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

SCE Super Script Update

Wow, I just realized it's been over two years since I posted an update for my 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Super Script project, again. That was about the same gap between my previous update and the one before that. Talk about slow progress. I guess time does fly by, but for whatever reason it doesn't even feel like these have been that infrequent. 

I still consider this my favorite set after all these years and do not plan on stopping any time soon. They just don't show up for sale all that often. Sometimes when they do they are out of my price range so that makes them even harder to snag.

Luckily, 2019 has been good to me so far. I've been able to add three more to my set, all thanks to eBay. If I had to guess, I would say at least 75% of these things have come from there. For me, its the place where they show up the most.

Up first is card #78 in the set featuring Viktor Kozlov of the Florida Panthers. This one is serial numbered 19/25. I was able to grab this one for just $3.50 back in April.

 

Next we have card #47 featuring former Blackhawk Dean McAmmond. This one is serial numbered 05/25. I really like those old black jerseys Chicago used to wear. I was able to get this one for $9.99 just a couple of weeks ago.

Last but not least is another one of the CHL prospects cards. This one is #198 and features Ryan Jardine. It is serial numbered 22/25. Jardine was drafted by the Panthers 89th overall in 1998, but only played eight NHL games. Unfortunately, he never scored a goal and finished with two assists. This one cost me $3.19 back in March.

That's it for now. It feels great to finally post another update for this set. I've know all along this set would take me quite a while and that's fine with me. It gives me something to search for at shows and on the internet. Its still exciting every time I see a new one pop up.

These three bring me to a total of 62 for the set, which is just over 28% complete now. I've definitely got my work cut out for me tracking down the remaining 158 cards.

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

Tea Cards: Transportation Through the Ages

Tea cards are something that I have next to no knowledge of, so when I received these three cards below as a gift recently, it was really cool to be able to add something new and unique to my card collection. Beyond that, these aren't even hockey cards and actually feature my other main interest, trains, which makes them even cooler.

The three cards below come from a 48-card set called "Transportation Through the Ages" produced by the Brooke Bond tea company. This set was originally issued in 1967 and features many different types of transportation, hence the name.

These are significantly smaller than your traditional 2.5" x 3.5" trading cards. They are approximately 2.75" x 1.5" overall. Also, the corners are rounded, which I tried to emphasize by placing the cards onto a black background for scanning. The border is white, which made the edges and round corners hard to see when initially scanned.

The first card titled "Diesel Locomotive" is #20 in the set. This one features an excellent illustration of a Canadian National (CN) GP30 locomotive. The GP stands for general purpose. These locomotives provided 2,250 horsepower for pulling freight. 

The next card titled "Modern Steam Locomotive" is #19 in the set and features an illustration of a Canadian Pacific Class T1B Selkirk 2-10-4 steam locomotive. The 2-10-4 designation refers to the wheel arrangement. This means there were two leading wheels, ten larger driving wheels, and four smaller trailing wheels. This particular one, #5921, was built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1938.

The last of the three is titled "Gas Turbine Locomotive" is #21 in the set and features a nice illustration of a Union Pacific locomotive. Number 61 shown here was a second generation unit and delivered in 1954.  These locomotives provided 4,500 horsepower, but did not last all that long on the rails. They were all out of service by 1970.

Below is a scan of the back for the card above. It has the card number and set information at the top, a paragraph about the subject in the middle, and some company information at the bottom. Its neat that they have it printed in both English and French. This was done because they were made for distribution with Tea packets in Canada.

These will go great with my other two sets of railroad trading cards. Special thanks again to the person who sent me these. Gotta love the people in this great hobby!

Golden Knights: February Card Show Pickups

Along with the Predators cards from my last post, I was able to snag a nice group of base cards for my Golden Knights collection as well. While there is nothing amazing among these, it is still nice to get a variety of sets and at great prices too. The card shows I go to are always in metro Detroit so any base cards that aren't Red Wings never cost much. 

Up first is my favorite card of the bunch, a Marc-Andre Fleury from 2017-18 SP Authentic. I feel like if I had to put a priority on any one Golden Knights player it would be Fleury. I never liked him during his time with the Penguins, but once he became the guy in Vegas my opinion has changed. Plus I love goalie cards, so that makes it even easier.

 

The second of three from SPA was this one of Reilly Smith. I always forget that he is the brother of former Red Wings Brendan Smith. I guess Reilly has become the better of the two based on the last couple of seasons. He's been excellent for the Knights.

To finish off SPA, there was this one featuring James Neal. I have to say I don't understand why some people had such a problem with the whole white glove thing Vegas went with for the away jerseys. I think they work pretty well with the overall look. 

