12-13 Artifacts Box Break - UD made me nearly the perfect box!

I can honestly say when it comes to boxes, I love opening them. It really doesn't matter what the product is, or if there are hits or not. However, a rare thing happened to me a little while ago and that was I think I found the "perfect" box just for me. Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and nothing is truly perfect, but this box that I opened I think was one of the best I could ever realistically hope for and though not everyone would think the box is amazing, I certainly did and do. I want to warn you that there are no hits here that will have collectors bidding 100's of dollars on or anything like that. Instead, it is a box when the sum of the parts are added, I feel like I had a huge success. So here we go...

This is a bit of a review at the same time so here is what the 12-13 Artifacts base cards look like:

The front

I am a huge fan of these cards. I love the ice surface background, the silver foil and the crisp player action shots. Definitely a set I want to complete, even if it means buying the whole base, non-sp set.

The back side

Love the design on the back too. The horizontal layout, a second photo, partial stats and a little write-up. Upper Deck, this is what Artifacts should look like, well done. 

Now time for the hits...

Hit 1: Jordan Eberle Gold Parallel /25

What a start. A low number parallel hit of one of my favourite players in the NHL and  is players I collect. 

Hit 2: Team Canada Dustin Tokarski /999

I love that UD included Team Canada players and once again I landed another PC guy! Tokarski numbered to /999 isn't overly exciting to some, but I love this kid and hopefully he will get to the NHL a little faster now that he is in Montreal. I would never buy this card, but getting it in a pack is fun and I will of course be keeping it.

Hit 3: Chay Genoway Rookie /999

I think this hit belongs to someone else. This is the only hit in the box that doesn't belong, but then again it is a rookie and I LOVE rookies so at the very least I have a card I don't mind keeping. Truth is, there won't be many more cards made of this guy between now and his retirement so maybe I should enjoy his moment in the sun......maybe.

Hit 4: Frozen Artifacts Claude Giroux

Many many years ago, I saw Claude play hockey several times. He was actually in NOVICE and ATOM  and I was the timekeeper for the games he would play in our town. I know this because I do remember him and back then he was a pretty solid player so I thought he might go somewhere.

Hit 5: Johnny Bower /999

Cool insert idea focusing entirely on goalies. There is certainly a lot of fans of goalies and goalie subsets. I am not one of them, but Mr. Bower is a class act and he gave me more than I bargained for with my TTM request so getting this card was loads of fun.

Hit 6: Tyson Barrie Rookie /999

Here is my second guaranteed rookie and I am very pleased with this one. Tyson was a former Team Canada World Junior and is a pretty solid prospect with the Avalanche. People might think I am crazy, I would take this over a Chris Kreider any day :)

Hit 7: Autographed Rookie Redemption IV /99

The hit of the box (and a case hit) in terms of value and potential. I like extended rookie cards and I love autographed extended rookie cards. I really can't wait to find out which guy I am going to get. It will be numbered to 99 which is awesome and I am going to find out who it is before I redeem as it might be more advantageous to move the card rather than keep it.

Hit 8: Tundra Tandems Jordan Staal and Eric Staal

Ahhh the Staal boys. We were all born in the same city and as a result I do like the two of them a great deal. I am still in need of an Eric Staal auto to go with my Jordan and Marc.

Hit 9: Anze Kopitar Game Jersey Parallel /125

Yet another player I really like. Numbered to /125 it isn't exceptionally rare, but I love the purple and black swatches and I really like the design of these cards.

Hit 10: Chicago Blackhawks Rookie Redemption

For those of you that don't know me, the Blackhawks have always been my "second" team. If the Devils are out or it is a Western Conference matchup, the Hawks are my team. It began with Belfour and ever since I just have always liked the team. Currently, Toews and Kane are the two guys I like the most and I will share more on that in another post, but this redemption again it tailor made for me as I certainly don't mind getting this card either. One thing worth noting though, we are through the midpoint of the season and there have been no new Hawks to enter the NHL who don't already have a rookie card so this card could end up being a wild-card. So with that being said, I am also waiting to redeem this one as well since it might be advantageous to move it as well.

So there you go, my box broken. I loved every moment of the break and all the hits were very welcomed. There wasn't any card in this break that really is going to make me rich, but at the same time I could very easily keep every card and be extremely happy with the overall break. I hope to buy another box or two of this stuff, but I have a feeling that will need to wait until the summer when I may convince my wife it would be a good birthday gift! Well thanks for reading, I also have an awesome pack break coming in the next few posts too.

Parkhurst Project Card 14

Here is the third of the PSA graded 51 Parkies I landed a few weeks ago. This one like the others is graded a 1, and really the most poor of the three. I also got a fourth from the same dealer and this one isn't graded but is the nicest of the four (expect that post in a day or so).

Like other two posts, Jim McFadden is also a Chicago Blackhawk and is giving the camera guy a snow job too! McFadden who was born in Ireland had a pretty successful NHL career which included a Calder Trophy in 1948 after putting up 24 goals and 48 points in just 60 games. He would continue the winning ways by earning a shot at playing in the All-Star game in 1950 and a Stanley Cup Championship in 1950!

In the end, McFadden would finish with 100 goals, 126 assists and 226 points in a career spanning 8 seasons and 412 games.

Progress:

Card #44 and #14 of 105 in my set

Percent Completed:

13.3%

Cost of Card:

$6.00 with shipping

Total Cost of Set to Date:

$95.94

Jonathan Toews - TTM

This kid is easily one of my top 5 favourite current NHL'ers. Super happy to get this return and it was a pretty quick one too (2 months). Auto is a nice black sharpie and he put his number 19 with it. I looked at other autos online and if he ever decides to go with an autopen it will be obvious because I have never seen two of his autos look the same!

Check out the rest of post at Dirty Dangle.com

Countdown to draft day - Chicago Blackhawks

Since the Chicago Blackhawks are an original 6 team, they have been participating in drafts of one form or another since 1963. Their first ever pick was 5th overall in the 1963 Amateur draft when they struck out by selecting Art Hampson. Art would not ever play an NHL game, and I know very little of what became of Art. The Blackhawks would not have any success with their selections for the next several Amateur drafts before getting a hit in 1968 with John Marks, a defenceman from Winnipeg Manitoba.

Chicago's greatest draft success came in the 1980 NHL Entry Draft.

What is amazing about this draft is not only do they score one of the most exciting players to watch in NHL history with their first pick, they continue the draft selecting 8 more players that would eventually make the NHL. Ludzik, Murray, Wilson and Larmer would all go on to play over 400 NHL games a piece and of course Larmer would be an offensive superstar in his own right scoring 441 career goals while averaging more than a point a game in his 1000+ game NHL career. Denis Savard was the gem of the draft for the Hawks where he would break 100+ points 5 times for the Blackhawks during the 80's. Unfortunately for Blackhawks fans, Savard would leave Chicago and go on to win a Stanley Cup in a different uniform.

If you ignore the tiny 3 to 4 round Amateur drafts during the 60's then the worst draft in Chicago history would be the 1989 Entry Draft.

With the 6th overall selection in the draft, Chicago selected Adam Bennett. By selecting Bennett, the Hawks missed out on great 2-way forwards like Holik and Sillinger who were taken later than first round. Bennett who played a total of 69 games was by far the best Hawks selection in the draft. Only Tichy would ever play in the NHL from the remaining 9 selections Chicago had in the draft. Some other missed talent was: Nick Lidstrom, Patrice Brisebois, Robert Reichel, Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure.