My best hit ever?

It has taken me some time, but I finally made it to another card store that has been in my "area" for a while but I have only known about for a month or so. My wife found it in her travels and finally I had a moment and some birthday cash to go and check it out. Last year I had some great luck on my birthday when I pulled this beauty, maybe I could get lucky twice? Well when I got into the store I was a little surprised, he had lots of new boxes and practically no singles. The good news is, I was itching for a box or two so I guess I came to the right place, so I put aside my want list and looked around.

After talking to the owner about cards for 15 or 20 minutes, he started to let me know some "deals" which meant he was taking 10-15 bucks off each box for me! I then inquired about two lone boxes of 11/12 Certified I saw on the shelf and he said I could have them for a C note each (taxes in). The problem was, that was also the price Between the Pipes was selling for too. I had to make a decision, two of one, two of the other or one of each.

I asked him for a coin, he provided a Remembrance day quarter with a poppy on it, I flipped it and the answer was two boxes of Certified. I brought the boxes home and busted the first four packs. 

ALL had hits in them and the fourth pack yielded this monster!

This seam is bulging out of the card, much like ITG's hits tend to!

#/5. THIS IS A CROSBY numbered out of 5 and I LIVE IN NOVA SCOTIA. This card is only hotter in downtown Pittsburgh. The only question remains, what do I do with it! I love the card, but someone out there may love it more than I do. My wife wants me to hold onto it, but at the same time there are some hardcore Crosby fans out there that might want it more than I do.

Either way, this box so far is pretty solid! I will share this box and the other one when I am done busting, but I just had to share!

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.