The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
Time for a bit of catching up, as this is my first post of 2015. I have some Christmas gifts to post, as well as items I received in Columbus during the All-Star weekend. There's a little bit of mail at the end to round things out.
Mail Post #1 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
FOUR PACKS -- 14-15 Panini Stickers
Base stickers
First, I'll start with some items I purchased in late December. This "rack pack" of Panini Stickers was supposed to contain five packs (35 stickers), but I was shorted one!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Panini Stickers 147 Ottawa Senators Logo (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 315 Edmonton Oilers Logo (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 134 Henrik Lundqvist (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 412 Dustin Byfuglien (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 428 Evgeny Kuznetsov (Rookie)
14-15 Panini Stickers 431 Nikita Zadorov (Rookie)
Here are the rookies and foil stickers. I really like how they did the foil stickers this year -- they used the Panini Certified branding, and they look quite nice.
-------------------------------------------------------
TWO RACK PACKS -- 14-15 Ultra
Base cards
I also purchased two rack packs of Ultra, a product that is one of the better entry-level releases I've seen in quite a while. I like the base card design, and the inserts are fantastic.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Red Light Views RLV-8 Jonathan Quick (Kings vs. Rangers)
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Shane Doan
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Cody Eakin
Here are three of my four insert cards from the rack packs, with two gold parallels and one awesome Red Light Views insert. That card uses a picture from June 9, 2014 -- Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The design obviously owes a debt to 95-96 Donruss Between the Pipes (and 97-98 Dynagon Stonewallers), but the photography brings it to a much higher level.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Rookie Redemption Gold Medallion #17 (Shayne Gostisbehere)
The big hit from the rack packs was getting a gold parallel rookie redemption card! Based on odds, these are printed at a rate of less than one-fifth the regular rookie redemption cards. It's not the best player, but it's probably good enough to pay for the packs.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tampa Bay Lightning Logo Pin
Tampa Bay Lightning Challenge Coin
Tampa Bay Lightning Zamboni Pin
Now, moving on to some Christmas gifts, here are some Lightning collectibles I received from my family. My favorite item is the challenge coin -- a heavy, shiny coin with the full Lightning shoulder patch logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE BLASTER BOX (12 PACKS) -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series One
Base cards
I received one blaster box of Upper Deck Series One, which provided me with plenty of base cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Series One Logo Patches New Jersey Devils
14-15 Upper Deck Series One Logo Patches New York Rangers
The box also contained these two logo patches. The patches aren't marked in any way, so it's hard to really see them as something that will be collectible or catalogable.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Ryan Sproul RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck Chris Tierney RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck UD Canvas Nail Yakupov
14-15 Upper Deck Shining Stars SS-10 Zdeno Chara
I pulled two Young Guns RCs, one Canvas insert, and a Shining Stars insert of Zdeno Chara. The defensemen in the Shining Stars insert set are only available the retail configuration, and are inserted at a rate of 1:24 packs. Thus, this Chara card isn't exactly an easy one to find. In fact, sale prices on ebay suggest that it's easily worth more than my other three hits combined!
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE BLASTER BOX (6 PACKS) -- 14-15 Black Diamond
Base cards
I also received a blaster box of Black Diamond. I wasn't expecting much, but actually did quite well.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Black Diamond Zach Parise (Double Diamond)
14-15 Black Diamond Anze Kopitar (Triple Diamond)
14-15 Black Diamond Vincent Trocheck RC (Triple Diamond)
In six packs, I pulled four hits. The first three are short prints from the base set, with a RC of a decent rookie from the Florida Panthers. My fourth hit also featured a rookie from the Panthers.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Black Diamond Aaron Ekblad RC (Quadruple Diamond)
This player is a little more well-known than Trocheck, especially after spending some time in the spotlight at the All-Star Game! Aaron Ekblad was the first overall draft pick in 2014, and this short-printed RC is one of my best pulls in quite a while.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 NHL All-Star Skills Competition Ticket (105 / W / 10)
2015 NHL All-Star Game Ticket (102 / K / 20)
Now, I'll shift into some of the things I picked up in late January in Columbus. I attended both All-Star events at Nationwide Arena, but also went to the NHL Fan Fair on Saturday and Sunday.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 NHL All-Star Game Pin (Gatorade Bottles)
This pin (which conveniently includes one of the league's sponsors) was part of a free giveaway. I saw people lining up and getting something for free, so I joined the back of the line, walked through, and got a pin. It might have taken about 90 seconds. Nothing special, but free is good!
