The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
The mail continues on -- at the beginning of what's going to be a very busy stretch of card stuff for me. This post contains some generosity, and plenty of the rookie cards that have been typical of my recent posts. There's a foray into hockey collectibles from Switzerland, and the post will close with an addition to my collection that is the first of its kind!
This is mail post #23 on the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
1995 Classic 5-Sport Autographs Petr Sykora (154/225)
07-08 Be A Player Signatures Player's Club Petr Sykora (14/15)
This post will start off with the generosity -- a package I received as a gift from Jeff (VNieminen). Jeff sent along a bunch of autographed items from players who have been on the teams I like.
The first two items feature Petr Sykora, a former Detroit Vipers player. The first card could be overlooked as just another worthless mid-90s Classic card, but it's not. This appears to be a different version of the 1995 5-Sport Autograph cards. It has an embossed logo in the bottom right corner that says "Classic Certified" and has "#17" written in blue marker within the embossing. The card is serial numbered by hand to 225 copies. If anybody has any more information on this card, I'd be happy to hear it!
The second card is from a mainstream set, and is quite rare!
-------------------------------------------------------
97-98 Beehive Autographs Mathieu Garon
Mike Hartman Autograph
The first card here is a pack-inserted autograph of current Columbus goaltender Mathieu Garon. The second is a hand-signed card of Mike Hartman. The signature is on an old New York Rangers postcard. Hartman played for the Detroit Vipers.
-------------------------------------------------------
Mike Donnelly Autograph
Glen Metropolit Autograph
Here's two more signatures. Donnelly played on the Detroit Vipers, while Metropolit was briefly a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Obviously, I have no idea who the people are that these autographs were personalized to.
-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Blunden -- Erie Otters Autographed Puck
Here is the final item from Jeff -- a puck signed by current Columbus Blue Jackets forward Michael Blunden.
Jeff, thanks for sending me these items! These make a great addition to my collection. Sans Sykora, I believe that these are the first autographs I own of any of these players.
-------------------------------------------------------
EIGHT PACKS -- 09-10 Upper Deck Series 1
ONE PACK -- 09-10 O-Pee-Chee
Base Cards
Here's nine packs of cards I had my family get for me from J&J Sportscards in Michigan. The O-Pee-Chee pack was actually given to me for free by the shop owner, Jay. Other board members who frequent the store already know he's a great guy, but that's just another small example.
Here's the base cards from the pack break.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Chris Butler RC
09-10 Upper Deck Jay Rosehill RC (SP)
09-10 Upper Deck All-World Team Pekka Rinne
09-10 Upper Deck Draft Day Gems Ron Hextall
09-10 Upper Deck Hockey Heroes Martin Brodeur (HH12)
09-10 Upper Deck Top Guns Evgeni Malkin
Here are six of the better cards from the Upper Deck pack break. Chris Butler earned his first rookie card in the base set -- a la Mike Green from 05-06. Perhaps a mistake on the part of Upper Deck?
Although Jay Rosehill never played for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he was a draft pick of the team and remained their property for a while.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Game Jersey Jay Bouwmeester
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Guy Carbonneau (SP)
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Evgeni Nabokov
Although I totally struck out on Young Guns, pulling just one in eight packs, I was at least fortunate to pull a jersey card. I also received two somewhat notable cards in my O-Pee-Chee pack.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 Ultimate Signatures Jakub Voracek
08-09 Ultimate Signatures Nikita Filatov
I also negotiated a deal for these two cards during the transaction. Jay knows I collect Blue Jackets stuff, and gave me a good price.
Next up -- the mail!
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SP Game Used Alexander Svitov RC (/750)
03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Fedor Tyutin RC (/390)
05-06 UD Artifacts Geoff Platt RC (/750)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Joakim Lindstrom RC (/999)
These four cards came in from an ebay purchase. These are additions to my Lightning and Blue Jackets rookie card collections. The next two pictures also contain cards from the same purchase.
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Junior Lessard RC (/999)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Richard Petiot RC (/999)
06-07 SP Game Used Noah Welch RC (/999)
06-07 Ultimate Brendan Bell RC (/699)
Here's a few more rookie cards for the stash. This is my first Brendan Bell rookie card. He was acquired by Columbus, but mainly for depth purposes. I'm not sure if he will play for the Blue Jackets, but I won't mind picking up a couple of key RCs either way.
