Friday, July 27, 2012

Glenn Anderson Rookie

Since I only own the Topps version of this set, that means I have a few key rookies missing from this year and Glenn was one of them. In fact, there are quite a few Oiler rookies that didn't end up in the Topps set but were in the larger OPC release. Love this set, so this rookie was a must have. The LCS had this card priced right for its condition and I snapped it up.



Glenn scored 498 goals and 1099 points in his NHL career. He actually joked once on the show Off The Record that he should come back for those two missing goals but of course that never happened. I doubt he would have scored that many if he spent his whole career in Toronto, but he was a talent nonetheless. Another great card from one of my favourite sets of all-time.

Brandon Whitney IP Auto

This past draft, everyone in my area was focused on where Brandon Whitney would end up. Turns out he didn't get drafted as high as some expect, but I believe the Blackhawks had themselves a steal of a pick by getting this kid in the 7th round. I had a chance to chat with him a couple of times before the draft and he even joined in a class soccer game (played goalie of course).

Personally, I think he could be stopping NHL rubber in less than 5 years, but of course goalies are a hard position to scout and anything can happen. He has good size and ability, I hope he continues to grow and gets his chance at the next level in a couple years. I expect he will be in the QMJHL this coming season and then maybe a pro league in the next 2 years.


I have a little write-up about him over at Dirtydangle.com.



Thursday, July 26, 2012

A few more 53-54 Parkies

The more I see from this set, the more I am in love. As I mentioned a few posts back, I picked up a lot of 5 53-54 Parkhurst cards, and here are what would be cards 7-10 of my set. The set has 100 cards so I guess that makes me 10% done!

#89 Real Chevrefils
 Real had his best season in 56-57 when he scored 31 goals and was named to the NHL's Second All-Star team. However, injuries and his demons would get the better of him and by the age of 27 he was no longer in the NHL.

#62 Nick Mickoski
 Broadway Nick spent 8 seasons with the Rangers before being trade with Allan Stanley to the Black Hawks in 1954. Nick was considered to be a pretty strong all-round player and in 1956 he played in the NHL all-star game.

#5 Tod Sloan
 Maybe the best player in the lot, Tod played in three all-star games and won two Stanley Cups. Tod also finished in the top 10 scoring three times in his career with his best season coming in 55-56. That year, he scored 37 goals and added 29 assists for 66 points. His 37 goals were good enough for 4th that season.

#36 Earl Reibel
This was the only rookie card in the lot, and Earl came into the NHL after leading the Edmonton Flyers in scoring during the 52-53 WHL season. Earl had four great seasons with the Red Wings before dropping off the map. His best season was in 54-55 where he LEAD the Red Wings in scoring. That is right, he had more points than Howe, Delvecchio and Kelly. Reibel managed to score 25 goals and 66 points that season which was good enough for 4th in the NHL that season. Reibel also won the Lady Byng in 1956. I am not sure what happened to him after the 57 season, but after the age of 28 he was out of the NHL.

That was the rest of the lot with the Al Rollins card. I hope to land a few more from this set in the near future and maybe even a few in better condition. As you can see, this lot was on the rough side, but then again with shipping it was about 3 bucks a card, more than worth it to me!



Wednesday, July 25, 2012

09-10 UD Ultimate - Colin Wilson Auto

As I have mentioned before, I love prospecting and the card falls in that category. I took a less than 2 dollar flyer on this rookie year auto of Colin Wilson. This isn't an official rookie card because it is an insert from the 09-10 Ultimate set, but I do like these cards and I have a bit of a loose definition on rookies so that card fits the bill.

This past season, Colin hit a career high of 35 points while playing with the Preds and that was in just 68 games. I don't see any Art Ross trophies in his future, but I honestly think that Colin possesses 60 points a year potential go along with a solid 20 - 30 goals a season. 


Yesterday, the Preds signed Colin Wilson to a 3 year extension for a cool 2 million a year. Certainly they feel he has more to offer and want his services for the next few seasons. If he continues to grow and improve, this could be a pretty good deal for the Predators and a chance to earn a really big pay day in a couple of seasons for Colin.

