Mail Day - Captain Canuck

I returned to my desk earlier this week after a few days away to find a surprise package waiting for me. I knew the return address instantly, Captain Canuck! I wasn't expecting anything so I was curious to see what made its way down from Canada to Rhode Island. As usual, there were a couple of packs of junk wax (not junk in my opinion!), which is much appreciated. First off, there was a 31 card jumbo pack of 92-93 Pro Set hockey. This is the 3rd one of these packs I've gotten from Brian. Here are a few highlights:

#7 - Andy Moog - Boston Bruins

#23 - Theoren Fleury - Calgary Flames

#66 - Wayne Gretzky - Los Angeles Kings - If for no other reason, this pack was a winner for adding a new Gretzky card to my collection!

#85 - Patrick Roy - Montreal Canadiens - Since Brian was generous enough to send me these cards I guess I'll show a lousy Canadien...

#125 - Peter Sidorkiewicz - Ottawa Senators - I did get any Whalers but I did pull a couple of ex-Whalers, Peter Sidorkiewicz...

#134 - Kevin Dineen - Philadelphia Flyers - and Kevin Dineen. Two of my favorite late 80's/early 90's Whalers.

#246 - Wayne Gretzky - Los Angeles Kings - Statistical Leader - Make that two Gretzky's that I didn't have.

#254 - NHL Pro Set Hockey Clinic - This is just a bizarre card. I guess I sort of pulled a Whaler in this pack. Apparently the Pro Set Youth Hockey Clinics took place on baseball diamonds?

Team Leader #11 of 15 - Doug Gilmour - Toronto Maple Leafs

#CC-1 - Mark Messier - New York Rangers - Award Winners - Pretty good pack overall, I only pulled one double and ended up with 30 new cards for my collection. Brian also sent a pack of something I'd never seen before, 1999-2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve:

10 cards per pack. I own virtually no cards (baseball or hockey) in the 1995 - 2007 range since I wasn't collecting.

#30 - Jean-Sebastien Giguere - Calgary Flames - These are heavy on the foil, that's for sure. They sort of remind me of Upper Deck Black Diamond releases, only with gold foil rather than black. As usual with these types of cards, they look better than they scan.

#94 - Eric Lindros - Philadelphia Flyers - I'm not exactly sure what Glen Wesley is doing here. I guess sliding for a shot block?

#147 - Alexei Yashin - Ottawa Senators - Star Power - This guy put up good numbers pretty consistently, but he never really seemed to achieve what people thought he would in the NHL.

#139 - Paul Kariya - Anaheim Mighty Ducks - Star Power - I can't believe they actually made a legitimate NHL franchise based off of the Mighty Ducks movie. This was a dark era for the NHL.

Along with the two wax packs, the Captain sent along a handful of singles.

1990-91 Topps Team Scoring Leaders - #3 - Cam Neely - This card brought back some memories! I definitely have to track the rest of these down.

1997-98 Upper Deck Collector's Choice - #116 - Geoff Sanderson - There wasn't a Whaler in the Pro Set pack, but I ended up with this Geoff Sanderson Collector's Choice card. Good stuff.

2008-09 Upper Deck Black Diamond - #4 - Marco Sturm - I have probably 20 or so cards from this set, but luckily I did not have this one. It would be nice if Marco would start putting some more pucks in the net.

2009-10 Upper Deck McDonald's - #4 - Marc Savard - I have last year's complete base McDonald's set, but this is the first 09-10 UD McDonald's card I've seen. I have to say that I like these a lot better than last year's. The B's just locked up Savard for 7 years, and he proved he's worth it with a hat trick against Toronto on Saturday night, helping to spoil Phil Kessel's return to Boston. Finally, the card I think prompted this entire package to be sent...

1991 Conlon Collection - #7 - Mel Ott - The only baseball card in the package is one I've been wanting for quite some time. I opened a box of 1991 Conlon Collection a few months ago and this was the single base card I didn't get.

Thank you Brian, I really appreciate the package! You've added some cool stuff to my hockey card collection and helped me finish a baseball set too. I definitely have a good amount of Conlon doubles, drop me an email with your want list and I'm sure I can help you out!

Random Sunday Post

Today was a typical lazy Sunday, sitting around watching the Patriots (lose) and eating greasy food. I want to post something but I'm not that motivated at the moment, so here's a couple of random things. First off a package I received last week containing 7 2007 Upper Deck Goudey short prints. This is the set that got me back into collecting back in 2007. I've got the base set completed (red and green backs) but there are still quite a few short prints I need. I was able to pick up these 7 for $1.75 plus $2 shipping. 3 Brooks Robinson cards:
The regular short print...

The Heads Up with no background writing short print...

And the Heads Up with background writing short print. I'm pretty sure that covers all the Brooks Robinson cards in the set. I also got two Harmon Killebrew short prints...

One Al Kaline...

And the card that drew me to the auction to begin with, a Nolan Ryan...

Someday I'll complete this one. If anyone has any of the short prints (cards 201 - 288) that they're willing to trade let me know and I'll send you my want list! I was away last week for work and happened to stop by a Wal-Mart in my travels. While I was there I picked up one of these 2009-10 Upper Deck rack packs. 32 cards for $4.99.

I've been showing off quite a few of the base cards from this set recently, so I'll spare you, but I did pull a couple of interesting cards:

#AG6 - Bobby Clarke - Philadelphia Flyers - Ambassadors of the Game - I like the old school players being featured in an insert set, and this is a cool photo. That being said, I could do without the ugly purple and yellow design.

