11-12 Canada Vs The World or 15-16 ITG/Leaf The Vault Duncan Keith Auto

I've posted a few Vault cards on here and I don't even know what to call them any more. Lets just say it's a Duncan Keith auto and be done with it.

11/12 or 15-16 Canada Vs The World Duncan Keith Auto

Apparently this card has been sitting under a rock or in a vault for the past number of years and ITG/Leaf decided to let it out into the public after branding it with a V. I am more than willing to look past everything and just treat this as a cool card of an amazing defenseman who appears to be in a Team Canada uniform. Duncan Keith is also my son's favourite player and it's my hope to send out a pair of TTM requests to Mr. Keith from each of us seeing if we could potentially get another auto or two to add to this one.

Sadly as Canada is set to play the USA tonight, Duncan Keith is recovering from injury and pulled out of the World Cup which leaves us without a pretty amazing option on the back end. However, we do have depth at all positions which has been evident as we've been playing without Seguin, Benn, Keith and many other snubbed All-Stars. I want to wish Duncan a speedy recovery and I hope this season he is able to get back to the level he wants to play at and has continued success. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy tonight's game and this card! Thanks for stopping by!

Has it been 35 Seasons Already?

Back during the 1991-92 season, Upper Deck released a few 8.5 x 11 cards including this one below which is for Devils fans and commemorates their 10th anniversary in the NHL. I can't remember all the other cards released but as you can see from this one, fans at the Blackhawks vs Devils game on December 21st 1991 would have received one of these cards. I'm not sure what happened to any extras or if there were other ways to get this card but giveaways like these are always cool in my opinion. I looked the game up on Hockey Reference and it looks like they battled to a 1-1 draw.  

That was of course 25 years ago which would make this their 35th anniversary and I curious to see if the Devils do anything to celebrate that this season or if the rebuild means we will just continue business as usual and maybe have something worth celebrating in 5 years.

1991-92 Upper Deck Devils vs Blackhawks Commemorative All-Star Sheet /24000

What I like about this sheet is you get a bunch of cards pictured that weren't apart of the 91-92 Upper Deck Set. What I also love is they are in *All-Star uniforms and players like Walt Poddubny and John MacLean are getting a little love. This card was a must have for me and when I found it on eBay I threw a bid at it and was the only bidder winning it for 0.99 plus shipping! This card is now framed in my office since it is a blank back card anyway and will soon be hanging on the wall once I finish decorating my office.


*Worth pointing out, if you look closely at the photos, the colour of the players gloves gives you an idea which team they were actually playing for in the NHL during the time the photo was taken. Walt was with the Leafs for example or Stastny was with the Nords.

Happy Belated Birthday To The Devils Greatest Coach...

Leading all head coaches in Devils history with wins it's Jacques Lemaire with 276 wins in the regular season plus a Stanley Cup in 1995 as head coach. As much as I loved all the Devils Cup wins, the first one was probably the most memorable and important as it turned our franchise from a Mickey Mouse one to a legitimate organization. This past week was Jacques' 71st birthday and I hope he is having a good time as the Special Assignment Coach with the Leafs. 

2012-13 ITG Forever Rivals Autos Jacques Lemaire

Oddly missing from my collection for a very long time was Lemaire's auto. I have autos from pretty much every member of that Cup winning team except the head coach (perhaps a few others I really should check). I came across this about 7-8 months ago at the LCS when the owner said he got a huge binder of these in and was looking to move them. I'm sure I could have found a home for all of them but this was the only one I bought. Now that I have this one crossed off, it takes care of part of my HOF project with him and my informal "let's get all the '95 Devils autos".

The card itself is a nice on card auto in red ink. I don't have many red ink autos but given it's the main colour for the Devils and Habs I believe it's very appropriate to use it on this card. In all this was a very well done product by ITG despite no license. As the years have gone by I have been less and less into ITG for reasons I am not too sure of. Leaf seems to be running the ship and oddly I see less and less of their stuff in the LCS and in the media in general. Have you noticed that too? Or is it just where I live and it's more prevalent in the USA now? I'm curious to hear your thoughts and as always, thanks for stopping by.