Of course, his acquisition makes it even more unlikely that the Blue Jackets will ever dress a RC-eligible player this season.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Autographs Gold Olli Jokinen (/50)
Here's the final card from the previously mentioned ebay purchase. This one is the most important -- but why? I'm absolutely not a fan of Olli Jokinen, and although this would have been a decent card for a tradelist, it's not something I'd usually go out of my way to purchase.
In 2004, I reached a trade agreement with a Hobby Insider member of questionable repute for a copy of this card. It never arrived. After about two months, the person offered to send me a batch of random inserts to make up for the loss of the Jokinen. That package also never arrived. Though I know the postal system can be unpredictable, I'm going to have to chalk that one up as some sort of user error. That's as far as I'll go to speculate.
It's been very rare that I've had packages go missing in some form or another, but this one always bothered me for some reason. To make up for it, I decided to try and find another copy of the Jokinen autograph -- to sort of set the whole thing right, at least on my end. Five years later -- here it is. I plan on keeping it!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update Brandon Bochenski RC / Mark Parrish (/999)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Brandon Bochenski RC (/999)
05-06 SP Game Used Brandon Bochenski RC (/999)
05-06 Beehive Brandon Bochenski RC (SP)
These four Brandon Bochenski rookie cards came in from a trade with Mike (deepbluejacket). Bochenski is pretty low on my priority list, but this was about as easy a trade as I've completed recently -- so why not? Thanks for the deal!
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 SP Game Used Fedor Tyutin RC (/600)
03-04 Upper Deck Rookie Update Aaron Johnson RC (001/999)
06-07 Fleer Netminders Antero Niittymaki
08-09 SPx Andrew Murray RC (/499)
I received these cards from a trade with Jeff (bean7). Three of these cards will be headed to my Blue Jackets rookie card collection, and the other is an insert of the Lightning's new "backup" goaltender.
The Aaron Johnson RC is my favorite from this picture -- as it is the first copy printed.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Sarnia Sting Steven Stamkos
07-08 OHL All-Star Steven Stamkos
I also received these two cards in the deal with Jeff. These are pre-RCs of Steven Stamkos -- the first being a team-issued card, and the second from the OHL. Definitely a neat addendum to my rather pathetic Stamkos RC collection. Jeff, thanks very much for the transaction!
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Victory Gold Tim Thomas
This post's lone Tim Thomas card is an overdue pickup from this year's Upper Deck Victory. I received this card from ebay. It is nice to have the gold parallel out of the way, but I have yet to see a copy of the black version.
The next four pictures will detail a batch of items I received from Switzerland. It is strange how the hobby can sometimes work in unexpected ways. I listed a few auctions on ebay a while ago, including a Jay Harrison Gold #/25 parallel from 05-06 UD Ultimate Collection. I was contacted by a person named Bruno Ott from Switzerland, who indicated an interest in the card. He ended up not bidding on the card, and it went without a sale.
However, shortly after that, Bruno offered to help out with a trade for the Harrison card instead. It ended up being a great deal -- he found me a whole bunch of tough cards and stickers, including a few that I didn't even know existed!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Swiss Stickers Eric Perrin
05-06 Swiss Stickers Eric Perrin (Signed)
Although I already own one of these Stickers, it was nice to get a signed version for my collection as well.
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler
03-04 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
05-06 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
08-09 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (x3)
The last three pictures contain items of Thomas Ziegler. He played for the Detroit Vipers in 00-01, and earned NHL rookie cards in 01-02 with Tampa Bay.
The 03-04 and 05-06 stickers are autographed. The 98-99 sticker is perhaps the best of them -- it's from an older set that has proven very difficult to track down.
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
06-07 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
...see next picture...
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
09-10 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
Finally -- here are four team-issued items from SC Bern.
I'm not totally sure on the years of the first two cards -- I made an educated guess based on the stats on the card back and the variations of the uniform being worn. The 08-09 and 09-10 cards are actually listed as such on the back of the cards.
I have never seen un-signed versions of these cards -- and it is my speculation that the SC Bern cards are issued by the team in autographed form.
Needless to say, this is a pretty big fortification for my Thomas Ziegler collection. Even still, there's a number of Swiss items still on my wantlist -- so if anybody can help out, let me know!
I'll close out the post with a first-of-its-kind item for my collection. Everything from here on out came from a large transaction I made with Eric (Brave).
