Jeff Gordon: Off and Running, Finally...

Well, this post is definitely a little overdue. My original post about starting a side project for Jeff Gordon cards was all the way back in February. While I was able to get my first cards for the project not long afterward, they've just been sitting in my queue ever since.

I've also spent some time searching through COMC and TCDb to get a feel for what's out there. Gordon does have almost 8,000 different cards listed so I've got plenty to choose from. Since this is just a fun little side project, I'm going to be a little more picky about what I go after. It is not like my Howard collection where I want everything. For Jeff Gordon, I'm just looking for cards that catch my eye.

I'm also not looking to break the bank for these so I'm looking for good deals at the same time. In the case of my first purchase for the project, I was lucky to find a nice mixed lot on eBay that had some cool stuff to get me started. There were 10 different cards in the lot.

We'll get things started with my favorite of the lot, a base card from 2000 Upper Deck Victory Circle. This design is very similar to the 99-00 Upper Deck hockey set.

Up next is another name that I associate with hockey more than anything: SP Authentic. This one is a base card from 1999 SPA. I love the idea of the oval in the design. The DuPont paint scheme stands out very nicely from the rest of the design in this case.

Here is yet another name that I will always associate with hockey: MVP. This is almost an exact copy of the MVP hockey design from 1999-00. The biggest difference is the horizontal orientation of the larger MVP text toward the top of the card.

Now we're getting to some designs that are completely new to me. The only thing familiar to me here is the Upper Deck logo in the corner. This one with some cool blue foil accents comes from the 1999 Upper Deck Road to the Cup set, one I never even heard of.

This next one is from the same set, but has a bit of a different look to it. This one has a more head on look at the car. It also has a cool pop out window with a photo of Gordon outside the car. I'm really liking the look of this bluish foil. Hopefully there is more like this.

Up next is a group of three cards from 2000 Victory Circle. This one has a cool shot of Gordon in what looks to be the winner's circle at the Daytona 500. I'm guessing this would be from the previous year when Gordon won the famous race in 1999.

The next one has a cool shot of Gordon in the middle of a pit stop.

The last of the three has another cool look at Gordon after winning another race. Not sure if it is the same Daytona 500 on the other card though. I really like the overhead angle of this photo. You can even see the Gatorade bottles placed on top of the roof.

This next one is from another set I had never heard of before: 2000 Maxx Racing. This one has a neat effect where the background behind the car is split almost along the middle of the card. The way they did this really makes the car stand out.

Last but not least we have a bit of an outlier with this In the Drivers Seat insert card from 1999 SP Authentic. I say outlier because this is the first of these cards to not feature an overall look at Gordon's car. It is a nice design, just not as cool as the ones with the car.

Now that I've gotten started, I can try to narrow my focus to some of the cards that are actually appealing to me. I was into the whole Gordon/NASCAR thing when I was growing up in the mid 90s, so I'm likely to gravitate toward cards from back then. There is also some overlap with the hockey products I collected as a kid, so those would be the top priority.

One thing I will say is that I tend to prefer the cards that feature the car more than the ones of just Gordon himself. I'll definitely try to get some of both, but as far as priority goes I will probably focus on cards primarily featuring that iconic DuPont paint job from the 90's.

Jimmy Howard: Black Diamond Ruby

Time for another pair of cool new serial numbered parallels for my growing Jimmy Howard collection. These two came from separate eBay purchases a while back, but go together very nicely. They are both ruby parallels from a couple different years of Black Diamond. Who doesn't like team colored parallels, right? I say the more the better.

The first one is from 2013-14 Black Diamond and is serial numbered out of 50.

The second is from 2014-15 Black Diamond and is also serial numbered out of 50.

Both cards look awesome in person, but I would give a slight edge to the first one just because of the photo selection. The white road jersey provides a much better contrast with the red colored background. It is interesting too that Howard was a single-diamond for the first set and a double-diamond for the second.

