Predators: Pekka Rinne 2020-21 OPC Platinum

O-Pee-Chee Platinum has become one of my favorite products from Upper Deck lately with all the cool base card parallel designs every year. I love trying to put together the rainbow for any of these sets. They look amazing when completed. While I know I'll probably not get the Golden Treasures 1/1's, it is still a fun chase and relatively attainable.

In the case of 2020-21 Platinum, of the Predators included in the checklist, I've decided to chase the rainbow for Pekka Rinne. He was always one of my favorite Preds to watch the last few seasons along with Viktor Arvidsson, who is not a part of this set.

Knowing that there are 18 different versions of Rinne to go after, this seemed like a fun project. To get things started I picked up a Red Surge parallel from eBay. These are exclusive to the Target blaster boxes and fall 1:7 packs. Definitely a nice looking card.

Up next is the new Aquamarine parallel numbered /499. This one I picked up in another Twitter trade. While the idea is a bit out there for the background, it actually turned out pretty nice. I would think these are a must have for any Sharks collectors out there.

Last we have the returning Violet Pixels parallel, which is numbered /399. These have been one of my favorites the last few years. They just look amazing in hand when the light hits the surface. In the past they weren't even serial numbered, so this is an upgrade.

Similar to what I've been doing with some of my Jimmy Howard cards, I put together a cool visual checklist grid for these Rinne parallels. I find this is a neat way to look at the cards all together and quickly see what I'm missing from my rainbow.

As you can see, I'm only just getting started here. I've got three out of a possible 18 different versions of this card. For now I'm making the assumption that the Color Wheel design will be back like the last four years. If not, then I will update accordingly.

Jimmy Howard: BeeHive Signature Scrapbook

When your main PC player's rookie season is 2005-06, finding some of the inserts and numbered parallels becomes somewhat difficult 16 years later now. While I do have a good number of rookie year cards in my Jimmy Howard collection, there are quite a few missing.

One of the cards I've been after for years now is his Scrapbook Signatures card from 2005-06 BeeHive. I was lucky enough to find one last week for just $5 on eBay and I'm really happy to knock this one off the want list. The best part is it's hard signed.

I love this design. They even went as far as including the scotch tape holding the corners of the photo and the set name/logo onto the "scrapbook" surface. I think this is the only time I can ever say I'm happy to see scotch tape on a card.

Howard's got a great looking signature on his older cards like this. This is one of the nicer examples I've got in my collection now. While the blue does look really nice, I wonder if it would've looked better in black or red to tie in with the overall look.

Jimmy Howard: Miscellaneous Pickups

My favorite part about player collecting has to be chasing parallels, especially the serial numbered versions, in the hopes of completing those full rainbows. With 15 years worth of cards out there, Jimmy Howard has a decent number of these things for me to chase.

I'm not very picky about what I'm looking for. Other than some of the unlicensed and show stamped type stuff, I usually pick up anything Howard as long as the price is right. He's got over 1,600 different cards to there is still plenty of stuff for me to chase.

While this first one is not serial numbered, it is one that I've been after for a while now. It is a red border parallel from 2019-20 O-Pee-Chee. These things look great for any of the teams with red uniforms and equipment, especially the Red Wings.

Up next is an awesome gold parallel from 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology. While the idea of the set itself isn't my favorite, my main PC player was included so I wanted to have it. Plus, the photo on this one is amazing and makes this card look very nice overall.

Here we have another gold parallel, this time from 2011-12 SP Game Used. This one was another great deal from eBay and goes nicely with the regular base card I already have. Now I just need the Silver Spectrum /10 and the Gold Spectrum /1 for the rainbow.

Moving onto O-Pee-Chee, this is the first of three Black Rainbow parallels I was able to snag from eBay recently. This one is the 2014-15 version and goes very nicely with the O-Pee-Chee Platinum rainbow I'm working on from the same season.

Going back a season, I was also able to get one from 2013-14. Overall this is a bit of a downgrade over the one above. My favorite part about this one is how they used a full body image. It gives the card a nicer overall look in my opinion.

Going back even further we have this one from the 2012-13 edition of O-Pee-Chee. I think this is equivalent to the design above where I'm not overly thrilled by it, but am happy to add it to the collection. You almost can't even see the O-Pee-Chee text on there.

