Collection Update 2025

Wow, it's been over three years since I posted on here. Time flies, I guess. This blog had been my primary passion project going back to 2009 and even though I've taken some breaks here and there, I never completely forget about it. After all, I made it 14 years with at least posting once per year. Plus, I still see some of the blogs that were around when I started, and that is part of what keeps me coming back here. 

Blogging about cards and my collection was always something I did for fun in my spare time. It just so happens that I don't have as much of that lately. That doesn't mean I've stopped collecting though. Quite the opposite, actually. On top of cards I've really leaned into building my CD collection. If there's one thing I would say I like as much as hockey it is music. It might not fit here as well, but that's ok.

Before I get into that, I thought it would be good to post a quick update on some of the cards I've added to the ol' PC these past few years. A little bit of everything here. I've managed to grab quite a few Super Scripts as well as some other fun stuff. Other than the Super Scripts, my biggest project has been chipping away at a group of Allure and OPC Platinum rainbows as seen in the second photo. 

On top of my main PC, I also started a fun football card side project: chasing the full 2022 Prizm rainbow for Dalton Schultz. He helped me win my fantasy football championship that year, so I wanted a card of his to go with my trophy. Well, my obsession with card rainbows got me and I started hunting all of the numerous Prizm parallels. There are actually 46 different versions of this card including the base. I'm about halfway there. 

Back to the music thing. I started buying CD's when I was a kid and had a fun little collection, but stopped adding to it in high school. Fast forward to last year and I'm fully into it now. I love looking at yard sales and thrift shops just to see what I can grab. I've got some varied taste in music, so it is usually easy to find something. I've also been buying from eBay and Discogs to help chip away at my specific want list. 

This is a look at where my collection stands today. It's not much, but I like it. Plus, I get to enjoy it every day while I work. It's neat how all of this music fits onto just one flash drive. 

Despite my newfound obsession with CD's, my card collection isn't going anywhere, I'll likely just be adding to it far less frequently going forward. That's ok with me. I have been collecting cards on and off since I was about eight years old, so I don't see myself ever abandoning it permanently. 

In terms of collecting, there are two "white whale" CD's I'm on the lookout for: "Disconnected" by Dry Cell and "Anyone For Doomsday?" by Powerman 5000. Both were unfortunately never released at retail, so they are pretty much impossible to find. 

So that's my fun little update for now. Hope everyone else is still enjoying collecting as much as I am. Thanks for stopping by, have a great rest of 2025 and beyond! 

The Card Boarded Collection (Update)

All the way back in November of 2012 I posted about a PC collection website I created called "The Card Boarded Collection" where I could share all of my scans in one place. Well, five years later I am still using it, but have made a ton of minor tweaks along the way.

I am now in the process of updating it to include my latest pickups and a lot of other things that have been shown on the blog but not uploaded to the site. It is a pretty basic looking site and I wanted to keep it that way since it's purpose is just to show off my collection.

I set up each collecting project with it's own page. Beyond that there is only a quick description at the top and then a gallery filling up the rest of the page. I think this is the best way to do it so I don't have to get into pages and pages specific to inserts, autos, etc. It's a nice way to be able to take a quick look at my collection without actually having to physically be in my basement where all the cards are stored.

This site was built using the free Weebly service. Anyone else still use this or a similar type of site to show off their collection all in one place? I highly recommend it since it's free (at least for now) and relatively easy to use. Click here for more info.

Back At It Again

It's been about three months since I decided to put myself on a break from collecting. In fact, the last time I even bought a card August of last year. After some time off and a few eBay searches later, I've found myself buying cards again. Nothing too crazy, just one card for now, but it was enough for me to decide that I don't need to be on a official break from collecting. If I happen to go seven months between pickups, then so be it. I'm in no rush to complete any of my collecting projects and sometimes its hard to pass up a good deal on a card you've been in search of for years.

I probably won't be posting all that often, but there may be some new things here and there. I might also refocus my collecting goals to work better with balancing my model railroading since there is only so much hobby money and time to go around.

