In the heat of the night..

In the heat of the night, people flock to places with air conditioning. And that's one of the main reasons I went to the last trade night at one of the local shops. The weather has broken a little over the last day or two... but for the last couple of months, wow. It's been hot. Too hot.

So of course we're going to talk about hockey.

And.... AND... for the first time in months, I made a couple of trades. Gotta like when new people come out. They are under the impression that trade night is about trading. Unlike the regulars who, well, let's just say trading is an afterthought.

Let's get to the pictures.

2013-14 SPx PK Subban dual jersey. I always like it when the colours of the swatches match the picture.

2013-14 Black Diamond Carey Price dual jersey.

Another dual jersey card, but this one with different players. 2013-14 ITG Between the Pipes Carey Price and Eric Comrie. Eric was a second round pick of the Jets last year and might have the longest neck I've ever seen. Check out his pic in GOOGLE.

A PK insert from 2013-14 Select. It looks good in person. In a scan, not so much.

A 2013-14 Prizm Blue Pulsar Brendan Gallagher rookie. It's hard to figure out what's a rookie card nowadays with only one small RC logo and the word ROOKIE in 45 pt font across the front.
I wish they could make them stand out more.

I traded five Jarome Iginla OPC and Upper Deck inserts from their last two years flagship sets for Brendan, and got the following two cards thrown in for free as they were "only dollar cards" according to their owner.
He and I are now friends.

Gilles Meloche auto, and yes, that is a crack in his mask above his left eye.

Pat Riggin auto. Pat Riggin? Yes. Pat Riggin. Sans mask.

looks like with all the new hockey product released last week and over the next three weeks, the season is now in full swing.
Now if only I could find a way to escape this heat.... I now know what Coyotes' fans feel like.

It's a Festivus miracle!

I went to one of the local card shop's trade night this past Wednesday evening. I try to go every month, it's a good time.

 

But I have to say... perhaps a new name is needed. "Trade" night doesn't quite fit. I haven't made a trade in 7 or 8 months there.

Unless you have a brand new released 17 colour game used patch rookie autograph numbered to under /3, there is no way you'll ever trade.

 

I exaggerate, but only a little. Forget player collecting or even team set collecting.

 

And set collecting? Trading base cards? Or even the base inserts? HA! Not a chance. You may as well be Snipe hunting.

 

But then it happened... there were a few new faces this month. And they haven't quite yet got the memo about "the minimum standard."

 

So there were trades to be had! And trade I did.

 

Here are some of my new acquisitions. See if you can spot the theme. There may be a prize.*

 

*(not bloody likely)

 

a 2013-14 Titanium Carey Price jersey card

 

a 2010-11 Certified Carey Price DUAL jersey card #/150

a 2010-11 Certified Masked Marvels DUAL jersey card #/99

a 2013-14 Upper Deck Series One Clear Cut Stoppers insert of Carey Price #/100

a 2013-14 Upper Deck Team Canada Carey Price Exclusive parallel #/100

a 2013-14 Totally Certified Carey Price base

a 2013-14 Upper Deck SPx 96/97 Carey Price die cut insert (remember these from back then?)

the 2013-14 Upper Deck SPx Carey Price base

a 2013-14 Upper Deck ICE Carey Price (only found in a bonus pack from boxes of SPx)

a 2013-14 Panini Carey Price somethingorother from some set... I have no idea...

and now for something, completely different...

a 2013-14 Absolute P.K. Subban

...one of these things is not like the other.....

definitely the most productive trade night in a very long time. It was nice to scratch every one of those cards off of my want list.

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.

Goalie Grabs...

at the last trade night, (was it the last one? or the one before?) Okay, at a recent trade night, I managed to come home with a few new cards. Nice ones, if you ask me.

I'm always on the lookout for new Carey Price cards I don't already have. Quite often I end up swapping for a card and go to put it in the binder, only to find out I already have it.

This time however, I did good.

This year's Crease Cleaners from Limited. #/99 I like these a lot. I may have to chase more of them.

A Quad Diamond from this year's Black Diamond. Or is it last year's? Who can tell?

a nice little base card from the brand new SP Game Used.

speaking of SP Game Used, a Robert Mayer rookie numbered to his sweater number. This one, along with the Price base, and the rookie shown next, were freebies. Just given to me gratis. I love this hobby.

