11-12 Contenders Two Box Break

So what to do. I know I have a small budget and I could buy one box of 13-14 Contenders and get any where from 4-7 hits or I could buy two boxes of 11-12 Contenders and get a min of 6 hits. I played the numbers and went with two boxes because I was hopeful of also getting a base set as well. SO, here are my hits in order of personal appreciation. (I got lucky and here are my 7 hits)

First up are TWO redemption for Greg Nemisz auto cards.

Since I didn't want to scan two redemption cards, I found a pic online of what it looks like redeemed. I got his NHL Ink card and his Contenders Auto Rookie /800. They are ranked 7th and 6th respectively.  Greg is a former Team Canada World Junior which I like but appears to be a career AHL'er which isn't fun from a collecting stand point. I am hopeful these two redemption go stale and I can request a replacement. 

The Calgary hot box(s) continues with an auto of Curtis Glencross. I was a little bummed out about this card but after reading the back he does know how the find the net. He had an off year last season but should be a lock for 20 goals this season. Not a bad auto to have.

Now we are talking! Zack is a former Team Canada World Junior and he plays an excellent role as power forward and agitator. Picture Brad Marchand with size and morals (at least more than Brad). The Hockey News projects some gains this year for Kassian with 16 goals and 39 points as their prediction. I hope he makes it, a fun card to pull for sure.

Two years ago this SP auto would have been loads of fun to pull. Right now I am less excited about it, but it is an SP auto which is somewhat cool and it will either have some great trade value or it will have a home in my collection for the meantime. I do like Reimer and wish him all the best this year in a crowded Toronto crease.

My second favourite hit was of a card I have been wanting for a while. I lost out on a few auctions for Atkinson a year ago and kind of forgot about him. This past year he played great and emerged as a future star with the Blue Jackets. 21 goals and 40 points isn't too shabby and both The Hockey News and I predict he will at least match those if not improve on them this year.

My last hit was far better than all the other cards combined. Look at that auto and patch. White, black, jersey, black, white. Rookie year patch auto of a main PC, doesn't get much better than that I say. I was stoked to pull this card and even though I ended up 10 cards short of a complete set, I consider these two boxes to be a major success.

There you have it another birthday gone, and another birthday hit. I think that makes 4 years in a row now and I am curious to see what next year will bring! Sorry it took so long to get this posted but I will have much more rolling in the near future as routines get established again and in spite of an annoying hand the show must go on!

More Birthday Breaks - 2 Packs of Upper Deck Series 2

Back from camping but I don't have to time to write up my big two box break so I thought I would share a fun moment and a pair of packs. My oldest son (Quinn who is 4) asked me what I wanted for my birthday and he gave me top options toys or hockey cards. I was very surprised that he seemed to think the hockey card answer I gave him was a good answer (though I am sure he would have loved it if I wanted a toy). So to help him out I picked up two packs of UD Series 2 which he in turn gave to me on my birthday. Before I opened the packs I was secretly hoping for a Duncan Keith base card because he is Quinn's favourite player (because he was on Team Canada) and sure enough I actually got one which in turn I put in a top loader and gave back to him as a gift. 

In addition, I also got two pretty awesome cards in those packs. Here is one of them: 

A Cory Conacher Rookie Materials card. Oh how the mighty have fallen. He went from being an early contender for the Calder Trophy to being on his fourth team in just two years. I think if anyone is going to bounce back, the Islanders are the perfect place to do that feat. It worked for Matt Moulson so why not for Cory Conacher? It won't be easy on a team with lots of young forwards but his experience should set him apart and I hope for a big year for him.

The other card was a pretty sweet OPC rookie of Nathan MacKinnon. That is my second MacKinnon rookie with my other being a Select one. While the hits aren't huge, two hockey fans got something fun out of those two simple packs and my son and I shared a fun moment together and I hope there are many more of those in my future.

Coming up will be my two box break and guess what? Richard makes a return!

