It's a Festivus miracle!

I went to one of the local card shop's trade night this past Wednesday evening. I try to go every month, it's a good time.

 

But I have to say... perhaps a new name is needed. "Trade" night doesn't quite fit. I haven't made a trade in 7 or 8 months there.

Unless you have a brand new released 17 colour game used patch rookie autograph numbered to under /3, there is no way you'll ever trade.

 

I exaggerate, but only a little. Forget player collecting or even team set collecting.

 

And set collecting? Trading base cards? Or even the base inserts? HA! Not a chance. You may as well be Snipe hunting.

 

But then it happened... there were a few new faces this month. And they haven't quite yet got the memo about "the minimum standard."

 

So there were trades to be had! And trade I did.

 

Here are some of my new acquisitions. See if you can spot the theme. There may be a prize.*

 

*(not bloody likely)

 

a 2013-14 Titanium Carey Price jersey card

 

a 2010-11 Certified Carey Price DUAL jersey card #/150

a 2010-11 Certified Masked Marvels DUAL jersey card #/99

a 2013-14 Upper Deck Series One Clear Cut Stoppers insert of Carey Price #/100

a 2013-14 Upper Deck Team Canada Carey Price Exclusive parallel #/100

a 2013-14 Totally Certified Carey Price base

a 2013-14 Upper Deck SPx 96/97 Carey Price die cut insert (remember these from back then?)

the 2013-14 Upper Deck SPx Carey Price base

a 2013-14 Upper Deck ICE Carey Price (only found in a bonus pack from boxes of SPx)

a 2013-14 Panini Carey Price somethingorother from some set... I have no idea...

and now for something, completely different...

a 2013-14 Absolute P.K. Subban

...one of these things is not like the other.....

definitely the most productive trade night in a very long time. It was nice to scratch every one of those cards off of my want list.

Show me the money...

As the Canadiens embark on a one game road trip to Carolina before the Olympic break, they decided on "Ugly Suit Day".

 

Here Brandon Prust and P.K. Subban lead the way.

Coincidently, that's how P.K. will look once he signs his contract extension soon.

Hey, 8 mil a year doesn't buy what it used to.....

Kraft dinner!

my first Check Out My Cards order arrived a couple of weeks ago. 113 cards. Of which, 8 were of the hockey variety.

Only 8? Yeah... hockey cards are just a wee overpriced on comc. Must be a lot of Calgary sellers on there or something. Maybe they think it's an online showroom or something...

 

Anyways,

 

I picked up one card to go towards one of my sets, the other seven cards went into my player collections.

 

The first card I went for after attending our hopefully annual huge card show here in Big C. The seller had a graded 10 copy of it, and also a hefty $30 price tag.

 

I grabbed a mint, sharp cornered, well centered version for $0.35 cents. It's a 1986 Kraft Dinner card of Chris Nilan.

 

 I like mine better.

For Knuckles, I also obtained a 1991-92 Stadium Club for $0.60....

 and a snazzy 91-92 Bowman for $0.50

 Keep in mind I would never pay these prices in person, but on comc I sell crap I don't want dirt cheap, then use that to purchase cards I do. So I don't mind paying a little more.... a little.

Sticking with the same theme.... I got four cards of Lyle Odelein as well.

A gold parallel from 1994-95 Parkhurst SE for $0.63

and a copper parallel from 2000-01 Paramount for $0.70

Jersey card alert! 2000-01 Titanium Draft Day for $1.25. I can't believe how thin this thing is...

and an on card auto from 1995-96 Be A Pplayer for $1.25 as well.

a single card of Carey Price that no one around here would ever trade me. From last year's Fleer Retro set, the metal parallel for $1.00 It doesn't scan very well...

and finally a mask insert for the 2013 ITG:BTP mask subset.for another $1.00.
I'm slowly building this set... these are hard to find at realistic prices.

So there they are... I had fun shopping for them. And they all look fantastic in their respective binders.

This is what's wrong with card companies .....

Today, Sunday, January 19th, 2014 at 3:01 pm MST I received the following email from Upper Deck.


You just can't make this stuff up.


Oh, Upper Deck? If this is one of my posts that you randomly read.... I'm available for part time hire. Email me, we'll chat.

maybe a bit premature, but.....

Caving In at the Card Show

The monthly card show was last weekend. It wasn't a great show to be sure. Being just before Xmas, I wasn't even going to go because I wasn't going to spend any $$$, saving that because of being Santa's proxy.

But I decided to go and wish a Merry Ho Ho to a few people that I don't see a lot of the time other than at card centric functions.

