The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
Rookies are the focus for most of this mail post, but there are a few interesting player collection items at the end, including one that I think is a huge addition to my third-largest player collection!
Mail Post #6 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
2011 Upper Deck Winter Classic 20 City of Pittsburgh
I love cards with pictures like this, as city skylines are one of my favorite photography subjects. I didn't even know about this card until recently, but stumbled across it and had to make the purchase. It was one of the cards given away at the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh, and as far as I know, was not available through any other means.
Here is the text from the card back:
The source of the Ohio River, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet, Pittsburgh has been the home to the NHL's Penguins -- three-time winners of the Stanley Cup -- since the 1967-68 season.
Geography on a hockey card? I'm in!
This card appears to have been taken from the top station of the Duquesne Incline, with the angle of the city matching a picture of mine from 2010.
Of course, for the time being, the city of Pittsburgh is my enemy. What awful timing for me to post a card like this!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 113 Columbus Blue Jackets (Original Primary Logo)
This OPC logo card features the original Blue Jackets logo. I never cared much for this logo, and I think the current emblem (a stylized version of the Ohio state flag) is much better -- simple and classy.
The only Lightning or Blue Jackets team logo patch I am missing is card #197 from the 2013-14 set. That card features a cartoon logo of the Blue Jackets' mascot, and I've only seen one copy ever.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-OTT (146/499)
-- Cory Conacher / Jean-Gabriel Pageau
I recently received all three of my 2012-13 Panini Limited rookie redemption cards. I was really disappointed with all the complaints about these cards -- I thought that anyone expecting these to be memorabilia or autograph cards had simply misguided themselves. What Panini produced is a set of 30 cards that team collectors and rookie collectors (such as myself) will absolutely love. I think the "multi-rookie" idea is pretty creative, and I enjoy these cards far more than the similar redemptions from UD Artifacts.
This card features former Lightning forward Cory Conacher, and another Senators rookie (Pageau).
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-COL (167/499)
-- Boone Jenner / Ryan Murray
Here are the two Blue Jackets rookie players, both of whom are among the better rookies in the huge 2013-14 class.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-TAM (182/499)
-- Alex Killorn / Richard Panik / Ondrej Palat / Radko Gudas
For the Lightning, Panini sure had a lot of players to choose from! In addition to the four players pictured here, three others (Andrej Sustr, Tyler Johnson, and Mark Barberio) were eligible at the beginning of the season.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified J.T. Brown RC (175/499)
This card was also a redemption from Panini. The card features an all-white jersey swatch, and Brown's autograph is fully contained on the sticker.
Although this redemption was fulfilled, I still have several Blue Jackets rookie redemption cards from 12-13 pending with Panini. Since I'm a rookie collector, I don't mind waiting until the cards are made, but I may have to check in soon just to see if they are still planned for production.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player Jack Skille RC (74/99)
With several injuries up front for the Blue Jackets, Skille is likely going to be a fixture on the playoff roster. He has the skill to compete in a top-9 role for the team, but hasn't shown the consistency to stay there when everyone's healthy. He's hit the post twice in the past week and a half of the season, and scored some nice goals earlier on.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player Ryan Callahan RC (98/99)
I'm not going to go too hard for most of Ryan Callahan's rookie cards, with prices that are a bit higher than I'd like to pay. However, this one is his most scarce, and I thought it was important to get it. Callahan's been a really good addition for the Lightning, even without considering all the implications of the trade. I don't know if he'll be around next season, because he's asking for a lot of money for his next contract, but I hope the Bolts find a way to keep him that makes sense financially.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Zach Redmond RC (264/999)
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Justin Fontaine RC (452/999)
These two cards were sent as part of a lot with the next card in the post. They will be headed to my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Cory Conacher (167/249)
Here's another card featuring Cory Conacher, who finished his RC-season with his third NHL team (Buffalo). Conacher's in one of the better tiers of the Ice RC set, with only 249 copies made. I'm really disappointed that Upper Deck didn't do anything to differentiate the different RC tiers in Ice. Think back to 05-06, when each tier was given a different color of acetate. Even in 09-10, there was a subtle change the color of the foil at the top of the card front.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Showcase Pen Pals Cory Conacher / Alex Killorn (54/99)
There's a whole bunch of 2013-14 Dominion in this post, and I'll begin with one card that isn't a RC. I thought it was neat to see these two players (both originally in the Lightning organization) on a card together. I was able to purchase this without much difficulty.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Sean Collins RC (170/299)
Here's the first of four autographed RCs, featuring CBJ farm hand Sean Collins (who is not the same Sean Collins that I also collect).
