A Buy It Now Success

I still picked up some cards here and there during my absence from blogging, including a stack of cards to get me closer to completing 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee hockey's retro parallel set. This monster 600 card set (800 if you count the update/high number series) is a tough one to complete. Because it mimics one of the greatest hockey card designs of all time, the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee/Topps set, the cards are still in relatively high demand, especially given that they've been around a couple of years now. A decent lot of these will still attract plenty of bidding action on eBay and even no name singles are tough to find under 50 cents or so.

I had an auction saved in my watch list for quite some time that consisted of 150 of them. The seller wanted $99.99 via Buy It Now but the option to make an offer was available. I only needed 37 of the 150 that the seller was offering, so I contacted the seller and offered $17 for the 37 I needed. She agreed and for less than the price of a blaster I picked up close to 40 more cards for my set. Most of them were common no-name players but nonetheless it's nice to get that much closer. Here are a couple of my favorites:

#109 - Paul Stastny - Colorado Avalanche - Peter's son is having another solid year for the Avs. He's just shy of point-per-game pace, with 40 points in 45 games so far. Actually he seems to go at about this pace just about every season. His rookie season in 2006-07 he tallied 78 points in 82 games. The next year, 71 points in 66 games. After limited action in 2008-09 (36 points in 45 games), he scored 79 points in 81 games last year. For his career, he's sitting at 304 points in 319 games.

#123 - Olli Jokinen - Phoenix Coyotes - Olli's now with the Flames. He's a -14 so far this season, which sounds about right given the team's sub-.500 record. In fact the only team below them in the Western Conference standings at this point is the Edmonton Oilers. Ouch!

#397 - Peter Mueller - Phoenix Coyotes - Phoenix's number 1 pick in the 2006 entry draft has had a tough go of it lately. Now a member of the Colorado Avalanche, Mueller is dealing with a concussion and has not suited up so far this season. The good news is he's only 22 so he has plenty of years left ahead of him.

#471 - Cristobal Huet - Chicago Blackhawks - Huet is playing in the Swiss National League A this year rather than the NHL. I included his card because it illustrates one of my gripes with this parallel set. If you're trying to mimic the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee design, and the photo you use depicts the player with a team other than his current one, why would you not use the "NOW WITH..." text on the card as was done with the original set?!?! One of my few gripes, if not only gripe, with these parallels.

#451 - Ondrej Pavelec - Atlanta Thrashers - Pavelec is turning in a great season so far. He's just outside the top 10 in the league in GAA, and is currently 4th in save percentage. If he keeps it up this will easily be the best year of his career so far.

#495 - Ryan Getzlaf - Anaheim Ducks - We finish off with a couple of Anaheim Ducks. Getzlaf suffered a pretty nasty injury back at the end of December when he caught a puck in the forehead that causes several nasal sinus fractures. He is expected back sometime in February.

#258 - Teemu Selanne - Anaheim Ducks - We finish it off with my favorite card of the bunch, the Finnish Flash. This guy just seems ageless. At 40 years of age he's still a top notch scorer. He's got 41 points in 41 games this year, and recently recorded his 1,300th career point! he needs just 26 more points to crack the top 30 of all time, which could conceivably happen this season at the rate he's going.

This latest lot puts me at 430 cards down, 170 to go. It would be a great feeling to get this one finished off someday...

Monster Trade from Reader Daniel - Part 1

I haven't been able to muster up a post in quite some time. Between the holiday season, and quite honestly a lack of interest in cards for a while there, I just didn't have it in me. I'm finally starting to work up the motivation to get going again, and what better place to start than showing off the first part of a monster trade with reader Daniel. Way back at the end of November, I put out the call for help with my 1988-89 Topps hockey set and boy did Daniel answer! He sent what is easily amongst the best trade packages I've received since I started the blog over 3 years ago. The package contained so many cards that I'm going to break it out into half a dozen posts or so.

For the first post, we'll start off with some 1985-86 Topps hockey stickers:

An under-rated scorer, and a name probably not recognized by the casual modern-day hockey fan, Ogrodnick had a monster year with Detroit in 1984-85. He set career highs in goals (55!), assists (50) and points (obviously).

These aren't listed in my Beckett, but if they were I'm guessing Gretzky would have the highest "book value". It's always nice to add a new Gretzky to the collection.

Sticker number 3 in the set is Gretzky's linemate from Edmonton, and one of my favorite 1980's players, Jari Kurri. This card came out during the stretch when Kurri was logging 100-point seasons regularly.

