The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
My first post of the new year is mainly focused on rookies. In fact, there isn't a single player collection item in the batch!
Mail Post #1 for 2014
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13-14 Panini Stickers 1 NHL Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 2 NHLPA Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 4 Eastern Conference
13-14 Panini Stickers 5 Stanley Cup (x2)
13-14 Panini Stickers 6 Western Conference
13-14 Panini Stickers 3 Stanley Cup Championship Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 27 Chicago Blackhawks (Championship Photo Left)
13-14 Panini Stickers 28 Chicago Blackhawks (Championship Photo Right)
I recently completed my annual purchase of Panini Stickers, buying even more this year than I usually do. For 20 cents each, why not?
Here are some basic stickers, with an extra copy of the Stanley Cup.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 56 Sergei Bobrovsky
13-14 Panini Stickers 57 Jack Johnson (x4)
13-14 Panini Stickers 58 Tim Erixon
13-14 Panini Stickers 59 R.J. Umberger
13-14 Panini Stickers 60 Marian Gaborik (Foil)
13-14 Panini Stickers 61 Cam Atkinson
13-14 Panini Stickers 62 Brandon Dubinsky (x2)
13-14 Panini Stickers 63 Mark Letestu
13-14 Panini Stickers 64 Ryan Johansen
My Blue Jackets Team set arrived with several extra stickers, for reasons I am quite uncertain. I suppose it is pretty easy to pick up two stickers instead of one, but it's tougher to make that mistake with four!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 146 Ben Bishop
13-14 Panini Stickers 147 Anders Lindback
13-14 Panini Stickers 148 Victor Hedman
13-14 Panini Stickers 149 Ryan Malone
13-14 Panini Stickers 150 Teddy Purcell
13-14 Panini Stickers 151 B.J. Crombeen
13-14 Panini Stickers 152 Martin St. Louis
13-14 Panini Stickers 153 Steven Stamkos (Foil)
13-14 Panini Stickers 154 Valtteri Filppula (x2)
Here is my Lightning team set. I don't know why I like to do team sets from Panini Stickers, but I enjoy it for some reason.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers Alex Ovechkin (Hart Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Sergei Bobrovsky (Vezina Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers P.K. Subban (Norris Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Jonathan Huberdeau (Calder Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Martin St. Louis (Art Ross Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Alex Ovechkin (Maurice Richard Trophy)
Here are the six award winner stickers, highlighted by one player from each of my favorite teams -- Martin St. Louis and Sergei Bobrovsky.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers A7 Tampa Bay Lightning / A8 Toronto Maple Leafs
13-14 Panini Stickers A9 Carolina Hurricanes / A10 Columbus Blue Jackets
13-14 Panini Stickers A43 Pittsburgh Penguins / A44 Tampa Bay Lightning
13-14 Panini Stickers A33 Carolina Hurricanes / A34 Columbus Blue Jackets
I picked up the logo stickers (both vertical and horizontal) for the Blue Jackets and Lightning.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 299 Beau Bennett
13-14 Panini Stickers 300 Jonas Brodin
13-14 Panini Stickers 301 Damien Brunner
13-14 Panini Stickers 302 Alex Chiasson
13-14 Panini Stickers 303 Cory Conacher
13-14 Panini Stickers 304 Emerson Etem
13-14 Panini Stickers 305 Filip Forsberg
13-14 Panini Stickers 306 Alex Galchenyuk
13-14 Panini Stickers 307 Brendan Gallagher
13-14 Panini Stickers 308 Mikael Granlund
13-14 Panini Stickers 309 Mikhail Grigorenko
13-14 Panini Stickers 310 Dougie Hamilton
Given the prices, I decided to acquire the entire run of 24 rookie stickers. That will keep me from having to go back and acquire stickers later, in case some of these players end up being acquired by Columbus or Tampa Bay.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 311 Thomas Hickey
13-14 Panini Stickers 312 Jonathan Huberdeau
13-14 Panini Stickers 313 Alex Killorn
13-14 Panini Stickers 314 Danny DeKeyser
13-14 Panini Stickers 315 Scott Laughton
13-14 Panini Stickers 316 Ryan Murphy
13-14 Panini Stickers 317 Jean-Gabriel Pageau
13-14 Panini Stickers 318 Justin Schultz
13-14 Panini Stickers 319 Vladimir Tarasenko
13-14 Panini Stickers 320 Tyler Toffoli
13-14 Panini Stickers 321 Tom Wilson
13-14 Panini Stickers 322 Nail Yakupov
Here are the rest of the rookie stickers, which are numbered in alphabetical order by last name.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 303 Cory Conacher
13-14 Panini Stickers 313 Alex Killorn
I picked up extra copies of the two rookie stickers I care most about -- Cory Conacher and Alex Killorn.
