Red Wings: eBay Pickups

I'm not one to usually buy many team lots from eBay, especially Red Wings stuff. I do still however regularly check eBay for Red Wings stuff in general and actually found a lot that I had to have for the right price. The reason I was interested in this lot: more stuff for my Jimmy Howard collection of course. Plus, some new Wings stuff is always nice too.

The title of the listing was simply "Detroit Red Wings Hockey Card Lot" but it also said "mostly Howard extra/duplicates" in the description and had this photo included.

As you can see there is quite a mix of stuff in there including a number of Howard cards. Those will be the focus of a separate post on here. This post is all about the miscellaneous Red Wings stuff I was able to snag for a great deal.

The winning bid for this entire lot: $0.99, not bad right? Even factoring in taxes and shipping I was able to bring this lot home for just $9 total. I'll take 44 cards like these for $9 all day every day, it works out to just $0.20 per card. On top of that there was one sticker and several Grand Rapids Griffins arena giveaway autographs also included.

Sticking with the standard cards that were part of the lot, the best of the bunch was this Ryan Sproul SPx autographed rookie jersey serial numbered out of 399.

Up next is another Ryan Sproul jsersey card, this time from 2014-15 UD Premier. This is a silver spectrum rookie jersey card numbered /125.

Apparently whoever put this lot together was a fan or Sproul as the next one is his Rookie Materials jersey card from 2014-15 Upper Deck. This one has a small red swatch that stands out nicely from the rest of the card. It is not serial numbered.

Rounding out the rest of this mini Sproul collection is another jersey, this time a white swatch from his 2014-15 SP Game Used card.

Moving on from the memorabilia cards, the lot also included an awesome UD Exclusives card or Frans Nielsen from 2017-18 Upper Deck. This one is serial numbered 058/100.

Up next is another Nielsen, this time a green parallel from 2017-18 MVP. While the printed facsimile signature, as opposed to the usual foil, doesn't look so great here, I like the overall look of this card with the green MVP logo and background elements.

Continuing with some more MVP, there was also this nice base card of Gustav Nqyuist from the 2016-17 set. MVP may not be one of the best sets out there, but for being one of the low end products, some of the base designs like this are actually pretty nice.

The next one takes us back a few years to 2008-09 with a Nicklas Lidstrom base card from Upper Deck Victory. Somewhere I have this card as part of a sealed blister pack team set I bought at a local mall shop years ago. Can't go wrong with too many Lidstrom's, right?

Last but not least we have a nice base card from 2013-14 Score featuring Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson. I always liked him during his time with the Wings. He spent three seasons here alongside Jimmy Howard from 2012-2014.

Not bad considering these cost me just $0.20 each. The Wings will always be my hometown team so it is always nice to add cards to the collection, especially the older guys like Lidstrom that I grew up watching on TV. The new generation of players is nice to add here and there as well, but it just doesn't feel the same for whatever reason.

SCE Gold Script Update

While the Super Script counterparts to these cards have always been the priority, I am always on the lookout for these hard to find Gold Scripts. They are pretty difficult to come by these days so it isn't very often that I get a chance to post them on here.

In fact, I've only had one other update on this set so far this year and that was thanks to a fellow collector on Twitter. That same person (@OTB_Cards) was awesome enough to send a couple more of these my way a little while back to help chip away at my want list.

The first was card #162 featuring Roman Turek of the St. Louis Blues. This one is serial numbered 046/100 and has a nice look at one of Turek's awesome mask designs.

The second was card #116 featuring Ted Drury of the New York Islanders. This one is serial numbered 030/100 and I believe is the final piece to another complete rainbow for my set.

These two bring me to a total of 81 out of 220 for my Gold Script set. These are just about caught up with my 85 Super Scripts so that's cool. I wonder if these will take the lead at some point. You would think the less rare of the two would be easier to accumulate.

