Happy Trails Paul Kariya

Well it looks like Paul has decided to call it a career. It is probably good that Paul is able to walk away from the game without any further concussions. However, it will leave many fans wondering "what could have been?" had he not had so many injury ridden seasons.

Paul was also a victim of bad timing as he missed out on winning a Cup despite trying to chase after one in Colorado, only to have the Ducks eventually win a Cup without his presence.

Drafted 4th overall in 1993 Paul began his career with much promise

Here is his 92-93 UD Rookie card. It is the ONLY rookie card of Paul.

Paul put up some pretty decent career numbers where he averaged exactly a point a game.

402 goals, 587 assists and 989 points in 989 games.

His finest year was in 95-96 when he had 50 goals, 58 assists and 108 points.

The closest he came to winning a cup was in 2003 when the Ducks lost out in game 7 of the Stanley Cup final to my very own New Jersey Devils.

Now the debate begins, does he have what it takes to make the Hall of Fame? I don't think he will on the first several ballots. Players like Adam Oates should make it in before Paul does, but I won't rule out a chance of him making it in on his 10th+ ballot.

Here is a 07-08 UD jersey card I pulled from a pack.

No doubt he was talented, but head shots did shorten his career and hopefully the NHL takes care of this before players like Crosby are the next Kariya!

Hall of Fame Inductees

Congrats to Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, Mark Howe and Ed Belfour for their inductions into the Hockey Hall of Fame. No major surprises on who made the list, but I am surprised to see Pat Burns was neglected from the list once again!

Ed Belfour was the only one to make it on their first first ballot and based on his career numbers it certainly is no surprise.

Even though I am a Devils fan, I am also a fan of hockey in general and I grew up idolizing Belfour and even would wear a Blackhawks jersey while playing goal in street hockey.

I have a few Belfour cards in my collection, no autos however. This card is from the 05-06 UD Ice set and the swatch is neat as it is a little shiny. Likely from the arm pit part of the jersey.

1911-1912 C55 Reprint Set

A while back I purchased a reprint set off eBay of the C56 hockey card set from 1910. Last weekend I was able to purchase the other tobacco reprint set that is on the market of the C55 set. Don't let the numbers fool you, C56 came out before C55. Oddly enough, the next set was the C57 set. Makes no sense to me, but then again this was over 100 years ago.

The set was reprinted in 1991 and the book was made by Windhill Publishing.

As you can see, you originally could purchase this book/reprint set for $19.95

In the book there are stories and bios of all the players from the 1911-12 set and a recount of what happened that hockey season. I purchased the book and reprint set for a total of 15 bucks.

Here the back of the book

It turns out that the book/set was limited to 50 000 copies. Which means if you want one, I am sure there are some out there to be purchased. Oddly enough, even though I only paid 15 for mine, I have seen these go for 50 bucks on eBay!

This set is larger than the C56 set having 45 cards instead of 36. The C56 set had rookies of Cyclone Taylor and Art Ross. Meanwhile, the C55 set had rookies of Joe Malone, George Vezina, and Joe Hall. The value of the C55 cards are much higher than the C56 likely due to number of existing copies and the fact that the C55 are a nicer looking card.

Joe Malone RC - Reprint

Joe once scored 7 goals in an NHL game but what some people don't know he is also scored 9 goals in a playoff game in 1913. He was the first pro player to score an Ovechtrick! His 44 goals in a 20 game season stood as the NHL record until 1944-45 when Maurice Richard scored 50 goals in 50 games.

Here is what the back side of the cards looked like.

Looks like Art Ross was a busy player travelling across three provinces in 4 years. Joe Hall did win a Cup with the Kenora Thistles in 1907.

Georges Vezina RC - Reprint

Georges Vezina is by far the most valuable card in the actual C55 set with a Beckett Value of $6000. From my experience, you would be getting a pretty poor conditioned Vezina for that amount and any one in decent shape will be well over $10 000. The most expensive Vezina sold for $100 000 which was graded an 8 by SGC.

This is a beautiful set and a MUST in my opinion for any hockey card collector. Without a doubt it was worth the 15 bucks I paid, and to be honest. I would likely have paid more to have it! I don't think there is any BV to this set. If there is, I would be curious to know but really I wouldn't sell mine for anything!

PS

My scanner made the tops of the cards look like they were mis-cut. I assure you they centering is nice on the cards and looks like the examples given on the cover of the book!