Up next is one of several cards out there serial numbered to Howard's jersey number: 35. This one is from 2014-15 SP Game Used and is numbered 12/35. I love the overall look of this set. It is one of the better SPGU designs if you ask me. Definitely glad to have this one.

Last but not least we have this awesome Gold Script parallel from 2014-15 MVP, which is numbered 021/100. While it is not one of my favorite MVP designs, this one isn't too bad. I do like how they have the more original MVP font behind the player name at the bottom.

Well that's it for this stack of miscellaneous pickups for my main player collection. If I had to choose a favorite of these it would probably be the Rookie Anthology. I'm just happy to be able to knock these eight off the master want list. Slow and steady, right...?

SCE Gold Script Update

I can't believe it's been over twenty years since 1999-00 MVP Stanley Cup Edition was released. I've loved this set ever since I got my first hobby box way back in 2000. While I didn't get any Gold Scripts until years later when I started this blog, I always liked them.

It's been a little while now since my last update on this set, so it was really great to see another on in my mailbox recently. This one comes once again from a fellow Twitter collector (@OTB_Cards) who has been a huge help with this impossible set build.

Here is card #212 featuring Denis Shvidki of the Barrie Colts. This one is serial numbered 018/100 and brings me one step closer to completing the CHL subset. 

Shvidki was drafted 12th overall by the Florida Panthers in 1999. He would go on to play 76 NHL games, all with Florida. In those games he would put up 11 goals and 14 assists for 25 total points. His last season with the Panthers was 2003-04. After that he would go on to play in several Russian and other European leagues through 2013-14. 

SCE Gold Script Total: 86/220

Jimmy Howard: Game-Used Number Vault 1/1

Thanks to another lucky eBay find, I have another first for my Jimmy Howard collection: a 1 of 1 Vault card from In The Game. In the past I've avoided these because the added stamps always seem to clash with the overall design, at least on most of the ones I've seen.

Here is a 2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects Game-Used Number card with an amazing number piece. In this case, the red foil Vault 1 of 1 stamp works perfectly with the design of the card. Add in the fact that I only paid $0.99 for this card and I couldn't pass it up.

Luckily the Vault stamp only obscures a very small amount of the four grey lines running across the card. The foil for the "Number" text was already red, so it actually ties it all together nicely. If I am going to pick up any more Vault cards they would need to be along these lines where the obviousness of the stamp is minimal.

Now I just need to figure out how to include this on my master Howard checklist. I am definitely not going to consider it to be the regular version from the original 2007-08 release. However, I will consider it to be another unique card toward my Howard total. The problem is I can't seem to find it on TCDb yet, which is where I've been tracking lately.

Jimmy Howard: Victory Gold

One of the best feelings in this hobby is being able to cross a card off your want list that's been on there forever. In this case, I've been on the lookout for this card for almost ten years. I've seen one other copy in all that time, but it went way over my price range.

Thanks to another recent eBay pickup, I can finally add this awesome 2005-06 Victory Gold parallel to my Jimmy Howard collection. I was lucky enough to end up getting it for less than $10 too. Not bad for a card numbered to 100 from fifteen years ago.

I've always love the look of this Victory set with the colors split right down the middle and all the 45 degree corners. The only thing that would make this particular card better is if Howard was pictured in his team colored equipment and an official game jersey.

Now I just need to see if I can track down the black version numbered to 5. Now that is a card that I have never seen before. Hopefully that doesn't take another ten years.

Topps Rails and Sails Update

Time for another small update on my new favorite train related card set. Topps Rails and Sails is an awesome vintage set that I've been working on for a little while now. It's actually been over a year now since my last update. I'm only looking to pick these cards up when the price is right, so they are likely to be few and far between.

A little while back I was lucky enough to grab a lot of three new cards from eBay for just $8 including shipping. That ends up just over $2.50 per card, which is right around where I want to be as I'm building this set. It's nice to finally be able to show them off.

Up first is my favorite of the lot: card #26 featuring a diesel switcher locomotive from the National Railways of Mexico. The green paint scheme provides a nice contrast with the rest of the card and the artwork surrounding it is excellent. I love the logo in the lower right-hand corner as well. The cards in this set with actual logos look much nicer.