SCE Gold Script Total: 81/220

SCE Super Script Update

While 2020 has seen quite a few more additions than normal to my collection as a whole, my main set project has only seen two new pickups thus far. I am always searching eBay for deals on cards from this set and was lucky enough to finally grab another one recently.

Here is card #181 featuring Steve Kariya of the Vancouver Canucks. He is the younger brother of Paul Kariya. This one is serial numbered 09/25.

The best part about this pickup is it came as an absolute steal compared to another version I have been watching on eBay for months. That seller had this same card listed for $199 that last time I checked. I understand listing something high and then taking offers, but that seems crazy to me. I only paid $8 for my copy. Another instance of patience paying off.

This one brings me to 85 out of 220 for my set, or just under 39% of the way there. Kariya joins Cassels, Aucoin, Messier and Naslund for my almost complete Canucks team set. I'm only missing Brad May and Artem Chubarov now.

SCE Super Script Total: 85/220

Jimmy Howard: Trade Pickups

Well, this is the end of the road for an awesome trade with The Real DFG that spanned quite a few of my collection projects. If I had to pick a centerpiece of the trade for me it would've been the Jimmy Howard stuff I was able to bring home. These six new cards are a nice mix and help me knock of some more of the master want list.

Up first is my favorite photo of the group. This is card #314 from 2017-18 Upper Deck and has an awesome low-angle shot of Howard at The Air Canada Center in Toronto. I'm assuming this is a shot from warm-ups right before the game is about to start.

 

Up next is a card that features one of my favorite Jimmy Howard mask designs. This 2016-17 O-Pee-Chee Retro parallel has a great head-on look at Howard's awesome lion mask design. I believe he only wore this one for that one season, which is too bad because it was one of the coolest Red Wings masks I've ever seen.

Sticking with the retro theme, this one from 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee is quite a bit different from the one above. I love the contrast between the red of the uniform and the yellow and green design. One of my favorite features is how the cropping of the photo is offset inward just a bit so there is green all the way around.

Jumping forward in time a bit, this next one is a regular base card from 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee. Sometimes I forget that Howard wore the full red gear that season. It is definitely a different look for him as his gear usually had a good amount of white to it.

Switching gears again, we're back to 2013-14 with a base card from Panini Select. This is one shiny set and the scan does not show how nice this thing looks.

 

If I had to choose a second favorite photo, it would be the one on this 2013-14 Score Gold parallel showing Howard making a diving save against the Colorado Avalanche. This will go nicely with the base version I already have. Now I just need to find the Red, Red Back and Black version to complete the rainbow. That would look awesome when completed.

 

 

With these six additions, I am getting close to 200 unique cards in my Jimmy Howard collection. I'm not really sure if that's a huge accomplishment though as he's got over 1500 cards according to TCDB. I've got quite a ways to go if I want to really make a dent in that master checklist. Thanks again for the awesome trade DFG!

Golden Knights: Trade Pickups

Once again, my recent trade with The Real DFG brought in some new cards for one of my team collections, this time the Vegas Golden Knights. They are the newest team I've started collecting and I'm always on the lookout for some new base and lower end cards to boost my collection of the NHL's 31st team.

Up first and my favorite of this group is a 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee Retro parallel of Robin Lehner. While I'm still not sure why they acquired him, Lehner seems like a good fit in Vegas and was fun to watch in last year's playoffs. I just wish the photo had his updated Golden Knights themed mask. The one he's wearing is from Chicago.

The next on is from the same set and features Reilly Smith. He's pictured in the Knights road white jersey, which has always looked really nice if you ask me. The white gloves are awesome too. One of these days I need to get myself a replica Adidas jersey to go with my grey one. Although the new gold third and red reverse retro might be higher on my list.

Up next is a regular O-Pee-Chee card of Max Pacioretty. This one is card #426 in the set. I have to say this set design is growing on me. I wasn't a huge fan of it in the mock ups UD posted, but now that I've had some time to look at them they're actually not too bad.

