The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
Mail post #21 on the year is a little smaller than some of the other posts I've been making recently. I had the time and desire to get some cards sorted away and share the mail -- including two very important cards for my collections.
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Tampa Bay Lightning Fan Pack:
06-07 McDonalds Giveaway Cards Full Sheet:
Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Dan Boyle, Martin St. Louis
"Hockey Bay USA" Bumper Sticker
Tampa Bay Lightning Window Cling
The fourth time's a charm, apparently. In the past two seasons, I sent three unanswered requests for Tampa Bay Lightning fan packs. A few weeks ago, I decided to send a fourth -- and received these in within 7 days. You try explaining that one!
I plan on keeping all of the items here. This is actually the second set of the McDonalds cards I've received, since I got some by way of a friend of my brother a while ago. The window cling will eventually be going on my car, and the bumper sticker will absolutely not.
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05-06 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Jeff Reese
06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Vincent Lecavalier
These two cards were also included in the package! Truth be told, the real reason I wanted a fan pack was for the team set cards. The Jeff Reese is an addition to my player collection -- what a great picture! The Lecavalier is staying with me for now as well.
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06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Eric Perrin
06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Eric Perrin (Signed)
The final card in the fan pack was the autographed Perrin card. I collect Perrin as well, and having an autograph is very nice. However, can the signed version count toward the official collection? Usually I'm fairly strict about that sort of thing...
...but it really didn't matter, because I got an un-signed version for free from Dan (s.fla-dan). I'll absolutely be keeping both! Dan sent a few extra cards as well. Those are in the next picture.
As for Perrin? Well, my collection of his cards is almost complete, but why do I collect him in the first place? He's the only non-Viper I collect. Simply stated, I enjoyed his story from when he came on to the 03-04 championship Lightning team, and decided to collect him. I've since vowed to never bow to the temptation again and collect a non-Vipers player! My main collections are expensive enough as it is!
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02-03 SPx Rookie Redemption Jordin Tootoo (/500)
03-04 Upper Deck Buyback Autographs 02-03 Upper Deck Sergei Samsonov (/48)
03-04 UD Trilogy Scripts One Autograph Brooks Orpik
05-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update Andrew Penner RC (/1999)
06-07 Upper Deck Shootout Artists Slava Kozlov
Here are the extra cards from Dan's package. These are pretty nice items! I especially like the Samsonov autograph, which I'll certainly keep for my collection. Dan, thanks very much for the generosity and for sending these cards along!
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00-01 Private Stock Silver Milan Hejduk (/120)
01-02 Upper Deck Exclusives Yannick Tremblay (/100)
01-02 Crown Royale Blue Sergei Samsonov (/89)
01-02 Crown Royale Blue Pierre Turgeon (/89)
02-03 Upper Deck MVP Golden Classics Shane Doan (/50)
Here is the first of three pictures from a trade with Joe Matchett. My favorite here is the Doan, which is from a very tough parallel set.
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02-03 Bowman Young Stars Gold Patrick Lalime (/250)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Gold Pavel Datsyuk (/250)
02-03 Fleer Throwbacks Platinum Behn Wilson (/50)
05-06 Upper Deck Artifacts Autofacts Copper Ken Hodge (/75)
Here's four more cards from that deal. The Hodge is a great card -- mainly because of his awesome autograph. I also like the Wilson parallel, which is from another very tough set.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 UD Foundations 1000 Point Club Game-Used Stick Jean Beliveau (/150)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Autographs Stephen Weiss (/50)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Game-Used Patch Niklas Hagman (/50)
Here's the last three cards from my deal with Joe, and these are the best. The wooden swatch on the Beliveau is incredible! There are three or four different shadings and textures. The Bowman stuff is great too, because these cards are really tough to find. It's just a shame that Topps chose to de-layer all of the patches.
-------------------------------------------------------
99-00 Pacific Emerald Bob Probert (/199)
00-01 Upper Deck Keith Aldridge RC (SP)
00-01 Topps O-Pee-Chee Parallel Chris Osgood (/100)
00-01 Topps Chrome O-Pee-Chee Refractor Vincent Damphousse
00-01 Topps Premier Plus Blue Ice Ron Tugnutt (/250)
00-01 Topps Premier Plus Blue Ice Valeri Bure (/250)
Next, I have two batches of cards I received in trade from Chris West (hockeyguy2006). My favorite here is the Osgood parallel.
