The Great Zo
Verified Trader,
Plenty to show off here. Some random stuff at the beginning, with a few player collection additions as well. Tim Thomas is the big winner, though -- and the most important stuff will be at the end. This is one of my greatest completions ever!
This is mail post #6 on the year.
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98-99 Upper Deck Year of the Great One Wayne Gretzky (vs. Boston Bruins)
03-04 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Paul Kariya (/150)
06-07 Upper Deck Ladislav Smid RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Ryan Carter RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Jared Boll RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Jannik Hansen RC (SP)
I will start with six cards I received in a trade with Dan Caven. These are all available. Thanks, Dan!
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06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Platinum Glen Murray / Marc Savard (5/5)
This card, which seems a little unlikely for one of my mail posts, was a pretty good ebay steal. With only five copies printed, I had to hit the BIN. I'm not yet sure of my plans for the card, but as with all of my extremely rare cards, I have no problem holding it for some time.
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07-08 University of Michigan Kevin Quick
This card came from Matt (Go Bruins!) in a trade. Kevin Quick is a Lightning prospect who is infamous for being kicked off of the U of M hockey team in his freshman year -- just within the past month. Details are sketchy, but it appears some sort of credit card fraud is being alleged. I don't plan on collecting Quick, but I couldn't pass up his first card -- and what will certainly be his only from U of M!
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07-08 Hershey Bears Ben Clymer
Here's a new addition for my Ben Clymer collection. This card came to me from a seller on ebay, who clearly owns a ton of Hershey sets from this year.
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02-03 O-Pee-Chee Premier Red Sergei Samsonov (/100)
...see next picture...
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04-05 Upper Deck HG Glossy Silver Sergei Samsonov (03/10)
The previous two cards came to me from KC (bungle77). These were an easy purchase for my Samsonov collection, and both cards are extremely important to me. The O-Pee-Chee Premier card is one I have been looking to get for a long time, but had never been able to locate. It leaves only one other Samsonov card on my 02-03 wantlist with a print run of 100 or greater -- just the UD Victory Gold. The second card speaks for itself, with only ten copies printed. I do still need the gold version, which is numbered to 5.
KC, thanks for the help with these!
With that, we'll move the post into the "completion" mentioned in the title.
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07-08 UD Artifacts Gold Tim Thomas (/50)
This is the last of the easy Tim Thomas base set parallels I needed from the set. This one took me a long time to acquire, for two reasons. First, two board members pulled copies of the card. Both board members decided to stop replying to emails and PMs about the cards, for no apparent reasons. That was pretty pathetic, and a little disheartening. Secondly, a guy who is an occasional Thomas collector on ebay bought about five copies of the card, at prices that kept me away. I finally found a copy on ebay for a fair price -- and I'm glad to put the rest of the struggles behind me.
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07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Icy Blue Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas (/50)
Here's another card that has given me a few failed attempts to acquire. My first attempt to acquire the card came from someone who pulled the card, and offered to send it to me for free. That sounded great -- except that the person stopped responding to emails, and never sent the card anyway. My second attempt to acquire the card was featured in my last mail post. I won it on ebay, but it arrived in a white envelope with large creases near the Fernandez swatch. My third attempt also came in from ebay -- and this one is in great shape. I'm quite lucky, too -- because this card was also sent in a white envelope! I left the seller a positive, but with a note tacked on to the end about the questionable shipping methods.
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07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Patches Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas (/35)
This card also came to me from ebay. It took me a while to acquire one of these, as well. Aside from Thomas collectors, there were a few set builders doing the regular patch set, and keeping prices high. Also, I wanted to wait to find a copy with a nice Thomas swatch -- and about half of the copies I've seen were plain black. This one was a little bit expensive, but worth it for the quality of both patch pieces.
The next four cards came to me in a purchase from Adam Williams (admanimal). Adam collected Thomas for a month or two, but recently decided to pursue other interests. I was able to swing a deal for some of his departing cards.
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06-07 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Tim Thomas (/100)
This one is an extra for my collection, but comes from one of my favorite parallel sets in recent memory.
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07-08 O-Pee-Chee MicroMotion Tim Thomas
Here's a fairly easy Thomas card that I did still need for my collection. I also need the Samsonov from the set -- in case anyone has one laying around.