Lastly we have a Shea Theodore base card from 2019-20 Upper Deck. I love the photo on this one as you've got a nice action shot of the VGK defenseman with no one else directly around him. I tend to like these shots more than the ones crowded with opposing players.

So that's four nice new additions to my growing VGK collection. While I don't have much high end stuff, cards like these are great because they showcase the players I currently enjoy watching. Plus, collecting a team adds variety I don't get from player collections.

Red Wings: Trade Pickups

In addition to several of my other collecting projects, my recent trade with The Real DFG also brought home some new cards for my Red Wings collection. Trades like this are the only way I've been getting base cards for my team collections lately as I still have not been to a card show all year. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a few next year.

Up first is a 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee Retro of Givani Smith. I have to admit, I do not know a ton about this guy as I haven't followed the Wings as closely as I used to. He played 21 games with the Wings last season picking up two goals and one assist.

The other O-Pee-Chee Retro parallel was of defenseman Patrik Nemeth. He was also new to the Red Wings for 2019-20 after spending time with Colorado and Dallas. He played in 64 games for the Wings last year picking up one goal and eight assists.

Up next is a regular O-Pee-Chee card of center Robby Fabbri, who also joined the wings during the 2019-20 season after coming over in a trade from the Blues. Every time I see that #14 I keep thinking of Brendan Shanahan who wore it most of the time while I was growing up as young Wings fan.

Last but not least we have another Fabbri, this time from 2019-20 Upper Deck Series Two. This one has a nice close up shot of him wearing the classic Red Wings red jersey.

So that's four cool new cards for my Wings collection and the first of the new season for my hometown team. One of these days I need to get myself organized enough to get an accurate count of my Red Wings cards. I've been collecting this team for almost 25 years now and have absolutely no idea how many cards of them I actually have.

Predators: Trade Pickups

From the trade that keeps on giving, I was able to grab a few new Predators cards from The Real DFG along with the awesome Arvidsson, Hasek and Stefan stuff I already posted. It has been a while since I picked up any new base Preds cards due to not attending the local card show, so it was cool to get some newer stuff from the latest O-Pee-Chee release.

Up first is card #422, a Retro parallel of Ryan Johansen. At first I wasn't a huge fan of these, but the more I see them the more I am starting to like them. The simplicity really helps.

Then there were three base cards starting with #266 featuring Filip Forsberg. This new OPC design is better than some of the last few, but nothing too spectacular.

 

Up next was card #85 featuring Mikael Granlund. 

 

Last but not least is card #446 featuring 2020 Norris Trophy winner Roman Josi.

Now I just need to work on completing the Predators team set for O-Pee-Chee. There are 17 total including the team checklist card, so I've definitely got a ways to go. Not sure how long that will take though as I really don't grab singles like this unless they are part of a trade or come from the dime boxes at card shows.

Dominik Hasek: Trade Pickups

Isn't it great when you can grab cards for a bunch of different PC projects at once? The trade I made with The Real DFG continues with some great new additions to my Dominik Hasek collection. While I don't search for these as much as my other collections, he was my favorite player as a kid so it is always nice to add new cards of his.

Up first is my favorite new Hasek card from the 2006-07 Flair Showcase Hot Numbers set. This one is card #HN30 and shows Hasek during his time with the Senators. It is still weird seeing him in that jersey. The funny part is they have his team labelled as the Red Wings in the upper right corner. Why not just have it match the team he's pictured with?

 

Sticking with cards with fire on them, I also received a 2007-08 Hot Prospects Hot Commodities card. This one is card #110 in the set and serial numbered 449/999. While this one is better in that it shows him with the Wings, I have to give the Hot Numbers the edge design wise. The flames are just a little too fiery in this case, almost gimmicky.

Up next we'll go all the way back to 1998-99 with this MVP Special Forces insert card. I remember getting a box of this stuff as a kid and hit one of these cards, I think it was Brett Hull, and really liking the set. I'm glad to have this Hasek in my collection now.

