ITG recently came out with their Forever Rivals set. It featured the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs. Most of you are familiar with it by now.
A high end product, packs cost anywhere from $95 to $120 depending on where you shop.
Each pack is configured the same, 3 base cards, 3 base insert cards, 3 relic cards and 3 autographs.
Initially I was going to be all over this. A set featuring my team? AND autos of hard to get players from the '70's? Oh yeah. I'm in.
But the more I thought about it, the more I held back.
Why?
I just couldn't see myself taking a gamble on what I would pull. What if I got a bunch of Leafs??? Or what if I blew my card budget on packs and didn't get the cards I really wanted?
So I decided to wait, and build my own packs off of the secondary market.
So here is the first (and best) of my Forever Rivals Dream Packs. The rules are simple. Build a pack using the same configuration, getting the dream cards you really want, while keeping the cost the same.
Up first, the base cards. Shiny foil. Meh, not really my thing... but I like the design.
Gumper was $1.00 at a card show.
Jacques and Carey I traded for... costing me cards that I bought at a show for $1.50.
total base cost $2.50
Autographs-
Rogie Vachon - $6.50
You know I had to have my boys in my dream pack!
Knuckles was $5.16
and Odie was $3.99
Autograph total cost - 15.65
Relic cards. I went hard here... went after some rare ones. All three are Gold version which means they are /10
Mike Keane Cup winners - $7.56
Carey Price - $17.37
and the card of the pack, one of my most prized possesions....
Chris Nilan, Stick Rack - $52.97
I love that card.
Relic card total - $77.90
That leaves the three base insert cards. The problem is that I don't really like the base insert cards. And since this is my dream pack, I can call an audible and substitute...................
with three more autographs!
Jacques Lemaire - $2.87
Richard Sevigny - $6.51
and finally, to show a little something for you Leaf fans...
Bernie Parent - $7.27
Second auto batch total - 16.65
For a grand total of $112.80
I guess that's why I held back. There is no way in heck that I would've got a pack that good, let alone one with 6 autographs, for that price.
I had fun building this pack. And I managed to acquire a couple of really cool cards for my player collections that I never dreamed I would.