-------------------------------------------------------
FOUR PACKS -- 13-14 Score
Base cards
There was a very small card show set up at the Fan Fair, essentially consisting of just two dealers and the Upper Deck booth. Given the large percentage of non-collecting public attending the Fan Fair, I was expecting that prices would be awful. Thankfully, prices for packs, boxes, and singles were fairly reasonable. I picked up four packs of 13-14 Score just because they were cheap.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Score Derek Grant RC
13-14 Score Anthony Peluso RC
13-14 Score Jordan Schroeder RC
13-14 Score Gold Brandon Bollig
13-14 Score Gold Robin Lehner
13-14 Score Gold Andrej Meszaros
13-14 Score Gold Matt Read
13-14 Score Gold Nick Petrecki
13-14 Score Netcam Semyon Varlamov
Here are the nine hits I pulled from the four packs. Products like this are a lot of fun to open.
Next, I visited Upper Deck's home at the All-Star Fan Fair.
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE PACK -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series One
Base cards
Hockey Heroes 2000s Vincent Lecavalier
This single pack of Upper Deck Series one was my admission ticket to Upper Deck's "Puck-O" game.
There were no spectacular prizes for this game, but I got the one I wanted.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck All-Star Game 5x7 Steven Stamkos
This Steven Stamkos 5x7 card was my prize for playing, and I'll be keeping it. It's not numbered, and the back is completely blank. It's the same picture and design as the standard Stamkos 14-15 Upper Deck base card, but the All-Star Game logo was added to the bottom left corner.
-------------------------------------------------------
FIVE PACKS -- 14-15 Ultra
Base cards
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Andrew Cogliano
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Ryan Suter
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Dion Phaneuf
I also purchased five packs of 14-15 Ultra.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Premier Pad Men Roberto Luongo
14-15 Ultra Buckets Derek Stepan
I pulled these two insert cards -- both use holofoil and die-cutting, and are very nice to look at.
The five packs of Ultra gave me one entry into Upper Deck's spin-the-wheel game, and I had a lucky spin, hitting the "bonus" option. This gave me a selection between four specific cards in UD's showcase.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Frozen Artifacts Jerseys Blue Joe Sakic
My selection was this dual jersey card of Joe Sakic from 13-14 UD Artifacts. This card is from "Tier A" of the Frozen Artifacts insert set, with cards inserted at 1:200 packs. The card has two jersey swatches -- one white and one burgundy.
It's a nice card, and it's somewhat rare, but it's not worth much at all. I certainly don't want to complain much about getting a free card. However, for a contest that cost $20 to enter, I was hoping for something a little better for a "winning" spin. This was easily the best of the cards I had to choose from -- the others were standard jersey cards from 14-15 Upper Deck.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Panini Certified Champions Martin St. Louis (295/500)
12-13 Upper Deck UD Canvas J.T. Brown (SP)
12-13 Panini Rookie Anthology Shawn Hunwick RC (629/699)
13-14 Upper Deck Cory Conacher RC (SP)
To my pleasant surprise, I was able to find eight cards from my wantlist, all in the hands of the only dealer (Cardiacs) with a decent selection of singles. I'm still working on completing my RC collections for Conacher and Hunwick, but I'm getting very close on Hunwick. I only two #/999 cards left to go, not counting one Panini redemption that I'm not sure will ever get made. This Rookie Anthology RC uses two swatches from the Blue Jackets' third jersey -- one off-white swatch and one dark blue swatch.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Radko Gudas RC (391/499)
13-14 Ultimate Collection Ondrej Palat RC (164/499)
13-14 Panini Contenders Richard Panik RC
14-15 Black Diamond Kristers Gudlevskis RC (Triple Diamond)
These four RCs are going into my Tampa Bay Lightning rookie collection. I'm glad to have my first rookie card of goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis.
