The First Post of the Year. Some goals, some cards.

Ahhh, the first of the year. When bloggers from across the card trading world post about goals and ambitions and the like. Wait, it's the end of January and not the beginning? How did that happen? Whelp. I guess there's no need for a long detailed post about what I plan on doing with my cards this year since I'm already a month behind.

Might as well just wait till March and a return to the Orioles Victory Card series. Already have 15 cards scanned, that should get me into early June. Oh god, it's going to be such a long summer. The good news is that, if plans hold, I'll be at opening day (my first ever) to hopefully see a valiant effort against the dastardly New York Yankees. I'm also holding out hope that I'll be able to see Pearl Jam at nearby Royal Farms Arena (haven't been there since the original Baltimore Blast were in town).  Based on how ticket sales went last week, that's highly unlikely, but you never know.

As far as collecting, I do actually have some plans for 2020. As I've tried to do every year since I've had to start lugging this collection around (from Florida to Chicago to Pittsburgh to Salt Lake City) I plan on reducing the amount of cards I own. 

Now a couple of times I've said, "I want to get rid of 1,000 cards this year" or something to that effect, and I've done it. The problem, I've also taken in more than a 1,000 cards that year. So, in the end, I still ended up with more cards than I started with, which is a problem. 

This year, I've refined the goal. My plan is to get rid of 2,020 more cards than I take in. Thus eliminating roughly one shoe box worth of cards from the closet. You're welcome, whatever moving company moves us next.

So far I'm off to a decent start with a -674 card count as of today. Granted 550 of those cards went out in one transaction, but who's counting (technically I guess I am). Also, I haven't bought any boxes of new product yet either. That leads into goal number two.

Limit the buying of boxes. I love ripping packs. It's one of the top things about this hobby that keeps me interested. Whether it's a single box/pack of SP Game Used or 20 some packs of Topps Big League, the joy of not knowing what's going to pop up in the next pack is so much fun. 

My plan for Series One is to just buy a collated set. Those tend to not be too expensive on eBay and will keep the extraneous cards to a minimum.  That will severely hamper the chances of me flipping any inserts or variations for Series One, but that's ok. God knows I have enough from the last few years that I haven't posted or tried to sell yet so I should be able to keep at least some money flowing into the Buy More Cards fund. 

I will most likely buy a few boxes of Heritage or Allen & Ginter when they roll out later in the year. That will give me some time to eliminate more cards and I do love the 1971 design for Heritage this year. I'm sure I'm not alone in that which means box prices should remain nice and high (being smarter was never going to be a goal this year).

Other goals include continuing to build the Personal Collection (currently consisting of Tampa Bay Lightning cards, Vincent Lecavalier cards and Eddie Murray cards). I did manage to get 99.9% of my Lightning cards loaded into TCDB which allowed me to post a Want List for the ones I don't have. That makes trading a little easier. 

I also plan on having my entire collection entered into TCDB by the end of the year, if not sooner. I'm roughly 40% of the way there and it gives me something to do while mindlessly watching TV. Entering cards has shown me that I have plenty of duplicates (thanks junk wax era) and surprisingly, there are people out there that are looking for those cards. I've ripped off a bunch of trades already this year and offers keep coming in every time I finish loading a set. 

My goal in regards to trading is to make sure I send out more than I receive in at least 95% of the trades I make. That will help chip away at that 2,020 fewer cards thing. I've never been huge on getting equal value out of trades, especially since it's mostly base card duplicates that I'm sending out, so throwing in an extra four or five cards a trade isn't going to kill me. 

Woe to those that list any late-80s, early 90s cards on their want lists. If I see you need 1989 Topps cards, you're getting some, no you're getting a lot. I have 2,170 duplicate 1989 Topps cards. that's too many by about 2,000. So beware of your want lists. I will ambush you with extra cardboard.

I do want to finish off a few sets. Last year's base set is still incomplete as is the 2016 base set (that one feels like it will never end). I've completed 46.2% of the 1976 Topps base set so I doubt I'll finish that off, but if I end up close to 75% I'll be happy. There are a couple of older sets that I'm almost done with that I'd like to finish off as well (1991 Upper Deck 88.1%, 1989 Fleer 87.7%), but they're not exactly a focus.

