The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
This is the first of a two-parter that will contain a whole bunch of cards I recently received from Dave Rearick -- 12 pictures in this post alone. Along the way, I also picked up a few other items for my player collections.
Mail Post #16 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
2014 Upper Deck Fall Expo Priority Signings PS-CC Cory Conacher (09/35)
Before I get into the items from Dave, I want to start this post by highlighting a really awesome card that I received as a surprise. When the Fall Expo Priority Signings checklist was announced, I was thrilled to see a 25th Anniversary Retro Young Guns set was planned. That's just a neat concept in general. I was even happier when I saw that Cory Conacher would be part of the subset, as that meant he'd appear on the card as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning! Conacher's entire slate of 13-14 RCs pictured him as a member of the Senators (with National Treasures getting him in a Sabres uniform, though with Senators patch swatches). I believed that this was Conacher's first-ever card to picture him as a member of the Lightning, and it immediately shot to the top of my wantlist. I later learned that he did have one early-season item (13-14 Trilogy Puck Signatures) that showed him on the Bolts as well, but I greatly prefer this card.
Just after the expo was over, I received an unexpected package in the mail from Norm (trekrun) with this card inside -- the one card from the expo that I really wanted to acquire!
Thank you for your help Norm -- I'm very happy to add this to my Cory Conacher rookie collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
92-93 Upper Deck All-Star Locker 29 Jari Kurri
92-93 Upper Deck All-Star Locker 31 Mike Modano
95-96 McDonald's Pinnacle McD-02 Eric Lindros
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-3 Peter Forsberg
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-5 Dominik Hasek
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-22 Jason Spezza
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-28 Joe Sakic
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 96 Curtis Joseph
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 97 Felix Potvin
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 98 Grant Fuhr
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 99 Richard Brodeur
Here is the start of the huge batch of cards I received from Dave Rearick. These cards are sort of a random mix -- a few inserts and parallels.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 96-97 Summit Premium Stock
Base Cards from 95-96 Topps Super Skills
Base Cards from 13-14 Upper Deck Series Two
Base Cards from 13-14 SP Authentic
I also received some base cards for my yearly binder project, and I'm most happy to finally get Topps Super Skills out of the way.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 13-14 Panini Contenders
Base Cards from 13-14 Titanium Retail
Base Cards from 13-14 Crown Royale
Base Cards from 14-15 O-Pee-Chee
This particular project has been rather neglected for the 13-14 season, so it's nice to make a little bit of progress.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Emotion Ntense Power 6 Owen Nolan
1991 Sports Cards News Eric Lindros (Toronto Blue Jays)
These two cards are pretty random. The Owen Nolan insert is one I picked up just because of the design -- I think it's really interesting to look at, in a very mid-90s sort of way. The other card pictures Eric Lindros during batting practice with the Toronto Blue Jays. It's one of those unlicensed pseudo-official trading cards from the early 90s that seem to be floating around, but this one was too funny to pass up.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Score Superstitions 1 Teemu Selanne
96-97 Score Superstitions 3 Mats Sundin
96-97 Score Superstitions 4 Mike Modano
96-97 Score Superstitions 6 Paul Coffey
96-97 Score Superstitions 7 Ray Bourque
96-97 Score Superstitions 8 Chris Chelios
96-97 Score Superstitions 10 Alexander Selivanov
96-97 Score Superstitions 11 Brett Hull
96-97 Score Superstitions 12 Mike Richter
96-97 Score Superstitions 13 Scott Mellanby
Here's the majority of a really interesting 90s insert set that I don't think I even knew existed. The theme on this set is pretty simple -- what are some of the superstitions that NHL players abide by? Did you know that Alexander Selivanov likes to shoot the puck the length of the ice into the empty net at the end of warmups, or that Mike Modano enjoys taking the ice to Panama by Van Halen?
The set contains 13 cards, which I'm sure is intentional. It also includes a #13 in Mats Sundin, and a player who switched from #13 to #8 in Teemu Selanne.
