08-09 SPX Winning Combos Bobby Hull/Dale Hawerchuk Game Used

Do you ever find a killer card online and find yourself checking out the seller's other items just to see if there was something out there you didn't know you needed until you saw it? Well need is a pretty arbitrary word and I am sure I need more cards about as much as I need a hole in the head (my parent's words not mine) but truth is you never know sometimes until you look. This card was one that I discovered in such a fashion and was able to land it for a couple dollars as a combined purchase.


08-09 SPX Winning Combos Bobby Hull/Dale Hawerchuk Game Used

I think this card is a great idea. Two former Jets who are both members of the Hall of Fame. The best Jet from the WHA days meets the best Jet from the NHL days. If Bobby held on for a few more seasons he could have even played with Dale, how great would that have been? After scorching the WHA for 303 goals and 638 points in just 411 games, Bobby was not the same player he was after the WHA folded and decided to call it quits after one season in the NHL split between the Whalers and Jets.

Dale Hawerchuk is the NHL Jets all-time leader in Goals (379), Points (929), and Power Play Goals (122). He is second in Assists with (550), 3 behind Tomas Steen and second in Game Winning Goals with 29, 2 behind Doug Smail. Dale would eventually get traded and put up some great numbers in Buffalo before making stops in St. Louis and Philadelphia. 

So I am not sure if you are wondering this, but I will pretend you are...Is that actually a Bobby Hull Jets jersey?

Well, lets look at the back, specifically the guarantee. 

I have professed this on a few occasions, I am NOT an English major. In fact, I am not the best writer by a long shot, but I do believe I am reasonably literate and I am going to hope the person making the text on these cards understands the rules of the English language. Based on those assumptions, I am left with the idea that Dale's blue swatch is event worn (Jets Alumni game perhaps) but more importantly Hull's swatch is game worn! Now I could be wrong and they just listed the Game-Used first because its more exciting but I want to think the Hull is actually game worn. 

If you look at his swatch it is definitely an older style jersey piece and would work for the time period in question. My only concern is he played just 18 games for the Jets that season and I am not sure how many jerseys he had for that time period and Hawerchuk swatches are plentiful so why would they use an event used one? 

In the end I have the rules of the English language and appearances supporting Hull Game-Used and I have probability theory supporting Hull Event-Used. I may never know which is right but my heart wants to believe that swatch is Game-Worn so I will go with that for now but of course always welcome your opinions too!

Huge Pile of 13-14 UD Game Used including many HOF'ers

I have mentioned in many posts previous how great my LCS is for finding random deals and the owner's dislike of game used cards. They have always tended to be in my favour and this batch I have to show off today are a result of his dislike and eagerness to unload game used cards on the cheap. 13-14 Upper Deck was bought in mass quantities by people in Nova Scotia in the hopes of landing one of their very own...Nathan Mackinnon. As a result lots of boxes were opened and at a rate of 2 per box game used cards found their way into the 3 for $5 bin. Thankfully Upper Deck included many Hall of Fame players and future Hall of Fame player in that release and here are some that I pulled and others than I bought from the 3 for $5 bin.


 Nick Lidstrom

 

Personally I wouldn't call him the best defenseman of my generation because there were so many who I felt were every bit as good, if not better. But there is no arguing with 7 Norris Trophies and 12 All-Star appearances. 

Dale Hawerchuk

 

 We all know I love this guy so I won't go on and on about him. I think his 81 goals in 72 games during his final year of junior to go with 183 points is just amazing.

Ron Francis

Ron is second all-time in assists with 1249. Can't remember who's first but this total is pretty impressive.

Ray Bourque

No player has taken more shots in the NHL than Ray Bourque. He is first with 6206 career shots.

Borje Salming

Only 3 players have been on the ice for more power play goals against than Borje (621). They are Chris Chelios (708), Ray Bourque (687), Mark Messier (683). Not bad company for a relatively unwanted stat.

Doug Wilson

Doug is a 7-time all-star who also won the Norris in 1982. He would score 39 goals and 85 points that season which are both very impressive.

Peter Forsberg

Peter's 1.25 points per game average leaves fans wondering what could have been for his career if not for feet and ankle injuries forcing him to miss time an a relatively early retirement.

Jaromir Jagr

Jagr continues his assault on the record books. 4th all-time in goals and points and rising!