As for singles, I will still be buying PC cards, but also want to pick up some cards of classic players, or classic cards. I picked up a few last year (Griffey Upper Deck rookie, 1971  Thurman Munson, 1985 McGwire that may be a fake, etc). This year I'm looking for cards of the old players like Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente. Throw in some of the Robinson boys and Boog Powell as well and I'll be a happy camper. 

Other than that, I just want to have fun. I try not to get wrapped up in drama in this hobby, because, after all, it's just a hobby for me. I'm not in it for the money, just the memories.

In keeping with my goals here are a few cards I picked up recently.

1964 Topps Sandy Koufax World Series #136

I went online with the intention of buying a Koufax card from his playing days. Found this one that was not only affordable, but I really liked the photo of Koufax at full stride, probably right before he made yet another hitter look foolish. 

1976 Topps Dennis Eckersly

The "biggest" rookie card I needed for the 1976 set, Eck came at a reasonable price due to some soft corners. Still, it's pretty well centered and will look good on the page. Now it's just a matter of finding the other 300+ cards I need to finish off the set.

 A trio of Vinny Cards

These three cards put me up to 285 different Vincent Lecavalier cards. That's roughly 7.4% of the available cards he has out there. I'm currently ranked third among collectors on TCDB who have Lecavalier cards. I think with a little work I can get to second (310 cards), but first (374 cards) may have to wait until next year.

Trade Post! Upping the Lecavalier Collection

It's been a busy couple of weeks of trading as I try to get to my half-hearted goal of 100 trades on Trading Card Database by the end of the year. Some swapping of junk wax has netted me about 70 1991 Upper Deck cards, truly an underrated set, and a handful of other base needs.

In between baseball trades I did slide in a hockey trade with user SportsCardHunter in Ontario. In exchange for some duplicate Lightning cards I had listed he sent me a couple of Vincent Lecavalier cards.

According to TCDB they were the 272nd and 273rd unique Lecavalier cards that I have acquired. That's good enough for third among collectors at the site, but there is a bit of a gap between myself and the second place gentleman. According to their stats it also means I've acquired exactly 7.1% of the available Lecavalier cards they have listed. It may take awhile to get them all.

Here's the haul:

1999-2000 O-Pee-Chee

Look at him in all his rookie-year glory. The old-school uniform, the all-star patch, and most importantly the number 9 on his sweater. In his rookie year the now familiar number four was already occupied by Cory Cross. The defenseman would be traded after Lecavalier's first year and freed up the number and he went on to do great things with it.

The card itself is a direct parallel of the Topps base card from the year with the only difference being the logo on the top right corner on the front and on the bottom of the back of the card. 

2002-03 Upper Deck Vintage Green Back #88/199

Welcome to Parallel City! Honestly, I didn't even know this existed until I searched through SportsCardHunter's cards available for trade (his original offer was a generous supply of Lightning cards, but I wanted some Vinny!). I don't have the base, but I'm assuming the only differences are the serial number stamped on the front and well....the green back...hence the name.

As you can see Vinny is now wearing the four that would be retired in his honor and also has an "A" on his sweater. That's not unusual for a young player who was drafted to be the franchise's savior, but what is a bit odd is that Lecavalier had already worn the "C"  prior to this season. In March of 2000 he was named captain of the Lightning. At the time he was the youngest captain ever in NHL history (since then he's been surpassed by Sidney Crosby, Gabriel Landeskog, and Connor McDavid).

Due to a contract hold out, some public and private confrontations with head coach John Tortorella, the acquisition of Dave Andreychuk, and the realization that it was too much pressure, too early in his career Lecavalier had the "C" removed from his jersey. It wouldn't be until 2008 and the departures of Andreychuk and Tim Taylor, that the "C" would return. He would wear it until his contract was bought out in 2013.

Thanks for the trade, SportsCardHunter!

Oh My Goodness I'm Writing About a Trade (Non Jim Johnson related)

As 2013 draws to a close I realize I haven't been very good about posting trades.  It's not because I haven't been trading, actually it's quite the opposite.  So I guess it's just that I'm lazy.  Yup that's it. Laziness.