Monday, July 23, 2012

88-89 Esso All-Stars - Bobby Orr

A while back I was in my LCS shop picking up supplies when I noticed a pile of new cards. I thumbed through and I found an auto of Chris Ferraro which prompted me to make a new series of posts on Dirty Dangle called Cup of Coffee. I want to thank Mark and Toby for providing me an awesome avenue to write and have many more readers see my work (or whatever you call my ramblings).

I also found a "sticker" of Bobby Orr with a price that was just calling me to buy it. They wanted 5 bucks for the auto and 3 bucks for Mr. Orr, but 5 bucks ended up bringing them both home. I think the book value on this is like 2 bucks, but it is just a cool looking sticker that I felt it was worth that to me. Orr will always be a Bruin to me and here he is helmetless and poised to strike.

I am not too sure if this was actually from his playing days or at some charity event, but I would guess by the clothing on the people watching, it is likely from an NHL game.



For those interested, the set consists of 48 cards which have self adhesive backs and it books for 15 bucks. I have seen them on eBay for about 10-20 bucks plus shipping and there are some pretty cool stars in the set including: Gretzky, Dryden, Lemieux, Messier, Mikita, and Howe. The was also an album for them, but I have only ever seen pictures of it.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

76-77 OPC Mystery Boxes

Well after the success of my 79-80 Topps box, I thought I would take a gamble on two boxes that were labelled 76-77 and 75-76/76-77. The results were absolutely amazing.

First off, there was a nearly full 700 ct box of 76-77 OPC and then the other box was about 1/3 76-77 OPC, there was a pile of 76-77 Topps and then a pile of other random cards including a pile from 75-76 OPC. For those interested, the 75-76 are in pretty rough shape and likely wouldn't be that attractive to many people. There was also a small pile of 90-91 Pro Set which are now in the recycling bin and a few other totally random cards which I will share in a later post. I also found a small pile of 79-80 OPC which I put in a box going to 1967ers.

After combing the random box first, I was able to build a huge chunk of the set. The strange thing was part of this box was actually sorted and in order. Of the first 130 cards in the set I had like 115 of them in numerical order. Included in the random box was this card:

76-77 OPC #67 Bryan Trottier Record Breaker

As you can see, the corners aren't perfect and there is a little wear on the back, but really....not too shabby for the age and was a bit better than what I was expecting since the 79-80 box didn't have this many star cards.

In the end between the two boxes and some rookies I already had in my collection, I was able to get 386 out of 396 cards! That is an amazing 97% of a 36 year old set. The condition of most cards I would say is near mint, but there are some that look like Bryan above and I used my Bryan Trottier rookie I bought a while back which I would say is about Ex condition. So in all, the set would be EX-Mint-ish but more than acceptable for a collector like myself.

The remaining 10 cards are biggies including Orr, Dryden, Lafleur and Clarke, but still can be had for decent prices if I am not rushing to finish and willing to accept Ex condition. If anyone has these cards up for trade, please let me know and maybe we can work something out. Still this was a super fun task, and I am really glad I made the trade and got these two boxes.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Jack Valiquette Rookie

Jack seems to be creeping on me or something. First it began with me finding his card in my 79-80 Topps Mystery box and I read about his great season with the Rockies. Then I found him at the local flea market where I bought his autograph, which it turns out he has some nice penmanship. 

Well yesterday, I went to the LCS to buy the 79/80 OPC mystery box for 1967ers and I was drawn to a pair of boxes with 76/77 OPC. Both boxes appears to be full, not all are 76/77 OPC, but I knew I had my Bryan Trottier rookie, so I figured it would be worth the gamble on the two boxes. The guys wanted 20 a box, and I went home and found something I give up in trade that way the boxes would not cost me anything out of pocket. 

I will share the results in my next post, but here is one card I found in those boxes. *actually a couple copies, but this is pretty typical of the better cards in the box.

76/77 OPC #294 Jack Valiquette Rookie
 Here is the front, many cards in the set seem to have players doing this pose.

