The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
It's a good time to be a fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning -- just two wins away from a championship, losing to a Blackhawks team that looked like they'd have happily taken on the 83-84 Edmonton Oilers.
It's an awful time to be a Tampa Bay Lightning rookie collector, which is why my collecting focus has begun to shift away from current RCs. There's simply too much to keep up on and keep track of, especially when the Lightning (and to a lesser extent, the Blue Jackets) have so many mid-to-high-end RC-eligible players.
So, this mail post will focus on one of my biggest player collections -- Tim Thomas. However, I have a few other cards to share before I get there.
Mail Post #5 for 2015
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04-05 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia Fifth Edition
-- Day in Hockey History Silver Mario Lemieux / Johnny Bower (22/25)
April 25, 1989 - Mario Lemieux scores five goals/eight points in playoff game
April 25, 1964 - Johnny Bower first to record SO in Game 7 of Cup Final
I've been hoping to find one of these cards for a long time, but when the 04-05 ITG Ultimate product was first released, they were out of my price range. Things have calmed down since then, and it became a matter of waiting for one to hit open auction.
Why on earth would I want a card featuring Mario Lemieux and Johnny Bower? It's because of the date -- the birthday of the author of this post.
This is the silver version of the card, and there is also a gold version #/5 available, though I don't plan to acquire it. The card contains a white swatch from a Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, and a brown swatch from a Johnny Bower game-used glove.
Take a close look at the card and the border around it -- somehow, it appears that ITG mis-cut this one.
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14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Anton Forsberg
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Hubert Labrie
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Will Weber
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Austin Madaisky
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Denny Urban
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Marko Dano
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Mike Hoeffel
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Ryan Craig
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Trent Vogelhuber
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Dana Tyrell
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Kerby Rychel
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Sean Collins
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL T.J. Tynan
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Nathan Oystrick
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Lukas Sedlak
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Brett Ponich
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Mathieu Gagnon
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Jaime Sifers
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Oscar Dansk
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Frederic St. Denis
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Corey Cowick
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Thomas Larkin
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Domenic Monardo
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Josh Anderson
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Jared Bednar (Head Coach)
I always try to acquire complete sets of the AHL affiliates of my favorite teams. Although the Lightning's affiliate (Syracuse) did not release a set in 14-15, the Blue Jackets' affiliate (Springfield) did. This set contains cards of many Blue Jackets prospects, including Austin Madaisky, Kerby Rychel, Marko Dano, and Anton Forsberg. Two former Lightning prospects (Dana Tyrell and Ryan Craig) also made it into the set.
Tim Thomas will be the focus for the rest of this post. In my final mail post of 2014, I showed off 32 Tim Thomas press plate 1/1s from 13-14 Panini National Treasures. Almost halfway through 2015, and I've picked up six more!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 10-11 Zenith Chasing the Cup 13 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Crown Royale Silhouettes 7 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Panini Certified Masked Marvels 2 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Panini Rookie Anthology 79 Tim Thomas (Cyan Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Titanium Game-Worn Gear 7 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 12-13 Panini Certified 114 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
That brings me up to 38 plates from National Treasures, out of a possible 104 that I believe exist. Why do I keep purchasing these? The price -- almost always under $10 each. I am hoping to eventually complete a set of four, although I did lose a few auctions recently that would have brought me closer.
-------------------------------------------------------
94-95 Score base cards
Here are some random Score base cards that were received with the next item. I love the random 90s-colored orbs that float near the top corners!
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Mirror Gold Tim Thomas (15/25)
Yes, this one is a bit shiny.
This Tim Thomas card is one of eight versions of his base set (Masked Men subset) card from 12-13 Panini Certified. I'm up to seven of the eight! Here's how the progress has gone so far.
* Base #/999
* Mirror Red #/100
* Hot Box #/75
* Mirror Blue #/50
* Mirror Gold #/25
* Mirror Emerald #/5
* Mirror Black 1/1 (not owned)
* Mirror Ice Tag 1/1
Will I ever find the Mirror Black 1/1 and complete the batch?
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Mirror Blue Tim Thomas (17/25)
Here's a similar case to the last card -- another Tim Thomas item from 12-13 Panini Certified with a boatload of parallels!