Panini Stickers seem to be a product of Panini in Europe, with little to no apparent involvement from Panini America. The sticker checklists aren't even readily available on the Panini website -- certainly not alongside the other checklists from the main card releases. I really wish Panini America would get a little bit more involved with this release. The fact that I dedicated eight pictures to these items in my first mail post of the year is proof that I do like the product!
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Black Diamond Myriad Vincent Lecavalier (0233/1500)
98-99 SP Authentic Stat Masters Vincent Lecavalier (1357/1998)
My next three cards arrived from a sale with Cam (camroy14). The Lecavalier Myriad insert is for my set, and the Stat Masters insert is just a card I thought looked nice. The serial numbering (1998) commemorates Lecavalier's draft year. If I had an unlimited amount of both patience and money, I'd collect that Stat Masters set, but there are several cards with very low print runs -- including a Gretzky limited to just 92 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Fleer Metal Sky Mint Joe Sakic
I also picked up this interesting insert from 95-96 Fleer Metal. Here's some information about it from Beckett:
"The Joe Sakic SkyMint Exchange card was randomly inserted 1:360 packs. When exchanged collectors received a unique card with a dime-sized coin featuring the Avalanche star embedded in the corner."
The whole "coins in cards" thing never really took off, with Pinnacle Mint being rather poorly received in 96-97 and 97-98. Still, this is a neat card to own, as it was the first attempt to do something like this (at least in hockey).
A similar card containing a pin was released from 96-97 Skybox Impact, featuring John LeClair. I'll be adding that item to my wantlist.
Thank you for the sale, Cam!
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Panini Limited Anders Lindback RC (232/299)
Anders Lindback has, unfortunately, not been all that great for the Lightning. Still, I'll collect his rookie cards, and this is one of his better items.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Dominion Dana Tyrell RC (34/99)
This is my second copy of Dana Tyrell's best rookie card -- my first copy was my third favorite card of 2011, and contains a huge swatch from his jersey #42.
Although I believe Panini intended to use patch swatches for all of these cards, a few players had "prime" versions released as well. I decided to pick up one of these variations for the Tyrell rookie card. The swatch on this card contains blue and white jersey, with a huge seam across the middle.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Dominion Corey Tropp RC (035/199)
My first Corey Tropp rookie card is his most scarce (although The Cup is probably the best). He has 12 rookie cards in all.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Luxury Suite Ryan Johansen RC (98/99)
I'll probably never complete my Ryan Johansen RC collection. Not only do I still have several #/99 cards on my wantlist, but Johansen has been developing significantly as a player this season, and the secondary market prices are beginning to respond. Even still, I was happy to get this card taken care of, and with one of the best swatches I've seen on this Luxury Suite RC. The small swatch somehow fits in three layers -- red seam, white seam, and dark blue jersey.
I'm up to 17/24 for Johansen's RCs, with only two or three more that won't be insanely difficult (or expensive) to acquire.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 The Cup Benoit Pouliot RC (042/249)
Benoit Pouliot's best RC has proven a little bit difficult to find, but I am pretty happy with the copy I ended up with. The swatch has four layers -- green patch, green stitching, off-white patch, and green jersey. It's yet another Cup RC off the wantlist, which makes me happy.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Cody Goloubef RC (/249) (Redemption)
My first Cup RC from 12-13 is, unfortunately, a redemption card. Unlike Goloubef's extremely-limited SP Authentic RC redemption card, this one appears to be in ample supply. I don't have any idea when the card will be made.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Shawn Hunwick RC (189/249)
This Cup RC is much nicer than the preceding card!
The swatch on this Shawn Hunwick rookie card is one of the better Blue Jackets patch pieces in my collection. The swatch has a total of nine layers -- white stitching, dark blue patch, silver stitching, white stitching, red patch, white stitching, dark blue patch, silver stitching, and dark blue patch. It comes from the top-right portion of the Jackets' primary jersey shoulder patch. The blue at the bottom of the swatch is part of the hat that appears on the secondary logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Dalton Prout RC (179/249)
My Dalton Prout Cup RC is also rather nice! This swatch has six layers -- blue jersey, silver stitching, blue stitching, blue patch, red stitching, and a tiny bit of white stitching from one of the logo's small stars. This is from the top red spike on the Ohio state flag, near the right-center part of the primary logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup J.T. Brown RC (202/249)
The last Cup RC on my wantlist from 13-14 features the only Lightning player to earn RCs in the 12-13 season.
