Card of the Week - Travis Zajac

Tuesday night, the Devils stole a win from the Blackhawks and Marty Brodeur was the main reason and the first star of the game. However, the Devils would not have won in the shootout if not for Travis Zajac. Zajac is back for the second time from an extremely serious Achilles injury/surgery.


In the two games since coming back, Travis has 1 assist and the shootout winner. He has played well and looked like he is on the way to returning to his old self. If the Devils are to be serious contenders this post-season, we are going to need our top three lines producing and Zajac will likely figure in at the first or second line centre.

11/12 Certified Mirror Blue Travis Zajac Auto

Front Side Similar look to last year's release, these cards are modern looking and clean. Sure they have the silly sticker auto, but in the end that isn't much different than 85% of autos out there.

The Back Side

You can say what you want about Panini's crazy parallels etc., but what I do like is their autos are very similar to the base cards and in cases when I am not going after the set, it is nice to have a card the mirrors the base set. These autos are limited to 99 copies and I landed auto number 56.

I bought this because I wanted a more cent Zajac auto, so this actually is my second one. My first one was his SPx Rookie from 06/07. There are slight differences between my two autos but he has been pretty consistent over the years.

How I received the auto: eBay purchase

Beckett Value: (Not sure, I don't have the most recent issue, but I would speculate in the 3-8 range)

Card of the Week - Sam Gagner

Hard to imagine anyone having a better week than Sam Gagner. What does a kid fresh off the first 8 point night since the 80's do? How does a three point night sound? Since the all-star break, Sam has 6 goals and 6 assists in 3 games. Not too bad considering he had only 5 goals and 21 points in the previous 42 games. Now Sam is on pace to top his rookie totals which are his career highs at the moment. The next few weeks will be very interesting for Mr. Gagner as his trade value has increased and the Oilers are still looking to retool their team for future success.

I know the Devils could be interested with their problems filing the Center position with healthy bodies and having a surplus of talented young defensemen could bode well for a future trade....but I am not holding my breath on that one.

My collection of Sam Gagner's increased by one recently (and before the 8 point game) with this card..


10-11 Certified Mirror Blue Materials #58
As I have mentioned before, I really like Certified cards on the secondary market. This card was a part of a decent sized lot of 10-11 Certified inserts and game used cards so the price per card was in the $1.50 range. The front side features the photo on foilboard with a smallish swatch of blue jersey.

The back side

The backs feature the card numbered out of 100 along with stats and a write-up. Like a broken record, I will say this is how Game-Used cards should be. I will certainly buy these cards all day at a buck fifty a pop. In fact, if I didn't have too many partial sets and limited cash, I would like to try and build the Mirror Blue Materials set.

How I received the card: Lot purchase from eBay

Beckett Value: 4-10 dollars