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Jonathan Audy-Marchessault RC (152/299)
Jonathan (Audy-)Marchessault is now a part of the Lightning organization, and has been one of their AHL team's best players in the past few weeks.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Radko Gudas RC (078/299)
Radko Gudas is a hard-hitting defenseman who was spectacular for the first half of the season, but has shown some defensive miscues in the second half. He's very valuable for the Lightning and should be a part of the team for a long time.
Interestingly, due to the positioning of the player's picture on this card, the serial number was moved to the other side.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Tyler Johnson RC (042/299)
Tyler Johnson is one of the Lightning's two best-known rookies, and finished the season with 24 goals. He tied Nathan MacKinnon for the highest goal total among all NHL rookies!
I still need one more autographed RC from Dominion -- Ondrej Palat. Palat's cards are starting to heat up, as he and Johnson seem likely to finish in the top 5 for Calder Trophy voting.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Cory Conacher RC (184/299)
I also picked up three patch/auto RCs from Dominion. I'll start with Cory Conacher, with a four-layer Senators swatch -- gold patch, black stitching, black patch, and white patch. I don't know Senators jerseys well enough to know where the swatch may have been taken from.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Richard Panik RC (056/299)
Next up is Richard Panik of the lightning. He was originally part of a line with Palat and Johnson at the beginning of the season, but those two players took off running (in terms of offense), and Panik wasn't quite as effective. After a demotion to the minor leagues, he's been pretty good with the Lightning in March and April.
The swatch on this card has four layers -- blue jersey, white patch, black patch, and white patch. Since there's black in the mix, the only place this could be from is one of the numbers on the current Lightning jerseys.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Alex Killorn RC (059/299)
My final card from Dominion in this mail post is a rookie card of Lightning forward Alex Killorn. Killorn graduated from Harvard with a degree in government (and a minor in French), which I think is pretty awesome.
The swatch on this card also has four layers -- blue patch, white patch, black patch, and white jersey. The last two patches (Panik and Killorn) have identical color layerings, but with a different arrangement of fabric layers. The Panik swatch (with blue jersey) is from the Lightning's home uniform, and the Killorn swatch (with white jersey) is from the Lightning's away uniform.
The last patch/auto RC I need from Dominion is Boone Jenner. That card is #/99, and I'm upset that I missed a few copies that went for pretty reasonable prices about a month ago. I have a feeling that there's nowhere for that card to go but up.
-------------------------------------------------------
1993 Classic Four Sport Acetates Alexandre Daigle (/66,000)
00-01 Upper Deck Ice David Gosselin RC (0051/1500)
00-01 UD Pros and Prospects Scott Hartnell RC (0986/1000)
00-01 UD Pros and Prospects Zdenek Blatny RC (1000/1000)
00-01 BAP Signature Series Sergei Vyshedkevich RC (0598 of 1000)
00-01 BAP Signature Series Oleg Saprykin (263 of 500)
The next four pictures contain cards I received from a random lot I found on ebay. The lot was inexpensive, and had two nice cards in it that I wanted to add to my collection. I also received several cards that I'll be adding to my tradelist, including an Alexandre Daigle card with an extremely low print run!
The Zdenek Blatny RC is the last copy numbered.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Vanguard High Voltage Red Henrik Sedin (080/299)
00-01 Vanguard Holo-Purple Jason Allison (022/105)
00-01 Titanium Premiere Date Mark Messier (011/185)
00-01 Titanium Draft Day Chris Nielsen RC (0928/1000)
These four cards from the ebay lot are also headed to my tradelist. At least, they would be, if I ever actually updated my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Titanium Blue Martin Straka (68/82)
Here's the first keeper from the lot. I have always loved the different color backgrounds on the 00-01 Titanium parallels, and as far as I can remember, there are five different colors available.