Taking a Break Again

This will be the second time I've gone on a "break" from collecting. The last time was June of 2013 and it was a refreshing five months away and made collecting that much more fun when I finally got back into things. Well, that feeling has kind of worn off again and I find myself devoting all of my free "hobby" time to model railroading. I still have me entire collection of cards and occasionally look over eBay for deals on cards for my various PC projects, but haven't bought a single thing since August now.

Lately I just enjoy model railroading more than collecting cards. Right now, at least for me, there is just something more enjoyable about building a physical model than simply buying a card and throwing it into a box or binder for storage. Don't get me wrong, I love hockey cards and have for a long time, I just think I need to pick a single direction to go for a while and that direction is model railroading.

Here's a look at the project I've been working on lately: a small shelf layout for my office at work. Its not very big, but there is definitely some detail work that goes into it. If you're into model railroading, check out my Michigan Model Railroader blog for updates on this and other modeling projects I'm working on.

A look at one of my current model railroading projects

I'm not shutting down the blog here or anything, because at some point down the road I'll see something that catches my eye just enough to get me back into the swing of things. I do still like to see what's going on with all the blogs I follow, so I'm still on here from time to time as I use the blogger dashboard to manage my railroading blog. 

Refocusing My Collection

I've had a few months away from the hobby now and honestly it's been awesome. I found myself a new hobby (model railroading) this summer and really just lost interest in collecting cards for a while. Not sure why, I was totally into it from late 2009 through April of this year.

I even contemplated giving up completely and selling off my collection to help pay for my new expensive hobby. I came close but decided to hold onto everything and just wait until I felt the need to collect again. For whatever reason I think that time is now. The new hockey season is in full swing and I've been trying to follow the Red Wings as closely as possible, which has refueled my interest in hockey in general.

Now that I've had a chance to take a step back and look at my collection as a whole, I think there is some cutting back that can be done. I think having three separate player collections is too much for me. I think having so many set projects going at the same time is too much for me. All that being said, here's what I plan on reducing my primary collecting goals to:

1) Jimmy Howard
This has been the main focus of my collection for the last few years and I plan to keep it that way. Howard is still my favorite player and even though he's having an off-year, I still want to keep adding to the collection. He has some really neat cards out there right now and I've got almost a year's worth to catch up on at this point.

2) MVP Stanley Cup Edition Parallels
This set is one of the reasons I started the blog and it remains a top priority, although with a slight change in direction. Rather than trying to go for the master set, I'd like to focus on only the Silver, Gold, and Super Scripts for now. I'll hold onto the other inserts and what not, I just won't continue to pursue the rest of them. This makes completion feel a lot more attainable and the parallels are the only reason I started going after this set, it just got out of hand when I thought to do the entire master set.

3) Detroit Red Wings
I've been collecting Wings cards since the day I got into hockey cards. I like the variety that you get when collecting a team, especially one of the Original Six. I don't plan on going after any big ticket items, but I will continue to be on the lookout for cool base and inserts to add to this ever expanding part of my collection.

4) Metal Universe
Here's another one that I plan to stick with, only with more changes. I'm going to forget going after the inserts and focus solely on the base sets. I say sets because I'm adding the 12-13 set from UD Fleer Retro. I love the look of both sets and they would look great next to one another once completed. I'm just three cards away from having the original 96-97 set done and there are 60 cards for me to go after with the new set.

5) Side Projects
I'm going to lump together my Goaltending Gallimaufry, Captured on Cardboard and Masks into this category. I'm no longer going to keep track of which Mask cards I need on the sidebar, I'll just keep a count of what I have and add them as I come across great deals. The other two projects are probably the most fun I have collecting since they give new life to base cards, so I really want to continue to pursue both of them.

So that's the plan for now. I am not planning on coming back into the whole collecting thing at the level I was at before. Now that I have another time-consuming and relatively expensive hobby competing with this, I will be a lot more selective on which cards I buy and when. That being said, I do not plan on getting back into a post per day pace or anything, I'll just try to be more active than I have been for the last 8 months or so. 

Taking a Break

It's been over a month now since I've posted anything on here and that is the longest I've ever gone between posts. For whatever reason, I made a point of keeping up a post-per-day pace back in April and I just felt burned out after that. Since that time I've somehow completely lost interest in this blog and collecting hockey cards. 