 

Got that? Go, say hi, do NOT spend money.

 

You're snickering right now.... I can hear it....

 

Okay, you're right, I did spend a little, but it's NOT MY FAULT!.

 

Let me explain.

 

A new product came out last week, Upper Deck's Team Canada. It's a sweet product. Right in my wheelhouse as it were. If it's Team Canada, it's me. I am Captain Canuck after all....

But, it is also Xmas. So no wax cracking for me. This will continue into January because, well Boxing week shopping is almost as bad.

 

But as I walk into the show, a buddy of mine that sets up there every month pulls out a small stack of cards and hands them to me.

He had busted a bunch of Team Canada, and had pulled some cards for me.

 

Now how can I tell him to pack sand when he went through all that trouble??? How rude!

 

So I flip through the cards and ask him how much? He explains them to me so I know what I'm purchasing... I call this "softening me up for the big hit", but it wasn't that bad.

 

The first few base cards (5 in all) he gave to me free if I bought the other three cards. Done. He always gives me a good deal.

 

The base are really nice. My only issue is there are no stats, only a write up on the back.

 

 Love this Team Canada uni....  classic.

 Now the cards I had to actually pay for. I spent $5 for these three. (see? Not so bad?)

Apparently this Gallagher Program of Excellence is a super duper ultra rare Snuffleupagus short print. Nabbed it for $3.

 Then two inserts from the Special Edition set.
Carey Price

 and Brendan Gallagher again. Each for $1.

 I also grabbed the P.K. Subban from this insert set from one of the local card shops for another $1.


So okay. Spending $5 wasn't that bad. But then I found out that another seller had updated his dollar box.

Crap.

Okay, a quick look, no harm in that, right?

More snickering. Yeah.... another $5 disappeared.

First up, a black bordered Lars Eller from Victory. Again, apparently these are hard to pull. For a buck he goes in my Lars Eller binder.

Yes, I have a Lars Eller binder. Don't judge me.

A rookie jersey card of Raffy Diaz.

 I couldn't leave Raffy behind. He looks so sad....

An on card auto of then Leafs 'tender, Jonas Gustavsson. I really like that particular year's Private Signings. Panini doesn't do much of anything right, so when they do, I have to give them props.

Jonas is looking into your soul........

A rookie double swatch of Louis Leblanc. Last year this was around $40. Now, a buck.

I tried to explain to people last year, but no one listens.... Anyways, for a card out of /125 and he's in his Team Canada gear, I'll take it.

And finally a card that is just flat out awesome.

Josh Gorges from Limited. The seam is so thick it's busting out of the card. It's like an ITG product, except for the Limited logo in the corner. And it's /49 too. A really clean design and a great swatch.


So fine. I caved and spent $10. What are you going to do? Kick me out of the union? Ha! You've all done it. You were hoping I did it too... that's why you're here reading this drivel.

Thanks for that, by the way....

I went to a card show and what did I buy?

if you've been following along on Waxaholic, (and if not, what the hell man?) you've seen the true vintage baseball that I picked up at the last show. A 1940 Play Ball and two 1956 Topps... so the question is, did I grab any vintage hockey as well?

 

And the answer is..... no.

 

I could've. But the player selection vs the cost ratio was imbalanced. So I satisfied myself with baseball, and went new on the hockey.

 

At the time is was very unsatisfying to look through all the shiny multi coloured patch autos fresh from their bright wrappers after being around real baseball cards.

But looking back on it now, I like what I got. So I'm pleased with the overall experience.

 

Here's what I grabbed. No real rhyme or reason to it... just cards of players from my team. I don't know why I brought my want lists to this show... no one had any boxes to dig through.

 

An oversized box topper rookie MVP of Alex Galchenyuk. $3.

 

And his regular sized friend. $2.

My first Young Gun of the brand new Upper Deck offering. This one of defenceman Nathan Beaulieu. $2

And a freebie! I got all four of these cards from the same guy, this Alex was thrown in for free. Yay free!

Another freebie! Blogger put these out of order, but this auto was thrown in for free with the purchase of the next card which is....

A cool insert of Carey Price for $3.

I don't normally go for the patch auto stuff.... but for $4 I'll take a chance on Mr Dumont. By the way... nice sig. Is that french, English, or douche? But for $4, what do you expect?

My most expensive card of the lot, a $5 insert of Jarred Tinordi. It's shiny, it's purple.

My wife really likes that one.


So not exactly the same provenance as the baseball, but I had fun with it. And they look good in my player binders.
I just wish I knew if that purple one was rare or not so I know if I got stiffed.

I think I got stiffed.