This is my trade of the year: Part 1 of 3

Not too long ago, Matt from Cardboard Conundrum announced that he was starting a new PC. When I read his post on collecting UND alumni I knew I would be able to help him out immediately. I had a few doubles of former Devil Zach Parise that I wouldn't mind trading and an extra Ed Belfour auto. Unlike Clarkson, I didn't have a Zach fire sale because I knew going to Minn wasn't going to add value to his collection and in same cases it dropped the value. Secondly, I didn't take his departure as personally because he wasn't an undrafted signing like Clarkson who was passed over by all 30 clubs including Toronto. Instead, Parise was drafted in the first round and picked by the Devils ahead of Minnesota who would much have rather drafted Parise instead of Brent Burns.

So I emailed Matt with a few cards I had up for trade and a few I was interested in and BANG, one of my fastest trades ever. Then I thought I would ask if Matt had any interest in my Crosby GU 5/5 and he went above and beyond to ensure that was included in the deal. So, here is the first part of my amazing haul thanks to Matt:

2010-11 ITG Decades 80's Esa Tikkanen Auto 

The Tick! Yep, I own an on-card auto of former NHL super pest and 5-time Stanley Cup Champ, Esa Tikkanen. The Oilers are always a club that I liked, and maybe the most of any Canadian club. There are only two names that come to mind when I think of a player who could effectively throw another star player off their game, then score the game winning goal for their own club. Those players are Claude Lemieux and Esa Tikkanen. What some people don't know is that Esa actually in the top 20 all-time for regular season short handed goals despite only having 244 career goals. Esa was also a New Jersey Devil for 9 games in the much forgettable 1995-96 season where we missed the playoffs by 2 points. That season the Devils had more point than 5 teams that made the playoffs in the Western Conference.

11-12 Dominion Peerless Patches - Adam Larsson /40

A rookie year auto is always nice and when you add in the patch it is just awesome. True the patch is a little dull, but when you consider the Devils emblem, there really aren't many exciting swatches you can pull from it. The swatch is nice and large and the auto is large and spot on for Adam. This card was one that had to be included in the trade because there just aren't many bloggers out there who would appreciate this as much as I would so it came home with Esa.

There are the first two from the trade, there will we two more posts each with a single card focus. See you next time. 

ITG Decades Box Break - Part 3 of 3

The rest of the box.

Hit 7

Being a Canadian, I am a tiny bit ignorant to the whole 1980 US Olympic team. I know the big names that went on to be NHL'ers and I would say Mark Johnson was my favourite of the lot. Verchota, never heard of him, but looks like he played a season of pro hockey in Europe. This card is up for trade if anyone is looking at getting all 20 Team USA autos.

Hit 8

Here is a Team USA member I did know about. Good defenseman and multiple all-star. LIke this auto and I do plan on keeping it.

Hit 9

Anyone noticing a pattern? A third Team USA auto, though this one is like the Ramsey one and meant to represent his NHL Club. Jim Craig is also in the set with a Team USA auto version as well. Can't say I am big enough fan of Jim Craig to want to keep this card so if you want to trade for it, send me an email.

In all the box was pretty successful. What I lost in autos I seemed to gain in memorabilia cards. I rate my box a 7 out of 10.

In terms of product, I love Decades. If I am spending 100 bucks for a pack, I am glad there aren't any base cards because chances are I will not ever complete the set. So a product in this price range that is all hits makes sense to me!

What I like:

Great design, cool subsets, quality checklist

Great number of hits for the price point

They tell you where the jersey was used

What I don't like:

No Wayne

Not a huge fan of the number of USA and part-time NHL's in the checklist

I hope ITG does another decade next year. 90's would be a fun one!

ITG Decades Box Break - Part 2 of 3

Hope you don't mind camera shots again! Here are hits 4-6.

The pack gets more interesting as we get our first memorabilia hit.

Hit 4

I am definitely a fan of Nifty Middleton. This card is numbered to 130 which isn't too bad for the highest numbered memorabilia insert.

Wayne Gretzky once played on a line with Middleton and Perreault and he marveled at how skilled Middleton was. There appeared to be a little piece of wood or something stuck in the jersey. I left it there....

Hit 5!!!!!

Wow! This may be one of the funnest cards I have ever pulled! These four guys are amazing and this is the Silver Version which is numbered to 30. Love the swatches, love the players, this made the box. According to the back of the card, all swatches are from their NHL clubs except Mario which is from a Team Canada Jersey. That part is what I think makes this the coolest card I own.

Hit 6

This one was a bit of a surprise. I came down from the high of the last card and missed something key on first inspection of this card. I was happy to see Leetch, he is an amazing defensemen. He is in the Hall of Fame and Messier called him the greatest Ranger of all-time. What I missed at first glance is this is a Silver Version which is also numbered to 30. This box is shaping up to be a winner!

ITG Decades Box Break - Part 1 of 3

Well finally I was able to get my box of ITG Decades. I have decided to share the break over three posts much like how the product is broken down into three different kinds of hits. My scanner isn't compatible with my home OS so you will have to suffer with pictures I have taken with my home camera. Any "sheen" is from the top loaders...

Hit 1 - 100 years of collecting

When I opened up my box I see Wendel smiling at me. Is this a good or bad sign. Well he went into his NHL career with LOTS of potential. He had a 46 goal season, but never played more than 66 games in a season.

Hit 2 - Decades Rookies

Now we are talking. Love this guy! This is a solid hit for me.

Hit 3 - Memorable Masks

One of the cooler insert in my opinion. Not a big enough Barrasso fan to want to keep this card so if anyone is interested in trading for it, it is available. The same goes with Wendel Clark. I don't imagine I have the patience to try and build the complete 100 years set.

Check out part 2 tomorrow!

ITG Decades Production Run

Since it will be several more days before I have my very own box of Decades 1980s to open, I thought I would so math about the product to pass the time.

Based on what ITG released about the game used production numbers and that there are 3 game used hits per box, I determined that there are 8148 boxes of ITG Decades out there.

Based on that run, you can expect a production run of the following:

100 years of collecting:

1 per box, 25 in total so the production run of each is about 325 each being un-numbered

Rookies:

1 per box, 45 in total, so the production run of each is about 181 each being un-numbered

Non-mem Inserts:

1 per box, 45 in total, so the production run of each is about 181 each being un-numbered

Autographs: Difficult to determine based on SPs and the 1/1's

3 per box, 170 in total, you could probably expect about 150 of each auto that isn't SP'ed.

Game Used numbers are released on the ITG website.

Without the product in my hands yet, I can already say this is a homerun!! Low production numbers, great quality swatches and on-card autos makes any collector happy. Personally I can't wait to get mine and when I do I will share what success or failure I ended up with. So what are you waiting for, go and get a box! I am sure you will be satisfied at the very least.