The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
So, uh, it's been a while.
Still got some cards to get through, though!
Mail Post #6 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion 217 Shayne Gostisbehere (Redemption)
I pulled the redemption for this card early this year, and recently received the finished version from Upper Deck. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Artifacts 158 Alexander Wennberg RC (443/699) (Redemption)
14-15 UD Artifacts 176 Jonathan Drouin RC (068/699) (Redemption)
These two redemption cards were also received from UD. This is my first true RC of Jonathan Drouin, for as much as that term means anymore.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Ultimate Collection 167 Ryan Murray RC (62/99) (Redemption)
My final redemption card from UD is a tough Ryan Murray autographed RC, with only 99 copies made. It's one of his best rookie cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Rookie Jumbo Booklet Jersey Autographs Ryan Murray (61/99)
Every Columbus fan's favorite -- a card serial numbered #61!
I purchased this redemption card last November, with hopes that it might actually end up being redeemable (by accident or whatever) for Murray's apparently-not-produced National Treasures RC. It wasn't, so now I have a booklet card that doesn't really fit in my collection, and has a poorly-affixed jersey swatch. I'll keep it anyway.
As far as I know, no copies of Murray's National Treasures RC have hit the market, but obviously I haven't kept up on that stuff as much as I used to. I did see that press plate and rainbow parallels were recently on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Rookie Redemption R13 Ryan Murray (40/99)
Here's one Ryan Murray redemption card that I'm definitely happy to add to my collection -- a tough #/99 card from 12-13 Certified. It's a pre-RC, but very few of these rookie redemption cards have found their way to the market. I purchased the redeemed version on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck UD Exclusives Alec Martinez (051/100)
Next up -- a few newer Alec Martinez cards, including his UD Exclusives parallel from 14/15...
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck High Gloss 339 Alec Martinez (09/10)
...and his High Gloss parallel from the same year.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Black Printing Plate 339 Alec Martinez (ONE-OF-ONE)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Magenta Printing Plate 339 Alec Martinez (ONE-OF-ONE)
Upper Deck also did one-of-one printing plates for 14-15 Upper Deck, and I was able to pick up two of them for Martinez!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Day With The Cup DC20 Alec Martinez
Martinez earned one more card in 14-15 Upper Deck -- his second Day-with-the-Cup insert. Martinez's first such card from 12-13 was typical of the set -- the player with the Stanley Cup at home or on vacation. I hoped his 14-15 card would look as nice.
Nope.
This is quite possibly the worst picture on any hockey card I own. I seriously didn't even want to buy it, until the prices came down so far that it didn't make sense to ignore it for my collection any more.
Let's never speak of this card again.
-------------------------------------------------------
Unknown Upper Deck Day With the Cup card of Philip Pritchard
I'm going to need some help on this one.
I am fairly certain that this card was never released in an Upper Deck product. Let me begin by going back to the 12-13 Day With the Cup set, which included the first-ever card of Philip Pritchard, as seen here in my collection.
Pritchard (and his colleague Craig Campbell) were again featured in the 14-15 Day With the Cup set. I don't own that card yet, but I hope to get one soon.
So, it was only a few months ago when I first saw a copy of the card pictured here.
Here is the text from the card back, including the grammatical snafu in the first sentence.
Pritchard was born in Oakville, Ontario, but raised and Burlington, where he currently resides. He has worked at the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1988 and is one of the two Cup Keepers to present the Stanley Cup to the winning team each season. Pritchard discovered his passion for hockey many years ago, and now not only works in the hockey industry, but plays ice hockey and ball hockey several times a week, year round. "We are fortunate to be part of such a tradition," Pritchard explains. "It is wonderful to be able to do something that makes people smile. Whether it is a visit to a player's hometown or taking the Stanley Cup to visit kids in the hospital, everyone has a special place in their heart for the Stanley Cup."
This card uses the 2012-13 Day With the Cup design, but with a 2013 copyright on the bottom. The pack-inserted set had a 2012 copyright, as it was only issued in Upper Deck Series 1. The card stock on this card is extremely thin, with a matte finish, and no foil at all. There is no card number, so it's clearly not part of an intended set.
