The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
It's been almost two months since my last mail post, and things are still moving slowly. Time to share a little of what I've picked up since March!
Mail Post #4 for 2015
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13-14 Select Prizms Black 199 Nicolas Blanchard (One of One)
Here's a true 1/1 I picked up extremely inexpensively, just for the fun of owning one. Blanchard is a minor league player who racks up the penalty minutes, so he's unlikely to make it big in the NHL.
For some reason, Blanchard was included in both the base Prizm set and the update Prizm set (released in Rookie Anthology). He's pictured with the same team in both releases. This card is from the original Prizm issuance, and has a plain black background with a prizm (chrome refractor) finish. The 1/1 parallels from the update set have the bizarre holofoil box refractor pattern instead.
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2015 Upper Deck Heroic Inspirations Lauren Hill
Lauren Hill was one of the biggest news stories in the Cincinnati area over the past year. Diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, she nonetheless achieved her goal of playing in a college basketball game for Mount St. Joseph University. She went on to help raise money and awareness for cancer research, and became a bit of a regional hero.
Upper Deck produced a Heroic Inspirations trading card to be used as a fundraiser. Autographed versions of the card were also produced and sold, but by the time I found out about the cards, they were no longer available.
The text from the card back:
I encourage everyone to cherish every moment with no worry about the past or anxiety about the future because the next moment is never promised. Never leave anything unsaid. I have learned to see the blessings in every moment and through every struggle no matter how tough it might be. Nothing holds me back from living my life and chasing my dreams. I always finish what I start and see it through to the end. Never give up on your dreams, find something to fight for. I fight for others.
To help Lauren Hill help others, visit: www.thecurestartsnow.org
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NINE PACKS -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series Two
Base Cards
My first pack breaks since the All-Star Fan Fair included nine packs of UD2. Here are the base cards I received.
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14-15 Upper Deck UD Canvas C167 Shea Weber
14-15 Upper Deck 454 Rob Zepp RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck Hockey Heroes HH81 Phil Kessel
I pulled one standard insert and one UD Canvas insert. I lost out on the odds for Young Guns, though, pulling only one. Thankfully, it's one of the ones I wanted -- Rob Zepp, the goalie who made his NHL debut at age 33.
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14-15 Upper Deck Game Jersey GJ-DH Dale Hawerchuk (Red/White)
14-15 Upper Deck Rookie Materials Jersey RM42 Andrej Nestrasil (Red)
Here's where I beat the odds, pulling both jersey cards from the box in a nine-pack break. It's kind of sad that they aren't really worth anything -- not even the two-color Hawerchuk. Furthermore, neither of these are really "game" jerseys -- the Nestrasil is from a photo shoot, and the Hawerchuk is probably from some exhibition game.
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14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U13 Leon Draisaitl
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U26 William Karlsson
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U7 Matt Niskanen
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update Retro U12 Brooks Orpik
I pulled five OPC Update cards, including these four. These include one base, one retro, and two rookies -- including "Wild Bill" Karlsson, now a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U15 Andrei Vasilevskiy
The fifth and final OPC card is my first-ever card of Lightning backup goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. He's one of the best goalie prospects on the planet.
I am totally baffled as to why Upper Deck would number these cards with a "U" prefix, instead of continuing the O-Pee-Chee base set.
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FOUR PACKS -- 14-15 SPx
Base Cards
I also opened four packs of SPx. Yet again, I am disappointed with the base set design. UD has never topped 99-00 SPx (one of the best base set designs in the history of the hobby) -- and at the very least, some holofoil would have helped these look a little nicer.
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14-15 SPx 102 Landon Ferraro RC
14-15 SPx 107 William Karlsson RC
The base RC design isn't bad, though! However, I wish the cards were numbered.
Yes, I pulled two RCs of William Karlsson, which makes a little dent into my wantlist. However, it was a little bit of a taunt to pull Landon Ferraro (not to mention the Nestrasil jersey) while the Red Wings were facing off against my favorite Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs.
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14-15 SPx Shadow Box 18 Drew Doughty
14-15 SPx Retro 26 P.K. Subban
Here's phase two of the taunt -- a nice P.K. Subban insert, now that the Lightning are battling the Montreal Canadiens. Although I like the 97-98 Retro design, without the true holograms -- as were used as inserts in early Upper Deck products, as well as 96-97 and 97-98 SPx -- the card isn't as nice as it could be. If you don't know what I mean by that, compare one of these with one of the actual 97-98 cards, and it will become very obvious.
