The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
My last mail post was made in late September, meaning that it's been almost a full month since I made one. Things were slow for a while, as my trading activity seems to move in pulses. I am nearing the "top" of a pulse at the moment, with a number of trades on the way and a bunch of stuff pending as well.
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97-98 Upper Deck The Specialists Jarome Iginla (/4000)
99-00 Pacific In The Cage Mike Richter
00-01 Pacific Autographs Simon Gagne (/1000)
00-01 Topps Chrome O-Pee-Chee Refractor Henrik Sedin
02-03 Pacific Heads Up Blue Owen Nolan (/240)
03-04 Topps Pristine Tuomo Ruutu RC (/1199)
97-98 Donruss Limited Vladimir Vorobiev RC / Andreas Johansson
02-03 Vanguard Prime Prospects Stephen Weiss
The first seven cards in this batch came from Sauli (BlindThomen) from our sixty-millionth trade. The Vorobiev RC in the top right corner is one of the last Best-RCs I need for 97-98. The rest are all for trade, but the Ruutu and Richter are already gone. Thanks once again for your assistance and trading expertise.
The Weiss came in trade from Brennan (CanadianStarsFan). Thank you, and I'm glad to help out your collection as well!
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 UD Premier Collection Duvie Westcott RC (/399)
01-02 UD Premier Collection Eric Meloche RC (/399)
01-02 UD Premier Collection Martin Erat RC (/250)
02-03 SP Authentic Joe Sakic (SP) (/1499)
02-03 UD Piece of History Marks of Distinction Sergei Samsonov (SP)
This excellent batch of cards came from Joe (JSokol1626). The Sakic is available for trade. The Premier RCs are for my ongoing Best-RC project. I only need five more from the first tier (/399) to own them all! As for the second tier (/250), there are a ton I need and many I'm not serious about, but knocking off one of the better ones in Erat was very good to do. It's too bad that he got relegated to the fourth line in Nashville, but hopefully the team's prosperity will help him find his way too.
The Samsonov is a pretty severe shortprint, and one I've only seen a few copies of up to this date. From my estimation, I'd say there's between 70 and 100 copies out there. A similar situation came into play from the 99-00 Wayne Gretzky Hockey product, where Samsonov was a part of the autograph set and severely shortprinted there too. I haven't yet tracked one of those down, unfortunately.
Thank you Joe, for your help!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Finnish Cardset Tim Thomas (#58)
05-06 Finnish Cardset Super Snatchers Tim Thomas (#59)
These two came from Jani (JaniH78) to re-complete the Tim Thomas collection. They are obviously vital additions. Thank you, Jani!
But... one thing... for as much as I like Tim Thomas... PLAID?????
-------------------------------------------------------
97-98 Red Deer Rebels Kyle Kos (100%!!!)
This important card came from Harve Grant, by way of Sean Vicory. It may be a boring junior issue (hey, even I get sick of tracking some of these down) but it's a collection-completer. At seven cards, it's my third smallest complete collection, but is nontheless important. Kos hasn't had any cards released since 99-00, which I do find a bit peculiar - he is indeed still playing.
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 ProCards Stan Drulia
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Andrei Kovalenko (/25)
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Drake Berehowsky (/25)
The Drulia (which came from Detroit-area collector Mike Antonich) is a nice addition to my player collection. I'm actually getting fairly close to completion of the Drulia collection, but there's a few big roadblocks in the way (primarily, an 00-01 BAP Emerald).
The two 00-01 Upper Deck cards are from Chris Sutherland (The Master Shake). As a player collector, I have developed an affinity for really short parallels, especially from the late 90's and early 00's. Though I don't expect there to be any Berehowsky or Kovalenko collectors around, these are certainly available. If there's no such interest, I'll be happy to keep them. Thank you Chris!
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Black Diamond Diamond Might Mike Modano
01-02 UD Honor Roll Mario Lemieux
01-02 UD Honor Roll Original Six Curtis Joseph
01-02 Upper Deck Gate Attractions Joe Sakic
01-02 Upper Deck Shooting Stars Brett Hull, Alexander Mogilny
01-02 Upper Deck MVP MVP Talent Sergei Fedorov
00-01 SP Authentic Petteri Nummelin RC (/900)
These all came from Mike (nyrbure). The Nummelin was the important card for me, as it's an addition to my Best-RC collection. I only need two more from that year's SP Authentic set: Lance Ward and Roman Chipmunk (intentional misspelling). The others were extras and are available for trade. Thank you, especially for all of the extras!