What makes the situation a little more strange? Every single copy of the card on ebay -- and there have been many -- has been sold by only two sellers: bsb-1 and hnlhamilton.
So, can anyone shed some light on where this card came from?
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Certified Masked Marvels Materials Prime Tim Thomas (17/25)
OK, on to some player collection stuff! Here's a pretty nice dual-swatch Tim Thomas insert, with two yellow/black seam jersey pieces. The black highlights on the card are the same color as the Mirror Black version I also own.
Here's how progress is going on this card and its parallel versions:
* Base
* Mirror Red Materials #/99
* Mirror Gold #/25
* Mirror Black Materials Prime #/25
* Mirror Blue Materials Autograph #/25
* Mirror Black Materials Prime Autograph #/10
* Mirror Black 1/1
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Six Jersey AF6-BOSNY (4/7) (UDC113865)
-- Tim Thomas (Yellow) / Zdeno Chara (Black) / Patrice Bergeron (White)
-- Henrik Lundqvist (Blue) / Marian Gaborik (Blue) / Brandon Dubinsky (Blue)
This two-team six-jersey card fits nicely in my collection with another one I acquired a while ago, featuring the Bruins and Canadiens. Both cards even share the same serial number!
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Upper Deck Generation Next Quantum 2 GN1
-- Wayne Gretzky / Sergei Samsonov (61/75)
First off -- yes, I did break this card out of the PSA holder.
This is a Samsonov card that has been high on my wantlist for a while, but despite Samsonov's complete lack of popularity, the Gretzky factor kept prices on this one fairly high. I finally found a copy that was at the high end of what I was looking to spend.
Now that I have this card, I'm one step closer to finishing Samsonov's inserts from 98-99 Upper Deck, not counting the 1/1s (though I do own a couple of them). The remaining Generation Next cards are limited to 10 copies (with Pavel Bure) and 3 copies (with Wayne Gretzky), so I don't have much faith in ever finding them. However, the one I want the most is his Frozen in Time Quantum 2, which is limited to 25 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SPx Smooth Skaters Silver Sergei Samsonov (14/50)
In most ways, this is a pretty unremarkable jersey card. It has an all-black swatch, and the design is rather ugly.
What makes it a little better is the serial number -- #14, worn by Samsonov during his time with the Bruins.
What makes it a lot better is that it finally clears my wantlist of Samsonov memorabilia cards from 02-03 SPx! Samsonov appeared in three different memorabilia insert sets (Smooth Skaters, Winning Materials, Xtreme Talents) with base/silver/gold versions of each. This was the last one I needed to find, and all nine look pretty nice together in a single card sheet.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 BAP Memorabilia Game-Used Gloves Sergei Samsonov (/30)
I don't usually purchase second copies of cards for the purpose of upgrading a memorabilia swatch, but I had to make an exception here!
This is my original copy of the card, containing a plain black glove swatch like every other copy I've ever seen.
Then, suddenly, this one appears on ebay from North-of-7! It has a red/yellow/red swatch from the Easton logo, which was part of a type of glove that Samsonov used for only two or three years. For an example of what these gloves look like, check out this Samsonov card from 99-00 Aurora. It makes sense that it's a rare swatch -- there isn't much material on that Easton logo to cut out.
As for the reason that a 12-year-old card finally shows up with this swatch in 2015? Your well-educated deduction is as good as mine.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 95-96 Topps
Hey, look, some lousy base cards I don't want! They arrived with the next card in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Triple Patch (10/15)
-- Eric Staal (white jersey / black patch / red patch)
-- Rod Brind'Amour (red patch)
-- Sergei Samsonov (yellow patch / black stitching / black patch / brown patch / black patch)
This is a pretty nice card from 09-10 SP Game Used, featuring three patch pieces. The Samsonov swatch contains part of a Bruins bear logo. The Brind'Amour is indeed just a single-color -- the small piece of black is a bit of thread from the Samsonov swatch that escaped its window.
