The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
This has been, by far, my slowest-ever year in the hobby -- a result of a half-intentional half-natural slowing down of my collecting and purchasing.
So, let's close it out with a giant-sized mail post that has a lot of awesome stuff -- pack breaks, rookie cards, and a few really nice player collection items.
Mail Post #8 for 2015
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 Upper Deck Series One
I received a huge batch of loose packs as a Christmas gift -- six packs each from three products.
UD1 was, unfortunately, the most disappointing of the three breaks. I do like the base set design this year.
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15-16 Upper Deck Henrik Samuelsson RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck UD Canvas Brent Burns
15-16 Upper Deck UD Canvas Cam Fowler
15-16 Upper Deck UD Portraits Ryan Johansen
15-16 Upper Deck UD Portraits Henrik Zetterberg
I pulled five special cards from the six UD1 packs, but only one YG, and it's not among the better ones. I still love the UD Canvas concept, but overall, this break was rather uninspiring. The Portraits inserts are boring.
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee
I did a little better with OPC, pulling 13 special cards in 6 packs.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Alex Biega RC (SP)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Chris Chelios (SP)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Markus Granlund
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Calle Jarnkrok
Here are two base-set shortprints (with one RC), and two rainbow parallels.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Braden Holtby
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Jason Spezza
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Andrew Cogliano
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Connor Murphy
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Patrik Elias
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Pierre Turgeon
Here are the requisite six retro parallels, and yes, I checked (fruitlessly) for blank backs.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow Bryan Bickell (055/100)
The best card from the OPC break was a numbered parallel. The player isn't great, but these are nice-looking cards, and I still think it's fun to pull a card with a limited print run like this.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee All-Star Glossy Patrick Kane
15-16 O-Pee-Chee V Series B Jamie Benn
Finally, here are two inserts from OPC. Not a bad break for six packs!
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 Upper Deck MVP
By far, I did the best with MVP. I pulled 7 special cards from 6 packs, including two that are very good.
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP Arturs Irbe (NHL Territories)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Viktor Arvidsson RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Stefan Noesen RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Steve Mason
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Colors and Contours Chris Kunitz (Teal Level 3)
I pulled two RCs, one Silver Script parallel, and one Colors and Contours parallel. Unfortunately, Kunitz's card is from one of the more common tiers, inserted at 1:8 packs. Regardless, I definitely think it's an attractive card.
The Irbe card is a short print from the NHL Territories subset, featuring an image from downtown San Jose (as seen from Plaza de César Chávez).
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP Super Script Brandon Sutter (02/25)
This card came out of the first pack I opened! It's been a while since I pulled a card limited to 25 or less, and Super Script parallels usually end up as items player collectors spend a lot of time searching for.
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP NHL Territories Materials Seth Jones (Dark Blue Jersey)
However, this is the card that I consider the best from the break. These aren't easy cards to pull -- 1:77 packs for this one -- but it's the design and technology that really sets the card apart. Whereas the base NHL Territories cards use a Light-FX finish on top of a skyline photograph, the Materials and Autograph parallels use Rainbow Light-FX instead. That's long been one of my very favorite printing technologies, and using that finish on an awesome background image like this is simply stunning. This is one of the best-looking cards I've seen in a long time. The picture appears to have been taken from the Gateway Bridge just southeast of downtown Nashville.
I'm going to try to get the base/jersey versions of all Blue Jackets, Lightning, and Red Wings players in the set.
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14-15 Fleer Ultra Ultra VIolet Medallion 125 Clarke MacArthur (1 of 1)
I'll start the mail with a random 1/1 I purchased on ebay. Why did I buy it? I simply wanted to see what one of these very shiny cards looked like.
These cards were distributed in a strange way. Upper Deck inserted 200 redemption cards for Ultra Violet 1/1s in packs of 14-15 Ultra. Each card was then redeemable for a completely random card from the 200-card set.
I have no specific plans for this card, but I'd probably only trade it for another Ultra Violet 1/1 of a Lightning or Blue Jackets player.