Silver: base, premiere date, hobby RCs
Gold: gold, draft day RCs
Green: retail RCs
Red: red
Blue: blue
Blue was the last color that I didn't own, so I have wanted to get one of them for many years. The problem is that they're hard-to-find and usually expensive. Finding this Straka buried in a lot of random cards was a stroke of good luck! Straka also has one of the highest print runs in the set (by virtue of his jersey number), which made it a little easier to locate.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck Ice Immortals Dimitri Afanasenkov (01/25)
The final card from the lot is an extremely rare UD Ice parallel of former Detroit Viper (and Stanley Cup champion) Dimitri Afanasenkov. Aside from press plates and a team issue, my Afanasenkov collection is complete, so locating the first copy numbered of this card (a card I consider to be his very best) is quite a find. I plan to keep this for my collection, along with the other copy (15/25) that I already own.
-------------------------------------------------------
1995 Classic Hockey Draft Autographs Miroslav Satan
This was one of those "might as well buy it" pickups for just a few dollars. It's an autographed card of NHL veteran Miroslav Satan, from during his very brief stint (8 games) with the Detroit Vipers in 1994-95. According to Beckett, the print run on this card is 2487, though I'm not sure where they got that number from. This is one of those awesome "airbrushed logos" sets from the mid-90s, of which there were many. ITG's unlicensed approach (headshots only) is more limiting in terms of design, but far less tacky.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 German DEL Exclusive Series Exclusive Parallel 51 Travis Brigley (1 of 35)
I'll close the post with some player collection items, beginning with this rare German parallel of Travis Brigley. This card came in from a deal with Rico Jacob. With only 35 copies made, I'm sure this card is hard to find even in Germany, and I haven't seen a single copy until now. The only difference between this card and the base version is the green foil printing on the right side of the card front.
My Travis Brigley wantlist is down to just two cards -- a mid-90s WHL team issue, and a promo German card from the 2008-09 season.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Voices of the Game Autographs VG-KW Kevin Weekes
Panini's done a series of Voices of the Game autographs in three Crown Royale sets, and this is the first card I've owned from any of them. It's also the first time that Panini has included a parallel for the Voices set, so for Kevin Weekes, I certainly wasn't satisfied with owning only the base version...
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Voices of the Game Autographs Purple VG-KW Kevin Weekes (One of One)
The purple one-of-one version of the Kevin Weekes autograph was destined to become one of my most-wanted cards of 2014, but it showed up just a few weeks (or Weekes) after Crown Royale's release, finding its way into my collection much quicker than I could have ever imagined! It was a little more expensive than I was hoping to pay, but important enough of a card to make the purchase.
I own 286 Kevin Weekes cards, making his collection my third biggest by a long shot (behind only #1 Sergei Samsonov and #2 Tim Thomas). Weekes played with the Detroit Vipers in 1998-99, and had his biggest NHL success with Tampa Bay, Carolina, and New York. He may be even more famous now, as a national-level broadcaster, than he was as a player. Here is the text from the card back:
After playing parts of 13 seasons in the NHL, Weekes joined CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL Network in the United States as an analyst in 2010. Weekes has put his writing skills to work as well, covering the NHL online for CBC. Weekes recently released his own goalie clothing line as well, titled No5Hole.
The two cards can be differentiated by the use of purple design elements (in place of grey) on the front. The card backs on both cards are identical, even with the purple curtains behind the NHL logo.
This is my seventh Kevin Weekes 1/1 card. It's also the first legitimate, licensed, non-press-plate Kevin Weekes 1/1 since the 2005-06 season. There are a lot of ways I could spin this card as an awesome addition to my collection, but simply stating that it's a 1/1 autograph of one of my favorite goalies of all time is probably the best.
