Hockey cards even an Owl can love...

It's that wonderful time of year again. The leaves have changed their colour. The Braves have blown the division. And OPC hockey has been released into the wild. Just like clockwork. Consistency is comfortable.

 

Of course I'm all in after the set again. You knew that. So here are some pics to show what this year's set is all about.

 

The base card. Overly large borders. While the O-Pee-Chee logo has shrunk over the last few years, the team name has increased in size. Having both the team logo and name is a wee overkill. Photos are mostly closely cropped onto one player.

 

 The backs are purposely bland. When will Upper Deck look at the backs of an actual OPC hockey card ands realize they were never like this?
The addition of a second photo is new, but they re-use the same photo from the front. So it's completely useless. A lack of career stats is disappointing.

After a brief break last year, this year has the return of the 50 SP high number rookies and matching 50 SP high number legends. Again... this is getting old. It's been done. Move on.

 

 Thankfully with no real way of telling the rookies from the veterans on the front, they've added a way on the back. If you squint closely, in the fine print at the bottom, the printing number is different for the rookies than the regular base.

 Otherwise how would you ever know???

 The other SP's are the legends.

 

No such way on the back to recognize the old timers, so you'll just have to do it the old fashioned way.

Google.

 Would've loved career stats here...

Again, there is a retro parallel set.

I think this is one of the rookies... not sure though.

No helmet! So he must be a legend.

In the red-headed stepchild category. The foil parallel. Does anyone collect these things?

In an effort to make a foil something that's wanted... they add a black border and number them /100.

Found roughly two per box, there are mini cards modelled after some old tobacco era card that I'm waaaaaay too lazy to research right now. Cut 2 1/2 x 2 1/2, they're kinda cool.

 

By now, certain Owls may have nodded off... or are at least wondering why they've read this much babble about cards featuring people they've never heard of.

 

But here is the payoff.

 

For the third year in a row, OPC has inserted a 100 card sticker set.

 

Et voila.

 

 

 

 

 Oh yeah.... you're seeing it. See some more... a full page worth.

 

There are only four different colour varieties in the set. Stickers #1,5,9,13,17 etc are Green with Orange. #2,6,10,14,18... are Blue with Green. #3,7,11,15,19 etc are Red with Yellow. And #4,8,12,16,20 are the ever popular Purple with Pink.

It would be nice if there were a few more unannounced variations. But I'll take it.

If you zoom in on the top of the Jonathan Quick, you'll see an old fashioned OPC printers spot.

 

Awesome.

 

I wonder how they came up with this idea...

 

It's like if Henry Bucha had his way one night with Nolan Ryan.

+

 +

 

=

 

 

Hey. You never know. It was the '70's.

Like Lemmings to a flame....

You knew I had to pick up some hockey while I was at the show... it's like a rule or something. Like Lemmings to a flame, or moths leaping off of a cliff, I buy vintage hockey.

I've been looking for a good copy of this card for awhile now to send off ttm for an auto. Phil and Dan Bouchard were the original Atlanta Flames. I sent off for Dan's auto last week, Phill will go next week.
A nice '73of Canadian Hero Paul Henderson for .50 cents. If you find cards of Paul for under a buck, YOU MUST BUY THEM. It's in our constitution.

You guys have that guy who warned you about the British coming, we have Paul Henderson. Both saved their nations from oblivion.

Paul is currently battling cancer... I feel sorry for the cancer. Go Paul!

Of course I picked up a card of the Road Runner.

Yvan is one of my faves from my childhood.

And a card of one of the Mahovlich brothers. This one is of the Peter the younger.

and of course what would that be without Frank the Elder?

Next, a couple of Rookie cards. First, Michel Plasse. Michel played for several teams in his career, but is most famous for his time in Colorado, playing for the Rockies.

Don Cherry, former coach of the Bruins and Rockies always has this to say about Michel whenever he sees a picture or "highlight" of him on TV.

"There's ole Michel Plasse, the Human Sieve."

I was sad to find out this week that Michel passed away in 2006.

Speaking of Don Cherry, the other RC I bought was of one of his two main goalies during his time with the Bruins.

Gilles Gilbert.

People often think that Gerry Cheevers was Don's main goalie, but it was actually Gilles. Four division championships in 5 seasons. Bounced out of the playoffs by Montreal every time.

Lastly, and completely random, Ed Giacomin, the Rangers All Time greatest goalie.

8 cards from '73/74 for $12. I'm a sucker.... but a happy one.

A question for set collectors...

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through ebay and came across a case breaker who was auctioning off base sets of recent higher end hockey. I love those case breakers. Always looking for the hit, and just giving away those base cards. Sign me up.
Anyways, I grabbed an '09/10 UD Artifacts set....
3 base sets of '08/09 UD SPx
and a set of '08/09 UD ICE as well as '03/04 SP Authentic, with an '08/09 ITG Between the Pipes set to finish things off. (I haven't scanned these sets in yet, so no pics for now)

7 high end base sets won at auction for $30 including shipping. I love case breakers.

Here's where I get whiny. Every damn one of these sets is 100 cards. 100 cards! Am I the only one that this bothers the hell out of?

You set collectors know what I'm talking about. Putting them in pages. 9 cards per page. Then you have that last page with one card in it. Or you put that 100th card on the backside of card 99.... either way it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And why? Why 100 card sets? Seems to me that the printing process was done on 132 card sheets. To me, that screams 99 card sets. Or, 132 card sets, but that's another story. With 99 cards in a set, basic math tells you that with four master sheets, you could print off these cards with no SP's or DP's.