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10-11 Panini Luxury Suite Gold 159 Alexander Vasyunov (No Autograph)
Some of you may already be familiar with the story of Alexander Vasyunov's final redemption cards from 10-11 Panini Luxury Suite and Dominion. After Vasyunov was killed in the Lokomotiv plane crash, Panini (upon request) sent out versions of those redemption cards stamped with "no autograph" on the front. I received two copies of his Luxury Suite card, and four copies of his Dominion card. Those are the only copies of the Dominion card that I've ever seen, but I've seen several others from Luxury Suite.
I was quite surprised to find this item on ebay -- the first-ever copy of his Luxury Suite gold parallel to hit the market! These cards were supposed to be limited to only ten copies printed, so this is likely a very scarce item -- there's no way that all ten copies were specifically requested as part of a redemption replacement.
The black 1/1 parallel to this card -- or any Dominion parallels -- would be remarkable finds.
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Base Cards from 13-14 SP Authentic
Here are two worthless base cards! I don't even remember who the players are. I guess I'll remember when I make this post and see the image again.
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00-01 Titanium Hobby Martin Havlat RC (18/99)
00-01 Titanium Hobby Martin Havlat RC (39/99)
Those base cards were shipped with these two copies of Martin Havlat's best RC, and another entry into my slow-building 00-01 Titanium Hobby set.
Why two copies? Somebody set up his snipes incorrectly. Somebody won two auctions instead of one. Whoops.
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10-11 Ultimate Collection Justin Falk RC (055/299)
Justin Falk is a spare defenseman for the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is one of his better RCs -- a clean signature from 10-11 UD Ultimate.
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14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R27 Marko Dano (093/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R36 Vladislav Namestnikov (011/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R49 Alexander Wennberg (097/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R60 Jonathan Drouin (212/249)
These four cards are inserts, not RCs. The true RCs from 14-15 UD Premier are acetate, hard-signed, big-patch cards -- and I don't own any of them yet.
So, I picked up four of the "Premier Rookies" inserts, which were extremely inexpensive. I have to admit that UD's making this really confusing -- these cards match the Premier base set in design, but are numbered as inserts, and don't look a thing like the actual rookie cards.
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14-15 UD Black William Karlsson (146/199)
14-15 UD Black Vladislav Namestnikov (118/199)
Meanwhile, here are another two cards that continue UD's blurring of the RC/not-RC lines in the 14-15 season. UD Black was inserted as sort of a sub-product within 14-15 Upper Deck Ice, with a base set and a few memorabilia/autograph inserts. Although these are fairly attractive cards, they won't be high-priority items for me. These two were acquired for peanuts.
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14-15 Ultra Red Light Views RLV-9 Kings vs. Rangers (June 11, 2014)
Here's a nice card with a view from the net during the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, as Anton Stralman (now with the Lightning) stops the puck on the goal line with a dramatic play.
Want to watch it on video? Here it is!
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-2 Nick Foligno
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-5 Ryan Johansen
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-8 Steven Stamkos
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-21 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-47 Ryan Johansen (Breakaway Challenge)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-50 Ryan Johansen (Most Valuable Player)
I'm not going to collect the entire set of All-Star Glossy cards, but since I was at the game and skills competition, I figured I should get a few. I'm still looking for AS-1 (Foligno/Toews), AS-16 (Drouin), and AS-46 (Drouin / Fastest Skater).
The last two cards in this post are short prints.
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15-16 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption RED199 Columbus Blue Jackets
15-16 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption RED185 Tampa Bay Lightning
I have no idea who these cards will be redeemable for, but both the Blue Jackets and Lightning have had rookies debut in late 2015.
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98-99 Black Diamond Myriad M7 Teemu Selanne (0312/1500)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF2 Teemu Selanne (1326/2600)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF10 Brendan Shanahan (0270/1400)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF14 Manny Malhotra (399/800)
Progress continues toward my 98-99 Black Diamond insert sets, as I was able to pick up these four cards on ebay. The Malhotra card is the most important here, as it has the shortest print run in the Winning Formula set.
I now own 24/30 Myriad cards, and 23/30 Winning Formula cards.
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15-16 German DEL Stickers 246 Steve Walker
Former Detroit Viper Steve Walker played 11 seasons with the Berlin Polar Bears of the DEL. He's second all-time in points for Berlin, and had his number #27 retired by the team.
Given his history with Berlin, it's slightly surprising to find that as of the 2015-16 season, he's become an assistant coach with the Mannheim Eagles of the same league.
