Patrik Stefan: 2002-03 OPC Premier Red Line

When it comes to my Patrik Stefan collection, it is not the highest priority among all the other stuff I collect, so any pickups for it are usually few and far between. Every now and then I will see something on eBay that catches my eye and I'll throw a bid on it.

That was the case with this Premier Red Line parallel from 2002-03 O-Pee-Chee. I didn't even know these existed until I saw it. I remember the Topps version from back then as I got a hobby box as a kid, but I never really saw the O-Pee-Chee version. Both versions have red and blue parallels, the only difference being the lack of the "Premier" on the Topps.

Not a bad deal for just $0.81 plus shipping. Who knows how many of these will ever pop up for sale like this, so I'm glad I was able to grab it. Now I just need to work on tracking down the other versions of this card. That would make for a nice old school rainbow.

Another thing I like about this card is the photo. It shows Stefan in one of my all time favorite NHL jerseys and he's still wearing his original #13, which has always been one of my favorites too. It also makes me want to see Topps making hockey cards again.

Patrik Stefan: SPA Future Watch

There was actually one other Patrik Stefan card in my latest COMC shipment and I thought it deserved a standalone post. Rather than just being an insert, this is one of his true rookie cards from 1999-00 and definitely one of the most 90's designs you will see. 

It may be gaudy, but I love it and have wanted a copy for 20 years now. Here is card #91 from 1999-00 Upper Deck SP Authentic, specifically a Future Watch rookie. It is serial numbered 1853/2000 and looks amazing in person.

This thing definitely sticks out among the other Stefan cards in my main PC box. Upper Deck even went as far as re-creating this design for the 20th anniversary in the 2019-20 SPA release, although those were only numbered out of 249. The 10-card set includes the likes of Jack Hughes, Cody Glass and Cale Makar.

Patrik Stefan: COMC Pickups

When I made my latest purchase on COMC back in the summer, I wanted to get a nice variety of stuff so I tried to find some new cards for my Patrik Stefan collection. He's got a ton of stuff out there, but I wanted to focus on nice looking inserts and parallels. In the end, I chose four new Stefan cards, here's what I got.

Up first is my new favorite for my Stefan collection, a Lamplighters net-fusion card from 1999-00 Pacific Dynagon Ice. I always thought these were the coolest thing as a kid and have picked up several from similar sets over the years, just never from this set specifically. I love how obnoxious this card is with the patterned backgrounds, the goal light and the cool font for the player name. Really makes me miss the days of Pacific.

One of my favorite sets from 1999-00 is BAP Millennium Signature Series, specifically the colored base parallels. There were three version to go along with the silver base cards: Ruby /1000, Sapphire /100 and Emerald /10. This one of course is the Ruby and looks amazing in person. Now I just need to find the others to complete the rainbow.

Sticking with BAP Millennium, I was also able to grab this cool acetate Calder Contenders insert. This one is the Ruby version and like the card above is numbered out of 1000. This one is another example of not living up to the hype as Stefan didn't even get a single vote for the Calder trophy, which would go to Scott Gomez of the New Jersey Devils.

Last but not least is a sweet Gold Crown die-cut from 2000-01 Pacific McDonald's. I never even knew these existed until I saw this one listed on COMC. The only weird thing with this one is how far off-center the bottom half of the design seems to be.

It was nice to add some cool looking inserts to my Patrik Stefan collection. I love the late 90's and early 00's designs and luckily Stefan was included in a ton of sets back then so I've got plenty to chase. While he isn't my primary player collection, part of my likes adding cards just to see those awesome Thrashers jerseys again, especially the home version.

Patrik Stefan: UD Legends Epic Signatures

Ok, this is probably one of the more ironic post titles I've had on here. Patrik Stefan and legend don't really belong in the same sentence, unless you are talking about his legendary empty net gaffe against the Oilers back in the day. Regardless, I'm glad to have another cool auto for one of my PC players even if it is Patrik Stefan. 

This card was part of a recent trade I made with The Real DFG and comes from the 2000-01 Upper Deck Legends set, specifically the Epic Signatures insert set. Luckily for me, Stefan was included in this set along side names like Gretzky, Yzerman, Howe and many others. 

I really like the overall look of this set. The color/texture combination isn't too obnoxious and there is plenty of nice white space for the on-card signature. The on-card is the best part about these. The only thing I would've added is the team logo. Maybe that's just because I love that old Thrashers logo and it would look great on there somewhere.

Going through the checklist of that set, Stefan would be considered an outlier by a lot. I guess the hype was still there for Upper Deck to include him in this set. Here's a look at how the entire checklist compares statistically to Stefan's career.

