October 5, 2007 was the day I officially launched PuckJunk.com.

That doesn’t seem too long ago. But I feel like I got a lot accomplished in 5 years, including a Masters Degree, a successful career change and maintaining this website (and that other hockey website I also do). So I guess 5 years was a while ago.

Five years! None of my previous “hobby websites” have lasted that long. My fansite about The Matrix movies lasted about 4 years, though I didn’t update it in the last year. My G.I. Joe fansite only lasted maybe around 2 years. My Transformers website never got off the ground. But my hockey card and collectibles site–FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING.

And counting! That’s the great part. I still enjoy collecting hockey cards and I still enjoy writing about them.

Why? Because of the rest of the blogosphere. My other fansites were islands unto themselves, while Puck Junk is part of a community that enjoys hockey cards. Thanks to everyone who has traded cards with me, and thanks to everyone who’s listened to me prattle on about old cards, new cards, good cards, bad cards, rookie cards and lost cards.

Here’s to the next half-decade.

FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY CONTEST

To celebrate Puck Junk’s 5th Anniversary, I am giving away a sealed deck of Hockey Hall of Fame playing cards, which uses photos of some of the greatest all-time players.

If you would like to be entered in the drawing, just post a reply saying so by Sunday afternoon.. I will do a random drawing on Sunday night.

ALSO…
Happy Birthday to these guys!

Here are some quick news and notes in the world of hockey cards.

“The Lost Cards” series starts tomorrow on Puck Junk

On Monday, June 25, I will start a 5-part series on Puck Junk called The Lost Cards.

Each day this week, I will profile a “mythical” hockey card–that is, a card that was supposed to be released, but was not for reasons many times left unexplained.

Like a cryptozoologist drawn to the Loch Ness Monster, I hope to shed some light on some famous and some obscure hockey cards that never saw the light of day.

The first part of The Lost Cards will go live soon after midnight tonight.

The end of the Want List magazine

The current issue of The Want List will be its last printed edition. Published since 2009, THW is going to an online-only format for news and stories, but will continue to publish a print edition of its annual Vintage Hockey Collectors Almanac.

Personally, I am bummed out to see another hobby magazine meet its end–especially one that was solely dedicated to hockey. A great read, I always looked forward to the next issue. This fall, let’s all make The Want List part of our weekly reading. You can visit their website at TheWantList.ca

War Room appearances (as in two!) this week

For those of you have started reading this blog in the past year, I am sometimes on an XM Radio Show called “The War Room,” in a collectibles segment called “Got ‘Em! Need ‘Em!” I was usually on the show once a week, but due to scheduling conflicts I’ve only been on 4 times this season. This week, I will be on The War Room twice (not sure of the days yet). The show is on XM Radio channel 92 / Sirrus channel 207 at 10 am CST.

Card show near Chicago this coming weekend

The “Sports Spectacular” collectibles convention will be held in Rosemont on June 29 to July 1. The show will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention center, and have over 100 dealers, as well as autograph guests.

For those who take mass transit in Chicago, the show is a 2-block walk from the CTA Blue Line Rosemont train stop. It is also near several expressways, for those who live within reasonable driving distance to Chicago. Admission is $10 per day.

Show Hours
Friday, June 29: 4:30pm to 9:00pm
Saturday, June 30: 9:30am to 5:00pm
Sunday, July 1: 10:00am to 4:00pm

Visit the show website for more details.

I will be there probably all 3 days–definitely Saturday, and either Friday, Sunday or both. If you plan on going to this show, let me know and we can meet up and trade cards. Fellow blogger Justin G. and Puck Junk reader Nick B. will be there too.

Want List and Trade List updated

Not to be confused with the magazine, I’ve updated my Want List. I am now looking for base cards from 2011-12 Enforcers, and still trying very hard to get all of the 2011-12 OPC Retro Parallels.

I’ve also “restored” more of my Singles, RCs and Inserts trade list, which now goes back to 2008-09. I hope to keep adding to it a little bit more each week with new (and old) stuff.

Some old reviews restored

When I moved Puck Junk from my custom-built website to solely using WordPress, not all of my content made the transition. I’ve been slowly restoring old reviews to this site as time allows. I’ve recently added these articles to the archives:

• 1983 Canadian National JR. Team Set
• 1985-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs Team Set
• 2005-06 Upper Deck Ice set
• 2009 National Hockey Card Day set

They might be from a while ago – but as the saying goes, if you haven’t seen them yet then they’re new to you.

And be sure to check back tomorrow for the first installment of The Lost Cards.

I know these have been around for around a month now, but I recently saw images of the new 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee hockey set.

It took Upper Deck seven tries, but they finally made an O-Pee-Chee design that I actually like. 

OK, that’s not entirely true. I loved the 2009-10 design. But my biggest complaint has always been the gi-normous O-Pee-Chee logo that has dominated the design every year since 2006-07–when Upper Deck started making OPC-brand cards. Upper Deck always felt the need to hit us over the head with an OPC logo that was unnecessarily large.

But not this year. Instead, more important details–like the player’s name and team–take precedence over the brand logo. The design isn’t too shabby either–it looks modern enough, but feels kind of old school.

The inserts really have me excited about this set, though.

The Retro Parallel cards will be seeded 1-per pack, and have a 1950s vibe to them. I am currently building the 2011-12 OPC Retro Parallel set (want list here), and might actually go after these too.