With this card, I now own every Upper Deck Samsonov card from the 09-10 season. I'm only missing two ITG cards for the entire product year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Patch Silver Sergei Samsonov (/3)
I guess I'll save my disdain for the tattered remains of ITG's legacy and just enjoy the fact that Samsonov made a few appearances in 2013-14 products. This patch card has only three copies made, and has a nice four-layer swatch (black jersey / white patch / black patch / yellow patch). It goes nicely with the Black version (limited to 6 copies) that I already own.
I do not own the Gold 1/1 version -- in fact, it's the only Decades card of Samsonov that still remains on my wantlist. That's because...
-------------------------------------------------------
2013-14 ITG Decades 1990s Rookie Jersey and Auto Silver Sergei Samsonov (/2)
...this card also arrived recently, finishing the jersey/auto cards for my Samsonov ITG Decades collection.
This one wasn't easy to do! There are three versions of the card -- Black #/3, Silver #/2, and Gold 1/1. I now own one copy of each!
The jersey swatch on this card has a big white seam at the top, while most of the swatch is made of regular black jersey.
I do believe that both copies of this card surfaced. One was owned by a HI member who wanted too much for it. I got this one on ebay.
A final fun fact to close the post: this is the first card I have ever owned that is limited to two copies printed. Well, except for...
-----------------
News and notes:
** Things are officially slowing down. It's been almost two months since I purchased a hockey card on ebay. I may not continue my rookie collections beyond the 14-15 season, and I'm hardly even trying with the past two product years. I'm still in for keeps on my player collections, but there's only so many Tim Thomas and Sergei Samsonov cards I have left to locate. There won't be a dramatic "leaving the hobby" post. I'm not selling anything off. Just continuing a gradual reduction in pace, and I'm happy with it.
** One new subset / insert set has caught my eye -- the Territories cards from MVP. I love city images on hockey cards, and the auto/jersey versions use Light-FX backgrounds to make them even nicer. I'm planning to pick up a few of them.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Still got some cards to get through, though!
Mail Post #6 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion 217 Shayne Gostisbehere (Redemption)
I pulled the redemption for this card early this year, and recently received the finished version from Upper Deck. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Artifacts 158 Alexander Wennberg RC (443/699) (Redemption)
14-15 UD Artifacts 176 Jonathan Drouin RC (068/699) (Redemption)
These two redemption cards were also received from UD. This is my first true RC of Jonathan Drouin, for as much as that term means anymore.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Ultimate Collection 167 Ryan Murray RC (62/99) (Redemption)
My final redemption card from UD is a tough Ryan Murray autographed RC, with only 99 copies made. It's one of his best rookie cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Rookie Jumbo Booklet Jersey Autographs Ryan Murray (61/99)
Every Columbus fan's favorite -- a card serial numbered #61!
I purchased this redemption card last November, with hopes that it might actually end up being redeemable (by accident or whatever) for Murray's apparently-not-produced National Treasures RC. It wasn't, so now I have a booklet card that doesn't really fit in my collection, and has a poorly-affixed jersey swatch. I'll keep it anyway.
As far as I know, no copies of Murray's National Treasures RC have hit the market, but obviously I haven't kept up on that stuff as much as I used to. I did see that press plate and rainbow parallels were recently on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Rookie Redemption R13 Ryan Murray (40/99)
Here's one Ryan Murray redemption card that I'm definitely happy to add to my collection -- a tough #/99 card from 12-13 Certified. It's a pre-RC, but very few of these rookie redemption cards have found their way to the market. I purchased the redeemed version on ebay.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck UD Exclusives Alec Martinez (051/100)
Next up -- a few newer Alec Martinez cards, including his UD Exclusives parallel from 14/15...