UD Legends Epic Signatures NHL Regular Season Statistics
Player	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Bobby Clarke	1144	358	852	1210	507
Bernie Geoffrion	883	393	429	822	39
Brett Hull	1269	741	650	1391	23
Bobby Hull	1063	610	560	1170	249
Bobby Orr	657	270	645	915	582
Bryan Trottier	1279	524	901	1425	449
Cam Neely	726	395	299	694	83
Dale Hawerchuk	1188	518	891	1409	-98
Denis Potvin	1060	310	742	1052	456
Frank Mahovlich	1181	533	570	1103	266
Gordie Howe	1767	801	1049	1850	160
Guy Lafleur	1126	560	793	1353	446
Gilbert Perreault	1191	512	814	1326	41
John Bucyk	1540	556	813	1369	-7
Jean Beliveau	1125	507	712	1219	117
Jari Kurri	1251	601	797	1398	304
John Leclair	967	406	413	819	204
Joe Mullen	1062	502	561	1063	167
Joe Nieuwendyk	1257	564	562	1126	155
Joe Thornton	1636	420	1089	1509	186
Keith Tkachuk	1201	538	527	1065	33
Lanny McDonald	1111	500	506	1006	39
Larry Robinson	1384	208	750	958	722
Mike Bossy	752	573	553	1126	380
Marcel Dionne	1348	731	1040	1771	27
Mike Gartner	1432	708	627	1335	68
Michel Goulet	1089	548	605	1153	99
Mario Lemieux	915	690	1033	1723	114
Mark Messier	1756	694	1193	1887	211
Pavel Bure	702	437	342	779	42
Peter Bondra	1081	503	389	892	74
Phil Esposito	1282	717	873	1590	252
Pat LaFontaine	865	468	545	1013	-6
Patrik Stefan	455	64	124	188	-36
Pat Verbeek	1424	522	540	1062	-46
Sergei Fedorov	1248	483	696	1179	261
Stan Mikita	1396	541	926	1467	329
Sergei Samsonov	888	235	336	571	11
Steve Yzerman	1514	692	1063	1755	184
Ted Lindsay	1068	379	472	851	9
Wayne Gretzky	1487	894	1963	2857	520

This next table shows the minimum, average and maximum values for each category.

UD Legends Epic Signatures NHL Regular Season Statistics
Player	GP	G	A	PTS	+/-
Min	455	64	124	188	-98
Avg	1165	517	713	1231	186
Max	1767	894	1963	2857	722

The numbers don't lie, Stefan does not belong with the rest of the names here. He has the minimum games played, goals, assists and points. The only category he wasn't the worst in was +/- and there he only missed it by 10, coming in second worst behind Pat Verbeek.

Aside from Stefan, the only younger players in this set would've been Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov. I guess you could say if they were predicting future "Legends" with these three selections, they were only completely right on one of them.

Thanks again DFG for the trade! This is only the beginning of what he sent over. I will have a few more posts for the rest of it. Hopefully I can get to them here soon.

Patrik Stefan: PowerDeck Auxilary Power

Wow, I can't believe its been over seven years since I posted an update specifically for my often forgotten Patrik Stefan collection. While he was a part of a recent Gold/Super Script update, I didn't consider those cards part of the separate player collection for Stefan. 

Anyway, now that I'm trying to post a little more frequently on here this seemed like a good candidate. I actually ended up getting this without even paying for it. Back when I purchased the entire set for my SCE Silver Script project, the seller happened to include a complete set of these PowerDeck Auxiliary Power cards. 

This one is card #3 in the insert set and the the cardboard counterpart to those awesome CD-ROM "cards" from 1999-00. I had a few of those as a kid and remember thinking it was the coolest thing firing one up on our old Gateway computer.

Seeing this really makes me miss those old Thrashers jerseys. While the darker one with the "T" logo on the chest is my favorite, the whites were pretty nice too. Maybe one of these days I'll get one of my Thrashers jerseys upgraded with Stefan's #13 on the back.

Patrik Stefan: 2000-01 UD Vintage

Rather than going with all of my Hasek updates back to back, I thought I would change things up for tonight. There was also one lone Patrik Stefan card in the box of stuff I received from My Hockey Card Obsession recently. This part of my collection has kind of taken a back seat lately, but I haven't forgotten about it, so this is a welcome addition.

This one comes from 2000-01 UD Vintage. If I remember correctly, this one was a total rip off of Topps Heritage, which came out much earlier. Let me know if I'm wrong on this though, that was quite a long time ago at this point. Anyway, here 's the card:

Even though this is an extremely simple design, I like it for some reason, just not as much as Topps Heritage. I really like how the picture pops off the white background, especially with the darker blue of the Thrashers uniforms. And you have to love the look on Stefan's face, not sure if they just scored or what.

