Cardboard Creations: Masked Men Part IV

I want to start this week in good fashion, so here we go with the next 18 cards in my custom Masked Men set. These two pages feature a variety of masks, all from the last few years or so. This set has some really neat and colorful designs.

Of this set, my favorites would have to be Rinne's mask on the bottom left of the first page, Luongo's mask from before Vancouver reverted back to their original colors and Budaj's mask in the middle of the top of the second page. 

Box Break: 2008-09 Fleer Ultra

This was the other sealed box I picked up at the card show two weekends ago. I found this after I had the Pinnacle box and it fit the bill for something a little newer while still being on the cheap side. I've never busted a box of this so let's see what was inside.

The Numbers:

Cost: $29

Packs: 36

Cards per Pack: 5

Total Cards: 180

Base Set Completion: 57%

Duplicates: 4

Base:
The base cards from this set were actually pretty sharp as most Ultra sets have been lately. There was an excellent selection of photography as well, with pretty much every card having a full body shot like this one featuring Dan Ellis of the Nashville Predators.

Gold Medallion Parallel:

The Gold Medallion versions of the base set, which fell one per pack, were pretty sharp themselves. I like the way they isolated the player in front of the gold background. This one featuring Henrik Lundqvist was one of my favorites.

Ultra Rookies:

The Ultra Rookies were basically base cards, with the only difference being the player's name was in a non-script font above the "Ultra Rookie" in script font. The were supposed to fall six per box and I came away with four of them, plus three Gold Medallion rookies. 

The base rookies included David Brine, Claude Giroux, Dan LaCosta and this Mattias Ritola. The Gold Medallion rookies included Jordan LaVallee, Jordan Hendry and Clay Wilson. 

Difference Makers:

Now onto the inserts. The Difference Makers were surprisingly decent looking for an insert set. I really like the background and how the team color is used. I ended up with seven of these including Brodeur, Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Sundin, Thornton, Miller and Ovechkin. 

Franchise Players:

The next insert set was the Franchise Players. These were not as good as the Difference Makers, but what can you expect from a lower-end product like Ultra. I came away with three of these including Sakic, Sundin and this Brodeur. 

Scoring Kings:

Another insert set similar to the others is the Scoring Kings set. These aren't the best and I wish there was a little more variety of inserts in these types of releases. I came away with six of these including Iginla, Alfredsson, Staal, Crosby, Sakic and this Modano. 

Rookie Redemption:

The rookie redemptions for this set were expected to fall one in every 72 packs, or two boxes. Well, I guess I beat the odds on that one as I managed to get one of them. I already redeemed it and I just have to wait and see what it turns out to be. 

Season Crowns:

This final insert set offers something a little different than the rest by highlighting personal achievements from the previous season, 2007-08. I came away with three of these including Osgood, Ellis and this Zetterberg. 

Ultra Uniformity:

The only memorabilia inserts in this set were the Ultra Uniformity, which were supposed to fall one per box. I ended up with two including Arron Asham and this Brendan Morrison. 

Overall I think this box was a good value for only $29. There were 36 packs and as far as I'm concerned the more the better. The base cards were sharp which is always important. The only shortfall would be a lack of variety in the inserts department.

Pack Break: 2009-10 Champ's Hockey

I was at Target the other day picking up some Ultra-Pro pages for my recent box breaks and couldn't resist grabbing one pack of Champ's. I've seen so many breaks of this all over the internet and I really like the base card design. For $1.99, I couldn't pass it up.

Like most retail packs, I was not expecting much. I did get the four cards as promised on the wrapper. There were three base cards, one of which is shown below, and then one of the minis. Overall not a bad pack, here is the rundown.

(1) Minis Sidney Crosby # 279

(1) Base Bobby Orr # 10
(1) Base Ryan Kesler # 95
(1) Base Denis Savard # 23

My Picks # 26: Keith Tkachuk

This pick comes from 2000-01 SPx and its a Winning Materials Keith Tkachuk. This was the first dual-memorabilia card that I added to my collection many years ago.

There are two things that are very cool about this card. One is the fact that the piece of game-used stick is actually a piece of wood and the other is the red jersey swatch. 

It would have been easy to get a white or black swatch from those Coyotes jerseys, which by the way are the coolest ever in my opinion, but the red is much harder to come by on the actual jersey. Plus it stands out that much more on the green background.

