A few holiday breaks

As I mentioned, been on a bit of a busting bust lately. Boxes even with statistically favourable odds haven't been yielding much my way these days. In fact, you will see in my next post which is a box break of 13-14 Select how bad my luck really is!! In the meantime, I have a blast box I bought my wife for Christmas, a Fat Pack she bought me and a box of 11-12 Certified my in-laws bought me.

First the blaster:

13-14 UD Series 1 Joakim Nordstrom

Could be a while before I find out if this is a good card or not. Currently 12 goals and 11 helpers in 32 AHL hockey games.

13-14 UD Series 1 Nathan Beaulieu

I think this is my second one of these. After a few boxes and a blaster I have loads of Young Guns (20+). The best three I have pulled from all of those are: 2 Huberdeau Rookies and 1 Monahan. Pretty sad, I am so done with series 1.

The fat pack

11-12 Upper Deck Joe Colbourne

This was a little unexpected. My wife dislikes buying cards as presents so that is why she got a blaster! She did surprise me with a fat pack from a set I am still working on. I was able to land a few base I needed which was nice and an actually young gun. Former first round pick on his third team. Not too exciting.

11-12 Certified box

Each box has 4 hits and some good base (because I am working on the set). My hits were:

Ryan Smith Game Used
Shawn Horcroft Game Used
Justin DiBenedetto Auto Rookie

Yeah three strikes....

11-12 Certified Marcus Kruger /499

The best hit of ALL my boxes. Shame I already have three of his autos already. Good news I guess is I have an extra one or two to trade away now. I will keep this one because I am keen on the set, but I do have the following up for trade now: This and This. 

Well there you have it, my failures minus my next post. I think what I will post next will top these stinkers.

Don't Be Saad, Marcus is here but all good things must end.

The series of Blackhawk posts are about to end with their future. What Chicago has accomplished the last 9 years or has been remarkable. They were a club in the NHL basement, they won a Cup, got in trouble with the cap, blew up their team, and then rebuilt themselves into a power house once again. Not only do they look pretty good now, but with a collection of solid prospects they Hawks look good going forward. Here are two such prospects:  

11-12 Upper Deck Brandon Saad Rookie

 Brandon was off to a slow start this season but recently has picked it up scoring 12 points in the past 11 games and is seeing a little more ice time as a result.

11-12 Upper Deck Marcus Kruger Rookie

 Unlike the wing position, the centre position is a little more jam-packed so Marcus isn't getting the same ice time as Brandon mostly because they are pretty deep at the centre position with Toews, Bolland and Shaw all getting their fair share of ice. Still, he is making pretty good use of his time and in another season or two should be a pretty solid second-line centre.

11-12 Titanium New Wave Autos Brandon Saad (Exchange)

Here is an auto of Brandon Saad to go with my three Kruger autos. This is a rookie year signature of Brandon which isn't the same as an auto rookie, but sometimes that is just good enough!

So there you have it, a few Hawks related posts in honour of my favourite original 6 team. I will be back to posting about everything else in my collection with little rhyme or reason to the order! Thanks for checking in.

Marcus Kruger Autos

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have actually gone out trying to get a few more Rookie Treasures rookies because I do like the design and they can be had for pretty reasonable prices considering what you get, player worn, /499 and autographed. I actually doubled-down on a pair of Marcus Kruger Rookie Treasure cards and an additional Kruger auto. 

Here is the Rookie Treasure. I don't need to scan both of them because both swatches and autos look very similar. If anyone is interested in one of them, I am sure I can part with one.

This auto is way more bad-ass! I love the photo, the auto is on card and it is numbered out of 50. The more and more I look at this one, it is by far a superior card and since I won't likely be buying any boxes of Prime, I think buying singles of cards like this one above are the way to go! Just a great card in terms of feel, photography and design.

11/12 Rookie Anthology Box Break - Hit by Hit 2

Here is my second hit from the box, a rookie rivalry card featuring two decent prospects Cody Hodgson and Marcus Kruger. I like the concept of the dual rookie cards and we all know that Vancouver and Chicago have had some run-ins in the last few years. I think the concept is cool because this could be a marquee match-up in coming seasons, but Cody is now in Buffalo and some other "Rivalry" combinations are a little lame. I guess it was a case of Panini taking a good idea, and running too far with it. 

Anyway, I think the concept does work well here and I am very pleased to have these two youngsters as my second hit in the box.