-----------------
News and notes:
** For the first time in history, both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning have made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. I will be attending all of the home Blue Jackets games, and I hope it's more than just two! Though the competition is tough, it's possible that that the two teams could meet up in the conference finals, which would likely cause my head to explode. I became a Columbus fan many years ago, when they were in the western conference, and any potential fan conflict with the Lightning was unlikely. I'm not the kind of fan who would show up to support one team for 40 games a year, but put on the other team's jersey and root against the first team on the one night they play each other. That reeks of disingenuousness and treachery. Unfortunately, I know it's going to pop up in Columbus, where Penguins fans like to take over the arena. Limiting ticket sales to Ohio residents only does so much, because these fans aren't coming from Pittsburgh and southwest Pennsylvania -- they're coming from Westerville and Gahanna and Grove City. Every single one of them has an excuse -- "I've been a Penguins fan since before the Blue Jackets ever existed" -- yet almost nobody was a Penguins fan in the late 90s and early 00s, when the team went bankrupt, had awful attendance, and almost relocated. Some of them are being honest, and some of them are lying, and it's impossible to figure out which is which. What these dislocated yinzers lack is perspective -- their Penguins history books go back to 2005 (with a footnote about the early 90s). Mario, Sidney and Gary saved the day for their franchise, but the Penguins organization spent years wallowing in a greater sea of uncertainty than the Blue Jackets (unsuccessful on-ice as they've been) have ever had to deal with. Columbus isn't as good a team as Pittsburgh -- I even half-expect that they'll get blown out once as they try to find their playoff legs -- but this series is unlikely to produce the fruitless result Columbus fans had to deal with in 2009. Games 3 and 4 are essentially sold out (can't say the same about Games 1 and 2). The talent is in place, both on and off the ice, for the CBJ to capture the city -- not just for the prospects of an unlikely run this year, but for many years into the future. Sooner or later, the fresh-off-the-rack Crosby jerseys are going to disappear from the Arena District, replaced by Johansen and Jenner and Bobrovsky (and Wennberg and Dansk and Reilly). That's optimism, but it's not unrealistic. All fervent fan bases and hockey cities have to begin their ascent somewhere and sometime -- whether it's from a history devoid of any postseason success, or an embarrassingly pathetic half-decade from a team that knew better days in the past. For Columbus, I don't see why that time can't be now.
** Sorry Dave, I know, you actually moved from there. Forgive me.
** Oh, yeah, and go Lightning also.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Mail Post #6 for 2014
-------------------------------------------------------
2011 Upper Deck Winter Classic 20 City of Pittsburgh
I love cards with pictures like this, as city skylines are one of my favorite photography subjects. I didn't even know about this card until recently, but stumbled across it and had to make the purchase. It was one of the cards given away at the Winter Classic in Pittsburgh, and as far as I know, was not available through any other means.
Here is the text from the card back:
The source of the Ohio River, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet, Pittsburgh has been the home to the NHL's Penguins -- three-time winners of the Stanley Cup -- since the 1967-68 season.
Geography on a hockey card? I'm in!
This card appears to have been taken from the top station of the Duquesne Incline, with the angle of the city matching a picture of mine from 2010.
Of course, for the time being, the city of Pittsburgh is my enemy. What awful timing for me to post a card like this!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 O-Pee-Chee Team Logo Patches 113 Columbus Blue Jackets (Original Primary Logo)
This OPC logo card features the original Blue Jackets logo. I never cared much for this logo, and I think the current emblem (a stylized version of the Ohio state flag) is much better -- simple and classy.
The only Lightning or Blue Jackets team logo patch I am missing is card #197 from the 2013-14 set. That card features a cartoon logo of the Blue Jackets' mascot, and I've only seen one copy ever.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-OTT (146/499)
-- Cory Conacher / Jean-Gabriel Pageau
I recently received all three of my 2012-13 Panini Limited rookie redemption cards. I was really disappointed with all the complaints about these cards -- I thought that anyone expecting these to be memorabilia or autograph cards had simply misguided themselves. What Panini produced is a set of 30 cards that team collectors and rookie collectors (such as myself) will absolutely love. I think the "multi-rookie" idea is pretty creative, and I enjoy these cards far more than the similar redemptions from UD Artifacts.
This card features former Lightning forward Cory Conacher, and another Senators rookie (Pageau).
