05-06 UD Ultimate Collection - Cam Neely Auto

Bam Neely, Sea Bass, Bam-Bam Cam. He was a pretty darn good power forward and his signature is even nicer!

05-06 UD Ultimate Collection Ultimate Signatures -  Cam Neely 

Great on-card auto of a HOF'er and the photo is just as I remember him!

#4 - Value Vintage Sets - 84/85 Topps

I think from now to number one the list will be a little more interesting because I felt that #2-4 could all be rearranged and with the right argument I could certainly buy into a person's opinion on the matter. But really, like most people's blogs they are just opinion pieces anyway so here is why I think 84-85 Topps is the 4th best value vintage set out there.

Here are the redeeming qualities to me:

The set is from the mid-80's which was the height of fire-wagon hockey!

Tonnes of star players in the set as well as a crop of new up-coming stars

It was the first Topps set produced since 81-82 so there are a few "First Topps Cards"

It was harder to build by packs because of 66 single printed cards in the set

17 Rookie cards in a set of just 165 Cards

Steve Yzerman rookie!!!

Card Design:

I really like the design of this year. On the front you get an action shot and a head shot. Also you see the name, team and position the player was playing. Really just a nice classic design certainly has the mid-80's feel to it.

The back side
The back is equally nice featuring vital information, stats and a small write-up back the player. Here Wayne averaged more than a goal a game for the second time in his career and won the Stanley Cup.

Key Card:

Without a doubt the key card in the set is the Steve Yzerman rookie. This card wasn't double printed so it holds its value rather well. The book price on this one is 15 - 40 dollars which is a pretty decent price to own an Yzerman rookie!

Steve front side

Steve back side
Like the Sakic rookie on my #5 set, Stevie Y's card value makes up a large percentage of the set price, in this case, 80% to be exact.

The rookies:

Even though there are only 17 rookies in the set, some of them are pretty good ones. Rookies include Dave Andreychuk, Tom Barrasso, Pat Verbeek, and Pat Lafontaine.

Pat Lafontaine Rookie

Other notable cards:

In addition to the rookies, there are some other cool cards like a Oilers era Gretzky which you have already seen, and cards from stars like Bossy, Coffey, Bourque, Savard and other typical mid-80's stars.

Wayne Gretzky All Star front side

All-Star back side

As you can see this is a pretty cool set. What makes it an especially good value is that you can own a set that is over 25 years old for very little. This set lists for 25-50 dollars in the Beckett but I have seen them go on eBay for less than 25! Definitely worth the price of a typical blaster box!

I bought my set which is in amazing shape in the early 90's for 45 bucks. Certainly haven't made any money off that purchase but my enjoyment of flipping through this set every now and again is worth paying a little more for it a long time ago and certainly a set I am going to continue to enjoy going forward.

It is worth noting, if you have the money...the 84/85 OPC is phenomenal as well. Addition rookies of Chelios, Neely and Gilmour make it a more attractive set but at 5 times the price a collector has to ask themselves is it worth it? Or should you own the Topps set and buy the missing rookies as singles? Lucky for me, I was given the 84/85 OPC set as a gift in the mid 90's so I have both plus a few singles of Gilmour and Chelios (no extra Neelys though).

Hot Packs Part 1

Hot packs are an item that some collectors really swear by and others don't really see any value in them. I personally like the idea, but of course it is only worth it if you are able to pull something of value. With all the different sets and options now, memorabilia cards really aren't as scarce as they once were. If a person wants a few jersey cards, they can bid on a lot of different jersey cards on ebay and end up with an 8 pack for about a dollar a piece. So buying a hot pack with a guaranteed jersey card may not be all it is cracked up to be. Over the next couple posts I will show you three different lots I bought on ebay and will see if I did get a deal or did I just get ripped off.


Of the three lots I did buy, every single time the packs came back to me as advertised so I did get exactly what I purchased, but did I get anything to make it worth the cost?


Scenario 1


09-10 Upper Deck Artifact Retail
2 packs
Cost with shipping was $13.39


I like Artifacts for the most part, and in fact if you purchase a hobby pack you are "guaranteed" a hit in each pack. But at a cost of over 15 bucks a pack from my local card shop, $13.39 for two retail hits seems like a decent deal. I would like to say though, all these people offering hot pack on ebay leaves me to wonder if there are any hits left on the shelves of Walmart in their little pack bins near the checkout lines!





The first pack:




First off was a Frozen Artifacts Cam Neely, not a bad pull in the least. I have always admired Camand this is the first memorabilia card I have ever owned of him so that is decent and the swatch though is mainly a dirty off white, I do see a little bit of black as well. Definitely better than a patch of bleached white fabric.

Pack Number 2:

The second pull was a Marty Turco Treasured Swatches. Well at least this wasn't Ruslan Fedotenko, I have far too many of his cards (If anyone wants one, let me know a deal can be had)! But back to Marty, not the worst card to get in the world, but definitely the norm I think when it comes to a lot of these hot pack deals. So one good card and one average card, but in the end this was a pretty decent experience. I think getting the Neely proved this round to have been worth while so I will give it a 7/10.