Jimmy Howard: UD Masterpieces Black & Red

Now that I've had fewer incoming packages lately, I'm slowly getting caught up on post the stuff that has been accumulating for the last few months. I'm always on the lookout for new cards to add to my Jimmy Howard collection, especially serial numbered parallels.

Between a couple of recent eBay pickups, I was able to add two new parallel versions of Howard's 2014-15 Upper Deck Masterpieces card to go along with the base version I already had. The first is the black framed version serial numbered out of 50.

The second is the red framed version serial numbered out of 100. Both are amazing looking cards in person, especially considering how they were constructed. There is actually some separation in the thicknesses of the different areas, which gives it some depth. That is something you rarely see on cards. Plus the artist's rendition of Howard looks amazing.

I think if I had to choose between the two, I would give a slight edge to the red version. The red trim, even though it is the same as the team color, just works better overall.

As far as completing the so-called rainbow for this product, I have all the non-auto and non-memorabilia versions for Howard. From what I have seen, he also has the following out there: regular memorabilia, memorabilia black /35, memorabilia red /85, signatures, signatures black /15, and signatures red /30. Quite a bit to still chase after.

Jimmy Howard: Panini Dominion Gold

Time for another one card mailday post as this one kind of stood out from the others I've got sitting in the queue. I say that because it comes from Panini's version of The Cup: Dominion. Back when they were making NHL hockey cards, Panini had some great stuff.

This one is a gold parallel from the 2013-14 version of Dominion, which was the set's last full release. It is card #35 in the set and is serial numbered 08/50. If only it was serial number 35, then it would have the double jersey number.

I have to say this is my favorite of the Dominion base designs and it looks even better here with the gold foil replacing the standard silver, although it is kind of hard to tell from the scan. The gold looks very dark here, but it is actually much brighter and better looking.

This one goes nicely with the base version I already have, which I actually picked up on eBay all the way back in 2014 around when this product was released. Now I just need to work on finding the other parallels. There is an emerald version numbered to 5 and a black version numbered to 1. Both would be amazing looking cards, but I have yet to see them.

Viktor Arvidsson: SPx Auto

This is my first Arvidsson pickup since he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. While I'm not sure about his future cards, I still plan on picking up his Nashville stuff when the price is right. Hopefully that happens more often now that he's moved onto another team.

As far as specific sets, I've really wanted to pick up some of the more recent SPx designs. There is just something about them. Just like the Subban Radiant Materials I posted, the design of this set is really what caught my eye when I first saw the listing on eBay.

This one comes from the 2019-20 edition of SPx and is card #2 in the set. It is a sticker auto and not serial numbered. Not bad for just a few dollars including shipping.

Back to the design, this thing looks amazing in person. I love when designs crop the player out of the photo background and place them on top of a cool design like this. It's got a lot going on (hexagons, curves, bursts, foil, etc.) but it all works somehow. Definitely one of my favorite SPx designs out there. The only thing it's missing is a hologram.

Now I just need to track down some of the other versions of this card. There is the regular base version numbered to 149 as well as some others including jerseys, patches, autos and the Finite die-cuts. Those things look pretty cool too, but they're pretty limited.

Predators: P.K. Subban Radiant Materials

When it comes to plain jersey cards, there does not seem to be many designs lately that immediately grab my attention. Cards like these have become so common over the past two decades that they're no where near as impressive anymore. Outside of my PC players, it will really take an awesome design for me to want a simple jersey card for my collection.

Well, thanks to another excellent design from Upper Deck, I found one of those jersey card designs that I just had to have. In this case it was the Radiant Materials set from 2018-19 UD Black. Here's a look at the P.K. Subban version I grabbed for my Preds collection.

The background design is what immediately got my attention. I'm a huge fan of backgrounds like these and try to use them quite a bit whenever I'm throwing together my own custom card designs. I even use things like this as the wallpaper on my desktop and phone sometimes. Seeing it used on a hockey card is just awesome.