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-COL (167/499)
-- Boone Jenner / Ryan Murray
Here are the two Blue Jackets rookie players, both of whom are among the better rookies in the huge 2013-14 class.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Limited Rookie Redemptions R-TAM (182/499)
-- Alex Killorn / Richard Panik / Ondrej Palat / Radko Gudas
For the Lightning, Panini sure had a lot of players to choose from! In addition to the four players pictured here, three others (Andrej Sustr, Tyler Johnson, and Mark Barberio) were eligible at the beginning of the season.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified J.T. Brown RC (175/499)
This card was also a redemption from Panini. The card features an all-white jersey swatch, and Brown's autograph is fully contained on the sticker.
Although this redemption was fulfilled, I still have several Blue Jackets rookie redemption cards from 12-13 pending with Panini. Since I'm a rookie collector, I don't mind waiting until the cards are made, but I may have to check in soon just to see if they are still planned for production.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player Jack Skille RC (74/99)
With several injuries up front for the Blue Jackets, Skille is likely going to be a fixture on the playoff roster. He has the skill to compete in a top-9 role for the team, but hasn't shown the consistency to stay there when everyone's healthy. He's hit the post twice in the past week and a half of the season, and scored some nice goals earlier on.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player Ryan Callahan RC (98/99)
I'm not going to go too hard for most of Ryan Callahan's rookie cards, with prices that are a bit higher than I'd like to pay. However, this one is his most scarce, and I thought it was important to get it. Callahan's been a really good addition for the Lightning, even without considering all the implications of the trade. I don't know if he'll be around next season, because he's asking for a lot of money for his next contract, but I hope the Bolts find a way to keep him that makes sense financially.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Zach Redmond RC (264/999)
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Justin Fontaine RC (452/999)
These two cards were sent as part of a lot with the next card in the post. They will be headed to my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Cory Conacher (167/249)
Here's another card featuring Cory Conacher, who finished his RC-season with his third NHL team (Buffalo). Conacher's in one of the better tiers of the Ice RC set, with only 249 copies made. I'm really disappointed that Upper Deck didn't do anything to differentiate the different RC tiers in Ice. Think back to 05-06, when each tier was given a different color of acetate. Even in 09-10, there was a subtle change the color of the foil at the top of the card front.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Showcase Pen Pals Cory Conacher / Alex Killorn (54/99)
There's a whole bunch of 2013-14 Dominion in this post, and I'll begin with one card that isn't a RC. I thought it was neat to see these two players (both originally in the Lightning organization) on a card together. I was able to purchase this without much difficulty.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Sean Collins RC (170/299)
Here's the first of four autographed RCs, featuring CBJ farm hand Sean Collins (who is not the same Sean Collins that I also collect).
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Jonathan Audy-Marchessault RC (152/299)
Jonathan (Audy-)Marchessault is now a part of the Lightning organization, and has been one of their AHL team's best players in the past few weeks.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Radko Gudas RC (078/299)
Radko Gudas is a hard-hitting defenseman who was spectacular for the first half of the season, but has shown some defensive miscues in the second half. He's very valuable for the Lightning and should be a part of the team for a long time.
Interestingly, due to the positioning of the player's picture on this card, the serial number was moved to the other side.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Tyler Johnson RC (042/299)
Tyler Johnson is one of the Lightning's two best-known rookies, and finished the season with 24 goals. He tied Nathan MacKinnon for the highest goal total among all NHL rookies!
I still need one more autographed RC from Dominion -- Ondrej Palat. Palat's cards are starting to heat up, as he and Johnson seem likely to finish in the top 5 for Calder Trophy voting.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Cory Conacher RC (184/299)
I also picked up three patch/auto RCs from Dominion. I'll start with Cory Conacher, with a four-layer Senators swatch -- gold patch, black stitching, black patch, and white patch. I don't know Senators jerseys well enough to know where the swatch may have been taken from.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Richard Panik RC (056/299)
Next up is Richard Panik of the lightning. He was originally part of a line with Palat and Johnson at the beginning of the season, but those two players took off running (in terms of offense), and Panik wasn't quite as effective. After a demotion to the minor leagues, he's been pretty good with the Lightning in March and April.
