Jimmy Howard: Ultra Platinum Medallion

Time for another quick one card post. This is one of the many recent eBay pickups that have just been sitting and waiting around to be scanned and posted here as well as my updated PC website. Even though it is a bit of work to scan, crop and organize everything, it is completely worth it in the end. That's one part of collecting I always enjoy.

Today's card is a Platinum Medallion parallel from 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. It is serial numbered 25/99 and has a really nice rainbow foil finish. They definitely want you to know it is a medallion version as the word is in the background over 30 times.

This almost completes another rainbow for my Howard collection, if you consider just three cards to be a rainbow. I have the Gold Medallion version as well and now just need the regular base version. I'll grab a copy eventually when the price is right.

Jimmy Howard: Champ's Silver & Gold

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm still trying to catch up on all the maildays I've had in recent months. It doesn't help that I have my cards scattered in different places and they're never close to my scanner, so sometimes it takes a while to even get to them.

Today's post is all about Upper Deck Champ's, specifically the 2015-16 version. I have always liked the look of this set and Howard's base card is one of my favorite base designs of his. In addition to the base, which I picked up several years ago, there were some parallels out there too: Silver (numbered to 25), Gold and Gold Back.

Here is the Silver version I got from eBay.

This thing looks awesome, it is definitely near the top of my list of favorite Howard cards now. An added bonus is that it features Howard's amazing lion themed mask. If I had to choose one as my favorite of his, that would be it. Here is a link to an InGoal Magazine article about the mask. Seeing the closeups makes me like it even more.

Now here is the Gold version that also came from eBay. The only difference between this and the silver is the coloring around the edges and the design inside the border.

These go very nicely with the base version that I already had. While there is still the gold back version out there, you could almost consider these three to be a complete rainbow I guess because the two golds appear to be the same on the fronts. However, the perfectionist in me says I need to have all four for it to truly be complete. I haven't seen one yet, so who knows when I'll be able to get one.

Jimmy Howard: SPGU Relic Blends

Catching up on mailday posts has been the bulk of my blogging efforts lately. I've got an increasingly large pile of stuff going that's come in recently, whether it be from eBay, Twitter, or wherever else. I've been trying to keep things as consolidated as possible, but sometimes it is just easier to write about one card at at time.

In the case of another recent eBay pickup, it didn't really fit with much else so I figured it could go it alone. It actually fits with some other recent pickups from SP Game Used. This one is a Relic Blends jersey card from 2019-20 SPGU. It is serial numbered 011/125 and has a cool die-cut red swatch from the jersey actually worn in the 2019 Skills Competition.

This one goes nicely with the SP Game Used All-Star Weekend jersey card and the All-Star Skills jersey/patch cards I already have. There is also a patch version of this specific card that is serial numbered out of 15. There are a few other related cards still out there as well, so I've got a bit of work to do to. A couple of them are really low numbered too.

Jimmy Howard: Panini Totally Certified

Even though this might not be the most popular opinion in the hobby, I really miss the days of Panini making NHL trading cards. They had so many great designs and a ton of cool looking parallels. Once of the sets I always like the look of was Totally Certified.

Howard had plenty of cards to chase in Totally Certified. I've picked up a few of them over the years, but am nowhere near completing the entire run of them. He's got a base card and all the accompanying parallels in addition to some memorabilia cards. According to TCDb, there are 18 different cards and four printing plates out there.

Thanks to some eBay purchases over the last few months, I was able to add four more unique Totally Certified cards to my collection. The first one is a Platinum Red, which is serial numbered out of 100. I love the look of this one with it matching the team color.

Up next is the Platinum Blue version, which is serial numbered out of 50. While it doesn't look as cool as the red, I do like how the player photo stands out against the blue background. Another thing with these is the texturing. It looks really nice in person.

Switching gears to the memorabilia cards from Totally Certified, I was able to grab one of the red versions of the regular jersey card. This one is not serial numbered and has a nice solid red jersey swatch. It is definitely a lot of red, but I love the overall look of this card.

It is kind of funny how this worked out, but in addition to the red jersey, I was also able to grab the prime blue jersey version, which is serial numbered out of 50 and has a nice two-color piece with a seam running through it. Again, not as cool as the red version, but still a nice card with the contrast between the red and blue elements.

Those four put a nice dent in my Totally Certified want list. I am still on the lookout for quite a few more though. In addition to still needing the base card, I am looking for the following: Platinum Green /5, Mirror Platinum Purple /35, Mirror Platinum Blue /10, Mirror Platinum Gold /5, Mirror Platinum Green /1, Jersey Patch Gold /25, Jersey Patch Green /5.

Jimmy Howard: Prized Prospects Auto Patch

I am getting so far behind on posting stuff here that I've got cards from over three months ago still sitting in the queue. I guess you could consider that a good problem to have as I really enjoy the process of getting cards scanned, organized and ready for posting here.

A quick post on Twitter is nice and all, but I always find myself preferring the extended posts that can be done on platforms like Blogger. While I'm not the best writer by any means, I do like at least trying to come up with some words to go with my new cards.

In the case of this recent eBay pickup, it gets me one step closer to another complete rainbow from Howard's rookie season. Even better is that it reminded me of one of the more unique ways I acquired a card for my collection. It was way back in August of 2011 that I met a fellow SCF member in person to complete a deal. That was the first time I ever met up with an online trade partner. Here is a link to that post.

What I had forgotten about until reading that post is the regular version of this card was actually the very first Howard memorabilia card I got for the collection. This new one is the Red Hot version of Howard's 2005-05 Fleer Hot Prospects rookie card. It is a nice auto patch and is serial numbered 22/50.

Gotta love team colored parallels. There seems to be no shortage of red themed parallels, so there are a ton of other Howard's that fall into this category. This is probably one of the most red colored cards I have of his. Even the patch piece, which is probably from one of the numbers, is completely red. If only they had them sign the stickers for these in red ink, now that would've been awesome.

In terms of the complete rainbow for this, I still need the White Hot version /5 and the En Fuego version /1. I think I've only ever seen one white listed and it was insanely priced at the time. The 1/1 I have yet to see, so hopefully it is out there somewhere.