Panini screws the pooch again....

I first read about this set on Cards On Ice, but really couldn't believe what I read, so I dove into the interwebs and found out more.
Yes, Panini is putting out a 100 card Update/Traded boxed set for this year's Score Hockey. It'll set you back $20.
The catch? You know there is one.... 95% of the sets will only have cards #1-99 in them. That's right... they short printed card #100. How can you short print a numbered base card out of a factory set??

Once again, Panini screws the pooch and the collector in one fell swoop.


EDIT: it's so bad... that even Chris over at Stale Gum is giving Panini the middle finger. And when he comments on hockey, you know something stinks.

A Gold Medal Hottie....

Rather than whine and complain about the latest attempt by idiot officials to give the league run Bruins a win, I thought it would be better to show off some autos I got a wee while ago.

And who better than insanely hot Team Canada goalie Charline Labonte. That's 3 time Olympic Gold Medalist Charline Labonte to you.

Charline was nice enough to sign four photos and two cards for me.

 thank the gods the pink is no more.....

 one of my faves... it's a good thing there's no body contact in women's hockey!

 Say Fromage!

Charline just finished backstopping her college team, the McGill Martlets to their 3rd championship in four years. McGill went into this year's playoffs with a 20-0 record, and easily won again. Their only loss in the last four years? When Charline was busy winning a Gold Medal in the Vancouver Olympics.
Priorities people....

2010-11 ITG Between the Pipes box break... it ain't pretty.

I still haven't posted the box of ITG Heroes and Prospects I busted because it was one of the ugliest busts I've ever had. Until now. Most of you know I love In The Game products. And I still do. But my luck with them sucks. Pure and simple. I looked at many, many box breaks on the various forums. Every box I saw had two or three autos, and two or three relic cards. Most had 5 hits. I got three. Two autos and a jersey card.

I think I may be done busting boxes for awhile. This is three straight products I've absolutely whiffed on. For the $105 this box cost, I could've bought a base set for $3-$5, 5-6 autos and 3-4 relic cards on the 'bay.

Lesson learned.

Anyways... on with the show. This year the set is 200 cards, but as usual, broken up into different parts. We lead off with 'Future Stars'

 then into 'Stars of the Game'

 followed by retired 'Greats of the Game' "Greats" being a relative word. Frank Pietrangelo anyone? The best part of the Greats section is undoubtably seeing some of our favourite masks once more.

 a brief 4 card 'Women of the Nets' section, celebrating a few of the Hotties that have tended goal for Team Canada.

 and as always, we leave off with the 'Immortals'... some of the very finest to ever wear the sweater.

 My two autos were of Petr Mrazek, who at the time of pulling I thought was 5th on Detroits goalie depth chart. Upon a little digging on the interwebs, I find out young Petr is actually 8th on the goalie depth chart. Awesome.

 Young Robin here is from France, and is eligible for the upcoming 2011 Amateur Draft.

 Being a Montreal fan, of course I would pull a Maple Leaf. There are two insert sets, one for the Leafs (Blue and White) and one for Montreal (the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge) Mr Reimer is already on his way to the Hamiltonian in exchange for a Carey Price card she pulled.

 The ever popular Masked Men inserts are back, in Emerald, Silver, And Gold versions.
Brent Johnson of Pittsburgh is an example of the Emerald version #/340

 Brian Elliot of the Avalanche isa Silver version #/100. The Golds are out of /10 I think.......

 Interesting that all the players who have been traded are shown in their old uniforms in the base set, but the inserts show them in their new uni's. As shown with Brian Elliot. His base card still shows him with Ottawa.

My only relic card was of young Jhonas Enroth of the Sabres. However it is a Gold version #/10.

 Silvers are out of /50 and Blacks are out of /120 I believe.

And that concludes my box break. Bamlinden from My Hockey Card Obsession was there to witness the carnage first hand. He barely held back his tears. A great product.. I love it. I just don't have the mojo needed to pull the great cards that are available in it.

However... some of my luck returned in time for Pack Wars. I won a round of Pack Wars later on, somewhat saving my evening. And making my box break a little bit less of a disaster.

Along with some needed base cards, I also won a Kelly Hrudey auto....

 a Patrick Lalime Emerald Masked Men

 a dual Ready Willing and Able jersey card of the Kings goalie tandem #/80.

 and a Franchise Leader jersey for Washington of Olaf Kolzig. Ollie the goalie is #/29.

If any of you are still with me, all cards here are for trade.

So go buy some of this stuff and let's swap.

the last card show of the year....

now some of you may be saying 'What the hell is Canuck talking about? The year is just starting...' And you would be right. But around here, the third biggest city in Canada, the card season is over. Anyone notice that the hockey season is about over? Coincidence?

It sucks. The summer is the best time to have a card show. But I am in the minority in this apparently.

Although there is a travelling show that is coming in May, bringing autograph signers and everything.... this is the last show of the year for all the local "dealers" such as they are.

as a plus, with it being the last show until October, they were more than willing to dump, unload, sell off their treasures at a reduced price.

Speaking of Price, how about a Carey Price game used Authentic Fabrics card from 09/10 UD SPGU.

 I bought it from a friend for $5. Too much? Of course it was. Way too much. But Carey is my current collecting weakness, plus the guy I bought it from is a cool guy with fabulous cards that I can't afford. He's the only one at these shows with baseball and football. Peyton Manning auto 1/1? Yeah, he's got one, or two...

