SCE Super Script Update

Time for my seemingly once a year update on my favorite set of all time: 1999-00 Upper Deck MVP Stanley Cup Edition Super Scripts. There are a handful of these for sale on various sites, but I avoid overpaying for them so I don't get them all that often.

Speaking of cards for sale from this set, the one I am showing off today has been on my eBay watch list for over a year now. The price wasn't too bad at $10, I just never got around to hitting the buy it now button until just recently.

Here is card #144 featuring Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes and their gorgeous original kachina jersey. This one is serial numbered 07/25 and goes nicely with the other Coyotes I've already got for my set including Travis Green, Sean Burke and Keith Tkachuk.

Even though this MVP design isn't the fanciest in the world, every time I add one of these to my set I can't help but stare at it for a moment. I've been a fan of this set for over 20 years now and still get the same level of excitement with every new addition.

This one bring my SC Edition Super Script total to 87/220 or 39.5% of the complete set. It also breaks the current tie I've had between the Golds and Supers for this project. I only need three more to complete the Coyotes team set at this point.

SCE Super Script Update

Time for another update on my favorite set. Its been a little while now since I picked one of these up. I'd have to go back to last year at this point. After all, the set is another year older and getting harder and harder to find. I know I'll probably never actually finish it, but that's part of the fun and it keeps me going even after all these years chasing it.

The latest addition to my Super Script set came from eBay a few weeks ago. Here is card #15 featuring P.J. Axelsson of the Boston Bruins. This one is serial numbered 10/25.

I was a little hesitant about buying this one because the listing showed there was a slight crease in one of the corners. It didn't look all that bad and for just a few dollars I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I don't see these every day so I had to jump on it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the card that you can't even tell there is anything wrong with it until you look very closely at the back. In the scan of the front above you would never know there was an issue. Definitely a win in my book.

This one brings me to 86 out of 220 for the Super Script set. I believe it is only the second Bruin I've been able to grab, the other being Joe Thornton. That leaves me needing six more to complete the Bruins team set.

SCE Super Script Total: 86/220

Box Break: 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition

Its been over 20 years now since Upper Deck's 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition set was released and this will only be the fourth full box I've opened. I've probably said this on here before, but I consider this to be my favorite hockey card set. In all my years of collecting, I believe this is the only product that I've ever bought more than one or two boxes of.

There main reason I like the set so much is the parallels. I know there were two previous MVP releases with the same parallels, but this set was my first exposure to them back when I was lucky enough to pull my Dominik Hasek and Alexei Kovalev Super Scripts. Those two got me hooked on this particular set and I've been after them ever since.

Of the four Stanley Cup Edition boxes I've opened, three of them have only happened because of this blog. It wasn't until I started it up that I really dove into looking for Super Scripts to add to ones I already had. From there I expanded to the Gold and Silver Scripts and even all of the insert sets at one point.

I know it would be much easier and cheaper to build these sets through purchasing singles and lots, but box breaking has always seemed like more fun to me. For each of these boxes I've known there was little to no chance of pulling Super Scripts, but there's always that slight possibility so I figured why not give it a shot each time.

Before I dive into the details of my latest break, here are the links to my previous breaks:

        - Previous Box Break #1: October 6, 2010
        - Previous Box Break #2: January 20, 2012

A quick note on that first one from 2010: I realize now that it was actually a retail box and I never even had a chance at the Super or Gold Scripts as they were hobby exclusives. The dead giveaway is the "Retail Exclusive" written right on the wrapper. I'm not sure how I screwed that up, but it's kind of funny looking back on it now.

Back to the reason for this post, here are some quick details about my newest box:

        - Purchased on eBay for $45 plus shipping
        - From original sealed case the seller bought at release
        - Hobby version (28 Packs, 10 Cards per Pack)

I found the listing for this box a few months ago and it had been sitting in my watchlist ever since. It was originally listed for $50, but I after some back and forth offers with the seller I was able to grab it for $45. A little more than I was hoping to spend based on the ones I've bought in the past, but I decided to go for it anyway just for the fun of it.

