Predators: Pekka Rinne 2020-21 Allure

This update for my Predators collection is only one card, but it seemed like a good time for it after watching the Stadium Series last night. Unfortunately the wrong team came away with the win, but one of my favorite Preds was there and a part of the pre-game.

Continuing where I left off with my last Preds post, I have another piece for my 2020-21 Allure rainbow of Pekka Rinne. This is the 1917 NHL Shield variation and is serial numbered /17 on the back of the card. It looks just like the 2005 Shield variation, only here the outline of the shield is yellow instead of grey. It looks really nice in person.

Being numbered /17 I wasn't sure how much this would set me back, but I was pleasantly surprised when it popped up for sale at just $10 on eBay. I couldn't hit the buy it now button fast enough. This one brings me to 10 out of 26 for all the possible variations.

Here is a look at my updated visual checklist grid. 

While there are still plenty of gaps here, I love seeing all of the ones I have together. I keep cards like these stored in top loaders so they are easy to flip through and arrange all together. As far as completing the rainbow, I am going to only go after everything down to the /10 Purple Diamond variations. I've got a ways to go, but this will be a long term project and something to keep me busy with between other collecting projects.

SCE Super Script Update

Time for my seemingly once a year update on my favorite set of all time: 1999-00 Upper Deck MVP Stanley Cup Edition Super Scripts. There are a handful of these for sale on various sites, but I avoid overpaying for them so I don't get them all that often.

Speaking of cards for sale from this set, the one I am showing off today has been on my eBay watch list for over a year now. The price wasn't too bad at $10, I just never got around to hitting the buy it now button until just recently.

Here is card #144 featuring Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes and their gorgeous original kachina jersey. This one is serial numbered 07/25 and goes nicely with the other Coyotes I've already got for my set including Travis Green, Sean Burke and Keith Tkachuk.

Even though this MVP design isn't the fanciest in the world, every time I add one of these to my set I can't help but stare at it for a moment. I've been a fan of this set for over 20 years now and still get the same level of excitement with every new addition.

This one bring my SC Edition Super Script total to 87/220 or 39.5% of the complete set. It also breaks the current tie I've had between the Golds and Supers for this project. I only need three more to complete the Coyotes team set at this point.

SCE Tribute Update

It has definitely been a while since my last update on this project. I have to go all the way back to April of last year for my most recent post. That one was for a tribute Super Script, this one is for one of the awesome Colors & Contours parallels, which I'm also collecting.

This particular eBay pickup has actually opened up a whole new can of worms for me regarding this project. I say that because I didn't even realize there was an update set that was a part of the flagship Upper Deck set from 2019-20. There are actually 50 more of these, all of which are serial numbered /99 rather than the regular /249 version.

Here is card #142 featuring Taro Hirose of the Detroit Red Wings. I only got this one because the starting bid was $0.99 and it never moved from there. He hasn't made much of an impact with the Wings yet, so maybe his cards are that desirable just yet.

I have to say these are really growing on me. At first I wasn't super into the die-cut designs, but now that I've got five of these things I am really starting to like them. The original MVP logo always brings back good collecting memories for me, especially when the Stanley Cup Edition is involved. I also really like the red foil, especially for the Red Wings cards.

This puts me at 1/50 for the rookie update set and 5/150 when you include the original tributes from the main MVP set in 2019-20. These /99's might be a little trickier to complete just because of the names included in the set like Hughes, Dach and Fox.

Jimmy Howard: Cardboard Cameos

Now that Jimmy Howard is retired, the likelihood of him having a lot of new cards any time soon is pretty slim. That being said, I am obviously not going to be stopping my primary player collection and will continue to focus on his existing cardboard.

The fact that he is retired also has me going back and actually looking through my box of Howard cards more often lately. After all, what's the point of having them if you're not going to pull them out of the box and enjoy them every now and then?

Anyway, after noticing the Wings backup goalie in the photo on Howard's 2021 MVP card, it got me thinking about the chance that Howard was in the background of any other Red Wings cards. That in turn made me think of the posts on My Hockey Card Obsession about Trevor Linden cameos. Click here for some examples of what I'm referring to.

Another recent example that helped inspire this post is from @creasecollector on Twitter with his Jhonas Enroth collection. Click here to check out his blog post on the subject.

For my cameo cards of Jimmy Howard, I was able to grab three as part of my latest COMC order. I've been slowly building a want list for these as I stumble upon them and the price was just right so I had to have them for this neat little side project.

Up first is my favorite of the three, a UD Canvas card of Mike Green from 2018-19 Upper Deck. This one has a cool shot of some action in front of the Red Wings net in what appears to be Nationwide Arena. Definitely easy to see it is Howard in goal.

Up next is another card from the same set, this time featuring William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs. This one once again shows Howard in net, this time in the foreground at Scotia Bank Arena. This one is neat because all you see is Howard and one other player.

For the last of the three, we circle back to Mike Green. This time we have a base card from 2018-19 Upper Deck. You can clearly see Howard is the goalie behind Green, although his head is almost hidden by the Upper Deck logo in the upper right corner.

These are just some of the examples of cameo cards for Jimmy Howard. There are plenty more out there, I just need to track them down for the collection. I always like finding new and exciting ways to enjoy collecting. After all when your main PC player is retired, you've got to find something like this to keep things interesting.

As far as my Howard collection, I am not going to be counting these as part of the main collection. They will be their own separate category and I'll keep them in separate posts like this in the future. For me, that just makes it easier to keep everything organized.