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Hot Prospects Hot Materials Marc Methot
This card was thrown in with the rest, but it is certainly a preview of what's to come.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Marc Methot RC (151/249)
Although this is my second copy of Methot's Cup RC, I plan on keeping this one together with the three cards below. The swatch features four layers -- red patch, white patch, red patch, and blue jersey.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Gold Marc Methot (09/48)
Here's the gold parallel to the Cup patch/auto rookie card. It features gold colors in the background, and holographic gold foil highlights.
This card is serial numbered to 48 -- the number Methot wore during a stint with Columbus in the 06-07 season. He is pictured wearing his 07-08 jersey number, #29. Methot has since switched to #3. I suppose that might have made it a little trickier to get one of these cards!
The patch piece has six layers -- blue jersey, silver patch with stitching, thick blue stitching, blue patch, silver, and more thick blue stitching.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Platinum Marc Methot (22/25)
The next version in the rarity cycle is the Platinum parallel -- with no patch or autograph.
Unlike the preceding two cards, the inner portions of the card stock (as visible from the card edge) are yellow rather than white. The card features silver colors in the background, and black foil highlights.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Black Marc Methot (1/1)
I suppose it was obvious that this one was coming next! This is my first Black 1/1 rookie from any year of The Cup.
This version features black in the background, and the foil highlights are in some color I can't readily recognize -- it's maybe closest to the holographic copper UD has used in Artifacts sets.
The inner portions of the card stock on this card are black. Also, it is worth noting that this card is significantly slimmer than the three above. This card is about as thick as four standard Upper Deck hockey cards, while the other cards are about as thick as six.
Here's the whole batch together -- The Cycle -- my first The Cup rookie rainbow!
I certainly don't plan to make it a habit to go after these -- but I enjoy owning one of them. Maybe I'll have to go for the cycle with a Lightning player at some point.
Eric, thanks for working out the deal, and helping me make this unique acquisition.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
** I will soon be heading home to Michigan for two weeks, and will not be looking to initiate any new transactions at Hobby Insider until I return to Ohio in early January.
** My next mail post will follow within a week!
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
Andy's Hockey Cards
-------------------------------------------------------
This is mail post #23 on the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
1995 Classic 5-Sport Autographs Petr Sykora (154/225)
07-08 Be A Player Signatures Player's Club Petr Sykora (14/15)
This post will start off with the generosity -- a package I received as a gift from Jeff (VNieminen). Jeff sent along a bunch of autographed items from players who have been on the teams I like.
The first two items feature Petr Sykora, a former Detroit Vipers player. The first card could be overlooked as just another worthless mid-90s Classic card, but it's not. This appears to be a different version of the 1995 5-Sport Autograph cards. It has an embossed logo in the bottom right corner that says "Classic Certified" and has "#17" written in blue marker within the embossing. The card is serial numbered by hand to 225 copies. If anybody has any more information on this card, I'd be happy to hear it!
The second card is from a mainstream set, and is quite rare!
-------------------------------------------------------
97-98 Beehive Autographs Mathieu Garon
Mike Hartman Autograph
The first card here is a pack-inserted autograph of current Columbus goaltender Mathieu Garon. The second is a hand-signed card of Mike Hartman. The signature is on an old New York Rangers postcard. Hartman played for the Detroit Vipers.
-------------------------------------------------------
Mike Donnelly Autograph
Glen Metropolit Autograph
Here's two more signatures. Donnelly played on the Detroit Vipers, while Metropolit was briefly a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Obviously, I have no idea who the people are that these autographs were personalized to.
-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Blunden -- Erie Otters Autographed Puck
Here is the final item from Jeff -- a puck signed by current Columbus Blue Jackets forward Michael Blunden.
Jeff, thanks for sending me these items! These make a great addition to my collection. Sans Sykora, I believe that these are the first autographs I own of any of these players.
-------------------------------------------------------
EIGHT PACKS -- 09-10 Upper Deck Series 1
ONE PACK -- 09-10 O-Pee-Chee
Base Cards
Here's nine packs of cards I had my family get for me from J&J Sportscards in Michigan. The O-Pee-Chee pack was actually given to me for free by the shop owner, Jay. Other board members who frequent the store already know he's a great guy, but that's just another small example.