Here is a summary of what is available in these boxes and what I actually ended up with.

        - 220 Base --> 238
        - 220 Silver Script (1:2) --> 14
        - 220 Gold Script (#/100) --> 0
        - 220 Super Script (#/25) --> 0
        - 20 Stanley Cup Talent (1:5) --> 7
        - 10 Cup Contenders (1:9) --> 3
        - 10 Playoff Heroes (1:84) --> 0
        - 12 Second Season Snipers (1:28) --> 1    
        - 10 Golden Memories (1:14) --> 2
        - 10 Clutch Performers (1:28) --> 1
        - Great Combinations (1:196) --> 0
        - Game Used Souvenirs (1:130) --> 0
        - 500 Goal Club (1:3995) --> 0

Overall this was not too bad all things considered. While I didn't get any of the Golds or Supers I was hoping for, it was still fun to sort cards from my favorite set. The players in this set are the ones I grew up watching on TV so its always nice to see them on cardboard.

A couple of general notes before I get into the details:

        - No serial numbered cards pulled
        - No autographs or memorabilia pulled
        - 7 packs did not have all 10 cards
        - 2 packs had more than 10 cards
        - 1 damaged card
        - 92% base set completion
        - 35 base duplicates

In the interest of trying to do something different for a box break post, I was crazy enough to keep track of which cards came from every pack of the box in a spreadsheet. I basically created a box break matrix and thought it would be fun to share on here.

The first column on the left is the pack # as I pulled them from the box. The top row is the card # in the order I pulled them from each individual pack. The cells contain the actual card numbers. The (S) notation is for Silver Scripts and the (D) is for damaged cards.

Pack #	Card #1	Card #2	Card #3	Card #4	Card #5	Card #6	Card #7	Card #8	Card #9	Card #10	Card #11	Card #12
1	57	84	111	61	89	113	118	142	166	192	201(D)
2	85	112	139	6	21	49	206	3(S)
3	79	105	18	149	36	57	84
4	70	96	100	77
5	127	155	182	208	122	150	106	133	40(S)
6	1	55	80	SC14	25	172	197
7	67	93	120	45	217	76	80	126(S)	207
8	167	15	62	90	SC5	163	190	179	5	28
9	43	91	114	214	143	CP8	135	12(S)	205	65
10	100	96	208	81	107	134	191	9	198	77
11	183	39	144	170	204	CC9	181	143(S)	194	13
12	127	155	182	122	150	172	GM4	162	214(S)	35
13	72	98	125	137	164	212	21	49	151	192(S)
14	153	11	187	30	71	97	200	178	8	CC3
15	147	175	103	129	SC2	123	161	109	136	159
16	37	58	185	124	97	71	102	128	152	SS10
17	1	25	197	7	SC18	189	23	69	95	211
18	53	78	104	34	68	94	51	73	99(S)	121
19	131	156	210	115	99	126	154	145	171	63
20	173	24	52	12	40	70	SC9	56	73(S)	165
21	50	199	110	135	163	190	215	101	123	22
22	86	116	82	108	148	176	176	220	42	209
23	140	168	10	130	216	158	SC20	148	195(S)	75
24	17	48	193	19	3	31	55	26	47	83
25	132	160	184	27	60	88	SC11	111	154(S)	74
26	177	38	59	20	46	203	GM6	124	181(S)	213	186	14
27	173	24	52	195	12	40	CC5	31(S)
28	2	29	54	157	196	180	188	219	166(S)	202

While that may not be interesting to anyone else, I thought it was a neat exercise to run through. This is a hobby after all and I'm just trying to find some new ways to enjoy it.

Since I've already completed the Silver Script set and posted most of it on here, I thought I would choose a random base card to show off first. Here is card #8 featuring Ray Ferraro of the Atlanta Thrashers and one of my all time favorite NHL jerseys.

As far as the inserts go, I did actually get a few new ones. While I'm not actively pursuing the full master set of inserts, it was still cool to add some to get me a little closer to finishing them. These are from back when people seemed to actually care about basic inserts so the designs are quite nice all things considered. 

