Allota Alfie

I've got a few things to catch up with - namely a couple box breaks and some mailings. But I also have some COMC and Sportlots mailings to get to, and I'll do damage to both of these as I show the latest additions to my Daniel Alfredsson PC.

OK. This technically isn't an Alfredsson card. But it is a logical enough place to show off this manufactured team logo patch as an intro.

After going through the process of entering my collection over at TCDB (I've really only done it with my 2/14 collection, my Jamal Murray collection, and this), I did jump into the lead there with more than 400 different cards of his in the collection.

It was the 90s. You had to experiment with everything. The Rated Rookie logo? That probably should have stayed as is.

Your example of alliterative insert sets - Calling All Calders.

Stickers? There was one of those as well.

I got a couple inserts as well, with this being a card commemorating the debut of the Shootout, and Alfredsson scoring goal #1.

A couple parallels.

Whether parallels or base cards, these were the numbered cards in the mailers. The Priority card is /3000, the Certified is /250, and the really gold Gold Label is /199.

And a whole bunch more base cards in the Sportlots mailer.

And if relics are your thing, here's a bunch of 'em, featuring all 3 of the possible colours for a jersey swatch. Markus Naslund is on the other side of that Titanium card, a nice Swedish combination.

There you have it!

A Rangers Roundup

After my brief trip to Calgary for some repacks while travelling, what better way to settle back into the home front than with some cards of players who have, or are, spending some time right here in Kitchener?

I'm going totally obscure for the first card. Darren Beals spent a couple of years in the mid/late 80s as the goaltender for the Rangers. From there, it was only a handful of games in the minors. It was still enough for this, his only card beyond junior. Still, it is worth adding to my collection.

Melchiori has only had a handful of NHL cards, even from his rookie season. Thankfully, Compendium's e-packs provide an easy, and if one waits, an inexpensive way, to add cards of players further down the roster into the collection. Julian is in the Devils system this season.

Derek is probably the most well-known of the players in today's post, as we're off to his rookie year and this /950 card. And you get an alternate jersey as well. At least it isn't the slug logo, or the yellow monstrosities.

Speaking of those, I just needed a swatch from those ghastly jerseys in my miscellaneous collection. So, I just scanned COMC for the cheapest grey swatch available. And this was the cheapest.

This is sorta cheating, but these will count if/until these guys get NHL cards. Valade is draft eligible this season. Vukojevic was a third rounder of the Devils, and Vallati, who was traded to Oshawa a couple seasons back, was a Jets draft pick.

And there you have it!

Oh Canada!

This was the final of the boxes I picked up alongside the H&P boxes and the RA. I guess this is the equivalent of NCAA sets in the other sports, with the chance to get non-NHL cards of prospects and legends. Kinda like Heroes & Prospects, just patriotic.

The base set of 100 is split into three parts. Legends, women's team and current propsects who play in international tourneys. I really like the legends portion for the variety of jerseys the players have worn over the year.

Each pack contains an insert or parallel. The unnumbered golds are the most common. I can't complain if Carter Hart is among the group of 6.

And both of these Exclusives were of players who are still in the league, even though Strome really hasn't lived up to the draft hype.

Program of Excellence are a pretty generic insert, repeating much of the players from the base set, just with a shiny background. The Brodeur is pretty sweet, though.

Here's the final insert before I get to the hits. These 1993 Retros fall 1 every other box. I really like how the logos, especially the Upper Deck one in the corner, match the ones from the time.

These are the base relics. Cameron Morrison was a second rounder of the Avalanche, but opted to play for Notre Dame instead.

Now this is a much nicer relic design, but I love anything that gives me 1993 Leaf vibes.

If you live north of the border and are a huge fan of the New York Islanders, here's a dual relic card for you!

There's one autograph per box, and here was the one this box contained. Skinner was a third round pick of the Oilers, but hasn't played beyond the AHL yet. I do like that he signed the sticker with his Lethbridge Hurricanes number, but that obviously doesn't match his number from the World tourney.

With me putting this card last in this post, does that mean that I'm proclaiming that a manufactured patch is my favourite card in the box? Yes. That is exactly what I'm doing. These fall 1:120 packs, and are the perfect card for the front of the clear box I've put the set in. The patch in the photo places the Yzerman photo from the 1996 World Cup.

I'd suggest I'd be waiting until the Expo to bust boxes again, but Series 1 drops later this week.

There you have it!

Getting Down with O-Pee-Chee

It has been almost 3 weeks since 19-20 O-Pee-Chee hockey dropped, and despite busting boxes the day of release, I've been slacking on showing off the cards contained within. Finally, I'll do so today.

Here's the regular base design. It is typical of the product with a perfectly acceptable, if not generic, photo. DuClair is making his Sens debut in this release, so that is a good a reason as any to lead with one of his cards.