Patch swatches from the new Lightning jersey are unlikely to be particularly interesting, aside from a scarce few from the shoulder emblem. This is about as good as it gets -- a white jersey piece with three segments of blue patch, for five layers in total. This is from the crest on the white (away) jersey, with the top two sections of patch coming from the letters "B" and "A" in the word "Bay."
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Premier Stitchings Steve Mason (177/199)
Steve Mason won the 2008 World Junior MVP, while helping Canada win the gold medal. This manufactured patch card from 09-10 O-Pee-Chee Premier commemorates the occasion. Mason joined the Blue Jackets shortly after the tournament on an emergency basis. Since he was already signed to an NHL contract, he earned RC status for 08-09 products while sitting on the bench.
This Steve Mason card arrived with the next card in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Dalton Prout RC (22/99)
My first RC from Dominion is rather stellar.
This swatch comes from the Blue Jackets' third jersey crest. The body of the swatch is an off-white felt. The item at the top is from the banner that rounds the inside of the circular crest, and the star is from the bottom center of the logo. The swatch has three colors, and if counting generously, 13 different layers.
There is no question that the Dominion RCs are far superior to the Cup RCs from the 12-13 season. The huge swatches and limited print run make them a much more attractive piece of my collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Andrew Joudrey RC (84/99)
This Andrew Joudrey card also contains a swatch from the Blue Jackets' third jersey. The body of the swatch is a dark blue piece of jersey, with an off-white patch from the top of the letter "R" (part of Joudrey's nameplate).
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Cody Goloubef RC (65/99)
My last Dominion RC for this mail post features Cody Goloubef. This swatch is from the main Blue Jackets uniform, coming from the far bottom right of the Ohio state flag on the main crest. The swatch has arguably thirteen different layers: dark blue patch, three layers of white stitching, red stitching, red patch, red stitching, dark blue patch, dark blue stitching, silver stitching, white stitching, dark blue stitching, and silver or white stitching. In other words, it looks pretty spectacular!
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 UD Artifacts Autographed Rookie Redemptions #V Cory Conacher (23/99)
This Cory Conacher redemption card has one obvious flaw -- the sticker is crooked! How does that get through from UD?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter that much to me -- it's still a copy of a rare redemption card from UD Artifacts. It's incredible to see how inexpensively the redeemed cards sell for ($10-$20) in comparison to the original redemptions ($25-$50). There's almost no point at all, for a player/rookie collector, to acquire the unredeemed version.
I have yet to pick up Conacher's
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Finite Prizm (Black) Brian Lashoff (1 of 1)
When Prizm was released this year, I loved the look of the Prizm "refractor" inserts and parallels. The ones I liked the most were the 1/1 parallels, so I decided to make it a goal to acquire one. Although I'd have preferred a Lightning or Blue Jackets player (and had some bids in on a few), it wasn't crucial to the pursuit.
So, for a very inexpensive price, I ended up with this card -- a Brian Lashoff parallel from the autograph set (technically, it's not a base-set parallel). The refractor overlay is a pattern I know I've seen before, but not on a chrome-type of card, and not in the hockey hobby. This thing is really stunning in person. Because of the card's dark finish, to really bring out the holographic shinyness, the card has to be appreciated in direct sunlight.
The only way I'll ever trade this card is if it will help me acquire another 1/1 -- perhaps a rookie autograph of a player I have more of an appreciation for. Otherwise, it fits right into my collection of -- pardon the redundancy -- unique 1/1 cards.
-----------------
News and notes:
** I am trying to confirm the existence of two rookie cards -- the 06-07 Hot Prospects auto/patch of Benoit Pouliot, and the 10-11 Dominion auto/patch of Sergei Bobrovsky. I know the latter card was a redemption, but I'm not sure that the finished version was ever made.
** Has anyone else noticed that 13-14 Dominion RCs are selling fairly well right out of the gate? Card-for-card, Dominion has never been as valuable as The Cup, but the prices I'm seeing for the rookies I collect are very similar to what I'd be expecting to pay for similar (and shorter-printed) cards from The Cup. I haven't been able to pull the trigger on anything but two of the autograph-only RCs so far!
