As the trade deadline looms...

Good Sunday to you all, hope that you're having a great weekend so far.

As many of you know who read my blog regularly, I decided to put the hockey want lists back up on the top of the page.  A recent trip to Sportlots.com provided me with an opportunity to start knocking down some want lists.

First, I grabbed 15 cards from the 94-95 Upper Deck set.  I will not show you them all here, but a couple of cards featured some great players...

I still love these cards, even 18 years after they first came out.  The photography is great, and the card design is unique.

Sadly, when going through the cards I had for that set, I came across 2 more card numbers that I needed.  There's nothing worse than buying cards that you think will finish a set, and then finding a couple of more holes.  Oh well....

Onwards, to a couple of Upper Deck Vintage sets of the early 2000's.  The first one is 01-02 Vintage, featuring a design that mimics the OPC 75-76 set.

It was interesting to see when I opened the envelope that upon inspection of the cards, I noted that there were a few teams that had the team nick name on the top, while Ray Bourque's card had "Colorado" instead.  I wondered if the NHL and Upper Deck hadn't reached a full agreement, but then when I looked at the back of Bourque's card, I noticed that team nick names were there.  There were a handful of other teams that had the city/state name on top rather than the nick name, which is kind of odd.  I still need a little over 60 cards to complete this set.

Another set that I decided to chip away at was the 02-03 UD Vintage.  This design, however, doesn't mimic any set that I can recall...

This set had 350 cards, and has the same quirk as the 01-02 set, where a few teams did not have the nick name printed in the lower right, but instead had the city or state.  Strange.  Both sets were different as well as they did not feature any on ice action photos, but instead all the images were superimposed on various color backgrounds.  The backs were simple, the card number was featured inside of the NHL shield on the upper left corner, and full stats were available for only the previous 5 seasons.   To complete this set will be a little more of a daunting task, as I still have 134 cards to go in this one. 

I will say it has been pretty cool to go back in time and see a lot of the players I remember from the 90's and early 2000's, and also to see how many of them are still in the NHL. 

I believe with the lack of product out there worth purchasing at the moment pack wise, the near future for me will entail pecking away at all of these old sets.  Oh, and don't forget the insanity....with me it will always be there!!

Thanks for reading, Robert