Paul Coffey makes it three straight Oilers. Coffey was the league's most offensive-minded defenseman in the mid-1980's, winning the Norris Trophy in both 1984-85 and 1985-86. He also scored 48 goals in 1985-86, breaking Bobby Orr's record for goals by a defenseman in a season. Not too shabby.

Paul Coffey might've been the league's top defenseman when these cards were released, but Bourque was right on his heels. He would take home Norris trophies in 1986-87, 1987-88, 1989-90, 1990-91 and 1993-94.

Pelle Lindbergh's sticker represents just my second or third card of this tragic figure. Pelle received the most votes of any player for the 1986 NHL All-Star game, which occurred just months after his untimely death. It was the first (and still only) time a player was posthumously selected for an NHL All-Star team.

The design for these stickers is nearly identical to the 1985-86 Topps base cards. The upper left corner contains the NHL shield logo, whereas in the base set the logo for the player's team was found here. On these All-Star stickers the logo is always in the upper left, but in the base set the design alternated, sometimes the team logos are upper left, other times upper right. The All-Star banner along the top was obviously absent in the base set as well, but those are really the only differences in design.

Bring back the Jets!

I've gone on at length about Bossy in previous posts so I'll spare you. Arguably the greatest pure goal-scorer in the league's history.

This shot of the always-helmetless Doug Wilson fits nicely within the frame of the card's border.

Finally, we have Tom Barrasso displaying an incredibly old looking set of goalie pads and sporting a Cooper helmet.

The first 12 stickers in the set are these All-Star player stickers. Daniel sent me 11 of the 12, I just need to track down #10, Rod Langway. There are also team stickers, which comprise cards 13-33.

One of my major goals for 2011 is to finish my run of Topps hockey sets from 79-80 - 90-91, and get them all neatly organized in binders. These stickers have been put in place and look pretty nice in Ultra Pro pages I have to say. I'll be posting more of what Daniel sent soon, along with a couple of pack rips!

Completed Set - 1990 Topps - Cards 400-499

I bet you thought I had forgotten about these, didn't you? Well, I kind of did for a while there. But a recent monster trade with reader Daniel has forced me to finish sorting and scanning the rest of my 1990 Topps baseball set. Since the set is so large I've broken them out into groups of 100 cards. In case you missed the earlier posts, which started all the way back in March, you can click these links to catch up on cards 1-99, 100-199, 200-299 and 300-399.

My apologies to those who despise this set, but I can't help when I was born and this is what was on the shelves when I was collecting as a kid. Here are my favorite cards from 400-499:

#400 - Ozzie Smith - All-Star - The first few cards in the 400's finish off the NL All-Star subset.

#403 - Tony Gwynn - NL All-Star - In 1990, Gwynn had his worst season as far as batting average goes (not counting 1982 when he had less than 200 plate appearances). That being said, he hit .309. Pretty good when that's a low point for you over a 20-year career.

#414 - Frank Thomas - #1 Draft Pick - Probably the single most-wanted card from the set. Most of the #1 Draft Picks that got cards in this set were a bust but at least they got Thomas right. To this day I've never seen the famous "no-name" error variation of this card in person.

#420 - Carlton Fisk - Carlton's starting to show some signs of age here (and he's playing for the wrong Sox!).

#431 - Randy Johnson - Randy's true rookie card came in the 1989 Topps Traded set, but this is his first card in a base Topps release. He hadn't exactly harnessed his power yet in 1990, walking 120 batters in 33 starts! 1991 was even worse, as he walked 152!

#440 - Alan Trammell - Trammell won a Silver Slugger award in 1990, racking up 170 hits, 14 HR and 89 RBI. Will he make the Hall-of-Fame this year? Probably not...

#444 - Kyle Abbott - #1 Draft Pick - Taken 9th overall by California in the 1989 Amateur Draft, I think it's pretty safe to say Kyle was a bust. After 5 appearances in 1991, he appeared in 31 games in the 1992 season (19 starts) and went 1-14 with an ERA over 5 and 20 homers surrendered. He didn't see Major League action in '93 or '94 and was out of baseball completely by 1996.

#450 - Rickey Henderson - Rickey was your 1990 AL MVP, batting .325 with a .439 on-base percentage, 65 steals and 119 runs scored. Unfortunately for A's fans that mattered little when the Cincinnati Reds swept them in the World Series!

#457 - Gregg Jefferies - All-Star Rookie - Gregg was a serviceable player for most of his career, but I don't think he really peaked as high as many people thought he would in the late 80's.

#469 - John Kruk - I watched the 1993 episode of Baseball Seasons on the MLB Network the other day, which included Kruk's humorous at bat against Randy Johnson in the All-Star game that season. Good stuff.