I like this background so much that I've been trying to reverse image search it to find the original design, although I haven't had much luck yet. There are a ton of cool images that are very similar, but nothing I've searched has provided the exact match yet.

When I bought this one, I intentionally chose the plain white swatch as it goes with the Predators away jersey that Subban is wearing in the photo. Maybe one day I'll grab a copy that has a gold swatch too. Those would look pretty nice together if you ask me.

Jimmy Howard: Ultra Platinum Medallion

Time for another quick one card post. This is one of the many recent eBay pickups that have just been sitting and waiting around to be scanned and posted here as well as my updated PC website. Even though it is a bit of work to scan, crop and organize everything, it is completely worth it in the end. That's one part of collecting I always enjoy.

Today's card is a Platinum Medallion parallel from 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. It is serial numbered 25/99 and has a really nice rainbow foil finish. They definitely want you to know it is a medallion version as the word is in the background over 30 times.

This almost completes another rainbow for my Howard collection, if you consider just three cards to be a rainbow. I have the Gold Medallion version as well and now just need the regular base version. I'll grab a copy eventually when the price is right.

Jimmy Howard: Champ's Silver & Gold

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm still trying to catch up on all the maildays I've had in recent months. It doesn't help that I have my cards scattered in different places and they're never close to my scanner, so sometimes it takes a while to even get to them.

Today's post is all about Upper Deck Champ's, specifically the 2015-16 version. I have always liked the look of this set and Howard's base card is one of my favorite base designs of his. In addition to the base, which I picked up several years ago, there were some parallels out there too: Silver (numbered to 25), Gold and Gold Back.

Here is the Silver version I got from eBay.

This thing looks awesome, it is definitely near the top of my list of favorite Howard cards now. An added bonus is that it features Howard's amazing lion themed mask. If I had to choose one as my favorite of his, that would be it. Here is a link to an InGoal Magazine article about the mask. Seeing the closeups makes me like it even more.

Now here is the Gold version that also came from eBay. The only difference between this and the silver is the coloring around the edges and the design inside the border.

These go very nicely with the base version that I already had. While there is still the gold back version out there, you could almost consider these three to be a complete rainbow I guess because the two golds appear to be the same on the fronts. However, the perfectionist in me says I need to have all four for it to truly be complete. I haven't seen one yet, so who knows when I'll be able to get one.

Jimmy Howard: SPGU Relic Blends

Catching up on mailday posts has been the bulk of my blogging efforts lately. I've got an increasingly large pile of stuff going that's come in recently, whether it be from eBay, Twitter, or wherever else. I've been trying to keep things as consolidated as possible, but sometimes it is just easier to write about one card at at time.

In the case of another recent eBay pickup, it didn't really fit with much else so I figured it could go it alone. It actually fits with some other recent pickups from SP Game Used. This one is a Relic Blends jersey card from 2019-20 SPGU. It is serial numbered 011/125 and has a cool die-cut red swatch from the jersey actually worn in the 2019 Skills Competition.

This one goes nicely with the SP Game Used All-Star Weekend jersey card and the All-Star Skills jersey/patch cards I already have. There is also a patch version of this specific card that is serial numbered out of 15. There are a few other related cards still out there as well, so I've got a bit of work to do to. A couple of them are really low numbered too.

Jimmy Howard: Panini Totally Certified

Even though this might not be the most popular opinion in the hobby, I really miss the days of Panini making NHL trading cards. They had so many great designs and a ton of cool looking parallels. Once of the sets I always like the look of was Totally Certified.

Howard had plenty of cards to chase in Totally Certified. I've picked up a few of them over the years, but am nowhere near completing the entire run of them. He's got a base card and all the accompanying parallels in addition to some memorabilia cards. According to TCDb, there are 18 different cards and four printing plates out there.

Thanks to some eBay purchases over the last few months, I was able to add four more unique Totally Certified cards to my collection. The first one is a Platinum Red, which is serial numbered out of 100. I love the look of this one with it matching the team color.