13-14 Select Reid Boucher Cracked Ice Rookie

Shane from Shoebox Legends has had some posts over the years involving shiny cards and I am often loved seeing them and when I looked at my own collection I see very few. I decided to take matters into my own hands and track down a nice and shiny card which features junior scoring ace Reid Boucher. 

13-14 Select Reid Boucher Cracked Ice Rookie

These cards might not carry loads of value, the way the light catches the surface of this card makes it cool to admire and appreciate on some many other levels. I can see a complete set of these being a pretty amazing experience to flip through but in the meantime I'll enjoy this one for all it is.

Back Checking - 79-80 OPC/Topps Bob Sauve

So as most hockey and baseball collectors know, Topps and OPC for the most part have been siblings in the card world. Depending on the sport, one is more desirable than the other and Topps was the American thing to do and OPC was the Canadian. With OPC when it comes to hockey, you usually had a larger set, you traditionally got a dose of French with your card and the card stock was lighter in colour and the cards were often poorly cut.

In 1979-80 Wayne Gretzky's rookie year, both sets had some similarities and differences based on a few factors but in all the first 264 cards in the set were mostly the same. To accommodate the new franchises, Topps made a single card and OPC made several introducing fans to the team's logo and players in the set.

While skimming through my Topps and OPC sets I found a neat difference by accident. Check it out!

1979-80 Topps Bob Sauve

Here is the front of the Sauve card in Topps form. As you can see, the card is cleanly cut and the blue is very bright and other colours are clearly define as well . IF we were just looking at the front of the card, Topps always wins hands down.

1979-80 OPC Bob Sauve

The OPC offering isn't as easy on the eyes. The colours are more faded/muted and this card features a pretty typical off-centre cut that OPC was notorious for especially in the late 70's and early 80's.


1979-80 Topps Bob Sauve

Here is the back side to the Topps card, darker card stock than the OPC version below but what I want to draw your attention to is the comic. I guess instead of having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, Bob kept his on the posts but made a habit of cutting them off! As a math teacher getting ready to go back to work next week, there have been countless times I have had students measure "angels" when attempting trigonometry and I always make a point on how to correctly spell angles but sadly it still is often spelled incorrectly. Apparently this artist on this card had the same issues as some of my past students.

1979-80 OPC Bob Sauve

What I find cool about the OPC version is when they went to translate to French or potentially immediately following the Topps release they fixed the spelling on "angles" and it appears correct on this card. From what I can tell, I don't think they ever changed it on the Topps version so it would technically be an UER because from what I can tell the Beckett Hockey doesn't have it even listed as an error so for there to be two versions is pretty unlikely.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, it has been ages since I did a back checking post so hopefully you enjoyed its resurrection!

83-84 Vachon Foods Wayne Gretzky

Today's post features a card that I found in my LCS about a year ago and was one that I thought I had seen before in my life but completely forgot about it and very well might have never seen more than once. 

When I first saw this card I am pretty impressed, I knew it was from the 80's based on a few obvious characteristics and when I looked at the back I saw a neat fact and that was it was from the 83-84 season. If you are a collector of hockey cards you should recognize that this card design is a tiny bit similar to a pretty important set from the 80's in particular the famous 85-86 OPC/Topps set which is home to Mario Lemieux's rookie. There are differences too which means that one isn't a rip off of the other but there are still enough similarities that made me wonder if OPC/Topps were inspired by this release. Either way, I loved this card and was able to walk out with it for well under the price of a blaster.

83-84 Vachon Foods #26 Wayne Gretzky

On the front you see a nice framed photo of Wayne in action and I find myself drawn right to the photo every time I look at this card. I love the Titan 2020 stick in the photo and the look on Wayne's face as he is preparing to either take a pass or steal the puck. The design on the bottom with his name and number looks great with the rest of this card.

Here is the backside and again you have a well designed card. No yearly stats but two write ups in Canada's official languages and vitals at the top. There really isn't anything I can complain about when I look at this card and I love that I haven't seen hundreds of these in my life which means they are at least reasonably rare.