While at the Fan Fair, I was able to meet and obtain autographs from four players (two former, two current).
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Swedish Upper Deck 35 Fredrik Modin (In-Person Autograph)
The first of the four is Fredrik Modin, who I was finally able to congratulate for his Stanley Cup win eleven years ago! Modin played for both the Blue Jackets and Lightning, and still lives in Columbus. He was happy to see this card from his Swedish Elite League team (Brynas IF), one of his earliest appearances on cardboard (pre-dating his RCs by one season). Modin signed for an hour on the main autograph stage on Saturday.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 77 Jonathan Drouin (In-Person Autograph)
Jonathan Drouin also signed for an hour on Saturday on the main autograph stage. I didn't have any Drouin cards available, but was able to purchase this ITG H&P base card from one of the dealers for a dollar. The card pictures Drouin in his final season with the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. Drouin is one of the top prospects in the league, and I'm sure he was pleased to see a considerable percentage of Lightning fans in line to get his signature.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 O-Pee-Chee 136 Jody Shelley (In-Person Autograph)
Jody Shelley is a former Blue Jackets enforcer, and he's now doing an outstanding job as their television color analyst. He signed for an hour on Saturday at the NHL Future Goals booth. Although many former players go into broadcasting, few are as polished and natural in the role as Shelley. Though he seems to be enjoying his second tour-of-duty in Columbus, I wouldn't be surprised if he went on to something bigger in the future.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck 352 Nick Foligno (In-Person Autograph)
Last, and most certainly not least, is a signature from one of the main stars of the entire All-Star event -- the home team's captain, Nick Foligno.
Foligno signed for an hour on the main stage on Sunday, and the line became so long that it closed early. There were clearly a lot of people willing to wait a very long time to get Foligno's signature and meet him for all of ten seconds. I didn't think this would be a good use of my time, so I found other arrangements. One of the best-kept secrets of the All-Star Fan Fair was the small theater near the entrance. This theater was used to host several Q&A sessions, led by Blue Jackets' TV voice Jeff Rimer. I attended three sessions: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nick Foligno, and Jarmo Kekalainen. I should note that the theater was very small, and likely only had room for about 50 people.
I showed up 20 minutes before Foligno's scheduled appearance and got a front row seat. Why wait an hour for an autograph when I can spend 45 minutes listening to Foligno share stories about his career and the fun he had been having that weekend? I asked him about his experiences with his brother (Marcus), and he shared a great story from their childhood.
There was no expectation that Foligno would stop to meet the Q&A attendees after it was over, but he signed and did pictures for anyone in the theater who was interested. I got his signature on this 13-14 UD base card. Foligno did a great job all weekend as an ambassador for the league and for the Blue Jackets.
I had a great time at the All-Star weekend events, and since it's not that far away, I'll even consider going to Nashville in 2016.
Now, on to a little bit of mail to finish the first post of the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Ultimate Collection Alex Killorn RC (043/399) (Redemption)
This redemption card arrived in from Upper Deck. It hasn't proven to be quite as scarce as I originally anticipated, but I still doubt that all 399 copies will make their way to the market.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Draft Parallel Dmitry Korobov (047/100)
Here's a Titanium card of Dmitry Korobov. Korobov was undrafted, so his draft parallel card is limited to 100 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Dmitry Korobov (15/24)
Here's Korobov's base card from Titanium, which is limited to only 24 copies. Korobov wore #24 during his brief tenure with the Tampa Bay Lightning -- 3 games in 2013-14. Korobov returned to the KHL for 2014-15.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD4 Scott Gomez
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD5 Tim Connolly
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD8 Olaf Kolzig
Next up -- three cards I received from Paul (pwag31) for a small insert set I'm working on. I only have two more cards to acquire -- UD1 Teemu Selanne and UD3 Milan Hejduk.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Draft Parallel Richard Panik (24/52)
My final card from Paul was an ebay purchase -- a Titanium draft parallel of former Lightning forward Richard Panik. Panik was drafted in the second round (52nd overall) by the Lightning in 2009.