Up next is the Platinum Blue version, which is serial numbered out of 50. While it doesn't look as cool as the red, I do like how the player photo stands out against the blue background. Another thing with these is the texturing. It looks really nice in person.

Switching gears to the memorabilia cards from Totally Certified, I was able to grab one of the red versions of the regular jersey card. This one is not serial numbered and has a nice solid red jersey swatch. It is definitely a lot of red, but I love the overall look of this card.

It is kind of funny how this worked out, but in addition to the red jersey, I was also able to grab the prime blue jersey version, which is serial numbered out of 50 and has a nice two-color piece with a seam running through it. Again, not as cool as the red version, but still a nice card with the contrast between the red and blue elements.

Those four put a nice dent in my Totally Certified want list. I am still on the lookout for quite a few more though. In addition to still needing the base card, I am looking for the following: Platinum Green /5, Mirror Platinum Purple /35, Mirror Platinum Blue /10, Mirror Platinum Gold /5, Mirror Platinum Green /1, Jersey Patch Gold /25, Jersey Patch Green /5.

Jimmy Howard: Prized Prospects Auto Patch

I am getting so far behind on posting stuff here that I've got cards from over three months ago still sitting in the queue. I guess you could consider that a good problem to have as I really enjoy the process of getting cards scanned, organized and ready for posting here.

A quick post on Twitter is nice and all, but I always find myself preferring the extended posts that can be done on platforms like Blogger. While I'm not the best writer by any means, I do like at least trying to come up with some words to go with my new cards.

In the case of this recent eBay pickup, it gets me one step closer to another complete rainbow from Howard's rookie season. Even better is that it reminded me of one of the more unique ways I acquired a card for my collection. It was way back in August of 2011 that I met a fellow SCF member in person to complete a deal. That was the first time I ever met up with an online trade partner. Here is a link to that post.

What I had forgotten about until reading that post is the regular version of this card was actually the very first Howard memorabilia card I got for the collection. This new one is the Red Hot version of Howard's 2005-05 Fleer Hot Prospects rookie card. It is a nice auto patch and is serial numbered 22/50.

Gotta love team colored parallels. There seems to be no shortage of red themed parallels, so there are a ton of other Howard's that fall into this category. This is probably one of the most red colored cards I have of his. Even the patch piece, which is probably from one of the numbers, is completely red. If only they had them sign the stickers for these in red ink, now that would've been awesome.

In terms of the complete rainbow for this, I still need the White Hot version /5 and the En Fuego version /1. I think I've only ever seen one white listed and it was insanely priced at the time. The 1/1 I have yet to see, so hopefully it is out there somewhere.

Jimmy Howard: AMPIR IIHF 2017 WC

This year has definitely been a good one for adding to my Jimmy Howard collection. I've gotten a bit of everything from base cards to some oddballs to cards from The Cup. I even got a couple of Team USA cards all the way from Riga, Latvia of all places. Speaking of Team USA stuff, my latest pickup is an awesome IIHF card from Russia.

A while back I had been doing some searching online for Howard Team USA and stumbled upon the website for AMPIR Trading cards. There was a single listing for Howard and it just happened to be from the same 2017 IIHF World Championships as the other two cards I posted back in March. There was just one in stock and I jumped right on it.

This one from AMPIR has a nice action shot of Howard playing during the 2017 tournament on top of a cool blue background with the American flag in the upper left. 

If you're into cards like these they actually have a decent selection of cards available. There are plenty of NHL players included in the IIHF World Championship sets for 2017, 2018 and 2019. Of the ones still in stock there were quite a few recognizable names.

The site was very easy to navigate and purchasing the card went pretty smoothly. I was able to pay with PayPal, which made me feel a little better knowing this was from a random Russian site I had never used or even heard of before. 

