UD Rookie Showcase Update

Wow, it seems like forever now since I've had an update for this set. I haven't had a new addition to it since way back in July of 2012. They are surprisingly hard to find and seem to only pop up on eBay once every few weeks or months. That's part of the reason why I've only been able to get six of these things before this one.

This one is a bit different than the rest of the set because its the only one that overlaps with one of my player collections. Back in January of last year, I wrote a post about cards doing double duty for different collection projects and this was the one I was referring to:

This one actually came as part of a two card lot, the other being a 2002-03 BAP Signatures Series autograph of David Aebischer. No need to show that one off, but it will be available for trade if anyone is interested in it. Both only cost me $0.99 plus shipping, so I look at it like I got an auto thrown in for free and got a great deal on a card I needed for my collection.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

July has been one of the most productive months I've had in a long time when it comes to my collection. This will be my 24th post of the month, a number I haven't reached since all the way back in September of 2011. The best part is that most of the posts are project related and about cards actually coming into my collection. 

Today is another UD Showcase post featuring another one of my $0.99 eBay pickups. This time it is Alexander Steen of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Steen spent three and a half seasons in Toronto before moving onto St. Louis where he has been ever since.

With every new card I add to this set, I find myself liking the design more and more. I wonder why cards from this set don't show up all that often, although maybe it's just me not noticing them. This is the sixth one for my set which brings me to 26/76 for the combination of the Rookie Showcase and Hockey Showcase sets.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

I never thought I would see the day when I brought a Sidney Crosby card into my collection, but given the fact that he appears on the checklist for one of my set projects, it had to come eventually. Anyway, today is that day as I was able to grab a copy of his UD Rookie Showcase card on eBay recently, and for a great price at that.

When it comes to the Rookie Showcase set, this is the premier card even though Ovechkin was part of the set too. That said, you would think this card would fetch a decent price on the secondary market, right? I guess that depends on what you consider to be decent. I will say that I was more than comfortable with the price I paid for this one.

Here's a look at card number 24 from the 2005-06 UD Rookie Showcase set.

Supposedly there were only a thousand copies of these things produced, but for some reason they seem to be pretty rare on the secondary market. I've seen a few Crosby's from this set on eBay in the past few months, but they were all at ridiculous BIN prices. Like this one for $75 or this one for $100.

Wanna take a guess at what I paid for this one? I'll give you a hint, it was less than the $75 example from above. To see if you were close, click here to check out my S&T post on SCF.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

I seem to have pretty good luck finding these things on eBay lately, and at great prices too. This is another one that cost me just $0.99 plus a few bucks for shipping. Not bad considering the top loader it came in was marked for $10. I guess there were no takers for that price.

As you can see, this one features former Coyotes goaltender David Leneveu. Of the five of these I have, the others being Howard, Vanek, Carter, and Suter, Lenevue was the least successful in terms of playing time in the NHL. The other four are all regulars in their respective team lineups to this day. Leneveu managed to play 21 games with the Coyotes and just one with Columbus through the 2011-12 season. 

This one brings me to a total of four for the set project, as I'm not going to double count the Howard in both my player collection and the set collection. I still need to get another one to complete the set. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and come across one for cheap at the card show tomorrow.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

Finally, the weekend has arrived and I can relax after one heck of a busy week at work. Sometimes I wonder why I got into engineering in the first place. Anyway, since I didn't have any time to get to this during one of my lunch breaks, I thought I would get it out of the way now before doing any of my remaining pack break posts.

This Thomas Vanek is the third card I've been able to pick up for this set lately. The other two were Ryan Suter and Jeff Carter. So far that's a pretty good start as these are three of the better players from the 2005-06 rookie class.

In case you were wondering, I was able to get this one for just under $3 delivered. Not bad considering it's a short printed rookie set from six years ago now. All three have actually been right around $3 which is definitely a good thing for my wallet. 

This leaves me with 33 more to complete the set. And like I said previously, the only one I am really worried about picking up is the Crosby, as most of those are listed around $50.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

Time for another post to break up the 12 pack breaks I need to get to from the value box I bought at Target a few weeks back. This time it's another mailday post, for another one of my set projects, 2005-06 Upper Deck Hockey and Rookie Showcase.

This one features none other than the OT hero from game two of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals, former Philadelphia Flyer Jeff Carter. It's a pretty sharp looking card if you ask me.