Thanks very much for the cards, Paul!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Rickard Rakell RC
13-14 Panini Prizm Antoine Roussel RC
My final piece of mail for this post is an ebay purchase, and these two Prizm RCs were included for free.
Here's the card they arrived with.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Select Prizms Black Tim Thomas (1 of 1)
Sometimes, a collector gets a second chance.
This card was listed on ebay once before, and sold for a price I thought was fair -- but not to me. Why? I can't remember.
The card was listed for sale again in early December, and sold -- but not to me. However, the high bidder this time was a deadbeat.
The card went up again in late December, and this time, I was the winner. The best news? The card sold for considerably cheaper than the first two attempts!
It's fair to say that Tim Thomas cards are well into a downward trend in value. This doesn't bother me at all. If that's going to enable me to pick up awesome 1/1 parallels like this one for inexpensive prices, I'm not going to complain. This is what 1/1 base set parallels should look like -- over-the-top holofoil with crazy designs.
This is my 77th Tim Thomas 1/1 card, and third mail post in a row to end with one!
-----------------
News and notes:
** Although my collection is moving at a snail's pace right now, the next two mail posts are going to end with some awesome items -- they just might not get posted until June, at this rate.
** Jonathan Drouin's autographs in UD Trilogy are all over the place. Some of the stickers are signed with #29, some are signed with #27, and some are signed with no number inscription at all.
** Speaking of Trilogy, did Upper Deck hire a bunch of five-year-olds to put the stickers on? I can't believe how many are terribly crooked.
** Although I'm not generally a fan of multi-tiered rookie cards, I like the way they did it this year in Trilogy -- no signature, regular signature, inscribed signature. It gives each tier a reason to exist beyond just the print run.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Mail Post #1 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
FOUR PACKS -- 14-15 Panini Stickers
Base stickers
First, I'll start with some items I purchased in late December. This "rack pack" of Panini Stickers was supposed to contain five packs (35 stickers), but I was shorted one!
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Panini Stickers 147 Ottawa Senators Logo (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 315 Edmonton Oilers Logo (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 134 Henrik Lundqvist (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 412 Dustin Byfuglien (Foil)
14-15 Panini Stickers 428 Evgeny Kuznetsov (Rookie)
14-15 Panini Stickers 431 Nikita Zadorov (Rookie)
Here are the rookies and foil stickers. I really like how they did the foil stickers this year -- they used the Panini Certified branding, and they look quite nice.
-------------------------------------------------------
TWO RACK PACKS -- 14-15 Ultra
Base cards
I also purchased two rack packs of Ultra, a product that is one of the better entry-level releases I've seen in quite a while. I like the base card design, and the inserts are fantastic.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Red Light Views RLV-8 Jonathan Quick (Kings vs. Rangers)
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Shane Doan
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Cody Eakin
Here are three of my four insert cards from the rack packs, with two gold parallels and one awesome Red Light Views insert. That card uses a picture from June 9, 2014 -- Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The design obviously owes a debt to 95-96 Donruss Between the Pipes (and 97-98 Dynagon Stonewallers), but the photography brings it to a much higher level.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Rookie Redemption Gold Medallion #17 (Shayne Gostisbehere)
The big hit from the rack packs was getting a gold parallel rookie redemption card! Based on odds, these are printed at a rate of less than one-fifth the regular rookie redemption cards. It's not the best player, but it's probably good enough to pay for the packs.
-------------------------------------------------------
Tampa Bay Lightning Logo Pin
Tampa Bay Lightning Challenge Coin
Tampa Bay Lightning Zamboni Pin
Now, moving on to some Christmas gifts, here are some Lightning collectibles I received from my family. My favorite item is the challenge coin -- a heavy, shiny coin with the full Lightning shoulder patch logo.