Here is the back of Jack's rookie. A decent first season, I believe the Leafs were hoping he would be a solid star, possibly of Sittler calibre. Of course, from my previous post on the topic of Jack, we know that didn't work out so well.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Back Checking - Anders Lindback

Going into the off-season this year, Anders Lindback was drawing a fair bit of interest from several NHL clubs and I thought that if I was going to get a good deal on a rookie of his, I might want to buy before he is dealt. Sure enough a week or two later he was traded to Tampa Bay which is a pretty good place to end up.

Now Tampa has three really solid goaltending prospects with Janus, Lindback and Tokarski all hoping to land a future starting role with the Lightning.

Here is the rookie card I landed of Anders Lindback. It is from the 11/12 UD Ice set, which features their usual Ice Premiers Acetate cards.

11/12 UD Ice #71 Anders Lindback
Here is the front view. I think UD did a nice job with this card, pretty cool layout and a good balance of "see-thruness" and opacity. The foil UD logo gives the card a little more class and this is a level 2 card so it is numbered to /999. There are also rookies numbered to /1999, /499 and /99.


The back side
Wow. I see a number, a position and a card number. Who is Anders Lindback? What does he do on the weekends? How many DUI's does he have in his home country? Is he a bachelor? None of these answers are on the back of these cards. My biggest disappointment is on the back of this card. Such a solid front design and pretty much NOTHING on the back, just Anders staring back at me. What are your thoughts? Is this artistic or lazy? I love my ice rookies, but this seems like UD didn't care to put anymore time into the design after the front.

Monday, July 16, 2012

79-80 Topps Mystery Box

This weekend I was at my local card shop and my guys at the shop pulled me into the back to see their recent haul. They bought a complete collection from some guy and there were boxes and boxes of cards from the 60's and 70's as well as some 80's and 90's stuff. Also, there was also some junk wax boxes from the early 90's as well. I avoided the temptation of buying more packs of cards I already own, I couldn't avoid this!

I was shown a pile of boxes, but there were two boxes that got my attention. The first box was a 600 count box, about 80% full of 79/80 OPC commons. The cards looked pretty decent, but I knew that for 20 bucks it was a good deal, but there would be lots of additional cash needed to complete this set. The second box was another 600 count box that was 75% full of 79/80 Topps commons. I flipped through the cards and they looked really good and really unorganized. I asked how much and Mike said 10 bucks. Sold!

For 10 bucks, I got myself a couple of hours of fun sorting through this box and the opportunity to see if I have a decent chunk of an epic set.


Here is an example of the shape and quality of the cards in the box. There were lots of double and triples of some cards which was nice, that way I could pick the better one for my set. Some of the doubles and triples were in a little rough shape (vg-ex).

Here is the back side of the card.

In the end, there was 195 of 264 cards. That is good enough for just a little under 74% of the complete set. There weren't any highly valuable cards in the box, but there were a couple star cards and rookies like John Tonelli.

There was a small bonus in the box too and that was a small handful of 79/80 OPC cards. Two of those cards were Greg Millen Rookies.



Definitely a nice surprise and just a little bit for added value for my 10 bucks. I certainly have been well taken care of by my guys at the LCS and I hope I can continue to nab a few steals here and there. I am now going to try and track down the complete set, so please check my want list and if you can help I would certainly appreciate a trade to move forward on the set.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Jack Valiquette Auto

I decided to check out the weekly flea market in my little town based on a rumour that someone was selling cards there weekly. Sure enough there is a guy there who once had a card shop and is now selling at the flea market and out of his house. Within a few seconds I knew that he was a typical LCS owner as all cards were listed at high book value, but he was offering a discount on most cards of 50% off.  Seeing JP Dumont cards listed at 15 bucks turned me off pretty quickly, but he did have some cheap wax, and one box was 98-99 Topps. I have never seen these cards, and at 20 bucks for the box I figured it might we worth a look. I then began to look around for a package deal I could make and I found this auto. 24 bucks got me the box and this auto. 


04-05 ITG Franchises Auto A-JVA Jack Valiquette
A former NHLer and a member of the Colorado Rockies who I came across for the very first time a couple days ago (will mention in a future post). The signature is very cool and as far as NHL careers go, there are very few strangers than Jacks. Check out his bio at Legends of Hockey. He did post back to back 20+ goal seasons with the Rockies before calling it quits at the age of 25.