Here's the base cards from the pack break.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Chris Butler RC
09-10 Upper Deck Jay Rosehill RC (SP)
09-10 Upper Deck All-World Team Pekka Rinne
09-10 Upper Deck Draft Day Gems Ron Hextall
09-10 Upper Deck Hockey Heroes Martin Brodeur (HH12)
09-10 Upper Deck Top Guns Evgeni Malkin
Here are six of the better cards from the Upper Deck pack break. Chris Butler earned his first rookie card in the base set -- a la Mike Green from 05-06. Perhaps a mistake on the part of Upper Deck?
Although Jay Rosehill never played for the Tampa Bay Lightning, he was a draft pick of the team and remained their property for a while.
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Game Jersey Jay Bouwmeester
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Guy Carbonneau (SP)
09-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Evgeni Nabokov
Although I totally struck out on Young Guns, pulling just one in eight packs, I was at least fortunate to pull a jersey card. I also received two somewhat notable cards in my O-Pee-Chee pack.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 Ultimate Signatures Jakub Voracek
08-09 Ultimate Signatures Nikita Filatov
I also negotiated a deal for these two cards during the transaction. Jay knows I collect Blue Jackets stuff, and gave me a good price.
Next up -- the mail!
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 SP Game Used Alexander Svitov RC (/750)
03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Fedor Tyutin RC (/390)
05-06 UD Artifacts Geoff Platt RC (/750)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Joakim Lindstrom RC (/999)
These four cards came in from an ebay purchase. These are additions to my Lightning and Blue Jackets rookie card collections. The next two pictures also contain cards from the same purchase.
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Junior Lessard RC (/999)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Richard Petiot RC (/999)
06-07 SP Game Used Noah Welch RC (/999)
06-07 Ultimate Brendan Bell RC (/699)
Here's a few more rookie cards for the stash. This is my first Brendan Bell rookie card. He was acquired by Columbus, but mainly for depth purposes. I'm not sure if he will play for the Blue Jackets, but I won't mind picking up a couple of key RCs either way.
Of course, his acquisition makes it even more unlikely that the Blue Jackets will ever dress a RC-eligible player this season.
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 ITG Used Signature Series Autographs Gold Olli Jokinen (/50)
Here's the final card from the previously mentioned ebay purchase. This one is the most important -- but why? I'm absolutely not a fan of Olli Jokinen, and although this would have been a decent card for a tradelist, it's not something I'd usually go out of my way to purchase.
In 2004, I reached a trade agreement with a Hobby Insider member of questionable repute for a copy of this card. It never arrived. After about two months, the person offered to send me a batch of random inserts to make up for the loss of the Jokinen. That package also never arrived. Though I know the postal system can be unpredictable, I'm going to have to chalk that one up as some sort of user error. That's as far as I'll go to speculate.
It's been very rare that I've had packages go missing in some form or another, but this one always bothered me for some reason. To make up for it, I decided to try and find another copy of the Jokinen autograph -- to sort of set the whole thing right, at least on my end. Five years later -- here it is. I plan on keeping it!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Upper Deck Rookie Update Brandon Bochenski RC / Mark Parrish (/999)
05-06 Upper Deck Trilogy Brandon Bochenski RC (/999)
05-06 SP Game Used Brandon Bochenski RC (/999)
05-06 Beehive Brandon Bochenski RC (SP)
These four Brandon Bochenski rookie cards came in from a trade with Mike (deepbluejacket). Bochenski is pretty low on my priority list, but this was about as easy a trade as I've completed recently -- so why not? Thanks for the deal!
-------------------------------------------------------
03-04 SP Game Used Fedor Tyutin RC (/600)
03-04 Upper Deck Rookie Update Aaron Johnson RC (001/999)
06-07 Fleer Netminders Antero Niittymaki
08-09 SPx Andrew Murray RC (/499)
I received these cards from a trade with Jeff (bean7). Three of these cards will be headed to my Blue Jackets rookie card collection, and the other is an insert of the Lightning's new "backup" goaltender.
The Aaron Johnson RC is my favorite from this picture -- as it is the first copy printed.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Sarnia Sting Steven Stamkos
07-08 OHL All-Star Steven Stamkos
I also received these two cards in the deal with Jeff. These are pre-RCs of Steven Stamkos -- the first being a team-issued card, and the second from the OHL. Definitely a neat addendum to my rather pathetic Stamkos RC collection. Jeff, thanks very much for the transaction!
