Red Wings: Color Wheels

I think I've made it pretty clear that I really like the various parallels from O-Pee-Chee Platinum lately. One of them that I have never bought until now was the Color Wheel. I've seen these all over COMC and finally decided to add some to my order back in the summer.

Since Howard doesn't have one of these, I figured why not go for some of the other guys on the Red Wings. Up first is Dylan Larkin from the 2018-19 edition. This is probably my favorite of all the color wheel designs so far. It looks even better in person.

Up next is another Larkin, this time from the 2016-17 set. The actual color wheel part of the design is a bit different here in the distribution of colors and the lack of a physical division between each of the sections. Still a really nice looking card though.

Last but not least we have this 2017-18 version featuring Henrik Zetterberg. I like the radial look to this one as it gives is a bit of a different feel than the other two designs.

Anyone else a fan of the color wheel parallels from O-Pee-Chee Platinum? I love these and would like to maybe someday build the entire team sets. They look great in scans and are even nice looking in person. I just wish they had included Jimmy Howard in some of them.

Red Wings: eBay Pickups

I'm not one to usually buy many team lots from eBay, especially Red Wings stuff. I do still however regularly check eBay for Red Wings stuff in general and actually found a lot that I had to have for the right price. The reason I was interested in this lot: more stuff for my Jimmy Howard collection of course. Plus, some new Wings stuff is always nice too.

The title of the listing was simply "Detroit Red Wings Hockey Card Lot" but it also said "mostly Howard extra/duplicates" in the description and had this photo included.

As you can see there is quite a mix of stuff in there including a number of Howard cards. Those will be the focus of a separate post on here. This post is all about the miscellaneous Red Wings stuff I was able to snag for a great deal.

The winning bid for this entire lot: $0.99, not bad right? Even factoring in taxes and shipping I was able to bring this lot home for just $9 total. I'll take 44 cards like these for $9 all day every day, it works out to just $0.20 per card. On top of that there was one sticker and several Grand Rapids Griffins arena giveaway autographs also included.

Sticking with the standard cards that were part of the lot, the best of the bunch was this Ryan Sproul SPx autographed rookie jersey serial numbered out of 399.

Up next is another Ryan Sproul jsersey card, this time from 2014-15 UD Premier. This is a silver spectrum rookie jersey card numbered /125.

Apparently whoever put this lot together was a fan or Sproul as the next one is his Rookie Materials jersey card from 2014-15 Upper Deck. This one has a small red swatch that stands out nicely from the rest of the card. It is not serial numbered.

Rounding out the rest of this mini Sproul collection is another jersey, this time a white swatch from his 2014-15 SP Game Used card.

Moving on from the memorabilia cards, the lot also included an awesome UD Exclusives card or Frans Nielsen from 2017-18 Upper Deck. This one is serial numbered 058/100.

Up next is another Nielsen, this time a green parallel from 2017-18 MVP. While the printed facsimile signature, as opposed to the usual foil, doesn't look so great here, I like the overall look of this card with the green MVP logo and background elements.

Continuing with some more MVP, there was also this nice base card of Gustav Nqyuist from the 2016-17 set. MVP may not be one of the best sets out there, but for being one of the low end products, some of the base designs like this are actually pretty nice.

The next one takes us back a few years to 2008-09 with a Nicklas Lidstrom base card from Upper Deck Victory. Somewhere I have this card as part of a sealed blister pack team set I bought at a local mall shop years ago. Can't go wrong with too many Lidstrom's, right?

Last but not least we have a nice base card from 2013-14 Score featuring Jonas "The Monster" Gustavsson. I always liked him during his time with the Wings. He spent three seasons here alongside Jimmy Howard from 2012-2014.

Not bad considering these cost me just $0.20 each. The Wings will always be my hometown team so it is always nice to add cards to the collection, especially the older guys like Lidstrom that I grew up watching on TV. The new generation of players is nice to add here and there as well, but it just doesn't feel the same for whatever reason.

Red Wings: Trade Pickups

In addition to several of my other collecting projects, my recent trade with The Real DFG also brought home some new cards for my Red Wings collection. Trades like this are the only way I've been getting base cards for my team collections lately as I still have not been to a card show all year. Hopefully I'll be able to get to a few next year.

Up first is a 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee Retro of Givani Smith. I have to admit, I do not know a ton about this guy as I haven't followed the Wings as closely as I used to. He played 21 games with the Wings last season picking up two goals and one assist.

