SCE Tribute Update

It has definitely been a while since my last update on this project. I have to go all the way back to April of last year for my most recent post. That one was for a tribute Super Script, this one is for one of the awesome Colors & Contours parallels, which I'm also collecting.

This particular eBay pickup has actually opened up a whole new can of worms for me regarding this project. I say that because I didn't even realize there was an update set that was a part of the flagship Upper Deck set from 2019-20. There are actually 50 more of these, all of which are serial numbered /99 rather than the regular /249 version.

Here is card #142 featuring Taro Hirose of the Detroit Red Wings. I only got this one because the starting bid was $0.99 and it never moved from there. He hasn't made much of an impact with the Wings yet, so maybe his cards are that desirable just yet.

I have to say these are really growing on me. At first I wasn't super into the die-cut designs, but now that I've got five of these things I am really starting to like them. The original MVP logo always brings back good collecting memories for me, especially when the Stanley Cup Edition is involved. I also really like the red foil, especially for the Red Wings cards.

This puts me at 1/50 for the rookie update set and 5/150 when you include the original tributes from the main MVP set in 2019-20. These /99's might be a little trickier to complete just because of the names included in the set like Hughes, Dach and Fox.

SCE Tribute Update

Well, its been a little while since my last update on this set. The last one I picked up was all the way back in June of last year. That's ok though as I've been treating this almost as a side project. While I want to get them all eventually, they just are not as high of a priority.

This one actually came paired with another Super Script, which I will share in a separate post later on. It is a Max Pacioretty numbered 06/25.

There are 100 cards in this set and I have three total now, so still quite a ways to go if I want to complete it. From a team perspective, I at least have one third of the Knights from this set. The other two are Marc-Andre Fleury and Mark Stone.

While I really love the idea of this tribute to my favorite set, I feel like they missed on a few things trying to re-create the design. The most glaring difference to me is the cross-hatch pattern extending all the way to the bottom of the card. It just looks off. One of these days I'll put together a post detailing all of these differences.

SCE Tribute Update

Time for another update on my MVP Stanley Cup Edition Tribute set. I've been on the lookout for these recently, but have been only looking to add them when there is a good deal to be had. Thanks to another Sportlots.com purchase, I now have two Super Scripts.

Even though I don't care for this player or team, due to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final vs Nashville, I couldn't pass up card #45 featuring Matt Murray of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It is serial numbered 16/25 on the front as shown above. Also, the rainbow foil looks amazing in person compared to this scan. I wish I had a better way to get that to show in the scans. They all seem to end up looking like this.

This one only set me back $1.95 including shipping. When I saw that was the price I couldn't click the checkout button fast enough. Considering I would end up paying that much any of the Silver Script tributes, this was a steal.

In addition to the Super Script Tributes, I'm looking to add some of the neat Colors & Contours to my collection. These are also based on the SCE design and also look amazing in person. So far I only have the one Larkin I bought at a card show last fall.

I was able to find a lot of three on eBay for $3.49 including shipping. The first was card #58 featuring Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, which is serial numbered 046/249.

The second was card #70 featuring Ryan Johansen and is serial numbered 113/249. I think the Preds road jersey looks a little better than the home on these backgrounds. 

The third was card #50 featuring Matt Duchene of the Columbus Blue Jackets and is serial numbered 114/249. In this case the darker blue looks great against the background.

While these die-cut parallels are not the focus of my set project, they are pretty sweet and I plan on grabbing some more when the right deal comes along. Who knows, maybe I'll even add them to my official total and go after the full set.

Super Script Tribute Total: 2/100

SCE Tribute Update

Here's another post that's been in draft status for months now. I'm still actively working on the MVP Stanley Cup Edition tribute set and bought this lot of six from eBay back in the fall to help knock a few Silver Scripts off the want list. These six cost me $2.50 shipped.

My favorite of the lot was this one featuring Matt Duchene of the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is card #50 in the 100 card set. For whatever reason the silver foil of the player's last name does not scan very well. These things do look great in person though.

The rest are in no particular order, so we'll start with Charlie Coyle of the Boston Bruins. This one is card #20 in the set. Unlike the original set which is sorted and numbered in order by team, these tributes appear to be numbered randomly.

Next we have card #8 featuring Marcus Johansson of the Bruins. I wonder if this photo was taken during the same game as the Coyle above. I'm guessing it's pretty likely as the Sharks would not play in Boston very often., unless the photos are from different seasons.

Interestingly enough, there are several clusters of cards from a specific team numbered in order. For example, following the Johansson, this Brad Marchand is #9 in the set.

Up next is card #34 featuring Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres.

Finally we have card #66 featuring Jake Guentzel of the Penguins. If I had to choose my least favorite of the bunch, this would be it. The only reason for that is every time I see this guy it reminds me of when the Predators lost in the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.