Part of that was getting wrapped up in the Red Wings surprise playoff success against the Duck and near success against the Blackhawks. The rest just comes down to the fact that collecting has fallen on my list of priorities. I've got a lot going on at home and work, leaving little time for the hobby I love. Then I spent last week in Costa Rica away from everything and that felt great, so why not continue on with one less thing to worry about?

The view from our room in Cost Rica

All that being said, I contemplated giving up on the hobby entirely, but then thought about it for a second and decided that I would just take an extended break from blogging and collecting. I still pop on here once in a while to see what's going on with other blogs as I will continue to read them, but that's about it until I get motivated to collect again.

Until then, thank you to everyone that has stopped by over the last few years. I am glad to have been a part of the hockey card blogosphere and am definitely looking forward to a time when I can get back at it. By the way, one last thing: Go Bruins!

What Would You Buy with $1,600 on eBay?

Have you ever wished you could go on a huge card spending spree without having to worry about hurting your wallet? Thanks to the latest contest over at Drop The Gloves! that can be done, well kind of. Click here to see more about this and how to get involved.

If I had the $1600 to spend on eBay in 30 minutes, there are a ton of things I would want to get, but given the time constraints I just took a quick look and came up with some cool pieces that would fit into mainly my Jimmy Howard and Dominik Hasek collections.

2005-06 The Cup #136 Jimmy Howard (BIN $500) = $500 Total

This one sits atop my want list and is probably the one card on this list that I will make sure I track down someday. These have become the key RC for players that debuted during or after the 2005-06 NHL season.

2005-06 SPx Xcitement Rookie Auto #XRJH Jimmy Howard (BIN $150) = $650 Total

This one is an autographed (clearly a sticker though) parallel of the Xcitement rookie card that I have in my Howard collection. The key here though is that it's numbered to just 5 copies and nearly impossible to find.

2005-06 SP Authentic Future Watch Auto Patch #155 (BIN $130) = $780 Total

This one definitely stood out with a sharp design and a nice piece of letter/number from Howard's jersey. On the plus side, it's numbered to 100 and appears to be hard signed.

2011-12 BTP Franchises Gold #F07 Detroit (BIN $100) = $880 Total

This one would fit in either my Howard, Hasek, or Red Wings collections. If I had a say, Terry Sawchuk would've been the third goalies on this one, but Crozier works too.

2011-12 Prime Seams Incredible #33 Jimmy Howard (BIN $80) = $960 Total

I chose this one because its something different and its numbered to just seven copies. While I wish they would've done a better job working the shape of the piece of jersey seam into the card, it still looks pretty sweet.

2008-09 BTP Auto Emblem #AEDH Dominik Hasek (BIN $150) = $1110 Total

I've always like the look of this set from BTP with the crisscross pattern and the placement of the different design elements. Add to that a nice looking patch, and this was a no-brainer.

2010-11 BTP Stick and Auto #SA-DH Dominik Hasek (BIN $90) = $1200 Total

This one is similar to the last and would make for an excellent piece in my Hasek collection. I like the two colored stick piece and the fact that Hasek has somewhat of a nice signature. 

2011-12 Dominion Crazy Eights #2 (BIN $400) = $1600 Total

This one is just awesome. How can you go wrong with eight solid patches from eight solid goaltenders? I could do with the Fleury patch, but can deal with it since Howard is in there.

So there you have it, $1600 for eight cards, man I wish I could do that for real. If I gave myself more time I would probably go nuts with a ton of cheaper cards, but that didn't seem like the fun thing to do here. These are cards I will likely never have in my collection, but one can always hope, right?

Thanks to Casey at Drop the Gloves! for putting on another great contest. Since this is only open to those of us with blogs, what are you waiting for if you don't have one? They are so easy to get started now and simple enough to maintain. Not sure how everyone else feels, but I love to see new blogs pop up as it keeps things new and interesting.

A Box Full of PC Goodness

Thanks to a deal I made with Brett over at My Hockey Card Obsession, I literally have a box full of cards to show off for my various PC projects. Here's a look at what I will be organizing, scanning, and posting in the next few weeks. 