This is Walker's first collectible item as a member of the Eagles -- a sticker from the City Press DEL Stickers set. It's his first appearance in a standard-issue card or sticker set since earning a base card in the City Press DEL card product in 2011-12.
This item came in from Chico Jacob, who has been a long-time trading partner of mine from Germany.
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14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Finals (May 8, 2014)
Several new Alec Martinez items arrived in recently, including two more cards from the 14-15 Fleer Ultra Road to the Championship set. Martinez had 12 separate cards produced in that insert run! This card completes the Division Finals cards, and the Division Semifinals cards are already done.
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14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Conference Finals (May 30, 2014)
The Conference Finals cards are much tougher to locate, and I now own two of the three.
Unfortunately, I still don't have any of the Stanley Cup Final cards. Those are quite scarce, and usually sell pretty well on the rare occasions they end up for sale.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 55 Alec Martinez (059/100)
I've somehow skipped over the easy cards from 15-16 O-Pee-Chee, but I was able to pick up Martinez's three tougher parallels. The Black Rainbow card, limited to 100 copies, is the first.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Red Border 55 Alec Martinez
The Red Border parallels were only available through a Canadian wrapper redemption program. My very rough guess is that their print run is probably similar in number to the Black Rainbow cards. Neither were particularly difficult to find on ebay.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Blank Backs 55 Alec Martinez
The Blank Back parallel, as always, proved to be the toughest to locate. I only saw 2 or 3 copies of the Martinez, and was sure to pick one of them up.
I still need the base, retro, and rainbow parallels.
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13-14 ITG Lord Stanley's Mug Conn Smythe Trophy Winner Silver CSTW-46 Tim Thomas (/9)
I have two new Tim Thomas cards of varying quality to help finish out the year.
Tim Thomas appeared on a few completely unlicensed cards in 13-14 ITG Lord Stanley's Mug -- one limited to 10, one limited to 9, and four 1/1s. This card is the first of the six I've taken ownership of. The card features an all-black jersey swatch, and highlights Thomas winning the 2010-11 Conn Smythe Trophy. The card also has a gold 1/1 parallel.
Look at it, though -- could anybody really love this card? Perhaps the family of Mr. Smythe, since he's the only one pictured. There's no way I'd ever pay more than a few dollars for a card like this. Thankfully, that's all it took.
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10-11 Between The Pipes Game-Used Number Black M-65 Tim Thomas (/6)
This card is certainly a little better than the previous -- it comes from a time when ITG still had an individual contract with Tim Thomas, and used his likeness on trading cards. However, the endless parallels to the 09-10 and 10-11 Between The Pipes memorabilia cards were always a sore spot for me, with the chance for some decent patch swatches being the only saving grace. This card features a four-layer number swatch -- yellow patch, black stitching, white patch with stitching, and black jersey.
Somehow, I've now acquired all six of the Tim Thomas number cards from 10-11 Between The Pipes!
* Game-Used Number Black (/6)
* Game-Used Number Silver (/3)
* Game-Used Number Gold (1/1)
* Auto Number Black (/6)
* Auto Number Silver (/3)
* Auto Number Gold (1/1)
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00-01 Upper Deck MVP Mark of Excellent Sergei Samsonov / Oleg Saprykin (11/50)
This is a tough hand-numbered autograph card from 00-01 UD MVP, featuring Sergei Samsonov and fellow Moscow-native Oleg Saprykin.
The differences in design between the base MVP Excellence insert (image from ebay) and the autographed parallel are pretty interesting. In fact, aside from the nearly-identical checklist, the designs are different enough to wonder if calling it a parallel really tells the whole story. The sidebar text and swooping images around the photographs are similar, and the MVP logo is in the same place. The change in finish (from foil to flat) and completely different pictures (with different sizes) are the biggest changes
This was not an easy card to find, though I distinctly recall missing a few chances to purchase one back when I wasn't sure I wanted to collect multi-player Samsonov cards.
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06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Patches Red TT-AS (10/25)
-- Sergei Samsonov / Alex Kovalev
Making more progress here on the multi-player Samsonov items, here's yet another Tundra Tandems card from 06-07 UD Artifacts. The Samsonov swatch is nice -- black patch, yellow stitching, and black patch -- while the Kovalev patch is disappointingly all white.