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE BLASTER BOX (12 PACKS) -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series One
Base cards
I received one blaster box of Upper Deck Series One, which provided me with plenty of base cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Series One Logo Patches New Jersey Devils
14-15 Upper Deck Series One Logo Patches New York Rangers
The box also contained these two logo patches. The patches aren't marked in any way, so it's hard to really see them as something that will be collectible or catalogable.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Ryan Sproul RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck Chris Tierney RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck UD Canvas Nail Yakupov
14-15 Upper Deck Shining Stars SS-10 Zdeno Chara
I pulled two Young Guns RCs, one Canvas insert, and a Shining Stars insert of Zdeno Chara. The defensemen in the Shining Stars insert set are only available the retail configuration, and are inserted at a rate of 1:24 packs. Thus, this Chara card isn't exactly an easy one to find. In fact, sale prices on ebay suggest that it's easily worth more than my other three hits combined!
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE BLASTER BOX (6 PACKS) -- 14-15 Black Diamond
Base cards
I also received a blaster box of Black Diamond. I wasn't expecting much, but actually did quite well.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Black Diamond Zach Parise (Double Diamond)
14-15 Black Diamond Anze Kopitar (Triple Diamond)
14-15 Black Diamond Vincent Trocheck RC (Triple Diamond)
In six packs, I pulled four hits. The first three are short prints from the base set, with a RC of a decent rookie from the Florida Panthers. My fourth hit also featured a rookie from the Panthers.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Black Diamond Aaron Ekblad RC (Quadruple Diamond)
This player is a little more well-known than Trocheck, especially after spending some time in the spotlight at the All-Star Game! Aaron Ekblad was the first overall draft pick in 2014, and this short-printed RC is one of my best pulls in quite a while.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 NHL All-Star Skills Competition Ticket (105 / W / 10)
2015 NHL All-Star Game Ticket (102 / K / 20)
Now, I'll shift into some of the things I picked up in late January in Columbus. I attended both All-Star events at Nationwide Arena, but also went to the NHL Fan Fair on Saturday and Sunday.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 NHL All-Star Game Pin (Gatorade Bottles)
This pin (which conveniently includes one of the league's sponsors) was part of a free giveaway. I saw people lining up and getting something for free, so I joined the back of the line, walked through, and got a pin. It might have taken about 90 seconds. Nothing special, but free is good!
-------------------------------------------------------
FOUR PACKS -- 13-14 Score
Base cards
There was a very small card show set up at the Fan Fair, essentially consisting of just two dealers and the Upper Deck booth. Given the large percentage of non-collecting public attending the Fan Fair, I was expecting that prices would be awful. Thankfully, prices for packs, boxes, and singles were fairly reasonable. I picked up four packs of 13-14 Score just because they were cheap.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Score Derek Grant RC
13-14 Score Anthony Peluso RC
13-14 Score Jordan Schroeder RC
13-14 Score Gold Brandon Bollig
13-14 Score Gold Robin Lehner
13-14 Score Gold Andrej Meszaros
13-14 Score Gold Matt Read
13-14 Score Gold Nick Petrecki
13-14 Score Netcam Semyon Varlamov
Here are the nine hits I pulled from the four packs. Products like this are a lot of fun to open.
Next, I visited Upper Deck's home at the All-Star Fan Fair.
-------------------------------------------------------
ONE PACK -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series One
Base cards
Hockey Heroes 2000s Vincent Lecavalier
This single pack of Upper Deck Series one was my admission ticket to Upper Deck's "Puck-O" game.
There were no spectacular prizes for this game, but I got the one I wanted.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck All-Star Game 5x7 Steven Stamkos
This Steven Stamkos 5x7 card was my prize for playing, and I'll be keeping it. It's not numbered, and the back is completely blank. It's the same picture and design as the standard Stamkos 14-15 Upper Deck base card, but the All-Star Game logo was added to the bottom left corner.