I plan to complete the set, and I still need three cards: #2 Doug Weight, #5 Felix Potvin, and #9 Ron Hextall.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Atomic 126 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup 109 Jordan Leopold RC (750/950)
02-03 Crown Royale Hobby 107 Jordan Leopold RC (1112/2299)
02-03 Crown Royale Retail 107 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 BAP Memorabilia 283 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 BAP Signature Series 195 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Pacific Calder 108 Jordan Leopold RC (618/825)
It was inevitable that the Blue Jackets' injury problems would eventually lead to the acquisition of some NHL-level players. The first help for Columbus has come on the blue line, with the additions of Jordan Leopold and Kevin Connauton. Leopold was one of those players who earned an obscene number of RCs in the early 00s, and I have a total of 33 cards on my wantlist. In what may be my biggest "first shot" at a new rookie collection in history, Dave was able to supply me with 27 of the 33 Leopold cards!
This first batch covers a few low-to-mid-range RCs, although the Crown Royale Retail cards from 02-03 are not as easy to find as the numbered Hobby versions. For Atomic, Leopold was part of the unnumbered update subset, which was released in Private Stock Reserve.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SPx 168 Jordan Leopold RC (Black Swatch) (182/999)
02-03 Parkhurst 209 Jordan Leopold RC (407/500)
02-03 Parkhurst Retro 209 Jordan Leopold RC (134/3l00)
02-03 Private Stock Reserve Retail 156 Jordan Leopold RC (0696/1550)
02-03 SP Authentic 196 Jordan Leopold RC (396/999)
02-03 SP Game Used 71 Jordan Leopold RC (365/750)
02-03 Titanium Retail 109 Jordan Leopold RC (1351/1475)
The next batch of Leopold RCs includes the always-important SP Authentic rookie autograph, and the tricky Parkhurst Retro #/300.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Topps Chrome 160 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Upper Deck 430 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 UD Honor Roll 105 Jordan Leopold RC (0502/1499)
02-03 UD Mask Collection 173 Jordan Leopold RC (1079/1250)
02-03 UD Premier Collection 47 Jordan Leopold RC (380/399)
02-03 UD Top Shelf 124 Jordan Leopold RC (374/500)
02-03 Vanguard 107 Jordan Leopold RC (0450/1650)
The toughest card from this batch might be the Top Shelf #/500. The Premier Collection RC has a lower print run, but that product is pretty much everywhere. Leopold was included in the tougher of the two Mask Collection subsets (#/1250 instead of #/1750).
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155a (0229/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (Red Swatch) / Al MacInnis (Blue Swatch)
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155b (0423/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (White Swatch) / Brian Leetch (Blue Swatch)
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155c (1124/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (White Swatch) / Scott Niedermayer (White Swatch)
It's quite a compliment to pick these three legendary defensemen to pair with Leopold on these Rookie Update dual jersey RCs. With print runs of only 400 copies each, I'm glad to acquire all three of them at the same time.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Titanium Hobby 109 Jordan Leopold RC (59/99)
Here's the first of three high-end Leopold RCs -- his Titanium Hobby rookie card, with only 99 copies printed!
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 BAP All-Star Edition 132 Jordan Leopold RC (40/100)
However, I greatly prefer this one -- BAP All-Star Edition is one of my favorite RC sets of all time.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 In The Game-Used 97 Jordan Leopold RC (100/100)
The ITG Used dufex RCs are almost as nice as their BAP All-Star counterparts. This one has the bonus of being the last copy numbered.
So, there it is -- 27 Jordan Leopold RCs, with Private Stock Reserve Hobby as the only tricky one left to acquire. That's not a head-start -- it's a near-completion in one shot!
Dave, thanks for your help with these cards!
