The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
My original player collection is the focus for this mail post, but there will be a few other items mixed in, primarily from deals that included Samsonov items along with other cards. The biggest change for my Samsonov collection in quite a while has occurred in the past few months, with ITG signing Samsonov to a contract and including him in several new sets. I will admit that this post isn't quite as impressive as a couple of the Samsonov-themed mail posts I did last year, but it's certainly not a bad one.
Mail Post #20 for 2013
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gordie Howe
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gold Gordie Howe (/30)
I'm going to begin with one of the new sets Samsonov is featured in, but I won't start with Samsonov. Instead, I'll show off these two cards featuring one of the NHL's biggest legends in an International Hockey League uniform.
I think most people are familiar with what happened, but for those of you who are not, I'll let the card back tell the story.
Howe had officially retired from hockey at the end of the 1979-80 season as a member of the Hartford Whalers but he was still driven to make some more hockey history in the 1990s. He was given an opportunity to become the first player to make a professional appearance in six different decades and hit the ice with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League. While it was only a single-game contract, he took to the ice on October 3, 1997 and played a shift during a shootout loss to the Kansas City Blades.
Yes, that is how you include Gordie Howe in a 1990s-themed product! These are the first new cards featuring a player in a Detroit Vipers uniform since the last team-produced set was released in 99-00 (one year before the final 00-01 IHL season). Of course, Howe isn't pictured in the full uniform, because ITG doesn't use professional logos in their products. In the case of a defunct team with a lapsed trademark, however, I have no idea why they couldn't have done so. I do like the use of the Vipers' Aqua color on the card fronts.
If anyone wants to watch the pre-game ceremony honoring Gordie Howe, see this Youtube video. I was there for that game, and did say hello to Gordie very quickly while passing him in the tunnel from the ice to the locker room.
Howe had three cards in the Decades 1990s product. I'm glad to have these two cards out of the way, but it's the third card I count as my most-wanted card of the year. Howe was included in the autograph set, but the card is listed as a short print, and I can tell that it is a rather extreme short print indeed. Let's be honest -- Decades 1990s has not had a very good break, and many of the most scarce cards from the product have not found their way to the secondary market in significant quantities. With that said, I can confirm that I've seen exactly one copy of the Howe autograph. It was pulled by a Hobby Insider member, who is planning to keep it as part of the set. Unfortunately, I'm left hoping that there's more than just that one copy printed.
So, the search continues.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Sergei Samsonov
Sergei Samsonov was given a bigger assortment of cards in Decades 1990s, with 13 different cards. Several of them have extremely short print runs, and I doubt I'll ever see them, let alone own them.
This card, of course, has likely the highest print run of the Samsonov cards in the product. I don't have any idea what that print run is, though!
The text from the card back:
As a teenager, Samsonov was considered to be one of the best young prospects in the world and there was a lot of buzz about when he would be taken in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. With a year of professional experience under his belt with the IHL's Detroit Vipers, the Boston Bruins took him seventh overall and he was ready for big league action. As a first-year player, he scored 22 times and added 25 assists. His strong play ensured that he would be awarded the Calder Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year.
This text is partially in error, as Samsonov was taken with the 8th overall pick in the draft. Pick #7 belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who selected another soon-to-be Detroit Vipers player -- Paul Mara.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gold Sergei Samsonov (/30)
I also picked up the gold version of the Samsonov base card, which is limited to 30 copies printed, according to the ITG website.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Rookie Sergei Samsonov
Samsonov's lone "regular insert" from Decades 1990s highlights his rookie debut with the Bruins (October 2, 1997). The card back gets his draft position correct on this one.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Autographs Wendell Young
I acquired two autograph cards from Decades 1990s from Adam (ryder73). The first is one of only two Tampa Bay Lightning autographs from the product (the other is a Vincent Lecavalier short print). Wendell Young played for the Lightning in 1992-93 and 1993-94 -- the team's first two seasons. However, the Tampa Bay Times Forum (pictured here as the St. Pete Times Forum, and originally named the Ice Palace) didn't open until 1996. Young's two seasons were played in Expo Hall and the Thunderdome (now Tropicana Field). I appreciate ITG's efforts to use silhouetted arena pictures in the background of autograph cards, but this is the second time in which the wrong arena was used recently. The other error, a more egregious one, pictured Cobo Hall on the entire run of Motown Madness autograph cards -- an arena the Red Wings never played in.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Autographs Sergei Samsonov
ITG got this one right, though! The FleetCenter (now TD Garden) was indeed Samsonov's home when he broke into the NHL with the Boston Bruins.