Now we're back to that odd time of his with the Senators. This one from 2014-15 Artifacts is card #104 in the set and is serial numbered 900/999. This is one of the cleaner looking Artifacts sets and the background coloring works very well with this Senators look.

Last but not least we have a 2016-17 Artifacts Orange parallel. This one is card #151 and is serial numbered 16/55. This thing looks amazing in person with the orange foil. Gotta love the old school Sabres look too. Always like adding cards of his with those uniforms.

That's it for the new Hasek additions. Thanks again to DFG for the trade! These are going into my Hasek collection and staying there for sure. Now I just need to work on cataloging my Hasek collection so I can get an accurate total of everything I have.

Viktor Arvidsson: Trade Pickups

In addition to the Patrik Stefan auto I posted recently, the trade I made with The Real DFG brought me some other great cards for my other projects. Today's post is all about my newest player collection: Viktor Arvidsson. I was able to grab two new cards in the trade.

Up first is one of Arvidsson's rookie cards, #166 from 2015-16 Champs. These sets always had a cool look to them and stock they were printed on made them even better. Apparently there are gold and silver parallels of this set for me to chase down.

The other one was 20-21 MVP 20th Anniversary 3rd Star #56. This one is done up to look like the old MVP design from 2000-01. I love these MVP tribute cards because they make use of the far superior MVP logo from back in those days. I'm still not sure why they ever changed it. The sharp corners and squared structure just look better in my opinion.

 

Now that I have this 3rd star version of the anniversary card, it just leaves me needing the 2nd and 1st star versions. While these are neat on their own, I was never a fan of UD's departure from the script parallels for 2000-01 MVP. It is interesting that they added the facsimile signatures to this anniversary edition even though they weren't on the original.

Patrik Stefan: UD Legends Epic Signatures

Ok, this is probably one of the more ironic post titles I've had on here. Patrik Stefan and legend don't really belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking about his legendary empty net gaffe against the Oilers back in the day. Regardless, I'm glad to have another cool auto for one of my PC players even if it is Patrik Stefan. 

This card was part of a recent trade I made with The Real DFG and comes from the 2000-01 Upper Deck Legends set, specifically the Epic Signatures insert set. Luckily for me, Stefan was included in this set along side names like Gretzky, Yzerman, Howe and many others. 

I really like the overall look of this set. The color/texture combination isn't too obnoxious and there is plenty of nice white space for the on-card signature. The on-card is the best part about these. The only thing I would've added is the team logo. Maybe that's just because I love that old Thrashers logo and it would look great on there somewhere.

Going through the checklist of that set, Stefan would be considered an outlier by a lot. I guess the hype was still there for Upper Deck to include him in this set. Here's a look at how the entire checklist compares statistically to Stefan's career.

UD Legends Epic Signatures NHL Regular Season Statistics
Player	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Bobby Clarke	1144	358	852	1210	507
Bernie Geoffrion	883	393	429	822	39
Brett Hull	1269	741	650	1391	23
Bobby Hull	1063	610	560	1170	249
Bobby Orr	657	270	645	915	582
Bryan Trottier	1279	524	901	1425	449
Cam Neely	726	395	299	694	83
Dale Hawerchuk	1188	518	891	1409	-98
Denis Potvin	1060	310	742	1052	456
Frank Mahovlich	1181	533	570	1103	266
Gordie Howe	1767	801	1049	1850	160
Guy Lafleur	1126	560	793	1353	446
Gilbert Perreault	1191	512	814	1326	41
John Bucyk	1540	556	813	1369	-7
Jean Beliveau	1125	507	712	1219	117
Jari Kurri	1251	601	797	1398	304
John Leclair	967	406	413	819	204
Joe Mullen	1062	502	561	1063	167
Joe Nieuwendyk	1257	564	562	1126	155
Joe Thornton	1636	420	1089	1509	186
Keith Tkachuk	1201	538	527	1065	33
Lanny McDonald	1111	500	506	1006	39
Larry Robinson	1384	208	750	958	722
Mike Bossy	752	573	553	1126	380
Marcel Dionne	1348	731	1040	1771	27
Mike Gartner	1432	708	627	1335	68
Michel Goulet	1089	548	605	1153	99
Mario Lemieux	915	690	1033	1723	114
Mark Messier	1756	694	1193	1887	211
Pavel Bure	702	437	342	779	42
Peter Bondra	1081	503	389	892	74
Phil Esposito	1282	717	873	1590	252
Pat LaFontaine	865	468	545	1013	-6
Patrik Stefan	455	64	124	188	-36
Pat Verbeek	1424	522	540	1062	-46
Sergei Fedorov	1248	483	696	1179	261
Stan Mikita	1396	541	926	1467	329
Sergei Samsonov	888	235	336	571	11
Steve Yzerman	1514	692	1063	1755	184
Ted Lindsay	1068	379	472	851	9
Wayne Gretzky	1487	894	1963	2857	520