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01-02 Atomic Gold Peter Forsberg (/200)
02-03 Topps Chrome Refractors Vincent Damphousse
03-04 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Dave Scatchard (/150)
05-06 Upper Deck Artifacts Red Eric Staal (/50)
Here's the second batch. I like the Staal here the best. Chris, thanks for another easy trade!
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06-07 Upper Deck HG Manny Malhotra (08/10)
06-07 Upper Deck HG Adrian Aucoin (04/10)
These two cards came from ebay. They are additions to my tradelist, though they will only be available for player collection items. As it is, I can't see that there's a ton of demand for these two players anyway. I have to face the facts -- I'll pick up rare cards like this any day of the week if I can find them for as cheap as these went!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 Between The Pipes He Shoots He Saves Prizes
-- Tim Thomas and Hannu Toivonen (01/20)
Here's the first of two really important cards from this mail post. On any other day, I might have made this the featured item. It's very close, anyway!
This card came to me in a very roundabout fashion from Julie (cubbyboolin). Julie got this card in from redemption with ITG, and said she would hold it for me until we were able to work out a trade. She wanted to get another HSHS card in return, so I turned to Jon (X-Head) for some help. He had just received a Hasek / Dzurilla from the same set, and we worked out a sale pretty quickly. Once that card was in hand, I finished up the even-swap with Julie, and landed the first copy printed of the Thomas / Toivonen for my own collection!
The one disappointing factor is the single-color Thomas swatch, but I feel it's more than made up for with the awesome Toivonen swatch, and the fact that it's the first copy distributed. To date I've only seen one other, and it's failed to sell on ebay on account of the seller trying to overvalue the starting bid.
So, here's one more very difficult Thomas card out of the way. Thanks for the trade, Julie, and enjoy your card too!
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 Pinnacle Kevin Todd RC
91-92 Upper Deck Jim McKenzie RC
92-93 Pinnacle Igor Korolev RC
99-00 Upper Deck Gold Reserve John Grahame RC
I received these four rookie cards from Beckett Marketplace dealer Center Ice Sportscards. These are additions to my Best-RC collection. The Grahame isn't a Best-RC, but is one I've wanted to pick up anyway.
Of course, these were just filler purchases to round out my order for a very important card. Here's the featured item!
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Kyle Freadrich (13/25)
KYLE FREADRICH: 18/18 -- 100%
It's hard to find a parallel set more difficult than this one. The most frustrating part is the fact that there are eight players I collect in the set! Freadrich is the sixth card I've been able to secure, so I'm 75% of the way there. I still need Matt Elich and Keith Aldridge.
It's been a long road to pick this card up. Graham (yakacack) alerted me that the card was listed a few months ago in a Beckett Marketplace store. I placed the order as quickly as I could, only to find a few days later that the card was "out of stock" and a refund was on the way. I was frustrated, but at least I wasn't out any money. Then, just about a week ago, I found the card up for sale again! This time, it was in a different Beckett Marketplace store. The price had jumped a bit, but was still reasonable for such an important card. The purchase went through and I received the cards in just a couple days.
The real reason this card is so important, though, is that it finishes off my Kyle Freadrich collection. Freadrich is currently my 12th complete player collection! Info on the full collection can be found here: http://fiveninety.dyndns.org/~thegreatzo/players/20.html
Since Freadrich is retired from hockey, it's extremely unlikely that I'll have to add cards to the wantlist. I suppose he'd stand a chance to get more cards if ITG ever does a "Tough Customers Series 2: The Toothless and the Rejects" product. Failing that, I'd say I can put this collection to bed.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
**I am continuing to update the Upper Deck Press Plate trackers. Here are the links: 05-06, 06-07.
**For the next month or two, I will be limiting my card trades and purchases to wantlist items. I apologize for this self-imposed semi-haitus, but I've got a good reason for it -- and it's good news, in the end!
**Despite the above statement, I've been almost as busy as ever in terms of card deals. Why? Must be wantlist items! This spells very good things ahead for my next mailpost!
**Isn't it about time ebay did another cheapo-listing day? I'm going through withdrawl symptoms. So is my paypal account!