Samsonov's always been criticized for his autograph, and it definitely hasn't gotten any better with age.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Jersey Black Sergei Samsonov (/84)
Here's the standard jersey card from Decades 1990s. It features a black swatch from a Boston Bruins jersey. I'm not sure why the cards are limited to the strange amount of 84 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Jersey Silver Sergei Samsonov (/30)
My last card from Decades is the silver parallel to the jersey set, with 30 copies made. This one features a yellow swatch.
I still have seven cards from Decades on my wantlist, and the print runs are as follows: 10, 6, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1. Wish me luck.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects Autographs Scott Jackson
Scott Jackson played one NHL game with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 09-10, and earned one rookie card in 10-11. This autograph card pre-dates his RC by three years. It was a cheap add-on to the next card in the mail post.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Famous Fabrics Ink Hockey Edition First Round Pick Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
No, I don't particularly care for this set -- which is why this card is so high in this mail post, despite being a (borderline) legitimate 1/1. Samsonov has three total cards in the 10-11 Famous Fabrics Ink Hockey Edition set, and this is the first one I have seen. For a 1/1, it was not particularly expensive. That's the only saving grace for this one -- it's a leftover early-00s ITG sticker with no licensing or permission granted whatsoever.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Jerseys Sergei Samsonov / Alex Kovalev (124/125)
The quest to pick up all of Samsonov's mid-to-late-00s multi-player memorabilia cards will probably never end, but here's one of the easier cards knocked off the wantlist! This is the basic version of the Tundra Tandems card featuring Samsonov and Kovalev -- one of nine versions in all. The Samsonov jersey is all white, and the Kovalev jersey is all black.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Trios Patches (06/15)
-- Eric Staal / Sergei Samsonov / Justin Williams
Samsonov had two triple-patch cards in 08-09 SP Game Used -- the other one also featured Eric Staal, along with Rod Brind'Amour. I now own both of them, though I do still need the jersey version of the Samsonov / Staal / Brind'Amour card.
The Staal patch is all red. The Samsonov patch is mostly black, with a tiny piece of yellow in the bottom right corner. The Williams patch has three layers -- white patch, red stitching, and red patch.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Triple Patch (06/10)
-- Saku Koivu / Michael Ryder / Sergei Samsonov
This card completes my wantlist from 06-07 SP Game Used! It's a nice triple patch card, featuring Samsonov with two other good hockey players as well. Both the Koivu and Ryder patches have red patch with two layers of white stitching. The Samsonov patch (from a Bruins jersey, like the one in the previous picture) has black jersey, white patch with stitching, yellow thread, and black patch with stitching.
I picked up the jersey version of this card earlier in the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Enforcers II Rob Ray / Gordie Dwyer
I'll jump away from Samsonov for a moment to highlight two new ITG cards featuring another former Detroit Vipers player. Gordie Dwyer, now the head coach of the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL, last earned a trading card with the Lowell Lock Monsters in 2004-05. Dwyer was known as a tough player for the Tampa Bay Lightning (and known for his 23-game suspension for leaving the penalty box in a pre-season brawl). He's a good fit for the ITG Enforcers product, as seen in this card, which commemorates a fight with Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres on January 25, 2002. Dwyer also played NHL games for the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens. A team-issued postcard from his time with the Canadiens is one of my most-wanted player collection items.
It's interesting to note that Dwyer's GM with the Charlottetown Islanders is a former Detroit Vipers general manager -- Grant Sonier.
