Odds and Ends

In case you couldn't tell by my paltry 3 posts so far in the month of November, things have been a little slow around here. Well, actually it's the complete opposite, things have been so busy I've found very little time or money for cards in recent weeks. I've still been reading blogs and populating Zistle with images when I find a few free minutes, but that's about it. I haven't stopped buying altogether though, and have found some pretty good deals on my limited budget. Here's a few highlights that I've added to the collection over the past month or so:

I picked up this 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Ron Francis rookie card for just a few bucks at the local hobby shop. Aside from the fact that I'm just starting on my quest to hand collate this set, it's inexcusable that as a die hard Whalers fan this card has been missing from my collection for so long. I've already talked multiple times about how under-rated Francis is. He's 4th all-time in scoring, try finding a rookie card of the 3 guys ahead of him (Gretzky, Messier and Howe) for under 10 bucks!

This 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee retro parallel of Bobby Orr puts me one card closer to this monstrous 600-card parallel set. I've bid on a few of these and lost over time, I ended up winning this one by making an offer on a Buy it Now auction. I think it cost me $3. I like this one in particular since Orr never had a card in the 79-80 set (his final O-Pee-Chee card came in the 78-79 set).

My most frugal purchase of all was 4 more 1968-69 Topps hockey cards, a set which I am slowly accumulating a decent portion of. This Cesare Maniago card is probably my favorite, even though it's not nearly as cool as his 1973-74 Topps card. This card cost me 50 cents if you can believe that...

On the back we learn that Cesare had played for teams in 13 different cities in the 8 years prior to this card's release. The other three I picked up:



The Arnie Brown has a couple of soft corners but other than that the 4 cards are clean, crease-free examples with good centering and corners. The Brown was 10 cents, the Hodge 60 cents and the Peters 20 cents. At this rate I'll have this set done in no time! Finally, although I'm not a big autograph chaser, I couldn't pass up this beauty:

I was always mesmerized as a kid by MacInnis' tremendous slap shot. I've almost pulled the trigger on a couple of his autographed cards before but never ended up going for it. My biggest criteria was to get him in a Flames uniform, the team with which he captured the Stanley Cup in 1989 (and was named playoff MVP). I got this one for $2.75, less than the cost of most modern day packs!

Living on the cheap isn't so bad after all!