Jimmy Howard: eBay Pickups

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Red Wings lot I bought on eBay for $9 included some cards for my Jimmy Howard collection. Now that I've had a chance to sort through it and check everything against my lists, this was probably my biggest eBay steal ever.

There were 44 total cards in the lot and 27 ended up being Jimmy Howard. Some of them are duplicates for me, but the ones that weren't made this more than worth the $9 cost.

We'll get things started with the best card of the lot, this NHL Game Gear dual jersey card from 2005-06 Upper Deck SP Game Used. I've had my eye on this card for years now, but never found a good enough deal to grab one. It is serial numbered 061/100 and looks awesome having two different color swatches. I love the gear design too.

Another rookie year card was this 2005-06 ICE Premieres serial numbered 360/999. This is the second one of these I have now. Even after just these two cards I would've been happy for the $9 I spent on the full lot. Everything after this is just icing on the cake.

Up next are several Upper Deck base cards, the first being this one from 2011-12. I love the low-angle shot on this card. I've seen quite a few cards with similar photos takes at Joe Louis Arena. Definitely miss that place, went to a lot of games there as a kid.

See what I mean about those low-angle shots from Joe Louis, here is another one on Howard's base card from 2014-15 Upper Deck. While this one is more of a close-up, I prefer the first one as it isolates Howard from the other players on the ice at the time.

Up next is another Upper Deck base card, this time from 2015-16. This one has a nice horizontal shot of Howard in what looks like Edmonton from the fans in the stands. Talk about perfect placement of the UD logo, its almost as if he is catching it with his glove.

Rounding out the Upper Deck base cards is this nice one from 2018-19. I really like the design of this set and it makes the card even nice that Howard is the only player visible in the shot. This is the same card that I got as a buyback 1-of-1 from the 30th anniversary set.

Going back in time a little bit we have this retro rainbow parallel from 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee. I picked one of these up years ago, but it is nice to have two copies. This one also has a nice look at one of Howard's early mask designs with the '67 Shelby Mustang.

Up next is another duplicate, from 2013-14 Score, but still one of my favorite Howard base card photos. One of these days it would be fun to see if I can determine whether or not this play was actually a goal or a save. I'm guessing save, but I might be a bit biased.

Speaking of awesome base card photos, this one from 2011-12 Pinnacle has always stood out to me when sorting through my stack of Howard cards. This is not an angle you see on many cards. What makes it even better is the lack of other players in the photo.

Moving onto another new card for me, this one is a base card from 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee. A lot of white on this one as Howard almost blends into the ice in the background. This one might have been a bit better if he were shown in the home jersey.

Another new base card for me is this one from 2014-15 MVP. I like the overall look of this set with the odd shaped cutout for the photo window. Another cool touch is the old school MVP logo in the background of the design at the bottom.

This next one has me feeling a little bit of deja vu. If you look closely at the photo, it is the exact same as the one on the 2011-12 Upper Deck card above. I think I even did a whole post on those two cards years ago about how they used the exact same image.

Another new one for me is this Stars of the Game card from 2012-13 Between the Pipes. I love the honeycomb design elements on this one, plus it also has a nice look at one of his mustang mask designs. I always thought those were really nice looking masks.

Up next is a nice base card from 2014-15 SP Authentic. I like the overall look of this set with the lines going every which way and how they use the team colors. SPA usually has a really clean look and this is a perfect example of that.

This next one has something you don't see on a card everyday, and that would be the camera mounted on top of Howard's mask. This shot on this one from 2012-13 Score was from the 2012 All-Star skills competition. Man that seems like forever ago now.

From the same set, we have Howard's season highlight card. This one features an in-game action shot. The only difference between this and the main  base card is the addition of the "Season Highlight" text just above the Western Conference text at the bottom.

Going back a bit we have one of Howard's early cards from 2007-08 Between the Pipes. After his debut in 2005, he spent most of his time with the Grand Rapids Griffins. This one also has a great look at his cool mask design with the octopi on either side.

Net cam shots on cards have always been cool and Panini took it one step further with their Net Cam sets a few years ago. This one is from 2012-13 Score and has a great look at Howard playing against the Canucks in Vancouver. Gotta love the ice on the lens. 

Here's a cool one with a great look at the Vezina trophy from 2012-13 Panini Contenders. Yes, Howard was actually in the conversation for this trophy back in the day.

Another awesome one was this ruby parallel from 2012-13 Black Diamond. This one is numbered out of 100 and looks great with the red and white of his uniform and equipment. The interesting thing about this one is the photo appears to be from this rookie season rather than the previous year. I wonder why they chose to do that.

Here is another one that is a duplicate for me, a gold parallel from 2011-12 Panini Contenders. This one is serial numbered 073/100 and will look great along side the other copy I picked up recently. Not bad for just being another part of the lot.

Then there was this awesome one from 2013-14 Panini Prizm. It is cards like these that make me miss the days of more than one card manufacturer. Panini put out some really cool designs back then and I would love to see more of their parallels in the hockey market.

Up next is the red parallel of the same card. I think this one looks even better as it works perfectly with the Red Wings colors. These will go nicely with the others I already have. 

Onto another sweet parallel, we have this Platinum Traxx from 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee Platinum. This is the first of these cards I've ever had and I have to say the pattern on them looks awesome. For whatever reason it actually decided to show up very nicely in the scan.

Last but not least, we have my favorite parallel of the lot, this Red Prism from 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee Platinum. This one also turned out surprisingly well in the scan, although it looks ten times better in person, as is the case with most every card that I scan.

These two bring me closer to completing the 2014-15 OPC Platinum rainbow. Now I just need the base, rainbow, blue cube and golden treasure versions. While I'm hopeful about finding the 1/1 someday, I understand realistically that will never happen and I should be happy with it once I find the other three missing cards. Below is my updated rainbow grid.

Well, that has to be the single longest Jimmy Howard related post I've made on here. Not a bad haul for a simple Red Wings team lot from eBay. This is one of the best deals I've gotten since I started collecting Howard stuff. I'm not sure I can beat this in today's card market, but I guess you never know. Sometimes you just get lucky, right?