And, I especially apologize for the low image quality on this picture. Inexcusable by my standards, yet my standards also require me to be too lazy to redo it.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Lethbridge Hurricanes Travis Brigley
99-00 IHL All-Stars Rich Parent
04-05 Lowell Lock Monsters Photo Album / JDCU Gordie Dwyer
From the oft-helpful Jason Neiberg comes three very important minor league cards. The Brigley brings me within two cards of completion. The Parent nicely assists one of my worst collections, in terms of percent-complete. Finally, the Dwyer is a re-completion of a player collection that, from the beginning of the 04-05 season onward, was never actually complete (despite my assertion otherwise). I had completed the collection before this past season, but somehow missed the release of this particular card until about a month ago. Thankfully, it's back to 100%, and this time I'm fairly certain of it!
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 SPx Mikael Samuelsson RC (/1500) (Red/White)
02-03 UD Rookie Update Top Draws Sergei Samsonov
I nailed the Samuelsson on Bidville for cheaper than they're going on ebay, and I'll just leave it at that. It's for trade, but don't expect to get it for book value.
The Samsonov came from ebay, and is one I've been wanting for a long time. This was one of the more popular autograph sets from 02-03, but I consistently passed up on the Samsonov, as it consistently passed $10 at auction. Not only did I get this one for $8 shipped, but it's one of the only copies I've ever seen with a perfectly centered autograph. I must say, it was worth the wait!
-------------------------------------------------------
This one's a bit confusing, so I'll have to explain. Some of you may recall that a few months ago, I picked up an expired 01-02 SP Authentic Sign Of The Times Mike Comrie redemption from a card show for 25 cents. I decided to send it in, just to see what would happen (if you're following, that's 62 cents I've spent so far on the operation). Instead of the redeemed autograph, though, I received my card back, and this letter. It's definitely worth a read, especially for the final full paragraph. Some of it made me laugh, and some of it made me cringe.
Before anyone asks, I do have plans for the Comrie redemption, as it's going to head to PhilM if he ever decides to trade with me sometime this decade
Oh, and the letter mentions that Upper Deck sent me free packs to cover shipping (recall, 62 cents). What did the send?
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TWO PACKS - 05-06 BE A PLAYER
Commons - Heatley, Hejduk, Shanahan, Conklin, Gaborik, Sullivan, Comrie
Signatures - Ray Whitney, Steve Sullivan
Outtakes - Ed Jovanovski (/499)
They sent two packs of Be A Player! I'd say they covered my costs pretty good, wouldn't you? My break was fairly average, with two (perhaps) slightly better than common autographs, and one insert. For the price, I can't complain.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
**Now that I've re-completed the Tim Thomas collection, and finally (correctly) completed the Gordie Dwyer and Kyle Kos collections, part two of "anatomy of a complete player collection" will be going up by the end of this coming weekend. In addition to the three players aforementioned, I'll also highlight Dimitri Afanasenkov and Dale Rominski.
**After getting those free BAP packs in, I decided to try my luck with a few NPNs from the product. I'll give a full report on all the wonderful cards UD is going to send me once they don't come in
**The recent player collection additions brought me to over 89% total completion, for the first time ever. My goal of 90% by the end of the year is seeming realistic, especially with some more cards on the way. The only thing standing against me is the prospect of new sets in many leagues. Black Diamond will throw five Weekes cards at me, and most of them won't be easy to find, if they are possible at all.
**Differential Equations is a major pain in the *Eric Boulton*.
**Something off-topic to share with people: On Friday and Saturday the 14th and 15th, I went to Champaign, Illinois, for an American Meteorological Society sponsored conference. The focus was on extreme weather in the midwest, and a lot of intriguing new research was presented. The keynote speaker was The Weather Channel's winter weather expert, Paul Kocin, and he's a really neat guy and an absolute meteorological genius at what he does. Of course, during the slim internet usage I got while in Illinois, I had my eye on a blob of clouds in the Caribbean that I feared would become Wilma... and did.
**Sometimes timing is everything. Perhaps that's the case here: Ebay Link - Doug Weight . If I would have sniped this, I may have won it. As it was, it's a major steal (and did go to a Weight collector, which is always good) and would have gone for the $9.99 opener, if not for my bid. Still, overlooking the fact that the title said "Platinum" instead of "OT", I can't see how this one went so cheap.
