A pile from the 3 for 5 bin! A little bit of everything for everyone.

Right now the 3 for 5 bin in my LCS is pretty lean thanks to me picking through all the good stuff. Rather than drag this out over 9 posts and bore everyone to death I figured I'd just lump them together. Enjoy the fruits of my 15 dollars!

2003-04 Private Stock Reserve Pavel Bure Jersey /750

Hall of Famer! Yes pleasure, I was willing to overlook the blue shirt.

2013-14 Upper Deck Canvas Valeri Nichushkin Young Gun

Love this guy's potential and love the photo. Seeing a shooting Star isn't too uncommon during a Dallas game but a flying Star is pretty awesome on cardboard.

2005-06 Trilogy Rookie Premiere Corey Crawford Rookie /999

This without a doubt is the coolest card of the bunch. Underrated beyond belief this keeper is and no respect at my LCS as this mint condition rookie was just sitting in the cheap seats. The crud at the top of the card was on the top loader. I promise to move it to a better top loader and give Corey 100% respect.

2006-07 Black Diamond Gemography Brad Winchester

I have far too many of his cards in my collection. Where is he now you ask? Retired. So perhaps he is on a beach somewhere spending his hard earned money. Though, he could also be waking up in a shady no-tell motel after a night of partying and drowning his sorrows.



2006-07 Black Diamond Gemography Jim Slater

I also have too many of Jim's cards in my collection. Jim left the NHL this season to play for Geneve in the Swiss league where he is playing with Tom Pyatt and Matt D'Agostini. Currently he has 25 points in 26 games which is pretty solid. These are his best numbers since he left college in 2005.

2013-14 Upper Deck Young Guns Jacob Trouba RC

Unless I already have a card in doubles or triplicate I typically love getting Young Guns in the 3 for 5 bin. Jacob is still very early in his career and given d-men usually take a few seasons to hit their stride I am thinking he is going to be an NHL star before long.

2013-14 Upper Deck Young Guns Ryan Murray RC

Hated him at the WJHC in 2012 where he repeatedly turned the puck over. The Blue Jackets have been slow bringing him along and for good reason but I think eventually he could be a decent defenseman and totally worth the $1.67.

2013-14 Upper Deck Young Guns Rasmus Ristolainen

Think Victor Hedman just slightly shorter.

2013-14 Contenders NHL Ink Steve Oleksy Auto

A roller hockey stud and an ice hockey minor-leaguer. Interesting auto here but again, autos for less than 2 bucks are always fun to snap up!

There you go, 9 cards covering all sorts of different players and all welcomed into my ever growing collection. Thanks for stopping by, I have a few fun posts coming up so stay tuned!

Big Thanks To Wes From Hobby Insiders

A little while back I sold my Scott Laughton and bought a couple cool cards with it. During that time I got a chance to talk to a fellow collector named Wes, he bought the Scott and he also told me about a forum called Hobby Insiders (HI). Ryan who runs Two Pad Stack also mentioned it to me so with all this peer pressure I decided to check it out. I have enjoyed my time with it so far, even made a deal or two on there. Well, Wes sent along a welcome gift and here it is!

13/14 UD Series 2 Reid Boucher Canvas Young Gun

 Wow, been wanting this for a while and here it is. Very happy to have a rookie of a future Devils superstar (yep I said superstar!)

13/14 Upper Deck Series 1 Damien Brunner Young Gun

 I already had one, but I do collect multiples of rookie because they are....rookies! I have loads of Recchi, Roenick and Jagr rookies too if you don't believe me!

13/14 Upper Deck Series 2 Damien Brunner Rookie Materials

 I didn't have this one but I am glad I do! Damien had an amazing start, and then cooled off. I am expecting a much better season next year from him and that will certainly increase the appreciation I have for these cards.

13/14 UD Black Diamond Eric Gelinas Rookie

Another one I was needing and wanting pretty badly. These cards never disappoint in person and I have been very tempted to get a Mackinnon as well in Black Diamond form. However, like my Patrick Kane, I will wait a little while before I pull the trigger and take advantage of a saturated rookie market.

Thank you very much Wes and I know you sent these along and asked for nothing, however that isn't how I work. Still trying to find a piece or two for the package and I will get it sent off soon. In the meantime, thank you very much I do appreciate them all!

Loot thanks to my Raphael Diaz - Three HOF Rookies and a HOF Auto

This post is going to be focused on some AMAZING cards that I landed thanks to the sale of my Raphael Diaz and my Clarkson Spectrum card. I actually didn't need the full value of those two cards to buy all these but the left over money will be put towards some new season wax when I find a product I want to dive into.