Wouldn't life be simpler?

Am I alone in this? Are there no other OCD set buiders out there?

16-0

The World Junior Hockey Championships started today, as it does every year. Canada, looking to defend it's title, opened up against Latvia today.
Canada is looking for it's 6th straight championship. Yeah. I said sixth. We good.

Game one against Latvia, Canada wins 16-0*. LINK

Up next,
Dec 28 - Switzerland
Dec 29 - Slovakia
Dec 31 - United States


* for those bleeding hearts that think that there should be no winners or losers, just participants, understand that the tie breaker in the WJHC is goals for/against. Don't hate the player, hate the game.

Bargain Hunting Parts 4 and 5 - Great White North Edition

It was time to add some hockey to my bargain hunting excursion. Remember the rules? Under $5 basically. Free shipping if possible. I found two lots that I snapped up pretty quickly.

The first included this 1970-71 OPC Serge Savard - Hall Of Fame 1986
a 1971-72 OPC Brad Park Hall Of Fame 1988 - (Brad has a wrinkle on the front that stabs him right into his hip)

a 1971-72 OPC Yvan Cournoyer All Star with a crease just under "Right Wing"

a 1971-72 OPC Serge Savard - crease free, but with a soft lower corner.

a 1971-72 Topps Frank Mahovlich - Hall Of Fame 1981 - Frank was traded from Detroit to Montreal. Detroit wears red and white, Montreal wears red and white. Airbrush the logo and no one will ever know, right?

a 1971-72 Topps Gordie The Best Hockey Player That Ever Lived Howe. - Hall Of Fame 1972 - Gordie has a small wrinkle on the back of his card.

Have you been able to tell the difference between the 71-72 OPC and the 71-72 Topps?

No? That's because the only difference is on the backs. Silly.

Here we see the Topps Gordie As Close To God As You Can Get Howe...

and here's the back of the OPC Savard

Easy now, right? BTW, any tape you see is on the top loader, not the card itself. I hate, HATE peaople who put tape on top loaders. There is a special place in hell for people who put tape on top loaders.

If you've traded with me, you probably know that I recycle when I can. Bubble envelopes, top loaders, cases, etc... this is where all my top loaders that people send me with tape on them go. Yes. To you. Sorry. It's either that or throw them out.

That concludes Bargain Hunt 1 and a rant. All for $3.25

This next batch I got was all 1972-73 Topps Hockey. In beautiful condition. I should get these graded. Right after my lobotomy.


Yvan Cournoyer - Hall OF Fame 1982 -"The Road Runner" why don't current players have cool nicknames?

Yvan Cournoyer in action All Star card

Jacques Lemaire - Hall Of Fame 1984 -complete with printers dots and top loader tape.

Terry Harper - Terry was part of two huge trades, where the team trading Terry absolutely raped the other team.

Paul Henderson

What the HELL?!?! A Maple Leaf? How did a Maple Leaf get on this blog?!?! Well, it's Paul Henderson. A National Hero. That's how. If you don't know why Paul Henderson is a National Hero, then a Google you will go.

This lot was $3. I love this. I'm changing the way I collect because of this. We'll see how long it lasts.

Pack break

It's been a very long time since I bought anything new to bust. I've got some boxes on the way (Goodwin Champions, '09 UD Football, '09 Topps Chrome, etc...) but only the gods know when they'll arrive.
Unlike our neighbours to the south, Walmarts here carry squat. And the only Targets are on deer and moose this time of year.
Our local Wally world has two blasters of '07/'08 Upper Deck Victory Hockey for $29, around thirty packs of something called Bella Sera, and that's it. Until yesterday. When they put out around a dozen fatpacks of '09/10 Fleer Ultra Hockey. 32 cards per pack, my wife grabbed me two packs.
I won't drone on about all 64 cards.... let's just do a quick review.

Some base cards.
Carey Price
Big Joe Thornton

King Marty Brodeur

Jose Theodore

a nice design, but not great. The photos just lack something that Upper Deck usually captures.

The silver foil name up the side is okay, but the grey gradient imposes on a lot of the photos.

The backs are well done. Full career stats, clean lines, easy to read and the number is located up top for easy sorting.
The drawback is for the players that haven't played for awhile, the back is awfully bare due to the lack of stats.

Another strike against is the number of players I pulled who changed teams a LONG time ago, but are still listed with their old teams. Were these cards printed last February??? If not, no excuse. Saku here, is an example of that.

The obligatory one per pack gold parallel looks like this.

Does EVERY set need a gold parallel? No. The answer is no.

Also found one per pack are the Rookie Sensations subset. Again with the gold border. I don't know any women who still wear yellow gold jewellry. It's left for the Gramma's of the world. What makes card companies think that yellow gold borders and subsets would still be all the rage?

Looks like an okay set of cards. 200 card base set. 50 Ultra Rookies for cards 201-250. Who know's how many packs it'll take to find one of those.

I'll give it 3/5

The best overall player in the league!

Jarome Iginla became the Flames franchise all time leading scorer tonight. He potted two goals and three assists for a career total of 834 points, surpassing Theo Fleury's 830 points.
Iggy's first goal was also the 400th of his career. At only 31 years of age, the best two way player in hockey will no doubt get 600 before he's done.

A lock Hall of Famer.... Jarome has a sense of humour as well. I was at the game on Friday to watch him break the record.
Nothing.
Tonight when I'm at home watching on TV?
5 points.
Nice.
Thanks Jarome. The only reason I'm in a forgiving mood is that you were my 1st round pick in this year's hockey pool.