This card was part of an ebay purchase with another card later in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Enforcers II Autographs Gordie Dwyer
Dwyer's appearance in ITG Enforcers II resulted in this item -- his first-ever certified autograph card. I made sure to get a copy with the entire autograph contained on the sticker.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Purple Alex Killorn
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Jonathan Audy-Marchessault (21/30)
The next five cards were received from Greg (g-force). The first two are tough parallels from the Panini Prizm set. I've considered trying to put together a collection of one copy of each parallel type, but only if I can do so very inexpensively. Even if I don't end up doing that, I'll keep these two for my Lighting and Blue Jackets RC collections.
Although these two cards look very similar, they're actually different parallel versions, and neither of them was released in the original Prizm packs. The Killorn has the word "rookie" outlined in purple, and was released in Fall Expo promotional packs. The Audy-Marchessault has the word "rookie" outlined in black or dark blue (like the base cards), and is limited to just 30 copies printed. This version was only available in the Panini Gold Packs, which were distributed at the company's VIP party.
I'm not 100% sure I have these cards correctly described, but I did the best I could!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Select Sean Collins RC (112/399)
I have a wantlist of eleven RCs from Select -- a set with 123 total rookie cards. It has probably been since 05-06 that any one set had that many unique RCs!
These cards are about as thick as Cup base cards! I like card design, but what more needs to be said about stickers on foil? It just doesn't work.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Game-Used Jersey Sergei Samsonov (/20)
The final two cards from Greg are my first Samsonov cards from the recent ITG Superlative release. Sergei Samsonov is featured on 12 different cards in the main Superlative release, with six additional cards available in the Fall Expo redemption program.
Even the basic jersey cards in Superlative The First Six are quite limited. This card has only 20 copies made, and contains an all-black swatch from a Boston Bruins jersey.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Auto Plus Stick Sergei Samsonov (/20)
This card is a little nicer than the previous one. It contains an on-card signature from Samsonov, and a well-worn gold and black stick swatch. It almost looks to me like the number "4" is written in on the stick piece. This swatch appears similar to Samsonov stick pieces ITG used in a few 02-03 and 03-04 products.
Thank you for the sale, Greg!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Expo Rivalry Silver SR-13 (/9)
-- Sergei Samsonov / Mats Sundin
I also got a head start on the expo releases by purchasing this card just after the expo had ended. I really like the swatches on this card -- black jersey, a huge white seam, and yellow jersey for Samsonov, with dark blue and white for Sundin.
I do have two concerns about this card, though. To start with -- Samsonov and Sundin were never rivals, though their teams were. It's just an odd pairing, and the first time Samsonov and Sundin have ever appeared on a card together. Secondly, the printing quality on the card leaves a lot to be desired. The design elements on the card front are blurry, and look like something out of a seven-year-old inkjet printer -- almost as bad as a 98-99 Pacific base card!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Expo FOURmidable Franchise Silver SR-49 (/9)
-- Joe Thornton (White/Black) / Kyle McLaren (White/Black)
-- Byron Dafoe (Black/Yellow) / Sergei Samsonov (Black)
This quad jersey card came in from a deal with Jeff (THERATPACK). Samsonov has been featured many times over the years with these players -- Thornton especially. Although it's unfortunate that Samsonov's jersey piece is the only single-color swatch, I do still like this card, and will enjoy having it in my collection.
Thanks for the deal, Jeff!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Trophy Case TC-48 Sergei Samsonov (/19)
Samsonov was featured in a few of the ITG Superlative subsets, and this one highlights his win of the 1998 Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. This card has two-color jersey swatch -- white seam and yellow jersey.
The Rob Ray / Gordie Dwyer card from earlier in the mail post was shipped along with this one.
For whatever reason, ITG moved away from the Silver/Gold parallel system for this Superlative release, opting to go label-less for the standard versions of each card (the Expo redemption cards kept the Silver/Gold system). However, the 1/1 versions indeed keep the gold theme going, as seen here!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Trophy Case Gold TC-48 Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
This was probably my most-wanted card from Superlative The First Six, and I'm glad I had a chance to pick it up quickly. The jersey swatch is about as good as you can get from a Bruins jersey -- four layers, with a white seam on top, and white/yellow/black jersey below.