The Doughty was undoubtedly my best pull of the day. Shadow Box inserts are listed at 1:144 packs, so I really beat the odds on a four-pack break! The Shadow Box was the only card in the pack.
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13-14 UD Artifacts Ryan Murray RC (613/899) (Redemption)
13-14 UD Artifacts Nikita Kucherov RC (143/899) (Redemption)
These two cards arrived a while ago, but I didn't get around to sharing them until now. These are the main Blue Jackets and Lightning redemptions from 13-14 Upper Deck Artifacts. In addition to these two cards, I still need to find #232 Boone Jenner and #233 Tyler Johnson. Both of those players were in the wild card set.
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13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs XII Boone Jenner (68/99)
There were only two autographed redemptions on my wantlist -- the two big Blue Jackets rookies from the 13-14 season. Here's Boone Jenner to start things off.
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13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs X Ryan Murray (09/99)
I also acquired this card, featuring Ryan Murray's picture.
It wasn't until after the purchase was long completed that I realized a little problem -- that's not Ryan Murray's autograph.
I suppose I'm partially to blame for making the purchase without paying attention. I own other Ryan Murray autographs, so I should have realized that this one wasn't his. However, it's Upper Deck who really messed up here, doing exactly the same kind of job with quality control that we've all come to expect.
The autograph on this card actually belongs to Ryan Murphy of the Carolina Hurricanes. It appears that about half of the Murray redemptions were sent out with Murphy autographs.
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13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs X Ryan Murray (46/99)
I corrected the issue fairly quickly, finding an inexpensive and correct version of the card to add to my collection. This is what Ryan Murray's signature actually looks like, and it's far better than Murphy's anyway.
I should note that I purchased all three of these cards in redeemed form -- I did not receive them from Upper Deck.
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14-15 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption 159 Columbus Blue Jackets
14-15 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption 176 Tampa Bay Lightning
Moving into the current year, I acquired the Blue Jackets and Lightning redemption cards from 14-15 UD Artifacts. These cards have been redeemed, and will be good for RCs of Alexander Wennberg and Jonathan Drouin.
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14-15 Upper Deck Trilogy 153 Alexander Wennberg (254/399)
I'm really far behind on RCs from 14-15, but I was able to pick up a few over the past couple months. I'll start with these two cards from UD Trilogy.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Trilogy 163 Vladislav Namestnikov (199/399)
Every rookie in Trilogy was given three different cards with different set numbers, setting up three tiers of "rookie cards" to chase. The base tier (/799) is a standard card, while the middle tier (/399) contains a sticker autograph. The toughest tier (/49) has a sticker autograph with a "go team" inscription. There are a bunch of parallel versions on top of all of this, and I'm not even going to get into trying to make sense of that.
Do the tougher tiers count as RCs? I have no idea anymore. I like these two cards, and I got them for just a couple dollars each. I guess that's what matters most.
-------------------------------------------------------
2013 Upper Deck Notre Dame Football base cards
2013 Upper Deck Notre Dame Football National Champions NC-RB Ross Browner
Here are some worthless football cards that were sent along with the next items in the post.
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14-15 SPx Cedric Paquette RC (169/199)
Here is where I have to clarify something I mentioned earlier in the post. The 14-15 SPx base set is awful. The 14-15 SPx auto and auto/jersey rookies, on the other hand, are fantastic. This is perhaps the best SPx rookie design in the history of the product! There's ample room for the signature, a big picture of the player, and a subtle etched holofoil effect that really makes the card come alive.
The cards in the autograph-only tier are limited to just 199 copies each, making this Paquette RC a priority. It will likely stand as one of his best RCs.
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14-15 SPx Alexander Wennberg RC (089/399) (Dark Blue)
I also picked up two of the jersey/autograph rookie cards. This one features Alexander Wennberg of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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14-15 SPx Vladislav Namestnikov RC (128/399) (Blue)
My final card from 14-15 SPx is Vladislav Namestnikov, who is in the playoff lineup for the Bolts.
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11-12 Titanium Corey Tropp (16/78)
Corey Tropp has now appeared in over 100 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. His high jersey number with the Buffalo Sabres (#78) made this a fairly easy Titanium rookie issue to acquire. He now wears #26 with Columbus.
Tropp's draft parallel is limited to 89 copies, and I haven't picked that one up yet.