-------------------------------------------------------
FIVE PACKS -- 14-15 Ultra
Base cards
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Andrew Cogliano
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Ryan Suter
14-15 Ultra Gold Medallion Dion Phaneuf
I also purchased five packs of 14-15 Ultra.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Ultra Premier Pad Men Roberto Luongo
14-15 Ultra Buckets Derek Stepan
I pulled these two insert cards -- both use holofoil and die-cutting, and are very nice to look at.
The five packs of Ultra gave me one entry into Upper Deck's spin-the-wheel game, and I had a lucky spin, hitting the "bonus" option. This gave me a selection between four specific cards in UD's showcase.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Frozen Artifacts Jerseys Blue Joe Sakic
My selection was this dual jersey card of Joe Sakic from 13-14 UD Artifacts. This card is from "Tier A" of the Frozen Artifacts insert set, with cards inserted at 1:200 packs. The card has two jersey swatches -- one white and one burgundy.
It's a nice card, and it's somewhat rare, but it's not worth much at all. I certainly don't want to complain much about getting a free card. However, for a contest that cost $20 to enter, I was hoping for something a little better for a "winning" spin. This was easily the best of the cards I had to choose from -- the others were standard jersey cards from 14-15 Upper Deck.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Panini Certified Champions Martin St. Louis (295/500)
12-13 Upper Deck UD Canvas J.T. Brown (SP)
12-13 Panini Rookie Anthology Shawn Hunwick RC (629/699)
13-14 Upper Deck Cory Conacher RC (SP)
To my pleasant surprise, I was able to find eight cards from my wantlist, all in the hands of the only dealer (Cardiacs) with a decent selection of singles. I'm still working on completing my RC collections for Conacher and Hunwick, but I'm getting very close on Hunwick. I only two #/999 cards left to go, not counting one Panini redemption that I'm not sure will ever get made. This Rookie Anthology RC uses two swatches from the Blue Jackets' third jersey -- one off-white swatch and one dark blue swatch.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck Ice Radko Gudas RC (391/499)
13-14 Ultimate Collection Ondrej Palat RC (164/499)
13-14 Panini Contenders Richard Panik RC
14-15 Black Diamond Kristers Gudlevskis RC (Triple Diamond)
These four RCs are going into my Tampa Bay Lightning rookie collection. I'm glad to have my first rookie card of goaltender Kristers Gudlevskis.
While at the Fan Fair, I was able to meet and obtain autographs from four players (two former, two current).
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Swedish Upper Deck 35 Fredrik Modin (In-Person Autograph)
The first of the four is Fredrik Modin, who I was finally able to congratulate for his Stanley Cup win eleven years ago! Modin played for both the Blue Jackets and Lightning, and still lives in Columbus. He was happy to see this card from his Swedish Elite League team (Brynas IF), one of his earliest appearances on cardboard (pre-dating his RCs by one season). Modin signed for an hour on the main autograph stage on Saturday.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Heroes and Prospects 77 Jonathan Drouin (In-Person Autograph)
Jonathan Drouin also signed for an hour on Saturday on the main autograph stage. I didn't have any Drouin cards available, but was able to purchase this ITG H&P base card from one of the dealers for a dollar. The card pictures Drouin in his final season with the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL. Drouin is one of the top prospects in the league, and I'm sure he was pleased to see a considerable percentage of Lightning fans in line to get his signature.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 O-Pee-Chee 136 Jody Shelley (In-Person Autograph)
Jody Shelley is a former Blue Jackets enforcer, and he's now doing an outstanding job as their television color analyst. He signed for an hour on Saturday at the NHL Future Goals booth. Although many former players go into broadcasting, few are as polished and natural in the role as Shelley. Though he seems to be enjoying his second tour-of-duty in Columbus, I wouldn't be surprised if he went on to something bigger in the future.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck 352 Nick Foligno (In-Person Autograph)
Last, and most certainly not least, is a signature from one of the main stars of the entire All-Star event -- the home team's captain, Nick Foligno.