1992-93 Pro Set Box Break

Well I was in the city again and back at the gentleman's place who sold me my box of 90-91 Pro Set. He must have every box from the 90's and singles from 1910 up to 2000. I wish I could have spent more time because the 1910 cards and the Ice Kings from the 30's definitely needed more of my personal attention. In addition, there were plenty of different 51 Parkies in there but, they too will have to wait for another time.

I did look around and bought a couple little rookies and picked up a set which was my whole reason for the trip in and I will share with you at a later point. But there was one thing I caught out of the corner of my eye, it was a stack of wax boxes from 1992. Pro Set boxes to be precise. This is the only Pro Set that I never bought a box of and it is likely the shortest produced of the three Pro Set sets. I read online at nhlcollector.com that this production run was only 8000 cases which is a pretty short run for the time period. In fact, it would be a run shorter than some current UD and Panini products on the market. This would have been a good idea, but the vultures were already circling the Pro Set corpse and they were bankrupt before Series 2 could be produced. Really this was the signal of the end of the hockey card boom. It would be a few years before companies like Score/Pinnacle, Donruss and Fleer would make their exits but truly 1993 was the year the bubble burst.

So lets put on a little Informer by Snow or Whoomp! (There it is) by Tag Team and rip this box!

I had two goals, one was to get the complete set of 270 cards and the other was to get an extra Bill Guerin rookie. I owe all his RC's except this one so it would be nice to have an extra.

Each box contained 36 packs with 15 cards. Some packs contained inserts and there was a Kirk MacLean autographed card that was in one out of 8 cases. So I had a 1 in 160 chance of getting one of those too....

Here is the base cards.

I like the design of these. Definitely my favourite of the three Pro Set years.

Here is the backside

A short blurb with complete career stats. Nice layout, simple, clean and pleasant on the eyes.

Rookies

Here is the extra Guerin I pulled. Rookies were designed a little different, clean design on back with a larger write up about them. There were only 10 ACTUAL rookies in the set as players like Niedermayer, Lapointe, Lindros etc were all picked off as juniors in previous UD or Score sets.

CC Insert

Continuing the 1991 tradition, there are CC inserts which feature trophy winners of the previous season. These list for about a buck a piece. Roy is the largest valued at a BV of 10 bucks. I pulled Guy.

Rookie Scoring leaders

I pulled two of these from my box. Bure was the most valuable at a BV of 3 bucks.

Rookie Leader

Amonte was my second rookie leader. Only worth about a buck. Nice hit none the less.

Parkhurst Preview Card???

This hit was a huge surprise. This isn't listed in the standard beckett or is mentioned on the box. I am a HUGE Parkhurst so this was my favourite hit out of the box. It turns out there are 5 cards in the Parkhurst Preview set and looking at the back of the Fuhr card you can see he is 5 of 5. I would like to try and get the other 4 and have the set of them.

Here is the back side.

The cards use a different photo than the actual 92-93 issue which makes these cards even more desirable to me.

After all the packs were opened, I was able have a complete set and then some.

So for 20 bucks I got

1 set BV $15

1 CC card $1

2 Rookie Goal Leaders $4

1 Parkhurst Preview $??

and about 3 hours of fun ripping, sorting and putting them in pages.

This was a fun break. With this set, I now have all the Pro Set sets from 90-93 except for a couple missing singles from 90 Series 1 and the Series One set from 91-92 Pro Set Platinum. I will try and nail down the missing pieces over time but with there being so many on the market, I am in no rush.

In the end the cards are worth much more to me than a Beckett will ever say and if you have a chance to bust of box of these, give it a try, again you could spend 20 bucks in many worse ways than this!

Corey Perry - Card of the week

I decided that I am going to steal a good idea that other bloggers are doing and I am going to try and share a new card each week that is either news relevant or something cool from my collection. This past week there has been lots of headline worthy news and the draft hasn't even happened yet. Rather than focus on the blood and destruction that has just happened in Philly, I am going to focus on the new league MVP.

When I got back into collecting but before I learned about pack searching, I used to think I had a chance at pulling a good rookie from a pack of 05-06 UD Ice. I probably bought close to 30 packs of the stuff. I had pulled only 2 rookies from all those packs. One was one of the best AHL players in the last decade (Keith Aucoin) and the other is David Gove (I like his first name).

What I did pull that was cool, was 8 or 9 game used cards including Mr. Corey Perry.

05-06 UD ICE Cool Threads

Like I mentioned before, even though it is an insert and isn't officially listed as a rookie I do consider this a rookie card for my collection. The photo is from when he wore 61 and it appears to be during a home game against the Kings. After his first season, he switched to the number 10 which is what he is still wearing. I don't own many Perry cards from this year (just this one and his Parkhurst rookie) but it is enough for me.