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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Mail Post #1 for 2014
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13-14 Panini Stickers 1 NHL Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 2 NHLPA Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 4 Eastern Conference
13-14 Panini Stickers 5 Stanley Cup (x2)
13-14 Panini Stickers 6 Western Conference
13-14 Panini Stickers 3 Stanley Cup Championship Logo
13-14 Panini Stickers 27 Chicago Blackhawks (Championship Photo Left)
13-14 Panini Stickers 28 Chicago Blackhawks (Championship Photo Right)
I recently completed my annual purchase of Panini Stickers, buying even more this year than I usually do. For 20 cents each, why not?
Here are some basic stickers, with an extra copy of the Stanley Cup.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 56 Sergei Bobrovsky
13-14 Panini Stickers 57 Jack Johnson (x4)
13-14 Panini Stickers 58 Tim Erixon
13-14 Panini Stickers 59 R.J. Umberger
13-14 Panini Stickers 60 Marian Gaborik (Foil)
13-14 Panini Stickers 61 Cam Atkinson
13-14 Panini Stickers 62 Brandon Dubinsky (x2)
13-14 Panini Stickers 63 Mark Letestu
13-14 Panini Stickers 64 Ryan Johansen
My Blue Jackets Team set arrived with several extra stickers, for reasons I am quite uncertain. I suppose it is pretty easy to pick up two stickers instead of one, but it's tougher to make that mistake with four!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 146 Ben Bishop
13-14 Panini Stickers 147 Anders Lindback
13-14 Panini Stickers 148 Victor Hedman
13-14 Panini Stickers 149 Ryan Malone
13-14 Panini Stickers 150 Teddy Purcell
13-14 Panini Stickers 151 B.J. Crombeen
13-14 Panini Stickers 152 Martin St. Louis
13-14 Panini Stickers 153 Steven Stamkos (Foil)
13-14 Panini Stickers 154 Valtteri Filppula (x2)
Here is my Lightning team set. I don't know why I like to do team sets from Panini Stickers, but I enjoy it for some reason.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers Alex Ovechkin (Hart Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Sergei Bobrovsky (Vezina Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers P.K. Subban (Norris Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Jonathan Huberdeau (Calder Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Martin St. Louis (Art Ross Trophy)
13-14 Panini Stickers Alex Ovechkin (Maurice Richard Trophy)
Here are the six award winner stickers, highlighted by one player from each of my favorite teams -- Martin St. Louis and Sergei Bobrovsky.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers A7 Tampa Bay Lightning / A8 Toronto Maple Leafs
13-14 Panini Stickers A9 Carolina Hurricanes / A10 Columbus Blue Jackets
13-14 Panini Stickers A43 Pittsburgh Penguins / A44 Tampa Bay Lightning
13-14 Panini Stickers A33 Carolina Hurricanes / A34 Columbus Blue Jackets
I picked up the logo stickers (both vertical and horizontal) for the Blue Jackets and Lightning.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 299 Beau Bennett
13-14 Panini Stickers 300 Jonas Brodin
13-14 Panini Stickers 301 Damien Brunner
13-14 Panini Stickers 302 Alex Chiasson
13-14 Panini Stickers 303 Cory Conacher
13-14 Panini Stickers 304 Emerson Etem
13-14 Panini Stickers 305 Filip Forsberg
13-14 Panini Stickers 306 Alex Galchenyuk
13-14 Panini Stickers 307 Brendan Gallagher
13-14 Panini Stickers 308 Mikael Granlund
13-14 Panini Stickers 309 Mikhail Grigorenko
13-14 Panini Stickers 310 Dougie Hamilton
Given the prices, I decided to acquire the entire run of 24 rookie stickers. That will keep me from having to go back and acquire stickers later, in case some of these players end up being acquired by Columbus or Tampa Bay.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 311 Thomas Hickey
13-14 Panini Stickers 312 Jonathan Huberdeau
13-14 Panini Stickers 313 Alex Killorn
13-14 Panini Stickers 314 Danny DeKeyser
13-14 Panini Stickers 315 Scott Laughton
13-14 Panini Stickers 316 Ryan Murphy
13-14 Panini Stickers 317 Jean-Gabriel Pageau
13-14 Panini Stickers 318 Justin Schultz
13-14 Panini Stickers 319 Vladimir Tarasenko
13-14 Panini Stickers 320 Tyler Toffoli
13-14 Panini Stickers 321 Tom Wilson
13-14 Panini Stickers 322 Nail Yakupov
Here are the rest of the rookie stickers, which are numbered in alphabetical order by last name.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Stickers 303 Cory Conacher
13-14 Panini Stickers 313 Alex Killorn
I picked up extra copies of the two rookie stickers I care most about -- Cory Conacher and Alex Killorn.