Patrik Stefan: ICE 1st Rounders Jersey

Yesterday I posted about a trade I made with Kevin over at Kevin's Collection that brought me two new Jimmy Howard cards. Also included in the deal was a nice piece for my Patrik Stefan collection, a 2000-01 Upper Deck ICE 1st Rounders jersey.

This is my new favorite Stefan card. It an acetate card from back when ICE was actually a cool looking and feeling set. I like how you can see through the area behind the ICE logo and that you can see the back side of the jersey swatch from the other side of the card.

The other cool thing about this card is the way the jersey swatch window is cut in the shape of a number one. Its also a plus that it comes from the maroon portion of the Thrashers jersey as that is a bit more scarce than either the dark blue or white.

This one makes for 7 auto/memorabilia cards in my Stefan collection and is the 60th different card of his I've been able to track down. Not as impressive as my Hasek and Howard numbers, but it'll get there one of these days as his stuff is usually dirt cheap and there is almost zero demand for it.

Patrik Stefan: Pickups from Hobby Insider (HI)

I've only recently become a member of the Hobby Insider (HI) boards, but now I can say I've made my first successful transaction there. When I created my signature, as I did on SCF, I listed the players I collect including both Patrik Stefan and Jimmy Howard. 

Well, a little while back I got a message from another member with a list of Stefan cards he thought I might be interested in. I took a quick look and needed most of them, so I agreed to the deal and the cards were on their way after sending a little PayPal his way.

The best of the bunch was this Gold signatures card from 2000-01 BAP Signature Series.

My next favorite was a 1999-00 Stadium Club Chrome refractor. I love the old Topps refractor cards, which makes me wish they will someday get a license to produce hockey cards again, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Next we have an insert from Stefan's rookie year. This Premier Rookies comes from the 1999-00 Topps Premier Plus set. I like the burst pattern in the background, but the "Premier Rookies" text is a bit obnoxious, don't you think?

Then there was this really cool looking insert from 1999-00 Crown Royale. Specifically, it's from the International Glory insert set, which you wouldn't even know unless you look at the back of the card down with the number.

Here's another one of his RC's, this time from 1999-00 Ovation.

Here is the base RC version of the refractor from above.

Now we have the base RC from 1999-00 Topps Premier Plus.

Another lost set I really like is Topps Gold Label. These were really cool when I was a kid in the late 90's and I'm happy to add this RC to my Stefan collection. The fun part with this set is going to be all the different levels of parallels, and all the 1/1's that go along with it.

 The next one if from 1999-00 Ultimate Victory.

Here's one from my 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition set. I had a couple of these in the PC already before this deal, but you can never have too many cards of a PC guy, am I right?

Lastly, we've got a base card from 1999-00 Upper Deck. Apparently back then there were Young Guns cards as well as base cards for rookies, or at least that was the case with Stefan. This is definitely one of my favorite UD base designs.

That's it for this deal. Eleven Stefan cards for the PC, all for just $4 including shipping. These bring the collection to a total of 59 different cards. There are still plenty more out there, but most of them are pretty cheap and there is not much demand for his cards.

Patrik Stefan: More eBay Pickups

Time for a little more Patrik Stefan show and tell. These next four cards are the last of several eBay purchases I made during a recent streak for this project. I've got two autos and two serial-numbered inserts, one of which is numbered to just 25 copies.

The first was this auto from 1999-00 Topps Premier Plus, specifically the Signing Bonus set. Clever name, right? Anyway, this one is a really nice looking card, plus this is probably the nicest signature I have of his so far. The others are all nothing more than chicken scratch at best. This one you can actually make out the "P" from Patrik and his #13 at the end.

 

Next is one of the chicken scratch autos I was talking about. It's the silver version signature card from 1999-00 BAP Millennium Signature Series. I love the look of the cards from this set, especially some of the colored parallels. Interesting fact: apparently this was Stefan's "first signature card" according to the text on the back.

Now it's time for the inserts. The first one is this Future Greats from 2001-02 SP Authentic. It's numbered to just 3500 copies. Kind of reminds you of the inserts of the mid-90's doesn't it? One thing I like about this one is the blur effect around the player image. It adds a little something to an otherwise boring plain white background.

The next one is pretty similar to the last one. It's the SP Limited Gold version of the same card, this time numbered to just 25 copies. I've never seen the "regular" version of this set before, let alone the gold parallel version of it. And come to find out, there's another version in between that's numbered to 150 copies. Now I have a rainbow to complete.