This is my first patch version of this card. There are nine different versions in total. Here's the run-down so far.
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys (/125)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Red (/50)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Silver (/25)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Gold (/10)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Platinum (/5) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Black (1/1) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Red (/25)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Platinum (/10) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Black (1/1) (not owned)
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02-03 BAP Signature Series Team Quads TQ-11 (/10)
-- Steve Shields (White Jersey) / Sergei Samsonov (Yellow Jersey)
-- Joe Thornton (Yellow Jersey) / Glen Murray (White/Yellow Jersey)
Everyone's aware that ITG's vault has opened up recently -- and I'm not referring to the foil-stamped product. This card would have easily been worth at least 3 or 4 times what I paid for it just a few years ago, but I was the only bidder on the auction, and it was listed for sale at least once prior.
It's a pretty standard quad jersey card, but with a print run of 10 from the 02-03 season, it's not a card I've seen for sale for a very long time.
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03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Emblem Silver E-40 Sergei Samsonov (/9)
Another pre-lockout ITG card that's been on my wantlist for a while is this Emblem card -- and it's another card that, shortly after the product was released, would have been considered a monumental pull. I was surprised how inexpensively I was able to make the purchase!
This card was a pretty high priority for me, because I already own the Gold 1/1 version. It's strange to get a 1/1 parallel before the base version, but now I have both.
This card has a four-layer emblem swatch -- white patch, black patch, yellow patch, and black patch.
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03-04 BAP Ultimate Memorabilia Jersey and Number Gold Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
My last new card for the year is along the same lines as the last card, but a step above -- a scarce card from a super-premium pre-lockout ITG product. This one is as tough as they come -- a legitimate 1/1 from a $100-per-pack release!
I acquired the silver version (8/10) of this card in late 2012. Now, I have the gold version to add to it. This card features two memorabilia swatches -- a yellow/black/white jersey piece, and a white/black/yellow number patch.
This is my 17th Sergei Samsonov 1/1 card.
So, let's close it out with a giant-sized mail post that has a lot of awesome stuff -- pack breaks, rookie cards, and a few really nice player collection items.
Mail Post #8 for 2015
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 Upper Deck Series One
I received a huge batch of loose packs as a Christmas gift -- six packs each from three products.
UD1 was, unfortunately, the most disappointing of the three breaks. I do like the base set design this year.
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15-16 Upper Deck Henrik Samuelsson RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck UD Canvas Brent Burns
15-16 Upper Deck UD Canvas Cam Fowler
15-16 Upper Deck UD Portraits Ryan Johansen
15-16 Upper Deck UD Portraits Henrik Zetterberg
I pulled five special cards from the six UD1 packs, but only one YG, and it's not among the better ones. I still love the UD Canvas concept, but overall, this break was rather uninspiring. The Portraits inserts are boring.
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 O-Pee-Chee
I did a little better with OPC, pulling 13 special cards in 6 packs.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Alex Biega RC (SP)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Chris Chelios (SP)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Markus Granlund
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Calle Jarnkrok
Here are two base-set shortprints (with one RC), and two rainbow parallels.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Braden Holtby
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Jason Spezza
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Andrew Cogliano
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Connor Murphy
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Patrik Elias
15-16 O-Pee-Chee Retro Pierre Turgeon
Here are the requisite six retro parallels, and yes, I checked (fruitlessly) for blank backs.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow Bryan Bickell (055/100)
The best card from the OPC break was a numbered parallel. The player isn't great, but these are nice-looking cards, and I still think it's fun to pull a card with a limited print run like this.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee All-Star Glossy Patrick Kane
15-16 O-Pee-Chee V Series B Jamie Benn
Finally, here are two inserts from OPC. Not a bad break for six packs!
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SIX PACKS -- 2015-16 Upper Deck MVP
By far, I did the best with MVP. I pulled 7 special cards from 6 packs, including two that are very good.
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP Arturs Irbe (NHL Territories)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Viktor Arvidsson RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Stefan Noesen RC (SP)
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Steve Mason
15-16 Upper Deck MVP Colors and Contours Chris Kunitz (Teal Level 3)
I pulled two RCs, one Silver Script parallel, and one Colors and Contours parallel. Unfortunately, Kunitz's card is from one of the more common tiers, inserted at 1:8 packs. Regardless, I definitely think it's an attractive card.