 

The only issue I ran into was the shipping time. I placed my order on 3/13 and it was subsequently shipped on 3/14. Tracking was provided and I was able to see its progress all the way through. The problem was after it left Moscow the tracking didn't update for almost two months. I figured it was lost forever a that point. Not a huge deal for a $3 card, I was just disappointed that it was the only one in stock.

Luckily though I just happened to check the tracking for fun one last time on 5/31 and it had updated to show it scheduled to be delivered the next day. After all that waiting I was just happy to actually have the card, one that I'm not sure many other collectors have.

Jimmy Howard: Winter Classic Memories

With Jimmy Howard being retired now, there are likely not going to be a lot of new cards for him any time soon. So when I see him included in any of Upper Deck's 2020-21 checklists, I want to jump on those cards as soon as I can. One of the nice surprises that came up this season is the Winter Classic Memories set from Black Diamond.

This was an eleven card set spanning multiple Winter Classics and it includes names like Alexander Ovechkin, Patrick Kane and Henrik Lundqvist. They are relatively thick cards and have a recessed area in the center for a rainbow foil insert. They look great in person.

Howard's card has a nice close up shot of his Winter Classic mask and even has some nice snowfall in the background. You can even see a bit of his custom brown glove that was part of an awesome overall setup. If only the ref wasn't in the background, it would be perfect.

In addition to this regular version, there is a gold version serial numbered our of 14. The 14 representing the 2014 Winter Classic. I lost out on one via eBay unfortunately and the other BIN prices I've seen are just a bit too high for me right now. Hopefully I'll be able to track one of them down for a decent price sometime in the future.

MVP Super Script Update

Last summer I decided to expand my MVP Script project to include the original main MVP set from 1999-00. That one came out before the Stanley Cup Edition. I've only picked up a few cards from that set as I'm only grabbing them when the price is right.

I've always liked those first three MVP sets (98-99, 99-00 and 99-00 SCE) from Upper Deck and they will always have a special place in my collection. Those were some of the first hobby boxes I opened as a kid and I still have all of the cards from them in my collection.

My latest pickup from eBay for the 99-00 Super Script set is card #70 featuring Brendan Shanahan of the Detroit Red Wings. It is serial numbered 11/25. Somehow I was luck enough to get it for just $5 plus shipping. That was a deal I couldn't pass on.

In addition to that, I was able to snag my very first Super Script from the 1998-99 MVP set. This one is card #153 and features Dan McGillis of the Philadelphia Flyers. This one is serial numbered 21/25, but you can't see it as for this set it was on the back of the card.

As far as the design goes, these are lacking a bit compared to the later versions. I believe this was the very first Super Script set from Upper Deck, at least in MVP hockey. They're actually hard to differentiate from the Silver Scripts other than the rainbow foil signature. The rest of the foil on the card is the regular silver just like the Silver Scripts.

Even if it's not the best of the early MVP Super Script designs, I'm still happy to have this one in my collection and to have a start on this set as well. I may not get these as often, but they bring back good memories of my early collecting so I'll always look for them.

SCE Super Script Update

Time for another update on my favorite set. Its been a little while now since I picked one of these up. I'd have to go back to last year at this point. After all, the set is another year older and getting harder and harder to find. I know I'll probably never actually finish it, but that's part of the fun and it keeps me going even after all these years chasing it.

The latest addition to my Super Script set came from eBay a few weeks ago. Here is card #15 featuring P.J. Axelsson of the Boston Bruins. This one is serial numbered 10/25.

I was a little hesitant about buying this one because the listing showed there was a slight crease in one of the corners. It didn't look all that bad and for just a few dollars I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I don't see these every day so I had to jump on it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I got the card that you can't even tell there is anything wrong with it until you look very closely at the back. In the scan of the front above you would never know there was an issue. Definitely a win in my book.

This one brings me to 86 out of 220 for the Super Script set. I believe it is only the second Bruin I've been able to grab, the other being Joe Thornton. That leaves me needing six more to complete the Bruins team set.

SCE Super Script Total: 86/220