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07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Metallic Purple
-- Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas
This is my fifth copy of the Metallic Purple version of this card, and it's certainly the nicest one. It's also the only one with a multi-color Thomas swatch. The left side has a sliver of black.
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07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Trios Patches
-- Glen Murray / Zdeno Chara / Tim Thomas (02/10)
Finally, here's the real reason for the deal with Adam. This one was not cheap, but was actually the last piece of the puzzle I acquired for my "completion" I've mentioned. While it's a feature-worthy item, it's relegated to the second spot for good reason.
This is the third copy of the card I've seen -- and every swatch features at least two colors. Unfortunately, the Thomas swatch is not particularly nice. With only ten copies printed of the card, though, I'm alright overlooking it.
Adam, thanks for the deal! These cards were a big help.
Finally, here's the featured item for the mail post!
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07-08 UD Artifacts Silver Rainbow Tim Thomas (1/1)
This card actually arrived to me before anything else from this mail post -- but for obvious reasons, I held it until the end.
I received this card from Darcy (RAVMAN). The card was pulled around Christmas, but it took until now to get the deal completed.
This is my sixth Tim Thomas 1/1 card. For me, that ties Kevin Weekes for the most 1/1s I own of a given player. In total, it's the 18th 1/1 in my player collections.
With all of the pieces assembled, here's the completion in all its scanned glory. Seventeen cards in all, with three 1/1s. Warning -- big pictures!
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News and notes:
**I am continuing to update the Upper Deck Press Plate trackers. Here are the links: 05-06, 06-07.
**I finished my annual audit of my player collections. I found six new items to add to my wantlist, which is about normal for when I re-assess my checklist sources. The best news is that I found no errors in my math -- so my percentages are all good!
**In terms of my Thomas collection, there will not be much rest for me -- but I've got a little bit of a break right now. He has a base set card in Upper Deck Series 2 -- with the full assortment of parallels and plates. I am also expecting at least a dozen cards in Between The Pipes, but last year's set had 20 -- so perhaps even that high again.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
Andy's Hockey Cards - Player Collection Website
Vipers Best-RCs Project - Lightning Best-RCs Project
Wantlist - Tradelist
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This is mail post #6 on the year.
-------------------------------------------------------
98-99 Upper Deck Year of the Great One Wayne Gretzky (vs. Boston Bruins)
03-04 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script Paul Kariya (/150)
06-07 Upper Deck Ladislav Smid RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Ryan Carter RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Jared Boll RC (SP)
07-08 Upper Deck Jannik Hansen RC (SP)
I will start with six cards I received in a trade with Dan Caven. These are all available. Thanks, Dan!
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Platinum Glen Murray / Marc Savard (5/5)
This card, which seems a little unlikely for one of my mail posts, was a pretty good ebay steal. With only five copies printed, I had to hit the BIN. I'm not yet sure of my plans for the card, but as with all of my extremely rare cards, I have no problem holding it for some time.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 University of Michigan Kevin Quick
This card came from Matt (Go Bruins!) in a trade. Kevin Quick is a Lightning prospect who is infamous for being kicked off of the U of M hockey team in his freshman year -- just within the past month. Details are sketchy, but it appears some sort of credit card fraud is being alleged. I don't plan on collecting Quick, but I couldn't pass up his first card -- and what will certainly be his only from U of M!
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 Hershey Bears Ben Clymer
Here's a new addition for my Ben Clymer collection. This card came to me from a seller on ebay, who clearly owns a ton of Hershey sets from this year.
-------------------------------------------------------
02-03 O-Pee-Chee Premier Red Sergei Samsonov (/100)
...see next picture...
-------------------------------------------------------
04-05 Upper Deck HG Glossy Silver Sergei Samsonov (03/10)
The previous two cards came to me from KC (bungle77). These were an easy purchase for my Samsonov collection, and both cards are extremely important to me. The O-Pee-Chee Premier card is one I have been looking to get for a long time, but had never been able to locate. It leaves only one other Samsonov card on my 02-03 wantlist with a print run of 100 or greater -- just the UD Victory Gold. The second card speaks for itself, with only ten copies printed. I do still need the gold version, which is numbered to 5.
KC, thanks for the help with these!