If you remember (and I know you do!) I bought a random box of hockey cards to break a couple of months ago.  That box happened to be 2011-12 Panini Rookie Anthology. In the box there was a really nice Gabriel Landeskog auto/relic that I wasn't sure what I would do with it. Sure I could put it on eBay and get a couple bucks for it. Or I could hold on to it until an Avalanche fan came strolling by with an offer.

Lucky for me I didn't have to wait long.  Matt over at Cardboard Conundrum sent me an email saying that he was interested in the card and if I could make him an offer we could probably work something out.  Needless to say we worked something out.

Let me say something about being a Lightning fan.  There aren't many of us in this hobby. That means I get the pick of the litter when making trades with folks.  Matt had a pretty nice selection to chose from and in the end we settled on a 2-for-1 deal that netted me the below cards:

2011-12 Panini Titanium Game-Worn Gear Vincent Lecavalier

The photo makes it look like Vinny is wearing dress pants.

Yup, still collecting cards of Vinny4. At least cards of him in a Lightning uniform.  I like the layout of the card with the exception of the fabricated metal strips that border the top and bottom of the card.  It would be fine without it, but I'm guessing Panini needed to drive home the "Titanium" theme.

2012-13 Panini Limited Phenom JT Brown numbered 257/499

J.T. looks like he's photobombing his own card

Anytime you can start a personal collection of a 4th line winger you have to do it, right?  Normally I'm not a fan of manufactured swatches, but this is a bit of an exception.  The blue ink and blue Lightning "Flash" logo show up nicely on the white background.

Brown has actually paired quite well with Nate Thompson on Tampa's 4th line.  He's used his speed and hustle to create a little chaos on the forecheck and that line has actually scored some goals in recent games.  Something that the Bolts need with Stamkos out for a couple of more months (or weeks, or days since he is apparently a cyborg).

Matt, thank you for the trade!

The Lightning Card of the Week - Version 2.0 (Now with more Barnaby!)

The NHL is back and I am excited.  Yes, that means I’m a sheep. I’m part of the problem.  I don’t care. Professional hockey is my favorite sport and the fact that I was denied it for 3 months sucks.  So why would I deny myself even more of it with some damn, fool idealistic crusade of revenge that in the grand scheme of things doesn’t really mean anything?  Owners will still be rich and so will the players.  So I say, “Bring on the Pucks!”

In honor of the news that the boys will be dropping the puck again in about two weeks I’m bringing back the Lightning card of the week.  I know Version One of this project was shorter than a Blue Jacket’s winning streak, but that’s not my fault.  I got a job and that cut into my writing time! I got married and that cut into my writing time (not sure how, but I’m sure it did). I started working overnights and that cut into my writing time (well that one is kind of true).

So let’s start out with an addition to the personal collection.

Look how loose those chinstraps are - correlation to concussions?

2002 Pacific Riding Shotgun Vincent Lecavalier/ Matthew Barnaby

As a Lecavalier fan I’m half-heartedly collecting as many cards of his as possible. Around Christmas I was doing a little surfing on COMC and stumbled across this card.  What a perfect card to sum up the early-2000s Tampa Bay Lightning.  Their best offensive weapon paired with……Matthew Barnaby.

The back of the card notes that Barnaby’s “hard-nosed playing style” was brought to Tampa to play as Lecavalier’s winger. Which I guess is a good thing, because he surely wasn’t there to score.  In 58 games spread over two seasons he managed just 8 points with the Lightning (although he did rack up 167 penalty minutes).

Although it looks like Lecavalier had a hand in at least ½ of Barnaby’s 8 points so I guess they had some sort of chemistry.  From what I can remember Nils Ekman rounded out that power-packed line.  All of those points came in the 2000-01 season as Barnaby managed to go 20 games in 2001-02 without scoring a point before being shipped off to the Rangers for a Slovakian named Zdeno. Sadly his last name was Ciger not Chara (Big Ciggy did score 12 points for the Lightning before heading back to Slovakia).

Matthew Barnaby would continue to do Matthew Barnaby things for another four seasons before briefly being a tv commentator. He’s had a few run-ins with the law since he retired and has spent most of the last year or so off the radar apparently running some youth hockey training camps.

As for Lecavalier, he finally found someone to really ride shotgun for him as Vinny Prospal came to the team and within three seasons he had a Stanley Cup and a string of 30+ goal seasons.  

