Month: November 2009

Hockey Card Haul – Part 3: Autographs

(Dragging out) Continuing my epic hockey card haul of November, here are some autographed cards I picked up. I normally don’t look for ‘graphs at card shows, but if something grabs my attention and is cheap enough, then I’ll go for it.

2005-06 SP Authentic Jim Slater – Worth all 100 pennies of the dollar that I paid for this card. It is hard-signed in blue Sharpie marker.

2005-06 Fleer Prized Prospects Danny Richmond – Richmond was born in Chicago, and played parts of 3 seasons with the Blackhawks. He also wore 44, which is my favorite number. The card is a sticker ‘graph, but signed in blue. Cost was $3, and is numbered 538 out of 999.

2007-08 Be A Player Shea Weber – One of my favorite d-men in the NHL. $3 for this autographed card seemed fair.

2007-08 Be A Player Daniel Carcillo and Aaron Voros – This dual-signed card cost me $5. I don’t know much about Voros, but Carcillo was my favorite Coyotes player last season. Heck, he’s probably my favorite Flyer this year. He reminds me of Dave Manson, a player I grew up watching.

I got a few more goodies at this show, but I’m still in the tedious process of sorting and scanning…

2009-10 Artifacts pack

I picked up a pack of 2009-10 Artifacts the other day at Target. Understand that buying a single retail pack won’t yield you anything but base cards most of the time, since someone has already sniffed out the 1:36 box hit. Still, I was curious about the design of the cards. Let’s see what $2.99 (plus 10.25% Chicago sales tax) gets us…

Card #23: Jeff Carter, Philadelphia Flyers – Scored 46 goals last year. But skating with your head down like that is gonna get you hurt. Hey Jeff, eyes up!

Card #43: Tomas Vokoun, Florida Panthers – He’s also looking down at the puck, but it’s totally cool because he’s a goalie.

Card #45: Patrick Berglund, St. Louis Blues – Those Blues third jerseys are cool-looking, but totally ripping off the “old time hockey” feel of the Minnesota Wild third jerseys from the past few seasons.

Card 88: Andrei Markov, Montreal Canadiens – Is this guy any good? The back of the card says that he was “arguably the Canadiens best player in 2008-09.” But I don’t know enough about the Habs to know if that is an accurate assessment of Markov.

Card #97: Jakub Voracek, Columbus Blue Jackets – Uh, whatever.

As you can see, no jersey card or autograph card or even a 1:20 Rookies/Legends card (Now if I had only bought 19 more packs). Are these five cards worth $3.00? Only to someone who pays $3.00 for them.

I’m not too hype on the design either, with the columns on either side of the player, and that weird swirly thing in the background. Last year’s design looked more like a dusty old book, which was a great design for a set called “Artifacts.” This year’s design would work better if the set was called “Illuminati” or something like that.

As for the card backs…

Nothing special here. It won’t offend anyone, but it probably won’t get asked out on too many dates either.

As a rule, I’m usually not impressed with “memorabilia” sets. It’s as if the jersey or autograph cards are–dare I say it?–more important than the base cards themselves. Artifacts has a hit-or-miss design which is definitely “miss” this year.

Edit: Great minds think alike. Shane at Shoebox Legends also plunked down $3 to bring you all a pack rip from this set. Don’t let his purchase be in vain–go check it out.

Hockey Card Haul – Part 2: Vintage

Continued from my previous post about all the awesome hockey cards I picked up on November 22. Here’s some vintage, gum-smelling goodness:

Twelve (12) cards from 1973-74 Topps for $8.75. Now I only need 9 more cards and I’ll have the entire 198-card set.

Three (3) cards from the 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee set for $3. I’ve got quite a ways to go before completing this set, though.

1974-75 Topps Denis Potvin RC for onnnnnnneeeeeeeee dollllllllllar!!!!! Yeah, OK…it’s got a slight crease. But did I mention that I got it for onnnnnnneeeeeeeee dollllllllllar?

1974-75 Topps Bobby Orr–the greatest defenseman of all time–for $3. I might have to start putting this set together too.

1960-61 Topps Al Arbour. This card rocks because of its use of primary colors (blue, yellow, red). Plus, Arbor is wearing glasses. Most of you probably remember him better as the longtime coach of the New York Islanders, but he was the last guy to play while wearing glasses. Oh yeah, I paid $5 for this slice of cardboard. Ironic that I paid more for an Arbor card than Orr and Potvin combined.

