TTM Success! Devan Dubnyk! The Humble Pie Edition.....

The problem with blogging is I tend to write what I'm thinking. For me, this is a dangerous result. A lot of people do not understand my rather dry humour. My wit, as my wife calls it.

Last Tuesday I posted a ttm success from Red Wing starting goalie, Jimmy Howard. LINK. In it, I wrote a remark rather off the cuff regarding Oilers backup goalie Devan Dubnyk.  Fine. It's out there. Nothing I can do about it.

But this is where stuff like this comes back to bite me in the ass.

The next day. The very next day, I take the walk down to the mailbox. Upon opening the door I peer inside. And I see it. And without the benefit of x-ray vision, I instantly know what is inside.

Yep. You got it....

 Devan returned my request after 223 days. Two 8x10's and two cards, all signed in black sharpie.

 Okay Devan... you got me. I know when I'm beat.

 and you're now one of my favourite Oilers of all time.

I hope we can still be friends.

2011-12 Parkhurst Champions box break

So the latest hockey set has been released. You won't find the latest or hottest rookies in it though. It's the latest version of Parkhurst Champions featuring all the greats, and some not so greats, of the past.

The box features 20 packs with 5 cards per pack. Cost was $84. A bit more than what you would think it should cost considering you'll find the 100 card base sets for $3 at card shows in a couple of weeks.

The first card out of the first pack is.....

 Patrick Roy in his rookie garb. Awesome. The set has various levels of cards. The first, the main base, has 100 cards. In honour of my pal Shane, here is card #100......

 interesting to see the material that sweater is made out of... it looks like a football jersey.
The cards are full bleed of course, high gloss, with a gold foil embossed name and logo at the bottom.

The backs are like this...

 Full career stats!!! Which for a superstar set like this one makes for some interesting reading...
99 of the 100 base card set also come in an autographed parallel. Chances are 1:14 packs. The exception is Eric Lindros. Eric no sign for you!

Cards 101-120 are made up of old Wire Photos. They are short printed. You get one every five packs. Or four per box.

 Cards 121-130 are also Wire Photos, but feature more than one player. They are short printed to one per box.
Smile boys.

 All of the Wire Photo cards also come in an autographed parallel. The single player auto odds are 1:500 packs. The multi player auto odds are 1:3000 packs.

Cards 131-150 are called Rendition Colour and feature artwork. These fall at 1:8 packs.

 19 out of the 20 Rendition Colour cards are available autographed. 1:800 packs will find you one. Again, Eric Lindros no sign for you!

Cards 151-160 are a subset called Rendition Black and White. These beauties are 1:32 or just over 1 per box and a half.

 You know by now that they also come autographed. Although odds fall at 1:4000 packs.

The other part of the "set" are Champ's mini's. These mini cards make up a 57 card set. And the first 45 cards are one per pack.

 They come in four parallels. Regular back, Green back 1:6, Parkhurst back 1:172 and Gold foil 1:???
What do they look like? Glad you asked. My only "duplicate" in teh box was getting a Marcell Dionne regular and Green back.

 Pointless. But apparently standard nowadays.

Cards 46 through 57 of this mini set are short printed and fall at 1 per box. My SP mini ended up being Phil Esposito. 

 Now the "hits" The box advertises one OR two autographs per box. Standard base autos fall at 1:14. I ended up with Flyer sniper Reggie Leach.

 Differences include a matte finish card, and the gold foil has been replaced with silver.

I did end up with two autos in my box... the other came in mini form.

These are tough to find at 1:90 or one every five boxes. They also come in a Red Ink variation, but only 15 copies of those exist.

So there you have it... all in all a fun break. Not for everyone, but if you enjoy hockey history like me, then you'll enjoy reading all of these cards like I did.
I'll be, as expected, going after this set, so if any of you bust any and don't like them, send them my way.

TTM Success! Jimmy Howard!

Not much time to post today, so you get another TTM success. Although to mix things up a little bit, I'll post a success from an active player instead of a retired one.

This one comes from Detroit Red Wings starting goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Jimmy was kind enough to send these back in just 29 days.

It's nice to see active players take an interest and the time in their fans. Most could not be bothered. I mean, this guy is the starting goalie for the mother freakin Detroit Red Wings, one of if not the best team over the last 15 years. In contrast, writing to a backup goalie of a team that never makes the playoffs, I'm looking at you Devan Dubnyk, and I'm still waiting after over 220 days.

Douche.

Here's what Jimmy sent back....

 a couple of great 8x10's... one in the home colours and one for the road...

 along with two cards...

Thanks for taking the time Jimmy!
and thanks for reading to the both of you....

TTM Success! Johnny Bower, The China Wall !!!

After having a conversation with bamlinden of My Hockey Card Obsession fame at the local card show this morning, I realized I've been neglecting posting the TTM autographs I've received lately. Quite honestly, I haven't had much time to post, and when i have, I've just been too lazy to do it. So here we go.

I wrote to former Leaf great, Johnny Bower. Johnny has led quite the life. First, he lied about his age so he could join the Canadian Armed Forces and fight in WWII at 15. 15! At 15 I was busy growing chest hair. At 15 Johnny was killing Nazi's in Europe.  Hmmm......

After an Honourable Discharge at the age of 20 because of a medical condition (chronic arthritis) he went back to playing hockey. After 13 season's in the minor leagues and a very brief appearance with the N.Y. Rangers, he became a 35 year old rookie with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Four Stanley Cup wins later, he retired in 1970.

 Johnny was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976.

 Johhny was kind enough to sign my 8x10 photo as well as this Tall Boy and 10/11 OPC retro card for me.

