Jimmy Howard: Some New Autographs

Continuing with the theme of catching up on accumulating mail, today's post is all about the newest autographs for my Jimmy Howard collection. Some of these have been sitting in the queue for several months now, so it is nice to finally get them posted.

There are five in total and they all came from separate eBay purchases over the past few months. They come from a variety of years and sets, which definitely helps diversify my Howard auto collection. A couple of them are even hard signed, which is always nice.

Up first and my favorite of the lot is this 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Ink numbered out of 35. I've seen one or two of these over the years, but was never able to acquire one until now. I think I got this for less than $10, which is a great deal if you ask me. I love the look of it too, although it would've been perfect if he was pictured in his full Red Wings gear.

Up next is another nice horizontal design, this time from the 2010-11 Crown Royale Scratching the Surface set. Again, this is one I've had my eyes on for years, but never was able to pick up a copy for myself. This one is cool because the signature is on a separate piece inserted into the card like a jersey swatch. I just wish it was centered a little better.

 

Going back to Howard's rookie year, we have this Parkhurst Signatures card. This one has a really cool design with the tan borders and the team logo plastered all over the background. It also has a nice look at Howard in his first full set of Red Wings equipment.

 

2006-07 is a year where Howard has next to no cards. This one from Black Diamond is one of just two cards from Upper Deck that season. This one is looks great. The black and white UD logo looks pretty cool. I love the cross hatch patters on here too, definitely one of the better looking Gemography sets in my opinion.

Last but not least is this nice hard signed auto from 2010-11 Zenith Yours Truly. Again, I've seen a few copies of this in the past, I just never really went after them. The price was good on this one so I went for it and was lucky enough to end up with the winning bid.

So there you have it, five awesome new autos for my primary player collection. Not sure how many I have all together now, I'll have to check on that one of these days. I'm still on the lookout for quite a few Howard autograph cards. Hopefully I can get some more soon.

Jimmy Howard: UD High Gloss

When it comes to player collecting, one of my favorite parts is tracking down those hard to find low numbered parallels. While expecting to get every one of one is pretty unrealistic, the other slightly higher numbered ones are just as fun to grab, especially when the price is good. My latest eBay pickup is another perfect example of this.

I think most collectors would agree that the Upper Deck High Gloss parallels are pretty desirable. I only have one in my Howard collection so far and have always been on the lookout for more. They just don't show up all that often, especially for good prices.

Luckily, I was able to grab this 2019-20 Upper Deck HG parallel numbered 02/10 on eBay last week. It was an auction listing so I wasn't sure how high the price would get. I was pleasantly surprised when it ended with just my one bid. Including shipping it was only $5.

I love the look of this thing. The rainbow foil, while kind of hard to see here, looks amazing when the light hits it. The photo on this card is also very nice. Picturing Howard in the home red uniform provides a nice contrast with the rest of the photo and card design.

So this is another hard to find card I can knock off the master want list. I also have the UD Exclusives as well as the silver foil version. I still need the base, speckled rainbow foil and clear cut versions to complete the full UD rainbow. That will be cool when it's complete.

Here's a look an my visual rainbow checklist for this one:

We'll see how long this one takes to fill in the remaining four spots. At least I have some of the harder ones out of the way now. I've at least seen them all available except for the Clear Cut Exclusives. Not sure how many of those are even out there.

Jimmy Howard: Panini Certified Parallels

I'm still slowly working on chipping away at my stack of incoming mail, especially for my Jimmy Howard collection. The majority of my purchases lately have been for that project. Today's post will focus on a trio of serial numbered parallels from Panini Certified.

Up first is a Mirror Blue parallel from 2010-11 Certified. This was Panini's first Certified set and I've been buying Howard cards from this set for ten years now. There are a ton of different parallels available from this set. The more the better if you ask me.

Skipping ahead a couple of years, I was able to pick up another Mirror Blue parallel from 2012-13 Certified. This one is Howard's base card, which is part of the Masked Marvels subset. It is serial numbered out of 50. The blue here provides a nice contrast.

The third was this sweet Mirror Red parallel numbered 036/100. One number less and this would be one of those sought after "jersey numbered" parallels. I'd have to check, I don't know if I even have any of those in my Howard collection right now.

So that's three great new serial numbered parallels for my Howard collection. I still have a ways to go before I can complete either of the rainbows for these sets. For the 2012-13 version, I know I still need the Gold, Emerald and Black versions. For the 2010-11 version, I for sure still need Emerald and Black parallels. Regardless of the year, these Certified cards from Panini look really nice and I would definitely like to add some more.

Jeff Gordon: Panini Chronicles Obsidian

I've said this before on here, but I definitely miss Panini being part of the hockey card market. They had some really great stuff for the few years they were around. Dominion and Prizm were some of my favorites. While they probably won't be back in hockey any time soon, I can still chase at least a few of their cards for my Jeff Gordon side project.

Today's post features an awesome new card from 2020-21 Panini Chronicles NASCAR. Specifically, it is an Obsidian card and features an awesome shot of one of Gordon's newer DuPont paint schemes. I had to have this one as soon as I saw it and wasted little time tracking down a copy for myself on eBay a few weeks ago.

The scan does not completely capture the awesomeness of this thing. It's printed on a premium card stock and the foil areas have a nice rainbow effect. The solid black areas look really nice and provide a great contrast for the rest of the design. This is definitely my favorite Gordon card so far. There are even some parallel versions out there.

This card is the perfect example of what this side project is about. I saw this card and immediately knew I wanted a copy of it. I'm not going after every single Gordon card out there, just ones that catch my eye and I think would fit with my vision for the project.

Jimmy Howard: 2004-05 Maine Black Bears

This year has been really great for my Jimmy Howard collection. I've managed to pick up some really nice cards including some that I didn't even know existed. In the case of my latest pickup, I knew it existed, but I had never seen a copy of it for sale or knew what it looked like. Then out of nowhere, it was listed on eBay with a Buy it Now option.

The card I'm referring to is this awesome college team card featuring Howard in action with the Maine Black Bears. It was sponsored by a car dealership based in Bangor, Maine. A quick check of the map shows the dealership was within 10 miles of the university. They're even still in business, albeit minus the Pontiac part. Fun fact, my first car was a '97 Pontiac Sunfire. I definitely had a lot of fun with that thing back in high school.

Here is a look at the front of the card. It is pretty simple with a nice solid white border and a large action photo. The text at the bottom is nice and neat. The team logo in the upper left corner is a nice touch and really stands out when you first look at the card.

In the past I haven't typically scanned or posted the backs of cards, unless they were a 1/1 or something special. Now that I've been using the Trading Card Database (TCDb) to catalog my Howard collection, I've found myself wanting to have the scans of the backs so I can upload them to the site and fill in some of the missing scans for Howard cards.

Given this was a promotional type team set, the back actually looks pretty nice. There is plenty of good information and a decent amount of stats. Even with all the ads at the bottom, it still has a decent overall look to it.

According to TCDb, this is Howard's only college card, so I guess I can consider that part of the collection complete now. This is nice because I've been on the lookout for this thing for years now. That's the fun part about player collecting though, isn't it?