Pack Break: 1991-92 Ultimate Draft Picks

This pack was the second I pulled from the 15-pack value box. Its from a set I had never seen before: 1991-92 Ultimate Sports Hockey Draft Picks. Its one of those sets without an NHL or NHLPA license.

 

There is not much going for this at all. Three of the cards don't even say anything about who the player on the front of the card actually is. And the whole double image thing on the first card is just terrible. 

I'm also not really a fan of the folded back corner of the cards, it just looks cheap to me.

I guess you can't really expect much from a set you've never even heard of or seen before. At least there were some NHLers though, if not for them this set would have been total crap. 

This was by far the worst pack of the 15 in the value-box, it got much better after this one. One bad one from a 15 pack mix is not bad. 

Pack Break: 1990-91 Bowman

I was at Target the other day and came across this value box of packs. There were 15 packs for only $9.99. I was hesitant at first, but thought it was a good deal at less than $1 per pack.

All you could see were the two end packs, both of which were from 2006-07 so I thought it might not be that bad. Oh, and there were four cards blocking any view of the sides of the packs too. 

I opened the box and the first pack I pulled out from the middle was 1990-91 Bowman, very old school, at least to me. I consider it old school because it was from before I ever even got into hockey cards. 

Lemieux, Oates, Gartner, not too bad for less than a dollar. Just to clarify the Lemieux was the one "glossy" card in the pack. 

For being 20 years old, the design of these cards is not all that bad. The colors on the border are a little bright, but its simple, I like that. Just the little Bowman logo and some text on the bottom, not bad. 

The best thing about this pack was that it contained 15 cards, something pretty much non-existent in the hobby nowadays. Of the 15 cards, I guess you could call it a decent selection. 

The picture selection and quality is not the best in the world, but hey what can you expect for 1990? By the way, there is something wrong with one of these cards, see if you can find it.

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Non-Sport

In addition to the hockey, baseball, football and basketball cards in the garage sale box, there were quite a few non-sports cards that I've never seen or heard of before.

Here are some of examples of the various non-sports cards:

1994 Flair Power Blast #3

Lost In Space Reprints #20

1982 Magnum P.I. #1

1995 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man #68

1995 Flair Marvel Holoblast #1

1995 Skybox Star Trek #2

Here is the non-sport breakdown by set: 

(25) 1995 Flair Marvel

(13) 1994 Flair Marvel 

(47) 1966 Lost in Space Reprints /1966

(66) 1982 Magnum P.I.

(10) 1995 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man

(8) 1995 Fleer Ultra X-Men

(16) 1995 Skybox Star Trek

I'll admit, I had no idea any of these sets even existed. I took me a little while to figure out what they even were. I'm only 21 so the Lost in Space and Magnum P.I. were before my time and I was never into any of the marvel stuff or Star Trek. 

A few things about these cards: 

1) The 66 Magnum P.I. cards are the complete set. Cards 1-22 are the main set, then the remaining cards form a large puzzle with the pictures printed on the back. 

2) The Lost in Space cards are limited edition reprints of the original 1966 release. The only difference is the back of the cards, where the originals were colored on the back and the reprints are plain text.

Well, that wraps up the entire $3 garage sale pickup. I'd say it was more than worth the $3, given the possible value of some of the cards I found in the lot. I ended up with approximately 2100 cards in all. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of these non-hockey cards in my hockey card collection. 

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Football & Basketball

The biggest find from the garage sale box was a football card. It was one of the older looking cards in the nice snap-down cases.  I think this John Elway Topps rookie card would be considered the "hidden treasure" of this lot.

  

Here is the rest of the football broken down by set:

(60) 1996 Fleer Goudey

(1) 1995 UD Collector's Choice

(8) 1994 Action Packed

(41) 1994 Roger Staubach's NFL Football

(2) 1994 Upper Deck

(2) 1994 Skybox

(1) 1994 Topps Finest

(12) 1993 NFL Gameday

(3) 1993 Classic Images

(1) 1993 Pinnacle

(1) 1993 Topps

(2) 1991 Pacific

(3) 1990 NFL Pro Set

(2) 1990 Topps

(2) 1984 Topps

After football, basketball was the lowest on my priority list. The best card I could find with this one of Magic Johnson from 1987-88 Fleer Stickers. 

