11-12 Certified Ryan Ellis Auto Rookie Gold /25

In terms of my PCs as they stand right now, Connolly and Henrique are definitely the tops but Ryan Ellis is another player I have certainly collected with some level of commitment. He had one particular card I have been watching for a couple of years now and this past summer I was able to land the whale finally. 


 11-12 Certified Ryan Ellis Auto Rookie Gold /25

 When you mix a PC player and a set you love it is a dangerous combination. The gold variations all are thicker than their regular version counterparts and they feature a seam piece instead of just a regular swatch. 

Here is the back, all the same as the regular run except the run is 25 instead of /499 or /299 in the case of Mr. Ellis.

Ryan is poised to make a big jump this year, I can feel it. He is off to a decent start with 1 goal and 5 points in his first 9 games. He has a future in the NHL as a regular top 4 defenseman with a specialty on the power play. I just hope someday he might be able to find his way to New Jersey!

2011-12 Panini Certified Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Auto Rookie /499

So a while back I landed a very nice IMHO Landeskog rookie with funds from selling my Cheevers rookie. I did land another couple cards with the funds and here is another one of those cards I am proud to add to the collection.

2011-12 Panini Certified Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Auto Rookie /499

Blue swatch, simple auto and all round nice and shiny. I do wish he used his number 93 on his signature because he normally does but at the same time I already have two autos from Ryan and I do like this one is different than the other two (one with #9 and other with #93)

Here is the back side of the card. Cool info, nice relatively low number and some pretty awesome junior stats.

Now that I have some of the big names from this set, part of me thinks it might be nice to chase them all! Oh why do I have so many ideas and very little time and money? I am pretty serious about trying this out but I believe it will be a marathon-like project.

11-12 Certified Cory Schneider Auto Gold /25

Bought this one from a LCS with money from my Cheevers as well. This isn't going to get anyone too excited but it worked for me. Love the Certified Mirror Autos, while the gold looks odd with most NHL uniforms, this one included, the print run is very exciting. 

Numbered to 25 and from Cory's pre-Devils days found its way to me for just a couple bucks.

11-12 Certified Cory Schneider Auto Gold /25

This is my second auto for Corey Schneider and my second in a Canucks uniform. I might trade one some day to get a Devils uniform one but then again given how affordable these are I just might need to be patient and I can find another for under 5 at the LCS or online somewhere.

A pair of Brett's for the price of a pack of Prizm!

Brett overload I know, but I do really like the kid and his cardboard is often found at real nice prices! I landed two great autos one from my favourite set 11-12 Certified and another from a set I don't typically collect but it was attached to the auction for the Certified so I went for it.

11-12 Certified Brett Connolly Rookie /499

This was the card I went after. I absolutely love the 11-12 Certified Rookies and when you combine that with my boy Brett, this is a must have for myself. I am not a huge fan of the white only swatch, but the autograph is awesome. The Certified set was very early to market in the 11-12 season and clearly Brett signed his stickers during the transition from junior to pro and his signature definitely reflects what he was signing in junior and even has his number 8 from Prince George on it.

When you compare his auto from the beginning of the season to the one at the end of the season you can see he shortening his last name up significantly

 11-12 Panini Contenders Brett Connolly Rookie /800

Here is a Brett rookie auto from later in the season and you can see when he started signing serious numbers of cards he shortened things up to basically a B, C and Y and there are no numbers with his auto here.

The latter appears to be the way he is signing now which is all good in my books but what I do like about the second card is it is ON card and I love the first one because the auto was done clearly before he was assigned 14 in the NHL and you see his old auto style.

Two fun cards for the collection and 7 dollars was all it set me back. Not too bad, I promise no Brett in my next post so if you are tired of them, don't worry! If you are loving them, I am working on another one or two...stay posted.

Minor PC Addition and some Preds

So with the sale of my damaged David Clarkson The Cup Gold I was able to buy the Henrique /99 from the previous post and this following lot. I had offered the selling half his asking price and he took it. I suspect because I was buying multiple lots from the guy he was very giving on his end. 

11-12 Ryan Ellis Certified Rookie /299

 Ryan Ellis is a bit of a minor PC for me. I loved this kid in Junior and even though he is trapped in Nashville I am still a fan and hope someday the Devils might be able to steal him away. He is an amazing offensive defenseman and I don't doubt he will be playing for Team Canada again someday too. Love the guy and the set, this card was a no-brainer.

11-12 UD Ice Ryan Ellis Rookie /1999

As I mentioned before, I dislike what UD did with the ICE brand pretty much putting no effort into the cards. But at the same time they do hold a nice "value" to them and getting an Ellis is an added bonus. My whole reason for the lot was the first card. Every other card in this lot was free so I don't mind getting this one for nothing.

11-12 Crown Royale Gabriel Bourque Rookie

 11 goals in 34 games last season does give me hope he will be an everyday NHL player, but I doubt he will put up many more than Phil Bourque's 22 goals in a season.

11-12 Panini Contenders Jeremy Smith Rookie /999

 Jeremy Smith is definitely facing an uphill battle with Nashville having Rinne already between the pipes. However, he has been a very good goalie at the AHL level and may someday find a new home as an UFA and get a legit NHL shot. Still waiting for his first NHL start in the meantime.

11-12 Crown Royale Roman Josi Auto Rookie

 This might be the diamond in the rough as far as the lot goes. Nashville seems to have no problem nabbing amazing defenseman and Josi is another example. Roman just signed a 7 year extension with the Preds and some are hailing it as a pretty great deal. He may never be a Norris candidate or a HOF'er but he will be a very solid top 4 defenseman on pretty much any club in the league.