I moved on... there were a couple of guys with $1 boxes and $2 boxes. I still want to go to a show like everyone else and find dime and quarter boxes. One day. But not here in Calgary. Anyways.... I found these in a dollar box to go along with my Carey...

Mike Cammalleri

 and Roman "I've played since they used tube skates" Hamrlik

 The next four cards were from one guy. All were found in a dollar box, although I paid more than a dollar for this one...
Carey Price /799 Frozen In Time. This card is super thick and clear so you can see through it. This guy, who spent the entire time while I was looking through his boxes making fun of his customers with a friend of his. Total ass. Then he preceeds to accuse me of cheating him because the Price wasn't in his dollar box. Which it was. Whatever. I gave him $7 for the next four cards and wished him a nice day as only I can.

 a 73/74 Reggie Leach in his Golden Seals sweater. I wish you could see the white skates...

 An Alex Auld retro rainbow insert for my never ending team set chase....

 and a Young Gun of Jhonas Enroth, the Sabres heir apparent for Ryan Miller.

 Onto another seller... this guy is at every show and his thing is gambling. He always has around 75 or so empty wax boxes. You buy one for $10 or $20 bucks, and inside it will tell you what you've won. The prizes are listed on a board.... kind of like the guy on ebay who sells 'grab bags' where you could get a '52 mantle.

Anyways.. the next 5 cards cost me a buck.
Tomas Plekanec

 Scott Gomez

 Carey Price

 Jimmy Howard

 and Semyon Varlamov.

 Now to my final table. This guy always has autos cheap. At the last show, I got all those Team Canada autos from him if you've been following along.
All of these came from a dollar box.
(For you Bruin fans, that means they cost a dollar apiece)

Young phenom goalie for the St Louis Blues, Big Ben Bishop

 a rookie auto of All Star and Gold Medal winning defenceman Shea Weber

 Brian Gionta

 Martin Biron

 future Hall of Famer? Rob Blake

 Mike Fisher... who is more famous for....

 bagging one of Tony Romo's ex girlfriends. I think Carrie appreciates the lifestyle of marrying a hockey player more than the QB for the Dallas Cowboys.

 instead of being Tony Romo's girlfriend, Mike Fisher is Carrie Underwoods husband.

Cristobal Huet. Huet is playing in Switzerland right now so the Hawks can circumvent the salary cap.

 future Hall of Famer Rod Brind'Amour? Probably not....

 current Canadien, James Wisniewski

 current Flame Olli Jokinen

 ex MVP Jose Theodore

 Dan Hamhuis. Dan Hamhuis??? He's from my hometown. What do you want from me?

 and apparently the most popular Canuck ever... Markus Naslund. Pictured as a Ranger, naturally.

so there you have it. Thanks for sticking with me to the end.... if anyone really wants anything here, most is up for trade....

It's contest time again!

So I'm back in the city, alive and well. It's my birthday, and the NHL playoffs are starting. Coincidence? No. It's time for the third annual Waxaholic NHL Playoff Contest. Only I'm having it here on Just A Bit Offside instead. Sue me.

We've had great turnouts the past two years... I hope this year is even better.

To recap the rules... Pick the winners of each match up from round one that you see here through to picking the winner of the cherished Stanlely Cup. You also must pick the amount of games it takes each team to win each series. (Each series is best of 7)

And to break any ties... pick me a playoff mvp as well.

I've included this handy dandy bracket thingie so you can see who each team will play in the next round if they win.... so no excuses people. Use the chart.

so for example, if I were to enter, my entry would look something like this ...
Round one
Washington in 5
Philadelphia in 7
Montreal in 5
Tampa in 6
Vancouver in 6
San Jose in 4
Detroit in 6
Anaheim in 4
Round two
Washington in 5
Montreal in 7
Vancouver in 6
Anaheim in 7
Round three
Montreal in 7
Vancouver in 5
Round four
Montreal in 7
MVP - Carey Price

Have fun with it... it's been a blast the past two years, and as usual, I'll post up the prizes later on.

Good luck!

Alright, so I haven't had time (read: been too lazy) to post the last couple of box breaks, but rest assured, they're coming. Well, maybe one anyways before I have to leave town for another week for work. But we've got all the time in the world, right?

So because I was out of town last month, I missed out on the monthly card show. Even with the 8 inches of snow I woke up to this morning, I still managed to get to the one today.

Unfortuantely only 5 dealers bothered to show up. But that's okay. We spent 45 minutes chatting about the hobby and the sport in general.

I managed to spend $16 on 8 cards.

The first $15 went to a seller who I usually buy vintage from. But today he had a stack of retro inserts from this year's OPC that I've been chasing.

The Black Border Retro Rainbow inserts fall at 2 per box, and are numbered out of /100.  I'm chasing the Montreal team set in all three parallels, so I grabbed the following.

A high number SP of Hall of Famer Larry Robinson.

 Brian Gionta

 and shut down D Man Jaroslav Spacek.

 I also found a regular Rainbow Retro of the giant Hal Gill

 and just for fun, a Jimmy Howard Black Border /100

 and living in Calgary, you can never have too many Kipper cards lying around. Also /100.

My last loonie went to purchase these two cards, which will be sent out for ttm auto attempts when I get back on the 11th.

There's six Olympic Gold medals smiling at you in those two faces.

Not too bad if I do say so myself.... now if it will only quit snowing................