12/13 SP Game Used Stanley Cup Finals Materials - Adam Henrique Net Skirt Auto

About a year ago I landed this card in honour of my team losing in the Stanley Cup finals. While I landed it just to have a piece of the finals, I really didn't care who was on it. My plan was just to have a piece of the finals because a Gretzky one or a Fayne one was all from the same net. However, there are also much more rare Net Skirt cards which have autos and those are much more player specific if you ask me. After all, their auto is on the card and that personalizes it much more than a pic. I found this one at random a while back and bought it for a song and a dance.

Pretty sharp card if you ask me with a shot from the Stanley Cup Finals which just adds to the coolness. The auto is his typical one but includes his number 14 which is something Adam doesn't always do. One negative however, is the skirt wasn't prepped properly so the auto is a little faded but in the end it doesn't matter that much to me and the fading is likely why it was a steal. But the key thing I wanted was another piece of a Stanley Cup finals net and I have that with a PC auto on it so that is all amazing if you ask me!

05-06 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia - Double Auto/Memorabilia - Steve Yzerman/Ted Lindsay /34

I am going to try and get caught up on some posts for my blog as well as some of the others ones I write on in the coming month. With that being said, I have a small week long vacation with the family coming up this weekend so I guess there will be a little gap before I really get going so here are a couple posts on cards I picked up in the last couple months.

First off is an auto I gave up in trade and worked on replacing. My old Stevie Y was from the 09-10 UD Ice Set which was a very nice on card glacial graph. However, I wanted to try and get another because the first one I had I really liked and I felt I might luck into a deal if I didn't mind stickers or ITG.

Well, I managed to spend less on this than I did the last. I also managed to get much for my money, check it out!

05-06 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia - Double Auto/Memorabilia - Steve Yzerman/Ted Lindsay /34

Two HOF'ers for the price of one. Included are game worn swatches from Terrible Ted and Stevie Wonder. I love the bulging piece of "Sweater" you get with Ted Lindsay and the dreaded white swatch from Steve Yzerman actually looks really nice on this card. I was able to land it for less than what I paid for my original and while it has two sticker autos, I really don't card because everything else about this card including scarcity is amazing.

Here is a close up of the card. I sometimes am tempted to crack it out if its coffin but I know that will ruin some value if I ever decide to try and flip it so for the meantime it will stay safe in its case. So with this card I now have a swatch, auto and rookie(s) of Steve Yzerman completing the trifecta of him and I have two of three for Ted Lindsay with the most important rookie missing still.  

10-11 ITG Enshrined Box Break

10-11 ITG Enshrined is a product that I was been wanted and itching to break for a very long time. But things would get in the way or money would be spent elsewhere and sadly it never happened. With that being said, two posts ago I did pick up a Laprade auto from the set which turns out I bought not long after he passed. With that being said, I finally got my chance on my birthday to break a box of Enshrined. 

Like most recent ITG products, they are without an NHL license so the focus is all on the player and not their club. But with that being said, this is a very very nice product. You get 5 premium base cards numbered to 175 and you get one hit which is an auto /49 or /1 or a game used card /9. Worst case is you can a HOF auto and best case is you have a super rare /1 cut auto of a player like Art Ross. So, how did I fare....

First base was Cyclone Taylor who is without a doubt one of my favourites from the first half century of hockey. The pictures on these cards are in colour and very classy.

The backs are extremely well done with an embossed number job which ITG doesn't do very often. Look at that career. I would be curious to see what those numbers might have been like in a 50 game season. Very good start to the box.

Tom Johnson is another great card. I have his rookie and his auto so landing this card was very fun. While it isn't anything special as far as my HOF PC goes, I do like having a HOF card like this to go with the rookie and auto.

Now this was one of the cards I was hoping for. When I first saw these cards I thought they would be great cards to send off as TTM requests. The first two player I got are deceased but Mr. Richard is still alive so I sent this one off immediately in the hopes he may sign it. I will keep you posted on that one.

Sadly another player who has left us far too soon. This is a pretty nice card and you get a glimpse of his A on the jersey. Bill Quackenbush was a 5-time first or second team all-star for the Wings and Bruins.