Here is what the back looks like, after all these years ITG still keeps the formula going. This back looks very similar to the back on their current release autos.

I am very fond of this card, and the front design is pretty cool. I have seen them before online, but in person they are much nicer!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Taylor Hall Rated Rookie - Toronto Expo /250

Living in Nova Scotia means a few things. One of the things is we don't get any cool card expos. Toronto has its fair share of expos and at those expos there are cool give-aways and autograph sessions that can make a person living out east rather jealous. 

eBay does allow me to at least buy things that I would have otherwise been given for free and Mr Hall is an example. Apparently this card was limited to 250 copies, but since it isn't numbered I guess I will never know for sure. However, this card is easily more rare than his Young Gun, his regular Rated Rookie and most other Taylor Hall rookies for that matter so I felt landing this for under 10 bucks was a bit of a steal. Of course, there are some that don't feel it is a true rookie and I respect that, but again beauty is in the eye of the beholder.



Now that I have this card as well as Shattenkirk, Lehner, Omark and Fowler, it might be worth my time to try and track down the other 8 cards in the set.
Here is what the set looks like:

Cam Fowler /500
Derek Stepan /500
Linus Omark /500
Robin Lehner /500
Sergei Bobrovsky /500

Jeff Skinner SP /250
Nazem Kadri SP /250
Taylor Hall SP /250
Kevin Shattenkirk SP /250

Tyler Ennis SSP /100
Logan Couture SSP /100
Michael Grabner SSP /100
Tyler Seguin SSP /100

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I always check my attic when I buy or move into a new house

Here is why:

http://sports.sympatico.ca/news/contentposting/baseball_cards_in_ohio_attic_might_fetch_millions/6ec2755b

I wish it would happen to me some day!

53-54 Parkhurst - Al Rollins

With 5 cards in the 53-54 set in my collection including the 5th most expensive card (Tim Horton), I guess you can say I am a long way from completing the set, but I am making progress. Well a little while ago, I landed 5 more cards bringing my total up to 10 which of course is 10% of the set. Here is what I would call card number 6.


53-54 Parkhurst #82 Al Rollins
I think it is safe to say this card is fair at best and most likely poor (The back is perfectly clean). Still, there is something cool about this card. I don't know if it is the landscape layout, the autograph that I will never own, of just the pose of Al as he drops the blocker and paddle down to try and stop one of the legendary greats. I am loving this set more and more with each card I get.


Monday, July 9, 2012

Adam Larsson Rookie - Pros and Cons of SP Game Used

I would like to begin this post by saying, I have never bought a pack or box of SP Game Used. I intend to at some point, but I just haven't yet. For those of you who have priced it out or bought a box the packs will run you about 35-40 bucks and boxes are between 180 and 200 bucks (depending on location and taxes).

I could have bought a box of 11/12 SP Game Used last week, but I instead went with Certified and I haven't lost any sleep over my decision. If you are unfamiliar with the product, you get 6 packs in a box and each pack has at least one hit. The hit is going to be a game used card. Sometimes there will be an auto on your game-used card and other times there will be a rookie in the pack as well. Rookies fall every three packs or two per box. Sometimes you can get a third rookie and the rookies are numbered to /699 or /99 this year. 

The problem with the product boils down to VALUE. 8 hits in a box (6 game used and 2 rookies) is a pretty nice box, but at 200 bucks you are getting your hits at 25 bucks a piece. The game used cards can often be had for under 5 bucks a piece for common players and the rookies are the same if you get a common /699. So in the end you can pay 200 bucks and end up with 50 bucks in cardboard. But, it is the chase for the big rookies, cool inserts and rare cards that make the chase that much more exciting, but if you are unlucky you can lose big. 

A while back I made a trade with Tim from the Real DFG and I landed this Adam Larsson card.


11/12 SP Game Used Adam Larsson Rookie /99
This is one of the base rookies that are numbered to 99. There are 10 cards in the set numbered to 99 and the numbering is a sticker on what is intended to look like a circuit board which is why it scanned funny. The card is pretty cool looking, much nicer than the 07/08 SP Game Used cards.

Glad to have this card as part of my collection and certainly glad to have so many fellow bloggers out there to make trades with!