Up next is card #27 featuring a very odd looking rack-rail locomotive from the Mount Washington Railway. There is some really cool engineering going on with this design, especially the way the boiler remains horizontal while the wheels are on the incline.

The last of the three is card #28 featuring an electric coal mining locomotive. This is another one of the oddball locomotives included in the set. While I prefer the standard diesel-electric locomotives that common today, it is still neat to have cards like these.

While progress on this set has been slow, it is definitely one of my favorite side projects. These cards are the oldest in my collection and are a ton of fun to look at and sort through. While having 20 of them is great, there is still a long way to go for me to complete the set.

Rails and Sails Set Progress:  20/130 = 15.4%

Cumulative Cost (including shipping): $32.21

Average Cost per Card: $1.61

Jimmy Howard: BTP He Shoots He Saves

It isn't often anymore that I can say I've added something new and unique to my Jimmy Howard collection. There are only so many different types of cards out there. Today's post is about something you wouldn't consider to be a traditional card. I'm referring to the He Shoots He Saves redemption points that used to come in packs of ITG Between The Pipes.

If you're not familiar with these, they are just like the puzzle back cards that Upper Deck has done with MVP lately. The only difference is these ones from BTP served as the decoys in the packs. You could also accumulate enough of them and send in for a prize card. 

Rather than post nine separate single card scans, I thought it would be easier to just throw them all together as they would be in a standard nine pocket page. As you can see below they line up pretty well. There are just some minor differences with the border.

I've had my eye on these for years now, but never pulled the trigger on picking one up. I thought about doing it piece by piece, but that would've ended up taking too long and costing me way too much in shipping. Luckily I was able to grab the entire set of them for like $10 a few months ago on eBay. I couldn't hit the BIN button fast enough.

The image used for this is actually the same as the regular base card for Howard. It is an awesome overhead shot and even captures the puck just off his blocker. Considering the alternative would've been a photo with the Red Wings logo photoshopped out, I'll take it.

I can't think of many cards where you can see Howard's nameplate like this. The only ones that come to mind are the Net Cam cards from Panini a few years back.

Jimmy Howard: More OPC Platinum

I'm ten years into collecting Jimmy Howard's cards and I am still excited every time I find something new. That's tells me I'm into the right hobby, at least for now. Anyway, thanks to a couple of new eBay purchases I've got two new awesome serial numbered parallels.

When it comes to serial numbered parallels, O-Pee-Chee Platinum is one of the best sets out there today. Howard was included in two of those sets: 2014-15 and 2015-16. Today's post is all about the latter. I actually only had one card from this set before this.

Up first and the more colorful of the two is this Red Prism numbered out of 149. These red versions are some of my favorites as they match the Red Wings colors. They also look pretty amazing when the light hits the rainbow patterned background.

The other was this White Ice numbered out of 199. This one has a cool ice pattern around the perimeter and also has a nice rainbow shine. While it does not stand out as much as the Red Prism, it looks pretty good on it own. It goes nicely with the Black Ice version too.

Now onto my favorite part of going after another complete rainbow for the collection. Below is a look at the full visual checklist. These things are actually fun to put together. I use Inkscape to make it and get all of the info on the various parallels from TCDB.

As you can see, I've got a ways to go for this one to be finished. Seeing how these things show up for sale at random, it's kind of funny that the first three I have are all grouped together in the middle of the grid. Maybe I should try to get the Traxx or Blue Cubes next.

Jimmy Howard: Some New Autographs

Continuing with the theme of catching up on accumulating mail, today's post is all about the newest autographs for my Jimmy Howard collection. Some of these have been sitting in the queue for several months now, so it is nice to finally get them posted.

There are five in total and they all came from separate eBay purchases over the past few months. They come from a variety of years and sets, which definitely helps diversify my Howard auto collection. A couple of them are even hard signed, which is always nice.

Up first and my favorite of the lot is this 2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Ink numbered out of 35. I've seen one or two of these over the years, but was never able to acquire one until now. I think I got this for less than $10, which is a great deal if you ask me. I love the look of it too, although it would've been perfect if he was pictured in his full Red Wings gear.