I showed off a couple of these Trilogy cards in my previous Preds post and the same thing I brought up there is true here. This would look a whole lot better if Fleury was pictured in the dark jersey. And is it just me or does the cropping look a bit odd on all of these?

I think this is my first non action shot on a Vegas card. The photo on this one from 2017-18 Upper Deck featuring Brayden McNabb appears to be from the 2017 Expansion Draft. He was there in person along with several other players including Marc-Andre Fleury.

Moving onto 2018-19 Upper Deck we have this one featuring one of the newer Golden Knights, Max Pacioretty. He is pictured skating against the Minnesota Wild. Notice the camera guy and the huge camera in the background?

Up next is Paul Stastny. Not sure which team they are playing in this one. Who knows, maybe its the same game as the Pacioretty above.

Then there was this Brayden McNabb, tying him with Fleruy for the most cards in this post so far. He is shown skating against the Sabres. Upper Deck must really like Vegas' away uniforms. All but one of these have shown it so far.

Here's an interesting close-up shot of William Karlsson. I'm assuming he's looking up at the jumbotron or something. One neat detail that you probably wouldn't see on a standard shot is the gold accent on the corner of his visor. Don't see that every day.

Continuing with the white jersey trend, there was this one featuring defenseman Nate Schmidt. Hopefully he can play the entire year this upcoming season after being suspended to start last season. He is an important part of their defensive core.

Finally, back to the awesome home gray jerseys. These are still my favorite in all of the NHL at the moment. I've only bought one brand new jersey in the last 10 year or so and it was this one right here. I can't wait to see what they do for their upcoming third jersey.

Not a major. That's all I can think of now whenever I see Cody Eakin. If you're wondering, I'm referring to the major penalty he received back in round 1 against the Sharks this year. I don't blame him at all for what happened, it was just an unfortunate series of events. Thankfully the Sharks stuck to their ways and didn't win much after that anyway.

My Golden Knights collection is coming along nicely now. It's great having a couple of other teams to chase now after 20 years of collecting nothing but Red Wings stuff. Even though none of these new Knights cards are really high-end, I'm glad to have them in my collection representing my second favorite team. 

Golden Knights Collection Total: 19

Predators: February Card Show Pickups

Better late than never with these. I meant to scan and post these back in February when I got them at a local card show, but never got around to it. Rather than breaking this up into multiple posts for each set as I was doing recently, I thought it would be easier to throw the rest of my new Preds cards all into a single post. 

Up first is my favorite photo of the bunch. This Pekka Rinne is a base card from 2017-18 Upper Deck. Normally net cam shots are during play and all you see is the back of the goalie, so this is kind of neat to see Rinne from the front here.

Next we have another card from the same set, this time with a great shot of Predators Captain Roman Josi just before entering the rink. Its kind of nice how he has been isolated in this shot as there are no fans or other players visible in the shot.

This Calle Jarnkrok, also from 2017-18 Upper Deck, is another example of the excellent photography we've come to expect from the flagship set. The only downside to this one is that the white helmet, jersey and socks all blend right in with the boards.

Up next is Filip Forsberg from the same set. This one has a great shot of Forsberg after what I assume was a goal for the Predators. I wonder if it was Forsberg who actually scored it, hard to tell for sure here. Still a nice looking card though.

Now onto the first card of a former Predator. Here Kevin Fiala is shown skating with the Preds during the 2016-17 season. He was traded to the Wild back at this year's trade deadline in exchange for Mikael Granlund. Not sure if this was the best move though as Granlund didn't do a whole lot for the Preds down the stretch and into the playoffs.

Then there was this one of Austin Watson. He's had some ups and downs with off-ice issues the last couple of years, but appears to be back with the team for good and on the right track now. Hopefully that will remain true for as long as possible.

Its not very often that you see players shown on a card without a helmet. If they are it is probably during warm-ups like this one featuring Scott Hartnell.

Switching gears now, we have this Ryan Ellis from 2018-19 Upper Deck. This is a great shot of Ellis defending his team's end in front of Pekka Rinne.

Up next is this one with a great shot of Nick Bonino ready for a face off against what would appear to be the Carolina Hurricanes. The centering is excellent on this one and gives us a great look at one of the of the non-action moments of a game.

Here's another nicely centered shot, this time of Filip Forsberg. Those gold jerseys sure do look good on cardboard. As much as a prefer the previous gold jersey design, these things are staring to grow on me and I might even want to get myself one at some point.

If I had to choose a second favorite picture after the Rinne, this would be it. Here we've got a shot of P.K. likely right after he or one of his teammates scored against the Oilers.

