My Picks # 36: Mike Vernon

This pick comes from another goalie-themed subset from the mid-90's. It's a Mike Vernon Stoppers subset card from 1995-95 Score. This one is actually the Black Ice version of that set. 

i really like the base version of this subset with the brick wall and graffiti background. The Black Ice versions have the dark foil look to them on the front and a small Black Ice logo on the back.

The only thing I don't like about the design is the way the border on the left side just barely cuts into the blocker. it just makes the card feel unfinished or something like that.

Pack Break: 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2

I was at Target the other day and saw a bin of marked down packs and decided on one pack of 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2.

The Numbers:

Cost per Pack: $1.59
Packs: 1
Cards per Pack: 5
Total Cards: 5

Base:

(1) Wade Dubielewicz # 372

(1) Wojtek Wolski # 309

(1) Richard Zednik # 443

(1) Scott Gomez # 367

Inserts:
(1) Hometown Heroes Chris Chelios # HH79

The base set design is not the best in the world, but it could be worse. I like the use of the bronze foil, but they could have come up with a much better font for the player names.

I really like the Hometown Heroes insert set. It's something you don't see everyday and I like how they have the player image to one side, showcasing the cityscape in the background. 

Card Shop Pickup

I was at the mall the other day and stopped by the only card shop there, Sports R Us. I don't usually go for team sets, but I ended up getting one anyway. It was a Red Wings team set from 2008-09 UD Victory. The cool thing was I had never bought anything from this set so they were the first in my collection and it had a pretty decent player selection.

Here is the list of the cards in the set:

Dominik Hasek # 122
Nicklas Lidstrom # 123
Dan Cleary # 124
Pavel Datsyuk # 125
Chris Osgood # 126
Valtteri Filppula # 127
Tomas Holmstrom # 128
Henrik Zetterberg # 129

The Victory designs are usually hit or miss. I happen to like this one. Its simple and not too crowded. I could maybe do without two Victory logos, but hey its better than the UD logo.

Awesome Garage Sale Pickup

Since I started this blog there is only one place I have yet to pick up cards, a garage sale. I've been to the box stores, card shops and even card shows, which are all well and good, but its always interesting to see what you can find at a garage sale.

You always hear of people finding hidden treasures and what not at these things. What I got may not be a hidden treasure, but it was definitely a steal for only $3.

Here were the major items in the box:

(1) Unopened box of 1993-94 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey

(1) Opened box of 1993-94 Topps Premier Series II Hockey

(1) Opened box of Roger Staubach's NFL Football

The rest was filled with random cards from hockey, baseball, football, basketball and other non-sports. I have no clue what any of it is yet, but hopefully there is something good.

I'll have an update once I sort through everything. Stay tuned...

The Century Mark

This is my 100th post on Card Boarded, somewhere I didn't even think this thing would go when I started it back in December of last year. This blog has helped renew my interest in the hobby after I lost any real interest four years ago when I went off to college.

The best thing about starting this blog has been finding fellow hockey card bloggers and being able to read their blogs and see their collections.

Thank you to the followers of this blog and anyone else who has stopped by to check it out.

My Picks # 35: Wayne Gretzky

I chose a Wayne Gretzky card for this particular pick for a reason, a reason that will become apparent with my next post. See if you can figure it out though...

This particular card is from the 1999-00 MVP Dynamics insert set. It's a great looking set from a time where memorabilia cards were not found in every other pack and regular inserts were actually decent looking.

MVP had some really nice looking insert sets around this time, especially this one. It's got an interesting background, with the whole northern lights kind of thing going on. Not sure what the circles on the bottom are for, but they look cool. Same goes for the staggered vertical lines on the bottom right side. 

Gotta love the jersey too. That had to be one of the best of the third jerseys, I remember having a replica when I was younger and it was just awesome. 

TTM Success: Damian Rhodes

I've been having decent TTM success lately and yesterday's mail brought two more autographs. This time they were from retired goaltender Damian Rhodes. Thanks again to Moody for the address. The two cards I sent were from 1997-98 Score when he was with the Senators and 1993-94 Parkhurst when he was with the Maple Leafs.