Up next is another nice horizontal design, this time from the 2010-11 Crown Royale Scratching the Surface set. Again, this is one I've had my eyes on for years, but never was able to pick up a copy for myself. This one is cool because the signature is on a separate piece inserted into the card like a jersey swatch. I just wish it was centered a little better.

 

Going back to Howard's rookie year, we have this Parkhurst Signatures card. This one has a really cool design with the tan borders and the team logo plastered all over the background. It also has a nice look at Howard in his first full set of Red Wings equipment.

 

2006-07 is a year where Howard has next to no cards. This one from Black Diamond is one of just two cards from Upper Deck that season. This one is looks great. The black and white UD logo looks pretty cool. I love the cross hatch patters on here too, definitely one of the better looking Gemography sets in my opinion.

Last but not least is this nice hard signed auto from 2010-11 Zenith Yours Truly. Again, I've seen a few copies of this in the past, I just never really went after them. The price was good on this one so I went for it and was lucky enough to end up with the winning bid.

So there you have it, five awesome new autos for my primary player collection. Not sure how many I have all together now, I'll have to check on that one of these days. I'm still on the lookout for quite a few Howard autograph cards. Hopefully I can get some more soon.

Jimmy Howard: UD High Gloss

When it comes to player collecting, one of my favorite parts is tracking down those hard to find low numbered parallels. While expecting to get every one of one is pretty unrealistic, the other slightly higher numbered ones are just as fun to grab, especially when the price is good. My latest eBay pickup is another perfect example of this.

I think most collectors would agree that the Upper Deck High Gloss parallels are pretty desirable. I only have one in my Howard collection so far and have always been on the lookout for more. They just don't show up all that often, especially for good prices.

Luckily, I was able to grab this 2019-20 Upper Deck HG parallel numbered 02/10 on eBay last week. It was an auction listing so I wasn't sure how high the price would get. I was pleasantly surprised when it ended with just my one bid. Including shipping it was only $5.

I love the look of this thing. The rainbow foil, while kind of hard to see here, looks amazing when the light hits it. The photo on this card is also very nice. Picturing Howard in the home red uniform provides a nice contrast with the rest of the photo and card design.

So this is another hard to find card I can knock off the master want list. I also have the UD Exclusives as well as the silver foil version. I still need the base, speckled rainbow foil and clear cut versions to complete the full UD rainbow. That will be cool when it's complete.

Here's a look an my visual rainbow checklist for this one:

We'll see how long this one takes to fill in the remaining four spots. At least I have some of the harder ones out of the way now. I've at least seen them all available except for the Clear Cut Exclusives. Not sure how many of those are even out there.

Jimmy Howard: Panini Certified Parallels

I'm still slowly working on chipping away at my stack of incoming mail, especially for my Jimmy Howard collection. The majority of my purchases lately have been for that project. Today's post will focus on a trio of serial numbered parallels from Panini Certified.

Up first is a Mirror Blue parallel from 2010-11 Certified. This was Panini's first Certified set and I've been buying Howard cards from this set for ten years now. There are a ton of different parallels available from this set. The more the better if you ask me.

Skipping ahead a couple of years, I was able to pick up another Mirror Blue parallel from 2012-13 Certified. This one is Howard's base card, which is part of the Masked Marvels subset. It is serial numbered out of 50. The blue here provides a nice contrast.

The third was this sweet Mirror Red parallel numbered 036/100. One number less and this would be one of those sought after "jersey numbered" parallels. I'd have to check, I don't know if I even have any of those in my Howard collection right now.

So that's three great new serial numbered parallels for my Howard collection. I still have a ways to go before I can complete either of the rainbows for these sets. For the 2012-13 version, I know I still need the Gold, Emerald and Black versions. For the 2010-11 version, I for sure still need Emerald and Black parallels. Regardless of the year, these Certified cards from Panini look really nice and I would definitely like to add some more.

Jeff Gordon: Panini Chronicles Obsidian

I've said this before on here, but I definitely miss Panini being part of the hockey card market. They had some really great stuff for the few years they were around. Dominion and Prizm were some of my favorites. While they probably won't be back in hockey any time soon, I can still chase at least a few of their cards for my Jeff Gordon side project.

