The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
I've always kept my list of "most wanted cards" limited to NHL releases, but I know in the back of my mind that there are a few non-NHL items that are legitimately at the top of my wantlist. This mail post contains just that kind of card, and more than one -- but you'll have to wait to the end to see what!
Mail Post #8 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Toronto Spring Expo 306 Tim Thomas
13-14 Select Cracked Ice Toronto Spring Expo 435 Tim Thomas
I'll start the post with some player collection items, including some brand new stuff from Tim Thomas. These two cards were released by Panini as promotional items at the 2014 Toronto Spring Expo. I don't believe there were any other versions of these cards available, but there will eventually be a full batch of base and parallels released in Rookie Anthology. I also have no idea what the print runs are, since Panini has not done much to get any information about these cards out to the public. One seller on ebay suggested a print run of 25 copies each, which seems like a reasonable guess.
The Select card is Tim Thomas' first appearance as a member of the Dallas Stars.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Between The Pipes Cross-Canada Tour Jersey Tim Thomas (1/1)
-- Clouts'n'Chara, Kitchener, Ontario
I've been picking up Cross-Canada Tour 1/1 cards when the prices are good, and that was certainly the case for this card. This is my fourth Cross-Canada 1/1 of Tim Thomas from the 11-12 set. I also own cards from the following locations:
* D & M Sports, Halifax, NS
* Maverick Sports & Collectables, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Beyond The Pond, London, Ontario
You could count five if you include the Hobby Insider Pack Wars 1/1.
How many of these cards exist? I have absolutely no idea, as ITG has never published checklists for these cards. If this program continues, I hope that Leaf is better with keeping track of this stuff than ITG has been.
The swatch on this card is quite nice, with yellow jersey and a large black seam visible. Pulling down on the black seam reveals a small piece of white jersey at the top of the swatch window.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Black Diamond base cards
Here are a few base cards that were included as filler with the next item.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Pinnacle Starting Six Jerseys (101/199)
-- Patrice Bergeron (Black) / Milan Lucic (Black) / Matt Bartkowski (Black)
-- Nathan Horton (White) / Zdeno Chara (Yellow) / Tim Thomas (Yellow)
This is one of few six-jersey cards in my collection. I have yet to pick up the Prime or Patch versions, and I'm not in a rush to do so.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Tim Thomas (007/299)
Here's a fairly easy card from 12-13 that slipped past me until recently. This card is the base version of the various Fabric of the Game parallels, and has a yellow jersey swatch.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Mirror Red Tim Thomas (018/150)
This parallel to the above card is the next step up through the Fabric of the Game versions. The card features a larger black swatch, with the letters "BOS" cut out, and red foil highlights.
I also own the Mirror Hot Box (/75) version. but there are four other variations (with print runs of 25 or fewer) that I have yet to acquire.
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Swiss National Team Postcards Thomas Ziegler
Here's a card of another "Thomas" that has been on my wantlist for a long time. I don't know that I've ever seen a copy of this card before now, but it looks to me like an ebay seller acquired a complete set and split them up into singles. As such, this card was not terribly expensive. It is, however, a pretty important addition to my Thomas Ziegler collection.
The card appears to be autographed on the front in silver ink, but it looks to me like it's probably a printed autograph. All of the cards in the set have silver autographs with nearly identical line widths. Obviously, comparing any one of the cards to a second copy would make it easy to tell, but I couldn't find more than one copy of any of the postcards. My guess is that it's simply a design element, and not an in-person signature.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards
As I transition the post toward rookie issues, here are a few more base cards, included with the next item in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Carter Camper RC (299/299)
Carter Camper is the kind of player I really shouldn't be spending my money on -- a minor-league acquisition by the Blue Jackets, who is now a UFA. So, it should be noted that these next three cards were only purchased due to extremely low prices. This one, from Panini Limited, also has the benefit of being the last copy numbered.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Prime Carter Camper RC (238/249)
Why pass up a chance at a nice Panini Prime rookie card with alternating swatch colors? Regardless of the player on the card, the arrangement here just simply looks nice. Two of the jersey pieces are yellow, and two of them are black.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Crown Royale Carter Camper RC (23/99)
The last Carter Camper card is one of his best rookie cards -- a silhouettes card from Crown Royale. This card has a huge swatch with yellow and black jersey pieces, with a big seam on the black side.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 The Cup Corey Tropp RC (238/249)
Corey Tropp did play a role for the Blue Jackets this season, and even supplanted R.J. Umberger in the lineup during the playoffs. This is one of his best RCs, and it features a three color swatch from his days in Buffalo -- blue jersey, white patch, and yellow patch.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards
At some point, I'm going to get sick of taking pictures of base cards that people include as packaging filler. Until then, here's another batch. These arrived with the Boone Jenner card pictured below.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck UD Canvas C264 Boone Jenner (SP)
This card comes from the toughest short print tier of the UD Canvas set (1:192 packs), and features Blue Jackets rookie Boone Jenner from his days on Team Canada. Jenner also received a regular UD Canvas Young Guns card in Series 1.