#485 - John Candelaria - I have to confess that until writing this post I had no idea that Candelaria had a 20-win season in the late 70's.

#493 - Jason Grimsley - Grimsley's name will forever be associated with the steroid era and the Mitchell Report.

#495 - Lee Smith - The Red Sox had two dominant closers on the roster entering the 1990 season, Smith and Jeff Reardon. That situation didn't last long, with Smith being shipped off by early May.

Well, that wraps up cards 400-499. 500-599 should be up later this week.

Still Around

I'm still here, it's just that December was insanely busy with work and the holiday season. I decided to take a break from the blog for a few weeks and it felt pretty good I have to say. I'll start posting with some regularity again soon enough, including a monster trade with reader Daniel and a post on a cool 1970's hockey set.

In the meantime, regardless of whether you lit a Menorah, opened presents under a Christmas tree, aired your grievances and participated in feats of strength, or celebrated a different tradition, I hope all of you enjoyed the holidays and spent some time with family and friends.

I Thought I Was Organized...

Two of my collecting goals for this year were to get my collection scaled down in size, and to better organize what I decided to keep. I don't know how much I've scaled down, but I would guess that I at least unloaded close to as many cards as I accumulated over the past year, if not slightly more. I gave away thousands and thousands of cards I wasn't interested in keeping over this summer and cleared up quite a bit of space. I'd say this one was a win.

As for my other goal, the cards I've decided to keep for now have slowly been organized. They've been scanned in and added to my collection on Zistle. Cards I don't want go immediately into my two monster trade boxes (one for hockey, one for baseball), and the rest are neatly sorted into monster boxes in my card closet by sport, year and brand. It's a great system, I can instantly search my entire collection (with images) by keyword thanks to Zistle, and my card closet is well organized enough that I can put my hands on a card I'm searching for within seconds. I have about 2/3 of my collection archived like this so far, including all the cards made before 1980, or so I thought. Today, when I was looking through a Rubbermaid box in the basement for some 1994 Topps cards to include in a trade package, I came across these:

and these...

and, uh, these too...

Yeah, that would be 27 1960 Topps cards in pretty good shape. As soon as I saw them I remembered that I had won them in a lot on eBay. I had no idea how long ago that was and completely forgot that I even owned them. Some research showed that I won them back in April of 2009! A year and a half later they are now where they belong with the rest of my growing 1960 Topps set. I was a pretty nice discovery but clearly shows I'm not there yet with organization. Maybe next year.

What's the best card you've ever stumbled across that you forgot you had?

Top 60 Cards - Hockey Style! - Part 3

Time for the third and final installment of my top 60 hockey cards.

#41 - 1964-65 Topps #70 - Milt Schmidt - The 1964-65 Topps "tall boy" cards are really impressive in person and Milt is the best one I've got. This card was bumped up the list recently when I had a chance to attend Milt Schmidt night at the Garden a month or so ago:

It was pretty cool to see a Hall-of-Famer who began his career in 1936-37 yet was still able to walk out to center ice for the ceremony with no assistance and even help raise the banner with his jersey number on it. It turns out Milt and his family were in the suite next to ours so I sat about 10 feet from him during the Leafs game. At one point I congratulated him and shook his hand, 92-year-old man with an iron grip! The Bruins had a nice win against Toronto as well, I don't know if it was more fun watching Tyler Seguin score his second career goal, or listening to a crowd of thousands taunting Phil Kessel...

#42 - 1988-89 Topps #120 - Wayne Gretzky - I had to include this one. This card symbolizes probably the most significant trade in the history of the NHL.

#43 - 1972-73 Topps #1 - Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Champs - Another reminder of a time when the Bruins were actually winning championships. One of my favorite cards from the 1972-73 set, which I have roughly a third of now.

#44 - 2001-02 Topps Archives #10 - John Bucyk Autograph - The third and final autograph card in my countdown is The Chief, Johnny Bucyk. Someday I'll add a real 1957-58 Topps Bucyk to my collection, but in the meantime this is a pretty nice substitute.

#45 - 2008-09 Upper Deck #12 - Henrik Sedin - These guys continue to produce year in and year out for the Canucks. They've each got 27 points so far this season. Another example of a great Upper Deck hockey card. Speaking of which...

