a rare trade...

I haven't been adding too much to the old hockey portfolio since I bought two boxes of the brand new OPC.

I'm nearing completion of that set, and slowly working on the retro set. If you have any swaps, let me know.

 

But I have managed to make two trades in the last month or so... trade nights have really ground to a halt lately. There was a discussion last week between 5 or 6 of us where the consensus was the only reason we even bother showing up anymore was to catch up with one another, and maybe bust a few packs. Trading, for all intents and purposes, was dead.

 

That said, I still ended up with two cards. Both from the recently released UD Trilogy. Seems to be a popular set among the cool kids.

 

First, a triple game/event used jersey card. I'm assuming game used for Koivu and Eller, event for the rookie Galchenyuk. I gave up an insert of Nail Yakupov from this year's Score set for it.

 

Next was a pickup of rookie of the year runner up, Brendan Gallagher.

These Crystal cards are of course see through, and very thick. I hadn't even seen one before this one. Going the other way was a TJ Oshie 2011 Limited /5 and a dual Curtis Joseph jersey card.

I also saw a Galchenyuk Crystal /99.... but I didn't have enough ammo to obtain it.

These two fit nicely into my home, and I hope to find more Crystal cards.... they look pretty cool. But if not, I'll just keep plugging along on my OPC set.

Double sided, double fun.

It's been awhile since I picked up a card for any of my 'long term' player collections. Somehow this card fell into my lap at tradenight in April. I had been packing around a few basecards from Parkhurst Champions to give to a buddy of mine to finish off his set. It had been awhile since I'd seen him, and he was very thankful that I remembered. He insisted on giving me something back. But really? How many tradeboxes have anything to trade for a few basecards? But I took a look anyways. In his box, at the back, I found this....

You may be saying.... yeah, and who cares? It's Jamie "Noodles" Mclennan. Big whoop. And I'd agree with you. But! turn it over and you get this....

Glorious! I've been after this card forever. There's always a couple on ebay, but those shippers want between $14 and $44 to ship it to me. They are what I like to call V-neck t-shirt wearing douche bags.

But now it's mine! MINE!

It always feels good to cross another card off of a long forgotten list.

These cards are actually pretty cool. I like a lot of what Pacific did with regards to stuff like this. But then again, they tended to, shall we say, overdo it in other areas.

I wonder why Lyle never made it into ITG's Captain C product????

Stick with me on this one....

if you haven't read my post on Waxaholic about my newish collecting habits.... go there and read it. LINK When you're done, feast your ocular implants on this

Game used stick from the Hall of Famer... It's numbered 6/9. Yeah, I forgot to scan the back..... Larry Robinson is one very under appreciated dude in the hobby world. Okay, he's a defenceman not named Bobby Orr. I get that. But did Bobby finish with 6 Stanley Cups? Did Orr finish his career with a +730 rating? Including a +120 in 1976/77, the year Larry won his first Norris Trophy. The back doesn't mention what year this stick is from, but I like to think it's from that era.... four straight Stanley Cup wins... Larry Robinson, the Big Bird himself patrolling the blue line. I've often thought about starting a pc of Robinson or Serge Savard.
Maybe this is the start.

Lady Luck..

My wife came home from wally world the other night with a bag for me. In it were three blasters of '08/09 OPC Update hockey marked down to $9.99 each. Sweet!

I'm still working on this set, and I found 21 new base cards/ short printed rookies towards my effort.

 I also got 24 retro insert cards, a few duplicates there....

 and 24 of the 'Metal' inserts.... I have no idea if any of those are doubles, I don't keep track.

 But here's where my wife's luck comes in. Why she can't do this with lottery tickets, I don't know.
A triple game used jersey card featuring Nikolai Khabibulin, Nikolai Zherdev, and Nik Antropov. These are found one in every 20 boxes.

 And last but certainly not least, an auto of Detroit prospect Mattias Ritola. Autos are found every 90 boxes. These are not easy to find.

 These cards are all for trade (except Crosby)... if anyone can help with this set, please check out my wantlist link on the right hand sidebar.

Auctions aplenty... where's my chequebook???

with the ever increasing popularity of sports memorablilia, there is an equal increase in the amount of sports memorabilia auctions. Two item in particular have piqued my interest this month.

The first, Rogie vachon's game used mask from his days with the L.A. Kings. Auction LINK The mask, seen here

is only $6500 at the time of this writing with 26 days left in the auction. I'm sure the wife wouldn't mind if I sold her car....

The next item I have to have is a true one of one. You may remember back in June, a Paul Henderson jersey that he wore when he scored the winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series sold for $1,272,707.00 Amazing money for a game used jersey. Seen here in one of the most iconic and recognizable hockey/sports photos in history.

 Well, the guy who passed him the puck, was Yvan Cournoyer. #12 in white. And now, Yvan's jersey from that game is being put on the block. Who knows how high this will go. I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind me selling the house, right? Yvan's red jersey that he wore in an earlier game of the series sold in March for $20,000.... but this is the white one. The one in the photo... the one in our memories with Foster Hewitt's voice ringing in our ears...

You ever see a player go after a referee with his stick before???