So, here is what I was able to score:

80-81 OPC Ray Bourque Rookie

 One of my regrets as a collector was trading away my Ray Bourque rookie as a kid. I traded it along with a Roy OPC rookie for the complete 87-88 OPC set. At the time it was a fair trade according to BV, but as we all know the late 80's sets plunged in value and can be had for less that half what they used to cost. Luckily the same can be said for some ungraded rookies too so that is what happened here. I landed an amazing Bourque rookie which I think is nicer than my old one. The card is off-center and the bottom is slightly rough cut but that is all. The top is an optical illusion from the screwdown holder. I love this card and I landed it for a great price.

80-81 OPC Mike Gartner Rookie

 I didn't have one of these growing up, but I did pick one up as part of my Topps set. However, like the Bourque a great deal was waiting for me online and I snatched it up for less than the price of a pack of Artifacts. The bottom right corner has a tiny bit of wear but that is the only blemish on this great card.

94-95 BAP Martin Brodeur Auto

 My only Brodeur auto to this point was a TTM request success. I do regret not sending his rookie, however I will have to settle for his Rookie Auto! This is the first auto that Brodeur has issued via a licensed agreement so I am calling this an Auto rookie. Ok, that is a serious stretch, but this is my first certified Brodeur auto and I grew up always wanting this card. Ugly as hell with cool gold sharpie. These were the days when sticker technology was years away from being used.

89 UD Randy Johnson Rookie

What a baseball card? What is this doing here. Oh wait, I have always wanted one of these and I was able to pull the trigger finally after no success finding someone who would trade me one. I put out a request a few years stating that I would trade for one but since I didn't mention I would have trade at about 3x's its BV I guess no one felt it was worth their time. Anyway, it is graded which I really don't care about either way and it is all mine. My favourite pitcher of all time will certainly be appreciated and I do like the look of the 89 UD set. Maybe I will try and get the whole thing some day.

So there you go, a four pack of HOF'ers and I know Brodeur and Johnson aren't there yet, it is safe to say they will be!

11-12 Cody Eakin Prime Rookie

Cross another things off the to-do list. Finally a Prime Rookie to my collection and a solid higher end Cody Eakin rookie. Cody was shipped from Washington to Dallas as part of the Ribeiro deal during the off-season and Joe Nieuwendyk must be pretty pleased at his return. Cody has a solid 6 goals and 19 points this season which is way higher than the 8 points he had in 30 games last year. He is continuing to improve and has been an awesome second/third liner for Dallas seeing some time on the PP occasionally. He is the kind of player all teams need and I look forward to seeing his career progress. 

11-12 Panini Prime Cody Eakin Rookie /199

These rookies remind me a lot of how some of the old OPC Premier rookies used to look back when UD was still producing them. This is a solid 2 colour, 4 piece set of swatches with a good blue sharpie on card auto. Totally a worth-while pickup that was very affordable.

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.

Alex Delvecchio Rookie - 01/02 ITG Parkhurst Reprint and others

To complete my other homemade lot purchase, I landed a few cards from the 01-02 Parkhurst release which featured a number of reprints from over the years. All cards are standard size so small ones are blown up and large ones are shrunk. Here are the three I landed all for under 2 dollars a piece shipped:

Alex Delvecchio 51 Parkhurst reprint

An Alex rookie! I will own one some day, but in the meanwhile, this is a fun card and one that counts towards my PC a little bit. Even though I am focusing on playing era cards, this is a fun curiosity that I really wanted. My lone complaint is that they clearly scanned a card which was creased.....with all the money that card companies have, you think they could have rented a good one for a day or two while they were scanning the cards.

Milt Schmidt 52 Parkhurst 2nd year card reprint

I got this card for two reasons, one it is a pretty cool looking card with the clock and flags in the background and secondly, I think it would make a great TTM card.

Terry Sawchuk 51 Parkhurst Rookie reprint

Just a really cool card and the price was right too. If I am ever going to finish the 51 Parkies set I am going to need the original of this card too and the cost will certainly make my wife cringe, but of course it will be a deal compared to the Howe!

It was fun landing some of these cards especially because until recently I didn't even know about the 01-02 ITG Parkhurst Reprints. The set is 150 cards and all of them book for 5 bucks a piece. I would be curious to see if I could buy the whole set some day, but then again, going after the real things instead of reprints might be more fun.

11/12 Rookie Anthology Box Break - The Rookies

With the big hits all out of the way, there was still 6 other packs with rookies in them. Here they are in no particular order. 

Each box usually has one of these rookies from the Contenders release. 

