Monday, November 30, 2009

Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey Pack 1 (Hobby)

Upper Deck's base hockey set has been one of my favorites the last two seasons in a row, so I knew I would pick some 2009-10 Series 1 up at some point. I was at the hobby shop yesterday and he had 8 packs left, so I grabbed them all for $24. 8 cards per pack, here's the first pack:

#189 - Mikko Koivu - Minnesota Wild - I swear I pull cards of this guy all the time, including just yesterday in my pack of Artifacts.

#45 - Sergei Gonchar - Pittsburgh Penguins - Not the greatest shot ever...

#112 - Dustin Byfuglien - Chicago Blackhawks - Now that's a nice card! This photo is from last year's Winter Classic game if I'm not mistaken. You can see the patch on Dustin's jersey and the Wrigley brick in the background. It's been a while but I seem to recall whatever network did last year's Winter Classic hosting this contest where you had to spot the player without the Reebok patch above his number on the back of his jersey. I think the player was Dustin Byfuglien.

#96 - Brooks Laich - Washington Capitals - A guy who has become somewhat of a fan favorite in Washington from what I can tell. He's having a great year with 22 points in 26 games. In fact, he's gotten steadily better in each of his 3 NHL seasons.

#TG2 - Zach Parise - New Jersey Devils - Top Guns - I'm not impressed with this Top Guns insert set at all. Couldn't you have at least gone with a foil logo Upper Deck? This looks like an insert I would expect in a retail pack, not hobby.

#62 - Doug Weight - New York Islanders - I have to say that I really like the look of these cards. Extremely similar to the Upper Deck baseball set from 2009, but there's one key difference that I think makes the hockey cards look significantly better. In the baseball release the bar across the bottom of the card where the player's position is noted was one color for all cards, a beige color. In the hockey release this bar is always a team color from the player depicted. It's also see-through in the hockey release, where it was solid in the baseball set. These changes make a huge difference in my opinion, for the better.

#12 - Nathan Gerbe - Buffalo Sabres - This guy is pretty well known around where I live. He was a star at Boston College, was drafted by the Sabres and was called up for his first NHL action last year. Gerbe recorded 1 assist in 10 games, and has yet to see NHL action in 2009-10.

#54 - David Clarkson - New Jersey Devils - Interesting shot to end the pack. I like the little Devils logos on the seats behind the glass.

Even though this wasn't the world's best pack, I think these cards look great, which is what I've come to expect from Upper Deck just about every year. I was wavering about whether or not to pick up a hobby box of this stuff, now I think I'm gonna have to go for it. I've only ripped one other pack so far, and it was definitely better than this one. I'll be posting that one soon...

Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey (Retail)

Literally within minutes of me scanning these cards in today, Sal over at Puck Junk posted a pack rip of the same Artifacts retail pack from Target. As you can see, he was not impressed. Neither was I...

#35 - Jason Arnott - Nashville Predators - Boring. These are way too strange, the columns make absolutely no sense.

#44 - Dany Heatley - Ottawa Senators - Dany Heatley traded to Sharks: September 10th. Upper Deck Artifacts released: October 27th.

#49 - Patrik Elias - New Jersey Devils - John this is yours if you want it...

#96 - Mikko Koivu - Minnesota Wild - The Wild's first permanent captain in franchise history.

#95 - Andrew Cogliano - Edmonton Oilers - I'll admit it, I know virtually nothing about this guy.

Let's face it, these cards are not all that exciting. I won't be buying any more of these, especially given that there's not a Krejci card in the set. About the only saving grace is that I was expecting to pay $2.99 for this and it rang up at $1.59. Not sure if that was a sale or clerical error.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Pack Rip - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey (Retail)

I probably won't be spending any money on cards until after the holidays, so I'm going to try to survive off of the small stash of packs in my card closet for the time being. I'll be posting quite a few pack rips in the next few weeks. I'm going to start off with a retail pack of 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee hockey. I like to get at least a pack or two of each new hockey release, and I picked this up at Target about a week ago. 6 cards for $1.59.

#386 - Paul Gaustad - Buffalo Sabres - Gritty center, Buffalo fan favorite. I like these cards but I don't have time to collect a 600-card set at the moment.

#67 - Josh Harding - Minnesota Wild - 1-3 with a 3.41 GAA so far this year. Not off to a great start with this pack...

#540 - John Negrin - Calgary Flames - Marquee Rookie - A "short-printed" Marquee Rookie card. As far as I can tell, John appeared in 3 games for Calgary last year and has not seen NHL action at all so far in 2009-10.

#398 - Evgeni Malkin - Pittsburgh Penguins - Best card in the pack, easily. I love the retro style 3rd jersey but I wish Upper Deck would've used a baby blue border to match it instead of the normal border color for a Penguins card.

#179 - Steve Staios - Edmonton Oilers

#450 - Nathan Horton - Florida Panthers - A Florida Panther to finish out the pack.