To be continued…

The Onion riffs on hockey

The Onion is a free, satirical newspaper here in some U.S. cities. Every now and then, they riff on hockey in their Sports section. Here’s some of their latest hockey quips.

People Probably Affiliated With Hockey In Some Way Inducted In Hockey Hall Of Fame – unfortunately, it wasn’t a full article, just a photo and caption.

Nation’s Morons March On Washington State – not a hockey article, but the moron on the left is holding a sign that says “Go Red Wings.”

And from last season, here’s a hilarious infographic about Alexander Ovechkin (click on it to read).

Heh, heh…speaks fluent Ovechkin. Happy Friday, everyone.

Hockey Card Haul – Part 1: Rookies

Every November and March, there is a big card show in Chicago sponsored by the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper. I almost always find a bunch of cards that I am looking for, and sometimes cards that I’m not looking for but are too good to pass up.

This past Sunday, I went to the show and got quite the haul. So truly epic was this haul that I will have to break it up into several blog posts. First, some recent rookie cards:

Eight (8) 2007-08 Young Guns for $22, including David Krejci, Brian Little, Sam Gagner, Jiri Tlusty and Devin Setoguchi

Twenty-four (24) 2005-06 Young Guns for $29. Mostly scrubs of the “Common YG” variety, but I did manage to pick up Ryan Getzlaf, Tomas Vanek and Andrei Kostitsyn.

Now, onto some SHINY ROOKIE CARDS!!!

2006-07 Upper Deck Trilogy Shea Weber 745/999. For $1, who would not want this shiny Shea card?

2007-08 Black Diamond Milan Lucic. One day, I might actually complete this set. It is a low priority for me, but a $5 Lucic rookie seemed like a good purchase.

2007-08 SP Authentic Holo FX Patrick Kane. It would be insane of me to pass this up for $1. I remember a shop in Chicago selling this very same card for $20 about 2 years ago. Wait long enough, and you eventually get the deal you want.

Much more to come…

Hossa is back!

Marian Hossa will make his debut as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks tonight, as the ‘Hawks take on the Sharks at 9:30 pm CST.

The Blackhawks are 15-5-2 so far this year, and have won their past 7 games. If you think the ‘Hawks are tough…well, now they got Hossa. Western Conference teams, be afraid. Be very afraid.

1963-64 Parkhurst #38 – Dave Balon

What’s with Balon’s bug-eyed expression? He kind of looks like that big-headed alien you see during the end credits of the original “Star Trek” TV show.

Believe it or not, this alien’s name is Balok. That’s way too close to “Balon” to be a mere coincidence. If Gene Roddenberry was alive today, he would totally admit that his inspiration for that alien character was this card of David Balon.

This is my 16th card in my 1963-64 Parkhurst set.

Note: I was not on “The War Room” this week, but will be back on their show next Wednesday.

Completed – 2008-09 Artifacts

Or, perhaps more accurately I should state that I completed the 100-card base set of 2008-09 Artifacts Hockey.

Many of the cards from this set I got in a mega-lot I purchased back in March. A good number were also “donated” by Brandon of Cardboard Hockey, Etc.. The rest I picked up in trades here and there, including the last three I acquired this week: Dominik Hasek, Alexander Steen and Jonathan Toews.

2008-09 Blackhawks Intro Video

The past few years, I have thoroughly enjoyed the intro video shown before each Chicago Blackhawks home game. Though it changes somewhat each season, the story is basically the same: a villainous, black-clad hockey team is taken on by the Chicago Blackhawks on the frozen streets of Chicago. The 2008-09 video was, hands-down, my favorite.

Is that awesome or what? Here are some things to notice if you watch it again:

– The evil team defacing the ‘Hawks banner (0:15)
– Captain Jonathan Toews casting a watchful eye over “his” city (0:20)
– Brent Sopel totally blindsiding that guy (0:30)
– Adam Burish dropping the gloves to protect Brian Campbell (0:44)
– Dustin Byfuglien charging across the Michigan Ave. bridge (0:55)
– Toews smashing the sign at Wrigley Field (1:18)
– Martin Havlat jumping over the tracks as a train approaches (1:59)

Ironically, the low point of the video are the actual game highlights (1:32 to 1:53) spiced in towards the end. Hockey is so much cooler when you play on frozen streets and have to avoid being hit by cars and trains.

FYI, there is a slightly different version of this video that shows soon-to-be-replaced coach Denis Savard towards the end, as well as Patrick Kane celebrating his goal at the very end.

EDIT: I just now realized why I like this ‘Hawks intro video so much. In many ways, it is reminiscent of the intro for Batman: The Animated Series. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.