Pack Rip - 2008-09 Upper Deck Ice

Here's another random pack I picked up on a trip to the hobby shop probably 3 or 4 months ago and let sit on the shelf for a rainy day. I've never been a big fan of the Ice sets and have no intention of collecting this one, but I guess I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity and see what the 08-09 release looked like. 5 cards in the pack...

#67 - Olli Jokinen - Phoenix Coyotes - You can tell this set came out a while back as Jokinen is featured with the Coyotes, the team that dealt him to Calgary at the trading deadline.

#54 - Marty Turco - Dallas Stars - I don't mind the look of these cards. At first I thought they were ugly but they're kind of growing on me...

#68 - Patrice Bergeron - Boston Bruins - Nice to pull a card of Bergeron. He's been reliable since coming back from the concussion but just seems to have lost a little edge or maybe confidence.

#64 - Nicklas Backstrom - Washington Capitals - One of the Capitals young stars who along with Ovechkin have made the team feared once again.

#17 - Cristobal Huet - Chicago Blackhawks - Probably the best looking card in the pack. I would've sent this one off to Sal at Puck Junk had I not mailed out his package earlier this week.

Well this was pretty much what I expected. Nice looking cards but nothing too exciting and definitely overpriced at 5 cards for $3. I believe there are numbered rookie cards that are the big hit in this set. It seems more geared towards the box buster or prospector than the average set collector.

Pack Rip - 2008 Allen & Ginter Retail

I took a trip out to Target and the local hobby shop today. I stuck to a budget of $35 total for both stops, which didn't leave me much considering I needed quite a bit of boxes and shipping supplies at the hobby shop. When I saw these 2008 Allen & Ginter packs in the $1.59 bargain bin at Target I grabbed all 6 of them. I still have a ton of holes in my 2008 A & G set, and they NEVER have anything half way decent in the bargain bin, so it was a pleasant surprise. Here's the best pack of the 6.

#189 - "Rampage" Jackson - Not a great start to the pack, but it gets better from here. While the odd non-baseball subjects are one of the things I like most about Allen & Ginter, I'm not an MMA fan whatsoever. In fact, I didn't even know who "Rampage" was until I googled it just now.

#13 - Mike Lowell - Boston Red Sox - Fitting that I pulled a Lowell card on the cusp of his return from the DL. Will he be back in the Red Sox lineup this weekend against Toronto, and if so will he be able to put up numbers like he did so far this year before getting hurt? If he can come back and be just as healthy as he was before he will add another good bat to an already better-than-decent lineup.

#325 - Stephen Drew - Arizona Diamondbacks (SP) - I don't know much about J.D.'s brother, given that he plays in the National League. I do know this is a short print though, and one I didn't have to boot.

#29 - Empire State Building - Now here's an oddball card I can appreciate! Although I detest the Yankees, I think New York is a beautiful city, and I've been to the top of the Empire State Building 5 or 6 times at least.

#US41 - Mark Ellis - Oakland Athletics - Don't know much about Mark Ellis at all, but again I needed this insert. And now for the coolest card out of all 6 packs that I opened...

#WDS3 - Bull Shark - Mini - This is an absolutely awesome card. I've wanted one of these Deadliest Shark mini cards since this product first came out and this is my first. I don't think the odds of pulling one are astronomical or anything, but this is the coolest thing I've pulled in a while, especially from a retail pack. I'd love to track down the other 4 to complete the mini set sometime.

A Red Sox player, a short print, an insert I needed and two oddball cards for $1.59. Can't beat that!

Vacation Project - 1991 Conlon Collection

I've got the week off from work, and I've decided to spend some time organizing my collection and completing some projects that I can never seem to find the time for. First on the list is completing my 1991 Sporting News Conlon Collection set. I had a couple of packs of this stuff when I was a kid, but I didn't really appreciate the cards for what they were until I received one in a package from John a few months back. I bid on a box of the stuff on eBay a few days later and to my surprise won it for a whopping 99 cents! I opened the first few packs but never sorted them or finished the box. The picture above is what was waiting for me this morning, a couple hundred random cards and between 20 and 30 unopened packs.

At 18 cards a pack it took a while to slug through the rest of the box, but I'm proud to say I stuck with my guns and just a couple of hours later have a nice sorted set and a gigantic stack of doubles, both of which I will be adding to Zistle later this week. I'll save the full breakdown of the set for my Completed Set post once it's finished. In the meantime, there's only one problem...