Well, they can't all be winners but I guess the Horton and the Malkin make this a decent pack for a buck and a half...

David Krejci Collection - Card 9

Last night David Krejci registered his 3rd goal of the season against the Ottawa Senators in a 4-3 shootout win by the Bruins. Krejci also recorded an assist on what would've been the game winning goal had Tim Thomas not let a weak shot slip by with just seconds to go. Luckily Thomas and the B's recovered for the shootout win.

Thanks to a recent hot streak (5-0-1 in their last 6) the Bruins now sit at 3rd place in the Eastern Conference. Next up, the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday night!

Friday, November 27, 2009

Box Break - 1992-93 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey

A while back, I picked up a hobby box of 1992-93 Upper Deck Series 1 hockey at the local hobby shop. I have a ton of 90-91 and 91-92 Upper Deck cards in my collection, but after that it pretty much drops off until 2007-08 when I started collecting again, so when I saw this for $12 I couldn't pass it up. 36 packs, 15 cards per pack for a total of 540 cards. The Series 1 set is 440 cards, here's a quick breakdown of what the box yielded:

Base Set: 334 cards (76% of set)
Inserts: 4
Doubles/Triples/Quadruples (Yes, Quadruples...): 202

Let's take a look at the goods, in numerical order:

#7 - Pat Verbeek - Hartford Whalers Team Checklist - The first 24 cards in the set are the illustrated team checklist cards. They each feature an portrait and an action shot. I somehow missed getting cards 10 - 18, which was a sign of things to come as far as collation goes.

#25 - Wayne Gretzky - Los Angeles Kings - Not one of the Great One's greatest cards by any means. Rather than an action shot, we get Wayne kneeling an an empty rink with a spot-lit (is that a word?) goal in the background.

#28 - Jaromir Jagr - Pittsburgh Penguins - I've seen this trail effect on other Upper Deck cards before, including a Red Sox Collector's Choice card I pulled about a year ago.

#29 - Brett Hull - St. Louis Blues - Another strange pose on Hull's card. I guess it's memorable at least...

#33 - Wayne Gretzky - 1500 Assists - Another illustrated card, signifying Gretzky's 1500th career assist. Not points, assists. He finished just shy of 2,000 in his career. What else can you even say about that? Amazing.

#34 - New York Rangers - Presidents Trophy - The Rangers amassed 105 points in the 1991-92 season, the only team to top the 100 point mark. Unfortunately they ran into the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs.

#37 - Keith, Wayne & Brent Gretzky - Bloodlines - This set has so many subsets in it that it's practically ridiculous. Bloodlines depicts NHL brothers. Also included in this subset are Joe Sakic and his brother, and the Courtnall's.

#49 - Murray Craven - Hartford Whalers - Murray had just come to the Whalers the previous season from the Flyers for Kevin Dineen, one of many horrible trades the Whalers made in the early 90's.

#76 - Kay Whitmore - Hartford Whalers - Kay was shipped of to the Canucks before seeing any action with Hartford in 92-93.

#88 - Eric Lindros - Philadelphia Flyers - Lindros had an impressive rookie campaign in 1992-93, with 41 goals, 75 points and 147 penalty minutes in just 61 games.

#105 - Rob Ramage - Tampa Bay Lightning - Click on Rob's card for a large image and tell me what you see in the background. I almost flipped right by this one without even noticing...

#121 - Mats Sundin - Quebec Nordiques - No, the Maple Leafs were not the only team Mats played for prior to the Canucks.

#148 - Paul Broten - New York Rangers - Paul looks like he's headed for some pain here.

#156 - Pavel Bure - Vancouver Canucks - I did get a nice representation of horizontal cards in my box, which is a plus in my book.

#167 - Alexander Mogilny - Buffalo Sabres - Another great horizontal card. The crowded action scenes are some of my favorite cards if done right.

#181 - Bob Bassen - St. Louis Blues - Another great example.

#186 - Curtis Joseph - St. Louis Blues - I don't think you're getting to that one Cujo...

#235 - Peter Forsberg - World Junior Tournament - Another of the seemingly unending subsets. I really like Sweden's jerseys.

#237 - Stanley Cup Centennial - I'm guessing this photo depicts the Montreal AAA club that won the first two Stanley Cups in the late 1800's. Can anyone confirm that? That is a sweet logo! This is probably my second favorite card from the box.

#252 - Bobby Holik - Hartford Whalers

#255 - Joe Sakic - Quebec Nordiques - Pretty much included this one for the Nordiques logo.

#273 - Frank Pietrangelo - Hartford Whalers - Hartford got this guy from Pittsburgh, but he never really panned out. I wonder what happened to his gatorade?

#285 - Theo Fleury - Calgary Flames - Did anyone see the recent interview with Theo on ESPN? I forget what show it was on but it was definitely interesting. He revealed how he was molested for years by one of his junior coaches and hit rock bottom after a downward spiral of strippers, booze, guns and cocaine. Apparently he's got a book out about it. Surprising stuff...