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13-14 National Treasures Past and Present Autograph
-- Alex Killorn / Dave Andreychuk (/99) (Redemption)
This is the second copy of this redemption that I've purchased. For those of you who don't know the story behind this card, please read this thread.
I have yet to receive anything from the first copy that I redeemed, but I'm still hoping for the best. Will the Andreychuk/Killorn auto be produced? Will I get the Killorn RC from National Treasures? Or, will I get nothing, like with the 4 or 5 other Panini redemptions that have been pending in my account for two years? I guess I need to contact them about those and try to get it taken care of.
These redemption cards were going for $15-$30 for a while. I got this one for just a few dollars. Well worth the risk.
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13-14 Panini Contenders Variation II 269 Cory Conacher
My final card for this post is from the toughest variation tier in 13-14 Panini Contenders. Only 25 players were included in the Variation II subset, which uses a sepia tone on the picture. Panini has stated that the print run for these cards is 25 copies or less.
I already own Conacher's base Contenders RC, but I don't yet have his standard variation card.
Cory Conacher left the Lightning organization on April 3, 2013, as he was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Ben Bishop. Since then, Conacher has also had stints in the Sabres, Islanders, and Canucks organizations. In 2014-15, Conacher had 3 points at the NHL level. In 2014-15, Ben Bishop had 4 points at the NHL level.
Ben Bishop is a goalie.
None of this has anything to do with why I collect Conacher's cards -- and I'd collect Bishop's RCs too, if they were more affordable. Conacher and Bishop both played for my favorite hockey team, and Conacher has an awesome story to go along with it, even if he may never duplicate his early success with the Lightning. Though my hockey card collecting has taken a back seat to other hobbies over the past year or so, completing Conacher's RC collection remains one of my top priorities.
-----------------
News and notes:
** What have I been up to since my last mail post? Presented tornado research in front of a crowd of over 200 people at Ohio State University. Climbed an 8,144-foot mountain in Boulder, Colorado. Rode sketchy roller coasters in Mexico. Witnessed the Lightning's "motor city miracle" in Game 4 in Detroit, and the subsequent beat-down in Game 6. Turned 30. Just a little busy.
** Although both players may be done earning new cards, I'm still working on the Sergei Samsonov and Tim Thomas collections, and will have a few decent cards to share in my next post or two.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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Mail Post #4 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Select Prizms Black 199 Nicolas Blanchard (One of One)
Here's a true 1/1 I picked up extremely inexpensively, just for the fun of owning one. Blanchard is a minor league player who racks up the penalty minutes, so he's unlikely to make it big in the NHL.
For some reason, Blanchard was included in both the base Prizm set and the update Prizm set (released in Rookie Anthology). He's pictured with the same team in both releases. This card is from the original Prizm issuance, and has a plain black background with a prizm (chrome refractor) finish. The 1/1 parallels from the update set have the bizarre holofoil box refractor pattern instead.
-------------------------------------------------------
2015 Upper Deck Heroic Inspirations Lauren Hill
Lauren Hill was one of the biggest news stories in the Cincinnati area over the past year. Diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, she nonetheless achieved her goal of playing in a college basketball game for Mount St. Joseph University. She went on to help raise money and awareness for cancer research, and became a bit of a regional hero.
Upper Deck produced a Heroic Inspirations trading card to be used as a fundraiser. Autographed versions of the card were also produced and sold, but by the time I found out about the cards, they were no longer available.
The text from the card back:
I encourage everyone to cherish every moment with no worry about the past or anxiety about the future because the next moment is never promised. Never leave anything unsaid. I have learned to see the blessings in every moment and through every struggle no matter how tough it might be. Nothing holds me back from living my life and chasing my dreams. I always finish what I start and see it through to the end. Never give up on your dreams, find something to fight for. I fight for others.