There are seven versions of this card. I'm over halfway there.
* Fabric of the Game Base #/299
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Red #/150
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Hot Box #/75
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Blue #/25
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Gold #/25 (not owned)
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Emerald #/5 (not owned)
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Black #/1 (not owned)
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 ITG Canada vs. the World International Goalies Silver Tim Thomas (/50)
This card finally finishes off Tim Thomas from the 11-12 ITG Canada vs. the World product -- one of many redundantly themed products ITG released in the latter few years of their existence. This card has a two-color swatch (white and yellow with stitching) from a Tim Thomas pad, with plenty of puck marks.
In addition to this silver version, I also own the gold version, which is limited to ten copies.
Unfortunately, this card arrived to me in poor shape, with several creases around the swatch window. It does not appear that the card was damaged in shipping, as it was packed fairly well. The creases do not show up very well in this picture, but they are obvious when held up to the light. I have decided to let this one roll off my back -- I'll keep the card for my collection and quit worrying about the fact that it's not in pristine shape.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck High Gloss 365 Tim Thomas (03/10)
This card, from 13-14 Upper Deck Series 2, is a rare addition to the Tim Thomas collection. This is only the second or third copy of the Tim Thomas HG parallel that I've seen. I also own the Exclusives parallel #/100.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Prime Prime Colors 7 Tim Thomas (14/18)
Here's perhaps the biggest single swatch of Tim Thomas memorabilia that I own! The text from the card back explains the story behind Boston's team colors.
Charles Adams, Boston's first owner, asked that his new team's colors match the brown and yellow of his grocery stores. He also wanted the name to imply size and strength. A secretary for Art Ross, the team's coach, offered Bruins. The colors changed to black and gold in 1939.
Adams owned the First National chain of supermarkets, which (several steps later) ended up as part of the Stop & Shop brand. The Bruins originally used brown and gold, but switched to black and gold later on.
The swatch on this card has five layers -- black patch, yellow patch, black patch, white patch, black jersey. This swatch comes from the third jersey the Bruins introduced in 08-09, and this image from Panini shows exactly where the swatch is from -- the bottom left corner of the main crest. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst swatch of the entire batch, but it also made the card pretty inexpensive. The card is limited to 18 copies, matching the 18 swatches cut by Panini.
This card from 11-12 Panini Prime is nice, but I think I can close with an even better one.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Prime All-Star Signatures 4 Tim Thomas (1/1)
When Tim Thomas was named to his fourth All-Star Game in 2012, this nameplate hung above his spot in the Team Chara locker room. Last year, I acquired the un-signed All-Star Selections version of the card, containing another piece of the nameplate and limited to four copies. This year, I was able to do one better, acquiring the All-Star Signatures 1/1 parallel! The card features a piece of the nameplate at the end of Thomas' last name, with a big open area for the clean blue signature.
Here is the text from the card back.
If asked to list hockey's most unbreakable records, be sure to consider the unlikely circumstances that would have to conspire for someone to top Thomas' four consecutive All-Star Game wins. The affable puckstopper allowed just three third-period goals to boost Team Chara to a 12-9 win in 2012.
I think this is a pretty nice way to commemorate an impressive All-Star feat, making this one of the more distinctive Tim Thomas cards in my collection. This is the 79th true 1/1 in my Tim Thomas collection.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Although I haven't posted much recently, I've found the discussions on the recent ITG dump-products very interesting. For player collectors who have paid the price for scarcity, it's disheartening to see additional copies of cards released in any form. I love that hobbyists have been able to add some spectacular and historic memorabilia pieces to their collections for fractions of the original cost, but I loathe the though of an unscrupulous spike in supply through a series of secondary or indirect release methods. If nothing else, this has been a lesson for all collectors that no card company has an exclusive or entitled right to the lofty perch of moral high ground.
** Something I find more stressful than card shopping: car shopping.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
It's an awful time to be a Tampa Bay Lightning rookie collector, which is why my collecting focus has begun to shift away from current RCs. There's simply too much to keep up on and keep track of, especially when the Lightning (and to a lesser extent, the Blue Jackets) have so many mid-to-high-end RC-eligible players.
