Hockey Favorites from Marc B!

Recently my friend Marc B (check him out on Twitter at @477marcbruins) and I exchanged packages of hockey cards.  He sent me a killer batch, and around the same time I finally shipped out a stack I'd set to the side for him as I've been purging the past few months.  I'd say we both did very well, but you be the judge!

Right out of the gate, a completely awesome card that I had never seen before.  This is from the 2008-09 Upper Deck Canadiens Centennial set.  I'm sure Marc sent me this one because he knows I'm a fan of cards featuring the greatest trophy in sports, and man is this a great picture.  The Canadiens have had a lot of success in their 100+ years, so it looks like there are actually quite a few nice Cup photos in this release.  I'm going to have to seek out some more of these.

Next up, a Rink Collection parallel from 1995-96 Pinnacle for my Whalers collection.  I've mentioned time and time again that these are among my favorite parallels of the '90s as far as hockey cards go, and getting a new Whalers one makes this package an automatic winner.

Marc included a few Whalers cards that I already owned, but the timing was perfect as I was putting together a package for Chris of The Collector, and just tossed them right in!  They've already been given a good home (or will be passed on by Chris I'm sure).

How about a couple of Joe Sakic cards?  Fine by me!  I've always been a fan of Joe, given that his rookie card was the big card in the first set I ever collected, 1989-90 Topps/O-Pee-Chee.  I really enjoyed the exciting Nordiques/Avalanche teams of the '90s too as a kid fan.  They were really stacked with talent there with guys like Sakic, Sundin, Forsberg and Roy, among others.  In addition to this very shiny card from 1999-2000 Pacific Prism...

...I also got this "Planet Ice" insert from 1998-99 Omega.  I had the Sergei Fedorov from this insert set already, so this one will pair nicely with it in my star players binder.

I mentioned that I sent a few Whalers dupes over to Chris, but that doesn't mean that Marc didn't hit on any Whalers needs.  In fact, there were a few new Hartford cards for my collection to accompany the Rink Collection parallel I already showed.  The first was this gorgeous Sean Burke "Mirror Gold" parallel from 1995-96 Select.  It looks just as shiny and entrancing in hand as it does in the scan here.  This is Burke's second appearance on the blog this week, having been the subject of last weekend's Signature Sundays post.

Here's one I can't believe I didn't already own.  Mainly because I really enjoy the '90s Fleer Ultra inserts and have grabbed as many as I could over the years.  Somehow had never landed this '94-95 Speed Merchant Geoff Sanderson until now.  Score!

I know parallels were really done to death in the '90s, but if you were going to pick a color for a parallel as a Whalers fan emerald would be fairly high on the list.  I've got a couple/handful of these Parkhurst International Emerald Ice parallels, but was missing this one.  Another nice inclusion from Marc.

How about a simple Gold parallel from 1993-94 Topps Premier.  Topps Gold were some of the earliest parallels I can remember, and I'm still missing quite a few for my Whalers collection.  One less now that Marc supplied this Randy Cunneyworth.

Parallels are becoming one of the best ways to supply me with new Whalers, as the percentage of standard team sets that I've already completed continues to rise.  That was the case again here with this Score Gold Rush.  I actually had more than half of this team set already, so it was a lucky shot here with James Patrick.  Awesome.

Finally, how about a base card?  I really, really like this Parkhurst set.  If I was going to pony up for a hobby box of anything in 2019, this product might be high on the list.  Feels great adding this long overdue card to my Whalers collection.

With these new Whalers from Marc in hand, I'm now up to 1,458 Whalers cards in my collection on The Trading Card Database.  That's good for 4th place at the moment, getting closer to my goal of the largest Whalers collection on the site.

While technically a Hurricanes card, I still like to accumulate cards from the 1997-98 season that feature photos from before the team moved to Carolina.

Also received a card of perhaps (likely) the greatest Whaler of all-time, Ron Francis.  I can still vividly recall the devastation wrought by the "trade that shall not be named".

Here are a couple of unique ones that I'd never seen before.  First, a redemption card for a Rink Collection parallel that wasn't ready for insertion in packs just yet I guess.  This would've netted you card #252, a Jeff Friesen RC.  I really had no idea these redemption cards existed, a cool oddball for my hockey collection.  Speaking of which...

...this is a Canada Post NHL All-Stars card from Pacific, and features a stamp embedded in the card.  I had the pleasure of meeting Milt Schmidt at a Bruins game by chance years ago, and have kind of collected him since.  This is one of the more interesting cards in that small collection for sure.

One of the themes for my blog this year is improving my Wayne Gretzky collection, and Marc certainly delivered on that front as well!  I got this super shiny Gretzky from 1999-2000, the year in which Upper Deck went crazy and produced approximately 40,000 different cards of The Great One.  I love this one because I love most shiny cards, and also because you get a great look at a unique Team Canada uniform.

The other Gretzky was a card I already owned, the iconic 1988-89 Topps release showing him sporting a Kings sweater after the infamous trade.  As doubles go it doesn't get much better than this, so I'm sure I'll have no trouble finding a home for this one.

Lastly, you probably wouldn't predict it, but this card is a strong candidate for my favorite in the entire package.  I first found out about these acetate All-Rookie inserts when Marc himself sent me the Chris Pronger a couple of years back.  Since then I tracked down a second one on my own, and now Marc has hit me up with my third card from this ten-card set.  These are just beautiful in hand, but they're actually pretty darn rare.

On top of that Mikael Renberg was a favorite of mine growing up, as the least-known member of the famed "Legion of Doom" line with the mid-'90s Flyers (Lindros and LeClair being his linemates).  Because of that I've always kind of casually collected his cards, but this one takes the cake as probably the single nicest Renberg in my collection.

As if all this weren't enough, there was one more card in this package that will have to wait to be the subject of this weekend's Signature Sundays post.  Thanks once again for this great batch of cardboard Marc, and I'm glad you enjoyed the package I sent you in return!