This trade has made me want to get that figured out finally.

Thanks for the trade Dennis! I'll be on the lookout for more UofM alumni stuff for you. I already have a couple more Steve Shields cards set aside that were lurking in my binders.