2006-07 TriStar Hidden Treasures pack

I’ve seen these TriStar Hidden Treasures hockey cards floating around for a few years now, and have avoided them like the H1N1 Virus. Sure, they put an alluring (if you can call it that) photo of the 1951-52 Parkhurst Gordie Howe rookie card on the wrapper, along with several other small pics of desirable vintage hockey cards. But we all know that this pack will contain mostly Pro Set, Score and other worthless, overproduced hockey cards from the 1990s. Feeling thrifty, I purchased a pack–a whopping 99 cents–to see what I’d get:

2001-02 Upper Deck Victory #161 – Josef Stumpel
Wow, a card that isn’t from the 1990s. That was kind of surprising, given that I was expecting only cards from 1990 to 1995.

2001-02 Upper Deck Victory #189 – Patrice Brisebois
Two Victory cards in the same pack? What is this–a pack of Victory?

1996-97 Pinnacle Zenith #126 – Bryan Berard
Oooooh, shiny! Plus, it’s not a Victory card.

1994-95 Upper Deck #57 – Gilbert Dionne
The surprised look on Dionne’s face says it all.

1991-92 Score Canadian #346 – Dominik Hasek
Paydirt! I was expecting to get a lame card from the early 1990s, but instead I got one of the best. Hey–any card with a “Beckett Value” of $2.00 from the early 1990s is a darn good card. The TriStar wrapper claims that you get one star card per pack. Hasek is obviously the star in this pack, but it sure was nice that it just also happened to be his rookie card.

Overall, this pack gave me exactly what I expected–five undesirable hockey cards. Or, I guess you could say four undesirable hockey cards and the Hasek RC, which was a nice surprise. But I won’t be buying any more packs of these anytime soon. I’d recommend skipping this product altogether. But if you really want to pay a dollar for five useless cards…well, I got about 20,000 such cards that I’ll gladly sell to you.

1963-64 Parkhurst #21 – Gilles Tremblay

This is one cool card. Tremblay’s gaze is solemn. The horizontal lines add to the seriousness of the composition. All of that is slightly undermined by his mouth, which is trying very hard not to smile. It is as if he is trying to show that he is a proud member of Les Habitants, but at the same time cannot completely stifle his exuberance for being on the Canadiens.

Nah. I’m probably just reading way too much into that. Either way, this is the 8th card I’ve added to my Parkies set (91 to go).

Review: 1985-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs team set

Starring a very young Brett Hull

1985-86 UMD Bulldogs #28 - Brett HullDuring the 1985-86 season, a company called Tim & Larry’s Sports Cards in Duluth, MN released a 36 card set of the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs hockey team. The WCHA Champions the prior year, the team had another reason for being a popular draw – their captain was Brett Hull, son of the legendary Bobby Hull. Brett was a top player in his two seasons with UMD, and is the main reason why this set – despite being 25 years old – is not too difficult to find. Continue reading “Review: 1985-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs team set”

2008-09 Champ’s Hockey box break #2

About two weeks ago, I purchased a second box of 2008-09 Champ’s Hockey. I got it for $90 even…how could I refuse? Of course, I must ask why I’m paying $90 for a box of cards in the first place! Despite the high price, I guess I really love the design of the cards. Three hits per box doesn’t hurt either. But this may be the worst–or best–box I’ve opened. Here’s what I got:

58 base cards – unfortunately, I only needed 10 of them for my set

12 Champ’s rookies – but only 2 were ones I needed

33 mini cards – I bought a whole set of minis for cheap, so of course I didn’t need any of them

3 mini rookies – fortunately, I needed all 3 of them

8 Natural History cards – Would you believe that these are the exact same eight Natural History cards that I got in my first box? Like, WTF? There are almost 200 different Natural History card…why is Upper Deck’s collation so bad?

And now, the “hits”…

Mike Iggulden Mini Signature

Mike Iggulden? Seriously? I try not to swear too much on this site, but this card SUCKS BALLS. Allow me to explain why. First, this dude played 12 games in the NHL–not the kind of player whose auto I’d want to pull from a $100 $90 box of cards. Secondly, the photo shows him as a Shark, but the bottom reads “New York Islanders,” which is his present team. It frustrates me to no end when the photo and team name (or logo) are mismatched, but on an autographed card in a high-end product that is unforgivable.

Walt Tkaczuk Mini Signature

Tkaczuk played 13 seasons for the Rangers (1969-1981), and as much as I enjoy having his autograph, I wouldn’t exactly break down a door to get this card. I can think of so many other 1970s-era players whose ‘graph I would have rather scored.

Glenn Anderson Mini Threads

The guy is a Hall of Fame player, but this card would have looked so much better with a blue or orange swatch, instead of the stark white square that was used here. Had the swatch been colored, I’d have been pretty ecstatic to have pulled this.

Fortunately, there was a surprise fourth “hit” in this box…

Yes, a redemption card. A one-per-case fossils and artifacts redemption card. I swear, my heart skipped a beat when I got this. In 8 to 12 weeks, I will be the proud (?) owner of a Neolithic Stone Tools card. (Would I sound like I was complaining if I said that I’d prefer a Tyrannosaurus Rex tooth instead?) I will be anxious to see what this card looks like when I get it.

So, was this a good box? Or a crummy box? It’s hard for me to say, but I’d love to know what you think.

