Review: 2008-09 Collector’s Choice

Victory-like set is un-victorious in making an impression

2008-09 Collector's Choice #23 - Carey PriceIn 2008, former super-pest Claude Lemieux came out of retirement. So did Collector’s Choice hockey cards. After a ten-year hiatus, Upper Deck has dusted off this brand of low-price cards. First produced in 1995, and lasting three seasons, Collector’s Choice was intended to be “kid-friendly” with its price – about a buck a pack – in a market that was rapidly become less affordable for younger collectors. But Lemieux’s comeback was short-lived – he retired after the Sharks were eliminated from the 2009 playoffs. Collector’s Choice’s comeback might be short-lived too. Continue reading “Review: 2008-09 Collector’s Choice”

2006-07 TriStar Hidden Treasures pack

I’ve seen these TriStar Hidden Treasures hockey cards floating around for a few years now, and have avoided them like the H1N1 Virus. Sure, they put an alluring (if you can call it that) photo of the 1951-52 Parkhurst Gordie Howe rookie card on the wrapper, along with several other small pics of desirable vintage hockey cards. But we all know that this pack will contain mostly Pro Set, Score and other worthless, overproduced hockey cards from the 1990s. Feeling thrifty, I purchased a pack–a whopping 99 cents–to see what I’d get:

2001-02 Upper Deck Victory #161 – Josef Stumpel
Wow, a card that isn’t from the 1990s. That was kind of surprising, given that I was expecting only cards from 1990 to 1995.

2001-02 Upper Deck Victory #189 – Patrice Brisebois
Two Victory cards in the same pack? What is this–a pack of Victory?

1996-97 Pinnacle Zenith #126 – Bryan Berard
Oooooh, shiny! Plus, it’s not a Victory card.

1994-95 Upper Deck #57 – Gilbert Dionne
The surprised look on Dionne’s face says it all.

1991-92 Score Canadian #346 – Dominik Hasek
Paydirt! I was expecting to get a lame card from the early 1990s, but instead I got one of the best. Hey–any card with a “Beckett Value” of $2.00 from the early 1990s is a darn good card. The TriStar wrapper claims that you get one star card per pack. Hasek is obviously the star in this pack, but it sure was nice that it just also happened to be his rookie card.

Overall, this pack gave me exactly what I expected–five undesirable hockey cards. Or, I guess you could say four undesirable hockey cards and the Hasek RC, which was a nice surprise. But I won’t be buying any more packs of these anytime soon. I’d recommend skipping this product altogether. But if you really want to pay a dollar for five useless cards…well, I got about 20,000 such cards that I’ll gladly sell to you.

Review: 1985-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs team set

Starring a very young Brett Hull

1985-86 UMD Bulldogs #28 - Brett HullDuring the 1985-86 season, a company called Tim & Larry’s Sports Cards in Duluth, MN released a 36 card set of the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs hockey team. The WCHA Champions the prior year, the team had another reason for being a popular draw – their captain was Brett Hull, son of the legendary Bobby Hull. Brett was a top player in his two seasons with UMD, and is the main reason why this set – despite being 25 years old – is not too difficult to find. Continue reading “Review: 1985-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs team set”

2008-09 Champ’s Hockey box break #2

About two weeks ago, I purchased a second box of 2008-09 Champ’s Hockey. I got it for $90 even…how could I refuse? Of course, I must ask why I’m paying $90 for a box of cards in the first place! Despite the high price, I guess I really love the design of the cards. Three hits per box doesn’t hurt either. But this may be the worst–or best–box I’ve opened. Here’s what I got:

58 base cards – unfortunately, I only needed 10 of them for my set

12 Champ’s rookies – but only 2 were ones I needed

33 mini cards – I bought a whole set of minis for cheap, so of course I didn’t need any of them

3 mini rookies – fortunately, I needed all 3 of them

8 Natural History cards – Would you believe that these are the exact same eight Natural History cards that I got in my first box? Like, WTF? There are almost 200 different Natural History card…why is Upper Deck’s collation so bad?

And now, the “hits”…

Mike Iggulden Mini Signature

Mike Iggulden? Seriously? I try not to swear too much on this site, but this card SUCKS BALLS. Allow me to explain why. First, this dude played 12 games in the NHL–not the kind of player whose auto I’d want to pull from a $100 $90 box of cards. Secondly, the photo shows him as a Shark, but the bottom reads “New York Islanders,” which is his present team. It frustrates me to no end when the photo and team name (or logo) are mismatched, but on an autographed card in a high-end product that is unforgivable.

Walt Tkaczuk Mini Signature

Tkaczuk played 13 seasons for the Rangers (1969-1981), and as much as I enjoy having his autograph, I wouldn’t exactly break down a door to get this card. I can think of so many other 1970s-era players whose ‘graph I would have rather scored.

Glenn Anderson Mini Threads

The guy is a Hall of Fame player, but this card would have looked so much better with a blue or orange swatch, instead of the stark white square that was used here. Had the swatch been colored, I’d have been pretty ecstatic to have pulled this.

