Showing posts with label Jimmy Howard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jimmy Howard. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Jimmy Howard: 2014-15 Black Diamond Orange

I'm liking these shorter one card posts on here. They give me more space to work with than a Twitter post and don't take a long to throw together as some of my previous posts. A definite win win for me and showing off my new additions to the PC.

Today's post is another pickup that brings me one card closer to completing a rainbow. Here is an orange parallel from 2013-14 Upper Deck Black Diamond. It is card #136 in the set and is serial numbered like the other versions. Still an awesome looking card though.


Black Diamond designs can be hit or miss for me. This one I actually like and somehow the scan even turned out nice for once. I love the small dot pattern near the bottom as well as the fact that the whole design is not symmetric left to right.

In terms of the rainbow, I already have the Ruby version (/50), but that's it. I still need to come up with the base, Emerald (/10) and Sapphire (/1). I don't think I even seen either of the two big ones for sale, so who knows if I'll ever be able to track them down.

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Jimmy Howard: 2013-14 Artifacts Ruby

Continuing with my main player collection, I recently picked up another nice parallel of Jimmy Howard. This was another eBay purchase a few months back and it's just been sitting ever since. I actually forgot how nice of a card this was until getting ready to post it.

Here we have a ruby parallel numbered 220/299 from 2013-14 Upper Deck Artifacts. This has to be one of the best looking Artifacts cards in my Howard collection so far. You can never go wrong with team colored foil like this, right?


One thing I really like about these Artifacts sets is the fact that they did not stick the Upper Deck logo somewhere on the front. These just feel right without it. The "Artifacts" text across the top tells you immediately what it is and is usually nicely done like this one.

In terms of completing the rainbow, this is all I have so far. I still need the base (/999), Emerald (/99), Sapphire (/85), Spectrum (/25), and Black (/5). Definitely a lot of work, but at least there isn't a base 1/1 version, so this should be attainable someday.

Monday, October 17, 2022

Jimmy Howard: 2013-14 Panini Prizm Green

Wow, just checked and I haven't posted here since April of this year. I guess at that point I wasn't as into the whole blogging thing and since then life just got busier and in the way of any further writing on here. I'd love to spend more time on this as I've always liked being able to use more than 280 characters to talk about my collection and recent additions. Call it old school or whatever you want, I still prefer it to the quick posts on other sites.

I've actually got quite a stack of maildays for my collection to get posted on here, I just need to find some more free time to chip away at it. That being said, I wanted to ease back into things with just one card that I picked up several months ago for my Howard collection. Here is a green parallel from 2013-14 Panini Prizm.


I've had this one on my radar for years and was finally able to grab a copy at a decent price on eBay. For all the love that Prizm gets in the other sports now, I think they did a great job with the hockey sets back in the Panini days. Here the green really pops against the red. Makes me think of Christmas time, which means this year has gone by way too fast.

One of my favorite things about Prizm is the number of parallels out there. This green version is just one of I believe 12 different designs of this particular card. I have a couple others already including the rainbow, red and cracked ice. Chasing rainbows like this is my favorite part of collecting so it should be fun to keep searching for the rest.

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Jimmy Howard: Cardboard Cameos

Now that Jimmy Howard is retired, the likelihood of him having a lot of new cards any time soon is pretty slim. That being said, I am obviously not going to be stopping my primary player collection and will continue to focus on his existing cardboard.

The fact that he is retired also has me going back and actually looking through my box of Howard cards more often lately. After all, what's the point of having them if you're not going to pull them out of the box and enjoy them every now and then?

Anyway, after noticing the Wings backup goalie in the photo on Howard's 2021 MVP card, it got me thinking about the chance that Howard was in the background of any other Red Wings cards. That in turn made me think of the posts on My Hockey Card Obsession about Trevor Linden cameos. Click here for some examples of what I'm referring to.

Another recent example that helped inspire this post is from @creasecollector on Twitter with his Jhonas Enroth collection. Click here to check out his blog post on the subject.

For my cameo cards of Jimmy Howard, I was able to grab three as part of my latest COMC order. I've been slowly building a want list for these as I stumble upon them and the price was just right so I had to have them for this neat little side project.

Up first is my favorite of the three, a UD Canvas card of Mike Green from 2018-19 Upper Deck. This one has a cool shot of some action in front of the Red Wings net in what appears to be Nationwide Arena. Definitely easy to see it is Howard in goal.


