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.

ITG Forever Rivals Dream Pack Break... Kind of...

a couple of weeks ago, I posted my ITG Forever Rivals Dream Break. If you didn't read it, go now, it'll explain what I'm doing here.....

Now for this pack, it's not exactly my Dream Pack, but the cards are still pretty good. Probably better than what I would pull knowing my luck.

12 cards per pack, 3 base, 3 autos, 3 relics and 3 base inserts, costing around $90 - $120 per pack.

Here's what I came up with for pack two. (all prices in Canadian)

Base Cards

Guy Lapointe $1

J.C. Tremblay $1

Chris Chelios $1.50

Base total - $3.50

Autographs-

Charlie Hodge $7.40

Rick Wamsley $7.77

Dougie Jarvis $4.20 (The best face off guy I have ever seen. Period.)

Autograph total - $19.37

Relics

Claude Lemieux Silver /30 - $5.43

 

Shayne Corson Silver /30 - $5.33

Steve Shutt Red /20 - $4.05   Are you kidding me? A game used Shutt out of /20 for $4???

 

What's this??? Bonus card!!!

 

Found this at a local card shop....

 

Guy Carbonneau Silver /30 - $3.00 

 

Relic totals - $17.81 (including bonus card!)

Now you should know by now that I don't like the base inserts... so I replaced them with autographs. Hey, it's my pack.

Jean-Guy Talbot - traded an auto that I bought at a card show for .50 cents.

Borje Salming - A Leaf sighting! $4.92

Jiri Crha - one of the autos I keyed in on when the checklist came out.  $7.61

Second autograph group total - $13.03

Grand Total of entire pack - $53.71


Yikes. Looks like I saved money on that one.

TTM Success! Gilles Villemure

I wrote to Gilles Villemure a little while ago. A couple of weeks later he returned my stuff all signed in bright blue sharpie.

Gilles Villemure was a longtime goalie for the New York Rangers before finishing his career with the Chicago Black Hawks.

Gilles never really got a shot early on in his career, playing in only 13 games in his first 6 seasons. But once he got his shot, he made the most of it, making the All Star team in the next three years and winning the Vezina trophy as top keeper.

He also made this nifty mask.

I say nifty, my wife says creepy.

Gilles also played for the Vancouver Canucks. But that was for them in the WHL.

 

I don't know what I like more, the net with the old style boards, the chain link, the old advertising, or the Johnny Canuck logo on his sweater.

 

It's all awesome.

 

Besides the 8x10's, Gilles also signed some cards I sent.

 

Merci Gilles!

Randomness...

Trade night at the local shop was last night... lots of good discussion and catching up, despite the best efforts of the idiots in New York who are trying their best to destroy our National Pastime.

 

Of course it's also Xmas time... and despite some amazing sales going on... I held fast and didn't purchase any boxes, just some much needed supplies. Hopefully I'll have some cash left over in January to spluge on cards. Hopefully.

 

I only pulled off a couple of trades. The first was on a set that I've been working on since the day it came out. 2012 ITG BTP Masked Men Ruby Die Cut.

 

Jonathan Quick has joined the party.

 Now only four more to go. #'s 1, 29, 30 , and 41.

Do you remember when I acquired this?

 Did I show this off? I can't remember... Anyways... I managed to trade off Taylor in exchange for
another Ultimate auto, this time Guy Carbonneau....

 and a Tough Times auto of Terry O'Reilly. Terry is #/250.

 The only other acquisition was a gift. A buddy gave me this 2009/10 Fleer Ultra eX insert of Carey Price. It is a sweeeeeeet card. Acetate, diecut, and in full relief. Beauty!

 I also got a handfull of basecards from that same set....

That's my randomness for today.... there's a card show tomorrow. I wonder if I'll be able to go and NOT spend any money.
We'll see.
Any odds?

ITG Forever Rivals Dream Pack Break....

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.

1981-82 OPC #321 Terry Martin

Today`s piece of airbrushed goodness is card #321, Terry Martin.