Here is the rest of the basketball broken down by set:

(1) 1995-96 Skybox

(17) 1993-94 Upper Deck

(3) 1993 Classic Images

(1) 1993 NBA Hoops

(12) 1992-93 Topps

(1) 1992-93 Upper Deck

(1) 1992-93 Fleer

(4) 1991-92 Upper Deck

(1) 1991-92 Star Pics

(1) 1990-91 NBA Hoops

(38) 1987-88 Fleer

(2) Limited Edition Commemorative Cards

All in all, I came away with just under 2000 sports cards for only $3, not bad at all. There are some cards that may be worth some money (i.e. Elway, Bonds, etc.) so that's kind of cool. Aside from the hockey cards, I really have no use for any of the other three sports as I do not want or need to get into anything more than hockey at this point. 

If anyone is interested in any of these cards or wants details on which cards are part of each set, leave me a comment and I can get you the information and scans if necessary. 

Up next: non-sports breakdown...

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Baseball

After going through the hockey cards from the garage sale box, it was onto the baseball cards. I've never collected baseball at all so all of these are new to me.

Here are some of the highlights:

1987 Fleer Barry Bonds RC

1994 Upper Deck Michael Jordan RC

Here is the rest of the breakdown by set: 

(21) 1999 Topps

(3) 1996 Topps

(2) 1994 Donruss

(2) 1994 Fleer Ultra

(7) 1994 Bowman's Best

(8) 1994 Donruss Triple Play

(14) 1994 Score

(16) 1994 Pinnacle

(34) 1994 Leaf

(1) 1993 Topps Stadium Club

(1) 1993 Leaf Studio

(1) 1993 Fleer

(2) 1993 Leaf

(2) 1993 Topps

(4) 1993 Bowman

(14) 1993 Fleer Ultra

(17) 1993 Upper Deck

(24) 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes T202 Reprints

(86) 1993 Flair

(7) 1991 Donruss

(1) 1990 Upper Deck

(17) 1989 Upper Deck

(4) 1983 Topps

(2) 1982 Topps

(1) 1979 Topps 

All together, I ended up with 303 baseball cards. I don't know anything about any of these cards except that I have the Bonds and Jordan RC's. Other than that, I have no idea what any of it is worth. 

If anyone is interested in any of these cards or wants details on which cards are part of each set, leave me a comment and I can get you the information and scans if necessary. 

Up next: football and basketball breakdown...

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Hockey

I've finally gotten around to sorting through all of the hockey cards in the garage sale box from my previous post. I think I did pretty good with hockey, let alone the other sports, for only $3.

Here are some of the highlights:

1990-91 OPC Premier Sergei Fedorov RC

1991-92 Upper Deck Teemu Selanne RC

1984-85 OPC Dave Andreychuk RC

Here is the rest of the breakdown by set:

(433) 1993-94 Topps Premier
(345) 1993-94 Leaf
(80) 1993-94 Donruss
(38) 1993-94 Upper Deck
(34) 1994-95 Fleer Ultra
(24) 1994-95 Donruss
(14) 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club
(12) 1993-94 Fleer Ultra
(12) 1994-95 Topps Premier
(1) 1992-93 Upper Deck
(1) 1993-94 Parkhurst

All together, I ended up with 998 hockey cards in addition to the unopened box of 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2. Take any of the rookies in this lot and they could pay for the $3.

I'm up in the air about having these three cards graded. I've never had anything graded in the past and wonder if it is even worth it. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with grading?

Up next: baseball breakdown...

Box Break: 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2

I finally got around to opening the 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2 box from my earlier garage sale pickup. For all intents and purposes this box was free as the guy threw it in just to get rid of it. Can't beat that, now let's take a look at what was inside.

The Numbers:
Cost: $0
Packs: 36
Cards per Pack: 12
Total Cards: 432

Base: 323

The base cards are actually pretty decent for the mid-nineties. They have the obligatory Upper Deck logo in the corner and the team and player names across the bottom. I do like the use of the team colors for the border too, it gives the set a little variety.

SP: 36

In every pack was one of these SP's. They're pretty simple with the team name in silver foil across the top and the player name in the bottom left. The off-center silver line is interesting and its nice to see the SP logo rather than the UD logo in the bottom right. 

1994 World Junior Championships: 62

These fell about two per pack. They showcase US and Canadian World Junior players from the 1994 tournament. It's a simple design with the year and tournament name in gold foil on the left and the player name in the lower right. Some NHLers, a lot of no-namers. 

All World Juniors: 10

These showcase players from the 1994 World Junior Championships as well on teams other than the US and Canada. Another simple design with the year and set name in gold foil and the player and team across the bottom. Again, a few NHLers and a lot of no-namers. 

Silver Skates: 1

This was the big insert set of this release with stated odds of 1:30 packs. I only got this one featuring Joe Sakic, but its still a pretty nice looking set. I like the die-cut top and the silver skates logo in the bottom right corner.  