Not sure if Harry Z was a big threat for the Calder trophy, but he did make it to the NHL and suited up for half a season so that is saying something. Harry also got himself into a little hot water a few years back with a video camera and a young lady. I guess the past is behind him and he could have an NHL future if the league ever resumes.


Each box usually has like 4 of these Pinnacle rookies featuring their Nufex technology.

True these cards are much nicer than a decoy or a 10 cent off coupon, but fact of the matter is, there really isn't much value in these cards which makes shelling out 12 bucks a pack and ending up with this as your hit a bit depressing. But at the same time, getting 4 in a box in addition to the other hits does feel a little more like icing on the cake. Nilsson joins a long line of Islander goaltenders to have played since DiPietro was drafted.

Dylan Olsen is not a household name yet and may never score more NHL goals than he has fingers in a season, but he is dependable and as a former first round pick will have expectations of being a steady defenseman who can chew up some NHL minutes. So far in 28 NHL games he does have an assist, and there are likely more of those to come.

Cody was a former member of team Canada at the 2011 WJHC and I just loved seeing him play. He does a little bit of everything on the ice and even though he may not put up the same offensive numbers he did in junior, I think he could be a solid top-6 NHL'er some day.

Speaking of the Canadian World Juniors, here is another! As far as rookies go, these last two were fun additions to an already cool box.

Crown Royale update rookies fall around 1 per box as well and I think I landed one of the better ones.

Andrew Shaw only played about half the season, but still managed a great rookie campaign. Andrew actually had the 4th highest ppg average among rookies who played at least 30 games. Only the three Calder finalists had higher ppg averages.

Value Vintage Sets #1 - 82-83 OPC

The number one value vintage set in my opinion is the 82/83 OPC set. Of all the sets on my top 5, this is only the second OPC set to make the list and it is the largest. 396 vintage cards with players who never lasted more than a few games and players who are believed to be the greatest of all-time. The depth of this set is what sets it apart from others and the fact that it is dirt cheap just makes it that much better!

Redeeming Qualities:

Set Size and Player selection
Several Cards booking for over 20 bucks including 2 for 40 a piece (Fuhr and Gretzky).
Set can be had for well under 100 bucks and even then it only books for 100 bucks! That is like 25 cents a card for a set nearly 30 years old.
Do you like Gretzky? There are 8 Gretzky cards in this set.

The Front Side

Really cool shot on this card. The design is very meat and potatoes, but it isn't too hard to like them, but you may not LOVE them.


The Back Side

Some of the cards have a bit of a dating game feel to them as you find out which NHL stars are bachelors and which like long walks on the beach. The backs complement the front rather well with a simple design and good colour selection.

The Rookies:

Of all the sets on the list, 82/83 offers the most rookies and many of them are HOF'ers! In all, there are 63 rookie cards including some of the following:


Ron Francis Rookie
Grant Fuhr Rookie (HOF)

Dale Hawerchuk Rookie (HOF)

Plus rookies of other great former NHL'ers like Joe Mullen, Bobby Carpenter, Brent Sutter and Neal Broten just to name a few.

Other notable cards:

First off, there really isn't many cooler looking cards this this one of Mike Liut!

Wayne Gretzky 4th year card

Wayne Gretzky In Action

This set has an IA card for every team in the set and usually showcases their star player. I like this one as you see Wayne trying to dodge a hip-check.

More Random Wayne!

There you have it, my Top 5 Value Vintage...

1. 82/83 OPC
2. 78/79 Topps

3. 81/82 Topps

4. 84/85 Topps

5. 89/90 OPC

Even though I built this set from packs, I consider it a Value set because it books for a mere 100 bucks and I have seen them sell for 80 bucks on eBay. Part of the low value is because they printed OPC in both Canada and US so there are more of these than lets say 81/82 OPC ( I stand corrected, it has been pointed out to me that US did not receive this release). However, this set is really stacked with great cards, cool rookies and to me offers the best bang for your buck (with a limited budget).

So what are your thoughts? Is your top 5 similar or different? I would like to try a top five for under 500 bucks sometime as it would pull in some pretty cool sets, but this is what my top 5 for under 100 bucks would look like.

01-02 UD Top Shelf - Ilya Kovalchuk Rookie

Ever since the trade brought Kovy over to NJ I have been watching him closely. Even when he struggled, I still liked what I saw. His potential is through the roof and finally I believe he is turning into the PK Sniper and playmaking machine he can be. This season his numbers are more Kovy like, his +/- is under control and he is popping Shorties like they are Smarties.

As of today, he is 9th in the league for points and I believe he can finish top 5 this year if the Devils keep playing well. He is part of the reason for the great turn-around and hopefully a reason for Parise to remain in NJ.

