Where in the World is Patrice Bergeron?

The other day, Tim (The Real DFG) wrote about some redemption cards he received in the mail. This prompted me to check my status for a 2010-11 SP Authentic autographed game-used patch card of Patrice Bergeron, limited to 100 copies.

I pulled the redemption card in August 2011, but did not get around to registering it until October 2011. Yesterday, I took a look at the Upper Deck website:

Under status, it reads “Athlete committed to signing soon, please be patient.”

Please…be….patient?!?!?

Seriously, Upper Deck? The set of cards came out in 2010-11. The 2011-12 season is already over, and the 2012-13 season is 3 months away…and they’re telling me to be patient?

Now, I know that Upper Deck can’t ship a card until the player signs it and sends it back. So, this begs the question, where in the world is Patrice Bergeron?

Apparently, he’s someplace where they don’t have Sharpie markers.

**Grumble**

UPDATE: The story continues here.

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A dozen 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards

Last weekend, I found some more 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards that I needed for my set build. Many of them were commons, but 12 of them were pretty awesome and worth scanning. So, for your enjoyment, here are a dozen cards from the ’72-73 OPC set:

272 – Goals Leaders

283 – Assist Leaders

280 – Scoring Leaders

127 – Hart Memorial Trophy

111 – Phil Esposito

226 – Tony Esposito (1st Team All-Star)

136 – Gilbert Perreault

197 – Tim Horton

145 – Ken Dryden…unfortunately, I think this card was trimmed, and I did not realize it until I got home. It measures about 2 3/8″ x 3 3/8″.

185 – Serge Savard

190 – 2nd Series Checklist (unmarked)

334 – 3rd Series Checklist (unmarked)

I now need only 108 cards to complete this set.

Six ’63-64 Parkies

I took 3 small steps — followed by 3 big steps — forward in completing my 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set.

First up, the 3 “commons” I bought:

15 – John MacMillan

61 – Allan Stanley

87 – Jean Gautier

And here are the 3 “big cards” I purchased:

23 – Henri Richard

69 – Eddie Shack

77 – Frank Mahovolich

Now I am down to needing just 34 cards in this set.

Parkhurst Percent Counter: 65%

Five ’53-54 Parkies

My main focus when it comes to old Parkies is the 1963-64 set, but the 1953-54 set is a close second. Last weekend, I bought 5 cards from the 1953-54 Parkhurst set.

41 – Marcel Pronovost

44 – Marty Pavelich

85 – Dave Creighton

88 – John Pierson

97 – William Frank Martin

These 5 put me at 37 out of 100 cards in the set. Once I finish up my 1963-64 set, this one will become a bigger focus.

It Came from the Quarter Box

At the card show last weekend, I spent a lot of time sifting through quarter boxes — more so than I usually do. What unknown treasures might they hold???

Truth be told, I would never, ever beat the 2 Topps C55 Marc-Andre Fleury Rookies I found for 10 cents each a few years ago. Or so I thought.

Dun, dun, dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

When the three days were over, I picked up almost an embarrasing amount of decent cards – all for a quarter each!

Here are the best cards I found in the darkest depths of the quarter box: Continue reading “It Came from the Quarter Box”

1957-58 Topps “Mr. Goalie” Rookie Card

I took one gigantic leap forward in building my 1957-58 Topps set on Friday, when I picked up a rookie card of Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall.

If anyone earned the right to be called “Mr. Goalie” it is him. Among other things, Hall played in 502 consecutive games, won the Calder Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Stanley Cup 3 times, the Vezina Trophy 3 times and invented the butterfly style. See Wikipedia for the full list of accomplishments, which were nothing short of remarkable.

And rookie cards of remarkable players tend to be expensive–especially when from an older set. A near mint-copy of this card has a high book value of $400.

For me, buying vintage cards is always a delicate balance of lowering my standards far enough that the card is “in my range,” but not so low that I will regret the purchase later.

This card is far from perfect, but it is not horrible. The corners all have some “rounding” to them, and there’s a “dimple” above Hall’s outstretched arm.

The centering is not perfect, but that just adds to the “character,” right? And there is a tiny bit of paper loss towards the bottom (I did not notice that until I scanned the card).

I ended up paying $85 for this Glenn Hall rookie card. If this is the only copy of this card that I ever own, I’ll still be happy with it.

Set completion as of 7-2-2012

20 out of 66 cards = 31.8%

Sports Spectacular? It was OK

I went to a 3-day card show this weekend called The Sports Spectacular.

It was less-than-spectacular.

Normally, the shows in Rosemont (near Chicago) are great in March and November. But I guess this one was too close to The National. Many of my favorite dealers were absent this time. So, I found far less cool stuff for my collection than I did in March.

I guess that is OK. If you find too much stuff that you want, then you spend all your money, right? Still, I did pretty good. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the stuff I bought:

6 more cards for my 1963-64 Parkhurst set
1 really big card for my 1957-58 Topps set
A bunch of 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards
An autograph from a Hall of Fame defenseman
5 cards for the 1953-54 Parkhurst set (that I’m secretly building)
Quite possibly the best quarter box haul in the history of sports cards

I hope to have scans up of some of my cool new cards later in the week.

Hockey card news for this week

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:

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.

1963-64 Parkhurst #55 – Gordie Howe

Longtime readers of this blog — and of my quest to complete a 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set — might have thought I already had this card. And they’d be right. The very first ’63-64 Parkie I bought, way back in 2008, was a Gordie Howe card in poor condition.

I told myself that I would upgrade the Howe after I got all of the other cards. But then I recently came across this card you see here. It has a few minor flaws — the most noticeable being the small bends on the lower corners. The card actually looks better in person — scanning something at two times its actual size makes everything look worse.

That “wrinkle” along the top is more noticeable in the scan than in real life. And honestly, I did not notice that tiny crease by the Stanley Cup until I scanned this.

Small flaws aside, this is nicer than many of the other cards in my set build.

So, this card really does not move me “one step closer” to finishing this set, but I still feel that it is an accomplishment because it is an upgrade of the most expensive single.

Parkhurst Percent Counter: still at 59%

Upper Deck finally gets an O-Pee-Chee design right

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/