Today's post features an awesome new card from 2020-21 Panini Chronicles NASCAR. Specifically, it is an Obsidian card and features an awesome shot of one of Gordon's newer DuPont paint schemes. I had to have this one as soon as I saw it and wasted little time tracking down a copy for myself on eBay a few weeks ago.

The scan does not completely capture the awesomeness of this thing. It's printed on a premium card stock and the foil areas have a nice rainbow effect. The solid black areas look really nice and provide a great contrast for the rest of the design. This is definitely my favorite Gordon card so far. There are even some parallel versions out there.

This card is the perfect example of what this side project is about. I saw this card and immediately knew I wanted a copy of it. I'm not going after every single Gordon card out there, just ones that catch my eye and I think would fit with my vision for the project.

Jimmy Howard: 2004-05 Maine Black Bears

This year has been really great for my Jimmy Howard collection. I've managed to pick up some really nice cards including some that I didn't even know existed. In the case of my latest pickup, I knew it existed, but I had never seen a copy of it for sale or knew what it looked like. Then out of nowhere, it was listed on eBay with a Buy it Now option.

The card I'm referring to is this awesome college team card featuring Howard in action with the Maine Black Bears. It was sponsored by a car dealership based in Bangor, Maine. A quick check of the map shows the dealership was within 10 miles of the university. They're even still in business, albeit minus the Pontiac part. Fun fact, my first car was a '97 Pontiac Sunfire. I definitely had a lot of fun with that thing back in high school.

Here is a look at the front of the card. It is pretty simple with a nice solid white border and a large action photo. The text at the bottom is nice and neat. The team logo in the upper left corner is a nice touch and really stands out when you first look at the card.

In the past I haven't typically scanned or posted the backs of cards, unless they were a 1/1 or something special. Now that I've been using the Trading Card Database (TCDb) to catalog my Howard collection, I've found myself wanting to have the scans of the backs so I can upload them to the site and fill in some of the missing scans for Howard cards.

Given this was a promotional type team set, the back actually looks pretty nice. There is plenty of good information and a decent amount of stats. Even with all the ads at the bottom, it still has a decent overall look to it.

According to TCDb, this is Howard's only college card, so I guess I can consider that part of the collection complete now. This is nice because I've been on the lookout for this thing for years now. That's the fun part about player collecting though, isn't it?

Jimmy Howard: Griffins Game Used

One of the best feelings as a player collector is stumbling upon a really cool card of your player that you never even knew existed. It's even better when it is listed as a Buy it Now with a great price. One of my recent pickups even took this up one more level with an almost impossible to find oddball minor league team set.

Between years of scouring eBay and other sites I've gotten a pretty good idea of most of the cards Jimmy Howard has. The Trading Card Database (TCDb) has been pretty helpful too. If something exists, it is likely already listed on there. Most of the time, at least.

Well, thanks to a recent late night eBay search, I actually found something not already in the database. It was from a set I had never seen or heard of before. I check my saved Howard searches on eBay multiple times a day, so to see this card was a complete surprise.

Here is a game-worn jersey card from the 2008-09 Choice Grand Rapids Griffins set. There is no card number and it is not serial numbered. After some digging around the internet, I found that these were given out at specific Griffins home games. There were a couple other players in the set including Derek Meech and Jakub Kindl.

I love the look of this card with the ghosted image in the background and the bright red jersey swatch. Even if there are a couple of small ads it is a very nice looking design for a minor league set. I wonder how many more sets are out there like this.

Getting back to the major trading card companies, I also picked up this nice game-used jersey card from ITG's 2007-08 Heroes and Prospects set. The most noticeable thing about this one is the huge piece of jersey. Even better is that it's not just plain white and is the same color as the Griffins uniform Howard is wearing in the photo.

The last of these is another ITG game-used jersey card. This one comes from the 2006-07 Heroes and Prospects set. It also has a nice big blue swatch, although in this case Howard is shown in the Griffins white uniform. I know it doesn't really matter in the scheme of things, I just think the overall aesthetic of the card is better when the swatch matches the photo.

These three provide a nice boost to the Grand Rapids portion of my Howard collection. While I never saw him play for them in person, or really even at all, I still like adding these cards. The Griffins uniforms back then were pretty sweet and look great on cardboard.