We'll start off the run of inserts with Second Season Snipers. These are printed on a nice rainbow foil board and look great in person. This one is card #SS10 and features Jaromir Jagr of the Pittsburgh Penguins. I always liked those jerseys for some reason.

The Golden Memories were printed on a similar foil board and look just as good in person. I really like the old fashioned looking font on on the set name and player name. This one is card #GM6 and features Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils.

Clutch Performers is another nice looking insert set with a really cool double image effect. I will say these were a bit harder to scan and it took some editing to make it look this good. This one is card #CP8 and featured John LeClair of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Cup Contenders was printed on a silver foil board and is one of those sets that just does not scan very well. I did what I could to make this one look ok. This is card #CC3 and features Milan Hejduk of the Colorado Avalanche.

Stanley Cup Talent was the most common insert and I'm pretty sure between all the boxes I've opened I have them all. These are another example of the silver foil board that does not want to scan. This one is card #SC5 and features Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche.

Overall this was a really fun experience. I got to bust some packs for the first time in quite a while and they were from my favorite set. While I didn't hit any of the big cards I was hoping for, it was still neat to sort through them all and sort them so I could place them in a binder. I guess its back to eBay for the Supers and Golds.

Unless I come across a great deal on one, I don't see myself opening any more boxes of this stuff. I know I'm better off just buying the singles, but there is just something about busting boxes and hoping to hit something cool that keeps me going back to it. In this case though I'm over it and just want to focus on singles to help finish my parallel sets.

SCE Gold Script Update

I've said this on here before, but when it comes to my MVP Stanley Cup Edition project, I've always focused more on the Super Scripts. The Golds will always be secondary, but still an important part of my collection. I'm always on the lookout for both and was lucky enough to find four more Golds recently. Two from eBay and two from Twitter.

Up first from eBay is card #84 featuring Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings. This one is serial numbered 040/100. The surprising part is this one only ended up costing $2 plus shipping. Can't beat that for a 668 goal scorer. If only it were serial numbered 020.

The other one from the same seller was card #85 featuring Zigmund Palffy of the Los Angeles Kings. This one was serial numbered 099/100. I would have to check, but I think this is the first one I've got with that number. I wonder how many of 1-100 I actually have.

The next two come from Twitter once again. Another special thanks to @OTB_Cards for hooking me up again for my set build. The first one is #41 featuring Byron Ritchie of the Carolina Hurricanes and is serial numbered 071/100.

   

The second is card #73 featuring Alexander Selivanov of the Edmonton Oilers. This one is serial numbered 086/100 and completes another rainbow for my set build.

These four bring me to 85 out of 220 for my set, which actually brings them into a tie with the Super Scripts. I can't remember the last time these were this even. It will be interesting to see how many complete rainbows I've got now. I would guess at least a dozen. 

SCE Gold Script Total: 85/220

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

SCE Super Script Update

After picking up what seemed like a ton of these last year, I am only now getting my second Stanley Cup Edition Super Script of 2020, and we're into October now. I guess with a set as old and limited as this you're going to have some up years and some down years.

If price wasn't a consideration I would've gotten at least half a dozen more this year, but I'm not going to drop over $100 on singles for this set, at least not right now. I've been watching several of them listed for obscene amounts (Peter Bondra for $175, Steve Kariya for $200, Darius Kasparaitis for $180). Those are just a bit too much if you ask me.

Thanks to another more affordable eBay find, I have one more for my set. Here is card #69 featuring Pat Verbeek of the Detroit Red Wings. This one is serial numbered 07/25.

 

Sometimes I forget that Verbeek even played for the Wings. He was here from 1999-2001 and played in in 135 games putting up 37 goals and 78 points. Now that I think about it I almost remember him more from his time as a broadcaster with Fox Sports. 

If I remember correctly this will be my fourth Red Wings Super Script. I'm still missing two of the bigger names in Yzerman and Fedorov. Hopefully I'll be able to track them down someday and complete my Red Wings team set. Now that would be awesome.

SCE Super Script Total: 84/220

SCE Super Script Update

To go along with my last post, I was also able to land another Super Script for my set. These things are still pretty hard to find now, so anytime I can get one its a good day for my collection. Plus, its fun to see some of the names from back then.

