It's good to have friends looking out for you...

that post title is not only true in life, but in the card world as well. (Yes, there IS a difference. Acquiring cards is NOT an important factor of a good life. It's just one of the perks)

 

My wife and I  were out driving to the opposite side of the city last Saturday (my wife wanted a milkshake from a particular place located about 45 minutes from our house. What my wife wants.... she gets.) when I received a text message from our friend bamlinden from My Hockey Card Obsession.

 

He was at our local monthly card show and was asking what card numbers I needed to complete the 2013 In The Game Masked Men 5 insert set. We both love the goalie mask cards long time.

Being where I was doing what I was doing, I couldn't answer. But I told him I'd get back to him later.

 

Fast forward to late afternoon on Sunday, and I get another text message. He managed to grab a "couple" of cards for me.

 

A couple = thirteen, by the way.

 

 

Here they are, in glorious pinky-red refractory shiny goodness. After this, I only need three more to finish off my 50 card set.

 

The Eagle!

 

for some reason, Fleury is both card #9 AND #10 in this set. Two different masks, but still....

one of the least deserving members of the Hall of Fame. Grant Fuhr? Really???

Grattoony the Looney!

Speaking of looney...

CUJO! WOOFWOOFWOOFWOOF!

Olie the goalie.

One of my faves, Denis Herron

Bobby Lou in a retro turned current mask. How's the weather down there?

Kirk McLean. I got nuthin'.

Never liked this guy. Too bad I missed his final year which was with the Habs.

Speaking of never liked..

and finally, Damian Rhodes! Um.... yeah.

 

 

Thanks Brett! A great swap for sure. First time I've ever traded food for cards, but whatever works.

Now does anyone have Brian Hayward, Arturs Irbe or Jonathan Quick???

Who are those Masked Men?

There was a trade night at one of the local shops last night. Not a lot of trading due to the lack of new product... as I've said, a lot of collectors around here don't recognize or want cards more than 3 weeks old.
I need to write a book called "The Life, Trials and Tribulations of a Set Collector." Woe is me.

Anyways... despite the lack of trading, I did make a purchase.

The shop had 9 of the 2013 Masked Men inserts from In the Game's Between the Pipes.

I scooped up all 9, plus an autograph, for $20. That's $2 per card for you English majors.

Let's gawk at the shiny goodness.

Gary 'The Cobra" Simmons. LOVE IT!

Dan Bouchard. I wish ITG could find a pic of Bouchard's teammate Yves Belanger. Another awesome mask. A huge replica hangs on the side of the Saddledome here in Big C.

Gerry Cheevers. His mask necessitates inclusion in every mask set, every year. Or so it seems.

Marc-Andre Fleury. Again we see the ITG card on the side of his mask.

Domink Hasek. The Dominator... this time with Ottawa.

Jimmy Howard. Nice Mustang Jimmy.

Manny Legace. Wait. Manny Legace???

Gilles Meloche. One of my all time faves.

and Semyon Varlamov. I wonder if he misses Washington?

the final card to round out the purchase was this auto of Oilers goalie, Eddie Mio.

Eddie came over to the Oil in the Gretzky swap. He was also Wayne's BFF and best man at his wedding.


Thanks for looking... I now have 12 of the 50 Masked Men 5 insert set. If you have any to help me out, let me know. I'm always looking to swap.

2012-13 In the Game Between the Pipes box break review... with pictures!

It's everybody's favourite day, release date for In the Game's Between the Pipes.

What? It's not your favourite day? Well, it should be. Plus, it's Thursday, so only one more day until the weekend.

This year's box artwork borders on epic.

Alright, forget the borders... it is epic. Look at those masks!

Unfortunately, in my box, I didn't get any cards with any of theose masks on them. Is it my bad luck, or are they not in the set?
Hopefully, it's my bad luck. I have no other kind.

This product has a 200 card base set. Like past issues, the first section is for the CHL Prospects.

These aren't really the focus of the set. At least, in the buyer's eye. At past Cross Canada Redemption Tour* rip parties, collectors basically ignored these cards save for putting together their base sets. They're fun to look back on after a draft or two to see where they end up.... but that's about it.
Nice, colourful photos with colour matching borders... a slight peek into the background, but not too much. A little busy on the full page, but individually, each card really pops.

*Cross Canada Redemption Tours are when certain card shops host a BTP box breaking frenzy where you can redeem your box tops for special 1/1 BTP cards. There's another one coming up here in Calgary on May 11th. To check out if your area has one coming, go to ITG's website. LINK

The next section is for our current favourites. What I like about these is that for the most part, all of the Stars have their current mask on display. No old photography from last year etc... found here.

Everyone you'd expect to be here is here, except for Marty Brodeur. Licencing issues rear their ugly head into our hobby once more. But I think once he retires in a year or so, Marty will be back in ITG.

