A Beau-utiful Trade.

It wasn't exactly the draft I was hoping for, as the Coyotes grabbed Clayton Keller who by some projected would have been available in the 11 slot when the Devils were picking but clearly he was a bigger talent than some expected. So when it came time to select the Devils felt they could get their man in the 12 slot (Michael McLeod) and made a trade with Ottawa. That trade got them an addition 3rd round pick (Joey Anderson) and allowed us to trade our 77th pick from the 3rd round since we now had three choices in the round for Beau Bennett.

Beau hasn't really found loads of NHL success which is probably why the Penguins felt comfortable trading away a former 1st round pick for a 3rd rounder but New Jersey is a special place where people who haven't been successful find success (Devante Smith-Pelly, Kyle Palmieri etc) and others who have had success can't find it elsewhere (David Clarkson, Scott Gomez etc). Time will tell what Beau will be able to do in a Devils uniform but the cost (a 3rd round pick) seems like a very calculated risk to me and well worth the try. Beau was a fantastic junior player in the BCHL and I'm projecting 40 point seasons in his future which is an excellent return for a 3rd round pick.

 
I want to believe this is what Beau did when he heard about the trade! Welcome to the Garden State Beau.


Btw, Beau was born in Gardena California, kind of a neat coincidence.

Big Thanks to Duff over at the Hockey Card Geek

A couple months ago I was contacted by a reader asking if I was interested in an Alex Delvecchio auto. The simple answer is ALWAYS yes. It was a Champs mini auto so not having one I said sure what do you want, but rather than deal or trade Duff just sent the auto long with a load of different buddies for the long journey up to Canada. I must say I was very impressed with my special package and I hope the one coming your way Duff is equally delightful!

11-12 UD Parkhurst Alex Delvecchio Mini Auto

Just a cool and classy card with Alex's simple but elegant auto. Without a doubt my favourite card from the batch.

70-71 Topps Alex Delvecchio #64

While I already have one it doesn't diminish the appreciation I have for it. I don't have the set so this could be my first of many in the 70-71 Topps set which is a very undervalued and under-appreciated set!

73-74 Topps Alex Delvecchio #141

Needed this card and love it more for the back side than the front. I have never bought this card before because whenever I see it online it is usually 3-4 bucks min to get it to my house and at most this is a dollar card. But Duff sent it to me for free with a bonus:

Check out the stainage!!! This is my first Alex Delvecchio card with a wax stain! I wish that UD would throw that into some of their modern OPC packs. Forget blank backs and bring back wax stains.

79-80 Topps Wayne Cashman #85

After putting a huge dent in this due to some help from the LCS and their mystery boxes plus a trade with Sal from puckjunk.com I am now less than 15 cards from a complete set and Cashman makes me one closer. 

Maybe the biggest surprise are the 25 cards Duff sent me from my 98-99 Topps want list. This was a set I started thanks to a cheap retail wax box I bought of this stuff a year or two ago. I never posted it because I just never had the time to and I figured no one would be interested. I must say I do like the set lots and here are two of my favourites from the 25 he sent.

Nice action shot of Randy weighing out his options. The Devils would like to forget 96-99 but the 99-2000 season was really special and Randy has two rings for all his efforts with the Devils.

I always forget Trevor spent some time on the Island. I hated these jerseys nearly as much as I hated their Captain Highliner ones.

 

Here is what the back sides of the 98-99 Topps set look like in case you didn't know. Really, I am a huge fan of the backs. You get a second photo that is different from the front. Career stats and they include PLAYOFFS! Also some vital information and a small write-up. This is what a trading card should look like in my opinion and Topps did a solid job at it. The copper border isn't horrible either, in all a solid set with a few neat cards and inserts.

Hey I was at that game - When the card photo is familiar

With there being a bit of a lull between productions that are in my price range, I have taken to making a few trades. In the next few weeks I should be seeing a few packages coming my way which will be fun and exciting and I will share some of them with you as they come in. One that arrived last week ended up having a neat meaning to me that I am curious if others have had the same experience.

