MVP Super Script Update

To go along with my previous MVP Gold Script post, I was finally able to grab a couple Super Scripts from the same set. These two came from eBay and set me back about $6 each including shipping. Not bad considering how hard these are to find nowadays.

Coincidentally, we have another Panthers card to get us started. This one features Oleg Kvasha and is card #89 in the set. It is serial numbered 08/25 on the front.

Just like the Golds from this set, the entire perimeter of the card has been made silver to differentiate it from the other script parallels. I am definitely glad they didn't do the same for the Silvers as that would've been somewhat confusing.

Next up we have card #197 featuring Daniil Markov of the Toronto Maple Leafs. What's strange about this one is the fact that the serial number is hand written. I've never seen that before on any of these MVP script parallels. Not sure why they did that.

Not a bad way to get things rolling for my latest collecting project. While this will always take a backseat to my Stanley Cup Edition set, these things are still pretty cool and I'll try to pick them up whenever a great deal comes along like this.

I wonder how many people are actually working on this set. Are you working on it or know of anybody who is? There has to be at least a few people doing it, right?

MVP Super Script Total: 2/220

MVP Gold Script Update

Now that I've decided to go after the regular MVP scripts from 1999-00, I thought I would start things off with the only one of these I've had in my collection up to this point. Plus, I've gotten a new scanner since picking it up, so why not re-scan it just for fun?

This one is card #90 in the set and features former Panthers captain Scott Mellanby. It is serial numbered 007/100 on the front. I grabbed this from a $1 bin at a card show several years ago just because they look awesome and I never had one before that.

As far as the MVP Gold Scripts go, this is probably my favorite overall design. Unlike the Stanley Cup Edition set, these are a lot more distinguishable from the base and other scripts. I mean the entire perimeter of the card went from white to gold.

When you add to that the contrast with the team colors, you get this amazing looking parallel. If only Upper Deck could go back to something more along these lines for MVP. That would get me immediately interested in buying some new product for once.

MVP Gold Script Total: 1/220

Masks: 2002-03 BTP The Mask II

Who doesn't love the Mask cards from back in the day? I know I still do and I'm always on the lookout for good deals on them. Usually I try to find them at card shows, but that's not really an option right now or for the foreseeable future. In place of browsing the singles bins at shows, I've been doing a lot more searching eBay. 

That's where I was able to snag three awesome new additions to my Mask card collection. All three come from the 2002-03 BTP The Mask II set and feature masks that I grew up watching on TV as a kid. I was able to get all three for $5 including shipping.

Of the three it was hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to it would be Olaf Kolzig's Godzilla mask. What's not to like about a fire breathing monster? The bronzes stars and the Washington landmarks in the background are nice touches as well.

My next favorite would be Ed Belfour's iconic Eagle mask, although this one from his time in Toronto is as cool as the original Blackhawks version.

Lastly we have the "Bulin Wall" mask worn by Nikolai Khabibulin with the Tampa Bay Lightning. I always thought that was one of the cooler goalie nicknames and it was awesome how it was worked into his mask design.

These join the five I already had to bring me to a total of 8 out of 30 for the set. They also bring my overall mask collection total to 61. I still have a ways to go if I want to complete all the actual mask sets. One of these days I'll have to put together a full want list. 

Any one else working on collecting all the mask cards?

Mask Collection Total: 61

Box Break: Golden Knights Inaugural Season

While this isn't the same as a traditional box break, it was still a box of cards with at least some randomness to it. I received this Vegas Golden Knights inaugural season box set as a Christmas gift, but never really got a chance to scan everything and show it here. 

In this box you are guaranteed a full 50-card base set as well as five Golden parallels. These were retailing for $19.99 at the time and can still be found for sale at various online retailers. I had always wanted to get one, but never got around to it for whatever reason.

Here is what's available in one of these boxes:

     - 35 Base Cards
     - 15 Season Highlights
     - 5 Golden Parallels
     - Autographs (1:20 boxes)

We'll get things started with the base set. There is a nice selection of players in this set, although now that we are two seasons removed from the inaugural one, some of them are no longer with the team. I chose to show Malcolm Subban here because he was one of my favorite players on the Knights while he was there.

