The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
Just the pace things are moving at now -- I skipped an entire month before preparing my first card post of the year.
Here it is!
Mail Post #1 for 2016
-------------------------------------------------------
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 35 Fedor Tyutin
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 58 Andrew Hutchinson
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 64 Antero Niittymaki
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 77 David LeNeveu
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 96 Michel Ouellet
2004-05 ITG Heroes and Prospects 57 Braydon Coburn
2004-05 AHL All-Stars 6 Rene Bourque
2004-05 Norfolk Admirals 5 Rene Bourque
2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Class 20 Rene Bourque
A couple months ago, Armchair Sports offered an incredible sale -- 75% off everything in their inventory. I decided to make a big purchase of a bunch of minor/junior cards I was looking to get for my collections.
The vast majority of these cards feature players who were (at least at one time) in the Blue Jackets and Lightning organizations.
-------------------------------------------------------
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 60 Rene Bourque
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 204 Jeff Tambellini
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 235 Braydon Coburn
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 407 Matthew Corrente
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 45 Noah Welch
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 79 Ryan Shannon
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 116 Matthew Corrente
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 122 Steve Downie
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 144 Steve Downie
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 150 Tom Pyatt
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 155 Benoit Pouliot
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 164 Drew Miller
Yes, that's a lot of base cards from ITG H&P.
-------------------------------------------------------
2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects 16 Jack Skille
2007-08 AHL Top Prospects 23 Brian Boyle
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 168 Blake Comeau
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 180 Tom Pyatt
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 194 Kris Russell
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 199 Jakub Voracek
2007-08 Upper Deck Rookie Class 32 Ryan Callahan
2007-08 Between The Pipes 10 Curtis McElhinney
Although Armchair Sports generally only stocks minor and junior league cards, they also carry cards from some of the non-standard NHL sets, such as Rookie Class and Power Play.
-------------------------------------------------------
2007-08 Between The Pipes 19 Jeremy Smith
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 337 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 342 Colton Gillies
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 358 Brian Lee
2008-09 Upper Deck Rookie Class 15 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Upper Deck Rookie Class 23 Colton Gillies
2008-09 ITG Heroes and Prospects 16 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Providence Bruins 2 Andrew Bodnarchuk
2009-10 Between The Pipes 143 Jim Corsi
Jim Corsi -- most famous for the stat named after him -- never earned an NHL RC. This is his only base card from a major-issue set. He also had an autograph card released in the same BTP product.
-------------------------------------------------------
2009-10 Binghamton Senators Erik Condra
2010-11 AHL Top Prospects 1 Luke Adam
2010-11 Binghamton Senators Erik Condra
2011-12 Brampton Battalion 5 Dylan Blujus
2011-12 ITG Heroes and Prospects 14 Brandon Saad
2011-12 ITG Heroes and Prospects 203 Jonathan Audy-Marchessault
2012-13 AHL Top Prospects 52 Brandon Saad
2012-13 Baie-Comeau Drakkar 2 Bokondji Imama
2012-13 London Knights 11 Alex Broadhurst
Erik Condra was an usher in Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper's wedding. Now he's a member of the team. Hmm.
-------------------------------------------------------
2013-14 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day Canada NHCD10 Cory Conacher
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 31 Kerby Rychel
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 32 Slater Koekkoek
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 58 Dillon Heatherington
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 104 Matt Spencer
2013-14 Between The Pipes 70 Patrik Polivka
2013-14 Baie-Comeau Drakkar 18 Bokondji Imama
2013-14 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 5 Daniel Walcott
2013-14 North Bay Battalion 5 Dylan Blujus
The Cory Conacher rookie year collection grows by another card.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL Logo Stickers 42 Lake Erie Monsters (Alternate)
2013-14 Windsor Spitfires 5 Cristiano DiGiacinto
2013-14 Windsor Spitfires 14 Slater Koekkoek
2013-14 Swedish SHL Elitset 177 Alexander Wennberg
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 27 Slater Koekkoek
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 58 Sean Collins
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 83 Cedric Paquette
My favorite card here -- and one of my favorites from this entire purchase -- is the Swedish pre-RC of Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg. That's a base card from a legit, licensed, Swedish league card set.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 100 Jonathan Drouin
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 106 Brayden Point (SP)
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 120 Jonathan Drouin (SP)
2014-15 Saint John Sea Dogs 22 Mathieu Joseph
2014-15 Swift Current Broncos Dillon Heatherington
2014-15 Windsor Spitfires 4 Markus Soberg
2015-16 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 46 Dillon Heatherington
Let's just pretend I didn't buy those Jonathan Drouin cards, alright?