Sal at Puckjunk.com sent me over a few cards in exchange for a few he needed and one of them was this Martin Brodeur card. In all it is a nice card and is numbered xx/25…..literally. I can only presume there are 25 out there which is pretty cool for a Devils fan and I have only seen about 3 or 4 on eBay so this might be true.


Anyway, I was looking at the card with some detail and on the back are stats from 10/11 season which is pretty cool especially when you consider the photo on the front could only have come from 2 possible games in the last 15 years as Brodeur is wearing his retro helmet and jersey. One of those games was last year on Mar 17th and the other was this year on Mar 18th. What makes this card special was I saw my first ever Devils home game on Mar 18th and having only ever seen two Devils games live my whole life, there is a very good chance this card is from the game I saw. Furthermore, since the stats indicate this is an 11/12 product my chances increase even more.

In my life, I have seen countless NHL games live on TV, but only a handful of games in person and only 2 games involving the NJ Devils. So, I think it is pretty neat to be almost positive that I have a card, from a game I saw of a team and player I cheer for. Have you ever found a card from a game you attended? Of course, living in an NHL city and having season tickets really increases those odds to 100%…but I am curious if you have ever found a card from a game you watched.

Some players get no love - Loui Eriksson

About a month ago I completed another great trade with Sal from puckjunk.com. I had a few cards he needed for sets and he had a few cards that were on my wish list so we made a trade. One card that came over to me in the trade was a Loui Eriksson Young Gun. What surprised me about the card was how little it listed for in the Beckett. Isn't he an All-Star? This got me to thinking....

Isn't it strange how some players get NO hobby love? Loui Eriksson is a prime example of a good player who gets no love. If you look at the Beckett value of an 06-07 Eriksson Young Gun you will find that it is barely even listed ($8 High value and an unbelievable low value of 3.00). Of course BV isn’t everything, but looking on Ebay at Young Gun prices you will find they range from 6-8 bucks including shipping. A steal in my opinion for a player who was top 20 in the NHL in points this past season, an All-Star who was picked before Kessel (BV$25 in the same set) and has averaged 30+ goals a season for the last 3 years. One of the biggest insults to Loui Eriksson is his Young Gun card value is equal to far inferior players like Marc-Antoine Pouliot (fewer career points than Eriksson’s last season total), Fredrik Noreena (no longer in NHL), or even Michel Ouellet (of the Hamburg Freezers).

Jordan Staal on the other hand like Eriksson is also a good player. Staal has a few brothers than can play the game too and it seems that family celebrity is causing Staal to get some of the love that belongs to Eriksson in my opinion. Plus playing for the Penguins probably isn’t hurting his status either. Staal’s 06-07 Young Gun books for 20-50 dollars. That is over 6 times higher than Loui Eriksson. Is Staal that much better?

Let us compare:

GP:

Staal 369 games

Eriksson 371 games

Goals:

Staal 95 goals

Eriksson 112 goals

Assists:

Staal 103 assists

Eriksson 145 assists

Points:

Staal 198 points

Eriksson 257 points

+/-:

Staal +42

Eriksson +22

Offensively I wouldn’t say that comparison is close; there is nearly a 60 point difference between these two All-Stars. Granted, Staal is the better two-way player earning a Selke nomination in 2010. However, Eriksson is no defensive slouch either, he finished second on his team in +/- this year at +10. Not bad on a poor Stars team where more than half the team finished as negatives.

I guess that goes to show that hobby love is more than just skill. Often where the player plays and WHO the player plays with has a huge impact on their card value. If Loui was a Maple Leaf I can imagine his 8 dollar YG card would be more like 30. Same thing, I think if Jordan Staal was in Florida he would be worth about 8 bucks instead of 50.

Needless to say, fans like me who like underrated players able to scoop up their cards for next to nothing which is great, but, it would be nice to see these cards earn a little more financial respect! Are there any players out there who you think are seriously undervalued in the hobby world?