Box Break - 1995-96 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey - The First Couple Packs

1995-96 Upper Deck is one of my all-time favorite sets, one I've wanted to put together for a long time now. It's got everything going for it in my opinion. The 6th flagship hockey set released by Upper Deck, it was the first to feature full bleed photography. It contains a guilty collecting pleasure of mine, the Electric Ice parallels. Most importantly, the set is right in my wheelhouse in terms of time period/player selection. I was 13 when this set was released, and had been a rabid hockey fan for a few years prior, ever since I began playing the sport at a young age. By the mid-90's I was obsessed, and it was a great time to be a hockey fan. Even though the Whalers' days in Hartford were numbered, there were so many exciting teams, like the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche that seemed to battle it out in epic playoff match-ups every season.

The thing is, I really want to hand collate the set, and believe it or not I found wax boxes somewhat difficult to come by. A couple of weeks ago a Series 1 wax box went up for auction though, and I was lucky enough to win it for less than the price of a blaster ($18).

I like this set so much that I'm going to try doing something a little differently here. I'm going to try to show every card I pull from the box, a couple of packs at a time. There are 36 packs in the box, 12 cards per pack (how refreshing!), so we'll see if I can keep up with this or not. Since there are so many cards to show, and since the photography is so great, I'm going to try keeping commentary to a minimum and let the images speak for themselves. After each pack I'll pick my favorite card, if you disagree go ahead and leave a comment. If you think this is a terrible idea you can leave a comment about that too. Here's the first couple of packs:

Gretzky graces the box top and the wrappers. As you can see, every pack contains one Electric Ice parallel. Here's the back of the wrapper:

(Click for larger image)

The odds are pretty clearly stated on the back of the wrapper. 270 card base set. Electric Ice parallels fall one per pack. On average you can expect roughly one Gold Electric Ice, one Freeze Frame and one Predictor card per box. Every fifth box or so will contain a pack composed entirely of Predictor cards. Enough with the boring stuff, let's check out the first pack:

#234 - Mike Milbury's Scouting Report - Alexei Zhamnov

Another reason to like 1995-96 Upper Deck, Jets and Whalers cards.

#251 - Mike Milbury's Scouting Report - Brett Hull

#7 - John LeClair

#136 - Kirk McLean

What a card! As usual the horizontal cards look best in this set.

#128 - Ken Klee

#106 - Patrick Flatley

Okay, so not every card can be a winner...

#14 - Brian Rolston (Electrice Ice)

Alright, here's the Electric Ice parallel. Exactly the same as its regular base card counterpart, except for the foil "Electric Ice" running along the edge of the card. I can't explain why I generally detest parallel cards, yet like these. Normally I would rail against the manufacturer for robbing me of a base card in every pack but I just can't do it here. In fact, one of the best things about opening a pack of this stuff is discovering who the Electric Ice card is. What can I say, I'm a hypocrite I guess. Besides, this box contains 432 cards and inserts are kept to a minimum, so unless there are serious collation problems I should hopefully be able to complete a set, or at least get close despite these one per pack parallels.

#6 - Patrice Brisebois

#189 - Mariusz Czerkawski

#115 - Tom Barrasso

#179 - Theoren Fleury

#192 - Peter Popovic

Best card in the pack:

#136 - Kirk McLean

That was a pretty easy decision. This card's got it all. A Hall-of-Famer getting (presumably) robbed, a St. Louis Blues Busch beer advertisement on the boards, and a kid and his father in the crowd wearing terrible 1990's shirts.

On to pack 2...

#194 - Mikael Renberg

Believe it or not, I half collect Renberg. Because he played on the Legion of Doom line on a stacked Flyers team, and had a killer rookie season I thought he was destined for stardom. Unfortunately the 38 goals, 44 assists and 82 points he registered in his rookie season would all end up being career highs...

#36 - Brian Savage

#34 - Nicklas Lidstrom

The backs of the cards look pretty good as well:

Another very large photo, always different from the one on the front, which was the norm for Upper Deck and is appreciated.

#72 - Mike Sillinger

#119 - Dave Karpa

#19 - Gary Roberts

#90 - Ray Ferraro

#163 - Pat Peake

#9 - Todd Krygier

Great photo on this one, it's in the running for best card in the pack...

