Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Completed Set - 1987-88 Topps Hockey
Unlike Topps' 80's baseball releases, the hockey sets have actually maintained some value in the marketplace as well. Thanks to rookie cards of guys like Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Patrick Roy, Brett Hull and Ray Bourque, collecting all of these sets is actually a decent challenge. So far I've talked about the 1989-90 Topps set. Next up is the 87-88 Topps set. I didn't have many of these in my original childhood collection, but I was lucky enough to pick up a complete set a while back. There are 198 cards in the base set. What better way to discuss the set than to show off my favorite cards, as usual. You won't find the base set Whalers in this post, I've already shown them off here. I could probably write at length about any card from any of these sets, but here are a few that stick out to me:
#15 - Mario Lemieux - Pittsburgh Penguins - This is Super Mario's third Topps base card. The Topps/OPC design from this year is pretty darn good. I guess if they made this set nowadays the stick border would have to be composite.
What would any good 80's set be without stickers! My complete set also included the 33 sticker insert set. Here are some of the highlights:
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Olympic Hockey Sunday
Martin Brodeur
Pavel Datsyuk
Sergei Fedorov
Jarome Iginla
Jaromir Jagr
Patrick Kane
Ilya Kovalchuk
David Krejci
Evgeni Malkin
Joe Thornton
Jonathan Toews
Oh yeah, and Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Convinced yet?
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Red Sox Collection - 1939 Play Ball Fred Ostermueller
Fred (affectionately known as Fritz) enjoyed a 14 year career in Major League Baseball despite not debuting until age 27. The majority of that time was spent with the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates. I don't know the specific circumstances, but sadly Ostermueller passed away at age 50, just 9 years after hanging up his cleats for the final time.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Some More 1964-65 Topps Tall Boys
#38 - Billy Reay - Chicago Blackhawks - I believe Billy has more wins than any other Chicago Blackhawks head coach. I'll say it again, I wish Upper Deck would include coach cards in a set.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Million Card Giveaway - Pleasantly Surprised
Card #1 - 1993 Topps Milt Hill - "Great..." I thought to myself. This is about what I expected. Milt lasted just 4 seasons in the majors and was out of baseball by 1994. Not to mention, I have about 400 '93 Topps cards tucked in a box in my basement that I'd love to get rid of. There could be a Milt in there already, I'm not even sure...
David Krejci Collection - Card 17
I'm looking forward to Olympic hockey (how could any hockey fan not be), but the break comes at a pretty inopportune time for a Bruins team that was finally getting rolling. I hope the Bruins can pick back up where they left off in a couple of weeks. On a side note, the Victory Gold parallel cards look really good meshed with the Bruins colors.
#1 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SPX (Auto/Dual Relic/#'d to 999)
#2 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee Premier (Auto/Quad Relic/#'d to 299)
#3 - 2007-08 Upper Deck Ice Fresh Threads (Dual Relic)
#4 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Champs Mini
#5 - 2007-08 In the Game Heroes & Prospects
#6 - 2009-10 Fleer Ultra
#7 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SP Authentic (Auto/#'d to 999)
#8 - 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee
#9 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee
#10 - 2009-10 Upper Deck
#11 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Stat Leaders Insert
#12 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Parallel
#13 - 2005-06 In the Game Heroes & Prospects
#14 - 2007-08 Upper Deck MVP
#15 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Powerplay
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Red Sox Collection - 1952 Topps Maurice McDermott
I've got a couple more vintage Red Sox posts coming, including one card that's even older than this one!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Filling in Gaps - 1956 Topps Baseball
Today is pay day, and I just blew my entire $60 card budget for this paycheck on a wax box of 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 2 hockey. This is the first wax box I've picked up in quite some time, so I'm pretty excited about it. I'll write up a review sometime in the next couple of weeks when it arrives. In the meantime here are some Red Sox cards I picked up on the cheap last paycheck. I'm ashamed to admit that my collection contained just one single 1956 Topps card prior to winning these 3 on eBay:
#34 - Tom Brewer - This is probably my favorite card of the bunch. It's one of the nicer backgrounds I've seen on a '56 Topps card (although admittedly I haven't seen many).#93 - George Susce Jr.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Pack Rip - 2010 Topps Baseball Jumbo Pack
Well, there you go. When it comes to baseball there are basically 3 verdicts I give sets:
Chase: I love the set, time to power on the scanner and track down some Ultra-Pro pages. Accumulate: I like the set. While I won't actively chase it I certainly won't scoff at any cards that come my way. I'll pick some up when there's nothing else at the shop I want more. No Thanks: Red Sox and a few select favorite cards are scanned and saved, the rest goes into the trade box.
So, what's my verdict for 2010 Topps? Accumulate. There's a chance this set could grow on me. The design is solid but I just don't need another set to chase right now. For now I'll keep any base cards I run across in case I change my mind. The 2 Cubs inserts are going to Lonestarr and I'm keeping the Ozzie. The other inserts are all up for trade. If I find some time tomorrow I'll show off the rest of my loot from the hobby shop.