I purchased this card from a stagnant BIN listing on ebay -- one that had been sitting there for quite some time. In the mean time, copies of this card listed for auction were selling for two to three times the cost of the BIN price. I definitely came out ahead on that deal.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Trilogy Spencer Machacek RC (311/799)
13-14 Titanium Retail Michael Kostka RC (120/299)
These two random RCs are also headed to my rookie collection -- obviously, the Kostka is the more important of the two. The next card in the post also came in from the same ebay transaction.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 SP Authentic Brett Connolly RC (548/999)
Here's one of Brett Connolly's key RCs. This is one of my favorite SP Authentic designs in a while, but Connolly's autograph leaves some to be desired.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Elite Brett Connolly RC (61/99)
Connolly was included with the toughest tier of rookies in Panini Elite, and it's taken me a long time to find a copy of this card for a reasonable price. For full-foil cards, the bright and crisp images really do photograph quite well.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Ultimate Collection Brett Connolly RC (83/99)
This is the most important Brett Connolly RC in this post, and probably the best so far in my collection. It's my first #/99 card from 11-12 Ultimate Collection.
Brett Connolly is one of several very talented young forwards in the Lightning's system -- right behind players who made the jump to the NHL this season (Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov). Connolly was a #6 overall pick, but it remains to be seen if the patient AHL approach will work out for him. It seems likely that the Lightning will trade a forward prospect for help elsewhere in their lineup, and Connolly may be a candidate to move.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Richard Panik RC (99/99)
Richard Panik was one of the few disappointing rookies the Lightning used in 2013-14, which isn't really a bad thing -- they had several who were outstanding, and two of the three Calder Trophy candidates! Panik has yet to totally find the consistency that he seemed capable of in the AHL, where he was likened to Marian Hossa as an interesting mix of talent and strength.
This item will likely end up as one of Panik's best rookie cards. The silhouette RC contains a two-color swatch, with white jersey and a big blue seam. It's also the last copy numbered, with a print run of 99.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Private Stock Retail Rostislav Klesla RC (054/230)
From the standpoint of a rookie card collector, Rostislav Klesla can be considered the "original Blue Jacket." He was the team's first-ever draft pick (#4 overall in 2000), and he earned 24 rookie cards in the 00-01 product year. This card was far and away the toughest remaining on my wantlist -- a retail-only item with a fairly low print run.
Klesla's best rookie card is the hobby version of this card, which is limited to 155 copies. It's almost unthinkable that he was left off the checklist for Titanium (only making a cameo appearance in the extended Draft Day Edition set).
Finally, I'm really happy to share what I consider to be a junior league white whale. This is a set that I've been trying to find for over a decade!
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 Upper Deck NBA Basketball base cards
Yes, here's one more batch of random base cards -- and these are Basketball cards! The set pictured below couldn't quite fill the small box they were shipped in.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Lethbridge Power (Sponsor) (Front)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Parry Shockey (Co-Coach) (Front)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Dale Purinton
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Luc Theoret
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Kirby Law
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Bryce Salvador
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Byron Ritchie
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Darren Shakotko
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Jason Hegberg
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Shane Yellowhorn
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes David Cameron
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mike Josephson
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Lethbridge Power (Sponsor) (Back)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Bryan Maxwell (General Manager) (Back)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Matt Demarski
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Paul Elliott
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Cam Severson
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Martin Hohenberger
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Dave Taylor
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Richard Seeley
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Marek Ivan
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Evgeny Tsybuk
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mike O'Grady
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Wes Schneider
Here's the bulk of the set in question -- a 25-card set from the WHL Lethbridge Hurricanes. For many years I've owned cards from the 94-95 and 95-96 Lethbridge team sets, and haven't had any problem running across extra copies from time to time. However, the 96-97 set proved to be incredibly elusive. I was only ever able to confirm the existence of one 96-97 Lethbridge set, and it was in the hands of a team collector who intended to keep the entire thing.