I'll have more from Dave in my next post, but for now, I'll continue with the mail.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 8 Johnny Boychuk (097/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 79 Nathan Horton (023/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 130 Shawn Thornton (024/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 136 Benoit Pouliot (003/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 186 Tim Thomas (100/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 307 Joe Corvo (094/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 502 Cam Neely (078/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 503 Johnny Bucyk (084/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 505 Phil Esposito (066/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 553 Maxime Sauve (052/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 554 Lane MacDermid (045/100)
Chalk up this purchase under "too cheap to pass up." I used to be big on acquiring random low-numbered parallels, and my tradelist is full of 4th liners on cards limited to 100 copies or less. I simply haven't had the time or desire to continue that pursuit. However, when this lot popped up in my Tim Thomas search on ebay, I couldn't ignore it. The price was right, and now the 12-13 section of my tradelist will get a nice boost, with several good players in the mix. I do already have a copy of the Tim Thomas card, but I'll likely swap it out for this one -- serial numbered #100 of 100.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 244 Tampa Bay Lightning (2007-08 to 2010-11)
This team logo card features the second of three primary logos used by the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's not a bad logo, but for Bolts fans, it's tarnished by the Oren Koules / Len Barrie era it comes from.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 217 Columbus Blue Jackets (2003-04 to Present / Alternate)
This "civil war hat" shoulder patch has been used by the Blue Jackets since 2003-04. It's become a key part of their branding and identity, and it makes for some awesome swatches on hockey cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Patrice Bergeron
-- Division Semifinals (April 20, 2014)
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Jeff Carter
-- Division Semifinals (April 28, 2014)
The Ultra Road to the Championship set is really interesting. For one, it's an absolutely massive set, with over 600 unique cards. Most players have multiple cards in the set, making it a real challenge for player collectors. It doesn't quite work as a full retrospective of the playoffs, since only the "ticket" part of the card changes, with identical player pictures and card backs between each of the variations. Still, it's an ambitious project, and I'd be thoroughly impressed if anyone managed to complete the whole thing.
These two cards came in as extras with one of the Road to the Championship inserts pictured below. Carter and Bergeron will be headed to my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 22, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 24, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 28, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Finals (May 10, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Conference Finals (May 26, 2014)
Alec Martinez earned 12 different cards in the Road to the Championship set, and collecting them all will not be an easy task! In the month after the product was released, I was able to pick up 5 of the 12, getting almost to the halfway point. I guess that's not a bad amount of progress.
Martinez has three different cards from each round of the playoffs. Each round seems to have been printed in progressively smaller amounts, which is why I easily finished off the Division Semifinals subset, but only found one card each from the next two levels. A few Stanley Cup Finals cards have come up for sale, but the prices have been rather uninviting. This is something I'll just have to be patient with.
I have four Sergei Samsonov items to help close out the mail post, and all four are good!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Jerseys Silver (04/25)
-- Sergei Samsonov (Black Swatch) / Alexei Kovalev (Black Swatch)
About two years ago, in early December 2012, I made a purchase on ebay for two Samsonov cards #/25 from 06-07. The cards -- this one, and his Sweet Shot triple jersey -- never arrived. I went through the ebay case process and was refunded, but I was still very unhappy to be out two rare Samsonov cards for my collection.
In mid-2013, on my third attempt, I acquired the Sweet Shot triple jersey card -- the second attempt was damaged in transit. It took me longer to find a copy of this Artifacts card, but it arrived safely. Thankfully, I can now put that failed transaction to rest!
This is one of nine different Tundra Tandems cards that Samsonov and Kovalev appear on. I now own four of the six jersey variations, but none of the three patch versions. The cards I'm missing all have pretty low print runs, including two 1/1s, so I don't know how much more progress I'll be able to make.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Game-Used Jersey Gold Sergei Samsonov (/10)
Although I wasn't a huge fan of the set, I've been able to acquire almost all of Samsonov's cards from the ITG Superlative The First Six product. This card leaves me with just one non-1/1 on the wantlist -- the Auto Plus Gold, which is limited to 5 copies, and contains a signature and a stick piece.
This gold parallel features gold foil lettering on the words "Game-Used Jersey" at the bottom of the card. I already have the base version, which is limited to 20 copies.
