Haiku Sunday

Went to a cardshow
Reduced my wantlists a lot
Spent too much money

Wrappers, Shinies, Pop Ups, Stickers and a Butt.

Trades have been slow lately. At least, hockey trades. That may be because of the <censored>. (No one says the "L" word around here...) But hopefully both sides will pull their collective heads out their collective posteriors, and we'll all have hockey soon.

 

But again, I digress.

 

This is about cards. Pure, sweet, cards. Money can't spoil cards away from us, can it? ( wait, a pack of Cup is HOW MUCH?)

 

*ahem*.... moving on.

 

My buddy Justin from The Hopeful Chase sent me an envelope, and it arrived today. Inside was a couple of fistfuls of empty OPC wrappers.

 

For those of you who don't know, OPC has a thing this year that if you send in your wrappers, they'll give you cards. The ultimate in recycling. And if you know us hockey set collectors (the only beings who even look at OPC, you know we're cheap bastards. So free cards for wrappers was sure genius on Upper Deck's part.)

The catch? Only for those in the frozen North. So Justin, from Tampa via Chicago, does not qualify. No mathematical skill testing question for you.

So short story long, he sent me his wrappers. Hopefully I get a Vinny or Marty for him.

 

In amongst those wrappers were 8 cards. Four hockey, four baseball. Symmetry.

 

A very shiny Carey Price.

 Another shiny, yet black bordered Raphael Diaz #/100

 and two of the new "Pop Ups" insert set....
Pernell and....

 some dude named Beliveau.

 now in case you haven't heard my rants about this set.... some of you may be rolling your eyes about now.... I loved everything about this year's OPC... and it's been good to me. We complete each other.

And I was totally stoked (do the kids still say stoked?) about this Pop Up set.

Until I saw one in person.

They don't pop up.

That's right.... the Pop Ups don't pop up.

They don't pop at all.

they're just die cut cards with the words Pop Ups emblazoned on them.

WTF???

Major let down. But I still want them. It's a sickness. Most of you will understand.

I'll also use this post to show a couple of related cards....

First, a nonpopping Pop Up of Roberto Luongo.

 a sticker of my favourite Pernell.

 and another Panini shot of Carey Price's butt. thanks Panini.

Two of those came in a swap and the other was bought for .50 cents at a card shop.

I'll let you lay awake tonight pondering which was which.

Joy of a completed page... insert set... set.

Think back to last October. I know most of you can do it. Those of you in college, it's okay. I was there once myself. Don't strain yourself.

 

Anyways, last October I did a box break review here on the brand new 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions. If you missed it, click on that link to take you there.

Since then there have been a few posts as I add to my set, slowly knocking cards off of my wantlist. First the base set, the colour renditions, then the wire photos, followed by the mini's. Last to fall was the black and white renditions.

 

Behold.

 

The last card has fallen.

 

As I promised, the set has been tamed. It has been acquired, scanned, paged and binderized. Yes, those are all words. Remember? I was in college once. 

 

I've been after this one card for about three months. turns out, a good friend had it the whole time. Apparently I must constantly remind (read:inundate) my good friends to peruse my wantlist pages more often.

 

Also, it was requested that once I finish this magnificant set, to post it for all to see.

 

I am a man of my word.

 

Bask now, in all it's gloriousness. (that's a word too... quit doubting me.)

 

 

Card #1 is Gretzky. He is also card #99. Why two cards? Who knows? Maybe Upper Deck didn't sign enough players? 

I never liked Mikita as a kid because of that bucket he wore. Seriously. That's a toilet bowl if I ever saw one.
Great player though.

They call this "Champions". Although I'm not sure what some of these players are Champions of....

Sittler and Borje. Hard to believe Sittler was the first Leaf to break 100 points.

Old school. Jets, Whalers and North Stars...

a couple of great fibreglass masks.... Rogie and Plante in the background.

What in the hell did Richard Brodeur win? And the only thing Terry O'Reilly was a Champion of was an ugly contest.

