I went to a card shop on Sunday, and purchased–among other things–a box of 2006-07 Power Play hockey cards. In retrospect, I paid more than I should have for the box–I now see that they don’t sell for much on eBay…damn. But at the time, the price that I paid seemed like a good deal–the card shop owner marked down the price, since it was last year’s product.
I love opening packs, and I figured a full box would make me a complete base set, plus maybe give me a chance to pick up a few special cards. Besides, there’s “one jersey card per box, on average”.
Without further ado, here’s what these 24 packs yielded:
– 131 base cards
– 6 Prospects (Yan Stastny, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Steve Reiger, Cole Jarrett, Matt Carle & Jeremy Williams)
– 2 Goal Robbers (Manny Fernandez & Marty Turco)
– 3 In Action (Sidney Crosby, Henrik Zetterberg & Matts Sundin)
– 1 Last Man Standing (Chris Simon)
– 1 “Specialist” jersey swatch card (Brad Richards)
I’ve got mixed feelings about these cards.
The set, overall, is just OK. One hundred base cards, and the design is not all that great. I did get a complete base set though, which is always nice.
The Brad Richards card isn’t really worth all that much–I see two currently *not* selling on eBay for 99 cents each, and one that did not sell about two weeks back. It’s the risk you take. Sometimes you get a well-sought after jersey or autograph card, but most times you don’t. No big deal. Richards is a good player, so I don’t mind having this card around if I can’t trade it to someone.
The 30 rookie cards in this set–of which I got six of–are nothing special, either. No Malkin, Staal or Paul Stastny (though his brother Yan is in this set). Why go through the trouble of making the rookie cards six per box if they are going to be of mostly ho-hum players?
I guess that’s why these cards don’t sell for all that much. But then again, I am forgetting *why* I collect. Sure, value is a part of it–I’d be lying if I said that was not a part of it. But what is, and always will be, the most important is the fun factor.
And what was fun, though, is opening the packs, and building a set (yes, even if it’s just a 100-card base set).
Beckett Hockey Magazine suggested that if you want your girlfriend to like, or at least understand, your hobby, then you should ask her to open some packs of cards with you. Well, it worked for me.
After going to the card shop, my girlfriend Shellie and I got dinner and opened some of the packs before dinner, and the rest over desert. She seemed to enjoy opening these packs even more than I did. Whereas I would open the pack, glance at the names, and see if I got any special cards, she would look at each and every card, and notice certain things about many of them. She mentioned that Todd Bertuzzi looked intense and creepy (“You have no idea!” I told her), and the fact that the Ducks are no longer “Mighty”.
So, OK, I overpaid a bit for these “unpopular” cards. But I did get a complete base set, a Sidney Crosby “In Action” card, a lackluster jersey card (white swatch, oh yeah!), some doubles to trade…and the enjoyment of opening some packs. I guess that’s not so bad.
Sooner or later, I will post a review about this set.
Wayne Gretzky lucked out on two counts after his trade to the Los Angeles Kings. First off, while Gretzky was sent to the team with arguably the worst uniforms at the time, he never had to wear them. Up until then, the Kings wore those god-awful purple and yellow uniforms. After “The Trade,” the team changed their uniforms to that stylish silver and black getup we all loved in the 1990s. No giant “Imperial Margarine crown” for Wayne.