So, this mail post will focus on one of my biggest player collections -- Tim Thomas. However, I have a few other cards to share before I get there.
Mail Post #5 for 2015
-------------------------------------------------------
04-05 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia Fifth Edition
-- Day in Hockey History Silver Mario Lemieux / Johnny Bower (22/25)
April 25, 1989 - Mario Lemieux scores five goals/eight points in playoff game
April 25, 1964 - Johnny Bower first to record SO in Game 7 of Cup Final
I've been hoping to find one of these cards for a long time, but when the 04-05 ITG Ultimate product was first released, they were out of my price range. Things have calmed down since then, and it became a matter of waiting for one to hit open auction.
Why on earth would I want a card featuring Mario Lemieux and Johnny Bower? It's because of the date -- the birthday of the author of this post.
This is the silver version of the card, and there is also a gold version #/5 available, though I don't plan to acquire it. The card contains a white swatch from a Mario Lemieux Pittsburgh Penguins jersey, and a brown swatch from a Johnny Bower game-used glove.
Take a close look at the card and the border around it -- somehow, it appears that ITG mis-cut this one.
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Anton Forsberg
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Hubert Labrie
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Will Weber
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Austin Madaisky
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Denny Urban
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Marko Dano
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Mike Hoeffel
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Ryan Craig
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Trent Vogelhuber
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Dana Tyrell
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Kerby Rychel
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Sean Collins
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL T.J. Tynan
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Nathan Oystrick
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Lukas Sedlak
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Brett Ponich
-------------------------------------------------------
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Mathieu Gagnon
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Jaime Sifers
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Oscar Dansk
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Frederic St. Denis
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Corey Cowick
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Thomas Larkin
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Domenic Monardo
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Josh Anderson
14-15 Springfield Falcons AHL Jared Bednar (Head Coach)
I always try to acquire complete sets of the AHL affiliates of my favorite teams. Although the Lightning's affiliate (Syracuse) did not release a set in 14-15, the Blue Jackets' affiliate (Springfield) did. This set contains cards of many Blue Jackets prospects, including Austin Madaisky, Kerby Rychel, Marko Dano, and Anton Forsberg. Two former Lightning prospects (Dana Tyrell and Ryan Craig) also made it into the set.
Tim Thomas will be the focus for the rest of this post. In my final mail post of 2014, I showed off 32 Tim Thomas press plate 1/1s from 13-14 Panini National Treasures. Almost halfway through 2015, and I've picked up six more!
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 10-11 Zenith Chasing the Cup 13 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Crown Royale Silhouettes 7 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Panini Certified Masked Marvels 2 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Panini Rookie Anthology 79 Tim Thomas (Cyan Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 11-12 Titanium Game-Worn Gear 7 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 National Treasures Press Plates (1/1)
-- 12-13 Panini Certified 114 Tim Thomas (Magenta Plate)
That brings me up to 38 plates from National Treasures, out of a possible 104 that I believe exist. Why do I keep purchasing these? The price -- almost always under $10 each. I am hoping to eventually complete a set of four, although I did lose a few auctions recently that would have brought me closer.
-------------------------------------------------------
94-95 Score base cards
Here are some random Score base cards that were received with the next item. I love the random 90s-colored orbs that float near the top corners!
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Mirror Gold Tim Thomas (15/25)
Yes, this one is a bit shiny.
This Tim Thomas card is one of eight versions of his base set (Masked Men subset) card from 12-13 Panini Certified. I'm up to seven of the eight! Here's how the progress has gone so far.
* Base #/999
* Mirror Red #/100
* Hot Box #/75
* Mirror Blue #/50
* Mirror Gold #/25
* Mirror Emerald #/5
* Mirror Black 1/1 (not owned)
* Mirror Ice Tag 1/1
Will I ever find the Mirror Black 1/1 and complete the batch?
-------------------------------------------------------
12-13 Panini Certified Fabric of the Game Mirror Blue Tim Thomas (17/25)
Here's a similar case to the last card -- another Tim Thomas item from 12-13 Panini Certified with a boatload of parallels!