**To replace the Kyle Freadrich card on my signature most-wanted list, I inserted the 97-98 Upper Deck Game-Dated Moments parallel of Sergei Samsonov. In my mind, this is one of Samsonov's definitive parallel issues. As a guy who deals a lot with parallel cards, I think it's well past my time to own a copy.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
Andy's Hockey Cards - Player Collection Website
Vipers Best-RCs Project - Lightning Best-RCs Project
Wantlist - Tradelist
-------------------------------------------------------
Tampa Bay Lightning Fan Pack:
06-07 McDonalds Giveaway Cards Full Sheet:
Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Dan Boyle, Martin St. Louis
"Hockey Bay USA" Bumper Sticker
Tampa Bay Lightning Window Cling
The fourth time's a charm, apparently. In the past two seasons, I sent three unanswered requests for Tampa Bay Lightning fan packs. A few weeks ago, I decided to send a fourth -- and received these in within 7 days. You try explaining that one!
I plan on keeping all of the items here. This is actually the second set of the McDonalds cards I've received, since I got some by way of a friend of my brother a while ago. The window cling will eventually be going on my car, and the bumper sticker will absolutely not.
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Jeff Reese
06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Vincent Lecavalier
These two cards were also included in the package! Truth be told, the real reason I wanted a fan pack was for the team set cards. The Jeff Reese is an addition to my player collection -- what a great picture! The Lecavalier is staying with me for now as well.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Eric Perrin
06-07 Tampa Bay Lightning Team Set Eric Perrin (Signed)
The final card in the fan pack was the autographed Perrin card. I collect Perrin as well, and having an autograph is very nice. However, can the signed version count toward the official collection? Usually I'm fairly strict about that sort of thing...
...but it really didn't matter, because I got an un-signed version for free from Dan (s.fla-dan). I'll absolutely be keeping both! Dan sent a few extra cards as well. Those are in the next picture.
As for Perrin? Well, my collection of his cards is almost complete, but why do I collect him in the first place? He's the only non-Viper I collect. Simply stated, I enjoyed his story from when he came on to the 03-04 championship Lightning team, and decided to collect him. I've since vowed to never bow to the temptation again and collect a non-Vipers player! My main collections are expensive enough as it is!
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SPx Rookie Redemption Jordin Tootoo (/500)
03-04 Upper Deck Buyback Autographs 02-03 Upper Deck Sergei Samsonov (/48)
03-04 UD Trilogy Scripts One Autograph Brooks Orpik
05-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update Andrew Penner RC (/1999)
06-07 Upper Deck Shootout Artists Slava Kozlov
Here are the extra cards from Dan's package. These are pretty nice items! I especially like the Samsonov autograph, which I'll certainly keep for my collection. Dan, thanks very much for the generosity and for sending these cards along!
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Private Stock Silver Milan Hejduk (/120)
01-02 Upper Deck Exclusives Yannick Tremblay (/100)
01-02 Crown Royale Blue Sergei Samsonov (/89)
01-02 Crown Royale Blue Pierre Turgeon (/89)
02-03 Upper Deck MVP Golden Classics Shane Doan (/50)
Here is the first of three pictures from a trade with Joe Matchett. My favorite here is the Doan, which is from a very tough parallel set.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Gold Patrick Lalime (/250)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Gold Pavel Datsyuk (/250)
02-03 Fleer Throwbacks Platinum Behn Wilson (/50)
05-06 Upper Deck Artifacts Autofacts Copper Ken Hodge (/75)
Here's four more cards from that deal. The Hodge is a great card -- mainly because of his awesome autograph. I also like the Wilson parallel, which is from another very tough set.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 UD Foundations 1000 Point Club Game-Used Stick Jean Beliveau (/150)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Autographs Stephen Weiss (/50)
02-03 Bowman Young Stars Game-Used Patch Niklas Hagman (/50)
Here's the last three cards from my deal with Joe, and these are the best. The wooden swatch on the Beliveau is incredible! There are three or four different shadings and textures. The Bowman stuff is great too, because these cards are really tough to find. It's just a shame that Topps chose to de-layer all of the patches.
-------------------------------------------------------
99-00 Pacific Emerald Bob Probert (/199)
00-01 Upper Deck Keith Aldridge RC (SP)
00-01 Topps O-Pee-Chee Parallel Chris Osgood (/100)
00-01 Topps Chrome O-Pee-Chee Refractor Vincent Damphousse
00-01 Topps Premier Plus Blue Ice Ron Tugnutt (/250)
00-01 Topps Premier Plus Blue Ice Valeri Bure (/250)
Next, I have two batches of cards I received in trade from Chris West (hockeyguy2006). My favorite here is the Osgood parallel.