This card has a plain yellow swatch. I did see one or two copies of the gold parallel with multi-color swatches, but this one is good enough for my collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Stickwork Game-Used Stick Silver Sergei Samsonov (/19)
I just recently acquired the Samsonov/Thornton dual stick card from this set, and realized I'd yet to purchase a copy of the base Samsonov stick card. Thankfully, I was able to get this copy very inexpensively on ebay, and I like this one quite a bit more than the smaller multi-player cards! The stick swatch is absolutely massive, with plenty of detail from the stick Samsonov used in parts of the early 00s. The swatch is gold with black and silver writing, and appears to be from a TPS Response stick.
I now have all of the non-1/1 Samsonov cards from ITG Stickwork.
-------------------------------------------------------
94-95 SP 189 Sergei Samsonov RC (PSA Graded / GEM MT 10 #23019620)
The last item for this mail post is something I've wanted for a long, long time. I'm not really into graded cards, though I don't mind the encasing for some important 80s-and-earlier rookie issues. However, with Samsonov as my original player collection, I always thought it would be nice to own a perfect copy of his only RC. Nearly 20 years after the product was released, I finally own a PSA 10 version of the 94-95 SP Sergei Samsonov rookie card.
According to the PSA registry, 277 copies of the Samsonov RC have been graded, and only 13 earned PSA 10 (Gem Mint) ratings -- less than 4%. Of those 13, I doubt I've seen more than 5 or 6 on the market in the past ten years. For the sake of comparison, BGS lists a total of 167 graded Samsonov cards, with only 7 at BGS 9.5 (Gem Mint) and none at BGS 10 (Pristine).
To make things more interesting, I looked up the book value for a Gem Mint Samsonov RC from the small graded card section in an old Beckett magazine. Using the August 2007 price guide as an example, this card supposedly had a value of $200! Obviously, I didn't pay anywhere near that much, though there was certainly a bit of a premium over the dime-bin status this card has likely settled into.
-----------------
News and notes:
** The second part of my recent collection additions, with even more items from Dave Rearick, will be coming soon.
** The "pseudo-retired goalie" themed posts, which I have been intending to get done for a few months, will also be coming before the end of the year. Speaking of, now that Brodeur and (apparently) Bryzgalov are off the market, could he be next on the list?
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Mail Post #16 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
2014 Upper Deck Fall Expo Priority Signings PS-CC Cory Conacher (09/35)
Before I get into the items from Dave, I want to start this post by highlighting a really awesome card that I received as a surprise. When the Fall Expo Priority Signings checklist was announced, I was thrilled to see a 25th Anniversary Retro Young Guns set was planned. That's just a neat concept in general. I was even happier when I saw that Cory Conacher would be part of the subset, as that meant he'd appear on the card as a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning! Conacher's entire slate of 13-14 RCs pictured him as a member of the Senators (with National Treasures getting him in a Sabres uniform, though with Senators patch swatches). I believed that this was Conacher's first-ever card to picture him as a member of the Lightning, and it immediately shot to the top of my wantlist. I later learned that he did have one early-season item (13-14 Trilogy Puck Signatures) that showed him on the Bolts as well, but I greatly prefer this card.
Just after the expo was over, I received an unexpected package in the mail from Norm (trekrun) with this card inside -- the one card from the expo that I really wanted to acquire!
