We Got Taylor Hall???

Hey all, I am sure you were expecting a post on this much much sooner but alas I was away out of town and the last post or two was scheduled and as a result this is the first chance I have had to post about the craziest 23 minutes in NHL history. I will focus on each aspect one at a time and I will start with the biggest impact to me personally....Taylor Hall!!

I don't think we fleeced the Oilers as much as some suggest, having seen Adam Larsson for the past few years and knowing his projection it is safe to say he will have a good and long NHL career and in Edmonton will finally get a chance to flash his offensive abilities. The Oilers also freed up some cap-space and they used that to sign Lucic and they have a free spot in the roster for Puljujarvi to grow and develop. I am sure everything is thinking why not Eberle or RNH? Well I am sure the Oilers would have preferred that in terms of talent but I am guessing there is also a chemistry aspect perhaps or Ray Shero had no interest in anyone other than Hall and finally got his man. In the end the Oilers will be a tiny bit better and maybe will get over the hump and in the meanwhile the Devils improve substantially and I am very very excited for this upcoming season (Oh boy, I'm starting to sound like a Leafs fan).


10-11 Certified Taylor Hall Auto Jersey Rookie /599

 I haven't shown this card off before and now is the perfect time. Love the set, love the actual game used swatch and Taylor will make a big difference for us this season. He played with Adam Henrique in junior and I am hopeful some chemistry still exists there when Adam scored 20 goals in 19 playoff games with Hall.

For those of you who have been long time readers might recognize these two cards that I still own and appreciate a tiny bit more after June 30th's trade.

10-11 Donruss Taylor Hall Rated Rookie - Toronto Expo /250

10-11 Donruss National Rated Rookies Taylor Hall /25

So what am I expecting as a Devils fan. Progress, if we can keep Cammy healthy and our forwards like Boucher and Blandisi continue developing I am thinking we can seriously contend for a wild card spot this year and break our playoff drought. As far as Taylor Hall goes, I am predicting 35 goals and 75 points for him...lofty but not unrealistic expectations for a player who has career highs of 27 goals and 80 points and is about to hit his prime years!

Taylor Hall Rated Rookie - Toronto Expo /250

Living in Nova Scotia means a few things. One of the things is we don't get any cool card expos. Toronto has its fair share of expos and at those expos there are cool give-aways and autograph sessions that can make a person living out east rather jealous. 

eBay does allow me to at least buy things that I would have otherwise been given for free and Mr Hall is an example. Apparently this card was limited to 250 copies, but since it isn't numbered I guess I will never know for sure. However, this card is easily more rare than his Young Gun, his regular Rated Rookie and most other Taylor Hall rookies for that matter so I felt landing this for under 10 bucks was a bit of a steal. Of course, there are some that don't feel it is a true rookie and I respect that, but again beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Now that I have this card as well as Shattenkirk, Lehner, Omark and Fowler, it might be worth my time to try and track down the other 8 cards in the set.
Here is what the set looks like:

Cam Fowler /500
Derek Stepan /500
Linus Omark /500
Robin Lehner /500
Sergei Bobrovsky /500

Jeff Skinner SP /250
Nazem Kadri SP /250
Taylor Hall SP /250
Kevin Shattenkirk SP /250

Tyler Ennis SSP /100
Logan Couture SSP /100
Michael Grabner SSP /100
Tyler Seguin SSP /100

The Swap Meet Part 2 - Rookie Goal

After overloading on autos, I found a few rookies that I couldn't leave without as well as a few bonus game-used cards which I wasn't shopping for, but nabbed anyway. So here is the rest of the haul which cost me 65 bucks in total.

10-11 Donruss Rated Rookie Toronto Expo Robin Lehner

This kid is pretty decent and I don't have many of his rookies so this was a must. Not many would consider expo cards rookies, but I do.
10-11 Donruss Rated Rookie Toronto Expo Linus Omark

I have NO rookies of this kid. Glad to get this one.
10-11 Donruss Rated Rookie Toronto Expo Cam Fowler

Awesome d-man and the price was right!
10-11 Donruss Rated Rookie Toronto Expo Kevin Shattenkirk

Another player I didn't manage to score any rookies of. This one was another proud pick up.