This next table shows the minimum, average and maximum values for each category.

UD Legends Epic Signatures NHL Regular Season Statistics
Player	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Min	455	64	124	188	-98
Avg	1165	517	713	1231	186
Max	1767	894	1963	2857	722

The numbers don't lie, Stefan does not belong with the rest of the names here. He has the minimum games played, goals, assists and points. The only category he wasn't the worst in was +/- and there he only missed it by 10, coming in second worst behind Pat Verbeek.

Aside from Stefan, the only younger players in this set would've been Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov. I guess you could say if they were predicting future "Legends" with these three selections, they were only completely right on one of them.

Thanks again DFG for the trade! This is only the beginning of what he sent over. I will have a few more posts for the rest of it. Hopefully I can get to them here soon.

Viktor Arvidsson: The Cup Gold Spectrum

If there is one thing I don't have much of in my collection, it is stuff from The Cup. I'm pretty sure the only two cards I even have are the two Howard RPA's that I bought this summer. While they aren't the first thing I look for, since they're usually pretty expensive, I am always open to grabbing some for my PC if the price is right.

One of my recent eBay pickups would be one of these situations. Somehow I was able to grab this awesome Viktor Arvidsson The Cup card for just $0.99 plus shipping. It is card #47 from 2017-18 The Cup, specifically the Gold Spectrum version, serial numbered 3/12.

What a gorgeous piece of cardboard. You really have to have one of these in your hand to appreciate it. The scan looks good, but when the light hits the actual foil it looks amazing.

This is now my lowest numbered Arvidsson card besting the MVP Super Script I picked up recently. Not sure why they are numbered to 12 though. I would love to hear the reasoning for that. Its probably something obvious, but I don't follow The Cup closely so who knows.

Jimmy Howard: Artifacts Gold

One of the things I love about player collecting is going after the always elusive complete rainbows. With my Jimmy Howard collection I've got a good start on several of them going back almost ten years now. One of my favorites is the Artifacts set from 2010-11.

Of all the artifacts designs from this past decade, the one that started it is probably my favorite. It has a simplified overall look and the old fashioned document looking background is a very nice touch. Another interesting thing with this design is the lack of an Upper Deck logo on the front of the card, which is actually really nice to see.

Onto the reason for today's post. It has been a long time since I added to this rainbow, so when I saw a copy of the gold version on eBay recently I had to have it. Luckily I was able to grab this one for less than $10 with shipping. This one is serial numbered 08/35.

As far as Howard rainbows go, this one is middle of the road in terms of quantity as there are only six total versions to chase: Base, Emerald (/50), Gold (/35), Silver (/25), Rainbow (/10), Black (/5). At least there isn't a true 1/1 in this case so that helps a bit.

Similar to my recent OPC Platinum post, I thought it would be neat to put together a visual checklist grid to keep track of these and to see them all at the same time.

As you can see, I've got everything but the Rainbow and Black versions. Knowing that this set is a decade old now worries me that these are going to be hard to find for a good price. I know there is a Rainbow on COMC right now, but I'd like the price to come down a bit.