This one is card #205 and features Michal Sivek of the Prince Albert Raiders. It is serial numbered 10/25 on the front. Fun fact about this one: the right half of this photo is on the Milan Kraft card from this set. That's something you don't see every day.

 

One of the fun things about the CHL subset is researching how the player panned out as far as an NHL career. In this case, Sivek was initially drafted by the Washington Capitals 29th overall in 1999. He never actually played a game for the Caps though.

The reason why: Sivek was one of three players sent to Pittsburgh in the Jaromir Jagr trade. He would go on to play 38 games with the Penguins in 2002-03 registering three goals and three assists for six points. That would be it for his NHL career.

He went from there to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL then onto Sparta Praha of the Czech league where he would play through the 2007-08 season. After that he retired from playing to become an agent for Eurohockey Services.

This one brings me to 83 total or just shy of 38% for the entire Super Script set. It also puts me at 11 out of the 23 CHL prospects subset, so at least that part is almost halfway done.

SCE Super Script Total: 83/220

SCE Gold Script Update

It's been a little while now since I've had any updates to this project. While they are an important part of my MVP Stanley Cup Edition set, they always seem to take a backseat to the Super Scripts. I do still keep an eye out for them though and was happy to have two of them offered to me for trade on Twitter several weeks ago. 

The first was card #159 featuring Todd Harvey of the San Jose Sharks. This one was serial numbered 081/100. Not the greatest signature from Harvey if you ask me. 

The second was card #185 featuring Andew Cassels of the Vancouver Canucks. This one was serial numbered 061/100. Not a great looking signature here either.

I don't get the chance to trade for these things very often, so it was nice to get rid of some unwanted cards for once. I also want to give a shout out to Off the Boards Cards & Collectibles on Twitter (@OTB_Cards) for helping me add to my set. 

SCE Gold Script Total: 79/220

SCE Super Script Update

Along with my recent run of Gold Scripts for my 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition project, I was again able to land all of the corresponding Super Scripts.

There was also one outlier that came from a different seller than the one from Sweden and it was just a lone Super Script. The funny thing is I actually lost out on an auction from the Swedish seller for this exact same card as one of their earlier Silver/Gold/Super lots. 

That one outlier would be this Stacy Roest, which is card #70 in the set and is serial numbered 04/25. To this day I'm not sure why he was chosen to represent the Red Wings in this set over names like Nicklas Lidstrom, Chris Chelios, Igor Larionov, etc.

Back to the ones from Sweden now starting with Sergei Brylin of the New Jersey Devils. This one is card #110 in the set and is serial numbered 10/25. While he isn't the biggest name of the Devils in this set, I definitely remember him from their Cup run back in 2000.

Continuing with that 2000 Stanley Cup winner, this Scott Gomez is card #107 in the set and is serial numbered 24/25. If only that had been one number less, it would've made for one of those neat jersey numbered cards. Not sure I have many in my set so far.

Up next is this Scott Young, which is card #166 in the set and is serial numbered 16/25. Is it just me or does it seem like the photo on this card is just a bit to the left? I get it though if they were trying to avoid the MVP logo covering up the player.

Then there was this Jeff Halpern, which is card #191 in the set and serial numbered 12/25. According to the checklist, this is actually a RC for Halpern. I vaguely remember him from back in the day. Gotta love those old Caps jerseys too.

This one featuring current Vancouver Canucks head coach Travis Green is card #141 and is serial numbered 01/25. Its always nice to have the first card of a print run like this. I'd have to look through my set to see how many I actually have.

First we had the beginning, now we have the end of print run. This one featuring Jonas Hoglund of the Toronto Maple Leafs is card #175 in the set and is serial numbered 25/25. I don't think I have many numbered 25 in my set so this is kind neat as well.

The first of four CHL Super Scripts was this Justin Papineau, which is card #216 in the set and serial numbered 17/25. One thing I always liked about the CHL portion of the set was how they used a foil version of the league logo instead of the facsimile signature.