Dino Ciccarelli

Dino was just solid all-around. However, best known for scoring and he finished up with 232 career power play goals which is good for 9th all-time.

Jari Kurri

Jari scored an impressive 39 short handed goals in his career which is good enough for 6th all-time. The leader in that department however scored nearly double that and I think played on the same line as him (Gretzky).

Paul Coffey

Another former Gretzky teammate. Paul is a 3-time Norris Trophy winner who nearly scored 50 goals in a season (48) which is a total I don't believe will ever be touched again.

Joe Mullen

Joe Mullen is a 3-time Cup winner and former leading American born scorer.

Guy Carbonneau

I've heard people argue that he belongs in the Hall of Fame. He is a 3-time Selke and Cup winner, both are pretty impressive.


Justin Faulk

Future superstar defenseman? At the moment in time, he is on pace to score over 30 goals which has only been done twice since 1990. Kevin Hatcher ('93) and Mike Green ('08)
 
Patrick Sharp

Patrick has already won 3 Cups and could find himself on a team this season to win his 4th. He owns a very respectable 10 goals and 22 point in 30 games while taking on a leadership role in Dallas.

Robin Lehner

Ok, not all my jersey cards are amazing. What does the future have in store for Robin in Buffalo. The future will definitely reveal it soon enough and I am guessing good things.

Benedict Kovalchuk

Once upon a time I would have enjoyed this card. Now I just own it and nothing more....

Well there you have it! I pulled a couple of these but for the most part, they were purchased at the LCS in my 3 for $5 bin which is pretty awesome and always being topped up which means I have a few more to share in a future post! If any interest you, please let me know as I could be convinced to part with some.

08-09 SPx Winning Materials Hull and Hawerchuk

Normally I write something before the card, but not today. Check out that card. What are your thoughts? Anything surprising? Arguably two of the best players to ever wear the jersey (Selanne is in that discussion too). Swatches are small, but hey, these are two Hall of Famers here! Jersey swatches are different! Can you believe one is game used and the other is event used? Probably, UD loves doing that. But, it turns out the Hull is the game used and Hawerchuk is event used. As it stands, in my Hawerchuk collection, I now have 2 event used and 3 game used Hawerchuk swatches. But more importantly, I have my first game used Hull! Best part, you can't see this on the card but I paid 2 bucks! Never in a million years did I expect to get it but I did. Would you pay that price knowing one is essentially a fake? At the time I didn't know it was a fake but the swatch on the Hull looked very real to me and that is why I pulled the trigger. I know have Bobby Hull autos and a Bobby Hull game used. I do hope to get his rookie some day so I will hold off on the HOF post for now....but that will be a pretty tall order!

12-13 The Cup Enshrinements Dale Hawerchuk Auto /50

Picked up three cards from one guy on HI and this is the second of three with the first being the Jagr booklet. 

The card is very much like Dale Hawerchuk's career in my opinion. It isn't very flashy but man it is beautiful. The more you look at it, the minor details jump out at you and you just are in awe. The foil front his just enough luster to draw your attention but it isn't over powering. The photos are great, you almost envision one is from his rookie/draft year and the other action shot is from the midpoint of his career when he was putting up HOF numbers. The autograph is featured in a nice spot with the signature being on card. Lastly, it is numbered to 50 which puts it well within most people's budget but still won't be found in the dollar bin someday. 

12-13 The Cup Enshrinements Dale Hawerchuk Auto /50

Most of my readers know Dale is definitely among one of my favourite players of all-time and while he didn't sign his number on the card (the only flaw I could find), it is a very nice auto and on par with the quality his signature usually can be found in.

I don't know if someone busted a tin of The Cup and was happy or sad to find this in there, but I personally am very pleased to add this to my other Hawerchuk cards!

Three Swell Guys

I can't remember which lot I bought this from at my LCS, but basically I saw this card and loved it from the get go and lumped it in with a few others. Can you imagine three more likable guys these these three? Unless you are talking Wayne, Gordie and Bobby, I can't. I respect Savard a great deal, I love Hawerchuk and Gilmour is an ex-Devil and a player I would want on any team, even if it meant cutting a HOF'er. These three guys are all HOF'ers and the swatches are even nice and match up well with the pictures on the card. 