 This one was a bit of a surprise because I knew nothing of Mr. Drillon. Turns out he was a pretty awesome player with a very short career. He did finish top 10 in the league in each of his 6 NHL seasons and then became part of the war and never returned again. He only has one card from his playing day and that is in the 37-38 OPC set and then one in the 55-56 Parkhurst Set as an Old Time Great.


So those were my base cards. There isn't load of value to them, book prices range from 5 dollars to 25 dollars a piece for the base cards and most can be had on eBay for under 10 bucks with shipping. But the reason you buy this isn't for the base cards (even though I really like them), the reason is for your lone hit.


Here is my hit:

Scotty Bowman auto silver /49. I was pretty pleased to pull this card. I would have been a bit sad to have pulled someone I already had but in this case I needed a Bowman auto to complete my HOF trifecta. I already had his OPC rookie and I have this "game used " piece of Scotty and now an auto completes everything I could want or need for my HOF PC. For those interested in the product, that is an on-card auto and unlike the base cards the photos are black and white for the auto set. Very pleased with the box and I might consider another one in the future some day. However, in the meantime the itch to check out this product is gone and hopefully Richard will come back to me someday signed.

Long over due thanks to Shane from Shoebox Legends

Like I mentioned in my past post, this is not the summer of blogging I was hoping for and even this thank you post will be a touch on the short side as Shane loaded me up with tonnes of cards and I will save some of the baseball loot for another day. With that being said, there was so much awesome in the package he sent I can probably spend 10 posts talking about it all. For today, I will focus on the 88-89 Devils Team set and an awesome rookie. 

First up is the 88-89 Team Set. I didn't have any of these and after getting this one all I can say is I want more!!! Here are a selection of cards from the set.

Ken Daneyko. If you were a real Devils fan then you always loved Kenny. Ken was a rugged stay at home d-man who didn't mind throwing down when he had to. Sadly he played nearly 5 seasons before getting his own rookie card in 89-90 OPC. This card predates that by a season.

One of the reasons the Devils made the playoffs was the amazing play of a young goalie the Devils called up from the Canadian Olympic Team to lead the Devils on a historic playoff push that culminated in them clinching a playoff spot on the last day of the season against the Blackhawks. While they didn't make the Cup finals, it gave fans like me hope for the future. This is a "rookie" card of sorts since he also appears in the 88-89 OPC/Topps sets.

By most people's standards, the most important card in the set is this one of Brendan Shanahan. Like Burke, he was a rookie during the 87/88 season so this card coincides with is rookie release. What I really enjoy about these cards are the backs. Check out the back of this card. You get more info than you would on hockeydb! 

Most of these numbers are on hockeydb except for one season, his midget season. In fact all these cards include extra stats and fun info of the players and coaches. Truly an awesome set start to finish.

Captain Kirk! One of my more favourite players during his time with New Jersey.

Here is one of my all-time favourite players! I hope he is able to find work in hockey again very soon. He has a great mind and has lots to offer the game of hockey.

Ahhh Jim Schoenfeld. If you are in my age bracket or older you might remember his famous confrontation with Koharski. I thought he was a pretty good coach but then again I was just a kid and I don't have much in the way of memories of him as a coach. Currently he is the GM of the Hartford Wolfpack

Here is a Lou Lamoriello rookie card! While the photo is creepy as hell, but I have loved his tenure with the Devils and he is one of the most respected GMs in NHL history.

The last card I am going to share in this post is a card I have been wanted for a few years now. Like only Shane can, he managed to nail a big want without clues or even help. While many seem to doubt Vanek's abilities I see him doing very well in Minnesota and during that small window of opportunity I was hopeful the Devils might have been able to sway him our way. Sadly he left his heart in Minnesota and I wish him all the best.

10-11 ITG Enshrined Edgar Laprade Auto Silver /49

Not the start to the summer vacation I was hoping for. Little to no time to post anything to start and then I have seemed to develop some numbness in my one hand that has lasted for over 2 weeks. Typing and writing certainly add to the numbness so I am sadly not going to be able to make a post a day like I had originally hoped at the beginning of the summer. In addition I have to push off my thank you post to Shane for another day or so because I just finished a TTM letter and I seriously can't feel much in a few fingers.