#170 - Chris Chelios

#252 - Mike Milbury's Scouting Report - Wayne Gretzky

#233 - Brett Hull 5th Anniversary (Electric Ice)

There is a 5th Anniversary subset that highlights cards from the company's inaugural release in 1990-91. Seems like an anniversary subset to celebrate just five years of existence is overkill but whatever.

Best card in the pack:

#170 - Chris Chelios

Future Hall-of-Famer, Little Caesars advertisement, and an impressive group of Red Wings in the background including Sergei Fedorov, Paul Coffey (I think?), Kris Draper and Darren McCarty.

More packs to come soon!

From the Dollar Box - 1971 Laughlin World Series

Here's a quickie from the dollar box at JC Sports World in North Providence, RI:

1971 Laughlin World Series - #65 - Cardinals vs. Red Sox (1967)

Normally I would pass on cards from the 1970's in this condition, but for a dollar I had to pick this one up, especially since it signifies one of the greatest Red Sox seasons of all time, the 1967 "Impossible Dream" season. It was definitely loved by its previous owner, with well rounded corners, a gigantic crease down the middle and plenty of scuffing. These were put out by Fleer, with the artwork done by a man named Robert Laughlin. There were a few different runs of these produced, and it took some work to figure out which this card came from. Apparently there was a black and white run produced in the 60's, followed by a couple of different color runs in 1970 and 1971, and then some updates later in the 70's. Finally, some of them were released in sticker form in the early 80's. Complicating matters is the fact that the cards are all marked 1968 on the back:

Luckily, I stumbled upon a great post on CaptKirk42's Trading Card Blog that summarizes some of the key differences. Because the "1967" on the front of my card appears just above the MLB World Series logo (rather than within a cartoon baseball) I can tell this is from the '71 set.

So there you go, a 1971 card depicting the 1967 World Series with a copyright date of 1968. Go figure!

Halftime Fedorovs

In case you're not a fan of the Black Eyed Peas, here are a few random Fedorovs that have been sitting in the draft folder to get you through halftime...

2000-01 SP Game Used - #23

1995-96 Skybox Emotion Xcited - #4

1992-93 Upper Deck Euro-Stars - #E1

1993-94 Score International Stars - #3

1998-99 SP Authentic Snapshots - #SS29

1995-96 Bowman Bowman's Best - #BB12

1996-97 Upper Deck Hart Hopefuls - #HH4

1994-95 Upper Deck SP Die-Cut Insert - #SP-113

These bring my slowly growing Fedorov collection to 41 cards and counting...

New to the Shoebox - 1974 Topps Harmon Killebrew

Here's the final single from my recent trip to the shop:

1974 Topps - #400 - Harmon Killebrew

I've always had a soft spot for 1974 Topps. If I ranked the Topps designs for the decade it would be in my top 4, ahead of 1971 and 1975 even. Aside from that, I am constantly amazed at how under-appreciated Killebrew seems to be in the collecting world. He just doesn't demand the kind of attention that the other Hall-of-Famers of his era seem to. I mean the guy is 11th on the all-time home run list, ahead of guys like Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Willie McCovey and Ted Williams, yet you can typically find his cards for just a fraction of the price of those other stars. Just look at these power stats:

On a completely unrelated note, if you're in the mood to check out a pack of hockey cards head on over to A Pack a Day, where I just busted a pack of 2007-08 In the Game Between the Pipes hockey. Thorzul is right, this site definitely needs some love and attention.

New to the Shoebox - 1966 Topps NL Pitching Leaders

Here's the second to last single I picked up last time at the shop, we're back to baseball now:

1966 Topps - #223 - NL Pitching Leaders

That is one nice League Leaders card! Thanks to the dollar box at this shop I've accumulated quite a few 1966 Topps cards. It's not my favorite set of the decade, but it's still better than buying packs of crap I won't care about in 2 months. This one obviously didn't come from the dollar box, but in the shape it's in I was happy to fork over an Abe for it.

More importantly, this fills a pretty large hole in my collection. While I have many vintage baseball cards, I had neither a Koufax nor a Drysdale prior to picking this one up.