-------------------------------------------------------
09-10 Upper Deck Victory Gold Tim Thomas
This post's lone Tim Thomas card is an overdue pickup from this year's Upper Deck Victory. I received this card from ebay. It is nice to have the gold parallel out of the way, but I have yet to see a copy of the black version.
The next four pictures will detail a batch of items I received from Switzerland. It is strange how the hobby can sometimes work in unexpected ways. I listed a few auctions on ebay a while ago, including a Jay Harrison Gold #/25 parallel from 05-06 UD Ultimate Collection. I was contacted by a person named Bruno Ott from Switzerland, who indicated an interest in the card. He ended up not bidding on the card, and it went without a sale.
However, shortly after that, Bruno offered to help out with a trade for the Harrison card instead. It ended up being a great deal -- he found me a whole bunch of tough cards and stickers, including a few that I didn't even know existed!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Swiss Stickers Eric Perrin
05-06 Swiss Stickers Eric Perrin (Signed)
Although I already own one of these Stickers, it was nice to get a signed version for my collection as well.
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler
03-04 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
05-06 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
08-09 Swiss Stickers Thomas Ziegler (x3)
The last three pictures contain items of Thomas Ziegler. He played for the Detroit Vipers in 00-01, and earned NHL rookie cards in 01-02 with Tampa Bay.
The 03-04 and 05-06 stickers are autographed. The 98-99 sticker is perhaps the best of them -- it's from an older set that has proven very difficult to track down.
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
06-07 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
...see next picture...
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
09-10 Swiss SC Bern Thomas Ziegler (Signed)
Finally -- here are four team-issued items from SC Bern.
I'm not totally sure on the years of the first two cards -- I made an educated guess based on the stats on the card back and the variations of the uniform being worn. The 08-09 and 09-10 cards are actually listed as such on the back of the cards.
I have never seen un-signed versions of these cards -- and it is my speculation that the SC Bern cards are issued by the team in autographed form.
Needless to say, this is a pretty big fortification for my Thomas Ziegler collection. Even still, there's a number of Swiss items still on my wantlist -- so if anybody can help out, let me know!
I'll close out the post with a first-of-its-kind item for my collection. Everything from here on out came from a large transaction I made with Eric (Brave).
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Hot Prospects Hot Materials Marc Methot
This card was thrown in with the rest, but it is certainly a preview of what's to come.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Marc Methot RC (151/249)
Although this is my second copy of Methot's Cup RC, I plan on keeping this one together with the three cards below. The swatch features four layers -- red patch, white patch, red patch, and blue jersey.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Gold Marc Methot (09/48)
Here's the gold parallel to the Cup patch/auto rookie card. It features gold colors in the background, and holographic gold foil highlights.
This card is serial numbered to 48 -- the number Methot wore during a stint with Columbus in the 06-07 season. He is pictured wearing his 07-08 jersey number, #29. Methot has since switched to #3. I suppose that might have made it a little trickier to get one of these cards!
The patch piece has six layers -- blue jersey, silver patch with stitching, thick blue stitching, blue patch, silver, and more thick blue stitching.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Platinum Marc Methot (22/25)
The next version in the rarity cycle is the Platinum parallel -- with no patch or autograph.
Unlike the preceding two cards, the inner portions of the card stock (as visible from the card edge) are yellow rather than white. The card features silver colors in the background, and black foil highlights.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 The Cup Black Marc Methot (1/1)
I suppose it was obvious that this one was coming next! This is my first Black 1/1 rookie from any year of The Cup.
This version features black in the background, and the foil highlights are in some color I can't readily recognize -- it's maybe closest to the holographic copper UD has used in Artifacts sets.
The inner portions of the card stock on this card are black. Also, it is worth noting that this card is significantly slimmer than the three above. This card is about as thick as four standard Upper Deck hockey cards, while the other cards are about as thick as six.
Here's the whole batch together -- The Cycle -- my first The Cup rookie rainbow!
I certainly don't plan to make it a habit to go after these -- but I enjoy owning one of them. Maybe I'll have to go for the cycle with a Lightning player at some point.
Eric, thanks for working out the deal, and helping me make this unique acquisition.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
** I will soon be heading home to Michigan for two weeks, and will not be looking to initiate any new transactions at Hobby Insider until I return to Ohio in early January.
** My next mail post will follow within a week!
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
Andy's Hockey Cards
-------------------------------------------------------
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