This is only the second one I've picked up for the set project specifically, as I do have a third in the Howard already, but that's for the player collection, so I still need another one for the set. It should be a fun one to build though, until I get to the point where Crosby is the only one left. I've see that one listed with BIN's of more than $50 lately.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to get this one for just $0.99 on eBay with a few buck for shipping, pretty good deal don't you think? I've officially got 2/36 for the set now.

UD Rookie Showcase Update

Before I get into the 12 pack break posts I've got coming up from my recent "extreme value" box pickup, I've got a few mailday posts to get to. The first is one for a set I've yet to make much progress on, 2005-06 UD Rookie Showcase. I ended up winning this Ryan Suter, unintentionally at that, for just $0.99 plus shipping.

I say unintentionally because I threw up another "placeholder" bid at $0.99 figuring it would go at least a bid or two higher than that. Well, it didn't, but that's ok with me. It's a great looking card and I will definitely take it for less than a dollar.

This is the second card I've bought that's part of this set, but the other one was for my Howard PC so this is really the first one I can knock off the want list. At this point, I've got just one of the 36 in the set. Now I just need to start tracking down the other 35.

The worst part about building this set is going to be tracking down the Crosby that's consistently been on eBay with BIN's in the $50 range. Plus, he's the last player I want as part of my collection, but sometimes you have to deal with that to complete a set, right?

UD Hockey Showcase Update

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now, but never really had the time for it until now. First though, if you haven't noticed, I changed the tracker on the sidebar for this project. Now I just want either the pewter or the bronze version for any given card. This eliminates any confusion. The two versions look close enough to each other that I want to just build one set, even if it is a mix of the two.

That said, I do have one of the pewter versions, a Dany Heatley, which came from a copy of Beckett Hockey that I bought back in the day. From here on out though, I don't really care which version helps complete the set. Here's the rest of what I got for myself back when the NPN program was going on:

 

This first group is definitely an interesting mix of players. I believe the idea of the set was to focus on players that changed teams coming out of the lockout and into the 2005-06 season. Not sure why they didn't just go with all the biggest stars if they were trying to bring fans back into hockey again.

These, plus the Osgood I've already shared as one of my picks, bring me to the halfway mark on the Hockey Showcase front, with 20 of the 40 cards in the set. I'd say that's a pretty good start. Now I just need to work on getting some of the Rookie Showcase cards.

New PC Project: 05-06 UD Showcase

I thought two weeks of vacation over the holidays would've given me more time for this blog, but in reality it gave me less (travel, family gatherings, etc.) so I want to get caught back up on a few posts I started before the break. This one adds another PC project to the blog, which as you can tell by the title is going to be the 05-06 UD Hockey Showcase set.

A while back you may have noticed one of "my picks" featured the Chris Osgood card from this set. It's a great looking set, especially considering it was a NPN (no purchase necessary) redemption program UD held around the beginning of the 2005-06 season. I think is was meant to be a nice gesture by UD to fans of the game, or something like that.

You may have also noticed that my latest Jimmy Howard pickup came from the Rookie version of this set. The only difference between the two is the outer border color and the title. Here's a look at the two of them side by side:

There are 36 cards in the Rookie Showcase set and 40 in the Hockey Showcase set. Where this will get interseting is the parallel promo versions that are out there. Apparently, you could get the promo versions in copies of Beckett Magazine. The only difference between a promo and regular card is the color of the inner background. I've read in several places that the darker "bronze" is the regular and the lighter "pewter" is the promo. Any of you guys know anything about it?

You may have also notices that I added another tracker to the sidebar of the blog for this project. It looks like it's just for the Hockey Showcase set, but I'm lumping in the Rookie Showcase set so I don't need to mess with two separate trackers.

At this point I have 20 or so of the regular Hockey Showcase cards, plus a handful of duplicates. See, I had the bright idea of entering the NPN two or three times each week, having the cards shipped to different family members. This way I got around the one-per-household limit. Shhhh, don't tell UD that ;)

One of these days I'll scan in the one's I have so you guys can get a bit of a better look at the set, plus that way I'll be able to know all that I've got and what's left on the wantlist.

Until then, if you've got any of these you are willing to part with, drop me a line and I'm sure we can working something out. By the way, did any of you guys take part in this NPN?