The Irbe card is a short print from the NHL Territories subset, featuring an image from downtown San Jose (as seen from Plaza de César Chávez).
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP Super Script Brandon Sutter (02/25)
This card came out of the first pack I opened! It's been a while since I pulled a card limited to 25 or less, and Super Script parallels usually end up as items player collectors spend a lot of time searching for.
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15-16 Upper Deck MVP NHL Territories Materials Seth Jones (Dark Blue Jersey)
However, this is the card that I consider the best from the break. These aren't easy cards to pull -- 1:77 packs for this one -- but it's the design and technology that really sets the card apart. Whereas the base NHL Territories cards use a Light-FX finish on top of a skyline photograph, the Materials and Autograph parallels use Rainbow Light-FX instead. That's long been one of my very favorite printing technologies, and using that finish on an awesome background image like this is simply stunning. This is one of the best-looking cards I've seen in a long time. The picture appears to have been taken from the Gateway Bridge just southeast of downtown Nashville.
I'm going to try to get the base/jersey versions of all Blue Jackets, Lightning, and Red Wings players in the set.
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14-15 Fleer Ultra Ultra VIolet Medallion 125 Clarke MacArthur (1 of 1)
I'll start the mail with a random 1/1 I purchased on ebay. Why did I buy it? I simply wanted to see what one of these very shiny cards looked like.
These cards were distributed in a strange way. Upper Deck inserted 200 redemption cards for Ultra Violet 1/1s in packs of 14-15 Ultra. Each card was then redeemable for a completely random card from the 200-card set.
I have no specific plans for this card, but I'd probably only trade it for another Ultra Violet 1/1 of a Lightning or Blue Jackets player.
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10-11 Panini Luxury Suite Gold 159 Alexander Vasyunov (No Autograph)
Some of you may already be familiar with the story of Alexander Vasyunov's final redemption cards from 10-11 Panini Luxury Suite and Dominion. After Vasyunov was killed in the Lokomotiv plane crash, Panini (upon request) sent out versions of those redemption cards stamped with "no autograph" on the front. I received two copies of his Luxury Suite card, and four copies of his Dominion card. Those are the only copies of the Dominion card that I've ever seen, but I've seen several others from Luxury Suite.
I was quite surprised to find this item on ebay -- the first-ever copy of his Luxury Suite gold parallel to hit the market! These cards were supposed to be limited to only ten copies printed, so this is likely a very scarce item -- there's no way that all ten copies were specifically requested as part of a redemption replacement.
The black 1/1 parallel to this card -- or any Dominion parallels -- would be remarkable finds.
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Base Cards from 13-14 SP Authentic
Here are two worthless base cards! I don't even remember who the players are. I guess I'll remember when I make this post and see the image again.
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00-01 Titanium Hobby Martin Havlat RC (18/99)
00-01 Titanium Hobby Martin Havlat RC (39/99)
Those base cards were shipped with these two copies of Martin Havlat's best RC, and another entry into my slow-building 00-01 Titanium Hobby set.
Why two copies? Somebody set up his snipes incorrectly. Somebody won two auctions instead of one. Whoops.
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10-11 Ultimate Collection Justin Falk RC (055/299)
Justin Falk is a spare defenseman for the Columbus Blue Jackets. This is one of his better RCs -- a clean signature from 10-11 UD Ultimate.
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14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R27 Marko Dano (093/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R36 Vladislav Namestnikov (011/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R49 Alexander Wennberg (097/249)
14-15 Upper Deck Premier Rookies R60 Jonathan Drouin (212/249)
These four cards are inserts, not RCs. The true RCs from 14-15 UD Premier are acetate, hard-signed, big-patch cards -- and I don't own any of them yet.
So, I picked up four of the "Premier Rookies" inserts, which were extremely inexpensive. I have to admit that UD's making this really confusing -- these cards match the Premier base set in design, but are numbered as inserts, and don't look a thing like the actual rookie cards.
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14-15 UD Black William Karlsson (146/199)
14-15 UD Black Vladislav Namestnikov (118/199)
Meanwhile, here are another two cards that continue UD's blurring of the RC/not-RC lines in the 14-15 season. UD Black was inserted as sort of a sub-product within 14-15 Upper Deck Ice, with a base set and a few memorabilia/autograph inserts. Although these are fairly attractive cards, they won't be high-priority items for me. These two were acquired for peanuts.