 

Terry broke in with the Sabres in the 1975/76 season. His rookie card is #318 of the 1977/78 OPC set.
Terry was selected by Quebec from Buffalo in the 1979 expansion draft. After a brief stay he was traded to Toronto with Dave Farrish for Reg Thomas. Terry stayed with the Leafs until 1984 when he was taken in the waiver draft by Edmonton.

So by now you're asking.... if Terry was taken by Quebec in '79, and traded to Toronto shortly after.... why the heck is he in an airbrushed Buffalo sweater in this '81/82 card???

Good question.

Terry's 77/78 RC shows him in a road Buffalo sweater. His '78/79 card has the exact same image as what you see here on his 81/82 card.
He wasn't issued a card for the 79/80 or 80/81 OPC sets.

I'm assuming that because OPC never included him for two years, they didn't have rights to any photos of him, so they had to use an old image when they all of a sudden decided to insert him into their set once more.

Little by little, and then stop.

I mentioned the other day about my lost '81/82 OPC set. I'm determined to finish this one, again. i hit up a couple of dealers at the local show last weekend, but they wanted around $1 a card. Apparently, they weren't in the mood to sell. But that's okay, they own the cards, they can dream about cashing them in on a retirement plan if they want.

 

I went elsewhere. Sportlots to be precise. For .18 cents a card, I picked up 29 cards, plus two unmarked team checklists from 80/81 OPC I needed. I'd say 25 are near mint, with 5-6 ex condition.

That's the good....

 

the not so good was I also picked up 16 cards from the 92/93 Upper Deck set I need. Also at .18 cents per card. These should be .05 cents a card. But what are you going to do? All from the same seller of course. And really, John Cullen's haircut was worth the cost...

For those of you keeping track, there's still no hockey season. But, it is my wife's birthday on Friday. What that means is that I stop buying cards until after Xmas.

No hockey?

No cards?

What am I going to do?

I think that with my slow rebuild of the '81/82 OPC set, I may start blogging a card a day or so as I add them to my set.

What say you?

The Cup Overfloweth... TTM Success Dave Andreychuk

Awhile back one of my local shops was selling 8x10's for $1. I bought a stack of them for my ttm attempts. I've had a few find their way back to me.

 

Today's success - Dave Andreychuk

 

 Dave played for almost 23 seasons in the NHL, starting as a 19 year old rookie in 1982. He played 1600 regular season games and 164 playoff games before finally getting to do what you see here. Hoist the Cup.
I vividly remember watching this game as Tampa beat Calgary for their first Cup. My wife was sitting next to me wondering why everyone was talking about Andreychuk.
I told her his story... 22 years of trying. 1600 games. She thought that was pretty cool that he finally got his moment. As did I.

Dave signed that 8x10 and several cards for me via his home address.

Thanks Dave... You provided me with a memory I'll never forget.

Missing In Action

 

I may have written about this before. But if I did, it was just casual. Off the cuff. Not a great deal of certainty behind it.

 

That has changed.

 

I've been robbed.

 

Well, that may be a bit harsh. But bottom line, I'm missing some stuff. Who knows what happened.

 

Awhile ago I moved. I rounded up some of my larger friends, and they brought some of theirs. In a morning, I went from one side of the city to the other.

I'm an obsessive mover. When packing, each box gets numbered, and then put into a notebook with an inventory of it's contents. It makes unpacking SO much easier.

My wife misplaced the notebook.

It happens.

But what it did was not give me that absolute certainty of what was unpacked.

 

After all of the essentials found their new homes, it came time for the rest of the stuff. My cards being part of that.

And dang it if I swear a box of it was missing. I'd look for a certain card, or a set, a binder, and it wouldn't be there. Now, like some of you may understand, that isn't news. Sometimes I can't find a card I had 10 minutes ago.

So I didn't think too much of it at the time, although it nagged at me in the back of my mind.

 

Fast forward .....

 

Over the past little bit we've been doing some slight renovations. Painting and the like. What that has forced me to do was consolidate my cards into one room. And I've now gone through all of it. Every box. Every binder. I had no idea I had so much crap. But what I did prove is that some of it is missing.