Robert however, is a smart guy. He knows damn well he isn't going to get playing time ahead of Carey Price, and with the recent acquisition of Dustin Tokarski, he decided to jump ship and head for Europe.
Robert will now be the starting goalie for HC Biel of the Suisse Elite League.

Okay, so Gabriel isn't a goalie.... I had to package him in here with the other two cards....

I also got a nice Craig Anderson patch auto... I may keep this, I may swap it. We'll see.

oh, and some dude named Patrick.

a pretty nice patch #/25. Not bad.

most of these I got in one trade. One that started in December with me giving up a couple of cards for "futures". These be the futures.

I hope you liked them.... and that's one more small pile off of my desk.

Mask Mania...

we had a delayed trade night last week. It was supposed to be the week before, but due to that Vegas Summit, everything got pushed back.
Kudos to bamlinden for letting me know, as I had no idea about the postponement. In case you've forgot, it's about a 45 minute commute to get there. Yummy.

aside from watching the Habs/bruins game on  the tele, there were a few trades to be had. Someone from out of province made the trip. Crazy, I know. And while he had a LOT of cards I was interested in, I didn't have the right lists with me. He had binders full of '90's inserts and rookies. Exactly the kind of low end stuff I'm looking for to fill out some of these half done sets.

But, it'll have to wait until next time he's in town. We did manage to pull off a swap though.... I'll show some of the cards I got here now...

I was immediately interested in these five cards. I had never seen them or heard about them before. They're from the 02/03 Upper Deck Artistic Impressions set.... an insert set called Retrospectives.

judging from these cards, I assumed they were a painted mask insert.

nope. wrong again. all kinds of players are featured in the set.

but all he had were goalies.  so that's all I have.

price wise, these cards are pretty much worthless according to the book. that's fine with me.

whoever the artists were, they did a good job. Even without the name bar, I could still tell who each goalie was.


Speaking of mask inserts... I picked up this one from 1992. No, I'm not collecting 1992 Pinnacle.

No I'm not collecting Mike Richter, nor the Rangers. I just thought it was cool and it will look good in my trade box.
Someone will want this card eventually, I know it.

Thanks for looking. Just a quick post to show some of the cards piling up on my desk. I'll get through them eventually. I hope.

Knockin' 'em down, one at a time...

That's the thing about us set collectors. We're happy going after sets, with our rumpled lists, even years after initial release. It doesn't bother us to root around in long forgotten boxes, looking for even one card that will put us ever closer to completion.

Of course when you can knock off more than one in a deal, that's all the better.

Perhaps you remember me mentioning a fellow at a card show that remarked on how I never buy from him. Well I made an effort to go to his table this time and see what he had. As luck would have it, he had 7 of the Pop Up inserts from OPC that I needed. I asked him how much, because as per usual, nothing was priced. He picked up his Beckett and after a brief moment of him frantically searching for them, stated he'd let them go for $45.

After I had regained conciousness, I politely declined and moved on to his neighbor. He had three Pop Ups at the front of his table. Again, I asked how much? (why can't people price their frakking cards???)
He said $5 for the lot.
Sold.
And both of us received dagger eyes from the dude that I never buy from.

Sir Patrick of Cup

Along with Marian the Shifty

and Jarome the Lost.

Every card gets me closer....

Then at trade night I found a guy with ten, TEN! Young Guns I needed from various years. I managed to deal for six of them... and it pained me greatly.

 

From the 08/09 set, Okposo and Boedker

and from the 09/10 set, a quartet. Letestu and Gunnarsson...

followed by Grabner and Marchand.

Having to trade for, let alone own, that last card was a painful process. I just had to focus on the number on my list. That generic little number that I got to cross off, nay, obliterate from my list.

I'm gettting closer... every day a little closer. If you can help with any of it, drop me a line.

Trade Night - All Horizontal Edition

Slowly the gears turn as I get caught up on some long delayed posts. Multiple reasons why I'm behind.... and for the most part, they don't matter. You're not here for the story, you're here for the cards, am I right?

You know I am.

Quite often at trade night I find myself acquiring cards that don't necessarily fit into my prime collection. Most of the time, people who have cards I want, aren't interested in anything I have.

Such is life.

So I adapt. It's what humans do, right? Evolution... survival of the species and all that.

If I can't acquire the main pieces I'm after, then I go for other cards that round out my collection. Cards that while may not be of my favourite players or teams, still can find a home and valued place in my pc.

