Cheap Game Used Post 3

The last card completes my purchase of three game used for 5 dollars with thing one ringing in for $2. Love Getzlaf and love the Cool Threads Insert series from 05-06 UD Ice set. I probably have 10-12 already so this was a welcome addition

While the swatch is white, and it isn't a true rookie card it does still appeal to me which is all that matters. They also had one with a purple swatch but the card had some damage so it was left behind!

For those interested, this is actually photo shoot worn but then again more rookie year swatches are these days.

Toonie Treasures

My LCS has just continued to evolve over the past year or so thanks to Mike. He has taken the approach of moving lots of product fast rather than make more of each card slowly. It certainly is a business model that I think works for everyone, but then again my wife is the one with the business degree. All of these cards were in the 2 dollar bin which offers a good balance of value and coolness.

11/12 UD Young Guns Checklist

I am going to say that if this was one of my Young Gun hits in a box I would be happy, but not excited. At two bucks, I am excited. Three solid rookies including my boy Larsson. The other two were ROY finalists including the winner Landeskog.


08/09 UD Young Guns Checklist

I think any card with Stamkos on it from his rookie year is a home run. Both Doughty and Pietrangelo has become soild D-Men not unlike the early 90's when it was Lidstrom and Niedermayer.

05-06 UD ICE Zach Parise Rookie /999

 I bought one of these a while back in a lot deal with a Duncan Keith Ice rookie. I thought it was a pretty good deal to land both for under 10 bucks, but this takes the cake!

07-08 BAP Auto Tobias Enstrom

Here is a rookie year auto of Tobias Enstrom. If this kid was in Toronto he would be getting as much praise as Jake Gardiner, however he is stuck in the Winnipeg Thrasher organization and back to back 50 point seasons mean your auto is in the two dollar bin. He did only have 33 points last year, but he was hurt for 20 games.

06-07 Bee Hive Booth /100 and Zajac

A Booth rookie /100 had to come home with me and the Zajac was a rookie I didn't own already so these two are likely my least biggest savings but still two good cards that found a loving home!


I will keep sifting the boxes and sharing what other good stuff I can find. Parise is up for trade if anyone is interested.

05-06 UD Ice Rookie Lot

About a month or two ago an auction was up online for a Zach Parise Ice rookie and a Duncan Keith Ice rookie. I ended up in a little bit of a debate with myself on this one. I own both of their Young Guns, and in the case of both of them I do have another one or two other low end rookies. So, the debate was, "Do I need these cards, or do I just want them?".

I am sure some of us have been in this situation before, so my debate ended with, if I can land them both for under 10 bucks with shipping....then sure I need them.

I threw my bottom line bid in, and luck should have it, I won.

So here are the prizes:

Zach Parise #/999

What I like about this card is he is wearing his number 9 jersey. Many of his rookies feature photos from the preseason with him wearing 51. The card is numbered which is also cool and is valued a little low compared to some of the other cards in that set!

Duncan Keith #/2999
2999 rookies isn't exactly a limited production run when you consider this is supposed to be an upper-end card, but certainly the price was right and I am a pretty big fan of Duncan Keith.

However, with that being said, I certainly don't need this card and probably if I was contacted by a big Keith fan I could be convinced to trade it. Parise on the other hand could also become trade bait depending on the Devils success resigning him. Either way, I felt I did quite well on these pick up and Ice Rookies always look nice in one's collection.

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!

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?

What is a rookie card?

I used to think I knew the answer to this question. It seemed so easy. In my first life as a collector, I felt that a RC was the first release of a player's card in a set that was available nationally/internationally. Some companies got a little aggressive with this idea and released cards of players in their junior uniforms and cards of international hockey events but collectors accepted these as true rc's and life was good. Companies like Seventh Inning Sketch and Classic were ignored and their cards were off the Rookie Card table in my books. I don't know why they were ignored, I imagine the Beckett Hockey Card Monthly had something to do with that.

Since I have resumed collecting, my opinions on rookie cards has changed. Maybe not changed so much as I think I have evolved. I question why does the Beckett determine what are rookie cards? I know it isn't fair for ITG to claim all the rookies by undercutting the NHL licensed manufacturer by releasing Junior and AHL players before they lace up in the NHL, but I think a balance can be reached.

Here is a rookie by Beckett definitions of Mattias Tedenby.

Picked it off eBay for $2.99 and Teddy is going to be a star for the Devils in the next year or two.

Here is the ITG release.

What I am suggesting, is why can't this also be a rookie card? It says so on the card after all! In fairness, they were both released in the same year and he is wearing an AHL jersey (which is professional hockey). Both are available Nationally/Internationally. In fact, you needed a redemption to pull the Artifacts version meanwhile, the ITG version could be found in packs of Heroes and Prospects.

To add to the confusion, sometimes UD released two rookies of the same player in the same set. For example, Steve Mason rookies can be found in UD Victory and Victory Update. However, in 2001 Ilya Kovalchuk had a Young Gun RC released in UD Series 1 and then in Series 2 had a regular base card released and the Beckett classifies the YG as a rookie card but ignores the Series 2 card entirely. This inconsistency is frustrating for me personally because how could it be true in one case and not another?

I believe each collector needs to decide their own definition of a rookie card and collect accordingly. Dr. Price blogged about rookies in their ITG Decades release. I will not for a second consider a 2011 release containing a "new" Patrick Roy rookie. I still plan on buying this product and am excited for it. But not because there will be any rookies in the box.

My own personal belief on rookie cards is:

Any card that is made featuring a player during their first season in the NHL

The card must be released Nationally/Internationally

The card can be a redemption

I am also willing to consider:

Parallels and Inserts as rookies on an individual basis.

I have this card as part of my collection. This is an insert from 05-06 which is Vanek's rookie year with this card being from the UD Ice set.

I consider this a rookie card. Would I sell it as a rookie card or trade with someone under those pretenses? NO. But for my own personal collection, I consider it a rookie and as far as trading with one another unless I know your own beliefs, I will stick to what the Beckett tells me.

Does this mean I am going to go back and consider cards like 1992-93 UD Brodeur Star Rookie as being a rookie card? No, but I do plan on using my definition of a rookie card for releases since the card companies stopped sniping junior players before they made it to the pros. With that being said, what is your definition of a rookie card? Does ITG have rookies in their products, or do Panini and UD just have that right?