**No, there is absolutely no meaning to this mail post's title whatsoever.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
http://www.beckett.com/userpages/hatzosman6.html - Homepage/Wantlist/Tradelist
http://pipsey.net:8080/~thegreatzo/players/players.html - Player Collection Website
http://pipsey.net:8080/~thegreatzo/vipersrc/vipersrc.html - Vipers Best-RCs Project
-------------------------------------------------------
97-98 Upper Deck The Specialists Jarome Iginla (/4000)
99-00 Pacific In The Cage Mike Richter
00-01 Pacific Autographs Simon Gagne (/1000)
00-01 Topps Chrome O-Pee-Chee Refractor Henrik Sedin
02-03 Pacific Heads Up Blue Owen Nolan (/240)
03-04 Topps Pristine Tuomo Ruutu RC (/1199)
97-98 Donruss Limited Vladimir Vorobiev RC / Andreas Johansson
02-03 Vanguard Prime Prospects Stephen Weiss
The first seven cards in this batch came from Sauli (BlindThomen) from our sixty-millionth trade. The Vorobiev RC in the top right corner is one of the last Best-RCs I need for 97-98. The rest are all for trade, but the Ruutu and Richter are already gone. Thanks once again for your assistance and trading expertise.
The Weiss came in trade from Brennan (CanadianStarsFan). Thank you, and I'm glad to help out your collection as well!
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 UD Premier Collection Duvie Westcott RC (/399)
01-02 UD Premier Collection Eric Meloche RC (/399)
01-02 UD Premier Collection Martin Erat RC (/250)
02-03 SP Authentic Joe Sakic (SP) (/1499)
02-03 UD Piece of History Marks of Distinction Sergei Samsonov (SP)
This excellent batch of cards came from Joe (JSokol1626). The Sakic is available for trade. The Premier RCs are for my ongoing Best-RC project. I only need five more from the first tier (/399) to own them all! As for the second tier (/250), there are a ton I need and many I'm not serious about, but knocking off one of the better ones in Erat was very good to do. It's too bad that he got relegated to the fourth line in Nashville, but hopefully the team's prosperity will help him find his way too.
The Samsonov is a pretty severe shortprint, and one I've only seen a few copies of up to this date. From my estimation, I'd say there's between 70 and 100 copies out there. A similar situation came into play from the 99-00 Wayne Gretzky Hockey product, where Samsonov was a part of the autograph set and severely shortprinted there too. I haven't yet tracked one of those down, unfortunately.
Thank you Joe, for your help!
-------------------------------------------------------
05-06 Finnish Cardset Tim Thomas (#58)
05-06 Finnish Cardset Super Snatchers Tim Thomas (#59)
These two came from Jani (JaniH78) to re-complete the Tim Thomas collection. They are obviously vital additions. Thank you, Jani!
But... one thing... for as much as I like Tim Thomas... PLAID?????
-------------------------------------------------------
97-98 Red Deer Rebels Kyle Kos (100%!!!)
This important card came from Harve Grant, by way of Sean Vicory. It may be a boring junior issue (hey, even I get sick of tracking some of these down) but it's a collection-completer. At seven cards, it's my third smallest complete collection, but is nontheless important. Kos hasn't had any cards released since 99-00, which I do find a bit peculiar - he is indeed still playing.
-------------------------------------------------------
91-92 ProCards Stan Drulia
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Andrei Kovalenko (/25)
00-01 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 Drake Berehowsky (/25)
The Drulia (which came from Detroit-area collector Mike Antonich) is a nice addition to my player collection. I'm actually getting fairly close to completion of the Drulia collection, but there's a few big roadblocks in the way (primarily, an 00-01 BAP Emerald).
The two 00-01 Upper Deck cards are from Chris Sutherland (The Master Shake). As a player collector, I have developed an affinity for really short parallels, especially from the late 90's and early 00's. Though I don't expect there to be any Berehowsky or Kovalenko collectors around, these are certainly available. If there's no such interest, I'll be happy to keep them. Thank you Chris!
-------------------------------------------------------
00-01 Black Diamond Diamond Might Mike Modano
01-02 UD Honor Roll Mario Lemieux
01-02 UD Honor Roll Original Six Curtis Joseph
01-02 Upper Deck Gate Attractions Joe Sakic
01-02 Upper Deck Shooting Stars Brett Hull, Alexander Mogilny
01-02 Upper Deck MVP MVP Talent Sergei Fedorov
00-01 SP Authentic Petteri Nummelin RC (/900)
These all came from Mike (nyrbure). The Nummelin was the important card for me, as it's an addition to my Best-RC collection. I only need two more from that year's SP Authentic set: Lance Ward and Roman Chipmunk (intentional misspelling). The others were extras and are available for trade. Thank you, especially for all of the extras!
And, I especially apologize for the low image quality on this picture. Inexcusable by my standards, yet my standards also require me to be too lazy to redo it.