Tony Twist? Really? Nice to see Thomas Steen though... he doesn't get enough hobby love.

just what we need, a few more Sutters....

Courtnall... man could he skate. Sorry Toronto...... heh....

Willi Plett ... rookie of the year.

Card #100, You may call him Sir. Followed by the start of the Wire Photo inserts.

I love these cards.... great idea.

These cards alone made me want to chase the set.

Most of the ones with multiple players were not just short prints, but super short prints.

Now we're into the colour Renditions. The art on most of these is pretty good.

After that we get into the black and white Renditions. Even more rare. Or is that rarer?

There's Bobby nestled in where he belongs......

Finally, the mini insert set. 57 of them. Why 57? I have no idea.

Not everyone in the mini set had a base card. If they did, they are featured in a different uniform.

Check out the lid on Eddie Shore....

All of the ones on this page were uber short prints.

and there you have it. Those of you still awake, I thank you. And if you think you have anything to trade me, check out my wantlist link on the right hand side........... unlike certain friends who don't bother.

O-Pee-Chee loves me....

 

You of course all remember my 2012-13 OPC Hockey box break review in which I pulled not one, but two patches that are seeded roughly one in 3 boxes.

 

Well, I just happened to be by a card shop the other day, and I decided to buy, among other things, four more packs of this year's OPC as I'm still working on the base and retro sets.

 

I picked up a couple of legends and a rookie, so 3 SP's in four packs wasn't too bad........... and then in pack three I found this.

 

 whoa.

This surprise, unannounced insert set consists of 36 cards and are found at a rate of 1:960 packs.
Or, 1 in 30 boxes, which is 2 1/2 cases.
The chances of pulling a Brett Hull is 1:34560 packs.

That's a lot of packs.

The cards are 2/3 the size of regular cards, and the auto is a facsimile.

My apologies for the crappy scan. Due to the white borders it won't scan, and I can't crop out the dark background I used due to the deckel edge.


EDIT: Just for Casey, the checklist....

1	Alexander Ovechkin
2	Alexandre Burrows
3	Antti Niemi
4	Bobby Orr
5	Brett Hull
6	Carey Price
7	Claude Giroux
8	Curtis Joseph
9	Daniel Alfredsson
10	Drew Doughty
11	Eric Lindros
12	Erik Karlsson
13	Henrik Lundqvist
14	Ilya Kovalchuk
15	Jaromir Jagr
16	Jason Spezza
17	Joe Sakic
18	John Tavares
19	Jonathan Toews
20	Jordan Eberle
21	Mario Lemieux
22	Martin Brodeur
23	MilanLucic
24	Nicklas Lidstrom
25	Ondrej Pavelec
26	P.K. Subban
27	Patrick Roy
28	Patrick Sharp
29	Pavel Datsyuk
30	Pelle Lindbergh
31	Roberto Luongo
32	Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
33	Sidney Crosby
34	Teemu Selanne
35	Wayne Gretzky
36	Wendel Clark

TTM Success! Richard "Dickie" Moore...

Back in late May or early June I went to a few card shows (including one in Edmonton) with the specific purpose of finding a vintage card of Dickie Moore. (two time Art Ross trophy winner as leagues top scorer, and six time Stanley Cup winner.) I needed one to send out for an autograph request. I found a couple of beauties, but they were too expensive and too nice to risk on an auto.

 

Then I found a guy who had no display cases, but rather piles of stuff. binders, photo albums, shoe boxes, etc... all of it with older odds and ends inside. I inquired about Dickie Moore cards and he went to digging. He found one, again, too nice... he asked why I didn't like that condition, and I explained. His eyes lit up and he told me he had just what I was after.... two piles over near the bottom he unearthed a binder and went straight to the back where he pulled out this.

 

PERFECT! How much? 5 bucks he said... I offered $3, and he took it. Brilliant. A 1960-61 Parkhurst Dickie Moore for $3.

 

It now looks like this.....

 Mr Moore also signed an 8x10 of him in action....

 as well as a "Tall Boy" card of him when he went slumming to Toronto.