What surprised me the most about this card is that despite what I thought was a fair price, I was the only bidder on the auction. I actually could have let it go unsold, and tried to get it for less, as I sometimes do when cards I want don't get any bids. However, as this one was a bit of a priority for me, I decided to make the purchase. To be honest, Samsonov cards have been selling very poorly from Superlative. I guess that will only benefit me, as a player collector, in the long run.
Although the above card is my second 1/1 in the mail post, neither of them ended up at the bottom. Rather, my favorite card from this round of Samsonov additions goes back over ten years to a very tough Upper Deck memorabilia release.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Upper Deck Patchwork Sergei Samsonov
For several reasons, this insanely tough card has been one I thought I had no reasonable chance to acquire. First off -- it's rather scarce. The card was part of a 30 card set, inserted at a rate of 1:2500 hobby packs. No print run was released, but I would be surprised if there are any more than 20-25 of these in existence. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, just about anything from the base Upper Deck product is popular with set collectors. A typical Samsonov patch card limited to 25 copies might normally sell in the $5-$15 range. For the few times I've seen this card for sale, it's always sold for near $100, give or take $20-$30.
However, a few things came into alignment to allow me to purchase this one. Another copy of the same card had just sold on ebay about two weeks before, reaching triple digits as I had expected it to (just over $100). This copy, however, was listed poorly. I had no problems at all with the seller, just to be clear -- but the title, description, and picture included with the auction were all very low in quality. For whatever reason, the card seemed to slip through the cracks, and I was the only bidder -- at a grand total of $30.00. I don't usually post my purchase prices, but that's a steal and a half, and definitely worth sharing!
I'm not totally sure that the swatch on this card is really a patch piece -- it doesn't feel quite like any other Samsonov swatch in my collection. The big yellow area is definitely jersey, with black and white patch/stitching layers on the right side. The jersey feels thicker than a normal jersey, however, and the stitched areas might be sort of a narrow jersey seam -- or perhaps the edge of a patch that was attached to the jersey at that location.
Ultimately, this is my favorite card from the mail post -- I loved finding and purchasing a card I long thought I'd be incapable of adding to my collection.
-----------------
News and notes:
** I have all of my Samsonov stats updated, and it's not pretty.
Samsonov has recently been included in several ITG products. He earned two cards in a promotional set for the National Convention (both 1/1s, both on ebay, and both listed for prices that Jeremy Jacobs wouldn't touch). Shortly thereafter, he appeared on thirteen cards in Decades 90s. That dropped my statistics from 85.37% (1208/1415) to 84.48% (1208/1430). After earning 18 more cards in Superlative (including the expo promos), the stats dropped to 83.43% (1208/1448).
Since then, I've picked up 18 Samsonov items, putting me back up to 84.67% (1226/1448). Perhaps the biggest goal in all of my work as a collector has been to get my Samsonov collection to 90% -- and this goal now seems like it will be extraordinarily difficult to hit. Assuming a total of 1448 cards, I'll need to get 1304 to get above 90%. That will require 78 more Samsonov cards for my collection, out of 222 total unowned cards. Of those 222 cards, 94 of them are 1/1s, which really illustrates the problem -- I'll need to pick up nearly half of the non-1/1 cards remaining on my Samsonov wantlist to get to where I want to be!
Samsonov is also slated to appear in ITG Heroes and Prospects, which won't make this any easier. I have no plans to quit, though. If I was going to give up, Tim Thomas' appearances in 11-12 Panini Certified and various Between The Pipes sets would have done me in long ago.
** I find it a little strange that a big portion of Superlative The First Six is being sold by a small number of ebay sellers? For an experiment, I ran a completed items ebay search tonight for "The First Six," which generated 2,091 results. After excluding the sellers a.r.collectiblez and north-of-7, I ended up with only 1,245 results. Over 40% of the ebay auctions for an entire product run have been listed by just two sellers! When considering that it's a bit of a niche product with a small print run, I guess it's not all that surprising.
