Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Today, I’d like to give a special thanks to Mike G. of Taunton, MA for hooking me up with a bunch of hockey cards from my want list, including…
…2 shiny cards from the 2002-03 Topps “Own the Game” insert set…
…and a bunch of Upper Deck cards from last year and this year.
And some MVP cards too!
Mike, thanks for helping me out in my collection quest.
Ever since the NHL decided to let it’s best players fully participate in the Winter Olympics, there seemed to be a sort of even / odd “Star Trek” paradigm going on here.
You see, the 1998 Olympics was very much like the first “Star Trek” film–highly-anticipated, but failing to live up to the hype. Of course, I say this from a North American perspective, because I’m sure hockey fans in the Czech Republic thought the ’98 games were just fine.
And like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the 2002 Olympics was all it was supposed to be and more, culminating in a final showdown between the United States and Canada. Expectations were met, and then some.
The 2006 Olympics? Totally “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Yawn.
That makes 2010 the “Star Trek IV” of Olympic Ice Hockey. In other words, good. Or so we can hope. I’m crossing my fingers, ‘cuz I’ll be dammed if I have to sit through “Search for Spock” twice.
With the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starting today, I thought it would be fun to look back at some pictures from the 2002 games.
Photo of Team Canada after winning the gold. Click on the photo to enlarge, and see the enviable and unmatched level of talent.
Let’s hope that the 2010 games are as good as they were in 2002.
Hayley Wickenheiser is similar in many ways to former women’s hockey mainstay Cammi Granato. For numerous years, Granato was the dominant player for – and considered the face of – women’s hockey in the United States. The same is true in Canada for Wickenheiser, who is the team captain of the 2010 Canadian Women’s hockey team. Coincidentally, both women have NHL ties. Cammi’s brother Tony played in the NHL, as did Haley’s cousin Doug. Continue reading “Canada’s Captain”
Well, the Chicago Blackhawks did just that in a trade with the Minnesota Wild on Friday, and I’m left scratching my head. Continue reading “Bye-bye Barker”
This weekend, two NHL teams will be giving out an exclusive trading card set of Upper Deck trading cards.
The cards more or less resemble the 2009-10 Upper Deck hockey cards, but with subtle differences, and will be given to the first 10,000 fans who attend the game.
If anyone picks up an extra set of either that they would not mind trading, please drop me a line.
Thanks to DFG for sharing info about this.
After buying a single pack, and later a rack pack, of this year’s Fleer Ultra, I have to admit that the set has grown on me. That said, I bought a blaster box at Target last week. Yes, we all know that blasters suck harder than 36-count “retail” boxes…but I had a 10% of coupon, and figured that, you know, maybe this blaster would be special.
Yeah right. (Well, it did happen to me once.)
I don’t wanna scan all the cards I got. I’m not even going to scan the best card from each of the 12 packs, but rather just the best “type” of each card.
Here is what I got:
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.
Herb Brooks will forever be remembered best as the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team that accomplished the “Miracle on Ice” and won a gold medal. He almost won a gold medal as a player, too, with the 1960 Olympic squad. However, it was not meant to be, as explained by this 1991 trading card… Continue reading “Card of the Week: Herb Brooks”
Today we take a look back at the career–in cards–of Hall of Fame right wing Mike Bossy. In 10 seasons, Bossy scored 50 or more goals in all but his last one, which was cut short by injuries. A bad back forced him to retire at age 30.But he accomplished more in 10 seasons that what most players do in 20. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mike Bossy”
A few days back, I purchased some hockey cards at Target. Like DFG, I too have been trying to swear off the retail packs this year. And I remember Card on Ice, saying the product wasn’t all that. But I had a 10% coupon on Target, and I was deeply intrigued by this 3-pack blister pack of 2009-10 Black Diamond Hockey cards.
Three-pack blister? That’s a pack of packs! Just the sheer novelty of that would be hard for me to pass up.
Including sales tax–but minus my discount at Target–it came out to $10–a cool $3.33 per pack. Worth it? Probably not. But then again, Jonathan Toews of my Chicago Blackhawks is on the card wrapper. Would “Tazer” steer me wrong?
These shiny, foil-y cards never look good when scanned, so I only scanned what I deemed the “best” card from each pack:
Pack 1
Krejci gets “best card status” from this pack because I know some guy who blogs about him.
Pack 2
A Triple Diamond card seeded 1 in every 4 packs, I beat the odds by getting one in the 3 packs I purchased. Plus, it is always great to get a card of a retired great like “Ducky.”
Pack 3
Hmmmm….none of these guys really stand out to me, so I’ll arbitrarily pick Abdelkader as the best card in the pack because it is colorful.
The backs of each card are actually pretty well laid-out. I guess I’m a sucker for symmetry.
The back accommodates up to 5 lines of stats. As much as I prefer complete statistics, I almost expect these kinds of sets to only show a few years.
I don’t know if this is a set that I will collect. Retail packs suck, and a hobby box goes for $90 to $100–but their only upside seems to be jersey cards or parallels, neither of which I am particularly fond of.