TTM Success: Curtis Joseph

This is another one of my past TTM successes. After the Wings won the cup in 2002 and Hasek retired, they brought in Cujo and I wanted his autograph as well so I sent this 2001-02 Victory card to him at the Joe Louis Arena address c/o the Red Wings.

At the time, there were no cards featuring Joseph in a Wings sweater, except for ones with pictures from the press conference, so I settled on this one showing him with Toronto. 

As you can see its not the best looking autograph in the world, but I can't complain as I at least got something back for my efforts. I'm pretty sure it got smudged when it was put back into the sleeve. Regardless, its still a nice piece in my collection.

My Picks # 22: Ron Tugnutt

This pick comes from 2000-01 Topps Chrome. It's a Ron Tugnutt refractor. This was the first refractor in my collection and its just a great looking card.

One thing about this card is that it does not scan well at all. These refractors look so much better when you can hold it in your hand and see the different ways light hits it.

Back when Topps was actually producing hockey cards, this set was fairly decent. It's the same as the regular Topps set, aside from the chrome part of it.

One thing I really like about the design is the actual spelling out of the set name and year on the front of the card, something that is not very common. It's also nice that they made note of the fact that Columbus was an expansion team.

TTM Success: Olaf Kolzig

This was my first new TTM attempt and I must say it worked rather well. I dug through my boxes of duplicates and found these two worthy candidates for Olaf Kolzig. The two cards I sent were from 1997-98 Score and 1990-91 Score, both featuring Kolzig with the Capitals.

Sent: 04/01/2010
Received: 04/09/2010

These two signatures are great looking, no smudges or anything. More importantly, they are the first two autographed cards as part of my TTM project. I want to try and get an autographed card to go with all of the different masks a goaltender has worn.

I know a lot of goalies have had many masks so this is a big undertaking, but that will make it fun. I don't want to send more than three cards at a time so this could take a while.

Address courtesy of Moody over at Moody's TTM Blog.

Pack Break: 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 2

I was at Target  the other night picking up season one of House on DVD and found some packs of UD Series 2 by the checkouts so I decided to buy a couple of them.

The Numbers:

Cost per Pack: $2.99
Packs: 2
Cards per Pack: 8
Total Cards: 16

Pack 1:
(1) The Champions Brandon Mroz #CH-MR
(1) Victory Rookie Michael Grabner #339
(1) Mike Richards #286
(1) Mike Knuble #348
(1) Miikka Kiprusoff #422
(1) Curtis Glencross #423
(1) Sergei Kostitsyn #269
(1) Jay Pandolfo #303

Pack 2:
(1) Hockey Heroes Mark Messier #HH19
(1) Victory Rookie Jay Rosehill #333
(1) Tomas Vokoun #319
(1) Filip Kuba #277
(1) Devin Setoguchi #405
(1) Jonathan Cheechoo #278
(1) Henrik Zetterberg #370
(1) Scott Nichol #404

My Picks # 21: Dominik Hasek

This pick comes from 1995-96 Topps again. This time it's a Hidden Gems card featuring Dominik Hasek. It's another card I got from purchasing 800-count boxes of commons back in the day from the local card shop.

It's an awesome looking card to say the least, the only problem with it is the black border that is not in great shape anymore. It looks much better in your hand as the scanner does not do well with the holographic background. 

The design is pretty clever with the holographic gemstone background and the individual gemstone designs around each of the letters.

I find it interesting how the layering of the images works with respect to the "Hidden Gems" text. Dom's blocker is above all of the gemstone designs, but below the text. I would have thought that putting the gemstones in front of the blocker would have been the way to go, but what do I know.

TTM Success: Dominik Hasek

Back in the day, Dominik Hasek was my favorite player, despite the fact that he did not even play for my hometown team, the Red Wings. When he came to Detroit, I just had to try and get an autograph from him and well, I did.

The signature itself looks pretty nice, except for the fading of the ink. It's the only Hasek autograph in my collection. It looks exactly like the Hasek Super Script signature. This card was sent to Dominik Hasek c/o the Detroit Red Wings. I don't remember exactly how long it took for it to come back in the mail. 

SCE Super Script Update

When I got home today I found in the mail the envelope I've been waiting for. It contained the latest addition to my 1999-00 MVP SC Edition Super Script collection, bringing the total to nine. That's just over 4% for the entire set now.

This one is # 6 in the set, Mike Leclerc, numbered 02/25. This was the cheapest addition to the collection at only $1.04 for the card and $1.95 for shipping.

The only thing that kind of bugged me about this addition was the way it was shipped, a plain white envelope, not a bubble envelope. My card was in a top loader taped between two other top loaders. I guess I can't really complain though because it got the job done.

Card Show

Well it's been at least four years since I've made it out to a card show and I think that streak is coming to an end next weekend. I came into some money by finally selling my old car yesterday, and a card show seems like the perfect way to use it.