I'll show off this particular card on it's own.... Marc-Andre Fleury's current mask, complete with a rendition of last year's ITG BTP card of himself on the side. Hockey cards featuring masks featured ON a mask!

Nice!

Then, my favourite part of the set. The Decades section... featuring goalies from past decades...

Some really great shots on some of these...

some of the pics are a wee blurry, but trying to track down quality photos for some of these is next to impossible.

The last part of the base set is devoted to record breakers and International Stars.

a few random cards to give you the feel of it...

although I would not call Grant Fuhr an international star..... talk about getting the job because of who you know, and not on your abilities.... wow.
Other than that, some great names from International competition. Again, an obvious name missing from the checklist is Ken Dryden. But Mr Dryden isn't about to sign with any card company. Just not his thing.

Another cool part is the older Decades cards... guys from the 30's and 40's.

Some of you may recognize some of the names. For those that you don't, read the cards! Hop on to google and type in their names. The stories you find are fascinating. These guys built the game we all love. If it weren't for them, we'd all be watching cricket right now.
So give them some love and appreciation.

For you hit chasers, autographs are found 1:7 packs. With 18 packs per box, you'll get two. With four of every seven boxes getting an extra.

Mine weren't overly thrilling.... with young Etienne here in dire need of some penmanship lessons.

I hope card companies put clauses into their autograph contracts about lousy autos. The dude's sweater number takes up more room than his name.

Next we have current Dallas Stars starter, Kari Lehtonen.

I have no idea how you get Kari, or Lehtonen out of that.... but at least it takes up the space.

Relic cards are 1:8 packs. So every other box will get a third.

I got a nice dual of Jordan Binnington and Curtis Joseph. Cujo is retired now and Jordan was drafted by St Louis in 2011.

my other relic was from the Big League Debut subset, featuring Tim Cheveldae.

Did you know Tim led the NHL in wins in 1991-92 with 38? And he was second in wins over the years 1990-1993. He also played in the '92 All Star Game.

While I didn't get any of the really cool hits available in BTP ( I never do), I was lucky enough to get a three auto box.... and a really sweet third auto it was.

Gary Inness. Awesome. Mr Inness is a principal for a school in Ontario right now. I wrote him a year or two back for an auto and got a really nice letter back from him.

Also this year is the return of the Decoy/Puzzle pieces. These should be fun to build again this year.
He's 1/3 of Bernie Parent.

But I know some of you are screaming, "What about the MASKS!??!?!"

Okay... you've waited long enough. Found at 3 per box, here are the three I was lucky enough to get.

Cory Crawford (almost called him Carl)

These are awesome. Flat out Epic. Waaaaaay better in person than scanned.

Mike Palmateer... I normally trade away any silver of gold versions I get of these.... but having seen a gold one in person, I must acquire one or two for myself. They are very impressive this year.

Oh. Have you met Rogie?

Rogie, say hi to everyone.

Effing sweet. They really upped their game with the 10th anniversary diecuts last year. Since a diecut 11 wouldn't work well, I really like what they've done.

Looks like I'm chasing this set of 50 again this year.

I still need 4 more for last year.... *sigh*....

2011-12 ITG Between the Pipes Cross Canada Tour

It's that time of year again... playoff hockey and In The Game's Between The Pipes. Glorious.
If you're not a fan of goalies.... stop reading now and head over to Crocheting for Beginners. For the rest of you, prepare for a visual feast.

In The Game has what they call their 'Cross Canada Tour' every year where at select card shops on certain days, a party is held based around opening boxes of cards. Count me in.
This year's party at Maple Leaf Sports was held yesterday.
But you don't care about that, you want to see the cards.........

To be honest, BTP has been lacking the last year or two.... suffering from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" curse. Well this year, ITG stepped it up. They improved a product that was already top notch, and didn't wreck it. Hard to do these days.

First up, the base set. This year consisting of 200 cards, divided into sections.
Future Stars - Cards 1 - 63

Featuring some undrafted minor league players like Malcolm Subban (projected 2012 1st round draft pick) or young stars in the NHL already like playoff hero, Braden Holtby of the Washington Capitals.
Completed page!

Next up are the Stars of the Game, Cards 64 - 99

The stars you expect are all here, save for one, Martin Brodeur. Ah the lovely licensing issues rear their ugly head once more. Hopefully Marty will return soon.

Completed page! (it seems a concious effort by ITG to use photos whenever possible that contain both the mask, and the players face. Pure conjecture by me, but I like it.)

Then we have Decades, featuring goalies from the past. Cards 100 -154
 I had to be careful not to show off all of the '70's masks.... my personal fave.

You don't usually see the Eagle's Black mask......

I love that Meloche mask, one of my all time faves....

I believe Peeters still has the record for the longest undefeated streak. And there's friend of the blog, Gary Simmons, the Cobra!
Completed page!