So that's it for the recent Stefan kick that I've been on. I never realized he had so many cards out there given how quickly he faded from the hyped 1st overall pick to nothing more than a blooper reel highlight with his empty net flub in Dallas. Anyway, the best thing is how cheap this stuff is relative to something like my Howard collection.

Now I'm just on the lookout for anything that catches my eye with a decent price tag. There are a lot of cool inserts and parallels of his to be had, I just need to actually find them now.

Patrik Stefan: A Trio of Rare Promos???

Today I have something a bit different for my newly started Patrik Stefan PC: a trio of promo cards, or at least that's what I think you would consider them to be. I got all three in a lot on eBay a little while back for about $5 plus shipping.

The first was this one from Topps. It's directly based on the 1999-00 Topps base card design, but is different in that it has a silver border, where the regular cards all had a gold border. Click here to see one of those for reference. 

This one is also numbered differently than the regular cards. Patrik's card in the regular Topps set is number 14, while this one is numbered ATL-PS.

The next one is a bit of a head scratcher. It looks exactly like the regular base version of the 1999-00 Pacific Paramount cards, but it has a different picture of Stefan than the "regular" versions I've seen. Click here to see one of these for reference.

I'm not sure on this one because the numbering on the back is the exact same as the "regular" cards, so the only difference is the picture you see above.

The last one is the best of the three, beacuse its not just a different version of another set. Well, I guess that's not 100% true, as it's strongly based on another Upper Deck set. Click here to see an example of 1999-00 MVP for reference.

So there you have it, a few "unique" pieces for my Stefan collection. I like the direction this project is going so far as most of his stuff is dirt cheap and I can get some really cool looking inserts and parallels from the early 2000's. Plus, it's always cool to find things like this for a player collection, am I right?

Patrik Stefan: eBay Pickups

One of the things I love about having a PC player from the early 2000's is the variety of cards that were out at the time. I've been doing daily searches on eBay for Stefan stuff and have come across a bunch of sets and subsets I've never even seen before. On the plus side, his stuff is dirt cheap compared to Jimmy Howard collection.

In these searches I came across a few things that I thought were great deals. The first comes from a pretty important set from back in the day when BAP was still around. It's a game-used stick card from the inaugural edition of Ultimate Memorabilia. 

This is the only the second slabbed card I've added to my collection. They're pretty neat to have in the PC, but the one thing I don't like about them is that it's difficult to get a decent quality scan, unless there's something I'm missing. Any tips on scanning these suckers?

  

The other was this game-used stick card from 2001-02 Upper Deck MVP. It's got a plain wood grain stick piece, which is not all bad, but still not as cool as the Ultimate piece above.

That's it for today, two new additions to the memorabilia portion of my Patrik Stefan collection. I now actually have more game-used stick cards than game-used jersey cards of his, granted it's only a 2-to-1 count at this point. In case you were wondering, I paid $3 including shipping for the MVP and just $6 including shipping for the Ultimate.

Patrik Stefan: Card Show Pickups

One thing I was looking forward to at the last Gibraltar show was finding some Patrik Stefan stuff on the cheap for my newly started player collection. I figured that since he is not the most collected player in the world and that he was never a Red Wing, I could get a great deal. Well I did manage to find a few things, and that's what today's post is all about.

I'll start with the best of what I came home with, a 99-00 BAP Millennium Signature Series gold autograph. This one I found in a box of priced-as-marked inserts for just $3. Not bad considering I would've likely paid that much just to ship something from eBay anyway.

That was the first auto I got for the PC, now it's time for the first jersey card. I found this one in a binder full of miscellaneous inserts. I had actually never seen this set before and after seeing the price was just $1.50, I couldn't pass it up, even if it is just a plain white swatch.

That's it for the good stuff. The rest was just base, inserts, and a few base rookie cards. The first of which was this one from 2001-02 Atomic, a set that I actually really like. It's printed on a nice thick and shiny card stock with the team logo die cut out of the corner of the card. These cards always tend to stand out in a quarter box.

Next is one of the rookies from 1999-00 Pacific Paramount.

Then there was this RC from 1999-00 Pacific Prism.

Followed by this RC from 1999-00 Topps Stadium Club.

The last RC was this one from 1999-00 Wayne Gretzky Hockey.

Time for a couple of inserts now. The first was this Gold Medallion from 2005-06 Fleer Ultra.

The last one was this Power Play insert from 2001-02 Atomic.

This makes for 9 new additions to the PC, not bad for the first time being on the lookout for this stuff at a show, right? There is actually a ton of stuff out there for Stefan between 1999-00 and 2005-06, so it should be fun to try and track it all down. 