This next one has a great close up shot of backup goalie Jusse Saros. The only thing that would make this better is if the two skaters were not in the background on the left. I get that these are supposed to be in-game action shots, but sometimes I feel like it would be more aesthetically pleasing if the player was isolated.

Viktor Arvidsson was the last of my pickups for 2018-19 Upper Deck. Here we've got another nicely centered action shot, this time with Arvidsson looking as though he is either expecting to receive the puck or just sent out a pass.

Going back a year now, I was able to get this excellent Pekka Rinne card from 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee Platinum. I don't have many cards from these sets in my collection so it was defintely a nice addition. The Preds gold jersey from that season really pops off the card.

The other card from this set featured Vikor Arvidsson. Its interesting to note that he is shown here wearing #38 during the 2016-17 season. He switched to wearing #33 the following season and has ever since.

The final set represented here is 2017-18 Upper Deck Trilogy. I don't know much about this set so it was nice to be able to add a few cards from it to the collection. I was able to get two of them and the first was this one featuring Ryan Johansen.

To finish things off, here is another Trilogy base card, this time featuring P.K. Subban. While these cards have a real nice premium feel to them, I feel like they would've looked a little better if they all used images of the players in dark uniforms. This is a good example of the white blending in too much with the card design.

Well, that's it for my Predators additions for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get back out to another card show here soon for some more. Now that I know there are several monthly and bi-monthly card shows locally that should be a little easier to accomplish. I just need to come up with the spare time for it somehow.

Predators Collection Total: 61

2019-20 MVP Stanley Cup Edition Tribute

While I'm not as active on here as I have been in past years, I still try to keep up with collecting the best I can. Its a little more difficult to find time for this stuff now that I have two kids and a house keeping me busy all the time. Even though I don't make as much time for collecting as I would like, there is one thing that might help make my collection a bit more of a priority again. That would be Upper Deck's first new set of the 2019-20 season. 

This year's MVP set is one that I've actually been looking forward to. Like last year's set they have a tribute to one of the original MVP sets from back in the day. In this case, it is the 20th anniversary of the Stanley Cup Edition set, which is my favorite set.

To this day, I am not exactly sure why I have such a fascination with the 1999-00 SCE set, but I do and it was the main reason I even started this blog in the first place. I'm still working on building the SCE script parallel sets and will probably be working on that forever. They are just really had to find these days. 

Even though I've been trying to keep my total number of collecting projects to a minimum lately, I feel like I need to make an exception here and start going after the 100-card tribute set. It even has its own sets of parallels so this could be a lot of fun. 

There are actually four version of the set: Silver Script, Super Script (#/25), Colors & Contours (#/249) and Colors & Contours Purple (#/9). Only 400 cards all together, not bad. I think I will just focus on the Silver Scripts and Super Scripts to start though. 

Below is a side-by-side look at the original set and the tribute version. Overall UD did a great job capturing the look of the original set.  There are a few minor things that I notice are different, but nothing too crazy. Can't wait to get started on this.

If I do stick with trying to complete this new tribute set, hopefully I won't still be working on it 20 years from now like I am with the original one today.

Predators: Josi SPGU Banner Year

Here's something that I've never been able to show here on the blog before: a card with a piece of a decorative banner. I didn't even know these things existed until recently and thought it would be neat to add one to my Predators collection. I was all in with the Preds during their run to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final, so its really neat to have an actual part of it.

I've got plenty of plain old game used jersey cards in my collection and those have become so abundant in this hobby that the novelty of owning one has really worn off for me. Granted these things are not game used or anything, they are at least something different and I like that. I'm definitely happy to have one in my collection now.

The card below comes from 2017-18 SP Game Used, specifically the Banner Year set. It is numbered BSC-RJ on the back and is not serial numbered. It has a huge piece of an event used banner from the Stanley Cup Final on the front along with the Cup Final logo.

The back of the card certifies that the piece of decorative banner on the front was used by the NHL during events at the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. That's pretty vague, so I guess there's no way of knowing exactly where this thing came from. I'm assuming its from something used either inside or near Bridgestone arena, presumably for Game 3 as the bottom of the card has a quick blurb about Josi's performance in that game.

Even if I don't for sure know where this piece came from, its really neat to have something like this to commemorate a fun ride to the Final. If only the Preds were able to take home the Cup, then this would be an even cooler piece of my collection.

Predators Collection Total: 44

Predators: 16-17 Upper Deck ICE

To go along with the three cards from 2017-18 Upper Deck Ice that I posted on here the other day, I was also able to find two from the previous year's set at my most recent card show visit. These both came from the same seller and were 20 cents each. 

As with most Ice sets, this one is on printed on the acetate material. They are always easy to spot in the boxes of singles at the card shows. I sorted through a huge stack of these things, but was only able to find the two Preds. 