Panini Stickers seem to be a product of Panini in Europe, with little to no apparent involvement from Panini America. The sticker checklists aren't even readily available on the Panini website -- certainly not alongside the other checklists from the main card releases. I really wish Panini America would get a little bit more involved with this release. The fact that I dedicated eight pictures to these items in my first mail post of the year is proof that I do like the product!
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Black Diamond Myriad Vincent Lecavalier (0233/1500)
98-99 SP Authentic Stat Masters Vincent Lecavalier (1357/1998)
My next three cards arrived from a sale with Cam (camroy14). The Lecavalier Myriad insert is for my set, and the Stat Masters insert is just a card I thought looked nice. The serial numbering (1998) commemorates Lecavalier's draft year. If I had an unlimited amount of both patience and money, I'd collect that Stat Masters set, but there are several cards with very low print runs -- including a Gretzky limited to just 92 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Fleer Metal Sky Mint Joe Sakic
I also picked up this interesting insert from 95-96 Fleer Metal. Here's some information about it from Beckett:
"The Joe Sakic SkyMint Exchange card was randomly inserted 1:360 packs. When exchanged collectors received a unique card with a dime-sized coin featuring the Avalanche star embedded in the corner."
The whole "coins in cards" thing never really took off, with Pinnacle Mint being rather poorly received in 96-97 and 97-98. Still, this is a neat card to own, as it was the first attempt to do something like this (at least in hockey).
A similar card containing a pin was released from 96-97 Skybox Impact, featuring John LeClair. I'll be adding that item to my wantlist.
Thank you for the sale, Cam!
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Panini Limited Anders Lindback RC (232/299)
Anders Lindback has, unfortunately, not been all that great for the Lightning. Still, I'll collect his rookie cards, and this is one of his better items.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Dominion Dana Tyrell RC (34/99)
This is my second copy of Dana Tyrell's best rookie card -- my first copy was my third favorite card of 2011, and contains a huge swatch from his jersey #42.
Although I believe Panini intended to use patch swatches for all of these cards, a few players had "prime" versions released as well. I decided to pick up one of these variations for the Tyrell rookie card. The swatch on this card contains blue and white jersey, with a huge seam across the middle.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Dominion Corey Tropp RC (035/199)
My first Corey Tropp rookie card is his most scarce (although The Cup is probably the best). He has 12 rookie cards in all.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Luxury Suite Ryan Johansen RC (98/99)
I'll probably never complete my Ryan Johansen RC collection. Not only do I still have several #/99 cards on my wantlist, but Johansen has been developing significantly as a player this season, and the secondary market prices are beginning to respond. Even still, I was happy to get this card taken care of, and with one of the best swatches I've seen on this Luxury Suite RC. The small swatch somehow fits in three layers -- red seam, white seam, and dark blue jersey.
I'm up to 17/24 for Johansen's RCs, with only two or three more that won't be insanely difficult (or expensive) to acquire.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 The Cup Benoit Pouliot RC (042/249)
Benoit Pouliot's best RC has proven a little bit difficult to find, but I am pretty happy with the copy I ended up with. The swatch has four layers -- green patch, green stitching, off-white patch, and green jersey. It's yet another Cup RC off the wantlist, which makes me happy.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Cody Goloubef RC (/249) (Redemption)
My first Cup RC from 12-13 is, unfortunately, a redemption card. Unlike Goloubef's extremely-limited SP Authentic RC redemption card, this one appears to be in ample supply. I don't have any idea when the card will be made.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Shawn Hunwick RC (189/249)
This Cup RC is much nicer than the preceding card!
The swatch on this Shawn Hunwick rookie card is one of the better Blue Jackets patch pieces in my collection. The swatch has a total of nine layers -- white stitching, dark blue patch, silver stitching, white stitching, red patch, white stitching, dark blue patch, silver stitching, and dark blue patch. It comes from the top-right portion of the Jackets' primary jersey shoulder patch. The blue at the bottom of the swatch is part of the hat that appears on the secondary logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup Dalton Prout RC (179/249)
My Dalton Prout Cup RC is also rather nice! This swatch has six layers -- blue jersey, silver stitching, blue stitching, blue patch, red stitching, and a tiny bit of white stitching from one of the logo's small stars. This is from the top red spike on the Ohio state flag, near the right-center part of the primary logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 The Cup J.T. Brown RC (202/249)
The last Cup RC on my wantlist from 13-14 features the only Lightning player to earn RCs in the 12-13 season.