The best part is that it's a fixed checklist, unless someone decides to include him as a Thrasher in a new set, which I'd say is about as likely as the Blue Jackets winning the Cup anytime soon. Anyway, after this I'm waiting on a couple of Stefan eBay pickups, so stay tuned for those.

Patrik Stefan: A Few Rookies

Now that I have officially started another player collection with Patrik Stefan, I thought the best place to start a show and tell of what I already have would be some of his rookie cards. I'm sure most of you probably know Stefan was taken first overall in 1999 by the Thrashers, so his rookie season would end up being 1999-00, which is where these cards are from. 

Let's get things started with some good old plain base set rookie cards. It seems like this was much more common back in 1999 than in today's world. I can't think of many sets nowadays that have regular base cards listed as RC's, and by that I mean cards that aren't part of a "Hot Rookies" or "Young Guns" sections of the overall base sets.

First I have one from Dynagon Ice. This was one of my favorite base card designs from that season. The only difference between this RC and the rest of the base set is the little "Rookie" stamp in the lower right hand corner.

Next is one from another Pacific set, Omega. While it's not the greatest design in the world, it's still pretty decent compared to some of the stuff out there now. Like the Dynagon Ice, this one has the same stamp designating it as a rookie instead of a regular base card.

Then I have yet another one from a Pacific set, this time Crown Royale. I always liked the horizontal designs they came up with for this set, as they stood out among other base set designs. Once again, the only difference between a standard base and a rookie card is the small stamp on the front.

Now I can move onto some of the UD rookies I accumulated over the years. First is this one from Black Diamond. Beckett lists this one as an official RC for Stefan, but as you can see from the scan, it is just like any other base card from the set, unlike the Rookie Gems distinction they have nowadays. 

The last one I have for today is from a now defunct UD set, Ovation. This is another listed as an official RC, but you wouldn't know it next to any other card from the base set. It does have a neat texture though, kind of like ice that's been skated on.

So how was that for a little bit of a blast from the past? I have to say that I am really looking forward to tracking down all of Stefan's cards from the 1999-2004 range as there were some pretty neat (and awful) base and insert designs back then.

Starting Another Player Collection, Again...

Lately I've been tossing around the idea of adding a second player to my always expanding collection, for the second time now. This may sound familiar because I did a similar post back when I decided to start up a Dominik Hasek collection. That didn't go so well as it was kind of overwhelming seeing the actual number of cards he had out there. So eventually I gave up on it and stopped actively pursuing his stuff.

It's been a while now since I made that decision and with more and more competition arising for Jimmy Howard stuff, I wanted to find myself a player who would be a bit more manageable. That being said, I've decided to start collecting Patrik Stefan. That's right, Patrik Stefan, the former 1st overall pick of the Atlanta Thrashers who is best known for his empty net flub with the Stars a few years back.

Why, you ask? The answer to that goes all the way back to 1999, when Stefan was all the hype coming into the season. I was only 12 years old at the time and somehow got onto the Patrik Stefan bandwagon. Not sure how or why, but I became a fan of his and he was actually the very first player I got a TTM autograph response from. So there is a reason for this choice, I didn't just pull it out of thin air for the sake of picking a random player, because really who would really want to collect this guy?

There are also a few other things that make collecting him appealing to me. First, he is primarily pictured in one of my all-time favorite NHL jerseys (the dark Thrashers seen in the picture above). And second, he wore my one of my favorite numbers, 13, during the first several years of his career with the Thrashers.

Patrik was selected 1st overall by the Thrashers in 1999, placing huge expectations on the centerman from the Czech Republic. As most of you probably know, he did not live up to those expectations after several injury filled seasons with the Thrashers. In total, he would go on to score 188 points in 455 games, which makes him statistically the worst 1st overall pick in the history of the NHL. If you're curious about him and his ill-fated career, click here to read a pretty good article about him.

Now, as far as cards go, I have a decent start already after going through the Thrashers section of my binders. I've got about 25 cards of his already, mostly base, but still that's a good place to start from. I've actually already shown a few of them off here in the past. Here's a look at some of them:

Finally, I am going to set some parameters for this player collection. Since Stefan is retired now, there is an finite number of cards of his out there. That said, I plan to only collect his cards ranging from his rookie season (1999-00) all the way up to his last season with the Thrashers (2005-06). This is kind of nice, because it gives me something to look for in the years before the stuff in my Howard collection. Now I get to go after a bunch of really cool pre-lockout cards, plus they're all pretty cheap.

So what do you guys think of my decision to go after Patrik Stefan in addition to the other projects I have going. Also, be sure to let me know if you have any of his cards laying around that you don't want or need.