While I am not typically a collector of cards from random and obscure sets, a Gretzky card from the 80's with a fantastic design was something I couldn't leave behind. Combine that with the fact that this card is pretty much as close to mint as the 80's have to offer at a price less than half of book I knew at the very least it would make great trade bait. However, even as I write this my appreciation for how cool this card is might have been keeping it for good. Thanks for stopping by!

My First Vintage Card Ever

As some of my long time readers know and new ones will learn, my first ever hockey cards came from a pack of 1990-91 Pro Set. More specifically, this card is my first card I ever got since it was at the top of the pack. What most of you probably don't know if for the first few months I was collecting I got a few packs here and there every couple of weeks but the bug really didn't set in until the season was underway and I was buying packs for myself. My step-father was beginning to get into collecting too and was buying the odd pack and single and we would swap and compare and I fell in love with the 90-91 Upper Deck Low Series and worked towards completing that set.

Every now and again I would go into an actual card shop instead of a convenience store and really get a chance to see some cards. Most in the display cases were cards from the 80's and many had price tags that weren't paper route friendly. However, one night I remember my step-father and I were out driving someone and he had heard some convenience store had a few singles in it and asked me to go in and take a look. At this stage my collection was all 1990's stuff and was pretty small in size, maybe a couple hundred cards at most and he didn't have any more than I did either. So I went inside and in a glass display case right by the potato chips and junk food were some cards. I honestly couldn't tell you which ones were in that case given it was 25+ years ago, but I did see one card that was very affordable and just spoke to me for some reason:

1980-81 OPC Pierre Hamel RC

It was one of the oldest cards in the case and I just thought it looked pretty cool. The price was 75 cents and having had more than enough change in my pocket it was a transaction I was pleased to make.

 Here is the back of the card and as you can see, Pierre wasn't exactly Ken Dryden. The card itself isn't even in that great of shape, but it was in one of  those card saver card holders and I was just happy to own an "old" card.  (As an aside, I actually have been trying to finish this set over the past couple years and am down to just one card!! I will share the set whenever I manage to get it. I decided to include this Hamel in my set which makes it a little more fun and personal.)

I would buy the card and come back outside and tell my step-dad there were some things inside so he came in and I can't remember if he bought anything or not. I would look at this card 100's of times over the coming days and eventually add many more older/vintage cards. Many of my friends would focus on trying to grab a Lindros RC etc but I will give the 11 year old version of me credit, I balanced my spending between pre-90 and post-90 cards which to be honest is probably how I still collect today.

While the internet has softened the value of the cards from the 80's and no one is retiring off their collections, I do love the design of many of these sets and the memories I have from collecting them. I specifically remember my step-dad and I going splits on a Rack Box of 1982-83 OPC. The box cost us $500 at the time which was a lot for a 12 year old to come up with half of but I did and enjoyed breaking that box. We each got a full set and I was allowed to keep all the doubles which I still have to this day and all are in near-mint condition or better (except the miscuts). Of course in hindsight the smart move would have been to never open the stuff but it was fun and it's an important set for that reason.

Anyway, this was one of those posts for my kids to read down the line and thank you for stopping by and sharing in my memory.

Do you have any recollection of your first vintage cards or did you happen to just collect when it was the "good old days"?

On This Day 28 Years Ago....

The greatest player ever to play hockey was traded and eventually one of the most iconic non-rookie cards from the 80's was born.

For those who aren't in the know, Wayne Gretzky who was smashing just about every NHL offensive record was traded to the LA Kings for a number of players and draft picks and $25 million dollars. The key piece other than the money was Jimmy Carson who in all fairness was a fledgling superstar. Jimmy was the second overall pick in the 1986 and already had a 55 goal season in just his second year in the NHL. Alas poor Jimmy made the mistake of demanding a trade out of Edmonton after putting up great numbers in his first year with the club and his career was never the same after that.

Wayne on the other hand excelled in LA and made stars into superstars.