Foligno signed for an hour on the main stage on Sunday, and the line became so long that it closed early. There were clearly a lot of people willing to wait a very long time to get Foligno's signature and meet him for all of ten seconds. I didn't think this would be a good use of my time, so I found other arrangements. One of the best-kept secrets of the All-Star Fan Fair was the small theater near the entrance. This theater was used to host several Q&A sessions, led by Blue Jackets' TV voice Jeff Rimer. I attended three sessions: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nick Foligno, and Jarmo Kekalainen. I should note that the theater was very small, and likely only had room for about 50 people.
I showed up 20 minutes before Foligno's scheduled appearance and got a front row seat. Why wait an hour for an autograph when I can spend 45 minutes listening to Foligno share stories about his career and the fun he had been having that weekend? I asked him about his experiences with his brother (Marcus), and he shared a great story from their childhood.
There was no expectation that Foligno would stop to meet the Q&A attendees after it was over, but he signed and did pictures for anyone in the theater who was interested. I got his signature on this 13-14 UD base card. Foligno did a great job all weekend as an ambassador for the league and for the Blue Jackets.
I had a great time at the All-Star weekend events, and since it's not that far away, I'll even consider going to Nashville in 2016.
Now, on to a little bit of mail to finish the first post of the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Ultimate Collection Alex Killorn RC (043/399) (Redemption)
This redemption card arrived in from Upper Deck. It hasn't proven to be quite as scarce as I originally anticipated, but I still doubt that all 399 copies will make their way to the market.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Draft Parallel Dmitry Korobov (047/100)
Here's a Titanium card of Dmitry Korobov. Korobov was undrafted, so his draft parallel card is limited to 100 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Dmitry Korobov (15/24)
Here's Korobov's base card from Titanium, which is limited to only 24 copies. Korobov wore #24 during his brief tenure with the Tampa Bay Lightning -- 3 games in 2013-14. Korobov returned to the KHL for 2014-15.
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD4 Scott Gomez
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD5 Tim Connolly
00-01 Upper Deck UD Flashback UD8 Olaf Kolzig
Next up -- three cards I received from Paul (pwag31) for a small insert set I'm working on. I only have two more cards to acquire -- UD1 Teemu Selanne and UD3 Milan Hejduk.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Titanium Draft Parallel Richard Panik (24/52)
My final card from Paul was an ebay purchase -- a Titanium draft parallel of former Lightning forward Richard Panik. Panik was drafted in the second round (52nd overall) by the Lightning in 2009.
Thanks very much for the cards, Paul!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Rickard Rakell RC
13-14 Panini Prizm Antoine Roussel RC
My final piece of mail for this post is an ebay purchase, and these two Prizm RCs were included for free.
Here's the card they arrived with.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Select Prizms Black Tim Thomas (1 of 1)
Sometimes, a collector gets a second chance.
This card was listed on ebay once before, and sold for a price I thought was fair -- but not to me. Why? I can't remember.
The card was listed for sale again in early December, and sold -- but not to me. However, the high bidder this time was a deadbeat.
The card went up again in late December, and this time, I was the winner. The best news? The card sold for considerably cheaper than the first two attempts!
It's fair to say that Tim Thomas cards are well into a downward trend in value. This doesn't bother me at all. If that's going to enable me to pick up awesome 1/1 parallels like this one for inexpensive prices, I'm not going to complain. This is what 1/1 base set parallels should look like -- over-the-top holofoil with crazy designs.
This is my 77th Tim Thomas 1/1 card, and third mail post in a row to end with one!
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News and notes:
** Although my collection is moving at a snail's pace right now, the next two mail posts are going to end with some awesome items -- they just might not get posted until June, at this rate.
** Jonathan Drouin's autographs in UD Trilogy are all over the place. Some of the stickers are signed with #29, some are signed with #27, and some are signed with no number inscription at all.
** Speaking of Trilogy, did Upper Deck hire a bunch of five-year-olds to put the stickers on? I can't believe how many are terribly crooked.
** Although I'm not generally a fan of multi-tiered rookie cards, I like the way they did it this year in Trilogy -- no signature, regular signature, inscribed signature. It gives each tier a reason to exist beyond just the print run.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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