The first one is card #18 in the set and adds to my growing P.K. Subban collection within my Predators collection. Along with Viktor Arvidsson, he is one of my favorites on the team. Subban is shown here in the Preds old road jersey, which looks great against the background design. I also like how the blue stripes on his socks almost align perfectly with the v-shaped stripe that runs across the card.

Then there was James Neal on card #66. He is also shown in Nashville's old road jersey, which again looks great with the background of this set. As much as I like their new uniforms, I kind of miss these ones as they always remind me of the 2017 Cup Final run.

I'm getting closer to the end of my second round of card show pickups for 2019. I've got a couple more sets of Preds stuff to get to then a few more for the Golden Knights. I want to get through these relatively quickly now since I have a couple of recent eBay purchases I'm really looking forward to sharing on here.

Predators Collection Total: 43

Predators: Arvidsson Overtime

If I had to choose, Viktor Arvidsson would be my favorite current Predator. It seems like any time he is on the ice there is the potential for an exciting play. It definitely helps that he's usually on a line with Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen. He's leading the team this season with 33 goals despite only having played 56 games so far.

I don't have a ton of Arvidsson cards in my collection yet, so it was nice to grab a couple at recent card shows. Today's card comes from 2017-18 Upper Deck Overtime. This one is card #28 in the set. It shows Arvidsson playing during the 2016-17 season.

I haven't seen much of this set before so it was kind of nice to be able to add something a little different to my collection. Now I will just have to see how many other Predators there are in this set so I can search for them at the next card show.

I like the overall look of this set. The Overtime logo is a bit hard to see in the scan because of the silver foil, but other than that everything has a nice clean look to it. 

Predators Collection Total: 41

Predators: 17-18 Upper Deck ICE

Its the first week of April now and I'm still working on posting my latest card show pickups from February. Since then I've even bought a few things on eBay that are sitting in a pile waiting to be scanned. Its kind of nice have a backlog of stuff to post here so I can really do a new post whenever I feel like I have time right now. That is just not all that often lately.

I figured my lunch break today was a good time to show off some new Predators cards from 2017-18 Upper Deck Ice. These three all came from the last dealer I visited at the show and each one only set my back 20 cents. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

Up first is Viktor Arvidsson on card #67 of the set. I love the overall look of this edition of Ice. The blue really works well with the Predators colors.

Veteran and now former Predator Scott Harntell is on card #2. He is also shown in the Preds away uniform, which helps contrast against the blue background.

Last but not least, Filip Forsberg is the focus of card #15. This one has a great shot of Forsberg looking like he either just made a pass or is about to receive one.

The only bad thing about this set is what happens when you try to scan them and the printing on the back reads right on through to the front of the card. They also look a lot nicer in person than they do in the scans.

I haven't checked the official list, but I'm sure there are at least a couple more Preds I will need to complete the base team set. Maybe I'll get lucky and find them at the next show. 

Predators Collection Total: 40

Thoughts: 2019-20 Upper Deck MVP

So I just read Upper Deck's facebook post about 2019-20 MVP and there is one thing that has me really excited for this when it comes out. Normally MVP hasn't been on my collecting radar much the past few years because I've never really been thrilled by the design. I do however really like the original MVP designs from back in the late 90's.

I bet you can figure out where I'm going with this based on this year's MVP release. The 2018-19 version has some awesome tribute cards to the original 1998-99 MVP set. While I haven't chased those at all, I have thought about trying to get just a few. 

Those original MVP sets were some of the first hobby boxes I bought for myself as a young collector. Seeing those designs always brings back good memories. On a side note, its pretty cool that they have Filip Zadina of the Wings as the cover athlete for this set.

Now for where I was going with this. Upper Deck is in fact bringing back the tribute cards, this time for the MVP Stanley Cup Edition set as shown by the second page of the sell sheet below. The 1999-00 set was the original reason for me even starting this blog. 

While I'm still actively working on the original SCE set, it has kind of stalled out on me lately. They are just not as easy to come by now for whatever reason. 

I feel like this new 100 card set would be a good way to jump start some new interest in the project. I do wonder though how this will affect the original set. Would they become more or less desirable with another version floating around like this?

The thing I like most about the original MVP SCE set is that it was unique. There was also a regular MVP release the same season. 1999-00 was the only time they've ever done the specific Stanley Cup Edition. It is still my favorite Upper Deck set to this day.

I just hope the finished product looks better than this mock up with Patrick Kane. 

As of right now, I'm thinking that I will want to go after both the Silver Script and Super Script tribute sets as they would go perfectly with the original set I'm working on. 

Anyone else excited for 2019-20 MVP?