 

And I'm quite ticked. I have no idea what happened. I do know I had the stuff at my last residence as I scanned quite a lot of it into Zistle.

 

Among the missing... a complete NRMT set of 1981-82 OPC. And a box of early '80's OPC... from '80/81 to '83/84.

 

So that means my consective run of complete OPC sets is now.... well.... non consecutive.

 

I tried putting another set together from another box, but I'm about 116 cards short. And it's now EX condition.

 

Wayne here is one of the poorer condition cards. Love that Titan stick. I had one of those. Good times.

I can't live like this. I must have my consecutive. My precious!

If any of you have any 81/82 OPC, I implore, nay beg you... help a brother out. I've put this set onto my wantlist page, but with the now gaping hole in my set run, I need to finish this.
It's funny how it didn't bother me until I realized it, and now it's all I see.

I'll put my needs here.... but it probably won't be updated except on my actual Wantlist page.

#'s 8, 30, 39, 41, 43, 46, 50, 54, 55, 56, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 69, 81, 83, 84, 85, 105, 107, 108, 110, 112, 114, 117, 118, 120, 121, 126, 127, 128, 137, 143, 149, 150, 152, 153, 157, 158, 160, 161, 163, 164, 168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 183, 187, 191, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 207, 208, 209, 210, 213, 214, 220, 221, 223, 224, 229, 230, 232, 233, 236, 270, 272, 282, 288, 290, 293, 295, 296, 297, 300, 306, 307, 308, 309, 313, 314, 317, 318, 321, 324, 325, 326, 327, 332, 336, 344, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 353, 355, 356, 375, 379, 381, 383, 385, 386, 387, 393,

2012-13 Upper Deck Hockey Pack Break Review

No hockey? Who cares? We'll just keep making cards anyways.

 

I had planned all week that today was the day I visited my local card shops. Including the one that's an hours drive. I did all my chores (the Honey-Do list) and was raring to go this morning. Until I looked outside.

18 inches of snow on my driveway, and still coming down hard. It's 5:30 pm as I write this and the snow hasn't let up yet.....

 

So no grand city tour of card shops. I snuck into the one closest to me and grabbed two packs of

the latest set, Upper Deck flagship, that was released today. The usual from what you would expect from UD. 24 packs per box, 8 cards per pack. This year we have none other than Jonathan Toews on the packaging.

But wasn't he on the packaging for OPC as well? Apparently if you aren't placing Gretzky or Crosby on your labels, you must place Toews. Out of thousands of hockey players... there are only three worthy.

 

 

Moving on to the actual cards..... They're a little bit simpler this year. I like that.

 

First card, a friggin' Leaf. Go figure.

 Less foil this year, which is a great thing. The usual full bleed photos, with both vertical and horizontal cards.

 And yes, that is wood grain you are seeing on the fronts. Wood grain! It's like sitting inside a 1972 Oldsmobile!

 There are several different insert sets to chase this year... Canvas, Exclusives, Silver Skates, MVP, Heroes, etc... but the only one I pulled was MVP.

 Not as good a design as previous years.

The photography is good again, as you would expect.

 Lars is either stretching or he just scored...

 I'm fond of shots that have the puck visible in them, like this card...

 Pack Two

I have to say, the more I look at the fronts with the simpplistic design and the wood grain... the more I like them.

 That shot of Burmistrov is rather cool...

in my second pack, I got another MVP card... so you don't get to see anyof the other inserts.

 Early nomination for card of the year... Craig Anderson. Craig is well known for his facial expressions, and this year's does not disappoint.

 Matt Cooke looking creepy as ever.... and James Reimer praying to the goalie gods for salvation from the Leafs.

 Sorry James... you're stuck there. The gods took pity on Jonas Gustavsson instead. He's in Detroit now.

The backs are pretty standard. Complete stats, both personal and game. Although the write ups on the younger players could be a bit longer to use up more of that space.

Different pictures on the back which is a must! If you don't go different, don't bother doing it.
And more wood grain!

Just going off what I see in my two packs, I give it a solid 8.5/10