Overall this was a good break, granted there was little variety. It was worth it just for the nostalgia factor as these were from the time around when I just got into hockey cards.

My Picks # 36: Mike Vernon

This pick comes from another goalie-themed subset from the mid-90's. It's a Mike Vernon Stoppers subset card from 1995-95 Score. This one is actually the Black Ice version of that set. 

i really like the base version of this subset with the brick wall and graffiti background. The Black Ice versions have the dark foil look to them on the front and a small Black Ice logo on the back.

The only thing I don't like about the design is the way the border on the left side just barely cuts into the blocker. it just makes the card feel unfinished or something like that.

Pack Break: 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2

I was at Target the other day and saw a bin of marked down packs and decided on one pack of 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2.

The Numbers:

Cost per Pack: $1.59
Packs: 1
Cards per Pack: 5
Total Cards: 5

Base:

(1) Wade Dubielewicz # 372

(1) Wojtek Wolski # 309

(1) Richard Zednik # 443

(1) Scott Gomez # 367

Inserts:
(1) Hometown Heroes Chris Chelios # HH79

The base set design is not the best in the world, but it could be worse. I like the use of the bronze foil, but they could have come up with a much better font for the player names.

I really like the Hometown Heroes insert set. It's something you don't see everyday and I like how they have the player image to one side, showcasing the cityscape in the background. 

Card Shop Pickup

I was at the mall the other day and stopped by the only card shop there, Sports R Us. I don't usually go for team sets, but I ended up getting one anyway. It was a Red Wings team set from 2008-09 UD Victory. The cool thing was I had never bought anything from this set so they were the first in my collection and it had a pretty decent player selection.

Here is the list of the cards in the set:

Dominik Hasek # 122
Nicklas Lidstrom # 123
Dan Cleary # 124
Pavel Datsyuk # 125
Chris Osgood # 126
Valtteri Filppula # 127
Tomas Holmstrom # 128
Henrik Zetterberg # 129

The Victory designs are usually hit or miss. I happen to like this one. Its simple and not too crowded. I could maybe do without two Victory logos, but hey its better than the UD logo.

Awesome Garage Sale Pickup

Since I started this blog there is only one place I have yet to pick up cards, a garage sale. I've been to the box stores, card shops and even card shows, which are all well and good, but its always interesting to see what you can find at a garage sale.

You always hear of people finding hidden treasures and what not at these things. What I got may not be a hidden treasure, but it was definitely a steal for only $3.

Here were the major items in the box:

(1) Unopened box of 1993-94 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey

(1) Opened box of 1993-94 Topps Premier Series II Hockey

(1) Opened box of Roger Staubach's NFL Football

The rest was filled with random cards from hockey, baseball, football, basketball and other non-sports. I have no clue what any of it is yet, but hopefully there is something good.

I'll have an update once I sort through everything. Stay tuned...

The Century Mark

This is my 100th post on Card Boarded, somewhere I didn't even think this thing would go when I started it back in December of last year. This blog has helped renew my interest in the hobby after I lost any real interest four years ago when I went off to college.

The best thing about starting this blog has been finding fellow hockey card bloggers and being able to read their blogs and see their collections.

Thank you to the followers of this blog and anyone else who has stopped by to check it out.

My Picks # 35: Wayne Gretzky

I chose a Wayne Gretzky card for this particular pick for a reason, a reason that will become apparent with my next post. See if you can figure it out though...

This particular card is from the 1999-00 MVP Dynamics insert set. It's a great looking set from a time where memorabilia cards were not found in every other pack and regular inserts were actually decent looking.

MVP had some really nice looking insert sets around this time, especially this one. It's got an interesting background, with the whole northern lights kind of thing going on. Not sure what the circles on the bottom are for, but they look cool. Same goes for the staggered vertical lines on the bottom right side. 

Gotta love the jersey too. That had to be one of the best of the third jerseys, I remember having a replica when I was younger and it was just awesome. 

TTM Success: Damian Rhodes

I've been having decent TTM success lately and yesterday's mail brought two more autographs. This time they were from retired goaltender Damian Rhodes. Thanks again to Moody for the address. The two cards I sent were from 1997-98 Score when he was with the Senators and 1993-94 Parkhurst when he was with the Maple Leafs.

Sent: 5/17/10
Received: 6/1/10

There were two things I noticed with this success: First, he signed one card with blue sharpie and one with black, coincidence that the blue sharpie went with the Leafs and black with the Senators? Second, the return envelope was postmarked in Cleveland, OH, when the address I used was in Arizona.