Other things that I collect: Pucks

Imagine that, a Canadian that collects pucks.   Well I'll be....

Honestly, I don't have a great collection of pucks, for the simple fact that storage/display can be a little bit difficult in a house that's small.  However, there are some that I do have that I find quite interesting.  Such as:

The Youngstown Steelhounds were a CHL franchise from 2005-2008 that played their home games at the Covelli Center in Y-town.  Their games were a fun and cheaper alternative to NHL games, and closer to where I live than Pittsburgh.  The team was coached their last 2 seasons by former NHL tough guy Kevin Kaminski.  Kaminski brought some success to the Steel Valley, as the team during his 2 seasons behind the bench had winning percentages of .609 and .648.  Sadly, the team folded after the 07-08 season (the CHL formally states that they were kicked out) because of a dispute with the league over travel expenses.

Not all pucks are black by the way...

The Panthers had these up for grabs on March 17th, 2011 for their game against the Maple Leafs.  I actually wasn't the first to spot these pucks, my wife actually saw them and suggested that I pick one up.

Needless to say, the Leafs lost that night 4-0 to the Panthers.

Finally, I found this puck in of all places, an antique store in southern Ontario.

For the love of all things great and good in this world, if you're going to put a sticky back price tag on a puck, put the tag on the edge of the puck, not on the face.  You can see the backing of the tag on the red part of the Maple Leaf, frustrating to no end for sure.  I always did like the logo for the 2000 NHL all star game, and I wanna say I picked up the puck for around $5, which I didn't think was too bad.

One of the best banners I've seen on a blog belongs to Jim at Puttin' on the Foil.  Jim's banner is a collection of pucks from the WHA back in the 70's.  I loved most of those logos, there's even a puck with the old Michigan Stags logo, which has to be very tough to find in good condition.

I have a pretty good feeling with the NHL lockout all but a reality, I'm going to have to find something to do to get my hockey fix this year.  I'm about 90 minutes either way from the Erie Otters of the OHL (Canadian Major Junior), or the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL (lower level farm club of the Pittsburgh Penguins).  I'm sure that I'll be able to enhance my puck collections there.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Other things that I collect: Casino Chips

I thought I'd change things up just a little this weekend, and show a couple of other collections that I have.  Outside of my baseball/hockey card collection, probably my favorite collection would be my casino chips.  This started off and on about 20 years ago when I was working in the casino industry, and naturally when one works in a casino, one invariably ends up playing in a casino.

I had never even thought about collecting chips until I spied a co-worker putting one in his pocket one day while we were at Turning Stone Casino, which is just east of Syracuse, NY.  I asked him why he was putting it away, and he told me that he collected chips from casinos.  I thought that this was a great idea for a collection, and pretty cheap as well, so off I went.

While I don't actively pursue new chips for my collection currently, I still have chips from about 40 different casinos in my collection.  Some of them were personally obtained, some of them were picked up at casinos for me by friends.  The picture that you see below is a frame that my wife bought me for Christmas a few years back, which houses 35 of my favorite chips.  If you look close enough, there are various denominations in there.  Mostly $1 chips, a $2.50 chip and several $5 chips are in the display case. 

 

I also have other chips that are "loose", not housed in any display case or covering.  I keep these handy just in case I get the urge to keep my hands busy with something else besides cards. 

The Hard Rock chip on the left is from one of my favorite casinos, which I frequent on each trip down to South Florida.  The Binion's chip in the center is the last chip from $80 I lost at a poker table on my honeymoon.  That chip will always be a reminder that I played in one of the most famous poker rooms in the world, and the 4 hours I spent in there will always be remembered.  I've never been to Bally's in Las Vegas, but I just wanted to show one example of a chip that made its way home to me from one of my very generous co-workers.

Maybe one day I'll pickup some more chips, but this is one hobby that is secondary to card collecting for me.  With the proliferation of new casinos opening everywhere (hopefully in the county where I live before too long as well), there should always be a new supply of interesting new chips to look at and collect.

thanks for reading, Robert

2012-13 OPC: I like it so far

Similar to baseball in January, it just feels weird when you hit the store and see the first hockey product of the season 6 weeks before the official start of the year.  No matter, I still didn't have to have my arm twisted to pick up the first rack pack of the season a couple of weeks ago, and then a couple more of them last week.