I am actually a big fan of the Cool Threads and Fresh Ice inserts. It was back when UD used good size swatches and the pictures on them are good and well thought out.

Back side

The only complaint is there seems to be LOTS of wasted space on the back. Wish they put stats on the backs of these things or had a nice blurb about Corey's awesome junior career or something!

How I received it: Pulled from a pack

Beckett Value: 4-10 bucks

I think these cards are a great deal based on the BV of them. There are other memorabilia cards kicking around out there that aren't as nice and priced at twice the value. For example, a Corey Perry 05-06 UD Rookie Threads lists for 30 and the swatch is half the size.

Now the draft....Been waiting for this ever since we tanked in December. At first I was hoping for a last place finish and a chance to get the first overall pick and land Sean Couturier. However, it looks like he is no longer the favourite to go first overall and we might be able to land him with the 4th overall pick. There has been a fair bit of shuffling in the Top 5 and I think much of that has to do with how close the skill level is between these guys so as a fan, I don't think we can lose either way. If I got my chance to step up to the podium, I would likely stick with Couturier. If we were to go in another direction, I see the Devils targeting Landeskog as his style is much inline with how the Devils like to play. Are you excited for the draft? Or is it something that is hyped a little too much by media like TSN who are just filling in time between Stanley Cup and July 1st?

Panini All Goalies Break and Review

When Panini announced that they were releasing a box set called All Goalies I was intrigued. When I found out it was 19.99 and would consist of 100 cards, 5 insert cards and 1 memorabilia card I was excited. (However, I had to pay 22.50 which based on what I have seen online is still a great deal, thanks Jon at Elsewhere Gaming and Hobbies)

The price point is excellent, when you factor in one memorabilia card and the fact that there are over 20 rookies in this box I needed to have it!

Would I be disappointed? Here it is:

The box is compact and pretty cool looking. My complaint is the cards aren't well protected inside so if your box looks like it has survived a drop or two chances are the cards didn't!

Everything was safe in my box.

Base cards:

The design is nice and clean. Cards are the same stock thickness as the Score cards were with the gloss that the Donruss cards had. Not bad for 20 bucks.

The back side of the cards

The write ups on the back contain no career stats information but each seem to have a small blurb and in some cases it looks like the writers tried adding in humour. Read Jordan Pearce's for an example. (a little corny, but someone will laugh)

The OTHER Brodeur

The last 10 cards or so in the set focus on legends from the past. These include Belfour (as a Hawk!!!), King Richard Brodeur, Jim Craig and Tom Barrasso to name a few.

Inserts

Each box includes 5 "Up Close" inserts. The cards are of heavier stock and have more gloss on them. They also include a closeup shot on the front. They box just has 5 sequentially numbered cards so it looks like you could get a whole set of Up Close if you bought a case. That is both good and bad in my books. I got rookie Desjardins, James Reimer and a few other Tampa Goalies.

Jersey Card

When I looked at the checklist, there are 18 memorabilia cards and 6 of them were pretty cool. This one, not so cool. Raycroft isn't a bad goalie, he just isn't very good either. Never lived up to his rookie year and now I own my own piece of him. Still for 20 bucks, I can't complain!

What I like:

Cheap

Cool idea and you get the WHOLE set

Nice design and the layout of the cards are nice including photos on the back

Inserts and memorabilia cards are nice touch to make each box unique

What I don't like:

Didn't randomize insert cards enough

1 in 3 chances of scoring a decent goalie memorabilia card

Box could be a little more protective.

This is a GOOD idea Panini. I really hope you don't mess with this formula too much and come back again next season with this product.

I would rate this a 9/10.

After all, I am sure you have spent 20 bucks on things much worse than this!

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!

Maxim Noreau is a Devil?

Well with the draft about a week away and focusing my excitement in that direction I almost missed out on a pretty interesting trade. I received the news this morning when it was announced yesterday that the Devils acquired Maxim Noreau from the Minnesota Wild in exchange for minor-league forward David McIntyre.

I love it when that happens. You pick up a card that appears much more relevant to your collection a few days or weeks after you get it. I really hope he is able to be an offensive defenseman at the NHL level. The Devils really have been missing that puck-moving catalyst since the departure of Brian Rafalski and with Andy Greene not quite living up to expectations Noreau is a very cheap gamble. If he ends up being an Enstrom like d-man I think he could have a good long stay with the Devils who need some serious back-end offensive help!