To help Lauren Hill help others, visit: www.thecurestartsnow.org
-------------------------------------------------------
NINE PACKS -- 14-15 Upper Deck Series Two
Base Cards
My first pack breaks since the All-Star Fan Fair included nine packs of UD2. Here are the base cards I received.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck UD Canvas C167 Shea Weber
14-15 Upper Deck 454 Rob Zepp RC (SP)
14-15 Upper Deck Hockey Heroes HH81 Phil Kessel
I pulled one standard insert and one UD Canvas insert. I lost out on the odds for Young Guns, though, pulling only one. Thankfully, it's one of the ones I wanted -- Rob Zepp, the goalie who made his NHL debut at age 33.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Game Jersey GJ-DH Dale Hawerchuk (Red/White)
14-15 Upper Deck Rookie Materials Jersey RM42 Andrej Nestrasil (Red)
Here's where I beat the odds, pulling both jersey cards from the box in a nine-pack break. It's kind of sad that they aren't really worth anything -- not even the two-color Hawerchuk. Furthermore, neither of these are really "game" jerseys -- the Nestrasil is from a photo shoot, and the Hawerchuk is probably from some exhibition game.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U13 Leon Draisaitl
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U26 William Karlsson
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U7 Matt Niskanen
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update Retro U12 Brooks Orpik
I pulled five OPC Update cards, including these four. These include one base, one retro, and two rookies -- including "Wild Bill" Karlsson, now a member of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Update U15 Andrei Vasilevskiy
The fifth and final OPC card is my first-ever card of Lightning backup goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. He's one of the best goalie prospects on the planet.
I am totally baffled as to why Upper Deck would number these cards with a "U" prefix, instead of continuing the O-Pee-Chee base set.
-------------------------------------------------------
FOUR PACKS -- 14-15 SPx
Base Cards
I also opened four packs of SPx. Yet again, I am disappointed with the base set design. UD has never topped 99-00 SPx (one of the best base set designs in the history of the hobby) -- and at the very least, some holofoil would have helped these look a little nicer.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 SPx 102 Landon Ferraro RC
14-15 SPx 107 William Karlsson RC
The base RC design isn't bad, though! However, I wish the cards were numbered.
Yes, I pulled two RCs of William Karlsson, which makes a little dent into my wantlist. However, it was a little bit of a taunt to pull Landon Ferraro (not to mention the Nestrasil jersey) while the Red Wings were facing off against my favorite Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 SPx Shadow Box 18 Drew Doughty
14-15 SPx Retro 26 P.K. Subban
Here's phase two of the taunt -- a nice P.K. Subban insert, now that the Lightning are battling the Montreal Canadiens. Although I like the 97-98 Retro design, without the true holograms -- as were used as inserts in early Upper Deck products, as well as 96-97 and 97-98 SPx -- the card isn't as nice as it could be. If you don't know what I mean by that, compare one of these with one of the actual 97-98 cards, and it will become very obvious.
The Doughty was undoubtedly my best pull of the day. Shadow Box inserts are listed at 1:144 packs, so I really beat the odds on a four-pack break! The Shadow Box was the only card in the pack.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Ryan Murray RC (613/899) (Redemption)
13-14 UD Artifacts Nikita Kucherov RC (143/899) (Redemption)
These two cards arrived a while ago, but I didn't get around to sharing them until now. These are the main Blue Jackets and Lightning redemptions from 13-14 Upper Deck Artifacts. In addition to these two cards, I still need to find #232 Boone Jenner and #233 Tyler Johnson. Both of those players were in the wild card set.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs XII Boone Jenner (68/99)
There were only two autographed redemptions on my wantlist -- the two big Blue Jackets rookies from the 13-14 season. Here's Boone Jenner to start things off.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs X Ryan Murray (09/99)
I also acquired this card, featuring Ryan Murray's picture.
It wasn't until after the purchase was long completed that I realized a little problem -- that's not Ryan Murray's autograph.
I suppose I'm partially to blame for making the purchase without paying attention. I own other Ryan Murray autographs, so I should have realized that this one wasn't his. However, it's Upper Deck who really messed up here, doing exactly the same kind of job with quality control that we've all come to expect.
The autograph on this card actually belongs to Ryan Murphy of the Carolina Hurricanes. It appears that about half of the Murray redemptions were sent out with Murphy autographs.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption Autographs X Ryan Murray (46/99)
I corrected the issue fairly quickly, finding an inexpensive and correct version of the card to add to my collection. This is what Ryan Murray's signature actually looks like, and it's far better than Murphy's anyway.