Sunday, July 8, 2012

In with the old, and out with the young - Devils sign Marty and lose Parise

Well free agency is now a week old and in that time a large number of players have received new contracts. Some of those are with the same club as last season and others found new homes. My beloved Devils lost their captain Zach Parise and resigned a number of players including "senior" players Brodeur, Hedberg and Salvadore. 

Don't get me wrong, these are some good young players but I think we need to start moving in the rebuild on the fly mode and focus on some more youth. Our defense is young, but our forwards and goaltenders are among the oldest in the league and I really like the Marty signing, but I think we need to focus on getting some young goalies action in the NHL in the next two years. 

There are still some talented players available but most will require compensation through trade or rfa which sucks because it really isn't the approach I think we should be taking.



11/12 Black Diamond Martin Brodeur
I received this card in a trade with Tim from the Real DFG. This card features a nice two colour swatch and a solid black swatch of Marty Brodeur. Love that this card features all the Devils colours and don't get me wrong, I love that we resigned him. But I think we need to be using Marty to help condition one of our prospects.

The Devils also just lost Matt Taormina which is a little unfortunate. He is a talented offensive defensemen and for once we are starting to accumulate a large number of "prospects" at that position. It became a numbers game and I wish Matt all the best in Tampa, I suspect he will put up some good numbers this upcoming season if he can stay healthy!

Also as an aside, I think Parise signing with the Wild is the second worst thing that could happen to my collection of Parise cards. First off, he is no longer a Devils which sucks a fair bit, but also, no one is going to want my Parise cards anymore because he is gone into the abyss as far as collectors go. Does anyone out there actually collect Minnesota Wild cards? I don't see too many bidding wars for Mikko Koivu cards or P-M Bouchard autos. Unfortunately, he will be a great player on a small market team and the team itself I am predicting will win Zero Cups in the next 13 years. Not that I am hating on Zach, but I think that Minny is a long way away from being a Cup contender.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

11/12 Panini Certified Two Box Break

So here are the results of my two boxes of 11/12 Certified. Even though one box was far better than the other, it was a pretty fun break in all!

11/12 Certified Base Card
Here is the front shot of the base cards. I ended up with 87 base cards and 1 double.


Back side
 I have always like the modern style of the Certified cards. Not everything needs a retro feel and Certified does a good modern looking card with a decent write-up on each.

The Hits

Martin St. Louis Fabric of the Game /25
 A pretty decent pull here. The was my first hit I got in the first box.

Mark Katic Freshman Signings
 This is the only rookie I pulled from the first box. A little unfortunate, but considering the other hits, I can't be greedy!

James van Riemsdyk Mirror Blue Auto /99
 YET ANOTHER JVR hit. He is like herpes to me it seems like, just keeps reappearing! All joking aside, the is a pretty decent auto and I love that it is rather limited as well. Shame his penmanship isn't all that attractive.

Milan Lucic Mirror Blue Materials /99
Another hit numbered to 99. I always liked the way this kid plays!



The big hit from box one!
In addition, I also landed a few inserts and a mirror red parallel of a common player.


Box 2 was much less exciting. There were a few insert cards and the hits below:

I ended up with 2 rookies:
The first one was a Cameron Gaunce auto, he is an up and coming defenseman for the Avalanche. He is also the older brother of Brendan Gaunce whose auto joined my collection last year in a box of Heroes and Prospects. The second rookie was Aaron Palushaj. The card is numbered to /499 and he has a name I can't pronounce. He has some talent I think, but I have yet to see him play.

The other two hits are plain in terms of swatch detail, I have a Fabric of the Game Brad Richards /25 and a Fabric of the Game Brian Gionta /99. Certainly a much less exciting box, but also makes me glad I grabbed both because if I just left with one box....which of these two would it have been? 

I am now faced with a tough decision. I have 87 out of 150 base cards and going after a set through boxes could get a little pricey especially if I break more boxes like box two. However, a base set might set me back 20 bucks or so and then that would end the hits. If anyone out there has base they want to unload, I will gladly trade and in the meanwhile I might try one more box in the fall.

If anyone is interested in the hits, most are up for trade!