Instead, let's focus on Brayden Point.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Moose Jaw Warriors Brayden Point (Error)
2014-15 Moose Jaw Warriors Brayden Point (Corrected)
The Lightning stole Brayden Point in the 3rd round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Players with small stature have never been something Steve Yzerman's been afraid of. Point is now considered one of the best players in the WHL, and though his 2015-16 season was interrupted by an injury, he's scoring at nearly a two-points-per-game pace. He was also the captain of Team Canada in the recent World Junior Championship.
Point has two distinctly different cards from the 2014-15 Moose Jaw team-issued set. The big difference between the two is the correction of an error from the left card to the right card -- the misspelling of "Brayden" as "Brayen" on the card back. Some other cosmetic differences can also be noted -- the positioning of the red "C" on the card front, and the font used for the "United by History" slogan on the back.
That's all from the Armchair order. If you've never checked out their website, and you have an interest in hockey cards beyond the standard NHL sets, give them a visit.
-------------------------------------------------------
Hockey/Baseball/Football base cards
12-13 Panini Certified Mirror Red 35 Jean-Sebastien Giguere (011/199)
To start the rest of the mail, here's some random cards that arrived with the next card in the post. I did get one decent shiny hockey parallel, but the rest of the stuff is of little interest to me. I think there are some low-end RCs from the 2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs set in the batch.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 Parkhurst Rookie Toronto Spring Expo Preview PRP-6 Nathan Horton (1 of 50)
Not that I care that much about Nathan Horton's cards anymore, but I figured I might as well get his card from a set I've had a little bit of interest in. These Parkhurst Rookie Preview cards were distributed in the 2004 Spring Expo Super Box release. Each card was limited to just 50 copies (though not numbered), and as far as I know, they all contain swatches of game-used jerseys. I miss those days. This card has a two-color jersey swatch -- dark blue and white.
A full-on rookie preview set like this is a little bit unusual for the hockey card hobby, so I'm happy to have one. I wouldn't mind getting the real version to go with it (autographed and numbered to 100), but those are very hard to find, and I can't imagine it would be inexpensive to purchase.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player 261 David Clarkson RC (84/99)
07-08 Be A Player S-CL Signatures David Clarkson
Speaking of Nathan Horton, how's this for a transition? David Clarkson was at the other end of the Horton trade -- one of the most ridiculous trades in NHL history. Clarkson has been injured for most of this season, which isn't an awful thing for the Blue Jackets, as he's been completely ineffective when actually in the lineup.
Nonetheless, I couldn't pass up a good price on his toughest RC. The autograph was also part of the lot on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 14-15 SP Authentic
More base cards!
