Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
On Monday, I posted my first box break of 2009-10 Champ’s Hockey, as well as some general info about the product. Read that post before continuing this one. I’ll wait…
Done? Good. Let’s see what I got in my 2nd box of CHAAAAMMMMPPPP’S: Continue reading “2009-10 Champ’s Hockey box break #2”
I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Champ’s Hockey set. Sure, some of the cards–of dinosaurs and passenger pigeons and such–were a bit odd. And the rookie card mini set was nearly impossible to put together. But the standard set itself had a classy, early 20th century look that I enjoyed.
This year’s Champ’s set looked just as cool–and boxes are around $70, instead of $100 like they were last year. So I decided to jump in with both feet and purchase two boxes.
This is what I got in the first box:
49 base cards
This year, the base cards have a muted blue border. In fact, none of the jersey or other colors are bright, either. If he subdued colors don’t bother you, then you’ll probably like this design. Personally, I like the muted hues because it adds to that old-timey feel. 100 of these make up the base set.
5 light blue parallel cards
Unfortunately, this year’s Champ’s set is heavy on the parallels. You get one light blue bordered parallel card in every four packs. But if that isn’t bad enough…
2 orange parallel cards
…then there’s also orange-bordered parallels, falling one in every ten packs. And yes, I did get the normal (blue), light blue and orange versions of Nikolai Khabibulin in this box…which would be great if I collected variants of Russian goalie cards, or something to that extent.
1 yellow parallel card
Does anyone else see the uselessness of these parallels. I’d rather be 8 cards closer to completing a base set than get 8 cards with variant border colors. These yellow variants come one in every 20 packs. I guess that matters if you have a fetish for yellow-bordered cards.
18 mini cards
The mini cards are closer in size to the cigarette cards from a century ago.There are 192 of the mini “non rookie cards”, so it will take you some time to put together this set.
1 “blue back” mini card parallel – the only difference is that the ink on the back is printed in blue instead of black. A dumb variation that is not even worth scanning.
5 mini Champ’s Rookies
This year’s Champ’s set skips out on the regular sized Champ’s Rookies, and instead only offers the mini-sized rookie cards. The slightly shiny gold border of these mini rookie cards somewhat betrays the early 20th century design. Also, only 5 rookie cards per box is kind of depressing if you think about it.
5 Natural History
For some inexplicable reason, I like these cards. Yeah, they are kind of pointless in a hockey set. Maybe that’s why I enjoy them.
4 Historical Figures
Presidents and Prime Ministers? Apparently, Lester B. Pearson was a Canadian Prime Minister, and not just a trophy name. I learn something new every day.
1 Wonders of the World
Why? Seriously–why? Oh, and at one per box, you know some idiots will be trying to get $10-$20 for one of these on eBay.
Mini Jersey – Chris Osgood
Osgood has played a long time, and red-colored Red Wings jersey swatches are quite plentiful. So, it’s not like this card is super rare or anything. Nonetheless, Osgood has had a mighty fine NHL career.
Mini Jersey – Daniel Alfredsson
Rockin’! And it’s a black swatch too–which looks a lot nicer than a white swatch against the tan card background.
So that’s two decent-looking jersey cards of two stellar NHL players. Onto the autographs, then…
Mini Autograph – Oscar Moller
Uh oh….you know you’re in trouble when you pull a signed card of a guy you’ve never heard of. Of course, people in Los Angeles know who this guy is, but until now I didn’t. Maybe I’ll get an autograph of a “known player”…
Mini Autograph – Andrew Ebbetts
Andrew Ebbett? Come on! Yeah, I know this guy…he played 10 games for Chicago this season–a season where he started in Anaheim, went to Chicago and is now currently with Minnesota. Sorry if I can’t get too excited about pulling this signature (FYI, I wrote to Ebbett a few months back, and he is very fan friendly with TTM autographs).
Balancing out the two decent jersey cards are two mediocre autograph cards. You’d expect ‘graphs of these guys in lower-end sets, but in Champ’s? Of course, at the $65-$70 range, Champ’s is more of a “mid-range” product now; a step above Upper Deck proper, and a few steps below Black Diamond or Artifacts.
Later this week, I’ll post what I got in my other box of Champ’s, as well as some other goodies I scored at the card show this past Saturday.