Very cool to see, and kudos to ITG getting Jim Carey back into the hobby once again. Jim has been rather reclusive since retiring from pro hockey, shying away from his past. Even as far as pretending he's not himself when asked for autographs by fans. Welcome back Jim!

In a nod to our warm weather south of the border breatherin, Stars and Stripes. Cards 155 - 169

That mask must weigh 12 pounds.

Completed page!

and to further alienate Canadians, we have another section of foreigners called La Belle Province.
(kidding. kind of.) Cards 170 - 189

another completed page.

The last section of the base set features the real unsung heroes of hockey. Goalies who played for brand new expansion teams, as well as International Pioneers. Cards 190 - 200

Can you tell Wayne never wore a mask?
And Vladimir Dzurilla, one of the best goalies in the history of hockey. too bad he never got the exposure over here that say, Vladislav Tretiak did.

Last page!

I love, love, love the set this year. From the new sub sections to the styling and design, especially the use of more vibrant colours. Well done.
Of course, I wouldn't be a collector nowadays without bitching... so if I had to come up with something I didn't like about it, it would have to be that with 3 boxes (432 cards), I'm still 13 cards short of a 200 card set. I have four cards of a lot of the players, but still missing 13. Not cool. Someone's algorithm needs adjusting.
(BTW, I want to thank Jay for giving me two boxes worth of base cards, as he was just chasing 'hits.')

Speaking of hits. Let's get to what I got in my box.

It's ITG BTP's 10th anniversary this year, so you'll see that theme pop up in several areas. Like this 10th anniversary insert set.
I ended up with Jimmy Howard, Turk Broda and Carey Price.

A perennial favourite, the Masked Men insert set. Again, this year celebrates 10 years by die-cutting the ruby base insert. And again my new useless part time scanner insists on cutting off part of the die-cut.

I am all in collecting this set... and managed to acquire quite a few from others yesterday. I'll show those off in another post. (I'm now at 25/50)
As always, these Masked Men also come in Silver ( /90 copies) and Gold ( /10 copies)
These are not die-cut like the base Ruby version. As my friend bamlinden said, finally something for the little guy.
I pulled a Gold version of Jonathan Quick. Cool. I know a Quick collector. She'll be happy.

There are several subsets of autographs to pull.... Autos are inserted at 1:8 packs with 18 packs per box.
I ended up with three autos.
First, Seth Martin. Approaching Epic on the Coolness Scale. Seth was the St Louis Blues very first goalie. (teamed with Glenn Hall)

I also pulled a Short Print, a Stars and Stripes auto of Jason Bacashihua. Jason was a 1st round pick in 2001 by Dallas. He has belonged to, in order, the Stars, Blues, Avalanche, Capitals, Avalanche again, and now the Flyers. His only NHL action was 38 games in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 seasons with St Louis.
Blues hot box!

I also got a base auto of prospect Drew Owsley. (The Blues need to draft him....)
I honestly had to check online to see if ITG had made a mistake, or if that really was Drew's signature. Sadly, it is his signature. Card companies need to start holding these guys to a minimum standard. Or at least minimum letters. Something.

Relic cards are found at the same ratio as autos, 1:8 packs.

I pulled this Tomas Vokoun double relic card limited to /40 copies.

I'll go out of order here a bit to show off another card. At these 'Cross Canada Tour' stops, when you bust open a box of ITG's specified product, you get a special relic card that is 1/1
I got........
yeah, Tomas Vokoun. He follows me.

You can see on the back where and when I got the card.

In each pack of ITG products, there's always a decoy card. (Damn pack searchers!) They used to have fun with them by putting the logos of CHL, OHL, and WHL teams on them... people like myself collected them for fun. (each decoy card is also worth 1 'point.' You can save up these points and cash 200 of them in for a special relic card from ITG in a specified time period)

Then, the fun stopped. For a few years it was just plain, bland '1 point' cards.
This year, the fun is back!

Puzzles!!!
11 of them to be exact....

Carey Price, Patrick Roy, Gerry Cheevers, Jacques Plante, Georges Vezina, Johnny Bower, Henrik Lundqvist, Roberto luongo, Curtis Joseph, Tony Esposito and Terry Sawchuk.
I managed to finish off Price, Roy and Cheevers while I was there by swapping/begging, and dumpster diving.
The others are....... still in progress.

A nice idea!

Oh, I forgot about my other relic card out of my box.............

Vladislav Tretiak Countrymen Gold numbered /10. And peeps, that leather pad is awesome. I don't know if the Soviets used deerskin like us Canucks... maybe it's caribou or Yeti.... I don't care. It's fantastic.

So a special thanks to ITG for the Tour and the product, and to Darren at Maple Leaf Sports for his usual great hosting efforts.

If you're in Canada or the U.S.A, check out ITG's website for details on the Cross Canada Tour and the Collecting in the U.S.A. Tour.