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 Atomic Gold Peter Forsberg (/200)
02-03 Topps Chrome Refractors Vincent Damphousse
03-04 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Dave Scatchard (/150)
05-06 Upper Deck Artifacts Red Eric Staal (/50)
Here's the second batch. I like the Staal here the best. Chris, thanks for another easy trade!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 Upper Deck HG Manny Malhotra (08/10)
06-07 Upper Deck HG Adrian Aucoin (04/10)
These two cards came from ebay. They are additions to my tradelist, though they will only be available for player collection items. As it is, I can't see that there's a ton of demand for these two players anyway. I have to face the facts -- I'll pick up rare cards like this any day of the week if I can find them for as cheap as these went!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 Between The Pipes He Shoots He Saves Prizes
-- Tim Thomas and Hannu Toivonen (01/20)
Here's the first of two really important cards from this mail post. On any other day, I might have made this the featured item. It's very close, anyway!
This card came to me in a very roundabout fashion from Julie (cubbyboolin). Julie got this card in from redemption with ITG, and said she would hold it for me until we were able to work out a trade. She wanted to get another HSHS card in return, so I turned to Jon (X-Head) for some help. He had just received a Hasek / Dzurilla from the same set, and we worked out a sale pretty quickly. Once that card was in hand, I finished up the even-swap with Julie, and landed the first copy printed of the Thomas / Toivonen for my own collection!
The one disappointing factor is the single-color Thomas swatch, but I feel it's more than made up for with the awesome Toivonen swatch, and the fact that it's the first copy distributed. To date I've only seen one other, and it's failed to sell on ebay on account of the seller trying to overvalue the starting bid.
So, here's one more very difficult Thomas card out of the way. Thanks for the trade, Julie, and enjoy your card too!
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 Pinnacle Kevin Todd RC
91-92 Upper Deck Jim McKenzie RC
92-93 Pinnacle Igor Korolev RC
99-00 Upper Deck Gold Reserve John Grahame RC
I received these four rookie cards from Beckett Marketplace dealer Center Ice Sportscards. These are additions to my Best-RC collection. The Grahame isn't a Best-RC, but is one I've wanted to pick up anyway.
Of course, these were just filler purchases to round out my order for a very important card. Here's the featured item!
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Kyle Freadrich (13/25)
KYLE FREADRICH: 18/18 -- 100%
It's hard to find a parallel set more difficult than this one. The most frustrating part is the fact that there are eight players I collect in the set! Freadrich is the sixth card I've been able to secure, so I'm 75% of the way there. I still need Matt Elich and Keith Aldridge.
It's been a long road to pick this card up. Graham (yakacack) alerted me that the card was listed a few months ago in a Beckett Marketplace store. I placed the order as quickly as I could, only to find a few days later that the card was "out of stock" and a refund was on the way. I was frustrated, but at least I wasn't out any money. Then, just about a week ago, I found the card up for sale again! This time, it was in a different Beckett Marketplace store. The price had jumped a bit, but was still reasonable for such an important card. The purchase went through and I received the cards in just a couple days.
The real reason this card is so important, though, is that it finishes off my Kyle Freadrich collection. Freadrich is currently my 12th complete player collection! Info on the full collection can be found here: http://fiveninety.dyndns.org/~thegreatzo/players/20.html
Since Freadrich is retired from hockey, it's extremely unlikely that I'll have to add cards to the wantlist. I suppose he'd stand a chance to get more cards if ITG ever does a "Tough Customers Series 2: The Toothless and the Rejects" product. Failing that, I'd say I can put this collection to bed.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
**I am continuing to update the Upper Deck Press Plate trackers. Here are the links: 05-06, 06-07.
**For the next month or two, I will be limiting my card trades and purchases to wantlist items. I apologize for this self-imposed semi-haitus, but I've got a good reason for it -- and it's good news, in the end!
**Despite the above statement, I've been almost as busy as ever in terms of card deals. Why? Must be wantlist items! This spells very good things ahead for my next mailpost!
**Isn't it about time ebay did another cheapo-listing day? I'm going through withdrawl symptoms. So is my paypal account!
**To replace the Kyle Freadrich card on my signature most-wanted list, I inserted the 97-98 Upper Deck Game-Dated Moments parallel of Sergei Samsonov. In my mind, this is one of Samsonov's definitive parallel issues. As a guy who deals a lot with parallel cards, I think it's well past my time to own a copy.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
Andy's Hockey Cards - Player Collection Website
Vipers Best-RCs Project - Lightning Best-RCs Project
Wantlist - Tradelist