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Limited 240 Erik Condra RC (011/299)
This isn't Erik Condra's first appearance in the mail post. This is, however, the first Condra RC in my collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 The Cup 93 Erik Condra RC (018/199)
This may or may not be Condra's best rookie card. It's one of the few Cup RCs with no adornments -- no signature, and no patch. Condra was also in Panini Dominion, appearing on a card with both a patch and an autograph. That card was also limited to 199 copies. I'd give the nod to that one, even though The Cup is typically the more popular set.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultimate Collection 100 Vladislav Namestnikov RC (/299) (Redemption)
Upper Deck is really, really sketchy when it comes to rookie card redemptions. Some will be inserted into packs at about the same rate as other cards in the rookie subset. Others will very obviously have only a fraction of the stated print run go into the product. This is an example of the latter. Namestnikov's redemption card from SP Authentic was the same way, but I was never able to get one of those -- they constantly sold for $50-$100. This one, for whatever reason, was much less expensive.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 The Cup 152 William Karlsson RC (/249) (Redemption)
On the other hand, this William Karlsson redemption was available with ease. Assuming the card gets made -- and assuming I don't buy something else before then - it will be my first RC from 14-15 The Cup.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Fleer Showcase Metal Universe 39 Alexander Wennberg
Here's another of UD's attempts to render the RC tag meaningless. This is technically an insert set, but it's arranged (and designed) like a stand-alone brand base set. It even has parallels like a Fleer Metal base set would.
Ultimately, it's a card I only felt like adding to my collection because it was an inexpensive extra from another purchase. In this case, that something else was a card just a few pictures down.
-------------------------------------------------------
Basketball/Football base cards
More base cards -- from sports I don't care about!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Fleer Showcase 160 William Karlsson RC (306/375)
I've acquired very few RCs from the 14-15 season, but I figured I should at least get one from each of the major sets. William Karlsson -- now a center with the Blue Jackets -- ended up being my player of choice for one reason: cost. A mid-tier prospect who was traded to a bad team before the end of his NHL rookie season? It stands to reason that demand for his cards would not be very high.
Well, that may have made it easy for me to pick up a pretty good copy of this card! The patch swatch has seven layers -- black jersey / gold patch / black patch / white patch / black patch / gold patch / black jersey. Hot Prospects / Fleer Showcase has always been one of my least favorite high-end sets, but the 14-15 design is better than most.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Premier 115 William Karlsson RC (193/299)
The resurrected UD Premier, on the other hand, has a fantastic rookie design -- and the cards look and feel great as well. The large patch swatch on this card has four layers -- black jersey / gold patch / black patch / white patch. The hard-signed autograph really looks great on the acetate front.
The Wennberg Fleer Metal card arrived in the same transaction as this one.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 Topps Heritage Baseball base cards
More base cards -- from a sport I sort of like, I guess.
The Jose Urena card is a RC.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Premier 02-03 Tribute SRR-AW Alexander Wennberg (44/99)
2001-02 remains my favorite Upper Deck Premier product, but 2002-03 was famous for introducing the hockey hobby's first patch/auto RCs. It was a great idea to do a tribute to that set! The old design was executed nearly identically, with only two cosmetic changes on the card front -- the UD logo uses the modern style, and the serial numbering is stamped in blue instead of silver. This card -- featuring Alexander Wennberg -- has a five-layer swatch (two layers of white stitching, two layers of red patch, and one layer of dark blue patch).
The 02-03 Alex Svitov RC was my #1 favorite card acquisition of 2009, as it finished my original Tampa Bay Lightning Best-RC Collection, and instantly became one of the best rookie cards I owned. Yes, that's true even given Svitov's status as a bust. I wasn't going to add a Lightning tribute card to complement the Svitov -- to heck with Jonathan Drouin -- so the Alexander Wennberg card will work quite nicely.
Also, wow -- my card photography in 2009 was awful.
While we're on the subject of rare, high-end patch/auto rookie cards -- and I emphasize rare...
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 The Cup 109 Shane O'Brien (23/50)
Rookie collectors will know why this is the last and featured item in this mail post.
In 2006-07, RCs from The Cup were limited to 249 copies -- minus a few of the best players who were limited to 99. However, Upper Deck seemed to have a "lack of patch swatches" issue with a couple players on the Anaheim Ducks. That forced Ryan Shannon (/125) and Shane O'Brien (/50) to enter the set as unintended short prints. The O'Brien remains the lowest-numbered card in a Cup base set, though I'm still convinced that less copies were produced of the 08-09 Vladimir Mihalik RC (maybe only 20-30).