Hopefully I will be able to add to my Super Script and Gold Script collection. Other than that I may look into buying some boxes for the first time in years. I think I may look for boxes from the late 90's or early 00's only because I just want to break some boxes and they'll be on the cheaper side.

The show is at Gibraltar Trade Center in Mt Clemens, MI. They have a monthly card show which I used to got to quite frequently back in high school. It's always a good show so we'll see what happens. Hopefully I can get some great stuff.

My Picks # 20: Jean-Sebastien Giguere

I know its been a barrage of my picks lately, but they're all I am able to post from work with the scans I have saved online. Anyway, on to today's pick, another goaltender by the way, which is from 1999-00 Upper Deck. It's a Crunch Time J.S. Giguere.

It's not a very high end insert or anything, but it is an awesome looking card. I love the effect of the lines crossing every which way. I also really like the halo effect.

The only downside to the overall card design is the choice of font for the crunch time text, it's very hard to read as it's simply outlines and not solid text. This card is even better looking in person as my scanner does not show it very well.

Other than that it's just weird seeing Giggy as a member of the Flames, although not as weird as seeing him wearing the whale.

My Picks # 19: Patrick Roy

This pick goes back the mid 90's again. Its a 1994-95 Flair Hot Numbers Patrick Roy. As much as I dislike Roy from his Avalanche days, this card is pretty sharp.

Its another one of the great insert sets back before jersey cards became prevalent in the hobby. Back then the insert sets were decent looking as you can see.

There were 10 cards in the set and it had a pretty good selection of players, including Gretzky, Lemieux, Bure, Hasek and others. What's great about them is they were printed on nice thick card stock so they have a premium feel to them. 

It seems like all of my picks have been coming from the mid 90's lately and the are for good reason. This was a great time for me collecting cards. I was just getting into collecting and there was a vast selection of sets to choose from.

My Picks # 18: Mike Vernon

This pick gets back to goaltenders, as it is a 1995-96 Pinnacle Masks Mike Vernon. It was the first Mask card in my collection and I've liked them ever since.

This edition of Masks is one of the sharper looking in my opinion, with the lighting background and all. It had some of the cooler masks from the late nineties including Lacher and Carey. As far as Vernon's mask, it was one of the best Red Wings masks at the time.

This set is one that I hope to complete as part of shifting my collection focus to goaltenders. How can you have a goalie collection without the Masks cards?

TTM Success: Patrik Stefan

This is another one of my past TTM successes from several years ago that has just been sitting around. I sent this card to Patrik Stefan because he was the big rookie at the time and I got really into collecting his cards.

I had a neighborhood friend who sent another card to Stefan which also resulted in a success, both had a fairly quick turnaround time as well.

While it's not the best looking signature in the world, it works. I can make out the "P" at the beginning, but the rest is kind of a mess. I also liked the addition of the huge number after the signature. At least that part was pretty easy to read.

My Picks # 17: Pat LaFontaine

This pick is also from the 1995-96 season, its a Topps Marquee Men Power Boosters featuring Pat LaFontaine of the Buffalo Sabres. The 1995-96 Topps set is special to me because it was the first ever full box of unopened cards I received.

This set has a unique look to it, as the entire card is made to look like a marquee, hence the name of the set. There were also regular versions of the Marquee Men cards, the only difference being the holographic effect.

The overall design in fairly simple, with text for the player name, the set name and the Topps logo. Its nice to see so much open space on a card. I also like the font chosen for the player names, it may be a little hard to read but it still looks cool.

TTM: A New Chapter

I decided to rummage through my boxes of duplicates and found plenty of worthy candidates. Of the cards I found, I have sent out two to Olaf Kolzig and three to Sean Burke.

I have decided to focus on goalies for now. I am doing this mainly because I want to focus my collection on something a little more specific than just hoarding new cards all the time.

I want to get an autograph for each different mask each goaltender has worn. I will post the results of these first two before I get too far into this. After all, stamps are not cheap.

TTM Success: Steve Yzerman

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I would share some of my past TTM autograph successes and I thought where better to start than with The Captian? These were sent on three separate occasions several years ago, back when I was in middle school.

First is a base card from 2002-03 Upper Deck MVP. I really liked this set back when it came out and if I remember correctly I bought a full hobby box of it at one time.

The second one is from another full hobby box I bought back in the day: 2001-02 Topps. For whatever reason, I really liked the blue bordered design of this set.

The last one is a Mr. Hockey's Greats card from 2001-02 Victory, yet another set that I distinctly remember getting a full unopened box of. Can't go wrong with a card that features the two greatest Red Wings of all time.

All three are pretty nice looking signatures. The Topps one has to be the best in my mind, the sharpie seemed to work best on that one.

I have no idea when these were sent or of the turnaround time, but I plan on keeping track of that for any future TTM's. What I do know however, is that these were sent directly to Joe Louis Arena c/o the Detroit Red Wings.