Up next is another card from the same set, this time featuring William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This one once again shows Howard in net, this time in the foreground at Scotia Bank Arena. This one is neat because all you see is Howard and one other player.


For the last of the three, we circle back to Mike Green. This time we have a base card from 2018-19 Upper Deck. You can clearly see Howard is the goalie behind Green, although his head is almost hidden by the Upper Deck logo in the upper right corner.


These are just some of the examples of cameo cards for Jimmy Howard. There are plenty more out there, I just need to track them down for the collection. I always like finding new and exciting ways to enjoy collecting. After all when your main PC player is retired, you've got to find something like this to keep things interesting.

As far as my Howard collection, I am not going to be counting these as part of the main collection. They will be their own separate category and I'll keep them in separate posts like this in the future. For me, that just makes it easier to keep everything organized.

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Jimmy Howard: BeeHive Signature Scrapbook

When your main PC player's rookie season is 2005-06, finding some of the inserts and numbered parallels becomes somewhat difficult 16 years later now. While I do have a good number of rookie year cards in my Jimmy Howard collection, there are quite a few missing.

One of the cards I've been after for years now is his Scrapbook Signatures card from 2005-06 BeeHive. I was lucky enough to find one last week for just $5 on eBay and I'm really happy to knock this one off the want list. The best part is it's hard signed.


I love this design. They even went as far as including the scotch tape holding the corners of the photo and the set name/logo onto the "scrapbook" surface. I think this is the only time I can ever say I'm happy to see scotch tape on a card.

Howard's got a great looking signature on his older cards like this. This is one of the nicer examples I've got in my collection now. While the blue does look really nice, I wonder if it would've looked better in black or red to tie in with the overall look.

Monday, December 6, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Miscellaneous Pickups

My favorite part about player collecting has to be chasing parallels, especially the serial numbered versions, in the hopes of completing those full rainbows. With 15 years worth of cards out there, Jimmy Howard has a decent number of these things for me to chase.

I'm not very picky about what I'm looking for. Other than some of the unlicensed and show stamped type stuff, I usually pick up anything Howard as long as the price is right. He's got over 1,600 different cards to there is still plenty of stuff for me to chase.

While this first one is not serial numbered, it is one that I've been after for a while now. It is a red border parallel from 2019-20 O-Pee-Chee. These things look great for any of the teams with red uniforms and equipment, especially the Red Wings.

Up next is an awesome gold parallel from 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology. While the idea of the set itself isn't my favorite, my main PC player was included so I wanted to have it. Plus, the photo on this one is amazing and makes this card look very nice overall.



Here we have another gold parallel, this time from 2011-12 SP Game Used. This one was another great deal from eBay and goes nicely with the regular base card I already have. Now I just need the Silver Spectrum /10 and the Gold Spectrum /1 for the rainbow.


Moving onto O-Pee-Chee, this is the first of three Black Rainbow parallels I was able to snag from eBay recently. This one is the 2014-15 version and goes very nicely with the O-Pee-Chee Platinum rainbow I'm working on from the same season.


Going back a season, I was also able to get one from 2013-14. Overall this is a bit of a downgrade over the one above. My favorite part about this one is how they used a full body image. It gives the card a nicer overall look in my opinion.


Going back even further we have this one from the 2012-13 edition of O-Pee-Chee. I think this is equivalent to the design above where I'm not overly thrilled by it, but am happy to add it to the collection. You almost can't even see the O-Pee-Chee text on there.


Up next is one of several cards out there serial numbered to Howard's jersey number: 35. This one is from 2014-15 SP Game Used and is numbered 12/35. I love the overall look of this set. It is one of the better SPGU designs if you ask me. Definitely glad to have this one.


Last but not least we have this awesome Gold Script parallel from 2014-15 MVP, which is numbered 021/100. While it is not one of my favorite MVP designs, this one isn't too bad. I do like how they have the more original MVP font behind the player name at the bottom.


Well that's it for this stack of miscellaneous pickups for my main player collection. If I had to choose a favorite of these it would probably be the Rookie Anthology. I'm just happy to be able to knock these eight off the master want list. Slow and steady, right...?

Sunday, November 28, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Game-Used Number Vault 1/1

Thanks to another lucky eBay find, I have another first for my Jimmy Howard collection: a 1 of 1 Vault card from In The Game. In the past I've avoided these because the added stamps always seem to clash with the overall design, at least on most of the ones I've seen.

Here is a 2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects Game-Used Number card with an amazing number piece. In this case, the red foil Vault 1 of 1 stamp works perfectly with the design of the card. Add in the fact that I only paid $0.99 for this card and I couldn't pass it up.