Free internet cookies to anyone who can identify the other players in the photo. Enjoy a cup of coffee while you try and figure it out.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a great and safe holiday. Now pass the gravy.

Brand new 2011-12 OPC Hockey... it's fresh...

So today is the day I've been waiting for. It's the day that the new OPC hockey cards hit the shelves. And to make it even more interesting, the release date was pushed back a couple of times. So, as luck would have it, I was driving home from work this afternoon and I found myself near the cardstore. How fortuitous!

One problem. It was 1:30 and no OPC. And my bud the owner wasn't there either. Some dude behind the counter said it was coming, but who knows when. Yikes. What to do? So while he fiddled with his GPS (don't ask) I watched the ballgame on tv.

Now it's 2:30.... still no OPC and I have to go. Crap.

Bummed, I leave and begin the long drive home. I'm about halfway home when I remember that I'm now near another cardstore...one I don't normally buy boxes from. So I head there. $55 and five minutes later, Voici!

 I guess old Wayne gets a turn on the box 'cause who knows if Crosby is ever coming back. We'll probably see Howe again next year. Upper Deck is predictable if anything.
36 packs and 6 cards per pack. Ouch. For a "entry level" set, Upper Deck doesn't build it as one. This should be 10 cards per pack at least.
Here's the box bottom for those of you interested in such things.

 And the wrapper. A wee similar to the box. We're not re-inventing the wheel here....

 So let's see the cards!
Here's the base... no more white borders.

 do we really need 33% of the front to be taken up by the logo??

How's the back?

 simple, boring, and recycled. It's odd that the reincarnation of OPC has bland grey backs to get that retro feel, and yet OPC always had bright, coloured backs.

The base set has a Rainbow parallel again this year...

 that backs on these are much better... kinda what the base should be.

 Agian, after the 500 card base set, there are 100 short printed cards (501-600) 50 for the legends of hockey...

 Definitely a movie poster theme to this entire set.... the backs are..... bland...

 Gee NHL, whatever did Mr Hull do between 1972 and 1979??? I hate that the NHL still to this day will not acknowledge the existance of the WHA.

The rookies are similar, and bright...

 they at least added some graphics to the backs of these....

 Wait... aren't these cards from last year's set? Yep. They put last year's Update set into this year's packs. 1 per 9 packs. That's 4 per box for you math impaired folks...

 Of course there are leader cards.... I like these, but I wish they would make them part of the set like the old days instead of an insert set. And bring back team cards!!!

 One thing I did like about these this year is that they are now on regular card stock intead of the super thick and glossy stock of the last few years.

 And oh yes, the retro parallel. Inserted at one per pack, this year's offering is loosly based on teh 1933-34 OPC set. I think. My memory only goes back so far.

 You may have gleemed these on the box bottom at the top of this post. Four different colours, sepia picture, and no mention whatsoever of their first name. Even though the '33/34 cards had them. Plus, we have the hockey version of 2011 Topps Lineage baseball card backs.

Horrible. And again, as you could forget, 40% of the card back is logo. Sweet jesus.

Alright. There you have it. When I'm done busting open the box, I'll give you a breakdown of what I found.

2011-12 OPC Hockey
What I liked
- No white borders.
- Affordable at $55 per box.
- leader and trophy cards on regular cardstock
-different retro cards

What I didn't like
- enough with the 64 point font OPC logo. OPC cards never had this. Get rid of it.
- grey backs. Again, OPC never had this.
- only 2/3 of the front available for photo
- only 150 base cards per box for a 600 card set!!!! What happened to entry level and affordable???

He's just a puppy still....

In the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Montreal chose 17 year old Jarred Tinordi in the first round. Jarred, a defenceman like his father, was 6'6" 175 pounds.
Now, 15 months later, he is 6'7" 215 pounds..... and still growing.

He left the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame this season to join the London Knights of the OHL. He was immediately named Captain.


I cannot wait for this kid to get called up. Probably next season.... I wonder how big he'll be then? And what are they feeding these kids nowadays?

P.S. why is it that after a beautiful clean hit, everyone feels the need to drop the gloves? Can we not hit anymore? Cheap shots, okay.... but after the clean ones too???

$10 and a card show.

I am woefully behind on a bunch of trade posts, so why not procrastinate some more and show off what I picked up at the card show this past Saturday? Seems like a good idea to me.

from one seller I managed to grab this Hi # SP card from this year's OPC set. Cost- $1.

 I also got three other cards from him, but they were football and baseball related, so I'll put those on Waxaholic.

From the next seller, I picked out two cards from his .50 cent box.

 a Carey Price Contenders base card and an...

 UD MVP insert Carey Price from '08.

The next seller had a brand new Carey Price from just out Artifacts.

 this one out of /999 set me back $3. A bit much if you ask me, but what the hell.

One of my favourite sellers had a few cards I liked. First, two cards for my growing Lyle Odelein collection.

 '94/95 Topps Stadium Club and '94/95 Fleer base cards...

 And I picked up this Montreal team set from '95 Parkhurst.

 I wanted to grab a few of these for autographs through the mail....

 but I ended up getting the whole set, even though some of these gentlemen are sadly deceased.

 in the interest of space, I'll scan the other 18 cards in sheet form.....

 I also replaced three tall boys of Charlie Hodge that I had just sent out for ttm autographs. Now my set is complete again.

total costs for all of those cards from him was $5. I love pick ups like that. He's also scrounging through his boxes for more for me at the next show.

So how do you think I did? And if anyone has any '10/11 OPC they want to trade/donate, hit up my wantlist link on the side. The '11/12 set launches tomorrow. I would really like to finish this one.

Oh, and totally unrelated to hockey, if you like soccer and comic books, check out the latest offering from Obsessive Recreation. Guy and TJ always have the latest for you...