How did I find this set? I honestly can't remember. I hadn't been searching ebay for the team name -- rather, I usually run title-and-description searches for the players I collect. This auction didn't have a listing for any of the player names, and instead just listed the year and team name in the auction title. I really don't recall how I found it, but once I saw the title and the picture, I knew I'd just run across something incredibly special!
What makes this set so important, as opposed to other tough minor/junior sets I might need a card from? I had three cards on my wantlist from this set -- two for myself, and one for another Hobby Insider member.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mark Smith
I'll start with this card, which is already in the hands of Chris West (hockeyguy2006). Chris has a near-complete collection of Mark Smith's cards, primarily only missing some of the tough parallels from 1998 Bowman CHL, plus one AHL card from 2000-01. This Lethbridge card is the last one Chris needed out of four different releases Smith appeared on during his time with the Hurricanes (94-95 through 97-98).
Chris, I know you're glad to have this one finally scratched from your wantlist!
Now, I'll scratch two cards off of mine.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Ryan Hoople
It's been a long time since I've been able to say this, so here it goes -- this card gives me 100% completion for one of my dedicated player collections! Sure, Ryan Hoople only has six cards, but he hasn't earned a piece of cardboard in 14 years. It took me a long time to finally finish it off, and I wasn't sure I'd ever find this Lethbridge card. Now that I have it, I'm at 6-for-6, and the collection is complete. Hoople last played for the Toledo Storm in 2001-02, so unless a previously-unlisted card pops up out of nowhere, this collection is likely done for good. Hoople played 12 games for the Detroit Vipers in 2000-01.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Travis Brigley
I can't quite claim completion for my Travis Brigley collection, but I can do the next best thing -- declare that I now own all of his North American card releases. Brigley appeared in three Lethbridge sets (one short of Smith's four), and this card marked his final season in the WHL.
Travis Brigley played 55 games in the NHL, but only sparingly found his way into mainstream hockey products. He played two games with the Calgary Flames in 1997-98, but didn't earn a card. In 1999-00, the same year in which he played for the Detroit Vipers, he played 17 games for the Flames. He received three true RCs from three different manufacturers (Pacific Omega, Topps Premier Plus, and Upper Deck Gold Reserve). Brigley spent the next few years in the minors, but went on to play 36 games with the Colorado Avalanche in 2003-04. He never earned a card while he was with Colorado, which seems almost unthinkable given the checklist size of products like Upper Deck, ITG Action, and Pacific Complete. After a season in the AHL in 05-06, he spent the next four years playing in Europe before apparently retiring from hockey.
After acquiring a tough German DEL parallel in April, and picking up this Lethbridge card in May, my Travis Brigley wantlist is down to just one card -- another German card from 08-09. I'll have to step up my efforts to find it, as I'd love to have this collection finished off!
Here's a little more information about the Lethbridge set. The cards are unnumbered, though they are listed in Beckett and on HockeyDB with card numbers. I simply sorted them out by jersey number. Although Lethbridge Power is clearly the main sponsor of the set, a total of 12 different sponsor logos were used across the 24 player/staff cards in the set -- each one repeated twice. In addition to Brigley and Smith, several other NHLers are also included on the checklist -- Bryan Maxwell (General Manager), Byron Ritchie, Bryce Salvador, Cam Severson, Kirby Law, and Dale Purinton.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Although I posted a few of his cards in this mail post, the next one is going to be a showcase for several great new Tim Thomas cards I've added to my collection. I'm not sure if he has any gas left in the tank for his NHL career, but there's no stopping his flood of cardboard.