With that, we'll move the post into the "completion" mentioned in the title.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Gold Tim Thomas (/50)
This is the last of the easy Tim Thomas base set parallels I needed from the set. This one took me a long time to acquire, for two reasons. First, two board members pulled copies of the card. Both board members decided to stop replying to emails and PMs about the cards, for no apparent reasons. That was pretty pathetic, and a little disheartening. Secondly, a guy who is an occasional Thomas collector on ebay bought about five copies of the card, at prices that kept me away. I finally found a copy on ebay for a fair price -- and I'm glad to put the rest of the struggles behind me.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Icy Blue Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas (/50)
Here's another card that has given me a few failed attempts to acquire. My first attempt to acquire the card came from someone who pulled the card, and offered to send it to me for free. That sounded great -- except that the person stopped responding to emails, and never sent the card anyway. My second attempt to acquire the card was featured in my last mail post. I won it on ebay, but it arrived in a white envelope with large creases near the Fernandez swatch. My third attempt also came in from ebay -- and this one is in great shape. I'm quite lucky, too -- because this card was also sent in a white envelope! I left the seller a positive, but with a note tacked on to the end about the questionable shipping methods.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Patches Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas (/35)
This card also came to me from ebay. It took me a while to acquire one of these, as well. Aside from Thomas collectors, there were a few set builders doing the regular patch set, and keeping prices high. Also, I wanted to wait to find a copy with a nice Thomas swatch -- and about half of the copies I've seen were plain black. This one was a little bit expensive, but worth it for the quality of both patch pieces.
The next four cards came to me in a purchase from Adam Williams (admanimal). Adam collected Thomas for a month or two, but recently decided to pursue other interests. I was able to swing a deal for some of his departing cards.
-------------------------------------------------------
06-07 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Tim Thomas (/100)
This one is an extra for my collection, but comes from one of my favorite parallel sets in recent memory.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 O-Pee-Chee MicroMotion Tim Thomas
Here's a fairly easy Thomas card that I did still need for my collection. I also need the Samsonov from the set -- in case anyone has one laying around.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Tandems Metallic Purple
-- Manny Fernandez / Tim Thomas
This is my fifth copy of the Metallic Purple version of this card, and it's certainly the nicest one. It's also the only one with a multi-color Thomas swatch. The left side has a sliver of black.
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Tundra Trios Patches
-- Glen Murray / Zdeno Chara / Tim Thomas (02/10)
Finally, here's the real reason for the deal with Adam. This one was not cheap, but was actually the last piece of the puzzle I acquired for my "completion" I've mentioned. While it's a feature-worthy item, it's relegated to the second spot for good reason.
This is the third copy of the card I've seen -- and every swatch features at least two colors. Unfortunately, the Thomas swatch is not particularly nice. With only ten copies printed of the card, though, I'm alright overlooking it.
Adam, thanks for the deal! These cards were a big help.
Finally, here's the featured item for the mail post!
-------------------------------------------------------
07-08 UD Artifacts Silver Rainbow Tim Thomas (1/1)
This card actually arrived to me before anything else from this mail post -- but for obvious reasons, I held it until the end.
I received this card from Darcy (RAVMAN). The card was pulled around Christmas, but it took until now to get the deal completed.
This is my sixth Tim Thomas 1/1 card. For me, that ties Kevin Weekes for the most 1/1s I own of a given player. In total, it's the 18th 1/1 in my player collections.
With all of the pieces assembled, here's the completion in all its scanned glory. Seventeen cards in all, with three 1/1s. Warning -- big pictures!
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------
News and notes:
**I am continuing to update the Upper Deck Press Plate trackers. Here are the links: 05-06, 06-07.
**I finished my annual audit of my player collections. I found six new items to add to my wantlist, which is about normal for when I re-assess my checklist sources. The best news is that I found no errors in my math -- so my percentages are all good!
**In terms of my Thomas collection, there will not be much rest for me -- but I've got a little bit of a break right now. He has a base set card in Upper Deck Series 2 -- with the full assortment of parallels and plates. I am also expecting at least a dozen cards in Between The Pipes, but last year's set had 20 -- so perhaps even that high again.
That'll be it. Thanks everyone!
LINKS:
Andy's Hockey Cards - Player Collection Website
Vipers Best-RCs Project - Lightning Best-RCs Project
Wantlist - Tradelist
-------------------------------------------------------
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Congrats on finishing off Artifacts; I'd love to be able to do that as well!
