Knockin' 'em down, one at a time...

That's the thing about us set collectors. We're happy going after sets, with our rumpled lists, even years after initial release. It doesn't bother us to root around in long forgotten boxes, looking for even one card that will put us ever closer to completion.

Of course when you can knock off more than one in a deal, that's all the better.

Perhaps you remember me mentioning a fellow at a card show that remarked on how I never buy from him. Well I made an effort to go to his table this time and see what he had. As luck would have it, he had 7 of the Pop Up inserts from OPC that I needed. I asked him how much, because as per usual, nothing was priced. He picked up his Beckett and after a brief moment of him frantically searching for them, stated he'd let them go for $45.

After I had regained conciousness, I politely declined and moved on to his neighbor. He had three Pop Ups at the front of his table. Again, I asked how much? (why can't people price their frakking cards???)
He said $5 for the lot.
Sold.
And both of us received dagger eyes from the dude that I never buy from.

Sir Patrick of Cup

Along with Marian the Shifty

and Jarome the Lost.

Every card gets me closer....

Then at trade night I found a guy with ten, TEN! Young Guns I needed from various years. I managed to deal for six of them... and it pained me greatly.

 

From the 08/09 set, Okposo and Boedker

and from the 09/10 set, a quartet. Letestu and Gunnarsson...

followed by Grabner and Marchand.

Having to trade for, let alone own, that last card was a painful process. I just had to focus on the number on my list. That generic little number that I got to cross off, nay, obliterate from my list.

I'm gettting closer... every day a little closer. If you can help with any of it, drop me a line.

Auto-matic Cardboard

I have some great stuff to show off from last week's trade night.

 

Do I have any of it scanned?

 

No.

 

But I do have a few cards from last Saturday's card show, so you get that instead.

 

I'm not really working on this set, which goes against my latest attempt at "only buying things from my wantlist" philosophy. However, I am always working on acquiring autos of those who represent this great country at an event held every four years that begins with "O" that I can't mention without getting a nasty letter regarding copyright from their lawyers.

 

But I'm not bitter.

 

Moving on.

 

We have Kim St-Pierre, three time gold medalist at the previously mentioned event. 2002, 2006, 2010. She holds the record for most wins (24) and most shutouts (15), as well as lowest G.A.A. (0.84)

 Interesting (maybe only to me) that during the last three "events", Canada started a different goalie in the gold medal match all three times. St-Pierre in '02, Charline Labonte in '06 and Shannon Szabados in '10.

Up next, Canadian forward Jennifer Botterill. Jennifer also won three gold medals. I wish Jen had moved her sig up half an inch.

 and the third card from the 3 for $5 box, is the second best American women's hockey player ever... Julie Chu. Julie has won two silvers and a bronze.

There you have it. Three pretty cool autographs for $5, and not one copyright infringement. If anyone has any others of these, let me know. Maybe we can swap.

Pot calling the kettle black

From the team that's been an absolute embarrassment throughout the league for the last few years.... we get this beauty from their head coach.



the team with the biggest reputation of diving in all of hockey, has the stones to come out and mouth off about other teams to "protect the sport".

Wow.

Look in your own back yard first pal... you won the Cup doing this, other teams are just following your "success model"...

Digging for two...

Finally getting around to posting some cards I acquired quite awhile ago. I think these are from the early January card show. I think.

 

What I do remember though, is that these are from a $2 box. Not exactly as sexy as a quarter or dime box.... but you deal with what you can get.

 

I picked up a couple of different Carey Price rookie cards from 2007-08. The first is from one of the ugliest OPC sets of all time. As if the base cards weren't bad enough, they made the rookie cards even worse.

 Love the early shot of the mask he used in Hamilton.

The other rookie comes from Upper Deck Victory. This one is new to me... I hadn't owned a copy until this one.

My next $2 find was from the brand new 2012-13 Artifacts. A P.K. Subban parallel numbered /85.

 I think they call it sapphire, but I really have no idea....

Not a great card, but it looks good in my Subban binder.

The last card for show and tell this week is an autograph of legendary broadcaster Dick Irvin Jr.

For those of you not in the know, think the hockey version of Vin Scully, only more knowledgeable. His father won multiple Stanley Cups as Head Coach for Montreal as well as a stint with Toronto. So young Jr was in the dressing rooms since he was 5, watching players like Maurice Richard, Toe Blake, etc...

Since I grew up listening to his voice every Saturday night from the time I was born.... I figured adding his auto to my collection was a no brainer.

because you just never know.

At the February card show, I didn't bring home too much. In fact, the show was fairly disappointing.

But since I was waiting to meet someone, I stuck around a bit longer.

It's a good thing for me that I did.

Someone was unpacking a box of miscellaneous stuff, and my eye caught a stack of OPC mirrored retros from 2010/11.

As I casually shuffled through them, I found this...

Black bordered Josh Gorges /100 AND I needed it for my team set.

I asked him how much.... he replied with; " How about $2?"

As I was fishing out my toonie, he said to me; "what's up? you never buy from me!"

I wanted to say that's because your crap is usually WAAAAAY over priced, but I was nice and said it's because he never has anything I want.

And off I went.

15 minutes later as I was wondering past his table once more.... I see even more OPC retros. So I leaf through them quickly and find this!

AND I need this one too!!! Big Hal only cost me a buck.

Sweeeet!

It just goes to show.... after not being able to find any of these for well over a year, I find TWO of them from a guy I normally never deal with.

Never give up, and always keep digging, because you never know.

Now if I could just find the rest of these that I need....... *sigh*

Freebies.

Freebies. Swag. Booty. Plunder. Loot.

It all means the same, and it's all good. Here's a quick post to show off three new additions to my collection that were given to me free of charge.

The first one arrived in the mail from a fellow blogger. This and some baseball cards came from Casey at Drop the Gloves. (we won't comment on the Messier card that was included.... yuck.)

One of the corners is dinged up pretty good.... probably from Casey throwing it across the room when he pulled it. No matter, it fits in quite well into my Odelein/Nilan binder.

Trade night at one of the local shops got me two more gifts. (Well, three, but the other one is baseball related.)
I thought about showing these off with the cards I traded for as well, but generosity deserves it's own post.
I had brought a couple of gifts myself for two collectors who I knew would be there. As fate would have it, one of them had this for me....

I learned something from it. I had always known Dave Hanson had played for the Minnesota North Stars.... but I thought that was it. I found out via reading the back of this card that Dave originally played 11 games with Detroit before being traded to Minnesota for futures. Hell if I can find what the futures turned into.
Dave played 22 games for the North Stars, scoring one goal and one assist before retiring.
For those who need to know, Dave played in the NHL for 33 games, 1G 1A and 65 PIMS. In the WHA he played 103 games with 13 goals, 40 assists and 497 PIMS.


The last card I wanted to show off today came from the same person who gave me the baseball card that I'll show off on Waxaholic at a later date.

Normally I avoid these manufactured letters..... but a gift is a gift. It now has an honoured place in my collection.

Thanks to everyone and as my pal Troll says, I love this hobby!

We hardly knew you...

 24 hours after I made my little rant about this patch SUPER MOJO SICKZ card being worth less than $2, and the reasons why....

Montreal placed Aaron on irrevocable waivers.

The Colorado Avalanche have claimed him.

41 games, 1 goal, 4 assists.

Bye Aaron.