A Tribute to the Champs

Well Boston won the Cup and I want to congratulate all of their fans. The team played well during the regular season and seemed to look better each round of the playoffs. They definitely deserved the win, but Canuck fans shouldn't hang their heads. Making it to the dance is a feat in itself and hopefully the Devils will meet the Canucks in the final next year!

Here is a small tribute to the champs with cards of current Bruins from my collection. I pulled all from packs with the exception of Seguin which I landed for 99 cents plus shipping from Ebay.

Zdeno Chara

Either you love this guy or you hate him. I am still not a fan, but last night he earned some of my respect by getting down low (which isn't easy for him) and making a save on an open net with his arm! A good captain who won't go down as the best in history but he plays a good North American game.

Milan Lucic

Here is a card I consider to be a RC (for my own purposes). Lucic is a player I do like a fair bit and was a big reason why the Bruins played so well in the regular season. Didn't contribute much offensively this post season but he is able to change the game in other ways. Definitely a poor man's Cam Neely.

Brad Marchand

11 goals this post season! I hope Brad is able to carry that momentum into next year and put up numbers that are reflective of how well he played this post season. I see no reason why he can't be a consistent 60 point guy in his prime. He is coming to my neck of the woods at the end of July and I hope to get a few autos. HOPE is the key word, I have heard conflicting reports on what he is like in person so I will have to judge for myself.

Tuukka Rask

With how Timmy played, he wasn't much of a factor this post season. This will be his team in a couple of years if he is able to earn it and I think one off season isn't anything to worry about but if he doesn't bounce back next year he may be off to other pastures.

Mark Recchi

I love this card so much I decided to show front and back. One reason why I am a big fan of the 90-91 UD was their use of photos on the back which features a nice in action slap shot. On the front of this card, you get a photo which looks like Recchi just had been hit by a truck.

Michael Ryder

Ryder chipped in with a solid post season performance. 8 goals and 9 assists have fans thinking he may be back to his early career form.

Tyler Sequin

Seguin showed some real flashes of brilliance this post season (6 points in 2 games) and then fell off with 1 point in his other 11 games. I think he has the potential to be a Marc Savard type player and much like Savard he may take a little more time to grow into that type of player. Julien is going to have to give him minutes to grow and he will need to adapt a little more to NHL calibre play if this prediction is going to be true.

Congrats Boston and bring on the NHL Entry Draft!

Elmer Lach TTM

I mailed away 0 cards and 1 blank decoy and I received back 4 autographed cards! You would be hard pressed to find a player who was tougher and played harder from whistle to whistle than Elmer Lach.

In the 1944-45 season, Maurice Richard became the first player to score 50 goals in 50 games. However, it was Elmer Lach who lead the league in scoring with 80 points and was named the league MVP.

Here is one of the cards I received. He also included a little thank you note which was very kind! You can check out the rest of the story at Dirty Dangle.com.

Ebay Auto Lot Purchase - Panini Certified

Received an eBay purchase of mine yesterday and I felt it was a total steal. I like the Panini Certified product, however at 12 bucks a pack, I find it a little rich for my blood. But, I won this lot for $7.00 including shipping (almost half the price of one pack). So in the end, each card cost less than two bucks a piece and they are all rookies #/1299 how could I go wrong....

Noreau wasn't the reason why I bought this lot.

However, he was a pretty solid offensive defenseman both in junior and in the AHL. His past two AHL seasons have him scoring 28 goals and 104 points in 152 games. Could have Tobias Enstrom potential in my opinion.

Nick Johnson, again not the reason why I bought this lot.

I seem to be getting Nick here and there. I pulled him from a pack of SPx as well so maybe I should be jumping on the Johnson bandwagon! He is a power forward with some potential, though I am not sure if Pens fans are thinking he has second line potential or not. I don't see him riding shotgun to Crosby.

Jamie McBain is one reason why I bought this lot

McBain is one of the best prospects in the Hurricanes system and this past season had a great rookie year scoring 30 points in 76 games which was good enough for 5th among rookie defenseman. I think he could be every bit as good as Keith Yandle.

Dustin Tokarski the main reason why I bought the lot.

Reasons why? Read yesterday's post. I love this guy and playing for a Tampa team that will be strong for years to come can't hurt Dustin's chances at winning a few games.

I would have a hard time scoring four TTMs for the price I paid for these 4 including shipping. So as I mentioned before, if you want affordable autographs, eBay lots purchases are often a good way to go(especially from companies like Panini, ITG and Pinnacle).