Before changing our focus from the Olympics and back to the NHL, I thought it would be fitting to do one final Olympics-themed article about Mark Johnson.Johnson played on the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic team in 1980, and was the coach of the silver-medal winning U.S. Women’s team in 2010. He also had a fine career in the NHL too, playing 11 seasons with the Penguins, North Stars, Whalers, Blues and Devils. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mark Johnson”
In honor of Black History Month, today we will take a look at the career of Tony McKegney. He was not the first black hockey player–or second, or third–to play in the NHL. Rather, McKegney was the first black hockey player to make an impact in the NHL. Here are some of his trading cards issued during his 13-year NHL career. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Tony McKegney”
Hayley Wickenheiser is similar in many ways to former women’s hockey mainstay Cammi Granato. For numerous years, Granato was the dominant player for – and considered the face of – women’s hockey in the United States. The same is true in Canada for Wickenheiser, who is the team captain of the 2010 Canadian Women’s hockey team. Coincidentally, both women have NHL ties. Cammi’s brother Tony played in the NHL, as did Haley’s cousin Doug. Continue reading “Canada’s Captain”
After buying a single pack, and later a rack pack, of this year’s Fleer Ultra, I have to admit that the set has grown on me. That said, I bought a blaster box at Target last week. Yes, we all know that blasters suck harder than 36-count “retail” boxes…but I had a 10% of coupon, and figured that, you know, maybe this blaster would be special.
Yeah right. (Well, it did happen to me once.)
I don’t wanna scan all the cards I got. I’m not even going to scan the best card from each of the 12 packs, but rather just the best “type” of each card.
Here is what I got:
Herb Brooks will forever be remembered best as the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that accomplished the “Miracle on Ice” and won a gold medal. He almost won a gold medal as a player, too, with the 1960 Olympic squad. However, it was not meant to be, as explained by this 1991 trading card… Continue reading “Card of the Week: Herb Brooks”
Today we take a look back at the career–in cards–of Hall of Fame right wing Mike Bossy. In 10 seasons, Bossy scored 50 or more goals in all but his last one, which was cut short by injuries. A bad back forced him to retire at age 30.But he accomplished more in 10 seasons that what most players do in 20. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mike Bossy”
A few days back, I purchased some hockey cards at Target. Like DFG, I too have been trying to swear off the retail packs this year. And I remember Card on Ice, saying the product wasn’t all that. But I had a 10% coupon on Target, and I was deeply intrigued by this 3-pack blister pack of 2009-10 Black Diamond Hockey cards.
Three-pack blister? That’s a pack of packs! Just the sheer novelty of that would be hard for me to pass up.
Including sales tax–but minus my discount at Target–it came out to $10–a cool $3.33 per pack. Worth it? Probably not. But then again, Jonathan Toews of my Chicago Blackhawks is on the card wrapper. Would “Tazer” steer me wrong?
These shiny, foil-y cards never look good when scanned, so I only scanned what I deemed the “best” card from each pack:
Pack 1
Krejci gets “best card status” from this pack because I know some guy who blogs about him.
Pack 2
A Triple Diamond card seeded 1 in every 4 packs, I beat the odds by getting one in the 3 packs I purchased. Plus, it is always great to get a card of a retired great like “Ducky.”
Pack 3
Hmmmm….none of these guys really stand out to me, so I’ll arbitrarily pick Abdelkader as the best card in the pack because it is colorful.
The backs of each card are actually pretty well laid-out. I guess I’m a sucker for symmetry.
The back accommodates up to 5 lines of stats. As much as I prefer complete statistics, I almost expect these kinds of sets to only show a few years.
I don’t know if this is a set that I will collect. Retail packs suck, and a hobby box goes for $90 to $100–but their only upside seems to be jersey cards or parallels, neither of which I am particularly fond of.
1979-80 was an epic year for hockey for so many reasons. It was a changing of the guard, with Wayne Gretzky playing his first NHL season, and Gordie Howe playing in his last. It was also the first season after the NHL absorbed four WHA (World Hockey Association) teams. And it was a year that a team of Americans would pull off one of the biggest miracles on ice. But that’s another story.
Like the year it represents, the 1979-80 Topps set was a landmark release, and still remains popular among collectors today. Continue reading “Review: 1979-80 Topps Hockey”