I AM MISSING CARD NUMBER 7! If anyone out there happens to have a spare Mel Ott #7 card hanging around that they'd like to send, I can send you a whole bunch of Conlon in return, or anything else you might be interested in for that matter. Yes, I can pick the card up for about 10-20 cents online, but I figured I would reach out to other collectors first to see if I could get a 2-way trade going rather than pay shipping for a single common. Anyone have it?

Pack Rip - 1999 Upper Deck McDonald's Gretzky

Not a ton of time for a post today, but I did want to show the other pack of 1999 McDonald's Gretzky cards, as my last post inspired me to finally open it.
Puzzle Piece 1 of 9

#7 - New York Rangers

#5 - New York Rangers

#12 - New York Rangers

No Oilers cards in this pack, but at least I didn't get any doubles. I'll have to track down the 9 other base cards sometime...

2009 Allen & Ginter - I Cheated (Plus a Bonus Pack Rip)

I apologize for the lack of posts lately, I've been off work since before the 4th of July holiday and have been enjoying some time away from the computer as well, but it's about time I got around to a post here (I haven't totally been slacking as I've added a good deal of cards and scans to the Zistle library).

The sports card blogosphere is in a total frenzy over the release of '09 Allen & Ginter baseball, which officially hit shelves yesterday. Like most collectors I absolutely LOVE the Allen & Ginter line of cards, but there were a few problems facing me with this latest release. First and foremost, I'm trying to be a bit stricter with my card budget these past few months, and I just can't justify the $150+ I'd have to spend on two hobby boxes just to get a start on completing my set. That money will go towards the 3rd of 4 weddings that I'll be attending this summer, ugh. Not only that but I can't deal with the prospect of trying to hand collate another set right now. I'm behind on trades to begin with (packages for Captain Canuck, Sal, Slette and hopefully one or two other people will be going out early next week). I don't have the time or energy to spend scouring eBay for short prints or those last few inserts I need. I still haven't completed my 08-09 O-Pee-Chee and Upper Deck hockey sets, and the 09-10 releases are just around the corner. Even my 2008 Allen & Ginter set is in terrible shape, for some reason I didn't pick up a lot of those last year. So, how did I solve my problem? I cheated... I don't usually buy sets like this, but in this case how could I resist? For the exact price of a single hobby box of Allen & Ginter, I picked up the entire base set, all 50 SPs, the entire 75-card National Pride insert set, and the 25-card baseball highlight sketch insert set (which I am particularly excited about).

Yes, this is disappointing in some ways. I don't get to experience the excitement of ripping a wax box, something I haven't done in quite some time actually. Maybe that hobby box I actually had in my cart at one point on http://www.atlantasportscards.com/ (thanks Dayf!) contained a 1/1 pubic hair of some historic figure that I could've sold and paid off my car with, I'll never know. Here's what I do know; I've got a binder loaded with fresh Ultra Pro pages and ready to go, and I couldn't be more excited that this entire 450 card set is going to be a part of my collection. I don't have to spend the next 6 months trying to finish this thing. I had $15 left in my PayPal account that I had forgotten about as well, so I was only hit for $58 in the end. If I feel like it, I can always pick up some packs at the hobby shop for a shot at inserts and to give me some trading bait. What do you think? Is this set collector sacrilege or have you bought completed sets like this?

I've rambled on long enough. Remember that pack of cards at the beginning of this post? While I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Allen & Ginter set, here's a pack of 1999-2000 Upper Deck cards that McDonald's apparently gave away to commemorate the career of the Great One, Wayne Gretzky. The pack contains only 3 cards, and I'm sure I paid too much for it at $2, but I had never heard of this set so it piqued my interest.

Puzzle Piece 5 of 9 - If anyone out there has the other 8 of these, you know how to get a hold of me!

#10 - New York Rangers - These cards actually look really nice. They have a bit of Collector's Choice and a bit of the 95-96 Upper Deck style in them. I like the top and two sides being borderless, and the photography is excellent as usual.

#1 - New York Rangers - This is just a great photo of Gretzky in celebration. The fans are clapping and you can even see the ref signaling the goal in the background.

