Card of the Week - Drew Doughty

Well with Stamkos all locked up for the next 5 years, the last two restricted free-agents worth talking about are Doughty and Parise. I was reading some trade rumours on The Hockey News which suggests that one rumour has Doughty being traded to New Jersey for Parise because the Doughty contract talks have stalled.

The Devils made a great move yesterday by trading Brian Rolston to the Isles for Trent Hunter which I am sure if we wanted to free up more space someone would take Hunter for a 3rd or 4th rounder. With over 7 mill in cap space, the Devils could easily sign either Parise or Doughty. Both are a General Manager's dream and the Devils could find a use for both. If we sign Parise, we would have a first and second line that are equally dangerous and if we sign Doughty, we could possibly have the best defense in the NHL in 4 years. Either way, I am pleased and punch and I think Yogi's big season prediction may very well come true!

Which ever team Doughty ends up joining in the fall will truly benefit as this kid is far from reaching his potential. I don't see why he can't be every bit as good as Lidstrom became in the NHL. I think many may agree with this as in just 3 seasons he has developed into a fine defenseman with an incredible offensive up-side.

08-09 Fleer Ultra #259 Drew Doughty Ultra Rookie

For the first time in a number of years, there is no Fleer Ultra set. Do you miss it? Personally, I would buy the odd blaster or a stray pack here and there but never attempted the set. I liked the product, but felt it was too redundant with Upper Deck's base set so I went with the better value each time. What was cool about the Ultra sets were the redemption cards. Buying the occasional pack here and there would yield me very few of these redemption cards but that is exactly how I got this one. Just the luck of the draw and the cashier picked the right pack for me.

The front of the card is nice, good clean photo and the Ultra Rookie foil makes the card pop! I think the 08-09 Ultra Rookies are a great alternative to probably the worst Young Gun design year I had ever seen.

Back side of the card

Here on the back is a recycled picture from the front with the stats and a little write up. No need to adjust your monitors the back side of the card does have a fair bit of light blue on it with a white trim. There are his previous year's stats along with his OHL totals.

How I received the card: Pulled redemption from pack

Beckett Value: $8 - 20

It will be interesting to see what products Upper Deck decides to product next year. I personally would rather see Ultra on the market place than Panini's Donruss and Pinnacle products. But I assume UD still owns the license to Ultra and with fewer sets being produced I think UD made the right choice dropping Ultra in favour of the mid-market base Upper Deck set.

Parkhurst Project - Cards 9 and 10

Well it have been a little while since I have had any action in this department but I managed to pick three cards up on eBay and these two arrived today. With the addition of Pentti Lund and Adam Brown I am now officially into the double digits (it is starting to feel like a set). There is a pretty obvious link between these two cards.

Card 30 Adam Brown

This card is a beaut. The colour is great, the corners are worn, but in all, this is certainly a nice card. Definitely worth the 12 dollars I paid.

Adam Brown played 9 seasons in the NHL tallying 104 goals and 217 points in 391 games. His best season was in 43-44 when he scored 24 goals and 42 points in just 50 games. He did score 49 points in 46-47 but that was in a season where he played 64 games. He did win a Stanley Cup with the 1943 Red Wings. Unfortunately, he died in 1960 in a car accident.

Card 31 Alexander "Pentti" Lund

This card does have a significant crease on the front, but the colouring is awesome and the back is stain-free. Pentti was born in Finland, but moved to Canada at the age of 6 and grew up in my hometown of Thunder Bay (Port Arthur at the time). He would go on to win the 1949 Calder Trophy as the top rookie in the NHL and would go on to play in 7 different seasons in the NHL. In 1950 as a member of the New York Rangers, Lund helped lead them to game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Rangers would lose the game, but Lund would lead both his team and the NHL in playoff scoring with 6 goals and 11 points. Pentti would finish his NHL career with 44 goals and 99 points in 259 games before retiring from pro hockey in 1955 mainly do to an eye injury . Pentti Lund was a pioneer as he was the first player born in Finland to score an NHL goal which opened the flood-gates for superstars Kurri and Selanne. I wonder if they are fans of Mr. Lund?

Progress:

Card # 30, 31 and #9 and 10 of my set of 105.

Percent Completed:

9.52%

Cost of the Cards:

$22.50 with shipping

Total Cost of Set to Date:

$72.45

Card of the week - Alexei Yashin

With each passing day I swear 1995 is coming back in style. First the Jets, then Jagr and now Yashin? After a less than steller year in the KHL, Yashin wants to prove he can still disappear come playoff time at the age of 38. However, it looks like the only team interested in him (Islanders) won't likely make the playoffs come this spring thus making him just another expenditure to get the Isles over the cap floor. What makes this even more interesting, according to Capgeek.com, Yashin is still on the payroll for his buyout. In fact, he is still a cap hit for the Isles (2.2 mil/year) until the spring of 2015. I am not sure what they are hoping for with this possible signing, but I do hope that John Tavares' locker is as far away from this guy as possible as I am not sure what Yashin could offer JT in terms of advice!