Luckily the Vault stamp only obscures a very small amount of the four grey lines running across the card. The foil for the "Number" text was already red, so it actually ties it all together nicely. If I am going to pick up any more Vault cards they would need to be along these lines where the obviousness of the stamp is minimal.

Now I just need to figure out how to include this on my master Howard checklist. I am definitely not going to consider it to be the regular version from the original 2007-08 release. However, I will consider it to be another unique card toward my Howard total. The problem is I can't seem to find it on TCDb yet, which is where I've been tracking lately.

Thursday, November 25, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Victory Gold

One of the best feelings in this hobby is being able to cross a card off your want list that's been on there forever. In this case, I've been on the lookout for this card for almost ten years. I've seen one other copy in all that time, but it went way over my price range.

Thanks to another recent eBay pickup, I can finally add this awesome 2005-06 Victory Gold parallel to my Jimmy Howard collection. I was lucky enough to end up getting it for less than $10 too. Not bad for a card numbered to 100 from fifteen years ago.

I've always love the look of this Victory set with the colors split right down the middle and all the 45 degree corners. The only thing that would make this particular card better is if Howard was pictured in his team colored equipment and an official game jersey.

Now I just need to see if I can track down the black version numbered to 5. Now that is a card that I have never seen before. Hopefully that doesn't take another ten years.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Jimmy Howard: BTP He Shoots He Saves

It isn't often anymore that I can say I've added something new and unique to my Jimmy Howard collection. There are only so many different types of cards out there. Today's post is about something you wouldn't consider to be a traditional card. I'm referring to the He Shoots He Saves redemption points that used to come in packs of ITG Between The Pipes.

If you're not familiar with these, they are just like the puzzle back cards that Upper Deck has done with MVP lately. The only difference is these ones from BTP served as the decoys in the packs. You could also accumulate enough of them and send in for a prize card. 

Rather than post nine separate single card scans, I thought it would be easier to just throw them all together as they would be in a standard nine pocket page. As you can see below they line up pretty well. There are just some minor differences with the border.


I've had my eye on these for years now, but never pulled the trigger on picking one up. I thought about doing it piece by piece, but that would've ended up taking too long and costing me way too much in shipping. Luckily I was able to grab the entire set of them for like $10 a few months ago on eBay. I couldn't hit the BIN button fast enough.

The image used for this is actually the same as the regular base card for Howard. It is an awesome overhead shot and even captures the puck just off his blocker. Considering the alternative would've been a photo with the Red Wings logo photoshopped out, I'll take it.

I can't think of many cards where you can see Howard's nameplate like this. The only ones that come to mind are the Net Cam cards from Panini a few years back.

Monday, October 4, 2021

Jimmy Howard: More OPC Platinum

I'm ten years into collecting Jimmy Howard's cards and I am still excited every time I find something new. That's tells me I'm into the right hobby, at least for now. Anyway, thanks to a couple of new eBay purchases I've got two new awesome serial numbered parallels.

When it comes to serial numbered parallels, O-Pee-Chee Platinum is one of the best sets out there today. Howard was included in two of those sets: 2014-15 and 2015-16. Today's post is all about the latter. I actually only had one card from this set before this.

Up first and the more colorful of the two is this Red Prism numbered out of 149. These red versions are some of my favorites as they match the Red Wings colors. They also look pretty amazing when the light hits the rainbow patterned background.


The other was this White Ice numbered out of 199. This one has a cool ice pattern around the perimeter and also has a nice rainbow shine. While it does not stand out as much as the Red Prism, it looks pretty good on it own. It goes nicely with the Black Ice version too.


Now onto my favorite part of going after another complete rainbow for the collection. Below is a look at the full visual checklist. These things are actually fun to put together. I use Inkscape to make it and get all of the info on the various parallels from TCDB.


As you can see, I've got a ways to go for this one to be finished. Seeing how these things show up for sale at random, it's kind of funny that the first three I have are all grouped together in the middle of the grid. Maybe I should try to get the Traxx or Blue Cubes next.

Monday, September 27, 2021

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.

Thursday, September 23, 2021

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.

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

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.

Thursday, September 2, 2021

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?

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Griffins Game Used

One of the best feelings as a player collector is stumbling upon a really cool card of your player that you never even knew existed. It's even better when it is listed as a Buy it Now with a great price. One of my recent pickups even took this up one more level with an almost impossible to find oddball minor league team set.