Friday, July 6, 2012

The hits keep coming!! 1:2500 Hit

I am riding my hottest streak of my life. I just got back from the store where I was picking up some Tostitos for my wife when I decided to buy a pack or two of series 2 Upper Deck. In the second of two packs was a Young Gun of some Malone guy and this card!!


not the exact card because it is too dark in my house to take a photo, but this card nonetheless

A Brad Marchand Day with the Cup card. These cards are super rare and super uninteresting to me. I can't believe my luck, and if there are any Bruins fans out there going after this set or want this card let me know ASAP. I am going to fire it up on eBay this weekend if anyone wants it first. I would rather trade it to someone I know than sell it to some person on eBay. Also, I am not looking for anything crazy for it either as it isn't worth a lot to me personally.

I sure hope my luck continues! * I know it will end someday soon :(

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

My best hit ever?

It has taken me some time, but I finally made it to another card store that has been in my "area" for a while but I have only known about for a month or so. My wife found it in her travels and finally I had a moment and some birthday cash to go and check it out. Last year I had some great luck on my birthday when I pulled this beauty, maybe I could get lucky twice? Well when I got into the store I was a little surprised, he had lots of new boxes and practically no singles. The good news is, I was itching for a box or two so I guess I came to the right place, so I put aside my want list and looked around.

After talking to the owner about cards for 15 or 20 minutes, he started to let me know some "deals" which meant he was taking 10-15 bucks off each box for me! I then inquired about two lone boxes of 11/12 Certified I saw on the shelf and he said I could have them for a C note each (taxes in). The problem was, that was also the price Between the Pipes was selling for too. I had to make a decision, two of one, two of the other or one of each.

I asked him for a coin, he provided a Remembrance day quarter with a poppy on it, I flipped it and the answer was two boxes of Certified. I brought the boxes home and busted the first four packs. 

ALL had hits in them and the fourth pack yielded this monster!


This seam is bulging out of the card, much like ITG's hits tend to!





#/5. THIS IS A CROSBY numbered out of 5 and I LIVE IN NOVA SCOTIA. This card is only hotter in downtown Pittsburgh. The only question remains, what do I do with it! I love the card, but someone out there may love it more than I do. My wife wants me to hold onto it, but at the same time there are some hardcore Crosby fans out there that might want it more than I do.

Either way, this box so far is pretty solid! I will share this box and the other one when I am done busting, but I just had to share!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Adam Larsson Hot Rookie

This is the second last post about cards I picked up with my 100 dollars I would have spent on Score boxes.  One card I wanted to get was an SP rookie from the set because of a couple of reasons. The first reason is there was an SP'd rookie featuring a New Jersey Devil, the second being if I had bought some boxes I would have landed some of these cards so why wouldn't I try to land one.

Funny story about this card is it is actually the second one I have purchased. I sent the first one I purchased in a trade with another blogger (The Real DFG I think). Anyway, I landed this one for a little less than I paid for the first one, but it was the first price that I included in my 100 dollar spending spree.

11/12 Score Adam Larsson Hot Rookie
Adam came out of the gate hot for the Devils and played very well most of the season. However, his inexperience with long seasons did come to the surface toward the end of the season as he just seemed to run out of gas and found himself being a healthy scratch down the stretch. However, I think he learned a lot and will be an excellent defenseman in the years to come. The deep playoff run will certainly only help his career in the NHL.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Jordan Eberle Game Used Rookie

Here is another post about what I used my extra cash on instead of buying countless boxes of 11/12 Score. One thing I have really been wanting is a game used card of Jordan Eberle from his rookie season. I ended up buying this gem in the fall for an excellent price. The "value" of this card has nearly doubled as the season has gone bye which means I saved myself a few bucks because of my obsession over this kid has certainly increased!

10/11 Zenith Rookie Roll Call Jordan Eberle 
This card is a beaut in person. The crazy Nufex foil action in combination with a nice orange swatch is nothing but eye candy. My only complaint is a high-end product like Zenith should have serial numbered cards. I mean they went through all that trouble with Pinnacle, why not Zenith? Petty complaints aside, I really do like this card and being able to have a few extra bucks to pick it up certainly made it affordable.