#4 - Edmonton Oilers - Definitely my favorite card in the pack. I will always think of the Oilers most when I think of Wayne Gretzky, and this is another great shot.

This is actually a really nice little set of cards. There are only 15 in the set (plus the 9 puzzle pieces). I bought another pack at the same time which I've yet to open. Once I do I'm chasing down the others I need for sure.

Puck Junk Contest!

I wanted to point out for anyone that may not have seen it that one of my all-time favorite blogs, Puck Junk, is giving away free Panini stickers! What collector doesn't like getting free stuff in the mail? All you have to do is become a follower of the blog and post a quick comment listing your top 3 favorite teams, and you'll receive a package containing a team sticker and a few individual player stickers as well.

While you're there I would highly recommend reading through the backlog of posts if you've never been on the site. It's an absolutely awesome site focusing on all things hockey. The posts run the gamut from vintage cards to video games and other oddball items. There is a ton of great stuff there, whether you're a die-hard NHL fan or someone who couldn't even name 5 teams, I'm sure there is something that will interest you. Sal, who runs the site, is as nice a guy as you'll meet in the blogging community and has become one of my favorite trading partners as well.

Since Sal is a Blackhawks fan, this post is also the perfect chance for me to show off this gem, a 1962-63 Topps Murray Balfour I recently picked up. Murray's been battered, creased and stained over the years, but it's the oldest hockey card I own and a welcome piece in my collection.

Pack Rip - 2009 O-Pee-Chee Rack Pack

Here's a quick pack rip of a 2009 O-Pee-Chee baseball rack pack. This is a prime example of why my collection always seems to be in disarray and I never seem to complete many sets despite being a "set collector". I have no intention at all of completing this set, and I've seen plenty of scans on other blogs, so there was no mystery as to what the cards looked like, however I inexplicably found myself unable to walk away from the card aisle in Target without one of these in my basket. I figured at $4.99 for 24 cards it was a good way to at least accumulate a few for trading purposes and maybe even get a Red Sox card or two to keep. Besides, with the impending lawsuit from Topps maybe these won't be readily available in a few months time...

There are no odds on the wrapper but thankfully it ended up being 24 legit O-Pee-Chee cards with no "Target Exclusive" space fillers or anything like that. Looks like you get 23 base cards and 1 black parallel card per rack pack. If you were going for a base set and didn't care for the black parallels, these rack packs would be the way to go. You'd have to buy 5 retail or hobby packs to end up with 23 base cards, which would cost you $2 - $3 more than this rack pack. Let's see what I got...

#105 - Francisco Liriano - Minnesota Twins - Again, I am not covering new ground here by any means, but I am not a fan of these studio shots at all. Almost half of the cards in this pack are boring studio shots. I think I stood in front of this same backdrop for my 8th grade class photo. This is probably the single biggest reason I've decided not to pursue this set...

#123 - Brian Wilson - San Francisco Giants - I will admit that I have no idea who this guy is, but I've included this card to illustrate how a posed shot can be done correctly. Even though it's not an action shot, this is still a cool looking card. Brian's showing off his split finger fastball (I think). Behind him we have actual grass and dirt and sky, much better than the Liriano card.

#357 - Russ Springer - Oakland Athletics - I don't like the close up head shots in this set either, in fact this Russ Springer card might very well be the single ugliest card I've pulled out of a pack so far this year. This card alone was enough to discourage me from chasing this set.

#387 - Freddy Sanchez - Pittsburgh Pirates - I know dayf at Cardboard Junkie and possibly a couple of others have shown this card or one similar depicting a player in front of what appears to be the entrance to a meat locker or something of the sort. I don't get it...

#475 - Hanley Ramirez - Florida Marlins - This was one of only two or three cards that I actually liked, and brings to light another complaint I have...a lack of horizontal cards. In fact, in my 24 card pack this was the one and only horizontal card I pulled. The photography here is pretty bland as well.

#569 - Ricky Romero - Toronto Blue Jays - This was the lone "short print" that I received, and once again it's a boring studio shot. Ricky actually had an excellent game in his last start Friday night, taking a no-hitter into the 7th inning.