11-12 Crown Royale - Jeremy Smith Rookie

We have seen Jeremy before, now it looks like I am becoming a super collector of his. (Not really, if you want one let me know I will gladly trade one away).

So two Ellis', a Roman Josi and a few others all for 8 dollars. I call that a successful purchase!

Some good news out of Devils land

In what I would call one of the strangest summers in Devils history, I finally received some news that I felt was post worthy as it plays a huge factor in my collection as well. As many of you know, I am a Devils fan during both good times and bad and seeing two of my favourite players take off (Clarkson and Kovy) has made the summer a little tougher. I have tried to turn this into a positive and I have had huge success online selling some of my Clarkson cards. To date, I move both my The Cup Rookies as well as my Game Used Spectrum which has allowed me some serious online spending. I am going to celebrate my sales and my team's recent signing in the next several posts. Here are some of the loot that I have landed thanks to my eBay sales!

I also want to point out that Adam Henrique will be a PC of mine as he will be a Devil for 6 more seasons and given he has scored more important goals than many players in Devils history this clutch kid is a no-brainer for me to collect seriously.

11/12 Rookie Anthology Rookie Treasures Adam Henrique /99

Here is my first huge landing in the Henrique world. This is without a doubt one of his finer and more valuable rookies and it is pretty cool that it is numbered 66/99. I love the two colour seam piece with a standard black swatch below. Too bad it isn't including his number 14 in the auto but I guess that is because he signed a huge sheet of stickers early in the NHL season.

11-12 Certified Adam Henrique Rookie /499

One of my favourite products released in 2011-12 was Panini Certified and their rookies are some of the nicest cards in my opinion. A great large swatch with foil board and an auto. I actually landed two of these cards but one of the sellers contacted me and basically said you won it for too cheap so I am selling it to a friend. A true shame because it was a pretty awesome black swatch which I thought would look awesome with the red one in my collection. At least one of my sellers was honest and sent me the one you see above. Adam's sophomore slump and wrist injury have brought many of his rookies down in value and made collecting him a bit more affordable so I am hoping to scoop up low and enjoy them as he gets back to his rookie year form.

So here is the first a few posts based on my eBay sales, stay tuned for some good vintage and another PC lot pickup. 

11-12 Certified Evander Kane Gold Auto /25

Here is another Certified auto for my collection, this time it is a young star that goes by the name of Evander Kane. Evander had a breakout season last year scoring 30 goals for the first time and likely not the last. He was the Thrashers 4th overall pick back in '09 and at the age of 21 he already has 75 NHL goals and I think he will likely be a 35 goal guy yearly for the next decade or so. I would love to see him focus his "energy" more on the ice and if he does who knows how good this kid could be!

11-12 Certified Evander Kane Gold Auto /25

Here is the front, sticker technology as always, but a really nice auto with name and number.

Here is the back side. When it comes to autographs I typically don't go too crazy for the low number parallels because it is the signature I am after more than anything but this one popped online for a decent price and I did a best offer even lower than list and it was accepted. True I might have been able to get something from a TTM, but time hasn't been on my side and again the price was too good to pass up.

Back Checking Ryan Johansen

Numbers have kind of been my thing my whole life. When ever I see them, I am always analyzing them and in fact I remember using Lotus 123 to calculate the Devils stats including g.a.a by using the daily box scores in my local newspaper (in days before the internet). Numbers and sports stats have always been fun for me and I could never get enough. 

When I got landed my Park and Robinson, I was also able to get a screaming deal on a Ryan Johansen Certified Rookie. When the card arrived, I loved the look of the front, the scribble signature with sticker technology and the game worn player worn swatch on the front. As much as I like to kid a bit, I really and sincerely do love the Certified rookies and this was no exception.

I then made my way to the back where I found something jump out at me....

92 points in 10-11 is a pretty solid output for 63 games, but apparently in 71 other WHL games, Ryan has 25 goals, 44 assists for 100 points. Hmmm.....something wrong here wouldn't you say? Well according to hockeydb, he did play 71 games the previous season, and did have 25 goals and 44 assists. But, we should all know that 25 + 44 doesn't equal 100, just like 65 + 98 wouldn't equal 192. In today's age of internet, spreadsheets and computers it is hard to think an addition error would still exist on hockey cards. True problems with the write up could happen or messing up a birth date but addition? I figured this type of stuff would be automated and imported in to a matrix on the backs of these cards. I guess I am wrong and adding is something that is still done by hand....and poorly at that.

Have you noticed any errors like this? I know the Beckett doesn't have it listed as an UER, have they stopped listing the new errors all together?

11/12 Rookie Anthology Box Break - Hit by Hit 3

Hit three was as exciting as it was disappointing. It appears this season, I have the curse of the Canadiens as any of my cool rookie hits appear to be Habs. This marks my SECOND Certified Rookie to play in Quebec and joining Aaron Palushaj  is Raphael Diaz. I absolutely love the design of the Certified rookies, but I am not even close to the biggest Canadiens fan on the planet. 

The only extra perk from this hit is it is /99. I guess in the Rookie Anthology release they made a few of the Certified rookies SSP and this counts as one of them. I don't know why Diaz stickers would be hard to come by, but at least there is a little more "value" in this hit than some of the other Certified rookies. With that being said, I certainly would consider trading this hit!