There is a ton of great stuff in there and it has something for each of the following projects: 

     - Jimmy Howard

     - Dominik Hasek

     - Patrik Stefan

     - MVP SC Edition

     - Detroit Red Wings

     - Goaltending Gallimaufry

     - Duplicity

This is probably the biggest diverse influx of cards I've had in a while now. I will try to go through the list above in order to show everything off, but we'll see. Some things are cooler than others and may get pushed to the top of the list. 

Thanks again Brett for a great deal!

A Look Back at 2012 + Goals for 2013

It's hard to believe we're already coming up on the start of another new year, 2012 just went by way to fast, right? Anyway, I thought I would put together a quick summary of my collection over the past year. Here's a quick update on my main PC projects (all 10 of them) for 2012 and my goals for these projects for the new year:

Jimmy Howard: 

Still my primary player collection, which shouldn't change anytime soon. Only 29 new cards in for the PC in 2012. Not as much as I would like, but I'm still only on the lookout for great deals on Howard stuff and refuse to overpay for anything. For 2013, I'm hoping to continue what I've been doing by looking for great deals and I'd also like to get more of these through trades if possible, so I'm not wasting as much money on shipping with eBay.

Dominik Hasek:

One of my two secondary player collections. No new cards for the PC in 2012, only decided to restart the project back in November. For 2013, I think I'm going to focus primarily on base and low end inserts with this one and see what I can grab at the local card shows from dime and quarter boxes. Hasek has a ton of high-end stuff that is way out of my price range, so why even waste time trying to track any of it down.

Patrik Stefan:

My other secondary player collection. 30 new cards for the PC in 2012. This is another project I started in 2012 and hope to continue with in 2013. Stefan has a bunch of cards from 1999-2006 and they can usually be found in the dime and quarter boxes around here, so that's what I'll be doing for this project in 2013. 

MVP SC Edition:

My primary set collection and part of the reason I started the blog. I think I made a pretty good dent in the want list this year: 18 Super Scripts, 8 Gold Scripts, 18 Silver Scripts, 2 Clutch Performers, 2 Golden Memories, 1 Cup Contenders, 2 Second Season Snipers, 1 Playoff Heroes, and 1 GU Souvenirs. Some of this was from another hobby box I busted. Anyway, that's 53 new cards for the project, the highest total of any of my projects for the year so far. For 2013, I plan to continue what I've been doing scouring eBay for Super and Golds then hoping to land the rest at card shows or through trades.

Metal Universe:

This is my secondary set project and has been one of my favorite base sets since I first saw it back in 1996-97. This year I managed to get 8 new base cards through trades and contests, but in addition to that I also busted a hobby box that brought me a bunch of much needed base cards and 2 lethal weapons inserts. Right now I just need 3 cards to complete my base set. For 2013, I'd like to track down those three and start working on the insert sets and maybe even the Super Power parallel insert sets. 

UD Showcase:

This is currently my tertiary set project and I've kind of just been grabbing singles when I see them for cheap. In 2012, I managed to get 6 new Rookie Showcase cards including a Sidney Crosby for just $10. In addition to the Hockey Showcase cards I got back in 2005 with the UD promotion, I have 26 out of a possible 76 cards for the combined set. For 2013, I'd like to keep looking for good deals on cards for both sets.

Masks:

This is more of a side project than anything. If I see any Mask card and the price is right, I'll get it because who doesn't love goalie mask cards? I only ended up getting 2 new Mask cards in 2012, and both only cost me just $1. For 2013, I'd like to do the same, if the price is right I'll pick these up but otherwise they're not exactly my top priority.

Red Wings:

The Wings are the team I grew up with and they will always be my favorite, so I'm always on the lookout for Wings stuff on the cheap. 2012 brought in a ton of cool stuff for the PC, so much that I don't feel like trying to count it up. For 2013, I'd like to continue what I've been doing and go for anything that catches my eye as long as the price is right.

Goaltending Gallimaufry:

This has become my favorite side project and I love the variety it provides. I never know what set the next card in the project will come from, which makes it that much more fun. 2012 brought 48 new cards to the project, bumping the total from 59 to 107. For 2013, I'd like to keep looking for these at card shops and card shows as dime and quarter boxes are the best place to find them.