Mr Moore was also kind enough to send a hand written letter back thanking me for my letter.

A real class act.

Now..... who can identify the other two players in the 8x10 with Dickie Moore?

Bye bye Wayne.

Trade night at one of the local card shops was this past Thursday night. It was a great night of trading. It helps that there was new product out recently, and the first card show of the season is coming up Saturday.

 

About 18-20 people were there to join in the fun. Well, except a couple of times when the baseball/football guys challenged the hockey guys to step outside... and when the debate arose over who were the top QB's in the NFL.

 

I admit, I was in that last one.

 

Good times. Wouldn't have it any other way. Right Jamie?

 

Anyways, you came here to see the goods. Like I said, it was a very busy night of trading. So I'll feature just one of my trades in this post. But no worries, it was a doozy.

 

Remember my 2012-13 OPC Hockey box break review? I pulled this little beauty....

 

 I've had quite a few offers on it.... and decided to send it packing this trade night. What'd I get in return?

a PK Subban ICE insert... this year ICE is randomly inserted in Upper Deck products. Or at least it seems that way.

 a couple of limited cards out of UD SPx....an all time great, and a Whaler.

 now the 'hits'.... from last year's Ultimate, an auto of former Montreal great, Jaroslav Halak.

 and this year's Ultimate... 70's sniper Reggie Leach and another stopper, Tomas Vokoun.

 I like last year's efforts a lot better.

A game used jersey and stick from the previously mentioned Whaler. Too bad the swatch wasn't green.

 One of the upcoming young hopes for Montreal. First round pick, Louis Leblanc rookie jersey/auto.

 again, too bad about the sticker auto. Still, I'll take it.

and the final card in my patch ransom....... maybe you've heard of him.

that's right. PIT R 27. or maybe he means Patrick Roy 33? We'll go with the latter.

I love trading away cards that mean nothing to me and getting stuff in return that does. I love this hobby.

The rest of trade night in my next post..... or maybe the one after.

Still fresh in our memories....

The original story, as I wrote it, is HERE.

Byron McCrimmon, the father of Brad McCrimmon, the coach and former NHL defenceman who perished in the crash, accepted an invitation to travel to Yaroslavl from Hockey Canada. It was an opportunity for him in his words, "to gain closure."

He toured the crash site, the cemetery where 14 members of the Lokomotiv team are buried. As well as the arena where they play, his son's former office, and the trophy case. A case where a trophy sits in his son's name.

While on tour, a woman came up to him and asked if she could give him something. It was a silver whistle. His son's whistle, rescued from the banks of the river where the plane went down.

Byron gave that whistle to his grandson, Brad's oldest son Liam, 15.

Tragedies like this thankfully only come around once a lifetime. But it's scarcity should not lesson our memories.


R.I.P.

players and coaches

Vitaly Anikeyenko
Mikhail Balandin
Gennady Churilov
Pavol Demitra
Robert Dietrich
Alexander Galimov
Marat Kalimulin
Alexander Kalyanin
Alexander Karpovtsev
Andrei Kiryukhin
Nikita Klyukin
Igor Korolev
Stefan Liv
Brad McCrimmon
Jan Marek
Sergei Ostapchuk
Karel Rachunek
Ruslan Salei
Maxim Shuvalov
Karlis Skrastins
Pavel Snurnitsyn
Daniil Sobchenko
Ivan Tkachenko
Pavel Trakhanov
Yuri Urychev
Josef Vasicek
Alexander Vasyunov
Alexander Vyukhin
Artem Yarchuk

Team staff

Yuri Bakhvalov
Aleksandr Belyaev
Nikolai Krivonosov
Yevgeni Kunnov
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Vladimir Piskunov
Yevgeni Sidorov
 Andrei Zimin

Flight crew

Nadezhda Maksumova
Vladimir Matyushin
Elena Sarmatova
Elena Shavina
Andrei Solomentsev
Igor Zhivelov
Sergei Zhuravlev


You will never be forgotten.