Fortunately, there was a surprise fourth “hit” in this box…

Yes, a redemption card. A one-per-case fossils and artifacts redemption card. I swear, my heart skipped a beat when I got this. In 8 to 12 weeks, I will be the proud (?) owner of a Neolithic Stone Tools card. (Would I sound like I was complaining if I said that I’d prefer a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth instead?) I will be anxious to see what this card looks like when I get it.

So, was this a good box? Or a crummy box? It’s hard for me to say, but I’d love to know what you think.

2008-09 Champ’s Hockey box breakdown

Back in April, I purchased a box of 2008-09 Champ’s Hockey. It was somewhat of a weak moment. I had just received my income tax return, and I went to a new card shop that I had never visited before. The dealer told me that he’d sell me a box of Champ’s for $100, including tax, if I paid him in cash.

Now, normally I don’t buy high-end stuff. I’m the guy who’s on the sidelines, watching some other schlub open up expensive packs and boxes and getting the good autograph cards, while I seldom buy anything more expensive than regular Upper Deck. For once, I wanted to open an expensive box of something, and I was intrigued by this Champ’s product, with all the dinosaur bones and whatnot.

So, like the beer drinker who for once had enough to buy a bottle of fine scotch, I bought a box of Champ’s. I meant to post this box breakdown sooner, but got sidetracked and then forgot. Today, I found the post-it note that listed what was inside this box:

Post It Note

As you can see, I got three “hits” in this box. First the autographed cards:

How about that? I got a hard-signed autograph card of Steve Stamkos, who was probably the most anticipated rookie from the 2008-09 season. No, he did not win the Calder, but getting a Stamkos ‘graph is pretty awesome, and preferable to an autograph of, say…

Jon Filewich. Don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard of this guy. I sure didn’t until I got an autograph of him. He played 5 games in 2007-08 for the Penguins, and has been in the minors ever since. Maybe in 5 years he’ll become the next Maxime Talbot. Or not.

But speaking of Penguins, I got a pretty rad jersey card:

I nearly lost it when I got this Mario Lemieux jersey swatch card. I normally detest jersey cards, because I never get any good ones. Well, I think this one is pretty impressive.

Getting a Stamkos autograph and a Lemieux jersey card made this a worthwhile break. Too bad the other autograph was not of a more, ahem, significant player–but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, right?

As for the other cards (base, minis, etc.) nothing really stood out in my break. Overall, I like the set, but wonder why the mini set has more cards than the standard-sized set.

I still need quite a few base, rookies, mini rookies and Natural History–yes, I am crazy enough that one day I will own the entire mini set, including all 191 of the Natural History cards. (Plus, I need an extra copy of C295 African Wild Dog to give to my girlfriend, who did a report and presentation in college recently about the wild dogs).

I’ll write a set review once I complete the standard-sized set.

Until then, I leave you with a card of arguably the second greatest goalie ever. Arguably.



Daddy Dearest

2004-05 Upper Deck card #196 – Denis Brodeur

2004-05 Upper Deck card #196 - Denis BrodeurDuring the 2004-05 lockout, Upper Deck was at a loss for “Young Guns”. Since the NHL “wasn’t happening” that year, there was no fresh infusion of talent to depict on their hockey cards. At a loss for players to include in their “Young Guns” subset, Upper Deck made an interesting move, and created cards of people who were long overdue for one. Some of the cards – such as those of Lord Stanley, Hobey Baker and Cammi Granato -made sense. One interesting, if not questionable, inclusion in that year’s “Young Guns” set though was a card of Denis Brodeur – the father of New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur. Continue reading “Daddy Dearest”

Review: 2003-04 Topps C55 Hockey

Really, really, really old school design makes for an interesting distraction

2003-04 Topps C55 #68 - Jaromir Jagr

Retro-themed sets based on early 20th century design – such as Upper Deck’s “Champ’s” brand of hockey cards, or Topps “Alan & Ginther” baseball cards – are a popular trend with collectors right now. While few can afford the original cards of Art Ross or Georges Vezina, many still can appreciate the look and feel of current cards that base their designs on these old sets. Earlier this decade, Topps made an initial attempt to make a set of neo-retro hockey cards, naming it “C55” and basing the design on a set of cards that is almost a century old. Continue reading “Review: 2003-04 Topps C55 Hockey”

Mother Ducker

1999 Sports Illustrated For Kids card #792 – Paul Kariya

1999 Sports Illustrated For Kids card #792 - Paul KariyaSports Illustrated for Kids is a spin-off of the magazine Sports Illustrated, but aimed at the younger set. Each issue includes a sheet of nine trading cards featuring athletes from various sports. The magazine’s editors decided to have some fun, and put “April Fools’ Day Cards” in the April 1999 issue of SI for Kids. This card shows Anaheim Mighty Ducks captain Paul Kariya skating on the ice with other ducks – real ducks. Continue reading “Mother Ducker”

The Holy Grail of Hockey Cards

1990-91 Pro Set Stanley Cup Hologram

1990-91 Pro Set Stanley Cup HologramLast week, the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Detroit Red Wings in game seven, winning the Stanley Cup – the third time the Penguins have won hockey’s “Holy Grail” since joining the NHL in 1967. Not long ago, I too acquired a holy grail – one for card collectors: 1990-91 Pro Set Stanley Cup hologram. Continue reading “The Holy Grail of Hockey Cards”