News & Views

That was MY card dealer on the Super Bowl

Photo by Sal J. Barry
Did anyone who watched the Super Bowl yesterday remember the Miller High Life commercial, where they featured four small business owners?

Well, that baseball card shop owner is my “dealer”! I have been a customer of Tim’s Baseball Card Shop since he opened his store in my neighborhood in Chicago. Tim Herron is a friendly guy, he prices his stuff very fair and he’s very patient with kids.

Tim’s Baseball Card Shop, along with 3 other small businesses, were picked by Miller High Life to be featured in a Super Bowl commercial that touts the “little guys” for a change.

Needless to say, all of his customers were very happy for Tim. He’s a nice guy, and my number one source of hockey cards. Hell, I watched some football game just so I could see him on TV.

In addition to the commercial, Tim was featured on several news programs, including Fox News. It isn’t every day that a baseball card store owner gets to be on TV, let alone the Super Bowl.



Star Cards? You better run…

OK, so maybe I did not encounter a Dalek trying to sell me hockey cards…but I damn near came close this past Sunday when Shellie and I visited a Chicago-area mall. Staring me down at the end of a dimly-lit corridor was this monstrosity:

Don’t be charmed by the pretty pink and blue lights…this thing is evil. EVIL!

Upon closer examination, the window displays cards of Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Kane and Duncan Keith. A little green sticker at the top says “Guaranteed unsearched,” while a white sticker at the bottom says “4 cards for only 25 cents.” The machine also sells Star Wars CCG cards, and the Dalek–I mean vending machine–behind this one sells baseball and football cards.

“It’s only a quarter–here,” said Shellie, handing me a quarter from her purse.

“Ah, why not? It will give me something to blog about,” I replied.

I put in a quarter…and nothing happened.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a quarter and put that one in, thinking that would fix the problem.

It didn’t.

Perhaps taking inspiration from the Hanson Brothers of Slap Shot, Shellie said “Stand back” as she kicked the machine hard enough to rock it back and forth.

Instead of 4 cards, the machine spat out 6:

Ian Fraser, Mike Kruselnyski, Sergei Fedorov, Johan Garpenlov, Geoff Courtnall and Daniel Marios. A bit heavy on the 1991-92 Stadium Club.

“Try that again,” I suggested. 2 more cards emerged:

Ken Wregget, and is that….? Yes, it is Eric Lindros on water skis. (soon to be a “Card of the Week”).

“I should just leave you here with a roll of quarters,” Shellie mused.

“No! These are the kinds of hockey cards that I’m trying to get rid of, not get more of.”

Later that day, on our way out of the mall, we passed the evil machine again.

“Here–one more time,” said Shellie, handing me a quarter. I think she liked this thing more than I did. Maybe she enjoyed kicking it.

Next to the coin slot, in the tray where the cards land, were these 3 freebies–perhaps the machine vended them after we left?

Dino Ciccarelli, Dominik Hasek and Joe Murphy. Great, more Stadium Club…
I put in the quarter that Shellie gave me, and–surprise, surprise–nothing happened. So, Shellie decided to unplug the vending machine, plug it back in, and then give it a good shove. Finally, the Star Cards machine, fearing for its life, complied, producing 4 cards:
 

 

Kelly Miller, Marc Bureau, Brad Lauer and Mike Hough. Hardly what you’d call “star cards.”

For 75 cents I am the proud owner 15 useless hockey cards from the early 1990s. Two things surprise me:

1. I didn’t get any Pro Set cards, but did get 7 Stadium Club cards.

2. The cards were not vended in cardboard sleeves to protect them. Similar machines in the 1980s and 1990s would usually put the cards inside a folded piece of cardboard. No so today, as the cardboard folder would be worth more than the cards they protect.

So, take my advice: if you see one of these Star Card vending machines at a mall near you, keep walking. Or better yet–run!

1963-64 Parkhurst #83 – Ralph Backstrom

My first ’63-64 Parkhurst card of the new year, Ralph Backstrom bumps me up to 21 out of 99 cards in that set. Four more cards, and I’ll be 1/4 of the way there.

In 2008, I only purchased 2 cards from this set (though one of them was Gordie Howe).

In 2009, I made a more concentrated effort to build this set, picking up 18 cards for my set.

This year, I hope to get another 24 cards for this set–about one every two weeks. On a limited budget, that makes it a challenge. Most of the cards in this release are not that hard to come by, but I’d rather wait until I can get a good deal. This Backstrom card here cost me $8.02, but it has no creases, no marks and four sharp corners…well worth it for a 47-year old card.

2010 Blackhawks Convention tickets…

…are now on sale, so you better hurry and buy some before they are all gone. Because the team would love you to buy into all the hype.

Two years back, the Blackhawks put their convention passes up for sale in March, if I recall correctly. Last year, the passes went on sale around February. For the 2010 convention, they started  hawking (ha!) convention passes back in December 2009. Why so soon? What’s the rush?

“Well, they gotta pay Marian Hossa somehow, right?” suggested my girlfriend Shellie.

Good point. $12 million a season doesn’t raise itself.

Continue reading “2010 Blackhawks Convention tickets…”

Oh noes!!!1! Chris Chelios arrested!