94-95 Collector's Choice Crash the Game Redemption Silver and Gold

Back in 1995 I came out of collecting retirement to play "You Crash the Game". The deal was every 5 packs had a player card in it which featured one of 30 players with a date on it. Each player was released with 3 different dates. The player would have a game on that date, and if they scored a goal that game, YOU won the right to mail away for a set. OF course you needed to pay for shipping and handling which was 3 bucks. The gold redemption cards fell 1 out of every 34 packs. I had several and won on a few. Now fast forward 16 years and they are pretty much worthless, but fun nonetheless.

I actually preferred the look of the silver sets. Each set also came with a single bonus card which was packaged in the set giving you a total of 31 cards.

The backside of the card just featured text and looks the same on both gold and silver.

How I received the card: Both came via redemption

Beckett value: Yashin Gold (40 cents)

Yashin Silver (12 cents)

In the end I think I have about 4 Silver Sets and 2 Gold Sets as well as many different "game" cards which I didn't win on. If you have any interest in these let me know I wouldn't mind trading a couple away as I am sure I don't need them all!

Patrick Roy TTM

The mail has got interesting once again. Been a while since I got a TTM back but Patrick changed all that.

Mailed off 2 cards, and I received them both back unsigned along with this gem. Some may be wondering if Patrick Roy is an autopen guy or not? Well I did my little bit of research and did some comparing and I am going to have to say I don't believe he is. I think this is the real deal and he did it with a blue sharpie!

Can't wait for the next envelope!

You can read more about this at Dirty Dangle.com

Don Edwards - Card of the week

If you think you have had a rough week, take note, no one has had as challenging week as Don Edwards. If you know what I am talking about then you already know. If you don't I will not get into it as I will not ever be able to do the story justice so just check out these two links:

Link 1

Link 2

When ever I think of Don Edwards I am reminded of his RC. Don had a remarkable rookie year finishing with a 16-7-2 record and a 2.51 gaa. Don followed that season by playing 72 games the next year and had an excellent record of 38-16-17, 2.64 gaa. Along with the 38 wins, Don had 5 shutouts.

Through out his 10 season career, Don would win 208 games and post 16 shutouts. His career highlight would be a Vezina trophy in 1980 which he shared with Bob Sauve.

77-78 OPC

Front side is a clean design, very simple and one that isn't such much memorable but is really what I think about when I think of 70's hockey cards.

Back side

Much like the front, the back side is clean with stats and a write up in English and French. There is also a little cartoon with a factoid about the player.

How I received it: I bought it back in the early 90's can't remember what I paid.

Beckett Value: $2 - 4

I have several cards from this set, but not the set itself. Someday maybe, I have a secondary project I have started working on and it is to have a set from each year between 1951 and 1993. I have a few coming in the mail over the next little while which I will share when they arrive.

Quick eBay Rant

Hey, just taking a break from writing my paper on Distributed Leadership in an Educational Setting. Those interested in the final product, please feel free to email me as I am sure it will likely never see the light of day in a journal.....(maybe, but not likely).

Anyway, I just writing a quick rant about a particular seller on eBay whom I tried negotiating a deal on a 51 Parkhurst card (John Lee Fogolin). It turns out that the seller wanted a price for the card and 5 bucks for shipping. I wanted a price a little lower but basically because he wanted 5 bucks for shipping!!! Ok, the card weighs nothing and it is shipped in a top-loader and I don't live overseas. 5 bucks seemed a little extreme so we hangled twice. The end result was were about a buck a part. He rejected my counter to his counter and that is where it ended.

Well fast forward 72 hours and I decide to swallow my pride and pay the buck difference after all, John Lee was from my birthplace so I can argue it to myself that way....well it turns out the seller blacklisted me....from ANY purchases....

How mature is that? I just wanted to make a deal and really only two offers were made by me but the guy decided my money wasn't good enough for him.

Disappointed, I went online and immediately did a buy it now (twice) on a nice chap's auctions from Newfoundland and bought 2 Parkies for the price of that other guy's one. Sure they aren't as nice, but both are in decent shape and will count toward my set total.

Has this ever happened to any of you?

The other side of the trade

Some of you may have seen this recent post by Casey over at Drop The Gloves. Well, here is the other side of the trade. The trade began with a request for my Phil Verchota which I pulled from my box of ITG Decades. He presented me with a couple of cards to chose from and I said I liked both Kovys he offered (not expecting a straight up trade for them both) but Casey was more than willing to give both for the one card. I wanted to help a fellow collector out so I included a few tough players who know how to throw down and it turns out that he didn't have any I sent his way so both sides were happy! The is my goal with every trade is to feel like I got a good deal and the other side is as happy.