This Taylor Pyatt is card #213 in the set and serial numbered 07/25. For whatever reason my scanner decided to make this one look a little different than the Papineau. The rainbow foil look spectacular in person and you can kind of get an idea of it with this scan.

Of course now that I said something earlier about hitting the last card of a print run, I would do it again in the same post. This Luke Sellars is card #206 in the set and is serial numbered 25/25. This one also shows the nice rainbow foil, especially on the MVP logo.

Same as my last posts, we'll finish thins up with Michael Zigomanis. This one is card #215 in the set and is serial numbered 09/25. Its nice knocking off as many of these CHL cards as I can. Then I'll be able to focus solely on the main portion of the set.

So that's 11 new cards for my 220 card set. Not a bad chunk to knock off the list if you ask me. I believe this is the most I've ever posted on here at one time.

The Green and Hoglund are the two that were not included in my previous Gold Script update. That's because I already had them. For the deals I was getting I would've been happy if all I got was just the Super. The Golds were just a bonus. That being said, I was definitely willing to take on a few duplicate Golds in order to boost my Super Script set.

Super Script Total: 82/220

SCE Gold Script Update

This year has been great for my collection so far. I've been more active on here than I have the past five years. I've been to more card shows than normal and have been buying things on eBay more frequently. One of the beneficiaries of this has been my long neglected 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Gold Script set. While I did just post an update recently, I had nothing new to show for it in almost five years before that.

Thanks to one eBay seller from Sweden, I've been able to knock more than a dozen of these off the want list just in the last few months. While that may not seem like much, I consider it to be some good progress for me. These things are 20 years old now and serial numbered to 100, so they don't exactly show up for sale all that often.

The best I can guess is that this seller had most of if not all of the master set and finally decided to part it out. They've had a ton of listing recently and almost all of them included the Silver Script, Gold Script and Super Script for a given player. Most of them got out of my price range so I had to pass on dozens of them. Some of the bigger names were fetching some crazy amounts, which were even further out of my price range.

The first one I got was this Scott Young, which is card #166 in the set and serial numbered 032/100. I remember seeing a lot of this guy back then with how often the Blue and Red Wings played one another. I miss the days when the Wings were still in the West.

 

Up next was this Sergei Brylin, which is card #110 in the set and is serial numbered 079/100. This one has a cool shot of Brylin appearing to celebrate a goal. I like how he is isolated in the shot other than the random stick from the left.

Then there was this Jeff Halpern, which is card #191 in the set and is serial numbered 037/100. I'm noticing that my scanner really does not like the gold foil on these things. It almost turns black and makes some of the last names pretty hard to read.

Back to New Jersey, there was this Scott Gomez, which is card #107 in the set and is serial numbered 016/100. He is another guy that I will always associate with that 2000 Stanley Cup Championship team. If I remember right they even did a special feature on him being from Alaska on the commemorative DVD (it was actually a VHS for me). 

In addition to those four, I was able to snag a few from the CHL Prospects portion of the main set. The first was this Justin Papineau, which is card #216 in the set and is serial numbered 025/100. Papineau is shown here playing for the Belleville Bulls.

Up next was this Taylor Pyatt, which is card #213 in the set and is serial numbered 077/100. Pyatt was drafted 8th overall by the New York Islanders in 1999 and last played for the Penguins in 2013-14. He is shown here with the Sudbury Wolves.

Then there was this Luke Sellars, which is card #206 in the set and serial numbered 086/100. Sellars was originally drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers in 1999. Unfortunately, he only ever played one game in the NHL and that was with Atlanta in 2001-02.

Last but not least, we have this Michael Zigomanis, which is card #215 in the set and is serial numbered 094/100. He was actually drafted twice, one by the Sabres in 1999 and then again by the Hurricanes in 2001. Apparently there was a typo in his first contract with Buffalo and the league decided he had to re-enter the draft.

So that sums the biggest influx of Gold Scripts I've had in quite a while on here. I'm really glad I've kept these things in my saved eBay searches all these years. They don't come up very often, so it was nice to be able to grab this many all from one source lately.

Gold Script Total: 77/220