** Even with the Panini Rookie Anthology checklists released, there are still two Lightning players eligible for RCs this season. One of them, Vladislav Namestnikov, was a first-round draft pick in 2011. The other is a Latvian goaltender that Canadians (and Canadiens) aren't soon to forget -- Kristers Gudlevskis.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Mail Post #8 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Toronto Spring Expo 306 Tim Thomas
13-14 Select Cracked Ice Toronto Spring Expo 435 Tim Thomas
I'll start the post with some player collection items, including some brand new stuff from Tim Thomas. These two cards were released by Panini as promotional items at the 2014 Toronto Spring Expo. I don't believe there were any other versions of these cards available, but there will eventually be a full batch of base and parallels released in Rookie Anthology. I also have no idea what the print runs are, since Panini has not done much to get any information about these cards out to the public. One seller on ebay suggested a print run of 25 copies each, which seems like a reasonable guess.
The Select card is Tim Thomas' first appearance as a member of the Dallas Stars.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Between The Pipes Cross-Canada Tour Jersey Tim Thomas (1/1)
-- Clouts'n'Chara, Kitchener, Ontario
I've been picking up Cross-Canada Tour 1/1 cards when the prices are good, and that was certainly the case for this card. This is my fourth Cross-Canada 1/1 of Tim Thomas from the 11-12 set. I also own cards from the following locations:
* D & M Sports, Halifax, NS
* Maverick Sports & Collectables, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Beyond The Pond, London, Ontario
You could count five if you include the Hobby Insider Pack Wars 1/1.
How many of these cards exist? I have absolutely no idea, as ITG has never published checklists for these cards. If this program continues, I hope that Leaf is better with keeping track of this stuff than ITG has been.
The swatch on this card is quite nice, with yellow jersey and a large black seam visible. Pulling down on the black seam reveals a small piece of white jersey at the top of the swatch window.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Black Diamond base cards
Here are a few base cards that were included as filler with the next item.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Pinnacle Starting Six Jerseys (101/199)
-- Patrice Bergeron (Black) / Milan Lucic (Black) / Matt Bartkowski (Black)
-- Nathan Horton (White) / Zdeno Chara (Yellow) / Tim Thomas (Yellow)
This is one of few six-jersey cards in my collection. I have yet to pick up the Prime or Patch versions, and I'm not in a rush to do so.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Tim Thomas (007/299)
Here's a fairly easy card from 12-13 that slipped past me until recently. This card is the base version of the various Fabric of the Game parallels, and has a yellow jersey swatch.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Mirror Red Tim Thomas (018/150)
This parallel to the above card is the next step up through the Fabric of the Game versions. The card features a larger black swatch, with the letters "BOS" cut out, and red foil highlights.
I also own the Mirror Hot Box (/75) version. but there are four other variations (with print runs of 25 or fewer) that I have yet to acquire.
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Swiss National Team Postcards Thomas Ziegler
Here's a card of another "Thomas" that has been on my wantlist for a long time. I don't know that I've ever seen a copy of this card before now, but it looks to me like an ebay seller acquired a complete set and split them up into singles. As such, this card was not terribly expensive. It is, however, a pretty important addition to my Thomas Ziegler collection.
The card appears to be autographed on the front in silver ink, but it looks to me like it's probably a printed autograph. All of the cards in the set have silver autographs with nearly identical line widths. Obviously, comparing any one of the cards to a second copy would make it easy to tell, but I couldn't find more than one copy of any of the postcards. My guess is that it's simply a design element, and not an in-person signature.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards
As I transition the post toward rookie issues, here are a few more base cards, included with the next item in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Carter Camper RC (299/299)
Carter Camper is the kind of player I really shouldn't be spending my money on -- a minor-league acquisition by the Blue Jackets, who is now a UFA. So, it should be noted that these next three cards were only purchased due to extremely low prices. This one, from Panini Limited, also has the benefit of being the last copy numbered.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Prime Carter Camper RC (238/249)
Why pass up a chance at a nice Panini Prime rookie card with alternating swatch colors? Regardless of the player on the card, the arrangement here just simply looks nice. Two of the jersey pieces are yellow, and two of them are black.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Crown Royale Carter Camper RC (23/99)
The last Carter Camper card is one of his best rookie cards -- a silhouettes card from Crown Royale. This card has a huge swatch with yellow and black jersey pieces, with a big seam on the black side.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 The Cup Corey Tropp RC (238/249)
Corey Tropp did play a role for the Blue Jackets this season, and even supplanted R.J. Umberger in the lineup during the playoffs. This is one of his best RCs, and it features a three color swatch from his days in Buffalo -- blue jersey, white patch, and yellow patch.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards
At some point, I'm going to get sick of taking pictures of base cards that people include as packaging filler. Until then, here's another batch. These arrived with the Boone Jenner card pictured below.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck UD Canvas C264 Boone Jenner (SP)
This card comes from the toughest short print tier of the UD Canvas set (1:192 packs), and features Blue Jackets rookie Boone Jenner from his days on Team Canada. Jenner also received a regular UD Canvas Young Guns card in Series 1.