Trade Time: Or What I Got in the Mail Yesterday

I was banging around on the internets a few weeks ago and decided to upload some images to Zistle.  I’ve been using their site to track my progress on completing the 2011-12 Score Hockey set (progress is not going well…so many cards still needed) so I figured I’d help them out and with some images. As I was doing that I noticed a gentleman needing some 2009-10 UD Champs.

Justin from Off-Centered is working on completing some of the vintage-esque newer sets like Champs and Allen & Ginter.  I can’t blame him since over the last few years those sets have garnered a lot of positive feedback in the industry.  As I’ve mentioned in the past – Champs has been my go-to set for hand-signed autographs of older and newer players. 

Needing to clear out some space in my hockey box I flipped through my doubles and saw that I had about 16 base cards that he needed.  A message here, a response there, a trip to the post office and we had ourselves a trade.

On Friday I saw a delightful, yellow, padded envelope in my mail slot and it was my return haul for the cards.  With hockey trades I’m trying a new system, since I don’t have a lot of wants outside of the Lightning I’ve given folks the option of just sending me a pack of 2011-12 Score.

The reason for this is two-fold.

1.       It saves me from having to spend money on packs and it isn’t that expensive for others. I think retail is 99 cents for a pack. That way I can chase a set and it won’t cost me too much out of pocket.

2.       I get a chance of actually pulling a Vincent Lecavalier card from a pack.  My inability to pull cards of my favorite player from packs is getting to be annoying. So I figured if someone else bought the packs I could fool the card gods into getting a card I wanted.  Would it work?

First off – some of the extras that Justin threw in.  As one of the few Lightning collectors out here I think people just feel obliged to throw in their extra Lightning cards – I ain’t got a problem with that.

Hey Steve…how ya doin’ in Colorado?  Pretty good, eh?  Just wanted to say I miss you. 

Was that creepy? It felt a little creepy….

My Marty, that’s an awful big trophy you got there. I mean look at it, it looks like it’s almost half of his size.  One thing I like about Pinnacle is that they use non-traditional photos to break up the set a bit. There are only so many ways to take photos of guys skating down the ice so it’s nice to see something different every once in a while.

Now onto the packs.

 Each pack had a Hot Rookie in it so I feel like I beat the odds a bit on that.

Bobby Luongo looking like he’s not in a happy place. I wonder if he’ll be looking for a new address this summer.

And finally – could it be? Is it? My God, that’s VINNY LECAVALIER’S MUSIC!!!!!!

Yup, so my theory has been proven sound.  The only way I will ever pull a Vinny out of a pack is to have someone else buy it for me.

Thanks, for the cards Justin and good luck in finishing your set!

Trade Time! Card's That Is..

I haven’t declared 2012 a year of trading yet, but so far it looks like it’s turning out that way.  I’ve pulled off two already and am in the middle of a third.  Not bad for one month.  Since I’m not one for going in order, let’s break down the second trade first. 

Scrolling through the interwebs one day I noticed a Vinny Lecavalier on the Card Boarded site. I scrambled through my collection to see if I had anything even remotely close to value that I could offer Paul.  I found a Jimmy Howard Parkhurst rookie and a handful of other Red Wings cards.  Luckily enough he accepted and mentioned that he would throw in a couple of Lightning cards in addition to the Lecavalier.

First up the Vincent – 

 Oh parallel goodness – the Blue Mirror version of 2010-11 Leaf Certified.  Only 1000 more parallels to go to complete the rainbow!  This particular card is numbered 98/100…98 is his rookie year….eBay one of one!

Now for the Lightning “throw ins”

A trio of the Big Three from 2009-10 Artifacts. No team gets a higher percentage of goals from their top players than the Lightning.  I’d look up the numbers, but I’m feeling kind of lazy right now.

Three Score cards. Mike Smith – redeeming his career in Phoenix, Steve Downie cruising to lay the smack down on somebody who outweighs him by 30 pounds, and Dwayne Roloson making a save (so you know it’s from last season).

Dana Tyrell Black Diamond Rookie Gems.  The latest member of the Lightning’s walking wounded brigade, Tyrell suffered a lower body injury last Sunday against the Penguins and looks to be out for a few more games.