Chris Chelios–my favorite hockey player of all time–was arrested for drunken driving in late December. Yeah, old news by now. The story was reported on Tuesday, January 6. It’s still sinking in for me. The story was reported on the news in Chicago and Detroit, as well as The Hockey News. I’m sure it was reported on in Montreal too; the city where he broke into the NHL.

It’s funny how the Chicago report uses his full name, Christos K. Chelios. They only give you the “full name treatment” if you die or commit a crime.

Ironically, after Tuesday night’s game in Hamilton against the Bulldogs, Chelios commented about a bad call by a referee, suggesting that perhaps the ref was “hung over.” But when asked about his DUI charge, Chelios immediately left the locker room. He can dish it out, but can’t take it.

Sigh.

This is not how I want to remember Chris Chelios. This is not how I want the world to remember Chris Chelios. Speaking of “the world,” a DUI is not the end of the world. And fortunately, no one was hurt. But still, a bit of irresponsibility for someone I look up to.

As it stands now, Chelios has a lot of critics–and this won’t help. He is 47 and playing for the minor-league Chicago Wolves of the AHL. He’s trying to work his way back into the NHL, but it seems the popular fan sentiment is that he is making a fool of himself and should retire.

I don’t think so. As long as the heart (and the legs, and the lungs, etc.) are willing, he should keep playing. As is the tag line of one of my favorite personal care product goes, Chelios should “stay in the game.”

 

Why I’m glad USA won the WJC

The World Junior Championship is over. Team USA beat Team Canada 6-5 in OT, winning the gold for the first time since 2004.

I’m not glad that USA won because I was intently following the tournament. I’ve watched a game here and there, and being in school tonight I was only able to catch midway through the third to the end of the final game.

I’m not glad that that USA won because I’m some sort of super patriot. I think overzealous displays of nationalism are borderline embarrassing in this day and age of the “global village.”

I am glad that USA won because it will quell the talk of how the Canadian team was “supposed” to win this year, how it was their “destiny” or whatnot.

But not this time.

Yes, the rest of us get it. Canada invented ice hockey. Canadians make the best hockey players…though the best hockey player in the world right now is Russian. Canada getting a silver medal in a hockey tournament is as unfathomable as USA getting a silver medal in Olympic basketball. But it happens.

Perhaps I’m a little glad about this because it might get more American kids interested in hockey, just like the 1980 Olympics inspired one generation to lace ’em up, while watching Wayne Gretzky play in Los Angeles inspired the next group.

No, a US victory at the WJC probably wont’ have the same effect. But in the end, Canada will up their game and most likely win the gold next year. Then the US, as well as the other countries, will bring it to the next level too.

Then the game of hockey will get even better, and everyone wins.

Lidstrom / Chelios / Rafalski GU

Normally, I despise jersey cards. I think they are useless as far as my collection is concerned. Plus, jersey cards end up inflating the price of packs of cards that *might* contain one (Upper Deck, OPC). But every now and then, I make an exception, and purchase such a card for my collection. Behold:

Chris Chelios is my favorite player, so I try to get as many different cards of his as possible–including jersey cards. This one in particular has game-used jersey swatches from Niklas Lidstrom, Chelios and Brian Rafalski. The first two are locks to make the Hall of Fame when they retire. While Rafalski probably wont land in the Hall, he has thus far has a pretty good hockey career–in college, in Europe and in the NHL–and will represent the United States in the 2010 Olympics this February.

So how much did this card of three great players set me back? With shipping, $3.52. That just underscores how worthless these darn things are.  I do like the way the red P in OPC is flanked by a white O and white C, giving the card a bit of symmetry.

One small step…

Well, I did it. I managed to update Puck Junk once a day during December. After finishing my grad classes for the quarter in late November, I promised myself that I’d try to do a daily update for an entire month. Counting this New Year’s Day post, my streak is now at 38 straight days (Nov. 25 – Jan. 1). This is the first time that I’ve managed to write something every day.

Another first, Puck Junk has eclipsed 1,000 visits in a month, with a total count of 1,208 visits for December. I know in the grander scheme of the web, a thousand visits a month is nothing–some sites get that traffic in a day. Regardless, I feel pretty good about that.

Sure, this is not the most exciting blog post I’ve ever written. I’m still recovering from an awesome New Year’s Eve banquet. I ate too much and got to bed real late, but managed to get up just in time to see this year’s Winter Classic.

Speaking of which, it is a good thing that  Tim Thomas’ selfish play didn’t cost his team the game, eh?

Epic Win FTS

I went to a card show today, and normally I like to write about all the cool cards and memorabilia I picked up.

But today, I scored what was probably the best purchase I have ever made in my 20 years of hockey card collecting.

I bought a 1985-86 Topps Hockey Set for $50.

Yes, it had the Lemieux. It’s not perfect, but I have a few Topps Lemieux RCs anyway, so a less-than-perfect one will be fine to put in the 9-pocket page.

The set also had the Gretzky card, an unmarked checklist and the other 162 cards.

Complete.

I won’t have to piece this one together.

Yes, it seems too good to be true. Hooray for me.

I also got some other stuff–including a 2009-10 Upper Deck hobby box. Seems kind of unimportant by comparison, now that I think of it.

Ironic that I spent more on an unopened box of new cards than a complete set of old ones…