Jimmy Howard: OPC Platinum White Ice

If there is one thing I like about O-Pee-Chee Platinum it is the parallels. They make for some really awesome looking cards. As a player collector it makes things even more fun going after an entire rainbow.  When it comes to more recent hockey sets, there are not many complete rainbows that look as awesome as OPC Platinum.

Here is card #57 from 2014-15, a White Ice parallel serial numbered 028/199.

This one cost me a whopping $0.25 plus shipping. I ordered it from eBay on June 26th and it finally arrived on July 29th. That is probably the longest amount of time I've ever had a card from eBay working its way through the mail system.

Its goes nicely with the Black Ice version I picked up a little while back. Speaking of rainbows, this gives me two of the nine cards required to complete it. I still need the following: Base, Rainbow, Platinum Traxx, Red Prism (/135), Blue Cube (/65), Seismic Gold (/50), and Golden Treasure (/1). This should be a fun one to try and complete.

Jimmy Howard: UD Overtime Red

As you can probably tell from my recent posts, I've been on a bit of a run of new cards for my Jimmy Howard collection. I made a bunch of purchases on eBay recently and I am still catching up on getting them scanned and ready to show off here. 

This was actually one of the earlier purchases I made, but it came from north of the border so delivery took quite a bit longer than normal. It was something like 28 days from when I ordered it until it finally made its way to my mailbox.

Here is a red foil parallel from wave #2 of 2017-18 Upper Deck Overtime. It is card #92 in the set and is serial numbered 02/99 on the front. 

Definitely a lot of red on this one, and I love it. When I first saw this pop up on eBay I had to have it. I had never seen one before. The best part is it cost just over $1 plus shipping. Now I need to work on getting the base and the other parallels (blue and gold).

Jimmy Howard: OPC Platinum Black Ice

Let's keep the streak going with two more additions to my Jimmy Howard collection. These are two separate eBay purchases from several weeks ago. I've always liked the various parallels that OPC Platinum has to offer, I just hadn't ever decided to buy any until now.

Up first is card #103 from 2015-16 OPC Platinum. It is serial numbered 23/99.

This one only ended up costing $1 plus shipping. Not bad for a card numbered to 99. Unfortunately, the scan does not show how great this thing really looks in person. I have to say these black ice parallels are one of my favorites out of however many there.

The second is card #57 from 2014-15 and is serial numbered 05/25.

Not sure why the serial numbering is so different from one year to the next. With this one being a bit more rare, it cost a little bit more at $5 plus shipping. The black ice treatment of the border appears to be pretty similar to the first card.

If I had to choose a favorite of the two it would be the 15-16 version. That design just looks a bit cleaner without the giant Red Wings text along the bottom. Plus the green and yellow accents on the second one look a little out of place if you ask me.

Now I just need to work on some of the other great parallels from these sets.

Jimmy Howard: SPA Future Watch

This year has been pretty good for my Jimmy Howard collection so far. For whatever reason I've been a lot more interested in adding to it than in recent years. Maybe is has to do with the fact that he is likely done with the Red Wings. From a collecting perspective, that might actually help drop the prices on his stuff a bit, so maybe I should try to wait it out. Or not, as you can probably tell by this streak of new Howard cards that I'm on. 

Today's post is a card that has been on my Howard want list since I started collecting his stuff back in 2010. I'm sure most player collectors would agree that if your guy has one, then the SPA Future Watch is a must have RC. I know I've always wanted one.

Here is card #155 from 2005-06 SP Authentic. It is serial numbered 214/999.

I was able to grab this one for $14 plus shipping. I don't think that's a bad deal considering I've always wanted one. On top of that it is just a great looking card. 

The best part is the hard signed autograph. I've always liked the way Howard's signature looks when compared to a lot of other players. This is one of the better examples in my collection. It is perfectly centered and there is not a smudge in sight.

Jimmy Howard: SP Game Used All-Star

Continuing with my Jimmy Howard pickups, a while back I bought a pair of cards from 2019-20 SP Game Used. I didn't even realize Howard had and cards in this set until they started popping up on eBay recently. He is only featured on the cards with game-used swatches from last year's All-Star game.