Cardboard Creations: Masked Men Part III

This will be the third installment of my custom Masked Men set. It continues the trend of being arranged alphabetically by the goaltender's first name. I'm only going to share two pages in each post for now on. Here are the next 18 cards in the set.

Out of this set my top three would have to be Kipprusoff's mask with the 34 on the chin and sweet red skulls, Backstrom's mask with the claws coming through the top and Tellqvist's mask with The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote.

My Picks # 25: Paul Kariya

I decided to go a different direction with this pick and I've chosen it solely based on the player's jersey. It's a 2002-03 Upper Deck Memorable Seasons Paul Kariya showing the what some would say is the worst jersey in the history of the NHL.

I've always been intrigued by this jersey, just because of how different and awful it looks. When I was going through my three-ring binders of cards, I came across this one and had to share it. It appears to be the only card in my entire collection with the Wild Wing jersey. I believe that jersey was only used for one season, and for good reason.

Thoughts: Laptop or no Laptop?

There was one downside to the vacation time as I came to find out this morning. I came across a Joe Thornton Super Script on eBay last week and put it on my watch list.

I purposely didn't take my laptop on vacation with me and come to find out this morning, I completely forgot about the auction and could have won it for a little over $5. That would have been a steal considering his Gold Script has gone for like $60 in the past.

Oh well, as hard as these are to find, I'm sure some more will surface on eBay and other sites in the future. Patience is key with collecting this type of set.

Now, laptop or no laptop on vacation: that is the question.

TTM Success: Brendan Shanahan

Wow, its amazing how relaxing four days of vacation in northern Michigan can be. Anyway on to today's post, which focuses on another of my past TTM successes: Brendan Shanahan. I sent two cards and received two autographs in the mail several years ago. One was on a 2001-02 Topps and the other on a 2001-02 UD Playmakers Limited. 

Shanahan has an interesting signature to say the least, although I do like how much of the card it takes up and the addition of his number after it. 

These two cards were sent separately at different times to Shanahan c/o The Detroit Red Wings at the Joe Louis Arena address. Also, I have no idea how long either of these cards took to get back to me. I would guess at least a few months.

Box Break: 1995-96 Pinnacle

This is my first foray into breaking boxes in at least four years now. Part of the reason I was looking for boxes at the card show last weekend was this blog. Sharing my breaks give me that much more enjoyment out of breaking packs and now boxes.

This was the first of the two sealed boxes I picked up at the show. I saw it marked for only $15 and couldn't pass on it. I was looking for some mid to late 90's boxes and this one fit that requirement perfectly. Time to see what was inside.

The Numbers:

Cost: $15

Packs: 24

Cards per Pack: 12

Total Cards: 288

Base Set Completion: 97% (219 of 225) 

Duplicates: 63

Base:

The base cards for this set are pretty simple. They are either vertical or sideways with the gold foil hockey stick and player name on the bottom and gold Pinnalce logo at the top. There was a nice variety of photography in this set, some was great and some was not so great, but overall it was good. My favorite would have to be this one of Olaf Kolzig.

Rink Collection Parallel:

There are not many inserts in this set and there are two levels of parallels: Rink Collection and Artist's Proofs. I got six Rink Collections and no Artist's Proofs. The only difference between the Rink Collection and the base cards is the reflective effect added to the front of the cards and the Rink Collection logo on the back. These cards are pretty sharp in person.

Roaring Twenties:

Finally, my best pull from this box is part of the Roaring Twenties insert set. I was hoping to pull a Mask insert, but the odds were not very good. I'm happy with this one though as it is another sharp looking insert, which doesn't want to scan very well. 

Overall I was very satisfied with this box. I got a good chunk of the base set without too many duplicates. There were only three insert sets and two parallel sets, which isn't bad considering these cards are 15 years old now.

Cardboard Creations: Masked Men Part II

It's been a while now since I posted the first half of the Masked Men set and I thought it was time to share some more of them. Only this time I will share three new pages of the eleven remaining. This is so I can get a few more posts out of this project and to not have such a long post again. Here are the next 27 cards in the set:

Out of this set my top three would include Lehtonen's Transformers mask, Gerber's Darth Vader mask and Hrudey's Hollywood mask. 