#550 - Jonathan Papelbon - Boston Red Sox (Black Parallel) - This is the one card that saved this pack from absolute disaster, and the only one I plan on keeping. I like the look of the black parallels a bit better, and the photograph on this card is actually half-way decent for a change. Jonathan's celebrating his 7th straight save with his signature fist pump as the Red Sox look on from the dugout in the background.
All in all this was a very dull pack. I'm not that impressed with the set, but it was worth the $4.99 to satisfy my curiosity and prevent me from blowing $45 on a hobby box of the stuff. I like the card stock but the studio shots are hideous and the "retro" parallels just being a black variation versus a true tribute to the 1971 Topps/O-Pee-Chee set is a total let down. Had Upper Deck gone with a true retro parallel set like they did for their hockey release, I would be buying this up as quickly as I could find it. For now I'll stay away...

Fedorov to Finish Career in Russia

I'm a couple of days late in posting about this but I was bummed out to learn late last week that Sergei Fedorov has signed a 2 year contract with the KHL and will apparently finish his career in Russia. Fedorov was always one of my favorite players growing up when he was a key member of the dominant Detroit Red Wings teams of the 90's.

Fedorov follows in Jaromir Jagr's footsteps as another high profile player to leave for Russia to finish his career. I think it reflects badly on the league when some of it's most recognizable players jump ship to finish their careers elsewhere. It's a shame that we won't see Sergei skate off the ice one final time in an NHL jersey.

What do you think? Does Fedorov's departure make the NHL look bad, or do you not blame him for wanting to return to his country of origin to skate in his final professional games?

Card of the Month - June 2009

1974-75 Topps - #169 - Kansas City Scouts Team Card

For this month's card of the month, I've chosen this beauty from the 1974-75 Topps set symbolizing the entry of the Kansas City Scouts into the NHL. If you didn't realize this team ever existed, it would be hard to blame you. They were around for only two seasons before their owners, nearly 1 million dollars in debt, relocated the team to Denver where they became known as the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies didn't last too long either, and eventually became the modern-day New Jersey Devils franchise.

The Scouts were named after a famous statue (the "Kansas City Scout" obviously) that overlooks downtown Kansas City. Their two seasons in the league were absolutely abysmal. In their first season they lost their final 21 games of the season. In their second and final season they won only a single game out of their final 44 games!

Even though the Scouts are generally seen as an expansion failure, and it's hard to argue otherwise, this card to me symbolizes an unique period in NHL history and is a welcome part of my collection.

Collecting Whalers - 1995 Skybox Emotion Geoff Sanderson

Growing up in Connecticut and playing hockey year round for over a decade as a kid, it was only natural that I became a fan of the local NHL franchise, the Hartford Whalers (I lived in the middle of the woods so by local I mean an hour plus drive from my parent's house). A couple of times each year, my parents would scrape together some cash, pile me and my two brothers into my mom's gigantic Chevy Astro van, and head into the city to catch a Whalers game. This started a fascination with the game of hockey that continues to this day.

Every so often I'm going to show a random Hartford Whalers card from my collection. It could be a certain player I have memories of, a set I like, or maybe a card I feel like showing just because. I'm going to start off with this...

1995 Skybox Emotion - #77 - Geoff Sanderson

I thought of this card when I pulled the Geoff Sanderson from the pack of Pro Set cards that Captain Canuck sent along. In my biased 10-year-old mind Geoff was going to be the next big superstar in the NHL. In some ways, you can't blame me, as Geoff played all 82 games in both his second and third years in the league, eclipsing the 40 goal mark in each of those seasons. He never really panned out though, and once the Whalers moved to Carolina he ended up bouncing around the league, playing for the Hurricanes, Canucks, Sabres, Blue Jackets, Coyotes, Flyers and Oilers. He's not officially retired yet, but is without a contract for the upcoming season so far.

I am more interested in the Skybox Emotion set than the Sanderson card specifically though. I like that Skybox at least tried to do something different when they released these cards, and I seem to remember them being fairly popular at the time. Even though the whole emotion thing is kind of cheesy, I really think the cards themselves hold up even against modern set designs. They're printed on nice thick, glossy card stock that I most closely associate with the mid-90's Flair baseball releases. I think the effect of bringing the player to the foreground and sort of blurring the background and washing it out with a color that fits the jersey of the featured player worked really well. The images are really crisp as well, in fact they look better than a lot of the stuff you'll find on shelves now. I may have to attack this set pretty soon, it would look awfully nice in a binder.

I seem to recall a basketball release of this stuff, and possibly a baseball set also. Does anyone know for sure?