Rookie Card Haul

I picked up a TON of rookie cards at the card show on Saturday. OK, sure–a ton is a bit of an exaggeration. It was 55 to be exact. Some of them are pretty good too. Here’ s what I got:

Two (2) 2002-03 Upper Deck Young Guns for $2.25. The Curtis Sanford card cost me $2; the other one (Chris Bala) was only a quarter. 

Six (6) 2003-04 Upper Deck Young Guns. Jordin Tootoo, Antoine Vermette, Joni Pitkanen, Matthew Lombardi, Anti Miettinen and one scrub. Total spent on these 6 cards: $11. 

One (1) 2005-06 Upper Deck Young Guns. Eventually, I will pick away at these–cheaply–until all I need is Ovechkin and Crosby. In the meantime, this Valtteri Filppula card brings me a step closer. Cost: $5

Five (5) 2005-06 Fleer Ultra Rookies: Brent Lebda, Jussi Jokinen, Andrew Alberts, Patrick Eaves and one scrub–all for $4.

Eight (8) 2007-08 Upper Deck Young Guns. Drew Miller and 7 others for $18. Only 17 more YGs, and I’ll have the complete ’07-08 Upper Deck set.

Fifteen (15) 2008-09 Upper Deck Young Guns for $29. No one super-notable, though I did pick up former Chicago Wolves (and current Atlanta Thrasher) Boris Valabik.

Twelve (12) 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Marquee Rookies for $18, including Kyle Okposo. 

Six (6) 2008-09 Champ’s Rookies for $22, including Luke Schenn, Robbie Earl and Shawn Matthias

Unfortunately, I did not complete any of the above sets–though I am 17 away from having all 100 Champ’s Rookies, and just 6 cards away from finishing the 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Set (the high number set is a different story).

This week, I’ll post a few of the other cool things I picked up.

A few random things…

A few odds and ends that I want to mention…

War Room: This week, I will be on “The War Room” on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Since Wednesday is the trade deadline, “Got ‘Em! Need ‘Em!” is being bumped to Tuesday. But just for this week. For those of you who have XM Radio, the show is on Channel 204 at 10 AM CST. And if you don’t, I have an archive of my radio appearances here.

New Members: Thanks to David Jameson, Mariner1 and Wax Wombat for becoming the newest “Puck Junkies.” This blog now has 34 members.

Welcome to the Blogroll: I’ve added a few hockey blogs to my reading list. The Real DFG, maintained by Tim, is a blog about hockey cards and the Pittsburgh Penguins. A Little Chippy, maintained by Katherine, is a blog that focuses on the Chicago Blackhawks, but also touches on cards and collectibles.

New Blogs: The hockey card blogging niche just got a little bigger, with Open Ice Hits and Drop the Gloves! adding their two cents on the hobby. I’ve also linked to them from my blogroll.

Free Hockey cards March 2: The Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins will all give away free hockey cards at their respective home games on Tuesday, March 2. The first 10,000 fans at each game will be given a pack of Upper Deck hockey cards that contains 5 exclusive cards of that particular team. Anyone who finds themselves with an extra set they’d like to trade, please contact me.

Art Show: On an unrelated note, those of you in Chicago may be interested to know that I am curating an art show called Art of Play, which is about video games, traditional games and toys. Want to know more? Check out the show’s website.

And finally…due to the art show I’m curating, as well as final projects in my two grad classes, I may be a bit scant on posts over the next two weeks. Once I get this show, a final paper, a final presentation, a final photography project and a final website behind me, I’ll be back to doting over this site like I normally do.

Career in Cards: Mark Johnson

Before changing our focus from the Olympics and back to the NHL, I thought it would be fitting to do one final Olympics-themed article about Mark Johnson.

Johnson played on the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic team in 1980, and was the coach of the silver-medal winning U.S. Women’s team in 2010. He also had a fine career in the NHL too, playing 11 seasons with the Penguins, North Stars, Whalers, Blues and Devils. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mark Johnson”

Canada wins Gold! Best Olympics ever!!!

Congratulations to Canada’s Olympic Hockey Team–and their fans–for winning the gold medal on Sunday.

Yes, I wanted USA to win. And they came close. Very close. But in the Olympics, close gets you the silver…

Nonetheless, it was a great game. It was a great tournament. Many close games. Many upsets. Many competitive teams. Borrowing from my Star Trek metaphor, if the 2002 tournament was “Wrath of Khan,” then this was “First Contact” all the way.

Career in Cards: Tony McKegney

In honor of Black History Month, today we will take a look at the career of Tony McKegney. He was not the first black hockey player–or second, or third–to play in the NHL. Rather, McKegney was the first black hockey player to make an impact in the NHL. Here are some of his trading cards issued during his 13-year NHL career. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Tony McKegney”

Thanks, Mike

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…

 
…the last card that I needed from the 1994-95 Upper Deck SP set…
 
…the last 3 cards that I needed for my 1998-99 Pacific set…

…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.

2002 Olympic Hockey Photos

(Steve Yzerman, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull and Brendan Shannahan at the 2002 Olympics)

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.

Here we have Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic celebrating their gold medal win.
 
Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic. How’s that for a power play unit?
The U.S. bench: Chris Drury, Adam Deadmarsh, Doug Weight, Mike York and Jeremy Roenick.

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.

Canada’s Captain

1997-98 Collector’s Choice card #279 – Hayley Wickenheiser

1997-98 Collector's Choice card #279 - Hayley WickenheiserHayley 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”