I purchased this card from a stagnant BIN listing on ebay -- one that had been sitting there for quite some time. In the mean time, copies of this card listed for auction were selling for two to three times the cost of the BIN price. I definitely came out ahead on that deal.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Trilogy Spencer Machacek RC (311/799)
13-14 Titanium Retail Michael Kostka RC (120/299)
These two random RCs are also headed to my rookie collection -- obviously, the Kostka is the more important of the two. The next card in the post also came in from the same ebay transaction.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 SP Authentic Brett Connolly RC (548/999)
Here's one of Brett Connolly's key RCs. This is one of my favorite SP Authentic designs in a while, but Connolly's autograph leaves some to be desired.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Elite Brett Connolly RC (61/99)
Connolly was included with the toughest tier of rookies in Panini Elite, and it's taken me a long time to find a copy of this card for a reasonable price. For full-foil cards, the bright and crisp images really do photograph quite well.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Ultimate Collection Brett Connolly RC (83/99)
This is the most important Brett Connolly RC in this post, and probably the best so far in my collection. It's my first #/99 card from 11-12 Ultimate Collection.
Brett Connolly is one of several very talented young forwards in the Lightning's system -- right behind players who made the jump to the NHL this season (Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov). Connolly was a #6 overall pick, but it remains to be seen if the patient AHL approach will work out for him. It seems likely that the Lightning will trade a forward prospect for help elsewhere in their lineup, and Connolly may be a candidate to move.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Richard Panik RC (99/99)
Richard Panik was one of the few disappointing rookies the Lightning used in 2013-14, which isn't really a bad thing -- they had several who were outstanding, and two of the three Calder Trophy candidates! Panik has yet to totally find the consistency that he seemed capable of in the AHL, where he was likened to Marian Hossa as an interesting mix of talent and strength.
This item will likely end up as one of Panik's best rookie cards. The silhouette RC contains a two-color swatch, with white jersey and a big blue seam. It's also the last copy numbered, with a print run of 99.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Private Stock Retail Rostislav Klesla RC (054/230)
From the standpoint of a rookie card collector, Rostislav Klesla can be considered the "original Blue Jacket." He was the team's first-ever draft pick (#4 overall in 2000), and he earned 24 rookie cards in the 00-01 product year. This card was far and away the toughest remaining on my wantlist -- a retail-only item with a fairly low print run.
Klesla's best rookie card is the hobby version of this card, which is limited to 155 copies. It's almost unthinkable that he was left off the checklist for Titanium (only making a cameo appearance in the extended Draft Day Edition set).
Finally, I'm really happy to share what I consider to be a junior league white whale. This is a set that I've been trying to find for over a decade!
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 Upper Deck NBA Basketball base cards
Yes, here's one more batch of random base cards -- and these are Basketball cards! The set pictured below couldn't quite fill the small box they were shipped in.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Lethbridge Power (Sponsor) (Front)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Parry Shockey (Co-Coach) (Front)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Dale Purinton
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Luc Theoret
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Kirby Law
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Bryce Salvador
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Byron Ritchie
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Darren Shakotko
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Jason Hegberg
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Shane Yellowhorn
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes David Cameron
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mike Josephson
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Lethbridge Power (Sponsor) (Back)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Bryan Maxwell (General Manager) (Back)
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Matt Demarski
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Paul Elliott
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Cam Severson
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Martin Hohenberger
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Dave Taylor
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Richard Seeley
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Marek Ivan
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Evgeny Tsybuk
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mike O'Grady
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Wes Schneider
Here's the bulk of the set in question -- a 25-card set from the WHL Lethbridge Hurricanes. For many years I've owned cards from the 94-95 and 95-96 Lethbridge team sets, and haven't had any problem running across extra copies from time to time. However, the 96-97 set proved to be incredibly elusive. I was only ever able to confirm the existence of one 96-97 Lethbridge set, and it was in the hands of a team collector who intended to keep the entire thing.