1963-64 Parkhurst #91 – Terry Harper

As much as I’d love to add something new to this site every day–and I really should if I ever want to build up a following–it is sometimes impossible due to my college schedule. I had a final project that involved a long article (about 1,200 words), an interactive flash piece and a short video. The good news is that it was about comic books. With school done for a few weeks, I can now dote on this site for the next few weeks.
I recently added the 7th card to my still-diminutive 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey set. It is dinged at the bottom–which is hard to see with the “PUCKJUNK.com” watermark over it–but good enough for this set (considering that my Gordie Howe card has a pin hole and ink on it). Seven down, 92 to go…

I wasn’t going to touch this…

…but I have to say something about Patrick Kane being arrested early Sunday morning. I mean it isn’t every day that the Blackhawks make the front page…

…and the back page…

…of both local newspapers in Chicago.

Usually, that kind of stuff is reserved for when a Chicago Bears player gets in trouble for bringing a gun into a night club. Or when a Chicago Bulls player is revealed to have cheated on his college entrance exam. Or–in all fairness to the media–when a White Sox player pitches a perfect game.

But here he is, Patrick Kane, the golden boy of Chicago hockey. And now he has his own mugshot. I tell ya, kids grow up so fast these days.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Patrick Kane and his cousin were arrested in Buffalo after beating up a cab driver. As reported, the 20-year-old Kane and his 21-year-old cousin James took a cab home from the downtown club district in Buffalo. The fare was $13.80. The Kane cousins paid him $15, but got mad when the cabbie gave them back a dollar but informed them that he did not have twenty cents change. The Kane cousins punched the cab driver repeatedly and broke his glasses. Someone saw what was going on, and called the cops. Or so the story goes.

And just like that, little Kaner has a rap sheet. Not as long as Bob Probert’s rap sheet, but hey–Kane is only 20. Give him time.

Anyway, here are a few collected articles about this incident:

Kane arrested, pleads not guilty to robbery charge (NHL.com)

Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane arrested in Buffalo, NY (The Hockey News)

Tough-guy act doesn’t befit Kane (Chicago Tribune)

Kane hires high-powered defense attorney (The Buffalo News)

But Len Ziehm, the ‘Hawks beat writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, doesn’t believe the hype:

Hard to Fathom (Chicago Sun-Times)

A day later, the cab driver’s lawyer is downplaying what happened:

Attorneys downplay allegations against Blackhawks’ Patrick Kane (Chicago Tribune)

So what do I think? It is hard for me to imagine that Patrick Kane would do such a thing. But then again, my judgment is clouded because I’m a Blackhawks fan. Many athletes–hockey players included–have done boneheaded things. Maybe Kane is one of them.

By the way, Kane will appear on the box cover of Electronic Art’s “NHL ’10” video game when it is released on September 15. Perhaps this incident was caused by the “EA Box Cover Curse”? You know, when a player appears on the cover of a video game and then has a bad year that very same season?

Though I wonder if EA should modify the box art a bit…

NOTE: For those who were wondering, the Chicago Bears player I referred to is Tank Johnson, the Bulls player is Derrick Rose and the White Sox player is Mark Buehrle.

Thanks, Mark

A few days ago, I got some cards in the mail from Mark, a fellow blogger who maintains a site called Stats-On-The-Back.

Attached was a note that read:

Sal, 1 Cubs team set + every hockey card I own. Enjoy.

Mark was giving away some of his baseball card collection, and gave me a complete Chicago Cubs team set from the 1986 Fleer series. But he also gave me, and I quote “every hockey card” that he owned–all 19 of them. No complaints here. As the saying goes, “Give me your tired, your poor, your Pro Set.”

Let’s take a look at some of the cooler cards, shall we? Besides the 1990-91 Pro Set Gordie Howe card we see above, Mark also sent me…

2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary #1039 – Detroit Red Wings
Well, here’s a card I haven’t seen before. Apparently, this is part of a 2,500 card (yes, 2,500!) 20th Anniversary set inserted in the various Upper Deck baseball cards. I wonder if anyone out there is crazy enough to try to collect the entire set. If so, send me your hockey doubles.

1984-85 Topps #158 – Tom Barrasso
How about that? A vintage card. Barrasso won the Calder and the Vezina in 1984, and was named a 1st team All-Star, as shown on this card. He would later help the Penguins win two Stanley Cups. Speaking of which…

1991-92 Pro Set #319 – Pittsburgh Penguins
Da na na na na nah – HEY! Da na na na na nah – HEY! As long as we’re on the topic of Penguins…

1993-94 EA Sports #104 – Ulf Samuelsson
This is from a set of cards released by Electronic Arts in conjunction with the video game NHL ’94. About six months ago, I wrote a retrospective for Beckett about the game and card set. You can read that review in its entirety here.

Ummmm…uhhhhh, this isn’t a hockey card…

1990-91 Bowman Hat Tricks #1 – Brett Hull
OK, this is more like it. Nothing like a Topps-era glossy insert, eh?

Now, onto that Cubs set. I’ve scanned the cards of the three most popular Cubs of that era–at least among me and my classmates circa 1986.

Ryne Sandberg
All-Star, Golden Glove and Hall of Fame member. I think Sandberg was every kid’s favorite Cub in the 1980s.

Rick Sutcliffe
Sutcliffe was the 1979 NL Rookie of the Year award winner, and also won the Cy Young in 1984.

Keith Moreland
The guy was a power hitter back in the day.

So, thanks for the freebies, Mark. This Cubs team set is greatly appreciated, as are the hockey cards.