** I recently completed quite a few deals on Hobby Insider, and I'm anxious to show off some of those cards in the next mail post.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
Mail Post #20 for 2013
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gordie Howe
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gold Gordie Howe (/30)
I'm going to begin with one of the new sets Samsonov is featured in, but I won't start with Samsonov. Instead, I'll show off these two cards featuring one of the NHL's biggest legends in an International Hockey League uniform.
I think most people are familiar with what happened, but for those of you who are not, I'll let the card back tell the story.
Howe had officially retired from hockey at the end of the 1979-80 season as a member of the Hartford Whalers but he was still driven to make some more hockey history in the 1990s. He was given an opportunity to become the first player to make a professional appearance in six different decades and hit the ice with the Detroit Vipers of the International Hockey League. While it was only a single-game contract, he took to the ice on October 3, 1997 and played a shift during a shootout loss to the Kansas City Blades.
Yes, that is how you include Gordie Howe in a 1990s-themed product! These are the first new cards featuring a player in a Detroit Vipers uniform since the last team-produced set was released in 99-00 (one year before the final 00-01 IHL season). Of course, Howe isn't pictured in the full uniform, because ITG doesn't use professional logos in their products. In the case of a defunct team with a lapsed trademark, however, I have no idea why they couldn't have done so. I do like the use of the Vipers' Aqua color on the card fronts.
If anyone wants to watch the pre-game ceremony honoring Gordie Howe, see this Youtube video. I was there for that game, and did say hello to Gordie very quickly while passing him in the tunnel from the ice to the locker room.
Howe had three cards in the Decades 1990s product. I'm glad to have these two cards out of the way, but it's the third card I count as my most-wanted card of the year. Howe was included in the autograph set, but the card is listed as a short print, and I can tell that it is a rather extreme short print indeed. Let's be honest -- Decades 1990s has not had a very good break, and many of the most scarce cards from the product have not found their way to the secondary market in significant quantities. With that said, I can confirm that I've seen exactly one copy of the Howe autograph. It was pulled by a Hobby Insider member, who is planning to keep it as part of the set. Unfortunately, I'm left hoping that there's more than just that one copy printed.
So, the search continues.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Sergei Samsonov
Sergei Samsonov was given a bigger assortment of cards in Decades 1990s, with 13 different cards. Several of them have extremely short print runs, and I doubt I'll ever see them, let alone own them.
This card, of course, has likely the highest print run of the Samsonov cards in the product. I don't have any idea what that print run is, though!
The text from the card back:
As a teenager, Samsonov was considered to be one of the best young prospects in the world and there was a lot of buzz about when he would be taken in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. With a year of professional experience under his belt with the IHL's Detroit Vipers, the Boston Bruins took him seventh overall and he was ready for big league action. As a first-year player, he scored 22 times and added 25 assists. His strong play ensured that he would be awarded the Calder Trophy as the league's Rookie of the Year.
This text is partially in error, as Samsonov was taken with the 8th overall pick in the draft. Pick #7 belonged to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who selected another soon-to-be Detroit Vipers player -- Paul Mara.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Gold Sergei Samsonov (/30)
I also picked up the gold version of the Samsonov base card, which is limited to 30 copies printed, according to the ITG website.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Rookie Sergei Samsonov
Samsonov's lone "regular insert" from Decades 1990s highlights his rookie debut with the Bruins (October 2, 1997). The card back gets his draft position correct on this one.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Autographs Wendell Young
I acquired two autograph cards from Decades 1990s from Adam (ryder73). The first is one of only two Tampa Bay Lightning autographs from the product (the other is a Vincent Lecavalier short print). Wendell Young played for the Lightning in 1992-93 and 1993-94 -- the team's first two seasons. However, the Tampa Bay Times Forum (pictured here as the St. Pete Times Forum, and originally named the Ice Palace) didn't open until 1996. Young's two seasons were played in Expo Hall and the Thunderdome (now Tropicana Field). I appreciate ITG's efforts to use silhouetted arena pictures in the background of autograph cards, but this is the second time in which the wrong arena was used recently. The other error, a more egregious one, pictured Cobo Hall on the entire run of Motown Madness autograph cards -- an arena the Red Wings never played in.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Autographs Sergei Samsonov
ITG got this one right, though! The FleetCenter (now TD Garden) was indeed Samsonov's home when he broke into the NHL with the Boston Bruins.
