10-11 ITG Enshrined Box Break

10-11 ITG Enshrined is a product that I was been wanted and itching to break for a very long time. But things would get in the way or money would be spent elsewhere and sadly it never happened. With that being said, two posts ago I did pick up a Laprade auto from the set which turns out I bought not long after he passed. With that being said, I finally got my chance on my birthday to break a box of Enshrined. 

Like most recent ITG products, they are without an NHL license so the focus is all on the player and not their club. But with that being said, this is a very very nice product. You get 5 premium base cards numbered to 175 and you get one hit which is an auto /49 or /1 or a game used card /9. Worst case is you can a HOF auto and best case is you have a super rare /1 cut auto of a player like Art Ross. So, how did I fare....

First base was Cyclone Taylor who is without a doubt one of my favourites from the first half century of hockey. The pictures on these cards are in colour and very classy.

The backs are extremely well done with an embossed number job which ITG doesn't do very often. Look at that career. I would be curious to see what those numbers might have been like in a 50 game season. Very good start to the box.

Tom Johnson is another great card. I have his rookie and his auto so landing this card was very fun. While it isn't anything special as far as my HOF PC goes, I do like having a HOF card like this to go with the rookie and auto.

Now this was one of the cards I was hoping for. When I first saw these cards I thought they would be great cards to send off as TTM requests. The first two player I got are deceased but Mr. Richard is still alive so I sent this one off immediately in the hopes he may sign it. I will keep you posted on that one.

Sadly another player who has left us far too soon. This is a pretty nice card and you get a glimpse of his A on the jersey. Bill Quackenbush was a 5-time first or second team all-star for the Wings and Bruins.

 This one was a bit of a surprise because I knew nothing of Mr. Drillon. Turns out he was a pretty awesome player with a very short career. He did finish top 10 in the league in each of his 6 NHL seasons and then became part of the war and never returned again. He only has one card from his playing day and that is in the 37-38 OPC set and then one in the 55-56 Parkhurst Set as an Old Time Great.


So those were my base cards. There isn't load of value to them, book prices range from 5 dollars to 25 dollars a piece for the base cards and most can be had on eBay for under 10 bucks with shipping. But the reason you buy this isn't for the base cards (even though I really like them), the reason is for your lone hit.


Here is my hit:

Scotty Bowman auto silver /49. I was pretty pleased to pull this card. I would have been a bit sad to have pulled someone I already had but in this case I needed a Bowman auto to complete my HOF trifecta. I already had his OPC rookie and I have this "game used " piece of Scotty and now an auto completes everything I could want or need for my HOF PC. For those interested in the product, that is an on-card auto and unlike the base cards the photos are black and white for the auto set. Very pleased with the box and I might consider another one in the future some day. However, in the meantime the itch to check out this product is gone and hopefully Richard will come back to me someday signed.

1910-11 Imperial Tobacco Reprint Set

100 years ago, the first hockey set was created. ITG is doing a tribute set to honour the 100 year anniversary of the C56 by creating their Ultimate 10 to look like the original Imperial Tobacco cards. The cards were designed much like other tobacco cards of the time to help protect the cigarettes from being damaged. PSA offers a really neat article on the origins of the C56 set here. I am a fan of vintage cards which is part of the reason why I am working on my own Parkhurst project. After reading the PSA article online and seeing an article in the Aug/Sept Beckett I thought about looking for a reprint set of the C56 series. Sure enough, I was able to find a decent set that was done by the Lancaster Company. I am not too sure about the details of this reprint job, but I was able to purchase the set for $4.95 plus $2.50 shipping on Ebay. Other people are selling it for a bit more but the dealer who sent me this set mailed it pretty quick and the quality is decent. I looks like the cards where hand cut much like the original set was so a couple cards are off-centered. The ink of the back is brown much like the original set so all in all they did a pretty good job maintaining the feel and authenticity of the old cards.

Two of the biggest names from the set were Art Ross and Newsy Lalonde.

Art was famous for his donation of the trophy for the leading scorer and Lalonde was one of the first superstars of Ice Hockey. As you can see from the back of the card it is listed as a reprint. The fronts of the C56 are in colour and with the exception of a few are portrait shots.

My favourite card in the 36 card set is Fred "Cyclone" Taylor.

In this photo Fred looks rather menacing and during this time frame he was one of the most paid athletes in sports and the highest paid player in hockey. He made $5250 for a two month season.

Taylor, Ross and Lalonde along with many others from this set would make it into the HHOF. Each card in the original set is considered to be a RC of each player and for some reason both Jack Marshall and Art Ross end up with two cards a piece in the set. Someday it would be nice to buy a card or two from this set, but for now I will have to settle for the reprint version.