Now for the stupid question -- is it a RC? In 06-07, there was near-universal agreement that it wasn't, because the print run was too low. In 15-16, the definition of a "rookie card" has been blurred, trampled, run over by a train, and ultimately nuked from orbit. So, my answer to the question? It just doesn't matter.
I usually don't share prices, but this is one where I just have to, simply as an illustration of how certain older sets in the hobby continue to depreciate. In the September 2007 edition of Beckett -- the initial printing for 06-07 The Cup -- the O'Brien listed at $500. Just a couple months later, it rose to its peak of $750. Even a couple years ago, it would have been impossible to find this card for under $100. I bought it for $30 delivered. Out of curiosity, would anyone with a current Beckett mind sharing what it lists for now?
Shane O'Brien was acquired by the Lightning for a first-round pick in early 2007 -- not one of the team's finer moments. Shane O'Brien, judging from the card, cannot color within the lines. Shane O'Brien has an unfortunate but readily-obvious acronym nickname. Shane O'Brien is back in the Ducks organization, playing for the AHL San Diego Gulls in 2015-16.
The patch is nice -- three colors and seven layers (black patch / white stitching / gold patch / white stitching / gold patch / white stitching / black patch). The card is sort of a historic one -- one of the oddest rookie issues of the 00s.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Yes, this post contains my first higher-end RCs from the 2014-15 season. I'm well aware that we're in February of the 2015-16 season. Just a little behind, it seems.
** Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think I ever actually acquired any legitimate Jonathan Drouin rookie cards. Consider that collection cancelled.
** I'd make a joke about Auston Matthews being a good reason to kill off the RC collection for good, but let's be honest -- Columbus won't win the draft lottery.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Here it is!
Mail Post #1 for 2016
-------------------------------------------------------
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 35 Fedor Tyutin
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 58 Andrew Hutchinson
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 64 Antero Niittymaki
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 77 David LeNeveu
2003-04 Pacific AHL Prospects 96 Michel Ouellet
2004-05 ITG Heroes and Prospects 57 Braydon Coburn
2004-05 AHL All-Stars 6 Rene Bourque
2004-05 Norfolk Admirals 5 Rene Bourque
2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Class 20 Rene Bourque
A couple months ago, Armchair Sports offered an incredible sale -- 75% off everything in their inventory. I decided to make a big purchase of a bunch of minor/junior cards I was looking to get for my collections.
The vast majority of these cards feature players who were (at least at one time) in the Blue Jackets and Lightning organizations.
-------------------------------------------------------
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 60 Rene Bourque
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 204 Jeff Tambellini
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 235 Braydon Coburn
2005-06 ITG Heroes and Prospects 407 Matthew Corrente
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 45 Noah Welch
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 79 Ryan Shannon
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 116 Matthew Corrente
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 122 Steve Downie
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 144 Steve Downie
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 150 Tom Pyatt
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 155 Benoit Pouliot
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 164 Drew Miller
Yes, that's a lot of base cards from ITG H&P.
-------------------------------------------------------
2007-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects 16 Jack Skille
2007-08 AHL Top Prospects 23 Brian Boyle
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 168 Blake Comeau
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 180 Tom Pyatt
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 194 Kris Russell
2006-07 ITG Heroes and Prospects 199 Jakub Voracek
2007-08 Upper Deck Rookie Class 32 Ryan Callahan
2007-08 Between The Pipes 10 Curtis McElhinney
Although Armchair Sports generally only stocks minor and junior league cards, they also carry cards from some of the non-standard NHL sets, such as Rookie Class and Power Play.