Here are my new treasures

05-06 UD Ice Glacial Graphs

This card is BEAUTIFUL. I love the acetate autos even though I never owned one before, this card looks phenomenal in a screw-down I put it in. I even like the ink on the edge of the right side as it looks like Kovy's sharpie went off the card. I think he numbered it 17 but I can really only make out the 7....

Sal was kind enough to trade me my first Kovy RC (UD Vintage), and here is my second.

01-02 Bowman Young Stars

Two things that are great about this cards is one, it is nice to get another Kovy RC and two it is a pretty good looking one. Gold foil on the front and a pretty detailed back.

Love the details on the back of this card. Resume, Skills and an Up Close piece along with stats. WHY don't they do stuff like this anymore?

Thanks a million Casey, hope we can make another trade down the line!

06-07 Be A Player Box Break

Well my wife being the great gal she is, decided to fuel my addiction and buy me a box of cards for my b-day. I decided that I would go with a box of 06-07 Be A Player. Why, you ask? Well, a box costs about 50 bucks, 70 if you included taxes and shipping. What do you get? 10 hits. 8 autographed cards, 1 will be a dual auto and 2 rookies. There are other inserts but I ignore them and just consider this product to have 10 hits. So the value of 7 bucks per hit which I felt is very reasonable!

I feel that I will be ahead of the game if I can get 1 or 2 autos I really like and a decent rookie card.

So now that I made my case, here is the box.

The Rookies- They are numbered to 999.

Clarke MacArthur

Clarke had a breakout season with the Leafs. 21 goals and 62 points aren't too shabby. Didn't have any of his RCs before this so I am glad I pulled it.

Ryan Potulny

The opposite is true here. I have almost all his RCs and I am still waiting for him to breakout. He might as well be the next Keith Aucoin as he can do stuff in the AHL but struggles to produce in the NHL.

The Autographs

Martin Havlat

Wow, the shocker of the summer for me was this trade. Clearly Havlat for Heatley was a money move and a locker room move in my opinion. Both are very talented and a trade could benefit both teams in my opinion. A good auto to get in my books, love that he numbered his!

Rollie the Goalie

Proved he still had what it takes to block NHL rubber. TB has decided to renew his contract so that will mean Tokarski and Desjardins will have to wait another year for the shot at starting full time but TB clearly thinks they are close to winning another Cup. Can't quite read this auto, but another solid hit.

Mike Van Ryn

Former Devils draft pick was the weakest hit in the box in my opinion. He spurned us when we drafted him and therefore never won a Cup. Glad he didn't too! Now is an assistant coach for the Ice Dogs in the OHL.

Jeff Carter

I wasn't too surprised to see him get traded, and the Blue Jackets are better for this one. I hope he can maintain he goal production as he broke 30 goals for the 3rd year in a row. Blue Jacket fans deserve a decent team and Carter, Nash and Umburger will help that possibly be a reality.

Henrik Sedin

This is a great hit. Henrik has averaged 103 points a season over the last two seasons and is the owner of a very interesting auto. I believe he numbered it....but some might argue those aren't numbers...

Elias and Rafalski

Each box has one dual auto and fittingly enough, mine is a Devils auto. Love it....I didn't have either auto in my collection and between the two of them there are 5 Stanley Cups and 3 Olympic medals. Elias is also the owner of 7 NJ Devil records and 2 NHL records (most career overtime goals and most overtime goals in a season).

If this was the end of the box, I would consider it a success and then some....but there were also two rookie autos in the box!

Luc Bourdon

This card has mixed feelings to me. Happy to pull the card as he was an amazing prospect with talent to spare. I loved seeing him with the gold with the 06 and 07 WJHC teams. Sad because he passed away in 2008 when he crashed his motorcycle. He probably would have never won 8 straight Norris trophies but he would have been an excellent NHL defenseman with All-Star potential.

Jordan Staal

Wow.....like this hit a lot and it is probably the most valuable card of the box. How valuable? Well I don't know, my Beckett doesn't list the value but they seem to be on sale on eBay for prices between 20 and 50 bucks. This card is flawless, and was enough to make this box a huge success for me.

Now the box is over, the question remains....Do I get another? There are many other great rookies in the box and other autos but 50 bucks plus tax and shipping can get some pretty good vintage cards too!

Andy Greene - Card of the week

Well the first week of free agency season has passed and there were many signings. Some more interesting than others. The biggest target (Brad Richards) found himself a new home at MSG. Will be interesting to see if him and Gaborik can stay healthy and forge some chemistry.

The Devils were a little dull during the first week of signings as we focuses on resigning some of our own UFAs. Andy Greene and Johan Hedberg were our lone signings this past week. However, Lou did mention that he is interested in focusing on Larsson, Parise, making a trade and finding a new coach.