The swatch on this card has four layers -- blue jersey, white patch, black patch, and white patch. Since there's black in the mix, the only place this could be from is one of the numbers on the current Lightning jerseys.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Dominion Alex Killorn RC (059/299)
My final card from Dominion in this mail post is a rookie card of Lightning forward Alex Killorn. Killorn graduated from Harvard with a degree in government (and a minor in French), which I think is pretty awesome.
The swatch on this card also has four layers -- blue patch, white patch, black patch, and white jersey. The last two patches (Panik and Killorn) have identical color layerings, but with a different arrangement of fabric layers. The Panik swatch (with blue jersey) is from the Lightning's home uniform, and the Killorn swatch (with white jersey) is from the Lightning's away uniform.
The last patch/auto RC I need from Dominion is Boone Jenner. That card is #/99, and I'm upset that I missed a few copies that went for pretty reasonable prices about a month ago. I have a feeling that there's nowhere for that card to go but up.
-------------------------------------------------------
1993 Classic Four Sport Acetates Alexandre Daigle (/66,000)
00-01 Upper Deck Ice David Gosselin RC (0051/1500)
00-01 UD Pros and Prospects Scott Hartnell RC (0986/1000)
00-01 UD Pros and Prospects Zdenek Blatny RC (1000/1000)
00-01 BAP Signature Series Sergei Vyshedkevich RC (0598 of 1000)
00-01 BAP Signature Series Oleg Saprykin (263 of 500)
The next four pictures contain cards I received from a random lot I found on ebay. The lot was inexpensive, and had two nice cards in it that I wanted to add to my collection. I also received several cards that I'll be adding to my tradelist, including an Alexandre Daigle card with an extremely low print run!
The Zdenek Blatny RC is the last copy numbered.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Vanguard High Voltage Red Henrik Sedin (080/299)
00-01 Vanguard Holo-Purple Jason Allison (022/105)
00-01 Titanium Premiere Date Mark Messier (011/185)
00-01 Titanium Draft Day Chris Nielsen RC (0928/1000)
These four cards from the ebay lot are also headed to my tradelist. At least, they would be, if I ever actually updated my tradelist.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Titanium Blue Martin Straka (68/82)
Here's the first keeper from the lot. I have always loved the different color backgrounds on the 00-01 Titanium parallels, and as far as I can remember, there are five different colors available.
Silver: base, premiere date, hobby RCs
Gold: gold, draft day RCs
Green: retail RCs
Red: red
Blue: blue
Blue was the last color that I didn't own, so I have wanted to get one of them for many years. The problem is that they're hard-to-find and usually expensive. Finding this Straka buried in a lot of random cards was a stroke of good luck! Straka also has one of the highest print runs in the set (by virtue of his jersey number), which made it a little easier to locate.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck Ice Immortals Dimitri Afanasenkov (01/25)
The final card from the lot is an extremely rare UD Ice parallel of former Detroit Viper (and Stanley Cup champion) Dimitri Afanasenkov. Aside from press plates and a team issue, my Afanasenkov collection is complete, so locating the first copy numbered of this card (a card I consider to be his very best) is quite a find. I plan to keep this for my collection, along with the other copy (15/25) that I already own.
-------------------------------------------------------
1995 Classic Hockey Draft Autographs Miroslav Satan
This was one of those "might as well buy it" pickups for just a few dollars. It's an autographed card of NHL veteran Miroslav Satan, from during his very brief stint (8 games) with the Detroit Vipers in 1994-95. According to Beckett, the print run on this card is 2487, though I'm not sure where they got that number from. This is one of those awesome "airbrushed logos" sets from the mid-90s, of which there were many. ITG's unlicensed approach (headshots only) is more limiting in terms of design, but far less tacky.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 German DEL Exclusive Series Exclusive Parallel 51 Travis Brigley (1 of 35)
I'll close the post with some player collection items, beginning with this rare German parallel of Travis Brigley. This card came in from a deal with Rico Jacob. With only 35 copies made, I'm sure this card is hard to find even in Germany, and I haven't seen a single copy until now. The only difference between this card and the base version is the green foil printing on the right side of the card front.
My Travis Brigley wantlist is down to just two cards -- a mid-90s WHL team issue, and a promo German card from the 2008-09 season.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Voices of the Game Autographs VG-KW Kevin Weekes
Panini's done a series of Voices of the Game autographs in three Crown Royale sets, and this is the first card I've owned from any of them. It's also the first time that Panini has included a parallel for the Voices set, so for Kevin Weekes, I certainly wasn't satisfied with owning only the base version...