How did I find this set? I honestly can't remember. I hadn't been searching ebay for the team name -- rather, I usually run title-and-description searches for the players I collect. This auction didn't have a listing for any of the player names, and instead just listed the year and team name in the auction title. I really don't recall how I found it, but once I saw the title and the picture, I knew I'd just run across something incredibly special!
What makes this set so important, as opposed to other tough minor/junior sets I might need a card from? I had three cards on my wantlist from this set -- two for myself, and one for another Hobby Insider member.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Mark Smith
I'll start with this card, which is already in the hands of Chris West (hockeyguy2006). Chris has a near-complete collection of Mark Smith's cards, primarily only missing some of the tough parallels from 1998 Bowman CHL, plus one AHL card from 2000-01. This Lethbridge card is the last one Chris needed out of four different releases Smith appeared on during his time with the Hurricanes (94-95 through 97-98).
Chris, I know you're glad to have this one finally scratched from your wantlist!
Now, I'll scratch two cards off of mine.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Ryan Hoople
It's been a long time since I've been able to say this, so here it goes -- this card gives me 100% completion for one of my dedicated player collections! Sure, Ryan Hoople only has six cards, but he hasn't earned a piece of cardboard in 14 years. It took me a long time to finally finish it off, and I wasn't sure I'd ever find this Lethbridge card. Now that I have it, I'm at 6-for-6, and the collection is complete. Hoople last played for the Toledo Storm in 2001-02, so unless a previously-unlisted card pops up out of nowhere, this collection is likely done for good. Hoople played 12 games for the Detroit Vipers in 2000-01.
-------------------------------------------------------
96-97 Lethbridge Hurricanes Travis Brigley
I can't quite claim completion for my Travis Brigley collection, but I can do the next best thing -- declare that I now own all of his North American card releases. Brigley appeared in three Lethbridge sets (one short of Smith's four), and this card marked his final season in the WHL.
Travis Brigley played 55 games in the NHL, but only sparingly found his way into mainstream hockey products. He played two games with the Calgary Flames in 1997-98, but didn't earn a card. In 1999-00, the same year in which he played for the Detroit Vipers, he played 17 games for the Flames. He received three true RCs from three different manufacturers (Pacific Omega, Topps Premier Plus, and Upper Deck Gold Reserve). Brigley spent the next few years in the minors, but went on to play 36 games with the Colorado Avalanche in 2003-04. He never earned a card while he was with Colorado, which seems almost unthinkable given the checklist size of products like Upper Deck, ITG Action, and Pacific Complete. After a season in the AHL in 05-06, he spent the next four years playing in Europe before apparently retiring from hockey.
After acquiring a tough German DEL parallel in April, and picking up this Lethbridge card in May, my Travis Brigley wantlist is down to just one card -- another German card from 08-09. I'll have to step up my efforts to find it, as I'd love to have this collection finished off!
Here's a little more information about the Lethbridge set. The cards are unnumbered, though they are listed in Beckett and on HockeyDB with card numbers. I simply sorted them out by jersey number. Although Lethbridge Power is clearly the main sponsor of the set, a total of 12 different sponsor logos were used across the 24 player/staff cards in the set -- each one repeated twice. In addition to Brigley and Smith, several other NHLers are also included on the checklist -- Bryan Maxwell (General Manager), Byron Ritchie, Bryce Salvador, Cam Severson, Kirby Law, and Dale Purinton.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Although I posted a few of his cards in this mail post, the next one is going to be a showcase for several great new Tim Thomas cards I've added to my collection. I'm not sure if he has any gas left in the tank for his NHL career, but there's no stopping his flood of cardboard.
** Even with the Panini Rookie Anthology checklists released, there are still two Lightning players eligible for RCs this season. One of them, Vladislav Namestnikov, was a first-round draft pick in 2011. The other is a Latvian goaltender that Canadians (and Canadiens) aren't soon to forget -- Kristers Gudlevskis.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
