1984

The annual homage to one of my favorite releases, the Upper Deck hockey set.  I participate every season in the ritual that is buying a few packs, chasing the rookies in the Young Gun portion of the set, and drying away the tears when I end up without any yet again.

 But, I always love the photography, and the set design is usually sharp enough to keep me entertained.  This year is no different.   I bought 5 packs last week at Target on the day I started getting sick, and I'm finally getting around to posting them on the blog.

Pack 1 of 5 had nothing to speak of, save for the Alex Ovechkin base card.  I will stop and watch a Capitals game if I see it on TV,  in hope of seeing one of Ovie's howitzers hit the net.  First year HOFer in my book.

The base set pickups of the Maple Leafs will be relatively easy again this year, with two of them being pulled in pack two.  While James van Riemsdyk on the right is one of the core Maple Leaf players (interesting that the photo was taken in Phoenix), Joffrey Lupul appears to have played his last game in a Maple Leaf jersey.  Must be nice to have that kind of money to burn...

I've always been a big fan of NHL jerseys, I have quite a few of them in my closet.  One day I would like to own the alternate Colorado Avalanche jersey that is shown he on the Gabriel Landeskog card.  Takes me back to the Colorado Rockies jersey from the late 70's.   Love it!!

These were the only 2 inserts I pulled in the 5 packs that I bought.  Jumbo Joe Thornton featured on the Shining Stars card on the left, and the UD Canvas cards are represented by Jason Spezza from the Dallas Stars on the right.  Both will likely be sent off to COMC to be sold in the marketplace.

I've always been a big fan of grinding type forwards that like to hit and don't score a lot.  Leo Komarov fits that description to a 'T'.  Not that the graceful skating on one leg depicted on his card would signify.  I saw the Jonathan Ericsson card on the right and thought to myself "boy the numbers on his jersey are huge!!"  Forgot that they had these uniforms for their outdoor game last season against the Avalanche.  Guess when you're that far away from the ice in those football stadiums that the numbers need to be big so you can see them.

As usual, no luck with pulling any of the Young Guns cards, and chances are that the 2016-17 set will not be something that I chase.  The cheapest copy that I saw of an Auston Matthews RC was $110, I also saw another auction that was selling a pair of the RC's for $275.   Yikes.  Even the oversize box toppers of Matthews are going for about $40.  This may be one of the best RC classes for quite a long time, and also one of the most expensive. 

I've got other, more pressing collecting needs at this moment, which hopefully this weekend's card show will help alleviate.

These 5 packs cost me just under $16 (including tax), so I'll just round up to $16 even.  $2000 - $16 = $1984 left to spend in 2017.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Saturday #10: Back on track

What a week.  Feeling great, long holiday weekend to enjoy some time off of work after a busy holiday schedule and then Monday rolls around.   Get out of bed, start coughing.   Don't think much of it, because I feel well enough to get out with the missus and do some errands. 

Later in the evening, it starts to hit me.   Maybe the worst cold I've had in the past couple of decades.   I don't normally miss 3 straight days of work when I get sick (it's usually one), but this was so bad and wiped me out so much that I couldn't even keep my eyes open most of the week. 

I didn't even look at cards for 4 days.   Yep, it was that bad.

So now that I'm almost a fully functional human being again, it's time to get posting.  Today's post is going to cut the "Doug pile" of serial numbered hockey cards on my desk in half. 

A trio of cards from the 2014-15 Artifacts set, the red parallels of Brent Seabrook, Corban Knight and Matt Lindblad.  The red on the Chicago red to me looks good, but for some reason I don't get the same feel on the Calgary red.   I'm sure it's the same shade of red, so what gives? 

Knight is currently a part of the Florida Panthers organization, playing in 20 games for them last year (Why don't I remember him?).  Lindblad has played a total of 4 games for Boston, and hasn't seen the NHL since 2014-15.   He was signed as a free agent by the Rangers in July of 2015, but Hockey Reference.com doesn't have any stats on him after the signing...

A little more star power with this scan, as these 3 cards from the 15-16 Artifacts release feature bigger names such as Nash, Lucic and Couture.  Amazing that Lucic has already changed teams twice since this card came out at the beginning of last year...

The Jordan Schroeder card I had mistakenly thought was from last year, it's actually from 2013-14, when he was still a member of the Canucks.  Jordan is now in Minnesota, and he's still bouncing between the big club and their minor league affiliate in Iowa. 

Three of the 4 cards on the final scan are over a decade old.  I had forgotten the name Dan Cloutier until I received the 2002-03 OPC blue parallel in the lower left.  Dan was the #1 goalie at the time, and recorded 3 straight 30+ win seasons on the west coast.  After the 2004-05 season was wiped out, he wasn't the same, and finished his last 3 seasons as a back up.  Martin Biron creeps me out.  He's an intelligent man, don't get me wrong, and I enjoy his analysis on hockey telecasts.   But boy, do those eyes scare me....

I'm down to the final 12 cards from the 2 envelopes that Doug sent my way before the holidays.  It'll be good to have them posted on the blog and put away. 

It's just good to be back on track...

Thanks for reading, Robert