The other O-Pee-Chee Retro parallel was of defenseman Patrik Nemeth. He was also new to the Red Wings for 2019-20 after spending time with Colorado and Dallas. He played in 64 games for the Wings last year picking up one goal and eight assists.

Up next is a regular O-Pee-Chee card of center Robby Fabbri, who also joined the wings during the 2019-20 season after coming over in a trade from the Blues. Every time I see that #14 I keep thinking of Brendan Shanahan who wore it most of the time while I was growing up as young Wings fan.

Last but not least we have another Fabbri, this time from 2019-20 Upper Deck Series Two. This one has a nice close up shot of him wearing the classic Red Wings red jersey.

So that's four cool new cards for my Wings collection and the first of the new season for my hometown team. One of these days I need to get myself organized enough to get an accurate count of my Red Wings cards. I've been collecting this team for almost 25 years now and have absolutely no idea how many cards of them I actually have.

Red Wings: Trade Pickups

It's been a while since I've been able to post a good batch of new Wings stuff on here. The last time was all the way back in September of 2017. I've gotten a few random Wings cards since then, but nothing that gave my hometown team collection a significant bump.

That can change now thanks to Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders. I sent a bunch of Michigan alumni stuff his way in exchange for some Wings stuff. There was no set list of cards coming my way so it was fun opening up the package and sorting through everything.

We'll start things off with my favorite nine cards of the package. It actually took my a while to decide on these as there were a ton of sets and players that I haven't added to my Wings collection yet. I don't buy much of the newer products and stay away from overpriced Wings stuff at the local shows so I don't have many cards of the current team or even former players from the last five seasons or so.

These first nine provide a good mix. My favorite would have to be the Nyquist Young Guns, since I it was my first Wings YG from that set. The Athanasiou and Nyquist Artifacts are pretty nice too. As far as design, I would give a slight edge to the AA.

Going back a few years, there were some great cards from the mid to late 90's. My favorite of these would probably be the Lidstrom from Pinnacle Inside. That was the set where the cards came in cans. I remember getting a few of those cans as a kid and thinking they were the coolest thing. The Larry Murphy in the middle makes me wish Topps would produce hockey cards again. Their sets were a big part of collecting for me back then. 

Lastly we have some great early 90's stuff. The Yves Racine from 91-92 Score and the Yzerman from 90-91 Score bring back memories of collecting Red Wings when I first started in the hobby. Those are two set designs that I will always enjoy having in my collection. There were even a few featuring the current head coach of my other favorite team.

These were an excellent boost to my Red Wings collection. I'm not even sure how many cards I have at this point, so I've decided to start sorting and counting again. I started this in the past, but never finished. That's why the total still says TBD on my collection tracker sidebar. This trade has made me want to get that figured out finally.

Thanks for the trade Dennis! I'll be on the lookout for more UofM alumni stuff for you. I already have a couple more Steve Shields cards set aside that were lurking in my binders.

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

Jimmy Howard: 18-19 MVP Gold Script

Additions to my Jimmy Howard collection have unfortunately been few and far between recently. I'm not really sure why, but this has become somewhat less of a priority over some of my other collecting projects. Howard is still my favorite current Red Wing though and I hope he is able to finish out his career here. At this point, it would just be odd to see him shown on a card with another NHL team. 

In fact, the last time I did post something was December of 2017. I have taken some breaks from collecting between then and now so it's really not as bad as it seems. Anyway, there were a bunch of MVP in that post and today's post will be more of the same. 

This time however I have a serial numbered MVP parallel to show off. This one is a Gold Script from 2018-19 and is card #185 with a serial number of 061/150. I bought this on eBay for just $0.99 back in March of this year. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

This is my third Howard MVP Gold Script along with 2013-14 and 2005-06. I have to say this is the nicest design of the three and probably one of the better MVP designs of the last five years. I just wish the gold foil would show up a little better with my scanner. 

Jimmy Howard Collection Total: 179

Red Wings: 50/50 Trade Pickups

In my never ending quest for Red Wings cards, I was lucky enough to get quite a few from Chris at The Collector as part of our recent 50/50 trade. There was a nice mix of recent Red Wings and I've decided to show them all off here in one post. 

The best of the bunch was this Pavel Datsyuk Shining Stars from 2015-16 Upper Deck. Looking at COMC, this appears to to be the Royal Blue version. I didn't even know there were different versions of these things. This is definitely the nicer looking version.

 

Up next is a run of 2013-14 Score cards. The first one features Damien Brunner. I really like watching him play for the Wings and will always remember the OT goal he scored against the Ducks during Game 4 of the 2013 playoffs. Here is a link to the replay.