Between years of scouring eBay and other sites I've gotten a pretty good idea of most of the cards Jimmy Howard has. The Trading Card Database (TCDb) has been pretty helpful too. If something exists, it is likely already listed on there. Most of the time, at least.

Well, thanks to a recent late night eBay search, I actually found something not already in the database. It was from a set I had never seen or heard of before. I check my saved Howard searches on eBay multiple times a day, so to see this card was a complete surprise.

Here is a game-worn jersey card from the 2008-09 Choice Grand Rapids Griffins set. There is no card number and it is not serial numbered. After some digging around the internet, I found that these were given out at specific Griffins home games. There were a couple other players in the set including Derek Meech and Jakub Kindl.


I love the look of this card with the ghosted image in the background and the bright red jersey swatch. Even if there are a couple of small ads it is a very nice looking design for a minor league set. I wonder how many more sets are out there like this.

Getting back to the major trading card companies, I also picked up this nice game-used jersey card from ITG's 2007-08 Heroes and Prospects set. The most noticeable thing about this one is the huge piece of jersey. Even better is that it's not just plain white and is the same color as the Griffins uniform Howard is wearing in the photo.


The last of these is another ITG game-used jersey card. This one comes from the 2006-07 Heroes and Prospects set. It also has a nice big blue swatch, although in this case Howard is shown in the Griffins white uniform. I know it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, I just think the overall aesthetic of the card is better when the swatch matches the photo.


These three provide a nice boost to the Grand Rapids portion of my Howard collection. While I never saw him play for them in person, or really even at all, I still like adding these cards. The Griffins uniforms back then were pretty sweet and look great on cardboard.

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Black Diamond Ruby

Time for another pair of cool new serial numbered parallels for my growing Jimmy Howard collection. These two came from separate eBay purchases a while back, but go together very nicely. They are both ruby parallels from a couple different years of Black Diamond. Who doesn't like team colored parallels, right? I say the more the better.

The first one is from 2013-14 Black Diamond and is serial numbered out of 50.

The second is from 2014-15 Black Diamond and is also serial numbered out of 50.

Both cards look awesome in person, but I would give a slight edge to the first one just because of the photo selection. The white road jersey provides a much better contrast with the red colored background. It is interesting too that Howard was a single-diamond for the first set and a double-diamond for the second.

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Jimmy Howard: UD Masterpieces Black & Red

Now that I've had fewer incoming packages lately, I'm slowly getting caught up on post the stuff that has been accumulating for the last few months. I'm always on the lookout for new cards to add to my Jimmy Howard collection, especially serial numbered parallels.

Between a couple of recent eBay pickups, I was able to add two new parallel versions of Howard's 2014-15 Upper Deck Masterpieces card to go along with the base version I already had. The first is the black framed version serial numbered out of 50.


The second is the red framed version serial numbered out of 100. Both are amazing looking cards in person, especially considering how they were constructed. There is actually some separation in the thicknesses of the different areas, which gives it some depth. That is something you rarely see on cards. Plus the artist's rendition of Howard looks amazing.


I think if I had to choose between the two, I would give a slight edge to the red version. The red trim, even though it is the same as the team color, just works better overall.

As far as completing the so-called rainbow for this product, I have all the non-auto and non-memorabilia versions for Howard. From what I have seen, he also has the following out there: regular memorabilia, memorabilia black /35, memorabilia red /85, signatures, signatures black /15, and signatures red /30. Quite a bit to still chase after.

Thursday, August 5, 2021

Jimmy Howard: Panini Dominion Gold

Time for another one card mailday post as this one kind of stood out from the others I've got sitting in the queue. I say that because it comes from Panini's version of The Cup: Dominion. Back when they were making NHL hockey cards, Panini had some great stuff.

This one is a gold parallel from the 2013-14 version of Dominion, which was the set's last full release. It is card #35 in the set and is serial numbered 08/50. If only it was serial number 35, then it would have the double jersey number.


I have to say this is my favorite of the Dominion base designs and it looks even better here with the gold foil replacing the standard silver, although it is kind of hard to tell from the scan. The gold looks very dark here, but it is actually much brighter and better looking.

This one goes nicely with the base version I already have, which I actually picked up on eBay all the way back in 2014 around when this product was released. Now I just need to work on finding the other parallels. There is an emerald version numbered to 5 and a black version numbered to 1. Both would be amazing looking cards, but I have yet to see them.

Monday, July 26, 2021

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.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

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.