09-10 UD Black Trios Hawerchuk/Savard/Gilmour /50

This card was an absolute steal and the main reason why it cost only a fin was there is a little chipping around  two edges on the back. When it comes to game used cards unless it is a rookie, I tend to not care too much if there is a little chipping mainly because it is the swatches that matter in those cases.

This card is well designed and from a product that sells for about 200 dollars for a 4 card box. That's right, 200 dollars for 4 cards. Certainly a high end product, but as you can see from this card, you do get a quality card for the price. However, secondary markets might allow you to get the card you like at a price you can afford. The UD Black Trios inserts have some pretty cool combinations and if I get the chance to snatch another one up I think I will.

Value Vintage Sets #1 - 82-83 OPC

The number one value vintage set in my opinion is the 82/83 OPC set. Of all the sets on my top 5, this is only the second OPC set to make the list and it is the largest. 396 vintage cards with players who never lasted more than a few games and players who are believed to be the greatest of all-time. The depth of this set is what sets it apart from others and the fact that it is dirt cheap just makes it that much better!

Redeeming Qualities:

Set Size and Player selection
Several Cards booking for over 20 bucks including 2 for 40 a piece (Fuhr and Gretzky).
Set can be had for well under 100 bucks and even then it only books for 100 bucks! That is like 25 cents a card for a set nearly 30 years old.
Do you like Gretzky? There are 8 Gretzky cards in this set.

The Front Side

Really cool shot on this card. The design is very meat and potatoes, but it isn't too hard to like them, but you may not LOVE them.


The Back Side

Some of the cards have a bit of a dating game feel to them as you find out which NHL stars are bachelors and which like long walks on the beach. The backs complement the front rather well with a simple design and good colour selection.

The Rookies:

Of all the sets on the list, 82/83 offers the most rookies and many of them are HOF'ers! In all, there are 63 rookie cards including some of the following:


Ron Francis Rookie
Grant Fuhr Rookie (HOF)

Dale Hawerchuk Rookie (HOF)

Plus rookies of other great former NHL'ers like Joe Mullen, Bobby Carpenter, Brent Sutter and Neal Broten just to name a few.

Other notable cards:

First off, there really isn't many cooler looking cards this this one of Mike Liut!

Wayne Gretzky 4th year card

Wayne Gretzky In Action

This set has an IA card for every team in the set and usually showcases their star player. I like this one as you see Wayne trying to dodge a hip-check.

More Random Wayne!

There you have it, my Top 5 Value Vintage...

1. 82/83 OPC
2. 78/79 Topps

3. 81/82 Topps

4. 84/85 Topps

5. 89/90 OPC

Even though I built this set from packs, I consider it a Value set because it books for a mere 100 bucks and I have seen them sell for 80 bucks on eBay. Part of the low value is because they printed OPC in both Canada and US so there are more of these than lets say 81/82 OPC ( I stand corrected, it has been pointed out to me that US did not receive this release). However, this set is really stacked with great cards, cool rookies and to me offers the best bang for your buck (with a limited budget).

So what are your thoughts? Is your top 5 similar or different? I would like to try a top five for under 500 bucks sometime as it would pull in some pretty cool sets, but this is what my top 5 for under 100 bucks would look like.

WTF is an NHL Event Used Card?

I like game-used memorabilia cards almost as much as I like autos. I collect them, and I am trying to get cards from each NHL team and cards from my favourite players past and present. Some companies do a better job than others making these cards and certain sets have larger swatches and more pieces than others. I also get a fair bit of excitement pulling one from a pack and I do consider buying products that contain jersey cards.

A little while back I was on eBay and saw a few auctions with free shipping and players who I am fans of. So I threw a couple cheap bids on them and ended up with two of them. So for about 5 bucks shipping included I got two quad swatch cards from the 09-10 Black Diamond.

Dale Hawerchuk (huge fan)

Glenn Anderson (gotta respect the 'stache and the 2-50 goal seasons)

But what is most interesting is the colour of the swatches. They looked a bit like they were from the Eastern Conference All Star Jerseys from the mid-90's except for the red piece on Dale's card and Glenn never played in a 1990's All-Star game.