Sent: 5/17/10
Received: 6/1/10

There were two things I noticed with this success: First, he signed one card with blue sharpie and one with black, coincidence that the blue sharpie went with the Leafs and black with the Senators? Second, the return envelope was postmarked in Cleveland, OH, when the address I used was in Arizona. 

My Picks # 34: Andreychuk/Nicholls

For this pick I'm going to do something a little different and double dip. These two cards come from the same set and I wanted to show them off together. They are from the 1998-99 BAP Milestones set. The first is a Dave Andreychuk 500 goals card and the second is a Bernie Nicholls 1000 points card. The coolest thing about these cards is they are die-cut in the shape of the number of each milestone.

I think these came from a large box of commons I purchased quite a while ago. I remember thinking they were the coolest thing back when I was a kid. They're great cards, printed on a very thick card stock, and they look so much better when you're actually holding them. 

TTM Success: John Vanbiesbrouck

Yesterday was payday and then some as I received two autographed cards from John Vanbiesbrouck. This is the second success I've have with my new round of TTM attempts. The two cards I sent were from 1999-00 Upper Deck when Beezer was with the Flyers and 1997-98 Donruss Canadian Ice when he was with the Panthers.

Sent: 5/24/10
Received: 5/28/10

My Picks # 33: Dominik Hasek

This pick showcases one of my favorite goaltenders, former Red Wing Dominik Hasek. It comes from the Championship Fever insert set from 2000-01 Aurora.

This is an awesome looking insert set in my opinion, just another good one from Pacific from back in the day. You wouldn't think flames on a hockey card like this would work very well, but this set pulls it off. 

I really like the background as it has some nice colors and textures, giving it the whole fire and ice kind of theme. It's a little heavy on the gold foil, but what can I say, it works. I also like the use and placement of the team logo in the upper left corner. The obligatory set logo is nicely placed in the upper right corner and doesn't take away from the overall look.

TTM Success: Brett Hull

This is another of my past TTM successes with the Detroit Red Wings. This time its 700+ goal scorer Brett Hull. He signed these two cards from 2002-03 Victory and 2002-03 Upper Deck, both of which show him in a Red Wings jersey.

It's not the best looking autograph in the world, but at the same time it's not the worst. The only problem with the first one is it seems like the sharpie was running low or something. As with all of my other past TTM attempts, I don't remember when I sent or received either one of these cards. I do know they were sent out separately, both to the Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena.

My Picks # 32: Steve Shields

Well I've hit a bit of a lull in new additions to my collection so I will probably be posting more of these on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. Anyway, this pick is one that showcases one of the coolest goalie masks in recent years. It's a Steve Shields from 2003-04 Topps, specifically a blue border O-Pee-Chee parallel numbered 494/500.

There's nothing better than a base card  featuring a goalie mask. There are not enough closeup shots like this in my opinion. This was one thing I liked about the flagship set from Topps, it seemed to always have a nice variety of photos.

As far as the mask goes, it has to be the greatest tribute mask out there. If there's one better I have yet to see it. It's something unique and that is always a plus. 

My Picks # 31: Jaromir Jagr

This pick is yet another card that caught my eye, this time when flipping through the pages of one of my binders. It's a Jaromir Jagr base card from 2001-02 Upper Deck.

It's another one of those cards where the player recently changed teams over the summer, and with Upper Deck being one of the early releases, there were no pictures of him actually wearing the jersey on the ice.

Usually these kind of cards will have a picture from a press-conference or something like that. This one is different though. I can't think of many hockey cards that have a national monument in the background.

It could have been worse, if they had put a picture of him in a Penguins jersey. That's one of those things I can't stand, when the team on the card doesn't match the jersey on the player. Check out this perfect example of what I am talking about.

Thoughts: Zistle

I just signed up for Zistle today, a site for cataloging cards, and was wondering if anyone else has seen or used this site and what they think about it. I've started to fill in my collection, but only have the one Jim Howard card in there right now.

My Picks # 30: Darcy Tucker

This pick is another one of those cards that caught my eye when sorting through some monster boxes of commons. It's a Darcy Tucker from 1999-00 Upper Deck.

It's not everyday you see a fight in the NHL nowadays, so it's kind of cool to see the aftermath on an hockey card. It's always nice to see a card with something other than generic full body or close up images.

This was one of the better looking Upper Deck sets in my opinion. The only downside was that these cards were thicker than most other base sets for some reason.