Finally….a surprise card that instantly becomes the front runner for 2012’s Card of the Year:

Daymond Langkow 1997-98 National Pride Die-cut #’d 207/1997.   This card is wonderful.  It’s die-cut, it’s serial numbered and most importantly it features the greatest uniform in Lightning history, the short-lived flame sleeves third jersey.  It features a pretty solid player as well.

Langow was drafted in the first round by the Lightning in 1995 and managed to play parts of 4 seasons with the Bolts before being traded to Philadelphia with Mikael Renberg for Chris Gratton and Mike Sillinger. He’s still in the league now having come back from a neck injury to skate in 39 games for the Phoenix Coyotes this season.

Paul – thanks for the trade!

A Card in The Mail - Low Numbered Edition

As you may remember, I recently acquired a Steven Stamkos emerald parallel of his 2010-11 Upper Deck Artifacts card.  Numbered to 50, it was the lowest numbered card in my collection.  I say “was” because a day ago I received a new card that is numbered even lower.

I love GOOOOOOLLLDDD!

What you are looking at is a Vincent Lecavalier gold parallel of one of his 2010-11 Artifacts cards.  It’s not his base, despite having a card number of 174 on the back. It is, in fact, part of the Legends and Stars subset from that release.  The regular version of this card is short-printed and numbered to 999.  The one above is serial numbered to 35.

Over all I’m not really impressed with the design.  Sure, the writing is in a lovely gold script, but look at all of the wasted space.  I mean, really, could they use a smaller picture of Lecavalier?  I do like the background, but I don’t want it to be the focal point of the entire cards.

As for the picture itself, I like to think that Lecavalier has the puck at the end of his stick as he heads up ice.  Possibly, he’s on the power play and looking to hit Marty St. Louis for a beautiful one-time goal.  This is one of an inordinate amount of cards featuring Vincent with his mouth open.  When coupled with his raised eyebrows he looks mildly shocked.  Perhaps he’s shocked that he was still with the team (it was during those days when he was being shipped to Montreal for every player on their roster) or perhaps he’s surprised that he’s getting paid $10 million a year to skate around the ice.

I do like that he’s wearing the old, road whites, you know the “classic” ones that lasted about two seasons?  I hope the NHL goes back to having teams wear their white sweaters at home like the good ol’ days.  After all, how stupid is the Winnipeg White Out going to look when the road team is the one wearing white?  Granted, they have a few seasons before they have to worry about it, but you would have to assume that the ex-Thrashers make the playoffs sooner or later.

The back of the card doesn’t offer any stats, just a couple of sentences about his season.  2009-10 wasn’t one of Vincent’s better years and the only thing they could mention is that he played in all 82 games and was second on the team in shots on goal.  Ten million a year, folks!

I always felt bad for the copywriters who had to tackle the backs of the late-80s Score cards.  Coming up with three paragraphs on Mickey Brantley (former student of Coastal Carolina University - Go Chanticleers!) couldn’t have been easy. At least Topps had the decency to cram enough stats on the back of their cards so that they only had to write one or two sentences on the back.

The number 35 doesn’t play to relevantly in Lecavalier’s career.  He did score 35 goals in 2005-06, but that’s about it.  The number 11 plays even less a factor.  The best I could find was the 11 playoff games he played in 2002-03.  Like I said, not that important.

Such a great uniform!

How about in Lightning history?  Well, Tom Pyatt currently rocks the 11 on his sweater.  However, my favorite number 11 has to be Steve Kelly, or as he was known around the Ice Palace - Speedy Stevie Kelly.  Speed was really the only thing he brought to the ice.  In parts of two seasons, from 1997-99, he scored 3 goals and added 4 assists.  Somehow, in only 58 games he managed to end up a -24.  Those were some good times to be a fan!

The number 35 is currently unused, but has graced the backs of several players in Lightning history, all of them goaltenders.  The most famous would be Nikolai Khabibulin, the Russian net minder who led the team to their only Stanley Cup Championship.  As much as I liked the wild-eyed, puck stopper, he isn’t my favorite player to wear that number.