Samsonov's always been criticized for his autograph, and it definitely hasn't gotten any better with age.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Jersey Black Sergei Samsonov (/84)
Here's the standard jersey card from Decades 1990s. It features a black swatch from a Boston Bruins jersey. I'm not sure why the cards are limited to the strange amount of 84 copies.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Decades 1990s Game-Used Jersey Silver Sergei Samsonov (/30)
My last card from Decades is the silver parallel to the jersey set, with 30 copies made. This one features a yellow swatch.
I still have seven cards from Decades on my wantlist, and the print runs are as follows: 10, 6, 3, 3, 2, 1, 1. Wish me luck.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 ITG Heroes and Prospects Autographs Scott Jackson
Scott Jackson played one NHL game with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 09-10, and earned one rookie card in 10-11. This autograph card pre-dates his RC by three years. It was a cheap add-on to the next card in the mail post.
-------------------------------------------------------
10-11 Famous Fabrics Ink Hockey Edition First Round Pick Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
No, I don't particularly care for this set -- which is why this card is so high in this mail post, despite being a (borderline) legitimate 1/1. Samsonov has three total cards in the 10-11 Famous Fabrics Ink Hockey Edition set, and this is the first one I have seen. For a 1/1, it was not particularly expensive. That's the only saving grace for this one -- it's a leftover early-00s ITG sticker with no licensing or permission granted whatsoever.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Jerseys Sergei Samsonov / Alex Kovalev (124/125)
The quest to pick up all of Samsonov's mid-to-late-00s multi-player memorabilia cards will probably never end, but here's one of the easier cards knocked off the wantlist! This is the basic version of the Tundra Tandems card featuring Samsonov and Kovalev -- one of nine versions in all. The Samsonov jersey is all white, and the Kovalev jersey is all black.
-------------------------------------------------------
08-09 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Trios Patches (06/15)
-- Eric Staal / Sergei Samsonov / Justin Williams
Samsonov had two triple-patch cards in 08-09 SP Game Used -- the other one also featured Eric Staal, along with Rod Brind'Amour. I now own both of them, though I do still need the jersey version of the Samsonov / Staal / Brind'Amour card.
The Staal patch is all red. The Samsonov patch is mostly black, with a tiny piece of yellow in the bottom right corner. The Williams patch has three layers -- white patch, red stitching, and red patch.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 SP Game Used Authentic Fabrics Triple Patch (06/10)
-- Saku Koivu / Michael Ryder / Sergei Samsonov
This card completes my wantlist from 06-07 SP Game Used! It's a nice triple patch card, featuring Samsonov with two other good hockey players as well. Both the Koivu and Ryder patches have red patch with two layers of white stitching. The Samsonov patch (from a Bruins jersey, like the one in the previous picture) has black jersey, white patch with stitching, yellow thread, and black patch with stitching.
I picked up the jersey version of this card earlier in the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Enforcers II Rob Ray / Gordie Dwyer
I'll jump away from Samsonov for a moment to highlight two new ITG cards featuring another former Detroit Vipers player. Gordie Dwyer, now the head coach of the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL, last earned a trading card with the Lowell Lock Monsters in 2004-05. Dwyer was known as a tough player for the Tampa Bay Lightning (and known for his 23-game suspension for leaving the penalty box in a pre-season brawl). He's a good fit for the ITG Enforcers product, as seen in this card, which commemorates a fight with Rob Ray of the Buffalo Sabres on January 25, 2002. Dwyer also played NHL games for the New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens. A team-issued postcard from his time with the Canadiens is one of my most-wanted player collection items.
It's interesting to note that Dwyer's GM with the Charlottetown Islanders is a former Detroit Vipers general manager -- Grant Sonier.