I like what I see so far.  I know it's going to be the typical O-Pee-Chee set of the last few years, with the cards numbered from 501-600 being the usual rookies/legends that will be a little more difficult to obtain.  That doesn't bother me however, since this is the first hockey release since 2008-09 that I am going to put together.  With no other sets to distract me, I should be more focused on completing this set. 

The base cards are nothing to write home about, the photos are sharp and with a set as large as this, the player selection is pretty deep.  I could do without the yellow circle with the silhouetted player on the lower right, but the rest of the design is fine with me.

I've only managed to pull one of the high numbers so far, a Bill Barber Legends card:

I'm kind of torn about the black and white photo.  Yes, it does convey that the player is a legend from the past, but the Flyers uniform has one of the best color schemes out there, and should (at least in my opinion) always be shown in color. 

The retro cards, which I believe come 1 in a pack (I'm sure someone out there will educate me on this..) remind me of a couple of Heritage/Vintage releases from the early 2000's.  To be honest, if you add the position of the player to these cards, you may have had a better option for the set this year.

Stickers have become quite a regular insert option over the past year, and this set is no different.  With 100 stickers, there is quite a selection, and pulling your favorite player will be no easy task.

To peel, or not to peel, that is the question:

What actually surprised me the most about this product was that it was actually available at my local big box store.  For some reason, Wal-Mart in my hometown for years hasn't bothered to carry any hockey products.  This year, so far, hockey is available.  For me, that's definitely good news, because there's nothing worse than having to go out of your way to buy the cards you want.

Thanks for reading, Robert

The guy's name was just meant for baseball.

Brock Holt.   The name just rolls off the tongue.  The one guy that is helping the Pirate fans forget a disastrous August which saw the club go 13-17 and slowly fall out of the wild card spot that the team had held for several weeks. 

What a helluva story that Brock is.  Holt started the season in AA Altoona, hit .322 in 102 games which earned him an August promotion to AAA Indianapolis.  What does he do there?  In 24 games he goes 41 for 95, a .432 average which earns him a September 1 call up to the bigs.

It's almost as if the script was written for him.  Neil Walker goes down with a back injury, Josh Harrison starts to cool off a bit and Holt gets to start at 2nd base.  So far he's 7 for 16 (.438), has his first 4 hit game as a major leaguer on the 4th, and already has the local Pirates broadcasters hemming and hawing about whether the Pirates may have found their leadoff hitter for next season.

Image borrowed from eBay auction

I already see a 2011 Bowman Chrome Gold refractor on eBay with 10 bids, with the current bid at $40.  The auction has 4 days left. 

This is the kind of guy that Pittsburgh fans love.  Not afraid to get dirty, can run the bases and seems to know the game quite well.  Holt is the first position player taken in the 9th round of the 2009 draft to hit the majors (the other 2 from that round that are in the bigs right now are pitchers).

Oh, and by the way, he didn't get a jersey number in the 60's or 70's like most September call ups usually get.  Holt is wearing #2.  If this audition keeps going the way it has so far, Pirates fans may be watching their 2013 shortstop and leadoff hitter already...

Only time will tell.

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's now official, I am crazy

It only took about 58 weeks, but I've finally been identified as crazy.  It's true, you can look for yourself over here on the Fantastic Catch blog.  Weston identifies his desire to collect all the RCs from 2010 for basketball, baseball, football and soccer (WHAT, no hockey?  oh wait, maybe that's a subtle metaphor for the fact there will be no hockey in a few days..).  Here's a quote from Weston's post...

Now don't be surprised if I widen my rookie cards I need to get to 2009 for more of a challenge, but I haven't done that yet. I'm almost as crazy as $30 a week habit wait not that crazy, but this will be still a challenge, but I think I can do it.

It's good to see that somebody has been paying attention!  Weston's not the only one however.  Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse sent me an email a couple weeks back letting me know that he had 3 more cards for the madness.  

Another nice mix of years and brands.  Always welcome any lot of cards that anyone may have, 1 or 100!
Thank you Mark, the cards are very much appreciated, and I will get an envelope in the mail for you this week (I am so behind on trades it isn't funny).

Oh, and as a little aside to the insanity project, I've been insane for a long time.  My penchant for crazy humor in my senior year of high school caused one of my classmates to write this in my yearbook.

Sanus fines insanus transit.  Loosely translated it means "sanity comes from being insane".  So you see, my insanity is a lifelong trend, not just blog related humor....

thanks for reading, Robert