The first one comes from the All-Star Weekend banner/jersey set and features pieces of an event-used jersey and a decorative banner. I'm assuming this means the jersey was just from a photo shoot or something, but who knows maybe it was from the skills competition. It doesn't specify either way on the back.

I'm going to guess this is the only card that features Howard in a suit, so that makes this a bit of a unique piece in the collection. The main reason I chose this one was the banner swatch. It has a piece of the "O" from the Honda logo as shown right behind him in the photo. It might not be from that exact banner though as this piece looks to be smaller.

The second is from the All-Star Skills Fabrics set and features another piece of an event-used jersey. This time the back of the card specifically states it was used in the skills competition, so that's cool as that the jersey in the photo.

The pair cost me $5 plus shipping. Not bad for a couple of somewhat unique jersey cards. 

I know plain jersey cards like these are not as cool as they used to be, but I am happy to have these as they at least feature swatches from a single specific event. Now I just need to track down a few other cards from this set. According to TCDB, Howard has 12 total.

Jimmy Howard: UD Exclusives Spectrum

To go along with my previous post, I was lucky enough to find an even better UD Exclusives for my Jimmy Howard collection. This was another eBay purchase and one of those super low numbered parallels that I wasn't sure I would ever even see available.

This one is from 2011-12 Upper Deck and is technically a Spectrum parallel, or High Gloss, not really sure which as I've seen cards from this set labelled both ways. It is card #135 in the set and serial numbered 1/10 on the front. It has an awesome low-angle photo too.

This one cost me just under $10 plus shipping. Not bad for being numbered our of 10.

It will look great with the regular UD Exclusives version I already have. If you add in the base card that's a completed rainbow for my Howard collection. Not sure how many of those I have. This might even be the very first one. Time for some double checking.

Jimmy Howard: UD Exclusives

So far I've only added one card to my Jimmy Howard collection in 2020. With Howard being my primary player collection, I'd like that number to be a little higher by now. To help with that I've been on the lookout for good deals, mostly on eBay.

One of these good deals was this UD Exclusives parallel from 2019-20 Upper Deck Series 2. This is card #280 in the set and serial numbered 046/100 on the front.

I was able to grab this for just $1 plus shipping. Not bad for an exclusives.

While I'm not a huge fan of this year's UD base design, this is a nice looking card. All the red of the uniform and Howard's equipment really make the photo stand out. If only the red color for the exclusives marking matched, it would be even better.

2019 Topps Allen & Ginter: Chugging Along

I never thought I'd see the day when I purposely bought baseball cards for my collection. Well, that has finally happened thanks to a set of mini inserts from Topps.

After reading a recent post by Fuji, my love of trains had me doing a quick eBay search for the Shinkansen card. That was where I stumbled onto several cards from the 2019 Topps Allen & Ginter set, which unsurprisingly, I had no idea even existed until right then.

This set of minis is named "Chugging Along" and features different types of trains.

I love the look of this 15-card set set, everything from the artistic look of the photos to the gear designs in the corners. My favorite element might not be as obvious though. If you look closely at the fancy border treatment to the right of the words freight train, it looks just like a track diagram from a real interlocking tower. Click here for an example.

My favorite card in the set is #CA-10, the freight train. These are the types of trains that I first saw in person as a kid, so I've always been  into modern diesels more than anything.

As far as the backs of these cards go, the fancy border treatment is transferred there, albeit slightly modified. The title font is also prominent here. Otherwise the back is pretty straightforward and simple, which works really well for a set like this.

Rather than doing this one at a time, it was more efficient to just combine the remaining 14 cards into a single image. Plus, this gives you a great look at the set as a  whole. I'm even thinking about putting them into a frame and hanging them on the wall. 

I tied to put these in order of favorite to least favorite, although after the first two on top everything kind of runs together for me. All together there is a nice mix of styles and colors. The antique white background really helps complete the look.

These make a great addition to my growing collection of train cards. Hopefully there will be another set like this from Topps in the future. I'm not sure of any other modern sets that feature trains in such a prominent way. Kind of makes me want to just design my own.