#46 - 1990-91 Upper Deck #525 - Sergei Fedorov Young Guns Rookie - It was almost impossible to be a young hockey fan in the 1990's and not like the Detroit Red Wings. I was a Whalers guy but the Red Wings were always right up there, and I found myself rooting for them during the playoffs since Hartford was rarely there. Fedorov was my favorite player on the Wings, and I still accumulate his cards to this day (GCA I'm sorry it's taking me so long to respond, I'm not sure I have anything you don't already...). For the longest time this was the card I wanted more than any other from the 1990-91 Upper Deck set.

#47 - 1989-90 Topps #186 - Brett Hull - I laughed at this card the first time I saw it, and it's always remained one of my favorite cards from one of my first ever sets. I have his rookie card from the year prior but in my mind this one's much better.

#48 - 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee #268 - Pelle Lindbergh Rookie - A very sad story. On top of the world coming off of a 40-win, Vezina Trophy, and First Team All-Star season in 1984-85, the 26 year old Flyers netminder was killed when his Porsche slammed into a wall in New Jersey.

#49 - 1992-93 Topps Stadium Club #225 - Rob Zettler - No explanation needed.

#50 - 1986-87 O-Pee-Chee #8 - Lanny McDonald - There are still many Lanny McDonald cards I don't have, but of the ones I do this one is tops.

#51 - 1985-86 Topps #140 - Ron Francis - I thought about selecting Francis' 82-83 O-Pee-Chee rookie, but that was only a recent pick-up, this card has been in my collection for far longer.

#52 - 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier #50 - Jaromir Jagr Rookie - Yes, I chose a second card from the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier set. This Jagr rookie was just as coveted as the Roenick card that led off this series of posts. Fedorov's rookie from this set is right up there too, but since I already featured his Upper Deck rookie I settled with Jagr.

#53 - 1979-80 Topps #18 - Wayne Gretzky Rookie - One of the most iconic hockey cards ever produced, the rookie card of the man who holds practically every NHL scoring record. This would be my most expensive hockey card by a long shot. It's proudly displayed on the desk in my office.

#54 - 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual #314 - Patrick Roy The Franchise - Alright, I know what you must be thinking...we go from one of the most recognizable hockey cards ever to a junk wax era Score card?!?! Well as much as I hate the Canadiens, Patrick Roy is the man, and I've always loved the look of the original Score Franchise subset. Panini absolutely butchered The Franchise in its recent Score release, they are some of the ugliest inserts I've seen.

#55 - 1990-91 Score #440 - Eric Lindros Future Superstar - As a 9-year-old I thought this card would be worth hundreds one day. I still remember having my original copy in a screw-down case. I think a new screw-down or snap case would probably cost you more than the card would nowadays.

#56 - 1979-80 Topps #175 - Gordie Howe - One of the greatest players of all time on my favorite team of all time, on one of the greatest set designs of all time. Much like the Gretzky auto from the last post, this would be one of the 3-5 cards I'd keep if I had to sell off my entire collection.

#57 - 1977-78 O-Pee-Chee Glossy #21 - Rogatien Vachon - I'm not sure which element I like more on this card, the photo or the facsimile autograph.

#58 - 1979-80 Topps #261 - NHL Entries - My final selection from the 1979-80 set is this NHL entries card, depicting the 4 squads that joined the NHL for the 79-80 season when the WHA folded. As you can see, most of these teams didn't fare too well, as the Oilers are the only one of them that still exists with the same name and in the same location. Maybe this explains why I enjoy Nordiques and Jets cards so much, given that their franchises suffered the same fate as my beloved Whalers. (Cough cough...move the Florida Panthers to Quebec...cough cough).

#59 - 1973-74 Topps #146 - Cesare Maniago - My current favorite card from the 73-74 Topps set (although admittedly I don't have many), and one of my favorite cards from the 70's period. What a great action shot, with Maniago looming over the downed Rangers player in the crease.

#60 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Masterpieces #34 - Bobby Orr - We finish it off with the greatest defenseman of all-time scoring probably the most recognizable goal in the history of the game. I had a great time collecting this set and was quite disappointed that Upper Deck canned it after just one release.

Well there you have it, my top 60 hockey cards. If I compiled this list again in 6 months I bet 30 of them would be completely different. A couple of observations that I made after compiling the list...Sidney Crosby is not present and neither is Alex Ovechkin. A few autographed cards made their way onto the list, but not one single jersey/patch/relic card. I generally detest them and don't think they bring much value to the hobby at all. This exercise also proved what I already knew to be the case, that I enjoy vintage cards or cards depicting vintage players much more than I do modern cards. In fact, out of the 60 cards I chose, only 4 feature players who are still active in the NHL.

This was fun putting together. I would love to see some similar lists from other bloggers. Canuck? Sal?