This is a post of hope, hope because I hope it gets better soon and hope because I beat out two snipers on eBay to land this card!

One of a couple certified Laprade autos out there and I missed out on this a couple times so I wanted to make sure I won. Well, fact is you can always win your card if you are willing to pay the most! Bidding on this card was at 99 cents for a very very long time (until about 6 seconds to go) then the prices jumped and in the end, my max was still enough to take it home. But looking at the bidding history there was one bid with 6 seconds to go and another with 1 second to go. Certainly glad I set my max long enough ago that I ended up with this gem and it goes well with some of my other Edgar autos (1 and 2) and his rookie thus cementing my HOF PC collection for him.

So next post my long over due thanks and then I have some birthday breaks to share including a couple boxes of 11/12 Contenders and a box of 10/11 ITG Enshrined!

Cardboard Conundrum Group Break Loot 2

Now for the auto portion of my break loot. In a box of Enforcers II you should get 4 autos and I had all the luck it seems nabbing 3 with my teams. 

Larry Playfair is a pretty fun name for a player who is an "enforcer". I guess when you drop the gloves with him you don't have to worry about headbutts or biting. Larry played nearly 700 NHL games and had over 1800 PIM. His best year was likely in 81/82 where he had 6 goals (career high), 16 points (one less than a career high) and 258 PIM (career high). While those numbers aren't Gretzky like, in all fairness Larry was a defenseman and knew how to clear the front of the net a variety of ways.

 Brent Severyn is my next enforcer and with Sever in his name you knew he was destined for enforcer greatness. Brent was actually with the Devils organization for a couple seasons and scored 20 goals in the AHL to got along with his 240 PIM. As far as the NHL goes, Brent was a part-timer only playing in 328 games and his career totals are 10 goals, 30 assists and 825 PIM.

The last auto I got was Kevin Killer Kaminski. This is without a doubt the best auto in the bunch, especially because he goes by one name.....Killer #23. Killer as he is known by all was a superstar in junior and the AHL. One season, he had 38 goals, 61 assists and 247 PIM. Despite playing 8 games fewer than the teams leading scorer it was only 1 point off the team lead. The team I am referring to is the 87/88 Saskatoon Blades who also had Tony Twist on its roster. That would be a team I wouldn't mess with....ever. Killer couldn't balance his fighting and scoring when it came to the NHL so sadly he only played in 139 games and scored 3 goals. But he did get into coaching as has done very well for himself in the SPHL (Southern Professional Hockey League) where he has had a 0.652 winning pct over the past two seasons.


There you have it, I beat the odds and raked in the autos. Thanks again Matt and I will get to some awesome stuff I received from a fellow collector as well as some birthday breaks.

Cardboard Conundrum Group Break Loot 1

When this group break was announced I totally wanted in and I lucked out getting Colorado. While Colorado didn't yield much in content, my hits were a plenty with the random teams I was assigned (Buffalo and Washington). Here is what I landed:

13/14 Totally Certified Patch Dave Andreychuk /25

This break started fabulous for me with this gem! A (future) HOF, game used patch. The patch appears to be part of his name on a "Home" jersey. This card immediately becomes a part of my (future) HOF project PC ( I already have his rookie a couple times over) and to have a cool patch from a former New Jersey Devil just adds to the coolness! Next post will be more from the break and I have a few thank you posts on their way too!

One of the best cards in my collection (from anyone's perspective)

In everyone's collection there are cards you like more than others. That is especially true in my case. I don't have a top 20 or 50 list and I certainly don't have a number 1 favourite card. However, I do have a large number of cards I do appreciate more than others. With that being said, some of those cards are clearly ones I love because they are special to me and others I think can be appreciated by all. 

A while back I shared a few bonus items that Casey from The House of Oglethorpe sent my way, here was the centerpiece of the deal!

2001-02 Top Shelf Wayne Gretzky Auto /95

On card, autograph of Wayne Gretzky while being pictured as a member of the Oilers. How sweet is that? Also, limited production run of 95. While it isn't numbered, I have seen enough literature to believe its limited. I think this is something just about anyone can enjoy!

Thanks again Casey, this will always have a home in my house.