Predators: Pekka Rinne 2020-21 Allure

I finished 2021 with a post about a newly started Pekka Rinne rainbow for my Predators collection, so why not start 2022 with a post about another Rinne rainbow? As you can tell from the title, this one is for Upper Deck's 2020-21 Allure set, which has a ton of parallels.

There are actually 26 different Rinne cards needed to complete this Allure rainbow. Now, some of these are 1/1's, so it is very unlikely that I would ever be able to actually complete it. The next lowest numbering is /10, so those are likely the top end for me.

Since I have yet to pick up a base card, we'll get things started with the Black Rainbow, which is one of the non-serial numbered versions. This one takes the base design and swaps the silver chrome for a black rainbow type foil. It looks really nice in person.

Up next in the non-serial numbered category is the NHL shield version, specifically the 2005 design. There are actually three different shield parallels, the other two (1945 and 1917) are numbered /45 and /17 respectively. I didn't like these at first upon release, but they are growing on me and I am glad to have this one as part of my rainbow now.

Now we're getting into the more rare parallels. This one is the Yellow Taxi version and while not serial numbered, they only fall one per mass blaster pack. This is one of my favorites and it looks amazing in person. It goes nicely withe the Predators colors too.

Up next we have something completely new from Upper Deck: the Leopard Print parallel. Seems like a really cheesy idea, but the execution was excellent. These are one of my favorites too. Definitely not a pattern I ever thought we would be seeing on a hockey card.

Moving back to regular colored parallels, we have the Red Rainbow version. This is the same pattern as the Yellow Taxi, just a different color. I do like the contrast it provides against the Preds uniform. This one is 1:5 hobby packs and is not serial numbered.

Now we're getting to some of the better stuff. The first die-cut parallel available is this Orange Slice version. These are 1:10 hobby packs and are not serial numbered. I really like how the die-cut follows the shape of the base design in the center portion.

My favorite of them all so far is this Pink Leopard print version. I mean, who would ever think of something like this? Love it. I mentioned this on Twitter a while back, but together this and the regular Leopard version remind me of Fred and Dino from the Flintstones.

So we're eight cards in now and finally getting to the serial numbered parallels from 20-21 Allure. This is the White Diamond version and is serial numbered /50. They have a white border and a really cool looking diamond foil pattern that looks great under natural light.

Last but not least is my first memorabilia version: the Red Rainbow Jersey version. This is not serial numbered and shares the same design as the regular red parallel. I got a great deal on this one and had to have it just for the yellow swatch to match the photo.

I guess nine cards isn't a bad way to start off a new rainbow, right? In reality, I got these over a few months at the end of last year, I'm just now getting to scanning and organizing everything. Part of that process is putting together a visual checklist grid, something I've really gotten into doing for any new rainbow project I've started. 

So between this and my Rinne OPC Platinum rainbow project, I've got plenty to be on the lookout for. Rinne was always one of my favorite Preds to watch so these will always be a good reminder of that. Now I just need to see what I can do about filling in the holes.

Predators: Pekka Rinne 2020-21 OPC Platinum

Continuing one of my recent Predators posts, I have a couple more awesome OPC Platinum pickups to share. These both come from eBay and help get me a little close to completing my newest rainbow project. They of course feature Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne.

The first and my favorite of the two is the Yellow Traxx parallel. This one is serial numbered /249 and adds some color to the recent Traxx designs. I love the look of the yellow borders, especially with the Preds colors. Another cool feature is how on the backs of these cards the entire perimeter has been changed to yellow to match the front.

The other one is the standard Rainbow parallel. This one is not numbered and is the same as previous versions where the chrome foil just has a nice rainbow effect added to it. While these are not the rarest, they do look amazing in hand, especially under natural light.

These two bring my Rinne rainbow total to 5 out of a possible 18 versions. Below is an updated look at my visual checklist grid for this one. I really love the look of these things. Being able to see all the different versions at once is great.

Not a bad start considering this product was just released. I'm on the lookout for the remaining versions, but will only pull the trigger on them when the price is right. I feel like some listings are way overpriced, so these might take a while to finish up.

Goaltending Gallimaufry: COMC Pickups

Gallimaufry [gal-uh-maw-free] - A hodgepodge; jumble; confused medley.

Having not gone to many card shows lately, pickups for my favorite side project have been few and far between. They have mostly been add-ons to COMC orders, which themselves have been few and far between. I've only placed two such orders in the last year.

With my latest order, I was able to snag three new cards for this project. The first takes us all the way back to 1992-93 Upper Deck and arguably the greatest goaltender of all-time. Here is card #408 featuring Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils.

Brodeur is shown wearing New Jersey's beautiful red, white and green home uniform, but he is sporting a blue glove and a blue blocker. Definitely a perfect candidate for this project. These are carryover from his time in the QMJHL with the Saint-Hyacinthe Laser.

Fast forward a couple of decades and our next candidate is a Young Guns rookie card from 2015-16 Upper Deck featuring Jean-Francois Berube of the New York Islanders. He is shown playing with the Islanders, but is still wearing his gear from LA.

Last but not least we have a Marquee Rookies card from 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee featuring Dylan Ferguson of the Vegas Golden Knights. He is pictured playing in the Golden Knights road white uniform, but is wearing blue, white and orange gear. This is from his time with the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL, where he spent four seasons.

While I probably could've found some more like this on COMC, I like only having three to scan, research and post three at a time like this. These bring the project total to 206 unique cards. Not bad for a fun little side project like this. Finding stuff like this is right up there with my favorite parts of card collecting. These are for pure enjoyment of collecting.

Goaltending Gallimaufry Count: 206

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.