Card of the Week: Wrong City Lights

not_raleigh_smallEditor’s Note: Jim Howard is a new Puck Junk contributor.Show him some love and leave him a comment below.

A few years ago, Panini released a cool, relatively inexpensive hockey series called Pinnacle. One of the nicer points was that it didn’t dole out the same stats that you found on every card that year, but rather told you a story about that player featured on the cards.

Pinnacle’s autograph and jersey swatch cards were labeled as “City Lights” and went further by showing a player, gargantuan size, floating in front of their team’s city sky-line as if they’re in the process of receiving a pass from Godzilla and about to put it past King Kong — all the while informing of some special fact about the city or a historical event loosely related to that franchise. Neat; and I like jersey cards because they are good for collecting autographs!

Now, I know some collectors dislike jersey cards, especially cards that feature a swatch from the player’s previous team. But the Hurricanes card for the City Lights series sent me right over the edge! Since Jeff Skinner has only played for us, Panini couldn’t mess the jersey up. Instead they picture the wrong city. And not just any city, but Charlotte — Raleigh’s cross-state rival.

Charlotte and Raleigh have had a bitter relationship for quite a while now; THEY (Charlotte) have all the money from Bank of America. THEY have an NFL Franchise. THEY have and NBA team. THEY have NASCAR. And THEY….were very pissed when Raleigh got an NHL team, reminding us anytime we have something to celebrate with in relation to said team (which *sigh* hasn’t been much recently).

not_raleighShortly after Raleigh announced getting the NHL All Star Game in 2011, Charlotte touted getting the 2012 Democratic National Convention.   People came from all over to join Raleigh in that three-day party. Everyone left Charlotte because of the DNC.

Anyway, I felt I need to take matters into my own hands with this egregious error on the card. So I bought one from a local dealer for $5 and got a hold of Jeff Skinner at an event. After fighting through the hordes of screaming teenage girls and grandmothers wanting to pinch his dimpled cheeks, I approached him with my own fine tip Sharpie marker and asked him to sign it “This is not Raleigh, XOXO Jeff Skinner.” While he didn’t put the XOXO, he was a good sport about it after closer inspection of the card. And now I can go troll Panini. I like Upper Deck more, anyway.

I mean, how would Blackhawks fans feel about a jersey card of Patrick Sharp slinging a puck through the St. Louis Arch? Actually, that sounds kind of cool as long as he’s in his away jersey.

Jim Howard is a Carolina Hurricanes fan and reformed baseball card collector who is trying to keep the hockey collection from becoming overwhelming. And while he wishes he could give Crosby the business with his mitt, he is in fact NOT the goalie for the Red Wings.

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Author: Jim Howard

Hockey enthusiast who pays the bills as a traveling geologist. More of a lover than a fighter, he's a fairly cheap date; just ask his wife. He'd prefer to be outside in the rain that stuck in the office on a beautiful day.

14 thoughts on “Card of the Week: Wrong City Lights”

  1. Great post, welcome to Puck Junk!

    While I also prefer Upper Deck to Panini (by a wide margin), I have to at least give Panini credit for calling the set “City Lights” and not “Hometown Heroes” like Upper Deck did in the late 2000’s. I’d have to go back to Upper Deck’s insert set that spanned several series to see if they used the wrong city on any of the cards, but I don’t believe any of the players were actually from the city pictured in the background, so “Hometown Heroes” didn’t really fit the set in my mind.

    1. I liked the Hometown Heroes set as well. It’s been so long now that the cards featuring Raleigh are practically out dated; our skyline looks very different now.

  2. HA! I don’t think the city of Charlotte was pissed because Raleigh got the team. Even now, Charlotteans have their collective heads so far up the Panthers’ butt they still don’t realize the ‘Canes won the Cup in ’06.
    AND
    That is an OLD photo of Charlotte’s skyline. I live here so I know….

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