I have decided to start a new PC and that is to collect a swatch from every team in the NHL and maybe that ever played in the NHL.....

10-11 UD Game Used David Booth

Love this kid and I think it might be my first Panthers swatch....can't remember.

10-11 UD Game Used Ilya Kovalchuk
Just am impulse buy. I have a red NJ swatch of Kovy but no black. Now I do.

10-11 Certified Fabric of the Game Kyle OkposoDon't have any of the Fabric of the Game cards so I bought this one to say I have one. Also counts as an Islander swatch incase I didn't already have one.

10-11 UD Game Used Rob Niedermayer

I bought this one to count as a Devils swatch and not having any Rob Niedermayer memorabilia I thought this was a good deal.

So there is the rest of the swap meet. I had fun shopping and these cards in total averaged less than 2 bucks a card so I feel I couldn't go wrong. My favourite cards were the early Parkies, the Elias rookie auto and the Orr Reprint. Thanks for reading, and hopefully I can get caught up on other posts!

The Latest Swap Meet

Things have been super crazy lately and I want to share my swap meet success but since I don't have much time to do so tonight, I thought I would share the size of the stack I picked up. I already have one regret of something I left behind, but I will get to that in due time as well.

I went with a plan: Vintage, autos and rookies and I think I accomplished it.

Anyway, I will break the post into a couple pieces starting tomorrow and share my finds.

The impact of Panini on hockey TTMs

Last year when it was announced that Panini would be joining the hockey world I really didn't know what to think. I have only ever known them as a sticker company and really that was my own collecting ignorance. It turns out they have been making sports cards for a number of years and doing a good job at it. So I waited for the hockey products to roll out, and they did slowly, and one after another the hockey world was given what Panini had to offer. After seeing Score, Donruss, Certified and Limited I must say they are decent cards and when compared to many of the UD products of years past they are of similar caliber and I will leave it up to each of you to decide who is better.

What I find particularly interesting is it seems as though many of Panini's products which sell for as much as many of UD's products inside the packs, on the secondary market (places like Ebay) the cards are selling for fraction of the value their UD counterparts are selling for.

For example: A Taylor Hall Rated Rookie could be had for 15 bucks on Ebay easily, while the Young Gun version will set you back closer to 50 (if you are lucky) from what I understand statistically speaking you have an equal chance of pulling either from a box that will run you about 70 bucks. It is clear the demand is still stronger for some of UD's products when you look at the comparables from Panini. So what does this mean for collectors?

Options, there are now more options to score rookies and autographs of your favourite players at prices that are more reasonable than in the past. In addition, for me at least, it also means I might buy one or two boxes less of cards because I know I can buy all the cards I want for less than the cost of the box.

TTMs are another area affected by this new saturation. I was very happy to land myself a Nick Palmieri Mirror Red auto from Ebay. This is an auto I have been trying to get for almost 4 months. When I didn't have luck with getting one from my Score boxes I looked elsewhere and my patience landed me this beauty for about a buck and a half plus shipping.

The card is numbered 222/250 and is a nice on card auto of an up and coming NJ prospect. He recently has been playing with Kovalchuk and Zajac and has 3 goals in his last 6 games with the club.

To get this as a TTM I would have needed to get his card (if I already didn't have it) and mail him a letter which would be to the club in the USA which in all would have cost me almost 2 dollars in postage plus the cost of the envelopes and there would be no guarantee that he would sign it.

Where instead for about 4 dollars I did get the card, already signed and mailed to me. For some players, Panini has made collecting autographs affordable especially in cases where a TTM is a longshot or difficult to attain. I do enjoy writing letters to the players and the payoff is an autograph in return but, if you want a player and a guaranteed autograph then it might be advantageous to use the secondary market and just buy the desired card especially now that there are twice as many Palmieri autographs than there were before. (not to mention ITG's products)