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!

Cards From Canuck

This week a package arrived from one of my favorite traders, Captain Canuck. You know him from the blog Waxaholic, but if you're a hockey fan and haven't seen it yet make sure to check out his other blog dedicated solely to hockey, Just A Bit Offside. Captain helped knock a few more cards off my want list, but as usual also threw in a couple of bonus Whaler cards including this Pinnacle Murray Craven:

I've always liked the 1992-93 Pinnacle set, but for whatever reason have very few cards from it. This may be one that I pick up a box or two of on the cheap at some point.

Also included was this Pro Set Platinum Kevin Dineen card, with Peter Sidorkiewicz lurking in the background. There were a few cards from two sets in particular, including 13 cards I needed from last year's Series 2 Upper Deck set. Sal sent a bunch of these in his last package as well, I guess my blogging friends are determined for me to finish this set!

Nice horizontal card of Patrick Kane about to light the lamp.

Henrik Zetterberg in what appears to be a mid-dump-in photo.

Saku Koivu celebrating with teammates. I'm now just 7 cards away from finishing this one off. Also included were 7 more cards towards my nearly complete 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee hockey set, all of them Marquee Rookies (I've already finished the 500 card short set and the 40 card Legends subset). Most were no-name players but there were a couple of decent guys:

Turris has seen action in 14 games this year for Phoenix.

Although not an offensive-minded defenseman, Hjalmarsson has played in 19 games for the Hawks this season. Perhaps most appreciated in this package were 2 cards I needed from the 1979-80 Retro parallel subset:

These are only inserted one per pack, so completing this 600 card set is quite ambitious, but I really hope to get there someday. These 2 put me at 396 cards, so I'm just about 2/3 of the way there. As usual, there was a junk wax era hockey pack included with the cards. This time it was 1991-92 Score (Canadian Bilingual edition).

15 cards in the pack, here are a few of my favorites:

The most recent inductee in the Hockey Hall-of-Fame.

A couple of Penguins including goaltender Tom Barrasso and one of the best defenseman of all time, Paul Coffey:


Wayne Gretzky Lady Byng Trophy card. These are very similar to the trophy winner cards in Score's inaugural set released the year prior.

Mike Modano - The Franchise. I'd like to take a moment to point out how much better these cards look than the Franchise inserts in Panini's recent Score release. I've always thought these were some of the nicer looking cards in the 1991-92 set.

Another Wayne Gretzky trophy card. Pretty random to get both of these in the same pack.



Greg Adams has some roller marks across the top, which I don't recall ever seeing in this set. Believe me, I opened a TON of this too back in the day.

Thanks for another great trade package Captain! I'm now just 7 cards from finishing 2009-10 Upper Deck hockey, and just 12 cards from completing the monstrous 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee set. Brian, maybe I can send you a 1992-93 Upper Deck starter set?

Some Puck Junk in the Mail!

A few weeks ago I received another great package from Sal of Puck Junk. Sal is one of a couple of bloggers I randomly trade packages with without really keeping tabs. Every so often I'll accumulate enough cards to send off to him, and he does the same for me. It's a very loose, open trading arrangement that works well for me. Sal's packages are always great and this one was no exception. To fill space in the 400-count box he used this Coke can, which pays tribute to last season's Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks:

I think there were a couple of odd cards included, but the bulk of the box contained cards that did some serious damage to my Want List for 3 different sets. First up were 72 cards from the 1992-93 Upper Deck hockey set. I busted a wax box from both the high and low number series of this set and have been trying to finish it up for quite some time. I know it's from the junk wax era but I think it's a great set. Here are some highlights from what Sal sent:

The first 4 Upper Deck hockey sets (90-91 - 93-94) all used varying designs on a white bordered card. As usual, the photography is excellent.

I would say this Brian Propp card has the best photo of any card in this package. What a great picture!

The Russian Stars checklist shows 4 of said stars in front of the Kremlin in Moscow. Pretty unique for a checklist photo I guess.

Of the few Russian Stars cards in the package, Alexei Yashin is by far the most recognizable name. I think Upper Deck could've skipped this subset altogether and the set wouldn't have been any worse off for it.

Yanick passed away at age 24 in 1997 after a battle with leukemia. The American Hockey League now presents the Yanick Dupre Memorial Award each season for excellence in service to the local community.

Calder Memorial Trophy card of the Russian Rocket.

Some shameless self-promotion going on with this card...

I'm glad the Sabres have returned to these jerseys for the 2010-11 NHL season. It makes watching a (so far) horrendous team bearable.

I would never normally choose to display a Greg Paslawski card, but I like this one.

Yes, Young Guns rookies existed back in the early 90's as well, although they were part of the base set and not short-printed.

The last few cards in the base set are these pointless Profiles cards that show various players standing in front of their lockers in street clothes. I guess I'm happy to add another Fedorov to my collection though. That stack brought me to within 4 cards of completing this set! If anyone has an extra #176 (Paul Ysebaert), #490 (Glenn Mulvenna), #494 (Ryan McGill), or #498 (Patric Kjellberg) let me know! Also included in the package were a couple of inserts from the set:

Three of these AmeriCan hologram rookies, including Keith Tkachuk and...

Scott Niedermayer. I'm down to needing just one of these to complete this 6 card insert set.

This Gordie Howe Hockey Heroes insert is easily my single favorite card in this entire package. It commemorates Howe's return to hockey when he joined the New England Whalers of the WHA to play with his two sons, Mark and Marty.

Included were 43 cards off of my 1994-95 Upper Deck SP want list.





This guy just keeps going! He's now 40 years old, and at the time of this post is in the top 10 in the NHL in scoring, with 7 goals and 12 assists in 18 games. Pretty amazing.

Marc Savard rookie card. I wonder if he'll be back at all this year? It seems likely that it will happen in the next month or two, but who knows.

Another guy who's still kicking around the NHL with Carolina. Actually he's only 32 years old.

Finally, there were 18 cards I needed from the 2009-10 Upper Deck base set. The first three years after I got back into collecting I completed this. It was the base set I always wanted most because of the reasonable size for hand-collating and the excellent photography.

Last year my interest started to fizzle though. I reluctantly finished Series 1, and got a good chunk of Series 2 completed before I stopped caring altogether. This year I haven't purchased so much as a pack of the recently released Series 1, and I'm not sure I will bother to. Nonetheless, it bothers me that I never finished last year's set and these cards put me that much closer.

Thanks for another great box of cards Sal! Hopefully we can help each other out with Score next.