This card was part of an ebay purchase with another card later in the post.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Enforcers II Autographs Gordie Dwyer
Dwyer's appearance in ITG Enforcers II resulted in this item -- his first-ever certified autograph card. I made sure to get a copy with the entire autograph contained on the sticker.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Purple Alex Killorn
13-14 Panini Prizm Cracked Ice Jonathan Audy-Marchessault (21/30)
The next five cards were received from Greg (g-force). The first two are tough parallels from the Panini Prizm set. I've considered trying to put together a collection of one copy of each parallel type, but only if I can do so very inexpensively. Even if I don't end up doing that, I'll keep these two for my Lighting and Blue Jackets RC collections.
Although these two cards look very similar, they're actually different parallel versions, and neither of them was released in the original Prizm packs. The Killorn has the word "rookie" outlined in purple, and was released in Fall Expo promotional packs. The Audy-Marchessault has the word "rookie" outlined in black or dark blue (like the base cards), and is limited to just 30 copies printed. This version was only available in the Panini Gold Packs, which were distributed at the company's VIP party.
I'm not 100% sure I have these cards correctly described, but I did the best I could!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Select Sean Collins RC (112/399)
I have a wantlist of eleven RCs from Select -- a set with 123 total rookie cards. It has probably been since 05-06 that any one set had that many unique RCs!
These cards are about as thick as Cup base cards! I like card design, but what more needs to be said about stickers on foil? It just doesn't work.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Game-Used Jersey Sergei Samsonov (/20)
The final two cards from Greg are my first Samsonov cards from the recent ITG Superlative release. Sergei Samsonov is featured on 12 different cards in the main Superlative release, with six additional cards available in the Fall Expo redemption program.
Even the basic jersey cards in Superlative The First Six are quite limited. This card has only 20 copies made, and contains an all-black swatch from a Boston Bruins jersey.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Auto Plus Stick Sergei Samsonov (/20)
This card is a little nicer than the previous one. It contains an on-card signature from Samsonov, and a well-worn gold and black stick swatch. It almost looks to me like the number "4" is written in on the stick piece. This swatch appears similar to Samsonov stick pieces ITG used in a few 02-03 and 03-04 products.
Thank you for the sale, Greg!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Expo Rivalry Silver SR-13 (/9)
-- Sergei Samsonov / Mats Sundin
I also got a head start on the expo releases by purchasing this card just after the expo had ended. I really like the swatches on this card -- black jersey, a huge white seam, and yellow jersey for Samsonov, with dark blue and white for Sundin.
I do have two concerns about this card, though. To start with -- Samsonov and Sundin were never rivals, though their teams were. It's just an odd pairing, and the first time Samsonov and Sundin have ever appeared on a card together. Secondly, the printing quality on the card leaves a lot to be desired. The design elements on the card front are blurry, and look like something out of a seven-year-old inkjet printer -- almost as bad as a 98-99 Pacific base card!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Expo FOURmidable Franchise Silver SR-49 (/9)
-- Joe Thornton (White/Black) / Kyle McLaren (White/Black)
-- Byron Dafoe (Black/Yellow) / Sergei Samsonov (Black)
This quad jersey card came in from a deal with Jeff (THERATPACK). Samsonov has been featured many times over the years with these players -- Thornton especially. Although it's unfortunate that Samsonov's jersey piece is the only single-color swatch, I do still like this card, and will enjoy having it in my collection.
Thanks for the deal, Jeff!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Trophy Case TC-48 Sergei Samsonov (/19)
Samsonov was featured in a few of the ITG Superlative subsets, and this one highlights his win of the 1998 Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year. This card has two-color jersey swatch -- white seam and yellow jersey.
The Rob Ray / Gordie Dwyer card from earlier in the mail post was shipped along with this one.
For whatever reason, ITG moved away from the Silver/Gold parallel system for this Superlative release, opting to go label-less for the standard versions of each card (the Expo redemption cards kept the Silver/Gold system). However, the 1/1 versions indeed keep the gold theme going, as seen here!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 ITG Superlative The First Six Trophy Case Gold TC-48 Sergei Samsonov (1/1)
This was probably my most-wanted card from Superlative The First Six, and I'm glad I had a chance to pick it up quickly. The jersey swatch is about as good as you can get from a Bruins jersey -- four layers, with a white seam on top, and white/yellow/black jersey below.