As far as the base design, I actually like the overall look. The only negative would just be the amount of text all crammed together at the bottom of the card. I think it would've looked better with the primary logo instead of the full word mark.

The back of the cards are are very nicely done. I really like the use of both logos here. It's a shame they recycled the photo from the front though. I would've been nice to see a separate photo here, maybe with the player shown in the opposite color jersey.

Interestingly, Subban is one of 5 goaltenders featured in the set, all of whom actually did make at least one appearance for the Golden Knights during that season. Subban played 22 games and helped the team make the playoffs. The others were Marc-Andre Fleury (46 GP), Maxime Lagace (16 GP), Oscar Dansk (4 GP) and Dylan Ferguson (1 GP).

Of the remaining 30 base cards featuring forwards and defensemen, there are some familiar names and some not-so familiar names. Some of the key names in this set are William Karlsson (43G-35A-78P), Jonathan Marchessault (27G-48A-75P) and Reilly Smith (22G-38A-60P), all of whom are still with the team as of right now.

Some of the not-so familiar names would be Vadim Shipachyov (1G-0A-1P), Tomas Hyka (1G-2A-3P) and Stefan Matteau (0G-1A-1P). They combined for 21 games played and are names that I vaguely remember from that first season, but nowhere near as much as the core group that led the team to the Stanley Cup Final.

In addition to the base cards, there were 15 Season Highlights cards featuring significant moments throughout the season. This one focuses on the Golden Knights home opener on Oct 10, 2017. I remember watching this entire game as well as the pregame speech by Deryk Engelland. That game really cemented my fandom of this team.

Design wise these are very similar to the main base cards, just rotated 90 degrees with even more text. The front has a quick note listing the date and describing what is shown on the card. The back has a more detailed write-up as you can see below.

Lastly we have the golden parallels as promised on the box. Of the five I decided to show off Marc-Andre Fleury. These definitely look better than the scan as the gold foil pops a lot more in better lighting. They are not serial numbered or anything like that, they just have the gold foil VGK logo and some fancy decoration on either side.

If it were up to me, I would've gone with the primary logo instead of the word mark. This would work  out nicely for the golden parallels as you could just swap out the standard printing for the gold foil. This would also help cut down on the clutter caused by the current gold foil design sitting above all that text.

Overall I was very happy with this box, especially considering I didn't even have to pay for it myself. Its a nice way to commemorate that first season on cardboard and should be a part of any Golden Knights collection.

Beyond this awesome trading card set, there are some other great ways to relive that amazing first season. While game highlights on YouTube are always fun to watch, I highly recommend checking out the documentary film "Valiant" by Cruz Angeles.

Released in 2019, the film provides an in-depth look at the team's first season in Vegas. I bought myself a copy on Amazon and have watched it multiple times now. If you click on the linked photo below it will take you to the film's website for more information.

Hopefully things can start getting back to normal soon and somewhere down the road the Golden Knights can finish what they started that year and capture the Stanley Cup.

Golden Knights Collection Total: 94

Dominik Hasek: PowerDeck Auxilary Power

Time for more PowerDeck! In addition to the Patrik Stefan, the only other player I collect not named Jimmy Howard was also included in this set from Upper Deck back in 1999-00. Dominik Hasek is pictured here with the Sabres. He really did have some great looking goalie gear during those last few years in Buffalo, am I right?

This one is card #6 in the 20-card set.

I actually really like the look of this set with the split photos, especially the way they colorized the left one to match the team color beneath the name and number. Also, I can't think of any other set where the Upper Deck logo is in the dead center of the design, but it works here. You almost lose the logo on some of these cards this way.

While its been a few years since I added anything to my Hasek collection, I'm still always interested in adding lower end stuff. He was my favorite player growing up and has a ton of cards from the late 90's and early 00's when I was really big into card collecting.

I have a nice binder of Hasek stuff going so far, but have no idea how many cards are actually in there. One of these days I will need to go through and count them.