Has anyone else collected this particular set of minis? I'm not in the know with baseball or this Allen & Ginter stuff. Are these non-sport minis popular with collectors?

SCE Tribute Update

Time for another update on my MVP Stanley Cup Edition Tribute set. I've been on the lookout for these recently, but have been only looking to add them when there is a good deal to be had. Thanks to another Sportlots.com purchase, I now have two Super Scripts.

Even though I don't care for this player or team, due to the 2017 Stanley Cup Final vs Nashville, I couldn't pass up card #45 featuring Matt Murray of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

It is serial numbered 16/25 on the front as shown above. Also, the rainbow foil looks amazing in person compared to this scan. I wish I had a better way to get that to show in the scans. They all seem to end up looking like this.

This one only set me back $1.95 including shipping. When I saw that was the price I couldn't click the checkout button fast enough. Considering I would end up paying that much any of the Silver Script tributes, this was a steal.

In addition to the Super Script Tributes, I'm looking to add some of the neat Colors & Contours to my collection. These are also based on the SCE design and also look amazing in person. So far I only have the one Larkin I bought at a card show last fall.

I was able to find a lot of three on eBay for $3.49 including shipping. The first was card #58 featuring Roman Josi of the Nashville Predators, which is serial numbered 046/249.

The second was card #70 featuring Ryan Johansen and is serial numbered 113/249. I think the Preds road jersey looks a little better than the home on these backgrounds. 

The third was card #50 featuring Matt Duchene of the Columbus Blue Jackets and is serial numbered 114/249. In this case the darker blue looks great against the background.

While these die-cut parallels are not the focus of my set project, they are pretty sweet and I plan on grabbing some more when the right deal comes along. Who knows, maybe I'll even add them to my official total and go after the full set.

Super Script Tribute Total: 2/100

SCE Super Script Update

To go along with my last post, I was also able to land another Super Script for my set. These things are still pretty hard to find now, so anytime I can get one its a good day for my collection. Plus, its fun to see some of the names from back then.

This one is card #205 and features Michal Sivek of the Prince Albert Raiders. It is serial numbered 10/25 on the front. Fun fact about this one: the right half of this photo is on the Milan Kraft card from this set. That's something you don't see every day.

 

One of the fun things about the CHL subset is researching how the player panned out as far as an NHL career. In this case, Sivek was initially drafted by the Washington Capitals 29th overall in 1999. He never actually played a game for the Caps though.

The reason why: Sivek was one of three players sent to Pittsburgh in the Jaromir Jagr trade. He would go on to play 38 games with the Penguins in 2002-03 registering three goals and three assists for six points. That would be it for his NHL career.

He went from there to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the AHL then onto Sparta Praha of the Czech league where he would play through the 2007-08 season. After that he retired from playing to become an agent for Eurohockey Services.

This one brings me to 83 total or just shy of 38% for the entire Super Script set. It also puts me at 11 out of the 23 CHL prospects subset, so at least that part is almost halfway done.

SCE Super Script Total: 83/220

SCE Gold Script Update

It's been a little while now since I've had any updates to this project. While they are an important part of my MVP Stanley Cup Edition set, they always seem to take a backseat to the Super Scripts. I do still keep an eye out for them though and was happy to have two of them offered to me for trade on Twitter several weeks ago. 

The first was card #159 featuring Todd Harvey of the San Jose Sharks. This one was serial numbered 081/100. Not the greatest signature from Harvey if you ask me. 

The second was card #185 featuring Andew Cassels of the Vancouver Canucks. This one was serial numbered 061/100. Not a great looking signature here either.

I don't get the chance to trade for these things very often, so it was nice to get rid of some unwanted cards for once. I also want to give a shout out to Off the Boards Cards & Collectibles on Twitter (@OTB_Cards) for helping me add to my set. 

SCE Gold Script Total: 79/220

Metal Universe Update

Here's an update that's been long overdue. I mentioned this 2012-13 Fleer Metal Universe set way back in the spring of 2013 when it was first released. It is a tribute to one of my all-time favorite base sets: 1996-97 Fleer Metal Universe and I've wanted to build it since. 