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Crown Royale Voices of the Game Autographs Purple VG-KW Kevin Weekes (One of One)
The purple one-of-one version of the Kevin Weekes autograph was destined to become one of my most-wanted cards of 2014, but it showed up just a few weeks (or Weekes) after Crown Royale's release, finding its way into my collection much quicker than I could have ever imagined! It was a little more expensive than I was hoping to pay, but important enough of a card to make the purchase.
I own 286 Kevin Weekes cards, making his collection my third biggest by a long shot (behind only #1 Sergei Samsonov and #2 Tim Thomas). Weekes played with the Detroit Vipers in 1998-99, and had his biggest NHL success with Tampa Bay, Carolina, and New York. He may be even more famous now, as a national-level broadcaster, than he was as a player. Here is the text from the card back:
After playing parts of 13 seasons in the NHL, Weekes joined CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and the NHL Network in the United States as an analyst in 2010. Weekes has put his writing skills to work as well, covering the NHL online for CBC. Weekes recently released his own goalie clothing line as well, titled No5Hole.
The two cards can be differentiated by the use of purple design elements (in place of grey) on the front. The card backs on both cards are identical, even with the purple curtains behind the NHL logo.
This is my seventh Kevin Weekes 1/1 card. It's also the first legitimate, licensed, non-press-plate Kevin Weekes 1/1 since the 2005-06 season. There are a lot of ways I could spin this card as an awesome addition to my collection, but simply stating that it's a 1/1 autograph of one of my favorite goalies of all time is probably the best.
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News and notes:
** For the first time in history, both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning have made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. I will be attending all of the home Blue Jackets games, and I hope it's more than just two! Though the competition is tough, it's possible that that the two teams could meet up in the conference finals, which would likely cause my head to explode. I became a Columbus fan many years ago, when they were in the western conference, and any potential fan conflict with the Lightning was unlikely. I'm not the kind of fan who would show up to support one team for 40 games a year, but put on the other team's jersey and root against the first team on the one night they play each other. That reeks of disingenuousness and treachery. Unfortunately, I know it's going to pop up in Columbus, where Penguins fans like to take over the arena. Limiting ticket sales to Ohio residents only does so much, because these fans aren't coming from Pittsburgh and southwest Pennsylvania -- they're coming from Westerville and Gahanna and Grove City. Every single one of them has an excuse -- "I've been a Penguins fan since before the Blue Jackets ever existed" -- yet almost nobody was a Penguins fan in the late 90s and early 00s, when the team went bankrupt, had awful attendance, and almost relocated. Some of them are being honest, and some of them are lying, and it's impossible to figure out which is which. What these dislocated yinzers lack is perspective -- their Penguins history books go back to 2005 (with a footnote about the early 90s). Mario, Sidney and Gary saved the day for their franchise, but the Penguins organization spent years wallowing in a greater sea of uncertainty than the Blue Jackets (unsuccessful on-ice as they've been) have ever had to deal with. Columbus isn't as good a team as Pittsburgh -- I even half-expect that they'll get blown out once as they try to find their playoff legs -- but this series is unlikely to produce the fruitless result Columbus fans had to deal with in 2009. Games 3 and 4 are essentially sold out (can't say the same about Games 1 and 2). The talent is in place, both on and off the ice, for the CBJ to capture the city -- not just for the prospects of an unlikely run this year, but for many years into the future. Sooner or later, the fresh-off-the-rack Crosby jerseys are going to disappear from the Arena District, replaced by Johansen and Jenner and Bobrovsky (and Wennberg and Dansk and Reilly). That's optimism, but it's not unrealistic. All fervent fan bases and hockey cities have to begin their ascent somewhere and sometime -- whether it's from a history devoid of any postseason success, or an embarrassingly pathetic half-decade from a team that knew better days in the past. For Columbus, I don't see why that time can't be now.
** Sorry Dave, I know, you actually moved from there. Forgive me.
** Oh, yeah, and go Lightning also.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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