Then there was this one featuring Johan Franzen. This has a great action shot of Franzen shooting the puck right toward the camera.

Continuing the trend of home jerseys, this one features Kyle Quincey during his second stint with the Red Wings. They originally drafted him, but he spent some time with the Kings and Avalanche before returning to Detroit in 2012.

Here is one featuring Mikael Samuelsson. I will always remember him for scoring the first goal of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final against the Penguins with a sweet wrap around.

 

The last of the regular Score cards is this Hot Rookies card featuring defenseman Brian Lashoff. He was part of the dual RC class as evident by the logo in the upper right corner. 

 

In addition to the Score base cards, there were a few gold parallels included. The first was this one featuring Justin Abdelkader. You can also see just a tiny bit of Jimmy Howard in the background. I've seen some others turn that into a project in itself for their main guys.

Jordin Tootoo is another player that was a lot of fun to watch while he was with the Red Wings. He may not have been the most talented, but he added some grit to the team and that is never a bad thing. It's also nice that he was able to wear the #22 in Detroit. 

The last of the golds is this one featuring Brendan Smith. It is another nice horizontal image and would look even better if the referee hadn't been in the background.

Finally we have this Kris Draper from 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Chrome. This is a great looking card in person and does not scan all that well. I don't have many Wings cards from this set, so it was nice to get one as part of this package.

That's it for the 50/50 trade. I love that I was able to stretch it out to four separate posts on here. For just a few bucks in postage and a stack of cards that I didn't even need I was able to get some great stuff for my collection and have some fun writing about it.

Red Wings: Card Show Pickups

Going to card shows in the metro Detroit area means there will always be an abundance of Red Wings stuff. Most of it is overpriced just because they are the hometown team, so usually I avoid most of the bigger ticket items. The lower end stuff though is usually more reasonably priced. While its not much, I added two new cards to my Red Wings collection.

The first was this Mike Vernon from 1997-98 Totally Certified. It is the Platinum Red parallel version, which is numbered out of 4299 on the back. I guess serial numbers were a bit different back then, right? Not many cards are numbered that high anymore.

The other one is this nice Gordie Howe from 2007-08 SPx. It's a cool looking card, but there is definitely a lot going on here design wise, almost too much. I do like that they used the old school Wings logo instead of the current on. Also, I don't have a ton of Howe cards in my Red Wings collection, so this was a nice addition.

I'm almost through all of the stuff I picked up at the card show now. I've got one more post planned to cover some odds and ends that I picked up just for fun. Now that I am almost done, it makes me want to go out and find another local show to check out. For not all that much money, I can get a decent haul of cards and on the plus side it gives me a ton of things to write about on here.

Red Wings: Trade Pickups (Part 3)

Time to show off some more of the Red Wings trade pickups I mentioned in my last post. I've found it easiest to show these off nine at a time. All I have to do is load up a single nine-pocket page and throw it into the scanner. 

Up first is this Steve Yzerman base card from 1999-00 Pacific Prism. This one actually has a great looking rainbow foil background, but its a bit difficult to see in the scan as it looks rather plain. Plus, you can never go wrong with a new card of the Captain, right?

Another Gordie Howe that I forgot about when doing my Mr. Hockey post yesterday. This one comes from 2002-03 Upper Deck Foundations. I've never had any cards from this set and there were several included. I'm glad to have them in my Wings collection now.

One of the cool parallels I got was this Holo-Gold of Slava Kozlov from 1999-00 Pacific Paramount. It is serial numbered 060/199 in the upper left corner.

 This one featuring Kevin Hodson is from the 1996-97 Flair Wave of the Future set.

So much red on this card, I like it. This Nicklas Lidstrom comes from 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update. Another set that I didn't have much of in my Wings collection.

When it comes to retro parallels, 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee is one of my favorites.

 This Pavel Datsyuk is from 2006-07 Flair Showcase.

This Nicklas Lidstrom card originally came from a can, remember those Pinnacle Inside cans from back in the day? Those were the coolest thing when I was a kid.

Last but not least we have this Norm Ullman from 2001-02 Topps Archives. Definitely like the solid red background and cropped action shot. Not a bad looking card overall.

That's it for today. Definitely a nice mix of new stuff for my Red Wings collection. Now I just need to sit down and get all of these entered into my master spreadsheet so I can get an updated count on the collection. I haven't done that in a very long time so it will be interesting to see where I'm at now.