Thank you for your help Norm -- I'm very happy to add this to my Cory Conacher rookie collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
92-93 Upper Deck All-Star Locker 29 Jari Kurri
92-93 Upper Deck All-Star Locker 31 Mike Modano
95-96 McDonald's Pinnacle McD-02 Eric Lindros
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-3 Peter Forsberg
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-5 Dominik Hasek
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-22 Jason Spezza
03-04 ITG Toronto Star Foil F-28 Joe Sakic
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 96 Curtis Joseph
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 97 Felix Potvin
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 98 Grant Fuhr
10-11 Panini All Goalies Up Close 99 Richard Brodeur
Here is the start of the huge batch of cards I received from Dave Rearick. These cards are sort of a random mix -- a few inserts and parallels.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 96-97 Summit Premium Stock
Base Cards from 95-96 Topps Super Skills
Base Cards from 13-14 Upper Deck Series Two
Base Cards from 13-14 SP Authentic
I also received some base cards for my yearly binder project, and I'm most happy to finally get Topps Super Skills out of the way.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 13-14 Panini Contenders
Base Cards from 13-14 Titanium Retail
Base Cards from 13-14 Crown Royale
Base Cards from 14-15 O-Pee-Chee
This particular project has been rather neglected for the 13-14 season, so it's nice to make a little bit of progress.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Emotion Ntense Power 6 Owen Nolan
1991 Sports Cards News Eric Lindros (Toronto Blue Jays)
These two cards are pretty random. The Owen Nolan insert is one I picked up just because of the design -- I think it's really interesting to look at, in a very mid-90s sort of way. The other card pictures Eric Lindros during batting practice with the Toronto Blue Jays. It's one of those unlicensed pseudo-official trading cards from the early 90s that seem to be floating around, but this one was too funny to pass up.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Score Superstitions 1 Teemu Selanne
96-97 Score Superstitions 3 Mats Sundin
96-97 Score Superstitions 4 Mike Modano
96-97 Score Superstitions 6 Paul Coffey
96-97 Score Superstitions 7 Ray Bourque
96-97 Score Superstitions 8 Chris Chelios
96-97 Score Superstitions 10 Alexander Selivanov
96-97 Score Superstitions 11 Brett Hull
96-97 Score Superstitions 12 Mike Richter
96-97 Score Superstitions 13 Scott Mellanby
Here's the majority of a really interesting 90s insert set that I don't think I even knew existed. The theme on this set is pretty simple -- what are some of the superstitions that NHL players abide by? Did you know that Alexander Selivanov likes to shoot the puck the length of the ice into the empty net at the end of warmups, or that Mike Modano enjoys taking the ice to Panama by Van Halen?
The set contains 13 cards, which I'm sure is intentional. It also includes a #13 in Mats Sundin, and a player who switched from #13 to #8 in Teemu Selanne.
I plan to complete the set, and I still need three cards: #2 Doug Weight, #5 Felix Potvin, and #9 Ron Hextall.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Atomic 126 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Pacific Quest for the Cup 109 Jordan Leopold RC (750/950)
02-03 Crown Royale Hobby 107 Jordan Leopold RC (1112/2299)
02-03 Crown Royale Retail 107 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 BAP Memorabilia 283 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 BAP Signature Series 195 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Pacific Calder 108 Jordan Leopold RC (618/825)
It was inevitable that the Blue Jackets' injury problems would eventually lead to the acquisition of some NHL-level players. The first help for Columbus has come on the blue line, with the additions of Jordan Leopold and Kevin Connauton. Leopold was one of those players who earned an obscene number of RCs in the early 00s, and I have a total of 33 cards on my wantlist. In what may be my biggest "first shot" at a new rookie collection in history, Dave was able to supply me with 27 of the 33 Leopold cards!
This first batch covers a few low-to-mid-range RCs, although the Crown Royale Retail cards from 02-03 are not as easy to find as the numbered Hobby versions. For Atomic, Leopold was part of the unnumbered update subset, which was released in Private Stock Reserve.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SPx 168 Jordan Leopold RC (Black Swatch) (182/999)
02-03 Parkhurst 209 Jordan Leopold RC (407/500)
02-03 Parkhurst Retro 209 Jordan Leopold RC (134/3l00)
02-03 Private Stock Reserve Retail 156 Jordan Leopold RC (0696/1550)
02-03 SP Authentic 196 Jordan Leopold RC (396/999)
02-03 SP Game Used 71 Jordan Leopold RC (365/750)
02-03 Titanium Retail 109 Jordan Leopold RC (1351/1475)
The next batch of Leopold RCs includes the always-important SP Authentic rookie autograph, and the tricky Parkhurst Retro #/300.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Topps Chrome 160 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 Upper Deck 430 Jordan Leopold RC
02-03 UD Honor Roll 105 Jordan Leopold RC (0502/1499)
02-03 UD Mask Collection 173 Jordan Leopold RC (1079/1250)
02-03 UD Premier Collection 47 Jordan Leopold RC (380/399)
02-03 UD Top Shelf 124 Jordan Leopold RC (374/500)
02-03 Vanguard 107 Jordan Leopold RC (0450/1650)
The toughest card from this batch might be the Top Shelf #/500. The Premier Collection RC has a lower print run, but that product is pretty much everywhere. Leopold was included in the tougher of the two Mask Collection subsets (#/1250 instead of #/1750).