Prospects with potential - Dustin Tokarski

Dustin Tokarski is one player who has been on my radar for a couple of years. Most Canadians will remember his amazing 39 save performance to win the 2009 WJHC. Western Canadians would have seen Dustin burn up the WHL with some great performances between the pipes for the Spokane Chiefs. As a member of the Chiefs, Tokarski won the 2008 Memorial Cup and was both tournament MVP and top goaltender of the tournament.

So what has he done lately? These past two seasons he has been the number goaltender of the Norfolk Admirals which lost in the first round this past season to the Penguins. Tokarski put in a solid performance during the first round with 2 wins, 2.19 gaa and a shutout. A lack of offensive support was one of the reasons for Norfolk's quick exit.

His future could be interesting. He is apart of a young and growing franchise which is really at a goaltending crossroads. Dwayne Roloson was the goalie of choice down the homestretch and during the playoffs but, will be have another season in the tank? Either way, Tampa is going to need to either give Tokarski his shot as a backup or as a starter next season. Based the fact Tampa currently has NONE of their starters signed to a contract, and Stamkos is an RFA, Tokarski may be the most financially smart choice as a backup of starter.

Either way, I am excited and I think he is a prospect that has much potential. From the hobby perspective, now is the best time to get his cards. Many of his autographed rookies are going for about 5 bucks including shipping on eBay and his Young Guns and Artifacts rookies aren't expensive either. Could be a cheap gamble that will pay off when he wins his first cup in the next 3 years!

I landed a Tokarski auto along with a couple others in an auction on Ebay a little while ago. The cards showed up today and I will share them tomorrow.

Some players get no love - Loui Eriksson

About a month ago I completed another great trade with Sal from puckjunk.com. I had a few cards he needed for sets and he had a few cards that were on my wish list so we made a trade. One card that came over to me in the trade was a Loui Eriksson Young Gun. What surprised me about the card was how little it listed for in the Beckett. Isn't he an All-Star? This got me to thinking....

Isn't it strange how some players get NO hobby love? Loui Eriksson is a prime example of a good player who gets no love. If you look at the Beckett value of an 06-07 Eriksson Young Gun you will find that it is barely even listed ($8 High value and an unbelievable low value of 3.00). Of course BV isn’t everything, but looking on Ebay at Young Gun prices you will find they range from 6-8 bucks including shipping. A steal in my opinion for a player who was top 20 in the NHL in points this past season, an All-Star who was picked before Kessel (BV$25 in the same set) and has averaged 30+ goals a season for the last 3 years. One of the biggest insults to Loui Eriksson is his Young Gun card value is equal to far inferior players like Marc-Antoine Pouliot (fewer career points than Eriksson’s last season total), Fredrik Noreena (no longer in NHL), or even Michel Ouellet (of the Hamburg Freezers).

Jordan Staal on the other hand like Eriksson is also a good player. Staal has a few brothers than can play the game too and it seems that family celebrity is causing Staal to get some of the love that belongs to Eriksson in my opinion. Plus playing for the Penguins probably isn’t hurting his status either. Staal’s 06-07 Young Gun books for 20-50 dollars. That is over 6 times higher than Loui Eriksson. Is Staal that much better?

Let us compare:

GP:

Staal 369 games

Eriksson 371 games

Goals:

Staal 95 goals

Eriksson 112 goals

Assists:

Staal 103 assists

Eriksson 145 assists

Points:

Staal 198 points

Eriksson 257 points

+/-:

Staal +42

Eriksson +22

Offensively I wouldn’t say that comparison is close; there is nearly a 60 point difference between these two All-Stars. Granted, Staal is the better two-way player earning a Selke nomination in 2010. However, Eriksson is no defensive slouch either, he finished second on his team in +/- this year at +10. Not bad on a poor Stars team where more than half the team finished as negatives.

I guess that goes to show that hobby love is more than just skill. Often where the player plays and WHO the player plays with has a huge impact on their card value. If Loui was a Maple Leaf I can imagine his 8 dollar YG card would be more like 30. Same thing, I think if Jordan Staal was in Florida he would be worth about 8 bucks instead of 50.

Needless to say, fans like me who like underrated players able to scoop up their cards for next to nothing which is great, but, it would be nice to see these cards earn a little more financial respect! Are there any players out there who you think are seriously undervalued in the hobby world?

Steve Larmer TTM

Mailed away 3 cards to Steve Larmer and about 6 weeks later I received all 3 back. They were all signed with blue sharpie. I have been a big fan of his as long as I have been watching hockey. Steve was HUGE at the 1991 Canada Cup leading the tournament with 6 goals in 8 games and helping Canada get the win.

Check out the rest of the story at Dirty Dangle.

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.