Captured on Cardboard:

This is my other side project and has not moved along as fast as Goaltending Gallimaufry, but is still a fun one. 2012 brought 5 new cards to the project, bumping the total from 7 to 12. For 2013, I'd like to keep looking for these in the dime and quarter boxes at the local card shops and shows, they're just a bit harder to find than the Gallimaufry cards.

Collecting in General:

As far as collecting goals in general for 2013, I would really like to work on getting rid of the stuff that has no place in any of my PC projects. I've got hundreds of autos/jerseys/inserts/parallels that I need to inventory and add to my trade lists. On top of that, I probably have two 5000 ct boxes worth of base cards from 1990-2012 that I could go without. I'm hoping to start work on cataloging those too, but we'll see.

My other main goal is to make it up to Toronto for the fall expo. I've been wanting to do that for years now and every year I plan on going, something seems to come up. This time I am determined to go and will do whatever I can to make sure it finally happens. 

All in all, 2012 was a good year for me and my collection. I love blogging and I still enjoy collecting cards as much as the day I started this blog. Thanks to everyone that stopped by this past year and I wish the best of luck to you and your collections in 2013. 

Happy new year everyone!

Cards for Christmas

It's rare that a Christmas goes by without me getting at least some hockey cards. This year was almost an exception though, until I got to one of my last presents yesterday. Normally I end up with a few packs or even a blaster box from Target, which is perfect because how can you turn down free cards? 

While I didn't come away with any packs or boxes this year, I did end up getting two nice cards from my parents. While they don't really fit into any of my PC projects, I still like them and as with everything else this time of year, it's the thought that counts, right? 

Here's a look at what I got:

Did you get any cool cards for Christmas this year? Also, do you tell people that you want them as gifts when they ask? I find it hard to ask people to get me cards because there are so many out there that's its hard for non-collectors to get exactly what I am looking for.

500th Post: The Card Boarded Collection

This is officially my 500th post here on Card Boarded. Just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who has stopped by over the last few years. I'm surprised I haven't lost interest by now, but that's a good thing. Now my sights are set on 1000.

Anyway, now that I've got that out of the way, a while back I wrote a post about a PC website I had started for my Howard collection. That was something I did so I would have a single place to show off all of my Howard cards without having to click through all of the posts on here or mess with a clunky Photobucket album.

That was nice for a little while, then I got tired of the layout and design of that site, so I abandoned it and moved onto another Howard PC from a different website creation service. That one was nice at first too, then I realized I would rather have something for all my PC projects, instead of just my main player collection. Then I scrapped the second Howard site and started a new general PC site for all of my projects. This one is simply called "The Card Boarded Collection" and you can see it by clicking the picture below.

Some of you have similar sites both for player collections and other projects. One of those sites in particular, The 90's Collector, inspired the layout I have for the various sections of my site. The main thing I got from there was the list on the left, pictures on the right setup for each of the individual pages. Can't get much better than that.

It's still a work in progress as far as getting everything scanned, organized, and uploaded, but I'm happy with the layout and the overall look of the site now. It's nice to have a single place to see everything for each of my important projects, without having to sort through all kinds of posts on here or any kind of online photo albums. 

So what do you guys think about the new and improved website?

Finally, Updated Want Lists

Just got done with my second roller hockey game in the last 36 hours. We got annihilated in the first one, but came away with a last second 7-6 win in today's game. We're 3-1 on the season now. I've got 6 goals and 2 assists in four games, not a bad start at all. So even on Super Bowl Sunday, the only thing that matters to me is the game of hockey.

Anyway, back to hockey cards now. While I didn't come up with a post here for my collecting goals for 2012, I do have a few and one was to get updated want lists on the blog for each of my PC projects. It's not that difficult, I'm just lazy and like to put this kind of housekeeping stuff off as long as possible. But now I'm finding myself wanting to do more trading, and I wanted a centralized list of everything I'm actively looking for.

I've got all the sets updated now (MVP, Metal Universe, and Hockey/Rookie Showcase). Other than that, I'm attempting to keep and updated Jimmy Howard want list, but it seems to keep jumping 20 cards with every new release lately. So that one will always be a work in progress. It's not completely up to date as of right now, but it's pretty close.

Now I just need to update my trade list.