Month: January 2012

The new year is barely 3 weeks old and already I’ve managed to uphold one of my Collecting Resolutions:

I placed an order on the Beckett Marketplace last week and purchased 64 cards. Many brought me closer to completing many different sets. But 16 of these cards were special, because they helped me “kill off” 10 sets. Some of these cards I’ve needed only a short time, and others I’ve needed nearly a lifetime. Here are those 16 “special” cards:

1991-92 Pro Set Platinum #PC20 – Mark Messier
Sheesh, I’ve needed this card for 20 years. I don’t know if that makes me old or lazy. Either way, I finally have every single insert card from the only Pro Set Platinum set ever made.

1993-94 Pinnacle #224 – Ed Belfour & #230 – Mario Lemieux About 2 years ago, I bought a near-complete set of ’93-94 Pinnacle, I think for around $2. These two “quarter purchases” bring my set cost to a paltry $2.50. Just another reason why I love collecting sets from the 1990s.

1984-85 O-Pee-Chee Stickers #244 – Mike Eaves
This is the card that sparked my online purchase. Only two dealers on the Beckett Online Store had this sticker, and the guy I got it from wanted a mere 30 cents. Over the summer, I bought this set and thought it was complete. I thought wrong. It was missing one sticker–this one–but not anymore.

2007-08 Black Diamond #60 – Mike Knuble
Wow, two mentions of Mike Knuble on this blog in one week. Must be the apocalypse. This was the last card I needed from my 2007-08 Black Diamond base set. I still need many Double, Triple and Quadruple Diamonds from this set. If you have any for trade, send me an email.

2003-04 In The Game Toronto Star #17 Jarome Iginla and #31 Chris Chelios
These two cards complete an extra set. This set is available for trade, if you are interested.

1994-95 Fleer Slapshot Artists #6 Mike Modano
The last card to completes my Slapshot Artists insert set.

1995-96 Donruss Team Canada #13 – Darcy Tucker
Another “last card” for a 1990s insert set.

1999 Wayne Gretzky Living Legend #13 and #99
About a year ago, I bought this set online for a few bucks, but didn’t get around to checking if it had all the cards until a few months later. It had two of card number 18 (one in place of 13) and had an extra card 89 in place of 99. Perhaps an honest mistake by the dealer.

1995-96 Playoff One-on-One #54 – Mark Recchi; #161 – Rick Tocchet and #199 – Alexander Selivanov
These three cards complete an extra set, which is now listed on my Sets for Trade page.

1995-96 Upper Deck Swedish Elite #31 – Stefan Polla
To complete another extra set (also available for trade).

I will admit that I paid a bit for these than I would have at a show. Most of the cards that you see above cost me 50 cents each. Some were a quarter, and some were around a dollar. At a card show, these cards are the stuff of quarter bins–if you find them. I guess I’m tired of looking.

Completing sets is fun. Maybe I’ll make it a point to finish off at least one set a month.

I normally avoid jersey cards like the plague, but when I find one of the right player–and for the right price–I usually get a weak in the knees, re-think my dislike of such cards and then end up buying it.

This was the case recently, when I found a 2010-11 Luxury Suite card of  Patrick Kane at my local card shop. It features a red jersey swatch. Not only is that better than the ubiquitous white jersey swatch, but Kane is wearing a red jersey on the card front.

The back of the card uses a different photo than the front–perhaps because Luxury Suite is a high-end set. I am glad that they didn’t use this particular photograph on the card’s front, as Kane is wearing the white road uniform here.

Jersey cards look 10 times better when the swatch is the same color as the jersey worn in the photo. Maybe because, at a subconscious level, you think that the piece of jersey is from the jersey the player is wearing. If the swatch does not match the photo (even if it is the “right” team), I am way less likely to buy it.

Question: Are you more likely to buy a jersey card if the swatch matches the photo (white/white or color/color)?

Every year, I try to make some New Year’s Resolutions in regards to hockey card collecting. This year, I’m making them public. Maybe this will make me more accountable for my collecting habits, right?

So, here are my 5 Collecting Resolutions for 2012:

5. Avoid Retail Packs En Masse
I like opening up blaster boxes as much as the next sports card blogger. Packs are fun to open and for $10 to $20 you get an easy blog post out of the deal.

But I also get a pang of remorse. Why spend $20 on a blaster when you can spend $60 or so on a hobby box and have vastly better odds of getting rookies, cool parallels, jersey or autograph cards. Plus, my local Target doesn’t really need my $20.

Will I still buy blasters and/or retail packs? Sure, once in a while. But if I am going to build a set, this year I will stick to hobby boxes.

4. Deal With Empty Boxes and Wrappers
When I buy a box of cards, I put the empty box and wrappers aside to deal with later. I save 4 wrappers with the least amount of tearing along with the top of the card box.

The problem is, I am notorious for putting this off. The boxes and wrappers pile up, taking up space on, under or around the “card table” in my “Room of Hockey” until it becomes unsightly. So in 2012, I will be more diligent in dealing with the empties.

3. Check All Sets When I Receive Them
This is probably my worst habit. I buy a set off of eBay, but don’t bother to actually check and see if each and every card is there until I have leisure time to put the set in pages. But that could be days, weeks, even months after I’ve bought it.

This is bad, bad, BAD.

I’ve been shorted a card numerous times during 2011. And really, you can’t complain to the seller about a missing or damaged card two months after the fact.

The whole reason that I buy sets in the first place is so I don’t have to mess around with tracking down more single cards. So this year I will strive to check the sets the day I get them.

2. Don’t Be A Hoarder
When I like a card, I tend to buy many copies of it. I’m not talking about having one copy of a card in a complete set and another copy for my player collection (a la Chris Chelios). I’m talking many, many copies of the same card, for really no good reason.

Why do I have 6 copies of the 1990-91 Pro Set Stanley Cup Hologram?

Because it’s cool, that’s why. But 6 of them? Wouldn’t that money be better spent towards Young Guns of Sid and Alex, or a Stan Mikita rookie card…or, you know, cards that I don’t have?

This year, I am going to ask myself that question whenever I buy a pricey card that I already have. (That includes you, Mario Lemieux).

1. Complete These @#$% Sets Already
A great deal of my want list–not just what I post online, but my 53-page Word document–is comprised of sets that just a few cards away from completion. And many of the cards I need can be found on the Beckett Marketplace for around a quarter each.

So, what’s stopping me? Sellers on the Beckett Marketplace don’t gouge on shipping, and this is a really good way to kill off many sets at once. Plus it is less time consuming than sifting through quarter boxes at a show in the hopes of finding that elusive Mark Fitzpatrick card.

This year, I am going to knock off as many sets as I can. I might even keep track of how many sets I complete in 2012.

Question: Do you have any collecting resolutions for 2012? I’d love to hear about them.