Patch swatches from the new Lightning jersey are unlikely to be particularly interesting, aside from a scarce few from the shoulder emblem. This is about as good as it gets -- a white jersey piece with three segments of blue patch, for five layers in total. This is from the crest on the white (away) jersey, with the top two sections of patch coming from the letters "B" and "A" in the word "Bay."
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Premier Stitchings Steve Mason (177/199)
Steve Mason won the 2008 World Junior MVP, while helping Canada win the gold medal. This manufactured patch card from 09-10 O-Pee-Chee Premier commemorates the occasion. Mason joined the Blue Jackets shortly after the tournament on an emergency basis. Since he was already signed to an NHL contract, he earned RC status for 08-09 products while sitting on the bench.
This Steve Mason card arrived with the next card in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Dalton Prout RC (22/99)
My first RC from Dominion is rather stellar.
This swatch comes from the Blue Jackets' third jersey crest. The body of the swatch is an off-white felt. The item at the top is from the banner that rounds the inside of the circular crest, and the star is from the bottom center of the logo. The swatch has three colors, and if counting generously, 13 different layers.
There is no question that the Dominion RCs are far superior to the Cup RCs from the 12-13 season. The huge swatches and limited print run make them a much more attractive piece of my collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Andrew Joudrey RC (84/99)
This Andrew Joudrey card also contains a swatch from the Blue Jackets' third jersey. The body of the swatch is a dark blue piece of jersey, with an off-white patch from the top of the letter "R" (part of Joudrey's nameplate).
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Dominion Cody Goloubef RC (65/99)
My last Dominion RC for this mail post features Cody Goloubef. This swatch is from the main Blue Jackets uniform, coming from the far bottom right of the Ohio state flag on the main crest. The swatch has arguably thirteen different layers: dark blue patch, three layers of white stitching, red stitching, red patch, red stitching, dark blue patch, dark blue stitching, silver stitching, white stitching, dark blue stitching, and silver or white stitching. In other words, it looks pretty spectacular!
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 UD Artifacts Autographed Rookie Redemptions #V Cory Conacher (23/99)
This Cory Conacher redemption card has one obvious flaw -- the sticker is crooked! How does that get through from UD?
Ultimately, it doesn't matter that much to me -- it's still a copy of a rare redemption card from UD Artifacts. It's incredible to see how inexpensively the redeemed cards sell for ($10-$20) in comparison to the original redemptions ($25-$50). There's almost no point at all, for a player/rookie collector, to acquire the unredeemed version.
I have yet to pick up Conacher's
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Finite Prizm (Black) Brian Lashoff (1 of 1)
When Prizm was released this year, I loved the look of the Prizm "refractor" inserts and parallels. The ones I liked the most were the 1/1 parallels, so I decided to make it a goal to acquire one. Although I'd have preferred a Lightning or Blue Jackets player (and had some bids in on a few), it wasn't crucial to the pursuit.
So, for a very inexpensive price, I ended up with this card -- a Brian Lashoff parallel from the autograph set (technically, it's not a base-set parallel). The refractor overlay is a pattern I know I've seen before, but not on a chrome-type of card, and not in the hockey hobby. This thing is really stunning in person. Because of the card's dark finish, to really bring out the holographic shinyness, the card has to be appreciated in direct sunlight.
The only way I'll ever trade this card is if it will help me acquire another 1/1 -- perhaps a rookie autograph of a player I have more of an appreciation for. Otherwise, it fits right into my collection of -- pardon the redundancy -- unique 1/1 cards.
-----------------
News and notes:
** I am trying to confirm the existence of two rookie cards -- the 06-07 Hot Prospects auto/patch of Benoit Pouliot, and the 10-11 Dominion auto/patch of Sergei Bobrovsky. I know the latter card was a redemption, but I'm not sure that the finished version was ever made.
** Has anyone else noticed that 13-14 Dominion RCs are selling fairly well right out of the gate? Card-for-card, Dominion has never been as valuable as The Cup, but the prices I'm seeing for the rookies I collect are very similar to what I'd be expecting to pay for similar (and shorter-printed) cards from The Cup. I haven't been able to pull the trigger on anything but two of the autograph-only RCs so far!
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