Since I am a late arriver at the Kovy party, I didn't own a single one of his rookies. Thanks to some trades with fellow bloggers I picked up a few low-end ones so my desire for a good mid-range only increased.

At long last, I finally netted one and it was a pretty good deal. This card is numbered /500 and books for about 40 bucks. However, this card is a little special as it was a "buy back" rookie from the 04-05 Sp Authentic set so it came with a second card which states it is a buy back.

I am curious, did anyone out there collect Top Shelf? I know nothing of the product (is pack price etc) and I am curious to know more.

Anyway, here is the card!

Not the coolest card in the world, but I do like and appreciate it and for 4.99 plus shipping I believe it to be a steal!

Recent TTMs

Even though I have been buying more autos than writing letters in the last couple of months (will share more later on those), I have been lucky to have some TTMs return home over the last month or so. Two that I got back earlier this month are Eric Lindros and Jeremy Roenick. Both are players I loved and worshiped as a kid and to have both sign rookies for me is truly awesome. Roenick loves signing for fans and was willing to sign three cards for me (2 Rookies and an All-Star Card) and he included a small form letter with his return. The return time was about 6 months on the Roenick cards.

Eric was a faster signer than Jeremy, but since I didn't know if he would sign for sure, I just sent along the one card. I received this card about two months after mailing out the letter.

Here is more of the Lindros Post.

Here is more of the Roenick Post.

The Swap Meet Part 1 - Vintage Goal

Well before I begin this post, I want to give everyone a little background info. For starters, I was tied to a budget for this adventure. I only had 65 bucks to spend and in hindsight I could have shown up with 600 and probably still left stuff behind. With that being said, 65 isn't much money when it comes to buying vintage so I did my best to try and balance all aspects of my original goal.

So here are the vintage cards I hauled in(please excuse the camera glare....had not time to properly can these):

1966-67 Topps #35 Bobby Orr Rookie reprint

One of my most favourite pick ups for sure. This card is MINT!!! Extremely well done, too bad it is a reprint. The backside shows a little reprint stamp on the card. Not sure what this card is worth, but I paid 2 bucks and would do so again in a heartbeat!

Here is the back and between the goals and assists is the reprint stamp so that I may not use this beautiful card for evil purposes! (Sorry for the Orr tease, but I couldn't resist it!)

1952-53 Parkhurst #99 James Bones Raleigh (He goes by Don though)
This is my first and only 52-53 Parkhurst card. The card isn't in amazing shape but isn't too bad either. A crease across the front and back and a second lighter crease is also on the back. Corners are rounded but apart from that, the card still has some gloss and was certainly worth the 5 bucks I paid.

Here is the backside of the card. Nice and clean with a neat little mail-in offer!

1953-54 Parkhurst #45 Benny Woit

When I saw Benny, I just had to leave with him. Like the Raleigh card there is a crease, but again the surface is otherwise nice and I love the first full-size Parkhurst cards. This too is my first 53-54 and about 5 min before seeing this card, I just saw my first Beliveau RC in person. He wanted 60 bucks for it. It would have blown my budget right away but the card was in poor shape and I thought I would try for lots of smaller cards rather than the one biggie. I am still having seconds thoughts about my choices but maybe when all the posts on this are done you can tell me if I made the right choice.
Here is the backside of the card. Like the previous year, Parkhurst had stuff to give away and the write ups include both French and English for the first time.

1967-68 Topps #51 Alex Delvecchio

This card is pretty nice. The nicest of the three real vintage cards with no creases. IT does have a couple dinged corners but other than that it is a beaut. Totally worth the 5 bucks I spent.

Here is the back, you can see the reflection of the camera as well as the few dings. The backs of this year were very similar to Topps' 66-67 offering.

In addition to these three vintage cards and one reprint, I also picked up a 79-80 Topps Doug Risebrough and an 83-84 OPC Dale Hawerchuk. I paid a buck for both of them but didn't think they were worth showing. The Hawerchuk was for my 83-84 set and the Risebrough was because it was in great shape and I don't own any Topps from that year. So I spent 18 bucks on those cards and 47 bucks on 20 autos, 4 game used cards and 5 non-auto rookies which I will be sharing in the next two posts.

One neat side effect of these purchases is I now think I need to try and collect all of Bones Raleigh and Benny Woit's cards. I own both 51 Parkies of them so each have about 3 more cards I am missing (more or less). If you have any you want to see or trade, contact me!

In addition, both are still around and I am going to try and fire some TTM requests their way too....here is hoping I get lucky!