-------------------------------------------------------
95-96 Lethbridge Hurricanes Travis Brigley
99-00 IHL All-Stars Rich Parent
04-05 Lowell Lock Monsters Photo Album / JDCU Gordie Dwyer
From the oft-helpful Jason Neiberg comes three very important minor league cards. The Brigley brings me within two cards of completion. The Parent nicely assists one of my worst collections, in terms of percent-complete. Finally, the Dwyer is a re-completion of a player collection that, from the beginning of the 04-05 season onward, was never actually complete (despite my assertion otherwise). I had completed the collection before this past season, but somehow missed the release of this particular card until about a month ago. Thankfully, it's back to 100%, and this time I'm fairly certain of it!
-------------------------------------------------------
01-02 SPx Mikael Samuelsson RC (/1500) (Red/White)
02-03 UD Rookie Update Top Draws Sergei Samsonov
I nailed the Samuelsson on Bidville for cheaper than they're going on ebay, and I'll just leave it at that. It's for trade, but don't expect to get it for book value.
The Samsonov came from ebay, and is one I've been wanting for a long time. This was one of the more popular autograph sets from 02-03, but I consistently passed up on the Samsonov, as it consistently passed $10 at auction. Not only did I get this one for $8 shipped, but it's one of the only copies I've ever seen with a perfectly centered autograph. I must say, it was worth the wait!
-------------------------------------------------------
This one's a bit confusing, so I'll have to explain. Some of you may recall that a few months ago, I picked up an expired 01-02 SP Authentic Sign Of The Times Mike Comrie redemption from a card show for 25 cents. I decided to send it in, just to see what would happen (if you're following, that's 62 cents I've spent so far on the operation). Instead of the redeemed autograph, though, I received my card back, and this letter. It's definitely worth a read, especially for the final full paragraph. Some of it made me laugh, and some of it made me cringe.
Before anyone asks, I do have plans for the Comrie redemption, as it's going to head to PhilM if he ever decides to trade with me sometime this decade
Oh, and the letter mentions that Upper Deck sent me free packs to cover shipping (recall, 62 cents). What did the send?
-------------------------------------------------------
TWO PACKS - 05-06 BE A PLAYER
Commons - Heatley, Hejduk, Shanahan, Conklin, Gaborik, Sullivan, Comrie
Signatures - Ray Whitney, Steve Sullivan
Outtakes - Ed Jovanovski (/499)
They sent two packs of Be A Player! I'd say they covered my costs pretty good, wouldn't you? My break was fairly average, with two (perhaps) slightly better than common autographs, and one insert. For the price, I can't complain.
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
**Now that I've re-completed the Tim Thomas collection, and finally (correctly) completed the Gordie Dwyer and Kyle Kos collections, part two of "anatomy of a complete player collection" will be going up by the end of this coming weekend. In addition to the three players aforementioned, I'll also highlight Dimitri Afanasenkov and Dale Rominski.
**After getting those free BAP packs in, I decided to try my luck with a few NPNs from the product. I'll give a full report on all the wonderful cards UD is going to send me once they don't come in
**The recent player collection additions brought me to over 89% total completion, for the first time ever. My goal of 90% by the end of the year is seeming realistic, especially with some more cards on the way. The only thing standing against me is the prospect of new sets in many leagues. Black Diamond will throw five Weekes cards at me, and most of them won't be easy to find, if they are possible at all.
**Differential Equations is a major pain in the *Eric Boulton*.
**Something off-topic to share with people: On Friday and Saturday the 14th and 15th, I went to Champaign, Illinois, for an American Meteorological Society sponsored conference. The focus was on extreme weather in the midwest, and a lot of intriguing new research was presented. The keynote speaker was The Weather Channel's winter weather expert, Paul Kocin, and he's a really neat guy and an absolute meteorological genius at what he does. Of course, during the slim internet usage I got while in Illinois, I had my eye on a blob of clouds in the Caribbean that I feared would become Wilma... and did.
**Sometimes timing is everything. Perhaps that's the case here: Ebay Link - Doug Weight . If I would have sniped this, I may have won it. As it was, it's a major steal (and did go to a Weight collector, which is always good) and would have gone for the $9.99 opener, if not for my bid. Still, overlooking the fact that the title said "Platinum" instead of "OT", I can't see how this one went so cheap.
**No, there is absolutely no meaning to this mail post's title whatsoever.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
http://www.beckett.com/userpages/hatzosman6.html - Homepage/Wantlist/Tradelist
http://pipsey.net:8080/~thegreatzo/players/players.html - Player Collection Website
http://pipsey.net:8080/~thegreatzo/vipersrc/vipersrc.html - Vipers Best-RCs Project
Last edited:
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Mike