Gerber's would probably be my favorite because of the meaning behind it. Prior to that mask Gerber wore an all black mask with nothing on it and picked up the nickname Vader because of it. What's cooler than having a mask painted to look like Darth Vader?

My Picks # 24: Felix Potvin

This pick is not a jersey card, autograph, parallel, insert or anything spectacular, its simply a base card. The reason I chose it though, is its from one of the sharper base sets in my opinion. It's a 1999-00 Aurora Felix Potvin base card.

There are so many elements of this design to like, everything from the background to the use of two player images. It's not overly crowded with logos, as the team logo and Aurora logo are nicely placed in opposite corners. 

I also like how the smaller player image is kind of washed out, so it does not take away from the larger image. The shadow behind the smaller image and the white halo around the larger image are nice touches as well.

Card Show Pickups

I made it out to the card show on Saturday and I think I definitely got my moneys worth. I came away with some great finds. These included some singles, sets and boxes.

The first thing I came across while searching through a box of inserts was this 2002-03 BAP The Mask II Roberto Luongo. I was only $2 so I snatched it right up.

The next thing I came across, from the same table, was an insert set for only $3. The reason I grabbed this set was the fact that it was a complete Pinnacle Masks Set, 1992-93 to be exact. While these are not as flashy as the Luongo type Masks cards, they are still sweet looking cards with the old school masks.

I also found one other set from the same table for $3 as well. This time it was the 1993-94 Leaf Painted Warriors set. This is another goalie themed set with some sweet masks. 

Beyond the Luongo and these two sets, I was looking for some boxes to break and managed to come away with two of them. The first was 1995-96 Pinnacle and the second was 2008-09 Fleer Ultra. I will have those two box breaks posted in the near future.

Notice something in common with these three pick ups? These purchases are the beginning of steering my collection towards mainly goaltenders, especially the mask cards. I only have three of them right now, but hopefully that will change soon. 

Other than the mask cards, there are so many goaltender-bases sets and insert sets out there. One collector in particular has the best goalie collection I've ever seen, with over 400 different sets and nearly 7,000 cards. 

TTM Success: Pavel Datsyuk

I'm trying to keep up with the one post per day pace here, but its kind of difficult when you're stuck with the blue screen of death on your laptop. I will post what I can from work with the stuff I already have saved at this point.

Here are two more of my past TTM successes, both from Pavel Datsyuk. One is a 2002-03 Pacific base card and the other is a 2002-03 Topps Total base card.

Datsyuk does not have the best autograph in the world, but I can't complain as I at least got something back from him. It is nice however to see the addition of his number after the signature. Autographs just look better with that added for whatever reason.

Both of these cards were mailed to Pavel Datsyuk c/o The Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena. They were not sent together though, and I have no idea how long it took to get them back. 

My Picks # 23: Fedorov/Shanahan

The playoffs are finally underway and they are the inspiration for this pick, which comes from 2001-02 Upper Deck. Its a Shanahan / Fedorov Stanley Cup Finals double jersey card.

First of all, its always nice having any jersey card, let alone one with two swatches. This one is even better because the Fedorov swatch is two-colored, and not just barely two-colored. 

I purchased it on eBay several years ago for a few bucks. Not bad for a double jersey card, and its a Red Wings jersey card at that. Its always nice adding any Wings cards to my collection. I'm not sure if the swatches are supposed to be from a Stanley Cup Finals jersey, I don't remember exactly what the back of the card said about it.

SCE Super Script Update

Well, I finally got my new laptop AC adapter in the mail today so I can get back to regular posting now. The mail also brought my Super Script collection into double digits with my latest purchase. It's a Martin Sonnenberg numbered 07/25.

This addition to the collection is the first to not come from a pack or eBay. I did some searching for these cards when there were none on eBay I came across this one on Sports Buy. I was hesitant at first, but couldn't pass on the $4 price tag so I went for it.

I was definitely satisfied with this site as it was easy to navigate, accepted Paypal and I got the card in prefect condition relatively quickly. The only weird thing about it is right at the 'B' it seems like there was some printing issue with the rainbow foil.

Other than that the card is great. I now have ten of these cards and hopefully I can find some more of them or the Gold Scripts at the card show I plan on going to this weekend.