What surprised me the most about this card is that despite what I thought was a fair price, I was the only bidder on the auction. I actually could have let it go unsold, and tried to get it for less, as I sometimes do when cards I want don't get any bids. However, as this one was a bit of a priority for me, I decided to make the purchase. To be honest, Samsonov cards have been selling very poorly from Superlative. I guess that will only benefit me, as a player collector, in the long run.
Although the above card is my second 1/1 in the mail post, neither of them ended up at the bottom. Rather, my favorite card from this round of Samsonov additions goes back over ten years to a very tough Upper Deck memorabilia release.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 Upper Deck Patchwork Sergei Samsonov
For several reasons, this insanely tough card has been one I thought I had no reasonable chance to acquire. First off -- it's rather scarce. The card was part of a 30 card set, inserted at a rate of 1:2500 hobby packs. No print run was released, but I would be surprised if there are any more than 20-25 of these in existence. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, just about anything from the base Upper Deck product is popular with set collectors. A typical Samsonov patch card limited to 25 copies might normally sell in the $5-$15 range. For the few times I've seen this card for sale, it's always sold for near $100, give or take $20-$30.
However, a few things came into alignment to allow me to purchase this one. Another copy of the same card had just sold on ebay about two weeks before, reaching triple digits as I had expected it to (just over $100). This copy, however, was listed poorly. I had no problems at all with the seller, just to be clear -- but the title, description, and picture included with the auction were all very low in quality. For whatever reason, the card seemed to slip through the cracks, and I was the only bidder -- at a grand total of $30.00. I don't usually post my purchase prices, but that's a steal and a half, and definitely worth sharing!
I'm not totally sure that the swatch on this card is really a patch piece -- it doesn't feel quite like any other Samsonov swatch in my collection. The big yellow area is definitely jersey, with black and white patch/stitching layers on the right side. The jersey feels thicker than a normal jersey, however, and the stitched areas might be sort of a narrow jersey seam -- or perhaps the edge of a patch that was attached to the jersey at that location.
Ultimately, this is my favorite card from the mail post -- I loved finding and purchasing a card I long thought I'd be incapable of adding to my collection.
-----------------
News and notes:
** I have all of my Samsonov stats updated, and it's not pretty.
Samsonov has recently been included in several ITG products. He earned two cards in a promotional set for the National Convention (both 1/1s, both on ebay, and both listed for prices that Jeremy Jacobs wouldn't touch). Shortly thereafter, he appeared on thirteen cards in Decades 90s. That dropped my statistics from 85.37% (1208/1415) to 84.48% (1208/1430). After earning 18 more cards in Superlative (including the expo promos), the stats dropped to 83.43% (1208/1448).
Since then, I've picked up 18 Samsonov items, putting me back up to 84.67% (1226/1448). Perhaps the biggest goal in all of my work as a collector has been to get my Samsonov collection to 90% -- and this goal now seems like it will be extraordinarily difficult to hit. Assuming a total of 1448 cards, I'll need to get 1304 to get above 90%. That will require 78 more Samsonov cards for my collection, out of 222 total unowned cards. Of those 222 cards, 94 of them are 1/1s, which really illustrates the problem -- I'll need to pick up nearly half of the non-1/1 cards remaining on my Samsonov wantlist to get to where I want to be!
Samsonov is also slated to appear in ITG Heroes and Prospects, which won't make this any easier. I have no plans to quit, though. If I was going to give up, Tim Thomas' appearances in 11-12 Panini Certified and various Between The Pipes sets would have done me in long ago.
** I find it a little strange that a big portion of Superlative The First Six is being sold by a small number of ebay sellers? For an experiment, I ran a completed items ebay search tonight for "The First Six," which generated 2,091 results. After excluding the sellers a.r.collectiblez and north-of-7, I ended up with only 1,245 results. Over 40% of the ebay auctions for an entire product run have been listed by just two sellers! When considering that it's a bit of a niche product with a small print run, I guess it's not all that surprising.
** I recently completed quite a few deals on Hobby Insider, and I'm anxious to show off some of those cards in the next mail post.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