The above card is often known as the Gretzky sweater card in the 88-89 Topps set. What is most interesting about this card to me is it's place in history and it's place among collectors. Once upon a time, the 88-89 OPC and Topps sets were heavily coveted during the collecting explosion of the early 90's, I remember the Hull Topps rookie trading for about 50 dollars and the OPC pushing 150 dollars. However, thanks to the bubble bursting and the internet, many prices of 80's cards have dropped steadily over the past 20 years instead of increasing in value like so many envisioned and hoped for. What I find very cool is the value of this particular card hasn't changed and is actually the highest listed card in the 88-89 Topps set ($20 dollars). It's more valuable than a Brett Hull rookie, Brendan Shanahan rookie or even a Joe Nieuwendyk rookie. Wayne Gretzky's 9th year card is more valuable than each of those three Hall of Famer's rookie cards.

Here is the back side of the card.

What is also impressive is the Gretzky Sweater card is considered even more valuable than it's OPC counterpart.

 See anything missing on this card? Compare the two and look by the push pin!

OPC decided to run with a different photo than the Topps card and went with a posed photo of Wayne wearing his Kings jersey and forever changed the 88-89 release. Collectors appreciate Wayne in uniform but it seems that the Topps card from the news conference trumps this one and it's pretty much the only case in the 80's where a Topps card is more valuable than it's OPC counterpart (with the exception of the 89-90 sets where OPC was over produced). While I like the above card, the Topps card just seems so much more interesting and magical. It is almost a better representation of the most shocking trade I have ever experienced in my life.

 Here is the backside of the OPC card.

So where were you when the trade happened? Did you collect or try to collect these cards? Personally I remember the trade well and I grew to really like the Oilers during the 87-88 season because after the Devils got bounced I cheered for the Oilers to bounce the Bruins which they were able to do and while they would win again in 1990, the Dynasty was over and things were never the same again.

I have owned the Topps card pictured here since the early/mid 90's when I bought the whole set for 60 dollars which seems silly since they can be had for much less now but the years of enjoyment have been worth it! The OPC version is apart of my OPC set which I bought a couple years ago because I have a pretty big sentimental attachment to the set as a whole which I will hopefully share some day in another post.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and here's hoping we never see a trade like this again.....ever!

08-09 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 9th Edition Ultimate Auto Mates Silver Brodeur/Luongo /24

More slabbed fun! This time Marty has a friend in this Team Canada themed piece. While this particular combo didn't fare so well at the 2006 Olympics, Marty and Bobby did win at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and would eventually win a gold medal together at the 2010 Olympics thus making this card a little more cool and relevant.


08-09 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 9th Edition Ultimate Auto Mates Silver Brodeur/Luongo /24

I love the fact that these two future Hall of Famers are joined together on this one card and this being a Team Canada card makes it a little more enjoyable for me as a fan and a collector since I didn't care too much for Luongo during his Vancouver or earlier years. Recently I respected his move back to Florida and am loving that he has helped turn them into a competitive club. The only draw back to this card in my opinion is it appears ITG used two different kinds of stickers on the autographs and that is a tiny bit distracting.

Here is the backside of the card. I do wish the Ultimate fact and Congratulations switched spots and there was a little more info on the successes they had as teammates but alas the Dr. has spoken!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the slab tips, I will keep playing around as I have a few more slabs to share!

The Best Brodeur Card In My Collection....

Been busy so far this summer with Daddy Daycare and marking provincial exams but I am pleased to be back posting again. Back in the fall I came across a card that made my jaw drop. True the card isn't licensed but there is so much to the card that I feel a photo would take away from the card anyway.

The card started off with a very ambitious price and slowly dropped and dropped. Eventually it got low enough where I contacted the seller and we arranged a very nice price on this gem!

Famous Fabrics First Edition Martin Brodeur Stick /09

I love the size of this piece and the prime location off the stick. Words certainly don't back my appreciation of this card. This was the stick style Marty used during his Olympic Gold Medal run in 2002 and his Stanley Cup run in 2003 so the fact that it could have come from any of those time periods makes it that much more special.

Backside with the authenticity statement.


If a picture says a thousand words, then I believe I am done this post, thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed the pics! Quick question, for those bloggers so scan slabbed cards, what methods do you use? I have had a hard time trying to digitize a bunch of pickups and have resorted to a camera but even then it presents challenges so I am open to any help out there!