13-14 National Treasures 11-12 Panini Contenders Adam Henrique Yellow Plate 1/1

 When I bought a couple boxes of Contenders this summer I was hoping for a Henrique rookie. I did even better landing a rookie patch auto  but still if someone out there has a rookie auto I am certainly looking to trade for one.  During the mass flooding of plates I was able to land one of my number 2 PC Adam Henrique. While it isn't as nice as my Connolly and I don't have the print version of the card yet, it still is a nice addition!

Here is the front, I would have loved to see a sticker slapped on the front with an auto!

Here is the back side with the 1/1 print number.

What are your thoughts? Ever look for plates? Do you have any you are really proud of?

13/14 National Treasures - 11/12 Prime Brett Connolly Black Plate 1/1

 If you said to me 7 years ago when I got back into collecting I would be having some PCs of players who aren't on the Devils and chasing parallels etc I would say you were crazy and there is no way. However, it has happened and I have probably 15 or so autos of Brett Connolly and countless rookies. But of course, I didn't have a true 1/1 yet just a Artist Proof from The Cup so I was able to fix that this spring.

The nice thing about my plate is I have two examples in my collection that were made with the plate:

 Example 1
 
11/12 Panini Prime Brett Connolly Rookie Holosilver /50

 Example 2:

11/12 Panini Prime Brett Connolly Hologold /25

 Here is the printing plate that was used to help those two cards above!

 When I picked this up, I didn't know what to expect. How thick are they? What do they feel like?

They are actually very thin and they have some weight to them (more than a normal card of course) and they feel really cold (metal obviously). No real texture to the surface and I was surprised the printing wasn't reversed.

 Here is the back side of the plate.

Getting my first plate was pretty cool, and I really like the idea. However, I don't see myself trying to get every single plate from Brett Connolly or any other player for that matter (unless circumstances are too good to pass up of course). I do have one more plate I added to my collection around the same time as picking this one up but I will save that for another day.

11-12 The Cup Brett Connolly Artist Proof 1/1?

As I continue to prove I am the super-collector of all things Brett Connolly, I added an interesting card a little while ago. This one was an "artist proof" from 11-12 The Cup. This was originally part of an uncut sheet and the person who won it, had it cut and sold off the individual cards from the sheet. The seller had three different looking dual shield Connollys and I don't think DAS-CC was ever actually created.

11-12 The Cup Brett Connolly Artist Proof 1/1?

Now this card isn't number and was never released, so is it a 1/1? Does it have any value? I was able to buy it for three bucks and it has value to me but do you other collectors chase any of these down? Let me know your thoughts on artist proofs.

Just for fun I watched an auction on a redemption sheet and the winner nabbed it for about 45 bucks so clearly on the sheet level they aren't too desirable.

10-11 Heroes and Prospects Update Box Break

Been pretty crazy around here and I have had little time to get up some posts of a few breaks I did recently. So first up is my 10-11 Heroes and Prospects Update Set. 

I bought this because I did have the 10-11 H&P regular set and I thought it would be nice to have the update to go with it and the price was more than right on the box/set at 24.99. Two hits for 24.99, why not.

Auto Hit

Not a bad start, with H&P sometimes you will get autos from players who can't or never will make the NHL but here I got myself a NHL regular. Matt had 8 goals and 5 assists in 42 games last season with the Ducks.

Game Used Hit

Whoa! My first 1/1 wasn't that great but my second 1/1 ever is pretty soild. Ryan Murphy is a very talented offensive defenseman who I remember representing Canada this past Dec/Jan at the WJHC. He moves the puck very well and even though he is a little smaller than some defensemen I don't remember him being too much of a liability in his own end either. My only complaint is that this 1/1 isn't labeled 1/1 and I had to find out online what the print number was, but I guess that is ITG for you!

In all a very great box especially considering you also get 50 base cards featuring some pretty good players who are still kids in the minors and the NHL. The last two cards are Theo Fleury and Eric Lindros too which are also fun base cards to own.

Just hit my second 1/1 ever!

I will post more later, but here is my second 1/1 ever!

08-09 Artifacts 1 of 1 Rookie, My first 1/1 pull.

So my first ever 1 of 1 came from a pack of 08-09 Artifacts. It wasn't as exciting as you might think it should have been because for one thing I had no idea who the guy was! In the end, it still has been the only 1 of 1 I have ever pulled but I have gone from having hope and excitement that this pull might have meant something to knowing this card is likely never going to amount to much more than a curiosity. 

Jordan LaVallee aka Jordan Smotherman started his career in amazing fashion scoring on the only shot he ever took and had 2 points in 2 games during the 07-08 season. He would play two unsuccessful games in 08-09 leaving him with two career shots and 1 goal. He would still be a plus 1 for his career and a shooting percentage of 50% is better than Gretzky or Lemieux. Still, he would never enter another NHL game and in fact he is further from the NHL than he has ever been. 

Jordan is 26 years old and is playing in the Hockey Allsvenskan (which is tier 2 hockey in Sweden). Now, he is doing well there 2nd in the league in goals with 26 and 22nd in the league with 36 points. But the league isn't exactly boasting top calibre players, but Jordan is playing with Tommy Enstrom who is Tobias Enstrom's brother. 

08-09 Artifacts Black Jordan LaVallee (Smotherman) Rookie 1/1

So would you rather have this card, or a 1/1 parallel of some random base card like Shane Doan? I think I would prefer this card, but I am not positive about that.