#288 - Andrew Cassels - Hartford Whalers

#291 - Ron Francis - Pittsburgh Penguins - One of the most under-appreciated hockey players of all-time.

#293 - Geoff Sanderson - Hartford Whalers - Geoff was the Whalers' leading scorer in 1992-93.

#304 - John Cullen - Hartford Whalers

#305 - Mike Modano - Dallas Stars

#310 - Don Beaupre - Washington Capitals - Great shot of Don stretching out during warm-ups.

#316 - Zarley Zalapski - Hartford Whalers

#323 - James Black - Hartford Whalers - I don't remember this guy. At all.

#327 - Mark Recchi - Philadelphia Flyers - Current Boston Bruin! Man this guy's been around forever. And now, for my absolute favorite card from the box...

#337 - Sergei Bautin - Russian Stars - Ouch!

#338 - Igor Korolev - Russian Stars - Russian Stars, yet another subset. How about that moustache?

#357 - Vladimir Konstantinov - Detroit Red Wings - Rookie Report - Yet another subset, Rookie Report. Vladimir's story is a sad one.

#362 - Pavel Bure - Vancouver Canucks - Rookie Report

#363 - Nicklas Lidstrom - Detroit Red Wings - Rookie Report - Another guy that's been around forever, and is still at the top of his game. Unquestionably one of the greatest defensemen of all-time.

#366 - Dominik Hasek - Chicago Blackhawks - Rookie Report - Dominik saw some action in 1990-91, and even more in 1991-92, yet he gets a Rookie Report card.

#374 - Mats Sundin - Sweden - Here's another subset, the 92 Ice Hockey World Championship Pool A Seniors subset. Come on...

#375 - Peter Forsberg - Sweden - Here's Forsberg's card from the same subset.

#377 - Tommy Soderstrom - Sweden

#397 - Scott Young - Team USA - I remember Scott as a Whaler, and then later a St. Louis Blues player, but here he's featured as part of the Team USA subset.

#408 - Martin Brodeur - New Jersey Devils - Star Rookies - Martin just set the record this afternoon for most minutes played all-time by an NHL goaltender. The Devils stole the game on the road in a shootout against the Bruins too. Damn you Martin!

#412 - Shawn McEachern - Pittsburgh Penguins - Great horizontal shot. That looks like a ho0k by today's rules.

#417 - Vladimir Vujtek - Montreal Canadiens - Star Rookies - Mullet of the box, hands down.

#419 - Keith Tkachuk - Winnipeg Jets - Star Rookies - It was pretty cool to actually pull quite a few cards in this box depicting players who are still in action today.

#423 - Back to Back - Brett Hull/Wayne Gretzky - This card commemorates Wayne and Brett scoring 50 goals in 50 games in back to back seasons. The NHL only recognizes a "50 in 50" if the player scores 50 goals in his team's first 50 games, not a player's first 50 individual games. This impressive feat has been accomplished by only 5 players in NHL history, so to do it in back to back seasons is extremely impressive.

#428 - Andrei Lomakin - Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting overhead shot, you don't see this angle too often on player cards.

#429 - Tomas Forslund - Calgary Flames - This has gotta be one of the few hockey cards I own featuring bubble gum.

#436 - Mario Lemieux - Pittsburgh Penguins - Conn Smythe Trophy - The last few cards in the base set are the major trophy winners from the previous season. Super Mario had actually won the Conn Smythe the last two seasons heading into 92-93. That about wraps it up for the base set. Here are the 4 inserts I pulled:

#ERT2 - Nicklas Lidstrom - Euro-Rookie Team - Definitely did not have any of these in my collection. They don't scan well but these are actually pretty cool hologram cards. Can't complain about pulling the Lidstrom either.

#ERT3 - Dominik Hasek - Euro-Rookie Team - Second of two Euro-Rookie Team cards. Hasek was a good pull as well. Without checking, I want to say this set consists of only 7 cards and I think the Lidstrom and Hasek are probably the two best (with Pavel Bure coming in a close second).

Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes - #10 of 18 - There were Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes cards inserted into packs of Series 1 Upper Deck, with Gordie Howe Heroes cards inserted into Series 2.

Wayne Gretzky Heroes - #18 of 18 (Checklist) - I was kind of bummed that one of the two Gretzky Heroes cards I pulled was the checklist, but I'd like to collect this entire insert set someday, so I guess I'll need it.

Well, that's all she wrote. I wouldn't recommend this set for the casual hockey card collector. The design isn't great, and the set is way too fragmented with a ton of subsets. Upper Deck was definitely caught up in the rookie/European trends of the early 90's card releases and as a result you get quite a few cards of guys you never heard of and who never amounted to much in the NHL. For the completist though, Upper Deck's base sets are essential, and I had a ton of fun opening this box for $12.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...