STICKERS?!?! How freaking cool is this? As an American, I fondly remember getting a sticker in almost every Topps card set I bought back in the day, be it Hockey or a movie set like Star Wars. You’ll get one sticker in every 3 packs of the upcoming OPC set.This sticker’s design feels like a 1970s baseball card–simple, but colorful. Frankly, I’d rather get a sticker than a retro rainbow black die cut parallel.

And don’t worry–there will be 8 rainbow parallels per box, too. And harder-to-find black rainbow parallels. This is Upper Deck we’re talking about.

You’ll also get 2 pop-ups per box. While I’m not exactly a fan of the idea, I do like the fact that we are getting some variety in this year’s OPC product. Plus, I’m kind of tired of inserts like Trophy Winners and Team Checklists.

One idea I really like are these manufactured Team Logo Patch cards.

I guess these are going to feature different incarnations of team logos, or a team’s supporting logo, like the Red Wings’ cartoon octopus. Unfortunately, these will be hard to get–1 in every 96 packs–so I won’t hold my breath. I like the idea of collecting team logos, past and present. That would have made a cool insert set itself, even without patches. Oh well.

The 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set will be released August 14. I’m definitely going to collect it. Now my only debate is, do I buy a complete set (like I did this year) or do I buy some boxes. One way is more effective, but the other way is more fun–and expensive.

Is anyone else planning on collecting the 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set/

This Saturday (tomorrow!) is National Hockey Card Day. And as all of you know by now, this year it will be held in both Canada and the U.S.

Participating stores will be giving away 5-card packs of Upper Deck Hockey cards containing an exclusive “National Hockey Card Day” set. Each country will get its own distinct set:

USA: List of participating American retailers

Canada: List of participating Canadian retailers

While the giveaway packs are free, a special 16th card (Sidney Crosby in Canada; Tim Thomas in America) will only be available if you make a purchase.

Canadian collectors who visit London Drugs or Toys R Us will get an oversized “blow up” card when they purchase an Upper Deck product.

I’m excited, and am going to visit a few stores and try to build a few sets to trade to my fellow collectors north of the border.

I’ve been pretty scarce this past week or so, as the college semester is in full swing and I am teaching five–count ’em five!–classes between two different schools.

However, I wanted to quickly point out two “blink and you’ll miss ’em” magazine articles that mention Puck Junk.

The February 13, 2012 issue of The Hockey Newsfeatures my fourth “In The Cards” article (the third one was printed back in December). The short article talks about the trading card of Todd Ewen nomming on a hockey puck. Delicious!

Meanwhile, the January/February 2012 issue of The Want List has an article entitled “The Scott and Tracy Show…plus five other collector stories we wanted to share” (pages 16-19). The article talks about KSA Grading Services, Panini America, Bleacher Creatures,  KSKS Collectibles, Clouts N’ Chara and Puck Junk.

In other news, I bought six boxes of hockey cards. Expect some breaks–including some video breaks–soon.

Hockey season is in full swing, and I’ve been too busy to enjoy it. My career transition from web designer to college teacher seems to have been a success, as I am teaching at three different schools now, as well as once a week at a grammar school.

The bad news is, I have less and less free time for blogging. But that should change, as I always seem to have tons of extra time once the semester starts winding down.

But onto some good news: my second article was published in The Hockey News, in their November 7, 2011 issue. Blink and you might miss it–it is at the bottom of page 11, and the article is smaller than the size of a hockey card. You can find the issue on the newsstands now.

Puck Junk is 4 today.

But October 5 is an important day for two other reasons:

Yep, both Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy were born on October 5, 1965. Coincidentally, I recently purchased the two Topps Rookie cards you see above. I guess today was the “right” day to share them here. 

But getting back to my original point, four years is a pretty long time for a website to exist. How many sites and/or blogs have you seen come and go since 2007, card-related or otherwise?

In retrospect, I’m glad that I started this site for 3 reasons:

1. Having a blog about hockey cards has helped me keep up with what’s going on in the world of card collecting.

2. Maintaining this website has led to a lot of great opportunities–writing for Beckett Hockey in the past and The Hockey News this season, as well as appearing on The War Room radio program (I’ll be back on it again this season, too).

3. Best of all, having this website has allowed me to meet other hockey card collectors, either in person or via the interrwebs. Some of them I’ve traded cards with, while others have just sent me stuff out of the kindness of their hearts. Hobbies are fun, but they are more fun when shared with others.

With thousands of cards released over the past 100 years, and new cards coming out all the time, I’ll never run out of things to collect–or talk about.

So here’s looking to the next four years.

This week debuts an occasional feature I am writing for The Hockey News entitled In the Cards, where I take a look at some of the more strange or interesting hockey cards ever made.

So if you subscribe to THN–or know someone who does–then be sure to check out page 13 of the September 19 issue, on sale now.

My last blog post was about where I was on September 11, 2001. But I also wanted to express how it affected the hockey community. Others have done a better job of that, though, so may I direct your attention to the following websites:

• Former NHLer Garret Bailey and former collegiate standout Mark Bavis were scouts for the Los Angeles Kings. Both were on one of the hijacked planes. The Kings website wrote a great article about the two men and their legacy.

• Taking things many steps further, Puck Daddy also wrote about those whose lives were changed by the 9/11 tragedy, and how the hockey community rallied together. It’s a long read, but very comprehensive.

• Finally, a relatively new hockey card blog called The Cardboard and Me features a nice custom card as a tribute to the New York firefighters.

Always look to the future, but never forget the past.