That honor belongs to Kevin Hodson, the backup goalie from the turn of the century.  Much like Kelly, he was a member of the organization during their darkest days and only managed 4 wins in his 36 games with the Lightning.  During those days he also sported number 30 and 31 on his uniform. I’m not going to lie, it was hard to keep track of who was who back in those days, not that it really mattered - they were all pretty bad,

Hodson, whose problems with a rapid heart beat earned him the nickname “Ticker” from his teammates,  came over to the Lightning at the 1999 trade deadline.  He was part of the blockbuster deal (at least to Lightning fans) that sent Wendel Clark to Detroit.  Clark, who actually had a decent year with the Bolts, was traded along with a 6th round pick to the Red Wings for Hodson and a 2nd round pick.  That pick would become Saint Leo Mike’s favorite Lightning player of all time - Sheldon Keefe.

Ben Clymer? Paul Martins? How did this team NOT make the playoffs?

While he never lived up to the potential Lightning fans hoped he would, Hodson was well-liked by the fans.  He habitually flipped pucks to fans following pre-game warm-ups and occasionally handed his stick to young fans following games. Oh, and he was nice enough to autograph a card for me one time!

Not in Lightning uniform, but still nice!

Overall, even though I’m not a big fan of the card, I’m glad I picked it up. If I didn’t have the need to collect every Lecavalier card ever produced I probably wouldn’t have bought it.  Heck, if the cost wasn’t less than a pack of 2011-12 Upper Deck Series One (the secret is free shipping, my friends!) I probably would have passed it by for another card.

The problem know is, since it’s a colored parallel, I must have all the different version to complete the rainbow!

It's Mailbag Time!

That's right, the only time that's better than T-Shirt Time is mailbag time.  So let's delve into what Mr. Postman delivered this week.

We have a padded envelope from Mr. San Jose Fuji!  I unloaded a San Jose Sharks relic card that was collecting some dust on my desk and in return he knocked off a couple of want list cards.  Let's see what he sent:

First Up - the greatest calling card of all time.

Next - an autographed Fredrik Modin Be A Player card.  This is the main card I was looking for as it will contribute greatly to my double secret probation wantlist. Modin is definitely one of the most missed Lightning players from the Cup era.

A trio of Murray cards that I needed. Love the oddball sets from Kaybee and Woolworth. Top it off with a Members Only Stadium Club and I'm happy. For those keeping track, once card with double gloves and two with no batting gloves.

Not a card, but part of a card set.  It's a little, bitty Vinny jersey.  From the 2007-08 Upper Deck Mini Jersey set.  I busted one pack of this product and pulled a Mike Modano jersey, which I think I still have somewhere.

The card I specifically requested and forced Fuji to go hunting in his archives for- the 1981 Floyd Rayford rookie card.  Boom! That guy on the left had a pretty good career for the birds as well. Mark Corey, unfortunately, did not.  He appeared in 59 games over three seasons (1979-81) and hit .211.  He did hit one major league home run - so he can tell his grand kids that!

Thanks, Fuji!

Joy of a Completed Page - Sweater Style

In celebration of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s win over the Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins I figured I’d post my first ever “Joys of a Completed Page”.  Since Vincent Lecavalier scored twice, and I happen to be a Vincent collector, he gets the honor of being featured in the debut.

So Much Sweater Sweetness!

What we have here is a complete page of horizontal relic cards featuring the Lightning captain.  Some of these have been picked up via trades, the LCS,eBay and card shows.  I can state for the fact, that I have never pulled a Lecavalier relic or auto from a pack. Heck, I struggle to get his base cards when I bust wax.

Now let us go to the numbers!

9 different cards

2 Manufacturers represented (Panini and Upper Deck)

5 different players featured (Lecavalier, Brad Richards, Steven Stamkos, Paul Ranger, Jussi Jokinen (twice) and Marty St. Louis (twice).

19 different pieces of jersey

3 colors represented (2 blue, 6 white, 10 black, one mixed black/white)

5 numbered cards

99 lowest print run (2010-11 Playoff Dominion)

10/350 lowest number I have (2005-06 SPX Winning Combos)

First card I bought – 2005-06 Upper Deck Trilo3y Honorary Swatches

Most recent – 2010-11Playoff Dominion

There ya go!