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck High Gloss 339 Alec Martinez (09/10)
...and his High Gloss parallel from the same year.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Black Printing Plate 339 Alec Martinez (ONE-OF-ONE)
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Magenta Printing Plate 339 Alec Martinez (ONE-OF-ONE)
Upper Deck also did one-of-one printing plates for 14-15 Upper Deck, and I was able to pick up two of them for Martinez!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Day With The Cup DC20 Alec Martinez
Martinez earned one more card in 14-15 Upper Deck -- his second Day-with-the-Cup insert. Martinez's first such card from 12-13 was typical of the set -- the player with the Stanley Cup at home or on vacation. I hoped his 14-15 card would look as nice.
Nope.
This is quite possibly the worst picture on any hockey card I own. I seriously didn't even want to buy it, until the prices came down so far that it didn't make sense to ignore it for my collection any more.
Let's never speak of this card again.
-------------------------------------------------------
Unknown Upper Deck Day With the Cup card of Philip Pritchard
I'm going to need some help on this one.
I am fairly certain that this card was never released in an Upper Deck product. Let me begin by going back to the 12-13 Day With the Cup set, which included the first-ever card of Philip Pritchard, as seen here in my collection.
Pritchard (and his colleague Craig Campbell) were again featured in the 14-15 Day With the Cup set. I don't own that card yet, but I hope to get one soon.
So, it was only a few months ago when I first saw a copy of the card pictured here.
Here is the text from the card back, including the grammatical snafu in the first sentence.
Pritchard was born in Oakville, Ontario, but raised and Burlington, where he currently resides. He has worked at the Hockey Hall of Fame since 1988 and is one of the two Cup Keepers to present the Stanley Cup to the winning team each season. Pritchard discovered his passion for hockey many years ago, and now not only works in the hockey industry, but plays ice hockey and ball hockey several times a week, year round. "We are fortunate to be part of such a tradition," Pritchard explains. "It is wonderful to be able to do something that makes people smile. Whether it is a visit to a player's hometown or taking the Stanley Cup to visit kids in the hospital, everyone has a special place in their heart for the Stanley Cup."
This card uses the 2012-13 Day With the Cup design, but with a 2013 copyright on the bottom. The pack-inserted set had a 2012 copyright, as it was only issued in Upper Deck Series 1. The card stock on this card is extremely thin, with a matte finish, and no foil at all. There is no card number, so it's clearly not part of an intended set.
What makes the situation a little more strange? Every single copy of the card on ebay -- and there have been many -- has been sold by only two sellers: bsb-1 and hnlhamilton.
So, can anyone shed some light on where this card came from?
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Certified Masked Marvels Materials Prime Tim Thomas (17/25)
OK, on to some player collection stuff! Here's a pretty nice dual-swatch Tim Thomas insert, with two yellow/black seam jersey pieces. The black highlights on the card are the same color as the Mirror Black version I also own.
Here's how progress is going on this card and its parallel versions:
* Base
* Mirror Red Materials #/99
* Mirror Gold #/25
* Mirror Black Materials Prime #/25
* Mirror Blue Materials Autograph #/25
* Mirror Black Materials Prime Autograph #/10
* Mirror Black 1/1
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Six Jersey AF6-BOSNY (4/7) (UDC113865)
-- Tim Thomas (Yellow) / Zdeno Chara (Black) / Patrice Bergeron (White)
-- Henrik Lundqvist (Blue) / Marian Gaborik (Blue) / Brandon Dubinsky (Blue)
This two-team six-jersey card fits nicely in my collection with another one I acquired a while ago, featuring the Bruins and Canadiens. Both cards even share the same serial number!
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Upper Deck Generation Next Quantum 2 GN1
-- Wayne Gretzky / Sergei Samsonov (61/75)
First off -- yes, I did break this card out of the PSA holder.
This is a Samsonov card that has been high on my wantlist for a while, but despite Samsonov's complete lack of popularity, the Gretzky factor kept prices on this one fairly high. I finally found a copy that was at the high end of what I was looking to spend.
Now that I have this card, I'm one step closer to finishing Samsonov's inserts from 98-99 Upper Deck, not counting the 1/1s (though I do own a couple of them). The remaining Generation Next cards are limited to 10 copies (with Pavel Bure) and 3 copies (with Wayne Gretzky), so I don't have much faith in ever finding them. However, the one I want the most is his Frozen in Time Quantum 2, which is limited to 25 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SPx Smooth Skaters Silver Sergei Samsonov (14/50)
In most ways, this is a pretty unremarkable jersey card. It has an all-black swatch, and the design is rather ugly.