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14-15 Ultra Red Light Views RLV-9 Kings vs. Rangers (June 11, 2014)
Here's a nice card with a view from the net during the 2014 Stanley Cup Final, as Anton Stralman (now with the Lightning) stops the puck on the goal line with a dramatic play.
Want to watch it on video? Here it is!
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-2 Nick Foligno
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-5 Ryan Johansen
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-8 Steven Stamkos
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-21 Oliver Ekman-Larsson
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-47 Ryan Johansen (Breakaway Challenge)
15-16 O-Pee-Chee NHL All-Star Glossy AS-50 Ryan Johansen (Most Valuable Player)
I'm not going to collect the entire set of All-Star Glossy cards, but since I was at the game and skills competition, I figured I should get a few. I'm still looking for AS-1 (Foligno/Toews), AS-16 (Drouin), and AS-46 (Drouin / Fastest Skater).
The last two cards in this post are short prints.
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15-16 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption RED199 Columbus Blue Jackets
15-16 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption RED185 Tampa Bay Lightning
I have no idea who these cards will be redeemable for, but both the Blue Jackets and Lightning have had rookies debut in late 2015.
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98-99 Black Diamond Myriad M7 Teemu Selanne (0312/1500)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF2 Teemu Selanne (1326/2600)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF10 Brendan Shanahan (0270/1400)
98-99 Black Diamond Winning Formula WF14 Manny Malhotra (399/800)
Progress continues toward my 98-99 Black Diamond insert sets, as I was able to pick up these four cards on ebay. The Malhotra card is the most important here, as it has the shortest print run in the Winning Formula set.
I now own 24/30 Myriad cards, and 23/30 Winning Formula cards.
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15-16 German DEL Stickers 246 Steve Walker
Former Detroit Viper Steve Walker played 11 seasons with the Berlin Polar Bears of the DEL. He's second all-time in points for Berlin, and had his number #27 retired by the team.
Given his history with Berlin, it's slightly surprising to find that as of the 2015-16 season, he's become an assistant coach with the Mannheim Eagles of the same league.
This is Walker's first collectible item as a member of the Eagles -- a sticker from the City Press DEL Stickers set. It's his first appearance in a standard-issue card or sticker set since earning a base card in the City Press DEL card product in 2011-12.
This item came in from Chico Jacob, who has been a long-time trading partner of mine from Germany.
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14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Division Finals (May 8, 2014)
Several new Alec Martinez items arrived in recently, including two more cards from the 14-15 Fleer Ultra Road to the Championship set. Martinez had 12 separate cards produced in that insert run! This card completes the Division Finals cards, and the Division Semifinals cards are already done.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Road to the Championship Alec Martinez
-- Conference Finals (May 30, 2014)
The Conference Finals cards are much tougher to locate, and I now own two of the three.
Unfortunately, I still don't have any of the Stanley Cup Final cards. Those are quite scarce, and usually sell pretty well on the rare occasions they end up for sale.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Black Rainbow 55 Alec Martinez (059/100)
I've somehow skipped over the easy cards from 15-16 O-Pee-Chee, but I was able to pick up Martinez's three tougher parallels. The Black Rainbow card, limited to 100 copies, is the first.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Red Border 55 Alec Martinez
The Red Border parallels were only available through a Canadian wrapper redemption program. My very rough guess is that their print run is probably similar in number to the Black Rainbow cards. Neither were particularly difficult to find on ebay.
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15-16 O-Pee-Chee Blank Backs 55 Alec Martinez
The Blank Back parallel, as always, proved to be the toughest to locate. I only saw 2 or 3 copies of the Martinez, and was sure to pick one of them up.
I still need the base, retro, and rainbow parallels.
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13-14 ITG Lord Stanley's Mug Conn Smythe Trophy Winner Silver CSTW-46 Tim Thomas (/9)
I have two new Tim Thomas cards of varying quality to help finish out the year.
Tim Thomas appeared on a few completely unlicensed cards in 13-14 ITG Lord Stanley's Mug -- one limited to 10, one limited to 9, and four 1/1s. This card is the first of the six I've taken ownership of. The card features an all-black jersey swatch, and highlights Thomas winning the 2010-11 Conn Smythe Trophy. The card also has a gold 1/1 parallel.