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155a (0229/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (Red Swatch) / Al MacInnis (Blue Swatch)
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155b (0423/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (White Swatch) / Brian Leetch (Blue Swatch)
02-03 Upper Deck Rookie Update 155c (1124/1200) (/400)
-- Jordan Leopold RC (White Swatch) / Scott Niedermayer (White Swatch)
It's quite a compliment to pick these three legendary defensemen to pair with Leopold on these Rookie Update dual jersey RCs. With print runs of only 400 copies each, I'm glad to acquire all three of them at the same time.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Titanium Hobby 109 Jordan Leopold RC (59/99)
Here's the first of three high-end Leopold RCs -- his Titanium Hobby rookie card, with only 99 copies printed!
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 BAP All-Star Edition 132 Jordan Leopold RC (40/100)
However, I greatly prefer this one -- BAP All-Star Edition is one of my favorite RC sets of all time.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 In The Game-Used 97 Jordan Leopold RC (100/100)
The ITG Used dufex RCs are almost as nice as their BAP All-Star counterparts. This one has the bonus of being the last copy numbered.
So, there it is -- 27 Jordan Leopold RCs, with Private Stock Reserve Hobby as the only tricky one left to acquire. That's not a head-start -- it's a near-completion in one shot!
Dave, thanks for your help with these cards!
I'll have more from Dave in my next post, but for now, I'll continue with the mail.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 8 Johnny Boychuk (097/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 79 Nathan Horton (023/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 130 Shawn Thornton (024/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 136 Benoit Pouliot (003/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 186 Tim Thomas (100/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 307 Joe Corvo (094/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 502 Cam Neely (078/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 503 Johnny Bucyk (084/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 505 Phil Esposito (066/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 553 Maxime Sauve (052/100)
12-13 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 554 Lane MacDermid (045/100)
Chalk up this purchase under "too cheap to pass up." I used to be big on acquiring random low-numbered parallels, and my tradelist is full of 4th liners on cards limited to 100 copies or less. I simply haven't had the time or desire to continue that pursuit. However, when this lot popped up in my Tim Thomas search on ebay, I couldn't ignore it. The price was right, and now the 12-13 section of my tradelist will get a nice boost, with several good players in the mix. I do already have a copy of the Tim Thomas card, but I'll likely swap it out for this one -- serial numbered #100 of 100.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 244 Tampa Bay Lightning (2007-08 to 2010-11)
This team logo card features the second of three primary logos used by the Tampa Bay Lightning. It's not a bad logo, but for Bolts fans, it's tarnished by the Oren Koules / Len Barrie era it comes from.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 217 Columbus Blue Jackets (2003-04 to Present / Alternate)
This "civil war hat" shoulder patch has been used by the Blue Jackets since 2003-04. It's become a key part of their branding and identity, and it makes for some awesome swatches on hockey cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Patrice Bergeron
-- Division Semifinals (April 20, 2014)
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Jeff Carter
-- Division Semifinals (April 28, 2014)
The Ultra Road to the Championship set is really interesting. For one, it's an absolutely massive set, with over 600 unique cards. Most players have multiple cards in the set, making it a real challenge for player collectors. It doesn't quite work as a full retrospective of the playoffs, since only the "ticket" part of the card changes, with identical player pictures and card backs between each of the variations. Still, it's an ambitious project, and I'd be thoroughly impressed if anyone managed to complete the whole thing.
These two cards came in as extras with one of the Road to the Championship inserts pictured below. Carter and Bergeron will be headed to my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 22, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 24, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Semifinals (April 28, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Finals (May 10, 2014)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Conference Finals (May 26, 2014)
Alec Martinez earned 12 different cards in the Road to the Championship set, and collecting them all will not be an easy task! In the month after the product was released, I was able to pick up 5 of the 12, getting almost to the halfway point. I guess that's not a bad amount of progress.