-------------------------------------------------------
2007-08 Between The Pipes 19 Jeremy Smith
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 337 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 342 Colton Gillies
2008-09 Upper Deck Power Play 358 Brian Lee
2008-09 Upper Deck Rookie Class 15 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Upper Deck Rookie Class 23 Colton Gillies
2008-09 ITG Heroes and Prospects 16 Brian Boyle
2008-09 Providence Bruins 2 Andrew Bodnarchuk
2009-10 Between The Pipes 143 Jim Corsi
Jim Corsi -- most famous for the stat named after him -- never earned an NHL RC. This is his only base card from a major-issue set. He also had an autograph card released in the same BTP product.
-------------------------------------------------------
2009-10 Binghamton Senators Erik Condra
2010-11 AHL Top Prospects 1 Luke Adam
2010-11 Binghamton Senators Erik Condra
2011-12 Brampton Battalion 5 Dylan Blujus
2011-12 ITG Heroes and Prospects 14 Brandon Saad
2011-12 ITG Heroes and Prospects 203 Jonathan Audy-Marchessault
2012-13 AHL Top Prospects 52 Brandon Saad
2012-13 Baie-Comeau Drakkar 2 Bokondji Imama
2012-13 London Knights 11 Alex Broadhurst
Erik Condra was an usher in Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper's wedding. Now he's a member of the team. Hmm.
-------------------------------------------------------
2013-14 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day Canada NHCD10 Cory Conacher
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 31 Kerby Rychel
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 32 Slater Koekkoek
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 58 Dillon Heatherington
2013-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 104 Matt Spencer
2013-14 Between The Pipes 70 Patrik Polivka
2013-14 Baie-Comeau Drakkar 18 Bokondji Imama
2013-14 Blainville-Boisbriand Armada 5 Daniel Walcott
2013-14 North Bay Battalion 5 Dylan Blujus
The Cory Conacher rookie year collection grows by another card.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL Logo Stickers 42 Lake Erie Monsters (Alternate)
2013-14 Windsor Spitfires 5 Cristiano DiGiacinto
2013-14 Windsor Spitfires 14 Slater Koekkoek
2013-14 Swedish SHL Elitset 177 Alexander Wennberg
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 27 Slater Koekkoek
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 58 Sean Collins
2014-15 Upper Deck AHL 83 Cedric Paquette
My favorite card here -- and one of my favorites from this entire purchase -- is the Swedish pre-RC of Blue Jackets center Alexander Wennberg. That's a base card from a legit, licensed, Swedish league card set.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 100 Jonathan Drouin
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 106 Brayden Point (SP)
2014-15 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 120 Jonathan Drouin (SP)
2014-15 Saint John Sea Dogs 22 Mathieu Joseph
2014-15 Swift Current Broncos Dillon Heatherington
2014-15 Windsor Spitfires 4 Markus Soberg
2015-16 Upper Deck Team Canada Juniors 46 Dillon Heatherington
Let's just pretend I didn't buy those Jonathan Drouin cards, alright?
Instead, let's focus on Brayden Point.
-------------------------------------------------------
2014-15 Moose Jaw Warriors Brayden Point (Error)
2014-15 Moose Jaw Warriors Brayden Point (Corrected)
The Lightning stole Brayden Point in the 3rd round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. Players with small stature have never been something Steve Yzerman's been afraid of. Point is now considered one of the best players in the WHL, and though his 2015-16 season was interrupted by an injury, he's scoring at nearly a two-points-per-game pace. He was also the captain of Team Canada in the recent World Junior Championship.
Point has two distinctly different cards from the 2014-15 Moose Jaw team-issued set. The big difference between the two is the correction of an error from the left card to the right card -- the misspelling of "Brayden" as "Brayen" on the card back. Some other cosmetic differences can also be noted -- the positioning of the red "C" on the card front, and the font used for the "United by History" slogan on the back.
That's all from the Armchair order. If you've never checked out their website, and you have an interest in hockey cards beyond the standard NHL sets, give them a visit.