While it is not as over the top as the original set, these are some great looking cards. I have some good side by side comparisons of the two sets in my previous posts here and here. 

I hadn't given it much thought until recently as I've had a bit more time lately for card shopping with everything going on. I also wanted to try and build the set on a budget so getting a good deal was a priority for this one. Some of the singles for this set are pretty expensive on COMC and eBay. This is where Sportlots.com came in handy. 

I was able to find one seller with a ton of singles for sale. I found 12 that were $0.50 each and placed my order. This was one of my first orders from the site and I was really happy with the results. Definitely recommend this site for set building. 

Let's start things off with someone who was actually playing in the NHL when the original set was released. This one featuring Arturs Irber with the San Jose Sharks is card #12 and has a great look at this famous all white pads and his signature helmet/cage combo.

Up next is card #4 featuring Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers. He is shown in the Flyers awesome orange road jersey from the 90's. I will always remember him and these jerseys from the 1997 Stanley Cup Final when they were swept by the Wings.

More 90's goodness with card #15 featuring Doug Gilmour of the Toronto Maple Leafs. I love how the background works with the team colors on this one. The centering of the photo is also peferct here as none of Gilmour is cropped out.

The last of the 90's players is card #25 featuring Nicklas Lidstrom of the Detroit Red Wings, although he is pictured sometime in the late 2000's as evident by the NHL shield on the front of the uniform. This one also works well with the background.

As far as the modern players go, card #39 featuring Tyler Seguin of the Boston Bruins is probably my favorite design of the lot. This one has a great action shot of Seguin about to release the puck. It definitely looks a lot better in person than the scan.

Up next is card #29 featuring P.K. Subban of the Montreal Canadiens. This one is a good example of the contrasting background. The black and white definitely make the Habs dark uniform stand out. The red around the set name really pops as well.

Then there was card #27 featuring Ilya Kovalchuk of the New Jersey Devils. I almost forgot he played there. I always picture him with the Atlanta Thrashers. Now that uniform mixed with this set would've made for a sweet looking card.

Card #26 has Ondrej Pavelec of the Winnipeg Jets. I'm not really sure why he was included in this set over some of the other goalies in the league at the time, like Jimmy Howard for example. Oh well, this is still a nice looking addition to my set.

Continuing with the goalies, card #8 features Antti Niemi of the San Jose Sharks. Just like the Irbe above, his white pads really stand out against the darker background of the card.

Card #23 features Jussi Rynnas of the Tornoto Maple Leafs. Again, another guy where I'm not sure why they decided to include him in the set. Whatever happened to Rynnas anyway? Regardless, this is still a great looking card and a welcome addition to my set.

Our final goaltender for today is Pekka Rinne as featured on card #42. This one makes me miss those Preds jerseys. I still think the ones they have now are way too simplified.

Last but not least is the magic man Pavel Datsyuk as featured on card #19. The red really stands out against the darker background here and that makes for a great looking card.

Not a bad start to my set, even if it is a few years overdue. I'll have to get back onto Sportlots to see if there are more good deals like this. I only have 48 more to commplete it now, but there are some bigger names in there, so we'll see how it goes .

2012-13 Fleer Metal Universe Total: 12/60

MVP Silver Script Update

Continuing with the 1999-00 MVP project I recently started, this post is all about the Silver Scripts that have been sitting in my collection for 20 years now.

I was 11 years old back when this set came out and received a hobby box of as a gift. Back then it was a big deal for me to get a full hobby box as it only happened once in a while, usually birthdays and Christmas. The MVP sets were a big part of my collection as I got boxes for this set, the original 98-99 MVP and the 99-00 Stanley Cup Edition set.

I always thought the Silver Scripts were pretty cool, so it's fun now to look back at these cards. Brings back some good memories about my early collecting.

We'll start things off with one of my favorite hockey jerseys of the 90's, the Phoenix Coyotes. This Nikolai Khabibulin is card #161 in the set. It has a nice overall look at his goalie gear setup. He definitely had some cool masks to go with those jerseys back then.