Martinez has three different cards from each round of the playoffs. Each round seems to have been printed in progressively smaller amounts, which is why I easily finished off the Division Semifinals subset, but only found one card each from the next two levels. A few Stanley Cup Finals cards have come up for sale, but the prices have been rather uninviting. This is something I'll just have to be patient with.
I have four Sergei Samsonov items to help close out the mail post, and all four are good!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Jerseys Silver (04/25)
-- Sergei Samsonov (Black Swatch) / Alexei Kovalev (Black Swatch)
About two years ago, in early December 2012, I made a purchase on ebay for two Samsonov cards #/25 from 06-07. The cards -- this one, and his Sweet Shot triple jersey -- never arrived. I went through the ebay case process and was refunded, but I was still very unhappy to be out two rare Samsonov cards for my collection.
In mid-2013, on my third attempt, I acquired the Sweet Shot triple jersey card -- the second attempt was damaged in transit. It took me longer to find a copy of this Artifacts card, but it arrived safely. Thankfully, I can now put that failed transaction to rest!
This is one of nine different Tundra Tandems cards that Samsonov and Kovalev appear on. I now own four of the six jersey variations, but none of the three patch versions. The cards I'm missing all have pretty low print runs, including two 1/1s, so I don't know how much more progress I'll be able to make.
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13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Game-Used Jersey Gold Sergei Samsonov (/10)
Although I wasn't a huge fan of the set, I've been able to acquire almost all of Samsonov's cards from the ITG Superlative The First Six product. This card leaves me with just one non-1/1 on the wantlist -- the Auto Plus Gold, which is limited to 5 copies, and contains a signature and a stick piece.
This gold parallel features gold foil lettering on the words "Game-Used Jersey" at the bottom of the card. I already have the base version, which is limited to 20 copies.
This card has a plain yellow swatch. I did see one or two copies of the gold parallel with multi-color swatches, but this one is good enough for my collection.
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13-14 ITG Stickwork Game-Used Stick Silver Sergei Samsonov (/19)
I just recently acquired the Samsonov/Thornton dual stick card from this set, and realized I'd yet to purchase a copy of the base Samsonov stick card. Thankfully, I was able to get this copy very inexpensively on ebay, and I like this one quite a bit more than the smaller multi-player cards! The stick swatch is absolutely massive, with plenty of detail from the stick Samsonov used in parts of the early 00s. The swatch is gold with black and silver writing, and appears to be from a TPS Response stick.
I now have all of the non-1/1 Samsonov cards from ITG Stickwork.
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94-95 SP 189 Sergei Samsonov RC (PSA Graded / GEM MT 10 #23019620)
The last item for this mail post is something I've wanted for a long, long time. I'm not really into graded cards, though I don't mind the encasing for some important 80s-and-earlier rookie issues. However, with Samsonov as my original player collection, I always thought it would be nice to own a perfect copy of his only RC. Nearly 20 years after the product was released, I finally own a PSA 10 version of the 94-95 SP Sergei Samsonov rookie card.
According to the PSA registry, 277 copies of the Samsonov RC have been graded, and only 13 earned PSA 10 (Gem Mint) ratings -- less than 4%. Of those 13, I doubt I've seen more than 5 or 6 on the market in the past ten years. For the sake of comparison, BGS lists a total of 167 graded Samsonov cards, with only 7 at BGS 9.5 (Gem Mint) and none at BGS 10 (Pristine).
To make things more interesting, I looked up the book value for a Gem Mint Samsonov RC from the small graded card section in an old Beckett magazine. Using the August 2007 price guide as an example, this card supposedly had a value of $200! Obviously, I didn't pay anywhere near that much, though there was certainly a bit of a premium over the dime-bin status this card has likely settled into.
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News and notes:
** The second part of my recent collection additions, with even more items from Dave Rearick, will be coming soon.
** The "pseudo-retired goalie" themed posts, which I have been intending to get done for a few months, will also be coming before the end of the year. Speaking of, now that Brodeur and (apparently) Bryzgalov are off the market, could he be next on the list?
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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