Expanding My MVP Script Quest

Like a lot of people right now, I have a bit of extra time to spend on my hobbies due to COVID-19. Here in Michigan we're still under our stay at home order, at least until the end of the month. For me, this has meant spending more time admiring my current collection and continuously looking to add to it via online shopping. 

All of this extra perusing of eBay, COMC and Sportslots has me wanting to add something new to the mix as far as my collection goes. If you're a regular reader here then you may know that I've been working on the 1999-00 Upper Deck MVP Script parallels for years now. Its a really fun project, but progress has always been slow. 

In order to give myself a little bit more to collect, I've decided to start actively pursuing the counterpart to that set, which would be the regular MVP set from 1999-00. If you're not familiar with these, there were actually two entirely separate MVP sets from Upper Deck that season: regular and Stanley Cup Edition. Here they are side by side.

The regular MVP was released first at the beginning of the collecting season like it still is today. The Stanley Cup Edition came out later during the 1999-00 NHL season. I remember getting hobby boxes of both as a kid, so both sets provide some of that nostalgia factor. Of all the MVP base designs over the years, these two along 98-99 are my favorites. 

Now, as far as what the regular MVP adds to my want list, this was a 220-card so there will be 220 silvers, 220 golds and 220 supers to chase. I have several silvers and at least one gold from a card show several years ago, so at least I'm not starting from nothing. 

We'll see how this goes. At least for now this is fun and exciting because its new.

Patrik Stefan: PowerDeck Auxilary Power

Wow, I can't believe its been over seven years since I posted an update specifically for my often forgotten Patrik Stefan collection. While he was a part of a recent Gold/Super Script update, I didn't consider those cards part of the separate player collection for Stefan. 

Anyway, now that I'm trying to post a little more frequently on here this seemed like a good candidate. I actually ended up getting this without even paying for it. Back when I purchased the entire set for my SCE Silver Script project, the seller happened to include a complete set of these PowerDeck Auxiliary Power cards. 

This one is card #3 in the insert set and the the cardboard counterpart to those awesome CD-ROM "cards" from 1999-00. I had a few of those as a kid and remember thinking it was the coolest thing firing one up on our old Gateway computer.

Seeing this really makes me miss those old Thrashers jerseys. While the darker one with the "T" logo on the chest is my favorite, the whites were pretty nice too. Maybe one of these days I'll get one of my Thrashers jerseys upgraded with Stefan's #13 on the back.

SCE Tribute Update

Here's another post that's been in draft status for months now. I'm still actively working on the MVP Stanley Cup Edition tribute set and bought this lot of six from eBay back in the fall to help knock a few Silver Scripts off the want list. These six cost me $2.50 shipped.

My favorite of the lot was this one featuring Matt Duchene of the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is card #50 in the 100 card set. For whatever reason the silver foil of the player's last name does not scan very well. These things do look great in person though.

The rest are in no particular order, so we'll start with Charlie Coyle of the Boston Bruins. This one is card #20 in the set. Unlike the original set which is sorted and numbered in order by team, these tributes appear to be numbered randomly.

Next we have card #8 featuring Marcus Johansson of the Bruins. I wonder if this photo was taken during the same game as the Coyle above. I'm guessing it's pretty likely as the Sharks would not play in Boston very often., unless the photos are from different seasons.

Interestingly enough, there are several clusters of cards from a specific team numbered in order. For example, following the Johansson, this Brad Marchand is #9 in the set.

Up next is card #34 featuring Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres.

Finally we have card #66 featuring Jake Guentzel of the Penguins. If I had to choose my least favorite of the bunch, this would be it. The only reason for that is every time I see this guy it reminds me of when the Predators lost in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.

So that's it for today. This lot brings me to a total of nine for the set. Not bad considering this is only the second time I've purchased cards specifically for this set. That leaves me with 91 more to find. We'll see how long that ends up taking. 

It's still odd to me seeing one of my favorite set designs from 20 years ago with players from today. On the plus side at least its another relatively low end, simple set to chase.

SCE Silver Script Tribute Total: 9/100