06-07 The Cup Alex Brooks Rookie - Or a reason not to buy a box of The Cup

One thing I have always flirted with was the idea of buying a box of The Cup. The thought sounds very exciting and expensive. Sadly I have never had enough free and available hockey card money to just go out and try that idea and really if I did have the needed 500 bucks to buy a box I think I would likely spend it on a Gretzky Rookie (Topps) or buy a couple 51 Parkhursts and forget I had the money in the first place. 

Spending 500 bucks on a Tin/Box of The Cup is really like buying into one of those high-end lotteries. True you are guaranteed some hits and in some cases they can be worth thousands. But at the same time, they could be worth less than an extra value meal at McDonalds. For example, if you bought a tin of 06-07 The Cup which has Malkin, Kessel and Kopitar rookies as big draws, would you be happy with Mr Alex Brooks?

06-07 The Cup Alex Brooks Auto Rooki

 As a hardcore fan, I DO remember Alex with the Devils. His time was brief (19 games in the NHL) to say the least, but he was a great farm hand for a number of years.

Recycled photo on back and McWilliam guarantee.

So, you spend 500 bucks which is rent money for some or a very nice car payment for others. You end up with this as one of your sure hits. Are you disappointed? Do you have buyers remorse? See I am a Devils fan and I am happy to own this card. I would have been sick to my stomach if I dropped 5 c-notes on a tin and this was one of my 4-5 sure hits. But, when I paid 2 dollars for it, I felt it was a very fair price and makes my enjoyment of owning the card much greater.

In the end, I do own quite a few The Cup cards and I have never come near to paying a combined price of a single box in spite of the number I own. But at the same time, I don't own a Crosby, Malkin or Toews The Cup rookie either so nothing ventured really is nothing gained as far as the jackpots go.

If you won an office lottery or something and got yourself 500 bucks you didn't plan on getting, would you buy a tin? Would you buy cards at all? What would you do with it?

Cool Goalie Masks - Grant Fuhr

When it comes to goaltender mask I am definitely a fan, but I would never call myself fanatic. I enjoy seeing them on cards as part of the goalie's attire, but the whole Pinnacle Masks thing from 90's was a little lost on me as I never saw why a photo of a mask would carry such a high premium.

Nevertheless, I did and do goalie mask and cards I have just never bought a card for that reason....until this summer.

Browsing my LCS I saw this beauty for 3 dollars and I talked them down to a toonie and took it home.

08-09 The Cup #46 Grant Fuhr

This card oozes cool. Sure it is from the most supreme of hockey sets "The Cup", but look at the sweet pads and that mask is just awesome. For some reason, I never remember Grant Fuhr catching right, but I guess that is the difference between memory and fact.

Here is the back of the card, a nice close-up of the mask again and a snap-shot of Fuhr's numbers between 86-91. The GAA and SV% were never any good but Fuhr always stopped the last shot and the win was more often his than not. Wayne always said if the game was on the line, he wanted Fuhr in goal and I guess that must count for something too!

In all, I just love this thick piece of cardboard and really it is a nice card that I just couldn't pass up. I don't own many Cup cards so this is a nice addition just based on the face that I don't have many to begin with, but certainly is an awesome addition because of the sweet photo/mask.

A dream card....damaged.

When it comes to active players, the closest one I have to a serious PC is David Clarkson. From the moment he put a Devils jersey on, I loved this guy. As far as playing style goes, I played the game the exact same way (only with less talent) and his heart is one of the biggest on the team. This season was the breakout season I have been talking about on here for a while and with 30 goals, he will be expected to contribute this post-season.

I have quite a few of his rookies and that includes one copy of his 07/08 The Cup rookie /199.

As you can see, there is some chipping on the bottom left but at the very top and very bottom there is also some damage. The card looks like someone with very long nails tried to pick it up off the table or something and made some nasty indentations.

What makes this tough is, the seller never mentioned it and the scan of the card for the auction featured this and 5 other cards in a very poor scan. So I was faced with a tough decision. Do I send it back knowing the only other one on eBay is listed for 125 bucks? Or do I suck it up and hold on to it hoping someday I will come across of the other 26 copies in better condition.

Well I decided to go with option B, but of course in the meanwhile it does suck to have what could have been an amazing card somewhat tainted. However, I have gotten over it somewhat and am appreciating the card more than when I first saw it. After all, it could have been a 1/1 that was damaged!

Have you ever been in a similar situation?

Matt Halischuk

Last night with the game on his stick, Matt Halischuk buried a beautiful goal, glove side on Luongo. I would say without a doubt this was the biggest goal he has ever scored in the NHL and maybe the biggest goal in Preds history (to this point). However, I don't think it was biggest goal of his life, as some of you may remember, Halischuk had an even more important goal when he scored a golden goal at the WJHC.

From the moment he was drafted by the Devils I followed his career and what I have seen has been an excellent player with a lot of potential.

- During his first pro season in the AHL he had a 4 goal, 5 point game.

- He has scored some very timely goals such as the OT winner last night against the Canucks and the game winning goal for the 2008 WJHC.

- Unfortunately he was shipped from NJ to Nashville for Jason Arnott. Even though he is no longer with NJ, I still cheer for him to do well and I think he has the potential to be a good second line winger who can score some big goals!

I bought his The Cup RC off ebay for about 7 bucks

Around the same time I picked up his SPx rc for 5 bucks including shipping.

Do any of you have players who left your favourite team but you still cheer for and follow? Bill Guerin was another player who I admired and followed up until his retirement in Pittsburgh.

05-06 The Cup - Jimmy Howard

Paul from Card Boarded asked about the odds of pulling a Jimmy Howard rookie from a tin of 05-06 The Cup. I am interested in a similar case, which would be pulling a Zach Parise from a tin. Either case has the exact same odds which I will get in to in a moment.

The 05-06 The Cup set featured 91 rookies and 100 base cards. The base cards where numbered to /249, the patch auto rookies which were cards 101-177 where numbered to /199. There were three shorter printed patch rookies which were numbered to /99 and finally there were 11 other auto rookies numbered to /249.

In all, there were 18359 rookie cards printed in the set. In the case of Jimmy Howard, he made up 199 of the 18359. When doing the probability of the getting a Jimmy Howard in an 850 dollar tin, you need to know how many rookies you are going to get in your tin. Each tin was supposed to have 5 cards in them. Some would be base cards and the rest are rookies, parallels or inserts. Based on what I have seen online, you can expect on average between 1.5 and 2 rookies per tin. Some will only have one, while others seemed to have 2 or 3. I will use 1.5 as an approximation.

Based on an average of 1.5 rookies per tin the probability of getting a Howard or Parise rookie is:

1.626%

Not the greatest odds, but much better than the 0.81% chance of getting a Crosby RC.

05-06 The Cup Howard rookie. Probably better to just buy it rather than hope to pull it.

05-06 Parise RC. Much like the Howard, can be had for cheaper than the box.

The Cup is always a great product, but has been far beyond my price range. I would rather use the money to buy a couple different boxes than take a chance with a 5 card tin of The Cup. With that being said, I still like to try and snag The Cup singles when I come across a good deal but the risk on buying a tin isn't worth the gamble for me. Have any of you bought a tin before? How did it turn out?