The backs of both cards proclaim that I have received a swatch that was "used in an official NHL event". Does that mean All-Star game? or does it mean Old-Timers game? I do have some 08-09 SP Game Used Duals of Bob Bourne, Billy Smith and Anton Stastny which state on the back they were "used in an official event". Please note the lack of NHL and the front of the three cards shows the player in their Old-Timers uniforms.

So I am not 100% sure where the jerseys came from, but the price was still right and I am still happy to have them in my collection, but I am still not sure what story is behind them. I really wish UD would take some more time in giving collectors an idea of what they own exactly especially when you consider these two cards would be hits that fall 2 per box in a relatively expensive product.

ITG Decades Box Break - Part 1 of 3

Well finally I was able to get my box of ITG Decades. I have decided to share the break over three posts much like how the product is broken down into three different kinds of hits. My scanner isn't compatible with my home OS so you will have to suffer with pictures I have taken with my home camera. Any "sheen" is from the top loaders...

Hit 1 - 100 years of collecting

When I opened up my box I see Wendel smiling at me. Is this a good or bad sign. Well he went into his NHL career with LOTS of potential. He had a 46 goal season, but never played more than 66 games in a season.

Hit 2 - Decades Rookies

Now we are talking. Love this guy! This is a solid hit for me.

Hit 3 - Memorable Masks

One of the cooler insert in my opinion. Not a big enough Barrasso fan to want to keep this card so if anyone is interested in trading for it, it is available. The same goes with Wendel Clark. I don't imagine I have the patience to try and build the complete 100 years set.

Check out part 2 tomorrow!

The Announcement

In all likelihood, today is going to be the day the NHL announces that the Atlanta Thrashers will be moving to Winnipeg. This will mean two things:

First, for the second time in a row, Atlanta proves they aren't interesting in supporting hockey.

Second, realignment will need to occur which means this fall your favourite team may have a new divisional threat.

Personally I am happy to see another team in Canada but with that being said, Winnipeg'ers need to now put their money where their mouth is and support this franchise. The Winnipeg Thrashers Jets have a lot of really good and young players (like Kane, Little, Bogosian, Enstrom, and Byfuglien) but, they are another season or two away from playoff contention so fans will need to be patient.

One storyline that I would like to see develop is Dale Hawerchuk build the Barrie Colts into an OHL powerhouse, make an Memorial Cup appearance and then accept the job as the Winnipeg Jets head coach! I think the Jets would welcome their adopted son back with open arms!

Anyway enough day dreaming, here is an early congrats to Winnipeg and if they do indeed get the Jets, and I wish them all the best!

Here is a Hawerchuk auto I received back earlier this year.

Dale Hawerchuk

Well if Doug Gilmour was not enough positive reinforcement to keep me on the TTM train then certainly HOF'er Dale Hawerchuk must be! I couldn't believe when I came home from work to find a second TTM in as many days. I opened the package and found these two cards signed. First off, I chose these two cards because they are 2 of the 3 cards that were released of Hawerchuk from his rookie year. I elected not to send his RC just in case I didn't have success. But the neat treat from this success is how he chose to sign his IA card with his number 10 and the team leader one he just signed with his regular signature. I had mailed these out on Dec 22 and received them back on Jan 20. An amazing turn around time and he signed both cards I sent out with a blue sharpie.

I have been a Hawerchuk fan as long as I have watched hockey. I always seem to be a fan of the players who quietly go about their business in a dominating fashion. Dale definitely fits that mold. Had he been drafted a year earlier he would have been a Montreal Canadien, and a year later would have been a Boston Bruin. Either team would have resulted in much more fan fare for Hawerchuk but instead he was a Winnipeg Jet which for some people made him invisible.

From the onset he was a star, rookie season numbers were 45 goals and 103 points, not too bad for an 18 year old. Then for the next 9 seasons he was a dominant player in the NHL averaging 42 goals and 102 points as season on a team that could never get out of the second round of the playoffs. He turned guys like Laurie Boschman and Andrew McBain into 30 goal guys! Probably the brightest point in his career was the 1987 Canada Cup where he, Wayne and Mario beat the Russians on their own. It was on that stage where Hawerchuk showcased his immense talent to the world.

Not long after, Dale was traded to Buffalo where he continued his strong play and then finished his career with stops in St. Louis and Philly. He unfortunately never won a cup, but he did win the Memorial Cup twice and the Canada Cup twice and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.