#NET26 - Henrik Lundqvist - New York Rangers - Netminders - I'm guessing both the Ambassadors of the Game and Netminders inserts are retail only. This is one insert set I will not be chasing...

#229 - Taylor Chorney - Edmonton Oilers - Young Guns Rookie - I don't know what the odds are of pulling a Young Guns rookie in a rack pack, but I was lucky enough to get one. I've never heard of Taylor Chorney but I'll take any Young Gun I don't have! While I was in Wal-Mart I also grabbed two 8-card retail packs. Aside from the base cards in those I was lucky enough to pull another Young Gun:

#213 - Ryan O'Reilly - Colorado Avalanche - Young Guns Rookie - I'm having pretty good luck with the SPs in this year's Upper Deck release. I've opened 2 retail packs, the retail rack pack and 3 hobby packs and already have 3 Young Guns. O'Reilly is having a good season out in Colorado and has basically been on pace with Matt Duchene when it comes to scoring points.

On a final note, I think I'm going to pull the trigger on a hobby box of 09-10 Upper Deck hockey. I know at least one person (Justin G) has picked one up, has anyone else? I usually buy from Dave and Adam's Card World, who is offering them for $62 and change with free shipping. If you have purchased one, did you pay more or less than that?

Pack Rip - 2009 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Baseball

I am usually very careful with my card budget and stay away from high end wax for the most part. I'm a set and player collector and don't care much about pulling "hits". For the second year in a row though, I completely bucked this trend and dropped $18 on a pack of Upper Deck Sweet Spot. Spending close to $20 on a pack of cards goes against every fiber of my normal collecting self. What the hell was I thinking? Seriously, can someone tell me? Somehow I rationalized this while standing in the card shop. "I need a Dodger hit to trade to Night Owl, or maybe I'll pull a Red Sox hit" I told myself. Deep down I knew it would be a waste of an Andrew Jackson. Oh well, here is the 8 card pack...

#14 - Carlos Zambrano - Chicago Cubs - This is the first card in a stack I just started for lonestarr. I guess the pack wasn't a total waste...

#70 - Lance Berkman - Houston Astros - I actually really like the simple design of these base cards. I think they look better than last year's Sweet Spot release.

#6 - Alex Rodriguez - New York Yankees - Yawn...and now for the "big hit"...

#SS-CL - Carlos Lee - Houston Astros - Sweet Swatch - Pretty much what I expected. A one color jersey card of a player I don't care about who's on a team that nobody I know even collects. I have only myself to blame.

20th Anniversary Waste of Space - #1374 - Tiger Woods - Golfer/Adulterer - Fitting that I pulled this card this week. Does anybody else just not care that much about this Woods ordeal, or is it just me? Wow, big surprise, one of the wealthiest and most recognizable men in the world gave in to temptation and cheated on his wife. Shocker. I really appreciate Upper Deck wasting a spot in a $20 pack with one of these cards. Thanks.

#50 - Jim Thome - Chicago White Sox

#26 - David Ortiz - Boston Red Sox - OK, at least I pulled a single Red Sox card for my collection.

#82 - Nomar Garciaparra - Oakland Athletics - I was an impressionable Red Sox fan when Nomar first made waves in the bigs, so I've always had a bit of a soft spot for him.

Well that was as bad as I expected. I will be keeping the Garciaparra and Ortiz cards, and the Zambrano is going out in a package as I mentioned. Anything else is up for trade.

Mail Day and a Pack Rip

Here's my second pack of 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 1 hockey. This one was definitely better than the first. Here we go:

#79 - Tobias Enstrom - Atlanta Thrashers - Tobias looks poised to have his best year yet in his 3rd NHL season, and the Thrashers are sitting at 5th in the Eastern Conference.

#47 - Marc-Andre Fleury - Pittsburgh Penguins - Marc-Andre raising the roof!

#184 - Milan Hejduk - Colorado Avalanche - And now the card that made this a killer pack:

#203 - Matt Duchene - Colorado Avalanche - Young Guns Rookie - My first Young Gun short printed rookie of 2009-10 and it's a good one. I think this is one of the top 2 or 3 Young Guns rookies in the set. Despite being just 18 years old, Matt has looked great out of the gate. He scored twice against the Tampa Bay Lightning last night, giving him 6 goals and 8 assists on the year. This was one of the cards I wanted as soon as the set came out, and I've seen it going upwards of $12 - $15 on eBay. It was worth picking up the 8 packs for this card alone!

#57 - Rick DiPietro - New York Islanders - There certainly are a lot of DiPietro cards out there for a guy who hasn't played in quite some time. I guess signing a ridiculously large contract guarantees you cards.

#115 - R.J. Umberger - Columbus Blue Jackets - Great action shot with Red Wings Nick Lidstrom and Henrik Zetterberg in the background.

#20 - Tomas Plekanec - Montreal Canadiens - Even the Canadien cards look good (shudder).

#170 - Ryan Kesler - Vancouver Canucks - Well the Duchene card made this pack a success. I also got a package delivered today containing a single card I won recently on eBay. This is another one I've been tracking for quite some time:

2009 Topps Updates & Highlights - #232B - Nolan Ryan - California Angels - I've really started to make an effort in accumulating Ryan cards recently, and this one caught my eye when Updates & Highlights was first released. After numerous failures I was able to grab one for just $.89. With shipping I paid a few cents over $3. If anyone has the Mets variation of this card and is willing to trade, I will definitely make it worth your while!

I'll have a few more pack rips and hopefully another mail day or two posted this week!