The other half of the great card state

Not to be outdone by the 3 cards that Pat sent, Dennis from the Too Many Verlanders blog hit me up with a great PWE today as well.

A couple of Maple Leaf autos never hurt the cause....

I never dabbled much with the one auto a pack Be A Player releases from the mid to late 90's.  I've never been a collector that chases autographs, however I'm also someone who doesn't sneer at them when they come my way.

The 97-98 Leafs were not a very good squad, finishing with only 69 points and failing to score 200 goals during an 82 game season.  Derek King was third on the club with 47 points, and Alyn McCauley was a 20 year old rookie who accumulated 16 points.  While King only played one more season in Toronto before being traded to the Blues, McCauley went on to play 4+ more seasons in the Blue and White, becoming a solid 3rd/4th line player during the long playoff of 2001-02. 

These cards are great additions to my long neglected Leaf collection, and were a great surprise when I opened Dennis' envelope today.  Yes, Michigan was a great card state for me today...

thank you very much Dennis, these cards are greatly appreciated!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Of course the first card I pulled out of a box at the National was a hockey card

Yes, even with all the cards I'll show off on the other blog in the near future, the first card that struck my eye and wound up in my collection is this beauty.

73-74 Topps Bobby Orr all star card.  For me, it was a steal at $8 and it is the only Bobby Orr card that I own.  Another thing that I noticed this year at the show was my tendency to pick up Topps hockey cards, which is the complete opposite of what I've done in the past. 

Maybe finding a gem like this was the encouragement I needed to start grabbing Topps....

thanks for reading, Robert

Another unique add to the Sakic collection

I never had seen one of these discs until a seller on Sportlots added it to my order a couple of weeks ago.

I cut off a bit of the top of the disc, but you can still see the Team Rivals designation.  This disc was released the year after the Panthers and the Avalanche met each other in the Stanley Cup Finals.  This particular disc was only available via redemption from jars of Kraft peanut butter.

Here's the back:

I looked through the checklist, which contains 72 discs, and surprisingly found that there were none that featured Wayne Gretzky.   Joe Sakic has a 2nd disc in this set that features only him.  I imagine that putting a set of these discs had to have been difficult back in the day, as they were released in several different Kraft products in Canada. 

Nonetheless, another great addition to the Sakic collection at a price that can't be beat.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Adding pieces of the puzzle--right before the frenzy

I posted on the other blog about a PWE that Doug from the Dollar Store blog sent me.  The remainder of the cards in the envelope hit two of my hockey collections.

First, he sent me this years SP Game Used card of Joe Sakic.

I'm curious what the plans are for Burnaby Joe and the Avalanche organization as the free agent frenzy begins tomorrow.  I'm not too sure that the Parenteau for Briere trade was a step in the right direction for the Avs, but of course I have a tendency to be wrong when criticizing trades, so don't be surprised to see that trend continue.

Colorado's big name free agent is Paul Stastny, who has been rumored to be going to the blue and white, along with a few other teams.  Speaking of blue and white....

Doug also sent a couple of really nice base cards from the 2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology set.  From all the scuttlebutt I've heard recently, James Reimer's days as a Maple Leaf are numbered, with Winnipeg as the likely destination. 

I almost wish I had taken the day off tomorrow to watch the going's on, but then I remember to a couple of years ago when I took July 1st off, and wound up watching all day as nothing major really took place. 

One of these days I'll have to start putting a Maple Leafs want list together.  It shouldn't be as difficult as the Jays list was, and it will give me a good starting point when I head to hockey shows down the road. 

Thanks again Doug!  I appreciate the cards very much...

thanks for reading, Robert

Recognizable

What better way to come back from another 2 week layoff (I've got to stop that...) than to boast about a great lot of cards I scored off of eBay.  I had my eye on this auction for a few weeks, and when I finally came to a week where I had no plans for my card budget, I hunted through the seller's auctions and found another want list need that provided combined shipping and pulled the trigger.

Thanks to Priority Mail, 3 days later I had in my hand a 160 card lot from the 83-84 OPC set.  The entire lot cost me just under $20 shipped. 

The lot isn't 160 commons either.  Dale Hawerchuk, Guy Lafleur, and several other stars are in the lot.  This one card I took one look at and felt like I was in a time warp.

I would never have to even see the rest of the uniform to identify that mask with Mike Liut.  The elongated front with the triangle cut outs will forever be for me one of the most recognizable masks in hockey.  Maybe it is easily identified for me because there was no paint job on the front.  The only other goalie that I can remember that had a mask that was similar in shape to Liut was this fellow.

Very similar, except that Dion's had circles instead of triangles.  Dion's Penguin design is also very cool as well, incorporating the city's black and gold colors with the classic skating Penguin.

I couldn't remember if Liut played for any other franchises besides Hartford and St. Louis; I wound up using Hockey Reference.com to check his career stats.  For the life of me, I cannot remember him as a Capital.   Maybe it's because he's wearing this mask instead.

Yes, it's Mike Liut, but forgive me if I believe that it isn't the same one I recognize from the picture above.  He's just not as recognizable to me with the cage/fiberglass hybrid mask. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

I have a thing for HOF jersey cards on the cheap

I've wondered in the past about how successful some players would have been had they not played on teams with Wayne Gretzky.  Naturally, the first player that comes to mind that benefited from Gretzky's greatness is his right winger, Jari Kurri.

Don't get me wrong, 601 goals is nothing to sneeze at.  And yes, the one season he played in Edmonton without Gretzky they won the Stanley Cup.  It does take some talent to have a 4 year run of 52, 71, 68 and 54 goals.   The one stat that jumps out during that 4 season run is his shooting percentage in each of those campaigns was over 25%, which is phenomenal.

Given all that, when I see a 2012-13 Artifacts dual jersey card of Finland's 2nd greatest hockey player for a measly $2.50 at a card show, it's a very easy pickup.  You'll probably see more Jari Kurri cards in the future here, as I do my best to rebuild the OPC lineup of sets between 1980 and 1987. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Slacker---that's right, I'm a slacker.

2.5 weeks between posts.   Not a good thing when you're just starting out a new blog.  It's been tough staying motivated so far this summer, even on the main blog.  But I did manage to snag a few cards for a couple of hockey want lists this week.

A couple of six packs you could say.  

I'm 6 cards closer to completing the 2008-09 OPC set.  Man I'm dragging this one out!

D'Agostini has made a few stops since this card was first released.  He even had an 8 game cup of coffee in the steel city during this past season.  Speaking of 8 games, that's all that Kevin Doell played with the Thrashers back in 2008.  Enough to get him on a card!  Andrew Ebbett is another player who has bounced around, seeing action with 5 teams since he left the Ducks in 2009.

While those 6 cards are good, these 6 coming up I like even better.

I'm really hoping to build, over time, the OPC sets from 80-81 through 86-87.  I love each and every one of those sets, and piece by piece I'll have them in my collection at some point in the future.   I picked these up from one of my favorite Sportlots sellers for a quarter a piece.  I didn't know what to expect condition wise, but these are in great shape.  Even though I picked up 3 Leafs, and one former Leaf (Manno) in this group, the card I was most excited to get on the cheap was the Trottier.  The card is NM at worst, and for 25 cents was an easy add to my purchase on the weekend.

This is just the start of the purchase, I have a whole bunch more singles to show off soon.

thanks for reading, Robert