I should note that I purchased all three of these cards in redeemed form -- I did not receive them from Upper Deck.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption 159 Columbus Blue Jackets
14-15 UD Artifacts Rookie Redemption 176 Tampa Bay Lightning
Moving into the current year, I acquired the Blue Jackets and Lightning redemption cards from 14-15 UD Artifacts. These cards have been redeemed, and will be good for RCs of Alexander Wennberg and Jonathan Drouin.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Trilogy 153 Alexander Wennberg (254/399)
I'm really far behind on RCs from 14-15, but I was able to pick up a few over the past couple months. I'll start with these two cards from UD Trilogy.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Upper Deck Trilogy 163 Vladislav Namestnikov (199/399)
Every rookie in Trilogy was given three different cards with different set numbers, setting up three tiers of "rookie cards" to chase. The base tier (/799) is a standard card, while the middle tier (/399) contains a sticker autograph. The toughest tier (/49) has a sticker autograph with a "go team" inscription. There are a bunch of parallel versions on top of all of this, and I'm not even going to get into trying to make sense of that.
Do the tougher tiers count as RCs? I have no idea anymore. I like these two cards, and I got them for just a couple dollars each. I guess that's what matters most.
-------------------------------------------------------
2013 Upper Deck Notre Dame Football base cards
2013 Upper Deck Notre Dame Football National Champions NC-RB Ross Browner
Here are some worthless football cards that were sent along with the next items in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 SPx Cedric Paquette RC (169/199)
Here is where I have to clarify something I mentioned earlier in the post. The 14-15 SPx base set is awful. The 14-15 SPx auto and auto/jersey rookies, on the other hand, are fantastic. This is perhaps the best SPx rookie design in the history of the product! There's ample room for the signature, a big picture of the player, and a subtle etched holofoil effect that really makes the card come alive.
The cards in the autograph-only tier are limited to just 199 copies each, making this Paquette RC a priority. It will likely stand as one of his best RCs.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 SPx Alexander Wennberg RC (089/399) (Dark Blue)
I also picked up two of the jersey/autograph rookie cards. This one features Alexander Wennberg of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 SPx Vladislav Namestnikov RC (128/399) (Blue)
My final card from 14-15 SPx is Vladislav Namestnikov, who is in the playoff lineup for the Bolts.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Titanium Corey Tropp (16/78)
Corey Tropp has now appeared in over 100 games for the Columbus Blue Jackets. His high jersey number with the Buffalo Sabres (#78) made this a fairly easy Titanium rookie issue to acquire. He now wears #26 with Columbus.
Tropp's draft parallel is limited to 89 copies, and I haven't picked that one up yet.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Past and Present Autograph
-- Alex Killorn / Dave Andreychuk (/99) (Redemption)
This is the second copy of this redemption that I've purchased. For those of you who don't know the story behind this card, please read this thread.
I have yet to receive anything from the first copy that I redeemed, but I'm still hoping for the best. Will the Andreychuk/Killorn auto be produced? Will I get the Killorn RC from National Treasures? Or, will I get nothing, like with the 4 or 5 other Panini redemptions that have been pending in my account for two years? I guess I need to contact them about those and try to get it taken care of.
These redemption cards were going for $15-$30 for a while. I got this one for just a few dollars. Well worth the risk.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Contenders Variation II 269 Cory Conacher
My final card for this post is from the toughest variation tier in 13-14 Panini Contenders. Only 25 players were included in the Variation II subset, which uses a sepia tone on the picture. Panini has stated that the print run for these cards is 25 copies or less.
I already own Conacher's base Contenders RC, but I don't yet have his standard variation card.
Cory Conacher left the Lightning organization on April 3, 2013, as he was traded to the Ottawa Senators for Ben Bishop. Since then, Conacher has also had stints in the Sabres, Islanders, and Canucks organizations. In 2014-15, Conacher had 3 points at the NHL level. In 2014-15, Ben Bishop had 4 points at the NHL level.
Ben Bishop is a goalie.
None of this has anything to do with why I collect Conacher's cards -- and I'd collect Bishop's RCs too, if they were more affordable. Conacher and Bishop both played for my favorite hockey team, and Conacher has an awesome story to go along with it, even if he may never duplicate his early success with the Lightning. Though my hockey card collecting has taken a back seat to other hobbies over the past year or so, completing Conacher's RC collection remains one of my top priorities.
-----------------
News and notes:
** What have I been up to since my last mail post? Presented tornado research in front of a crowd of over 200 people at Ohio State University. Climbed an 8,144-foot mountain in Boulder, Colorado. Rode sketchy roller coasters in Mexico. Witnessed the Lightning's "motor city miracle" in Game 4 in Detroit, and the subsequent beat-down in Game 6. Turned 30. Just a little busy.
** Although both players may be done earning new cards, I'm still working on the Sergei Samsonov and Tim Thomas collections, and will have a few decent cards to share in my next post or two.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
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