Like this card... a hard signed Niklas Lidstrom. One of the greatest defencemen to ever play my game. A 100% lock for the Hall of Fame the year he's eligible.

Speaking of one of the greatest defencemen of all time, Hall of Famer Denis Potvin.

This is my second Potvin auto, but my first that isn't slabbed in one of those nasty graded plastic cage thingies.

Adding two autos of these greats was a no brainer for me.

From my wantlists, I snagged this SP heroes card of Marty Brodeur. It was the last card I needed for that set.

It's not a 17 colour game used sweat stained patch auto like what most people get excited about, but I was very happy to cross it off of my list.

The last (hockey) card I got was not a trade, but a gift.

Aaron Palushaj 2012 Panini Prime Patch rookie # 24/25

I appreciate the gift.

But let's talk about something that someone else said to me when they saw what took place.
We'll call him 'Bubba'.
Bubba comes over and says 'Wow! I can't believe someone would just give away a card like that without getting anything back!'
I asked him if he had every given any cards away before... he said 'yeah, a couple of times... but just worthless base cards.'
To which I said, and you think this card is valuble????
See, to me.... this card is maybe a $2 card. It's of a player that has no shot at playing for my team this year, is in the walk year of his contract, and will not be re-signed.
I very much doubt if his NHL career lasts much longer.
Is it out of /25? Yes.
Is it a big two colour jersey swatch? Yes.
But so what? Look who's it of.

This is what Bubba goes on about... how it's a rare patch card etc.. etc... if you'll forgive my poetic licence, This is a guy who can't see the trees in the forest.
He's blinded by the 'internet forum' SICK MOJO PATCHEZ!!!! ideal that so many people fall into.
He's convinced that by opening high end packs and finding low numbered patch cards, it's his ticket to retirement.
Wake up son.

These are the same guys complaining that they can't sell cards on ebay anymore because they are selling for too little $$$....

Thanks for reading my rant to the end... here's a reward.

Autos aplenty....

I suppose I had best talk about the last trade night of 2012 seeing as the first trade night of 2013 is in four days.

 

2013. Wow. I remember when I was just a timbit, (you non-Canadians may not get that reference) I used to think how cool it would be if I lived long enough to see 2013. I was born on the 13th, and I could then have a whole year with 13 in it.

Hey, I was 5. Don't judge.

 

Back to tradenight. There was quite a spread of food... but I was a good boy and avoided all but the vegetable platter. Save for one small sliver of pepperoni pizza. This was the night I posted about earlier on Waxaholic where I won movie passes from the mystery gift boxes that were handed out.

Believe it or not, there was actual trading of cards as well.

 

Here's what I came home with. Hmm, if I had a blog in my 20's, the subject of what I came home with at the end of the night would be MUCH different.

 

Moving on.....

 

from the much maligned Panini set, Classic Signatures, a hard signed Bob Gainey.

 I was thrilled to add this card to my collection as it is my first Gainey auto, and the card is pretty cool with Marcel Dionne closing in from the background. Nice sig Bob.

Speaking of nice sigs, I added another Hall of Famer in Gilbert Perreault. I have another Perreault, but this one is nicer.

from 2005-06 Trilogy, this card has copper stripes with a matte finish everywhere except for the cutout of Gilbert, which is glossy. It's a super looking card. Well done.

In the gift department, I received a brand new 2012-13 Black Diamond Ruby double diamond PK Subban.

 Now I just need the base, Emerald, and Sapphire versions. The Ruby is /100.... no idea about the others.

The next two cards I "traded" for, but in all honestly were just gifts from other collectors. I tried to give more for them, but they both insisted I take them. I love this hobby. You meet some really great people.

Both from 2011-12 Panin Prime, both featuring Montreal defenceman Raphael Diaz.

 Raffy is not my favourite defenceman, nor in the top 3, but I can`t refuse cards like this.

 My Swiss friend does need to work on his sig though.... Raffy, look at Bob`s or Gilbert`s and take notes. No Raffy, not shorthand..... write it out in cursive son....


..... Like former Hab defenceman and Hall of Famer Larry Robinson.

 

out of /75 this is one for my growing Larry Robinson collection. Not a bad little card, although a colour photo would be much better.

 

All in all a great evening.

 

Thanks to all I met, traded with, talked to, or emailed in 2012. Hopefully that will continue in 2013 along with meeting a few new folks as well.

 

Happy New Year.