Up next is card #152 featuring Eric Desjardins of the Philadelphia Flyers. Here's another jersey that I remember watching on TV as a kid, especially during the 1997 Stanley Cup Final when the Wings swept the Flyers. I was 8 at the time and just getting into hockey around then. Definitely brings back some good memories.

Then we have former Red Wings goalie Manny Legace. He is shown here with the Los Angeles Kings on card #99. This is another jersey I grew up watching, so its fun to see again. Not sure his mask is a good match for it though, might be a good gallimaufry candidate.

Here we have card #54 featuring Chris Drury of the Colorado Avalanche. I have to say this set is really reminding me of my love for 90's hockey jerseys. This one for the Avalanche is far superior to anything they've had since.

Up next is Drury's teammate Milan Hejduk as featured on card #58. If I had to choose, I would say he as the better looking signature. I will always remember these two from some great playoff series against the Red Wings back in the late 90's and early 2000's.

Then there was card #82 featuring Tom Poti of the Edmonton Oilers. He is pictured wearing another jersey I grew up watching on TV. I always loved the shouler patch on those ones.

Here's an example of a 90's jersey that I was never really a fan of. Card #173 features former San Jose Sharks forward Vincent Damphousse. As far as the Sharks go, they should never have changed their inaugural sweaters. Those were sweet.

Up next we have card #102 featuring Vladimir Malakhov of the Montreal Canadiens. The name is vaguely familiar to me, but I can't say I remember him that well.

Then there was card #210 featuring Alexander Mogilny of the Vancouver Canucks. I actually don't mind these jerseys. While completely different than the flying skate, I always thought there was something neat about them. I even had a replica when I was younger.

How can anyone not like the original Mighty Ducks jerseys? I might be biased because I grew up with and loved the Mighty Ducks movies. Card #8 featuring Steve Rucchin has a great look at the home white setup they rocked back then.

Not a bad start considering I only had to sort through some old boxes and binders to find them. I might have a few more stashed away somewhere, just need to check again.

MVP Silver Script Total: 10/220

MVP Super Script Update

To go along with my previous MVP Gold Script post, I was finally able to grab a couple Super Scripts from the same set. These two came from eBay and set me back about $6 each including shipping. Not bad considering how hard these are to find nowadays.

Coincidentally, we have another Panthers card to get us started. This one features Oleg Kvasha and is card #89 in the set. It is serial numbered 08/25 on the front.

Just like the Golds from this set, the entire perimeter of the card has been made silver to differentiate it from the other script parallels. I am definitely glad they didn't do the same for the Silvers as that would've been somewhat confusing.

Next up we have card #197 featuring Daniil Markov of the Toronto Maple Leafs. What's strange about this one is the fact that the serial number is hand written. I've never seen that before on any of these MVP script parallels. Not sure why they did that.

Not a bad way to get things rolling for my latest collecting project. While this will always take a backseat to my Stanley Cup Edition set, these things are still pretty cool and I'll try to pick them up whenever a great deal comes along like this.

I wonder how many people are actually working on this set. Are you working on it or know of anybody who is? There has to be at least a few people doing it, right?

MVP Super Script Total: 2/220

MVP Gold Script Update

Now that I've decided to go after the regular MVP scripts from 1999-00, I thought I would start things off with the only one of these I've had in my collection up to this point. Plus, I've gotten a new scanner since picking it up, so why not re-scan it just for fun?

This one is card #90 in the set and features former Panthers captain Scott Mellanby. It is serial numbered 007/100 on the front. I grabbed this from a $1 bin at a card show several years ago just because they look awesome and I never had one before that.

As far as the MVP Gold Scripts go, this is probably my favorite overall design. Unlike the Stanley Cup Edition set, these are a lot more distinguishable from the base and other scripts. I mean the entire perimeter of the card went from white to gold.

When you add to that the contrast with the team colors, you get this amazing looking parallel. If only Upper Deck could go back to something more along these lines for MVP. That would get me immediately interested in buying some new product for once.

MVP Gold Script Total: 1/220