So that's it for today. This lot brings me to a total of nine for the set. Not bad considering this is only the second time I've purchased cards specifically for this set. That leaves me with 91 more to find. We'll see how long that ends up taking. 

It's still odd to me seeing one of my favorite set designs from 20 years ago with players from today. On the plus side at least its another relatively low end, simple set to chase.

SCE Silver Script Tribute Total: 9/100

SCE Tribute Update

I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I have to say again that 2019 has been a great collecting year for me so far. I'm on track to post here more than I have in any of the last five years. Part of the reason for my renewed interest in collecting has been Upper Deck's 2019-20 MVP set with the tribute cards to my favorite set: MVP Stanley Cup Edition. 

There are both Silver and Super Script versions available as a new 100 card set. These are almost identical to the originals, although with a few exceptions. They also added the newer Colors & Contours parallels into the mix, which is kind of cool too.

Here is my first tribute Super Script featuring one of my favorite current Predators: Viktor Arvidsson. This is card #61 in the set and is serial numbered 09/25. I was lucky enough to land this on eBay for just $0.99 plus a few bucks for shipping.

These things look awesome in person and I'm looking forward to finding some good deals on more of them. It should be a little easier to find them for this tribute set since it just came out and there are only 100 of them as opposed to the original set of 220. 

Super Script Tribute Total: 1/100

Box Break: 2019-20 MVP

As a birthday present to myself, I recently bought my first actual box of hockey cards in over six years. I was kind of surprised that I needed to go all the way back to February of 2013 for my last hockey box break on here. It really doesn't feel like its been that long. It makes sense for me though as boxes really don't do all that much for my main collecting projects at the moment. I'm better off putting my money towards singles for those. 

However, like most collectors I really do enjoy opening a new box of sealed packs. Even if this was just a retail blaster box, I was looking forward to possibly pulling some of the MVP Stanley Cup Edition tribute cards. Since this was retail, the only shot I had would be the Silver Scripts. The tribute Super Scripts and Colors & Contours are hobby exclusives.

This blaster cost $19.99 and came with 21 packs, 5 cards per pack. Here is a look at the front of the box featuring Red Wings prospect and former 6th overall pick Filip Zadina.

Here is what's available in one of these blasters:

     - Base Set (200 cards)
     - Base High Series SP's (1:4)
     - Puzzle Back Variations (1:8)
     - Silver Script Parallels (1:7)
     - Gold Script Parallels (1:21)
     - Stanley Cup Edition Silver Scripts (1:10)
     - Supernovas (1:50)
     - Net Crashers (1:34)
     - Laser Shots (1:25)
     - Laser Shots Red Parallels (1:100)
     - Rookie Redemptions (1:4000)
     - 2019 NHL No. 1 Draft Pick SP (1:12500)

I'll be happy as long as I get some of the Stanley Cup Edition tribute cards. Based on the listed odds, I can reasonably expect to end up with two of them. We'll see how that goes.

Also, regarding the Gold Scripts. For whatever reason these are not serial numbered anymore. I believe this is the first time for that. As far as I know, all of the Gold Scripts over the years have been numbered, and that's going back to the original set from 1998-99.

Onto the results. Let's start with the base set. Overall this is a nice design. I like how the top and bottom of the card are filled with the grey lines going every which way. Not sure what the six slashes at the top are for, but they look cool. The left and right sides having the photo extend to the edge was a good choice for this set.

The top six shown below are all for my team collections. Looks like this box favored the Preds over my other teams. I also included a checklist and the two regular high series SP's. I believe these are the first cards I've pulled of McDavid and Matthews. That just goes to show you how long its been since I opened any new packs or boxes.

All together there were 88 based cards and no duplicates as far as I noticed. While six out of 88 for my teams isn't the greatest, I'll take it. Now I just need to get some more of the Wings cards to catch up to the my other two teams. Here's a look at the backs.

The back has a big team logo at the top, the players name with pronunciation, their vitals, and up to five years of stats. The lines and shapes mimic the front of the card and help tie the two together. Overall not too bad, kind of what you would expect from MVP.

The other high series SP's were the Rookies. I ended up with four of those, the best for me being Colin Bkackwell of the Predators. I don't know much about him. Apparently he was drafted by the Sharks back in 2011 and has been playing mostly in the AHL ever since. He's had six games of NHL action with the Preds in 2018-19.

The rookies are identical to the regular base cards other than the word "Rookie" replacing the six slashes at the top of the card. I like when base and rookie cards are similar like this with just the one feature that differentiates them. The others I got were Zack MacEwen of Vancouver, Trent Frederic of Boston, and Kevin Boyle of Anaheim.

Next up we have the standard Silver Script inserts. In this case they should be called grey scripts because there is no silver foil to be found. If anything, it looks more like a silver paint marker than anything, so I guess they're ok calling it silver after all. I got three of these including the Nick Ritchie below, a rookie of Ryan Poehling and Brent Burns.