What makes it a little better is the serial number -- #14, worn by Samsonov during his time with the Bruins.
What makes it a lot better is that it finally clears my wantlist of Samsonov memorabilia cards from 02-03 SPx! Samsonov appeared in three different memorabilia insert sets (Smooth Skaters, Winning Materials, Xtreme Talents) with base/silver/gold versions of each. This was the last one I needed to find, and all nine look pretty nice together in a single card sheet.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 BAP Memorabilia Game-Used Gloves Sergei Samsonov (/30)
I don't usually purchase second copies of cards for the purpose of upgrading a memorabilia swatch, but I had to make an exception here!
This is my original copy of the card, containing a plain black glove swatch like every other copy I've ever seen.
Then, suddenly, this one appears on ebay from North-of-7! It has a red/yellow/red swatch from the Easton logo, which was part of a type of glove that Samsonov used for only two or three years. For an example of what these gloves look like, check out this Samsonov card from 99-00 Aurora. It makes sense that it's a rare swatch -- there isn't much material on that Easton logo to cut out.
As for the reason that a 12-year-old card finally shows up with this swatch in 2015? Your well-educated deduction is as good as mine.
-------------------------------------------------------
Base Cards from 95-96 Topps
Hey, look, some lousy base cards I don't want! They arrived with the next card in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Triple Patch (10/15)
-- Eric Staal (white jersey / black patch / red patch)
-- Rod Brind'Amour (red patch)
-- Sergei Samsonov (yellow patch / black stitching / black patch / brown patch / black patch)
This is a pretty nice card from 09-10 SP Game Used, featuring three patch pieces. The Samsonov swatch contains part of a Bruins bear logo. The Brind'Amour is indeed just a single-color -- the small piece of black is a bit of thread from the Samsonov swatch that escaped its window.
With this card, I now own every Upper Deck Samsonov card from the 09-10 season. I'm only missing two ITG cards for the entire product year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Patch Silver Sergei Samsonov (/3)
I guess I'll save my disdain for the tattered remains of ITG's legacy and just enjoy the fact that Samsonov made a few appearances in 2013-14 products. This patch card has only three copies made, and has a nice four-layer swatch (black jersey / white patch / black patch / yellow patch). It goes nicely with the Black version (limited to 6 copies) that I already own.
I do not own the Gold 1/1 version -- in fact, it's the only Decades card of Samsonov that still remains on my wantlist. That's because...
-------------------------------------------------------
2013-14 ITG Decades 1990s Rookie Jersey and Auto Silver Sergei Samsonov (/2)
...this card also arrived recently, finishing the jersey/auto cards for my Samsonov ITG Decades collection.
This one wasn't easy to do! There are three versions of the card -- Black #/3, Silver #/2, and Gold 1/1. I now own one copy of each!
The jersey swatch on this card has a big white seam at the top, while most of the swatch is made of regular black jersey.
I do believe that both copies of this card surfaced. One was owned by a HI member who wanted too much for it. I got this one on ebay.
A final fun fact to close the post: this is the first card I have ever owned that is limited to two copies printed. Well, except for...
-----------------
News and notes:
** Things are officially slowing down. It's been almost two months since I purchased a hockey card on ebay. I may not continue my rookie collections beyond the 14-15 season, and I'm hardly even trying with the past two product years. I'm still in for keeps on my player collections, but there's only so many Tim Thomas and Sergei Samsonov cards I have left to locate. There won't be a dramatic "leaving the hobby" post. I'm not selling anything off. Just continuing a gradual reduction in pace, and I'm happy with it.
** One new subset / insert set has caught my eye -- the Territories cards from MVP. I love city images on hockey cards, and the auto/jersey versions use Light-FX backgrounds to make them even nicer. I'm planning to pick up a few of them.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
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