Andy Greene has had some pressure to perform every since arriving with the Devils. Many scouts and Devils players felt he had the potential to be every bit as good offensively as Brian Rafalski. Actually, I believe that might be part of the reason why Lou didn't work harder to retain the defenseman. However, Andy has had some confidence issues and some setbacks in growth that really have hampered his playing. As it stands, he was our leading scoring defenseman last year (which isn't saying much) but I think he CAN be a 40-50 point d-man if he has a little more support on the backside.

This week's card of the week is from the 07-08 UD Trilogy set.

The card is on foilboard and is numbered 857/999. I like that the card is numbered and I like the layout. A simple picture and they mention name, team, number and position.

Here is the back side of the card.

I really like the back side as much as I do the front. Black and white photo with a little colour accent on the sides. Stats and a small write up are included. Overall an attractive card.

How I received it: Via Trade with Chris from Confessions of a hockey card addict

Beckett Value: $ 3 - 8

I have never bought a pack of Trilogy mainly because of the cost. It boils down to how affordable they are on the secondary market which makes it difficult to pay 20 bucks for a pack of cards I can get off ebay for 5 bucks. Even big name rookies sell for about the cost of the Young Gun versions. However, a nice card nonetheless and glad it is now in my collection.

My. Best. Upper Deck. Pack. Ever.

Funny story the other day. I decided to go into some sketchy second hand store and just look around. Wandering past the old Bee Gees records and overpriced used xbox games I see a few packs of cards. For 75 cents I could get myself a pack of 88 Donruss Baseball, 91 UD Baseball, 90-91 Pro Set Series 2 and the list of crap went on. Then out of the corner of my eye on a dirty back shelf was a box of 09-10 MVP and 10-11 UD Series 1. I see a price of 2.99 on the UD Series 1 so I ask the lady if I could see the box. The guy working behind the counter in a gruff manner asks what do I need to see the box for? I respond I wanted to know if they were retail or hobby packs. He said they are hobby. By that point the box is now in front of me and then I said, I feel lucky so I would like to select my own three packs. Before they could respond I just grabbed the top right pack, bottom left pack and then a pack 2 down on the bottom right. Then I walk to the cash and pay 10.25 which included tax.

Then I tell them, I don't search packs because I prefer to get rookies over jersey cards.

Then I proceed to open the packs.

Pack 1.

Looking in through the top I can already see I have a jersey card. No rookie, but cool nonetheless.

The card is a Mark Recchi jersey card which has a black swatch.... good start.

Pack 2.

Looking in I see lots of cards, rookie potential in there.

However, no rookies to be found but I do find a 90-91 variation of Brent Seabrook. Not bad because I don't have any of these cards.

Pack 3.

Looking into the top, something isn't right. I see three cards. One huge and thick one and two small ones. My adrenaline gets pumping because I have NEVER pulled what I think this is out of ANY pack before. Sure enough it is a patch card! And better yet, the card is of a player who is pretty darn good and has MUCH potential!

A three colour swatch with orange and white being patch pieces.

The card is numbered 06/15 and I am jacked.

Without a doubt this is the best card I have ever pulled from an UD pack and maybe the best I have ever pulled period. Not back for feeling lucky and the best part I felt was, this was all on my birthday!

Please forgive the photo, a little crude but time has not been on my blogging side lately as I finish up my last two Masters courses!

Brad Richards - Card of the week

Well free agency has begun today and all the focus will likely be on where Brad Richards is going to lace up his skates in Oct. Hard to believe this as just a few years ago Tampa was doing what they could to dump his large salary after two straight disappointing seasons with them. However, Brad turned it around in Dallas and averaged more than a point a game in the Lone Star State and as a result there will be a few suitors for this former Conn Smythe Trophy winner.

This is his 06-07 Game Used Authentic Fabrics Card

These cards are inserted one per pack and each box would yield 6 packs. Not a bad deal except the boxes cost nearly 200 bucks with taxes. I like these cards because there are many people who tend to sell these cards off in LOT deals on eBay which means you can usually have a bunch for a relatively low cost.

Here is the back side

Here is the backside of the card. Like many UD jersey cards, wasted space and simple design.

How I received it: eBay lot purchase

Beckett Value: 8-20 dollars

I actually picked this card up along with 9 others from the same set. So 10 jersey cards and I only paid 11.50 with shipping. These cards are a pretty good deal for anyone who likes collecting jersey cards. I know some of my fellow bloggers are not big fans but at a buck a piece I think just about any fan can get behind them. The commons guide for about 2-5 bucks so I felt comfortable paying 11.50 for 10 of them. Some of the other cards included Brad Boyes, Ed Jovanovski, Doug Weight x2 and a few other guys.