2011 Boston Bruins Stanley Cup Champions Set

Upper Deck is releasing a boxed set commemorating the Boston Bruins victory in the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. It is available for order now, but will not ship for a few weeks. Priced at $19.99 (plus shipping), the set will consist of 31 cards. The breakdown is as follows:

  • 25 cards featuring the best Bruins during the season
  • 5 “Season Highlight” cards
  • 1 card of the Bruins celebrating their win after Game 7

Twenty bucks seems kind of steep for only 30 cards. Then again, I love this idea. When the Blackhawks won the Cup last year, I hoped that a set like this would be released commemorating their championship. Back in the day, Pro Set used to put out Super Bowl commemorative sets that featured every player on both teams in the big game; I always wanted a hockey card maker to do the same for the teams in the Cup Finals.

You can buy the set–and find out more about it–here at the Upper Deck store.

I plan on purchasing this set. Is anyone else thinking about buying it?

Timmy!

Go ahead, say it…you know you want to.

Congratulations to “TIMMY” Thomas on winning Game 7, winning the Stanley Cup, winning the Conn Smythe as playoff MVP…and for never giving up during the 10 years it took him to make it to the NHL.

1993-94 Classic Pro Prospects Promo Card

1993-94 Classic Pro Prospects Radek Bonk promoRadek Bonk made waves when, at age 17, he signed with the Los Vegas Thunder of the old International Hockey League. Most kids under 18 play against their peers in junior hockey, but Bonk was competing with men many years older than him. Classic Games, who specialized in making cards of prospects, took notice of this feat. They issued this card of Bonk to promote their 1994 Pro Prospects set. Continue reading “1993-94 Classic Pro Prospects Promo Card”

1995-96 Fleer Metal promo sheet

Four-card promo sheet features Roenick, Potvin, Fleury and Park

1995-96 Fleer Metal promo sheetThis 4-card panel was issued to promote the 1995-96 Fleer Metal Hockey set. These standard-sized cards are of Felix Potvin, Jeremy Roenick, Theoren Fleury and Richard Park. To one side is a 2-inch strip that has information about the set. The cards are perforated and can be torn apart from one another. Continue reading “1995-96 Fleer Metal promo sheet”

1990-91 Pro Set prototype card

Brett Hull: The first of many prototype hockey cards in the 1990s

1990-91 Pro Set Brett Hull prototype cardWhen the hockey card market expanded from two to five companies in 1990, promotional and prototype cards became all the rage. Such cards were given to card shops and collectors to show them what the new cards would look like, and to entice them to purchase the forthcoming sets. But these promo cards took on a life of their own, and were heavily sought by investors and collectors alike. Continue reading “1990-91 Pro Set prototype card”

Making the Grade

Two weeks ago, I asked readers of this blog if they collected graded cards. I also expressed my overall disdain of the whole card grading thing.

But earlier this year I sent in two cards to get graded. I figured that I couldn’t really have an opinion in the matter unless I experienced it.

Plus, Beckett gave me two free card gradings when I renewed my subscription to Beckett Hockey. What do I got to lose? Besides the postage fees, of course.

After careful consideration, I sent in the following 2 cards to Beckett Grading Services:

2008-09 Champ’s Hockey Neolithic Stone Tools – The reason I chose to get this card graded was that it is super thick, and I figured that a grading slab would be better protection than keeping it in the toploader it came in. Plus, this isn’t a card that I would display or put in a card page (obviously). So getting it slabbed seemed to be the way to go.

But would someone please explain how this card only received an 8.5?  It went from Upper Deck to me to Beckett. OK, I did handle it for about 5 minutes when I scanned it for a Card of the Week article. But I didn’t play a game of flips with it or anything like that.

Next up…

2009-10 Fleer Ultra Ice Medallion James Van Riemsdyk 1/25 – I sent this card to get graded purely for investment reasons. One day, I hope to sell or trade it to a James Van Riemsdyk collector. The card has a print run of 25, and mine is numbered 1/25. It also got a Gem Mint rating (9.5). I think if someone was a JVR fan, this would be a pretty awesome card to own.

And though it did get the coveted Gem Mint rating, again I have to wonder about some of the numbers. Why did the centering receive a 9.5 and not 10? The card is printed full-bleed, so there aren’t any “borders” that appear larger on one side than the other, like with older cards. The surface received a 10, so Beckett does give a perfect score to some things.

I will admit that I like having these 2 cards graded. They are pretty sweet cards to own, and slabbing them will retain their condition. Should I ever trade or sell them, the condition would never be questioned. But it is unlikely that I am going to send a bunch of cards to get graded anytime soon. And I’ll still shake my head at those who grade or buy graded “common” cards from the 1970s or 1980s.

If you haven’t already done so, please vote in the poll about graded cards (upper-right corner of this website). I am curious to know other collector’s graded card buying habits.