Stepping up one level from the Silver Script we have the lone Gold Script of the break. This one featuring Jared Spurgeon of the Wild is actually a really nice looking card. The facsimile signature is actually gold foil so it really pops in the light. They also changed the top and bottom of the card to a nice gold color. I really need to get some of these for my Golden Knights collection. Gold Scripts for my Golden Knights, talk about a golden opportunity...

In addition to the scripts, I was able to pull three of the puzzle back variation, which actually kind of beat the odds. I probably should have only gotten two. Either way since none of them are my PC teams, it really doesn't matter. I got this one below of Carey Price's blocker, one with Kucherov's mid-section and one with Marchand's right glove.

Before I get to the best of the box, I wanted to show off the two inserts I got. The first was this Net Crashers of Sidney Crosby.

The other was this Laser Shots of Evgeni Malkin.

Now for my favorite part of the break and the reason I bought this box in the first place: the MVP Stanley Cup Edition tribute cards. I was able to get two for my collection. The first was card #63 in the set featuring Alexander Wennberg of the Blue Jackets.

The second was card #75 in the set featuring Jamie Benn of the Stars. These things look great in person, although the bottom edge is really starting to bother me. I wish they would've stopped the net looking patter before the bottom like the original design. Something just seems off with it continuing down to the very bottom edge.

Not bad overall. This was a fun little break for around $20 and I even got a nice variety of stuff for my various collecting projects. Anything other than my PC teams and the tribute silver scripts is available. I'd love to do some team for team swaps of base/inserts as I've got a ton of stuff just sitting around in boxes. Leave a comment below if you're interested.

Also, since I shared all my PC additions in this one post rather than breaking them out, I've included updated totals at the bottom. This is more just for my own tracking purposes.

Updated Golden Knights Collection Total: 34
Updated Predators Collection Total: 79
Updated Silver Script Tribute Total: 3/100

SCE Tribute Update

One of the goals for my card show trip last month was to at least get a start on the new MVP Stanley Cup Edition tribute set. Since the product was so new at the time of the show, I wasn't sure how much there would be available. I hoped for the best and figured worst case was I would be able to grab some Red Wings from the set.

Normally I try to avoid buying Red Wings singles at these local shows due to the significantly higher prices, but I made an exception in this case to get this project started. The first one I found was of Filip Zadina, who was selected sixth overall by Detroit in the 2018 entry draft. This is card #96 in the set. This one ended up costing $5.

I have to say these things look great in person. They are almost a perfect replica of the original Stanley Cup Edition set from 1999-00. The only thing that bothers me is how the cross-hatched pattern extends below the name all the way to the bottom of the card. In the original design this stopped short leaving some blank white space at the bottom.

In addition to the silver scripts, I found several of the new Colors and Contours parallels. These things look amazing in person and I just had to have one. I was able to get this Dylan Larkin from the same seller as the Zadina. It is card #57 in the set and serial numbered 098/245 on the front. This one also ended up costing me $5. 

While I'm not sure I will pursue the entire Colors and Contours set, these things look amazing. I'm really happy to have this Larkin as part of my collection now. The red foil on these really works well with any red colored team. 

Even though I had hoped to get a better start on this set at the show, I'm glad I at least have something now. The silver scrip set is only 100 cards this time instead of 220 like the original. Who knows how long this will take on top of everything else I'm collecting.

SCE Silver Script Tribute Total: 1/100

2019-20 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Tribute

While I'm not as active on here as I have been in past years, I still try to keep up with collecting the best I can. Its a little more difficult to find time for this stuff now that I have two kids and a house keeping me busy all the time. Even though I don't make as much time for collecting as I would like, there is one thing that might help make my collection a bit more of a priority again. That would be Upper Deck's first new set of the 2019-20 season. 

This year's MVP set is one that I've actually been looking forward to. Like last year's set they have a tribute to one of the original MVP sets from back in the day. In this case, it is the 20th anniversary of the Stanley Cup Edition set, which is my favorite set.

To this day, I am not exactly sure why I have such a fascination with the 1999-00 SCE set, but I do and it was the main reason I even started this blog in the first place. I'm still working on building the SCE script parallel sets and will probably be working on that forever. They are just really had to find these days. 

Even though I've been trying to keep my total number of collecting projects to a minimum lately, I feel like I need to make an exception here and start going after the 100-card tribute set. It even has its own sets of parallels so this could be a lot of fun. 

There are actually four version of the set: Silver Script, Super Script (#/25), Colors & Contours (#/249) and Colors & Contours Purple (#/9). Only 400 cards all together, not bad. I think I will just focus on the Silver Scripts and Super Scripts to start though. 

Below is a side-by-side look at the original set and the tribute version. Overall UD did a great job capturing the look of the original set.  There are a few minor things that I notice are different, but nothing too crazy. Can't wait to get started on this.

If I do stick with trying to complete this new tribute set, hopefully I won't still be working on it 20 years from now like I am with the original one today.