I find it comical just how many players they list on the back of the leaders card. Sure, you needed 23 wins to get your mug shot on the front, but a mere 7 is enough for mention on the reverse side.

Pack Rip - 1991 Topps Traded Baseball

I bought a whole box of these last time I was at the local shop, which was a month or two ago now. I like the Topps Traded sets, but have purchased the few I have as entire sets. Hand collating one seemed like it would be fun. The standard 132 card set size means I won't be at it forever, in fact I should easily complete a set from this box. More importantly, the price was right ($7). I'm very slow at busting wax, a box like this can easily last me months. I open a pack here and there and enjoy it slowly over time. Here's a random pack I opened this morning, 7 cards:

#96T - Dave Righetti

A career Yankee through 1990, Righetti signed with the Giants prior to the 1991 season. His 1991 Topps base card still featured him as a Yankee though, so Topps rectified that in the Traded set...

#124T - Jeff Ware

Don't recognize the name? Neither did I. Don't be too hard on yourself, Ware appeared in just 18 total games in two seasons with Toronto, finishing with a career ERA of 7.47.

#41T - Tony Fernandez

All Toronto Blue Jays fans should own this card. Before the 1991 season Fernandez, the Jays' starting shortstop throughout the late-80's, was dealt along with Fred McGriff to the Padres for Roberto Alomar and Joe Carter. Alomar and Carter would become two of the cornerstone players for the 1993 World Series Champion Blue Jays team. Fernandez would be a key contributor for the 1993 Jays team as well though, as he was traded back to Toronto during the 1993 season. He came up huge in the World Series, driving in 9 runs from the shortstop position for the Blue Jays. Cards like this are why I like Topps Traded sets so much.

#114T - Darryl Strawberry

Probably my favorite card in the pack. I know it's junk wax, but I think the 1991 Topps design has held up pretty well over time.

#9T - Rafael Belliard

Belliard spent the first 9 years of his career with the Pirates before signing with Atlanta prior to the 1991 season.

#30T - Rob Deer

We get a standard posed photo here, rather than a pic of Deer doing what he's know best for, swinging for the fences!

#53T - Pete Harnisch

Even this Pete Harnisch card can be interesting if you look hard enough. Pete was an All-Star with Houston in 1991, and during that season he struck out the side on 9 pitches in one outing.

They can't all be winners but I enjoyed that pack, especially given that it cost me about a quarter.

New to the Shoebox - 1970-71 Topps Jean Beliveau

Here's another random single picked up from the hobby shop a couple weeks back, on the same trip as the Carlton Fisk and Johnny Bench cards I've posted. There is some decent hockey representation at the shop, but overall baseball dominates, which is pretty typical in my area. That's why I was psyched when I stumbled across this card in the 1/2 off bin:

1970-71 Topps - #55 - Jean Beliveau

In absolute mint condition, perfectly centered, and with a price tag of less than 5 bucks, this was the one card I knew I was leaving the store with. Jean is a true gentleman who exemplifies everything that is great about the sport of hockey, and this is coming from a Whalers/Bruins fan! There's not much I can say about his career that Casey at Drop the Gloves hasn't already done a better job of, so I'll just say that I agree with everything in his post.

It's only fitting that someone who is such a true gentleman would be the most successful player/executive in hockey history. Of all his amazing career statistics, it's the number of Stanley Cup Championships he won that is most impressive. Ten as a player, and another seven as an executive. I think ten Stanley Cups as a player is one of those records that will likely never be broken, and seventeen total? Forget about it!

I'm a sucker for the 1970-71 design too, what a great looking set. I'm actually ashamed to admit this is only my third 70-71 Topps card, and also just my third Beliveau card (and the only one that's a true vintage card from his playing days). I'll be looking to rectify that in the near future.

Here's the back of the card. The cartoons vary from back to back. They are much more realistic looking than many Topps cartoons, but without being tailored to each individual player they lack the character that some of the others possess. That being said I think the backs still come together quite nicely.

If I'm not mistaken this is Beliveau's final Topps card, which is kind of cool. He hung up the skates after the 70-71 season. What's amazing to me is that in his nineteenth and final season, he still recorded better than a point per game (76 points in 70 games played).

I'll be enjoying this card for a long time to come!