Your backs. It looks like 20 seasons is the max they can fit on the backs of these. And that's with the micro font.

The SP portion of the set continues the subsets seen in previous years.

The silver border parallels from last year are gone, and replaced with blue borders this year. They do seem a little less common this season than in previous ones when it comes to the most common of the regular base parallels. And I do realize how little sense that sentence made.

The glossy gold parallels also make their return this year. There were also preview cards for the mid-season Platinum release, but I didn't land any of them in my boxes, so this was a shiny as these boxes got for me.

Retro parallels also return this year. If the 2010 release mated with the 1971 release, this would be the result. In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have opted to showcase a card with that much green on it as an example. Much like in previous years, the background colour changes throughout the set.

And your backs, just basically a flip of the front.

And the black parallels also make their return, and remain /100.

Playing cards? They're here as well. While I did land the Ace of McDavids, I'm probably going to need to come across another ace (they're SPd to about 2 per case) in a pack to decide to build the playing card set again this year.

They are not minis this season. They are caramels. Normal height. Mini width. At least they don't fall out of packs as easily as last year.

I opened 3 boxes of these to start, and landed one of the rare pulls from each of them. These wood parallels were originally unannounced, and aren't numbered, but I haven't seen a lot of them appear. So I guess they count as SSP.

Manupatches returns as well. The individual trophy winners on the whole fall at 1:937 packs, but you probably end up with 3 or 4 per case among the various subsets.

And finally, the team logo patches. These have been in the sets for the past several seasons, and they continue to update the original release. If you're building the set, this is card #329. They have to be running out of logos by now, you'd think.

And there you have it. I'll probably have my wantlist updated with the new OPC within a week or so.

Better Days

This year, the Buffalo Bills are not good. Both games so far this season have been decided by halftime, and with the Vikings being a 17 point favourite today, I'm guessing that's going to be three games with a similar characteristic. So, I'll return to the glory days, and post the Jim Kelly acquisitions that have been in my COMC to-be-posted box.

Edit: Note I didn't specify how the game would be decided by halftime. Call my 1-900-line!

While I generally like to build to the big card in the respective post, I really couldn't resist going against the grain today with my second Jim Kelly autograph. It isn't really an on-card auto, more of an on-patch autograph. But, since he is the only football HOFer in the collection, it is an appropriate patch. You'll have to flip it over, but the card's numbered to 40, and the photo isn't the standard passing photo, but instead a hand-off.

On to the more standard singles for this post, and a classic looking design out of the appropriately named Fleer Throwbacks.

And if you want more of a Studio-ish card, here's one out of Pinnacle, with their Showcase insert set.

And a whole pile more of cards, enough to fill up a scanner bed.

And a trio of numbered cards ends this post. A Hurricanes card really doesn't fit in with this post, but I figured it belonged here moreso than with the rest of the 2/14 football additions in a future post.

With these, Jim Kelly becomes the first football player to bust past the 100 mark in acquisitions, with 109 different cards. This also puts me past another milestone, with there now being over 2000 cards in the collection. WOO-HOO!

2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Box Break #2

What awaits me in the second box?

Up first, nine base cards. Why these nine? These were the only non-SP'd base cards from this box that were not dupes from the first box. Now that is ghastly collation. But at least the team collectors on my trade list will appreciate it.

At least the SPs weren't dupes. I really like this card since you can see the banner behind Blackwood and trace the card to a specific game, namely the 2017 Kraft Hockeyville pre-season game in O'Leary, Prince Edward Island. Blackwood didn't see the ice in the game, as the Devils crushed the Senators 8-1.

The Silver parallels. The big one for me is the John Hayden, being the 3rd new 2/14 card from these boxes.

A pretty good player for the 1-per-box gold parallel.

It took this box for me to land my first regular Senators retro card.

I didn't land the regular rookie card of one of the more hyped players going into the season, but I did get his retro parallel. I like the design of the black portion where the player's name is, since it kinda gives a vibe of gum being in the pack.

For those that just had to see what the Season Highlights cards look like in retro for, you get your wish!

The black parallels.

Your minis.

And your playing cards. Carey Price might be the product's cover boy, but he still only makes King status in the deck.

But here's an Ace for you! Aces are slightly SPd when it comes to the other playing cards. On the whole, they're 1:120 packs, while the 2-K group are 1:5.

Another rare pull? These retro award winners are one-per-case, if they're at the same rate as previous years. Because of the nature of this set, you're pretty much guaranteed a big name for the card as well.

After only pulling one manufactured patch in previous seasons, I get two this year. While these aren't as rare as the Mario from yesterday, they're still about one every four boxes.

So, despite all the base dupes, there was still a lot of good stuff in this box. I guess I'll have to get my hands on some retail to work on the base set. Repacks up next!