There are seven versions of this card. I'm over halfway there.
* Fabric of the Game Base #/299
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Red #/150
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Hot Box #/75
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Blue #/25
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Gold #/25 (not owned)
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Emerald #/5 (not owned)
* Fabric of the Game Mirror Black #/1 (not owned)
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 ITG Canada vs. the World International Goalies Silver Tim Thomas (/50)
This card finally finishes off Tim Thomas from the 11-12 ITG Canada vs. the World product -- one of many redundantly themed products ITG released in the latter few years of their existence. This card has a two-color swatch (white and yellow with stitching) from a Tim Thomas pad, with plenty of puck marks.
In addition to this silver version, I also own the gold version, which is limited to ten copies.
Unfortunately, this card arrived to me in poor shape, with several creases around the swatch window. It does not appear that the card was damaged in shipping, as it was packed fairly well. The creases do not show up very well in this picture, but they are obvious when held up to the light. I have decided to let this one roll off my back -- I'll keep the card for my collection and quit worrying about the fact that it's not in pristine shape.
-------------------------------------------------------
13-14 Upper Deck High Gloss 365 Tim Thomas (03/10)
This card, from 13-14 Upper Deck Series 2, is a rare addition to the Tim Thomas collection. This is only the second or third copy of the Tim Thomas HG parallel that I've seen. I also own the Exclusives parallel #/100.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Prime Prime Colors 7 Tim Thomas (14/18)
Here's perhaps the biggest single swatch of Tim Thomas memorabilia that I own! The text from the card back explains the story behind Boston's team colors.
Charles Adams, Boston's first owner, asked that his new team's colors match the brown and yellow of his grocery stores. He also wanted the name to imply size and strength. A secretary for Art Ross, the team's coach, offered Bruins. The colors changed to black and gold in 1939.
Adams owned the First National chain of supermarkets, which (several steps later) ended up as part of the Stop & Shop brand. The Bruins originally used brown and gold, but switched to black and gold later on.
The swatch on this card has five layers -- black patch, yellow patch, black patch, white patch, black jersey. This swatch comes from the third jersey the Bruins introduced in 08-09, and this image from Panini shows exactly where the swatch is from -- the bottom left corner of the main crest. Unfortunately, it's probably the worst swatch of the entire batch, but it also made the card pretty inexpensive. The card is limited to 18 copies, matching the 18 swatches cut by Panini.
This card from 11-12 Panini Prime is nice, but I think I can close with an even better one.
-------------------------------------------------------
11-12 Panini Prime All-Star Signatures 4 Tim Thomas (1/1)
When Tim Thomas was named to his fourth All-Star Game in 2012, this nameplate hung above his spot in the Team Chara locker room. Last year, I acquired the un-signed All-Star Selections version of the card, containing another piece of the nameplate and limited to four copies. This year, I was able to do one better, acquiring the All-Star Signatures 1/1 parallel! The card features a piece of the nameplate at the end of Thomas' last name, with a big open area for the clean blue signature.
Here is the text from the card back.
If asked to list hockey's most unbreakable records, be sure to consider the unlikely circumstances that would have to conspire for someone to top Thomas' four consecutive All-Star Game wins. The affable puckstopper allowed just three third-period goals to boost Team Chara to a 12-9 win in 2012.
I think this is a pretty nice way to commemorate an impressive All-Star feat, making this one of the more distinctive Tim Thomas cards in my collection. This is the 79th true 1/1 in my Tim Thomas collection.
-----------------
News and notes:
** Although I haven't posted much recently, I've found the discussions on the recent ITG dump-products very interesting. For player collectors who have paid the price for scarcity, it's disheartening to see additional copies of cards released in any form. I love that hobbyists have been able to add some spectacular and historic memorabilia pieces to their collections for fractions of the original cost, but I loathe the though of an unscrupulous spike in supply through a series of secondary or indirect release methods. If nothing else, this has been a lesson for all collectors that no card company has an exclusive or entitled right to the lofty perch of moral high ground.
** Something I find more stressful than card shopping: car shopping.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
--Andy
http://www.thegreatzo.com/cards/
-------------------------------------------------------