Look at it, though -- could anybody really love this card? Perhaps the family of Mr. Smythe, since he's the only one pictured. There's no way I'd ever pay more than a few dollars for a card like this. Thankfully, that's all it took.
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10-11 Between The Pipes Game-Used Number Black M-65 Tim Thomas (/6)
This card is certainly a little better than the previous -- it comes from a time when ITG still had an individual contract with Tim Thomas, and used his likeness on trading cards. However, the endless parallels to the 09-10 and 10-11 Between The Pipes memorabilia cards were always a sore spot for me, with the chance for some decent patch swatches being the only saving grace. This card features a four-layer number swatch -- yellow patch, black stitching, white patch with stitching, and black jersey.
Somehow, I've now acquired all six of the Tim Thomas number cards from 10-11 Between The Pipes!
* Game-Used Number Black (/6)
* Game-Used Number Silver (/3)
* Game-Used Number Gold (1/1)
* Auto Number Black (/6)
* Auto Number Silver (/3)
* Auto Number Gold (1/1)
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00-01 Upper Deck MVP Mark of Excellent Sergei Samsonov / Oleg Saprykin (11/50)
This is a tough hand-numbered autograph card from 00-01 UD MVP, featuring Sergei Samsonov and fellow Moscow-native Oleg Saprykin.
The differences in design between the base MVP Excellence insert (image from ebay) and the autographed parallel are pretty interesting. In fact, aside from the nearly-identical checklist, the designs are different enough to wonder if calling it a parallel really tells the whole story. The sidebar text and swooping images around the photographs are similar, and the MVP logo is in the same place. The change in finish (from foil to flat) and completely different pictures (with different sizes) are the biggest changes
This was not an easy card to find, though I distinctly recall missing a few chances to purchase one back when I wasn't sure I wanted to collect multi-player Samsonov cards.
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06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Patches Red TT-AS (10/25)
-- Sergei Samsonov / Alex Kovalev
Making more progress here on the multi-player Samsonov items, here's yet another Tundra Tandems card from 06-07 UD Artifacts. The Samsonov swatch is nice -- black patch, yellow stitching, and black patch -- while the Kovalev patch is disappointingly all white.
This is my first patch version of this card. There are nine different versions in total. Here's the run-down so far.
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys (/125)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Red (/50)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Silver (/25)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Gold (/10)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Platinum (/5) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Jerseys Black (1/1) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Red (/25)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Platinum (/10) (not owned)
* Tundra Tandems Patches Black (1/1) (not owned)
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02-03 BAP Signature Series Team Quads TQ-11 (/10)
-- Steve Shields (White Jersey) / Sergei Samsonov (Yellow Jersey)
-- Joe Thornton (Yellow Jersey) / Glen Murray (White/Yellow Jersey)
Everyone's aware that ITG's vault has opened up recently -- and I'm not referring to the foil-stamped product. This card would have easily been worth at least 3 or 4 times what I paid for it just a few years ago, but I was the only bidder on the auction, and it was listed for sale at least once prior.
It's a pretty standard quad jersey card, but with a print run of 10 from the 02-03 season, it's not a card I've seen for sale for a very long time.
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03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Emblem Silver E-40 Sergei Samsonov (/9)
Another pre-lockout ITG card that's been on my wantlist for a while is this Emblem card -- and it's another card that, shortly after the product was released, would have been considered a monumental pull. I was surprised how inexpensively I was able to make the purchase!
This card was a pretty high priority for me, because I already own the Gold 1/1 version. It's strange to get a 1/1 parallel before the base version, but now I have both.
This card has a four-layer emblem swatch -- white patch, black patch, yellow patch, and black patch.
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03-04 BAP Ultimate Memorabilia Jersey and Number Gold Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
My last new card for the year is along the same lines as the last card, but a step above -- a scarce card from a super-premium pre-lockout ITG product. This one is as tough as they come -- a legitimate 1/1 from a $100-per-pack release!
I acquired the silver version (8/10) of this card in late 2012. Now, I have the gold version to add to it. This card features two memorabilia swatches -- a yellow/black/white jersey piece, and a white/black/yellow number patch.
This is my 17th Sergei Samsonov 1/1 card.