This is the most impressive Vinny card I've ever seen. It's mine. It took me two weeks to get this. This card is expensive. It's about $3 on the 'Bay, because of the awesome. It doesn't fit in a standard top-loader, because it doesn't belong in a standard top-loader.
It's the kind of thing that this card is so good that even if you don't like Vincent, you won't trade it away 'cause it demonstrates incredible collecting capabilities. Collecting is not about value, it's about having awesome cards.
My card has a die cut window. My card is serial numbered. My card is game worn. Authentic guaranteed. Not kidding.
My card, instead of telling you it's worth $15, 'cause who cares about Beckett, tells you I collect awesome. Guaranteed. What do you own – guaranteed?


Yup, I picked up another card for the ol' personal collection. A very generous blogger by the name of Kevin over at The Mojo Beard sent this one my way about a week ago. In return for…….nothing. The generosity of people on the internet never ceases to amaze me. His goodness will be returned…once I get back to Florida and the home of the collection. In the meantime, check his writing out.
Oh and that first part, in case it sounded familiar, was lifted directly from one of my favorite youtube clips of all time. Check it out here.

Cards in the Mail. I Got Cards in the Mail!

It's Monday. The sun was out all day, but now it has set over beyond the El Tracks. Hockey is on the computer and Mike Smith is in the net. Wait, what? Insert image of jaw comically hitting the floor. Mr Smith Goes to a Playoff Game? I guess that's cool, but you know what's cooler than that? New cards!

First up is the newest Vincent card for the collection. The captain has had a bit of an inconsistent Eastern Conference Finals, but I expect him to re-enter beast mode for the remainder of the series.




A Donruss 2010-11 base card. Sexy, ain't it? I picked this one up out of box I split with my co-worker Scotty. If you've paid attention to any previous breaks, then you know I didn't actually open the pack that this came in. I had to trade him a Patrick Kane or something for it. I might be semi-responsible for Scotty getting back into the hobby. So that's kind of like me getting someone hooked to heroin, except for the fact that cards can't kill you, aren't illegal and won't make you all heroiny looking. Other than that it's the same.

Speaking of Scotty, he provided the next two cards.




A Topps Cal Ripken All Star Insert. That's right kids, back IN MY DAY these were the only chasewe could look forward to. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember how we got them I think they were some sort of redemption set.

Sitting next to Cal, and checking off another "want" is an Eddie Murray 1990 Topps Mini Leaders. It's so weird to see him in a Dodgers uniform. I know it happened, I know why it happened, but it just isn't right. He should always be an Oriole. Can't we have a Ministry of Truth (card edition) go back and airbrush all of these old cards?

Moving along. If there was an award for best named blog, my vote would go to Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle. Any blog that contains both "Thy" and "Argyle" is aces in my book. So in exchange for a Manny Relic what did he send back? Gold baby! Cardboard Gold!



A rare card indeed. A Peter Bondra showing the Washington sniper sans mullet. The insert photo on this 91-92 Pinnacle does, however, have excellent yearbook photo potential. But this isn't the Gold, neither was the Sandy McCarthy Topps that I neglected to scan for reasons unknown. This is it.




Yeah, baby. He promised a surprise and he delivered. 2010-11 SPX Winning Materials Dual Jersey card. In other words, a card I would probably get outbid on 4 or 5 times on the bay. And not it's mine, ALL MINE!!!!!


As always, a huge thank you to all of those out there kind enough to send me cards. Oh and later this week I reveal a long lost Through The Mail auto! Yea!

The Collection Increases by One

While my pack buying habits are on standby, I've still been perusing the world's largest on-line flea market - eBay.

The result:




A 2003-04 Pacific Quest for the Cup Vincent Lecavalier.

Horizontal, young pre-trade rumors Vincent and a picture of the Holy Grail AND free shipping? That equals a win for me!

Mailbag Monday

I’m not going to lie. This week’s Monday Mail Day is a bit depressing. Not because of the card I received, but because of who is on it. From the world’s marketplace, by way of Canada, I acquired a shiny new jersey card of Vincent Lecavalier.




A single, decent sized piece of his jersey adorns the front of the card. The back has it’s serial number, 215 out of 250. The significance of the number 215? Last week, Vincent picked up the 215th nagging injury of his career.