-------------------------------------------------------
Hockey/Baseball/Football base cards
12-13 Panini Certified Mirror Red 35 Jean-Sebastien Giguere (011/199)
To start the rest of the mail, here's some random cards that arrived with the next card in the post. I did get one decent shiny hockey parallel, but the rest of the stuff is of little interest to me. I think there are some low-end RCs from the 2007 Playoff NFL Playoffs set in the batch.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 Parkhurst Rookie Toronto Spring Expo Preview PRP-6 Nathan Horton (1 of 50)
Not that I care that much about Nathan Horton's cards anymore, but I figured I might as well get his card from a set I've had a little bit of interest in. These Parkhurst Rookie Preview cards were distributed in the 2004 Spring Expo Super Box release. Each card was limited to just 50 copies (though not numbered), and as far as I know, they all contain swatches of game-used jerseys. I miss those days. This card has a two-color jersey swatch -- dark blue and white.
A full-on rookie preview set like this is a little bit unusual for the hockey card hobby, so I'm happy to have one. I wouldn't mind getting the real version to go with it (autographed and numbered to 100), but those are very hard to find, and I can't imagine it would be inexpensive to purchase.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Be A Player 261 David Clarkson RC (84/99)
07-08 Be A Player S-CL Signatures David Clarkson
Speaking of Nathan Horton, how's this for a transition? David Clarkson was at the other end of the Horton trade -- one of the most ridiculous trades in NHL history. Clarkson has been injured for most of this season, which isn't an awful thing for the Blue Jackets, as he's been completely ineffective when actually in the lineup.
Nonetheless, I couldn't pass up a good price on his toughest RC. The autograph was also part of the lot on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 14-15 SP Authentic
More base cards!
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Limited 240 Erik Condra RC (011/299)
This isn't Erik Condra's first appearance in the mail post. This is, however, the first Condra RC in my collection.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 The Cup 93 Erik Condra RC (018/199)
This may or may not be Condra's best rookie card. It's one of the few Cup RCs with no adornments -- no signature, and no patch. Condra was also in Panini Dominion, appearing on a card with both a patch and an autograph. That card was also limited to 199 copies. I'd give the nod to that one, even though The Cup is typically the more popular set.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultimate Collection 100 Vladislav Namestnikov RC (/299) (Redemption)
Upper Deck is really, really sketchy when it comes to rookie card redemptions. Some will be inserted into packs at about the same rate as other cards in the rookie subset. Others will very obviously have only a fraction of the stated print run go into the product. This is an example of the latter. Namestnikov's redemption card from SP Authentic was the same way, but I was never able to get one of those -- they constantly sold for $50-$100. This one, for whatever reason, was much less expensive.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 The Cup 152 William Karlsson RC (/249) (Redemption)
On the other hand, this William Karlsson redemption was available with ease. Assuming the card gets made -- and assuming I don't buy something else before then - it will be my first RC from 14-15 The Cup.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Fleer Showcase Metal Universe 39 Alexander Wennberg
Here's another of UD's attempts to render the RC tag meaningless. This is technically an insert set, but it's arranged (and designed) like a stand-alone brand base set. It even has parallels like a Fleer Metal base set would.
Ultimately, it's a card I only felt like adding to my collection because it was an inexpensive extra from another purchase. In this case, that something else was a card just a few pictures down.
-------------------------------------------------------
Basketball/Football base cards
More base cards -- from sports I don't care about!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Fleer Showcase 160 William Karlsson RC (306/375)
I've acquired very few RCs from the 14-15 season, but I figured I should at least get one from each of the major sets. William Karlsson -- now a center with the Blue Jackets -- ended up being my player of choice for one reason: cost. A mid-tier prospect who was traded to a bad team before the end of his NHL rookie season? It stands to reason that demand for his cards would not be very high.
Well, that may have made it easy for me to pick up a pretty good copy of this card! The patch swatch has seven layers -- black jersey / gold patch / black patch / white patch / black patch / gold patch / black jersey. Hot Prospects / Fleer Showcase has always been one of my least favorite high-end sets, but the 14-15 design is better than most.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Premier 115 William Karlsson RC (193/299)
The resurrected UD Premier, on the other hand, has a fantastic rookie design -- and the cards look and feel great as well. The large patch swatch on this card has four layers -- black jersey / gold patch / black patch / white patch. The hard-signed autograph really looks great on the acetate front.
The Wennberg Fleer Metal card arrived in the same transaction as this one.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 Topps Heritage Baseball base cards
More base cards -- from a sport I sort of like, I guess.
The Jose Urena card is a RC.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Premier 02-03 Tribute SRR-AW Alexander Wennberg (44/99)
2001-02 remains my favorite Upper Deck Premier product, but 2002-03 was famous for introducing the hockey hobby's first patch/auto RCs. It was a great idea to do a tribute to that set! The old design was executed nearly identically, with only two cosmetic changes on the card front -- the UD logo uses the modern style, and the serial numbering is stamped in blue instead of silver. This card -- featuring Alexander Wennberg -- has a five-layer swatch (two layers of white stitching, two layers of red patch, and one layer of dark blue patch).
The 02-03 Alex Svitov RC was my #1 favorite card acquisition of 2009, as it finished my original Tampa Bay Lightning Best-RC Collection, and instantly became one of the best rookie cards I owned. Yes, that's true even given Svitov's status as a bust. I wasn't going to add a Lightning tribute card to complement the Svitov -- to heck with Jonathan Drouin -- so the Alexander Wennberg card will work quite nicely.
Also, wow -- my card photography in 2009 was awful.
While we're on the subject of rare, high-end patch/auto rookie cards -- and I emphasize rare...
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 The Cup 109 Shane O'Brien (23/50)
Rookie collectors will know why this is the last and featured item in this mail post.
In 2006-07, RCs from The Cup were limited to 249 copies -- minus a few of the best players who were limited to 99. However, Upper Deck seemed to have a "lack of patch swatches" issue with a couple players on the Anaheim Ducks. That forced Ryan Shannon (/125) and Shane O'Brien (/50) to enter the set as unintended short prints. The O'Brien remains the lowest-numbered card in a Cup base set, though I'm still convinced that less copies were produced of the 08-09 Vladimir Mihalik RC (maybe only 20-30).
Now for the stupid question -- is it a RC? In 06-07, there was near-universal agreement that it wasn't, because the print run was too low. In 15-16, the definition of a "rookie card" has been blurred, trampled, run over by a train, and ultimately nuked from orbit. So, my answer to the question? It just doesn't matter.
I usually don't share prices, but this is one where I just have to, simply as an illustration of how certain older sets in the hobby continue to depreciate. In the September 2007 edition of Beckett -- the initial printing for 06-07 The Cup -- the O'Brien listed at $500. Just a couple months later, it rose to its peak of $750. Even a couple years ago, it would have been impossible to find this card for under $100. I bought it for $30 delivered. Out of curiosity, would anyone with a current Beckett mind sharing what it lists for now?
Shane O'Brien was acquired by the Lightning for a first-round pick in early 2007 -- not one of the team's finer moments. Shane O'Brien, judging from the card, cannot color within the lines. Shane O'Brien has an unfortunate but readily-obvious acronym nickname. Shane O'Brien is back in the Ducks organization, playing for the AHL San Diego Gulls in 2015-16.
The patch is nice -- three colors and seven layers (black patch / white stitching / gold patch / white stitching / gold patch / white stitching / black patch). The card is sort of a historic one -- one of the oddest rookie issues of the 00s.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Yes, this post contains my first higher-end RCs from the 2014-15 season. I'm well aware that we're in February of the 2015-16 season. Just a little behind, it seems.
** Unless I'm forgetting something, I don't think I ever actually acquired any legitimate Jonathan Drouin rookie cards. Consider that collection cancelled.
** I'd make a joke about Auston Matthews being a good reason to kill off the RC collection for good, but let's be honest -- Columbus won't win the draft lottery.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
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