No that’s not right, it just seems like it. Lecavalier did suffer an injury to his hand as he batted a puck out of the air. A play that happens 3 or 4 times a game led to him suffering an “unstable fracture” in his right hand. He had surgery Monday, having a plate inserted, and is expected to miss 4-5 weeks.

It comes at a particularly inconvenient time for a team that has suffered a plague of injuries of a biblical proportions over the past month. First it was Dominic Moore and Matt Smaby. Then it was Simon Gagne and Steve Downie. Moore, Smaby and Downie returned to the ice just in time for Lecavalier to get knocked out.

Downie is back on the ice, but not 100% and Gagne is out indefinitely. With Lecavalier out that means half of the top six forwards are out or less than their best. So it’s probably not a wonder why their goal output for November looks like:

November 3rd - 2
November 4th - 0
November 6th - 2
November 9th - 4 (but it was against the Leafs)
November 11th - 3
November 12th - 1
November 14th - 1

Seven games and 13 goals. Oh by the way, they’ve lost 6 of those 7 games.

Losing Lecavalier isn’t going to help reverse those numbers. While he isn’t the 50 goal scorer anymore, he is still a valuable offensive threat on the ice. He anchors the power play and centers the second best line on the team. Now who is the number two center? Dominic Moore? Nate Thompson? The ghost of Brian Bradley?

The next 4 weeks are going to be the first really big test for the team. The shine of the new season has worn off. The non-stop praise about Guy Boucher’s innovative system has simmered down a bit. The team has dipped to a 8-7-2 record. They were 2 points behind the Capitals and are now 9.

If they are able to tread water until Lecavalier and Gagne return then things might be alright for the season. Should the tailspin continue, GM Steve Yzerman will have to see what kind of magical moves he can pull off during the season. Can he shore up the blueline, find a scoring threat and maybe find a goaltender that’s a little more consistent?

But hey I got a nice card to add to the collection.

Through The Mail Thursday!

It’s one of those days where work didn’t go horribly, I have food in the apartment to eat and I received some mail that didn’t require me to send them money. No Bills Thursday!!!! That’s right, thanks to the play of Antti Niemi and folks on the internet I had some extra funds in the PayPal account.

That meant I got to buy a card or two. While one is still on the way from Canada, I did get a card from California. I must apologize for the condition of the photos, one more paycheck and we might invest in a new printer/flatbed scanner. Until then, crappy photos are the way to go!



What you see is a 2008-09 FabFour fabrics card of highlighted by Paul Ranger and Jussi Jokinen! Oh wait I mean Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis. Nice two color piece of for St. Louis. It’s numbered 86/100 and adds yet another card to the Vinny collection.

In the offseason there are many questions still facing the Lightning and Paul Ranger’s status is one of them. After leaving the team for personal reasons about a month into last season not much has been said about the young defenseman who showed tremendous potential in his rookie season. Here’s hoping he fixed what needed to be fixed and is skating in the Black and Blue once again.

Item number two was actually sent to my old condo in Florida and I picked it up when I was visiting my better half in May.




It’s a signed promo photo of Vladimir Guerrero. I sent a 2008 Allen and Ginter to the Rangers facility back during spring training and received this back in May. He also included the original card in the envelope unsigned. Maybe he didn’t want to sign anything in an Angels’ uniform?

Vlad has been one of the best free agent signings of the offseason through the first few months of the season. So far in 2010 the free-swinging outfielder is hitting .336 with 13 homeruns and 51 RBI’s – all of that while playing in 57 games. Not bad for someone who signed for $5.5 million.

Last season it appeared that Vladdy was on the decline. He battled through injuries and only played in 100 games. Although he hit a respectable .295 he only had 15 home runs and knocked in 50 runs. So he’s already matched his power numbers and there are still 3 and ½ months to go!

With his free swinging style and wide smile Guerrero has always been a fan favorite. He has always been one of those players that you didn’t want to see come up with the game on the line. Part of the reason is because it’s really hard to pitch around him unless you intentionally walk him. And if you do try that he might swing at it anyway!

I’m not sure if it’s a manufactured signature or not, the “card” looks like it was a promotional giveaway as it has Dr Pepper written along the top right corner. Any Rangers fans know if this was part of set they gave away?

There ya go. Coming up sometime soon I review my box of Chicle!