Masked Monday

I haven't done an official Masked Mondays in years, but just felt like doing so today. And not because my COMC to-be-posted box is starting to get a little more crowded than I'd like.

I'm going overseas to start this post off, and am doing so with a card from the KHL. Nikita didn't have the most illustrious career, with 3 years on hockeydb.com and a single sentence on wikipedia to show for it. But he does have a pretty great mask to show for it.

You even get a write-up about the mask on the back of the card, and it is translated into English as well. I wonder if Russian collectors learn English like I learned French - from the back of hockey cards.

I had to rely on Compendium to land me a card of Malcolm Subban's mask featuring the Vegas strip.

As well as Connor Hellebuyck's mask that featured (former?) teammate Dustin Byfuglien enjoying some ice fishing.

So, this was what the Flying V would look like if it was transferred to a mask, and flipped.

Another simple design, but less is more here with a perfect use of the Blues logo. Throw in a bonus autograph as well!

Ending this post with a complete obscurity. Alves is the equipment manager for the Hurricanes, and he got to play the last portion of a game. His mask was self-painted, and decorated with caricatures of some of his fellow equipment managers.

And here's a little more of the story. This card was available at hobby shops in North Carolina, but fortunately a few made their way to COMC.

There you have it!

Nickel Box Chronicles - Part 1 - Masked Monday

Better than a dime box - a nickel box! I found one at a show this past weekend. While some of the cards are already marked to head elsewhere, I did add a few new ones into my varied collections, and I'll be showing them off this week, interspersed with 2 and a half trade envelopes I still need to get to.

The mask binders were the big winners in terms of volume, landing over 100 cards between them. And darned if I'm not going to show them all off here. I know the Lalime technically isn't one, but it is interesting enough to count for the misc binder. And that isn't even the best photo when it includes that Belfour. Fave mask is Antero's Frank Nitti mask.

Nikolai Khabibulin pictured by an advertisement that makes it seem like he'll be hit by a train? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. And it is appropriate that this group of cards ends with Marc-Andre Fleury...

since he was the big winner in terms of volume with 9 cards bound for the binder.

Now, onto the 9 card scans. A nice mix here with a legend in Hextall, a current star with a trio of Pekka Rinnes, a guy I'd completely forgotten about with LeBrecque, and a stint I'd completely forgotten about with Wregget pictured with Calgary.

Upper Deck really with a lot of close-ups of masks in the mid-late 90s on their base cards. No complaints here. I really like the Belfour the best in this group, as I have no memory of him in a black version of his classic design while in Chicago. 

Petr Mrazek will also be making an appearance when I get to the 2/14 portion of this box. I'm unsure why Wade wanted to sport the Gorton's fisherman logo on his mask, since I don't think he ever had to wear it as a jersey. 

Retro designs! Both real and imagined! There's a good reason why Chicago's logo is seen as a profile and not from the front, and Thibault's mask shows the reasons why.

I've posted that Jaks mask before, since I like that he's still wearing the Phoenix Roadrunners design while in a Kings uniform. Fichaud also goes for a minor league look as well since he's still in the Chicoutimi Sagueneens design. My favourite is the Corey Hirsch 'Psycho' house design, and it turns out there may have been a little more behind that than just a movie reference.

Is the loudest card in this group the Tallas jersey, the Smith design or the Pacific of Mike Vernon? Any answer of the three would be acceptable. I already had the Ryan Miller retro look on a Portfolio issue, now I've got more of a close-up as well.

The box did have a nice selection of 1997 base cards.

The Glenn Healy won't count for the binder, but much like the Lalime at the top, the photo was too perfect to pass on. Even cards from the past season could be found in that nickel box, as shown by the quartet of 16-17 UDs. More of those loud 13-14 retros as well. 

The final nine-pack! Brathwaite is a dupe, but I can have one of the only guy that can logically not use Jason as the slasher-movie icon in both my mask and miscellaneous binders. 

And that's it. My scanner needs a rest after that. Something a little smaller tomorrow, maybe from this show, maybe not.

Not Quite a Masked Monday

But this is a really nice card from Pinnacle Inside featuring Hasek sporting what looks like a very St. Patrick's Day hat. That still leaves way too many cards from my latest TMM emvelope to post, so here's one that's more on-topic.

Jim (yet to acquire the my) Howard in an example of Goaltending Gallimaufry (tm: Card Boarded) as he is still sporting his gear from the Maine Black Bears.

There's two cards out of the many that showed up. At least I should make an effort to get through the mailing before my goodies from Blowout show up next week.

Masked Mondays - Insomnia Special

Once again, I'm unable to sleep, so I'll clean out some of my scans for the mask binders. A handful of COMC cards, followed by the goaltender portion of a #supertraders envelope from 2*3 Heroes.

While the "rejected heavy metal band covers" look for the mask paint job can tend to get overdone, it works for someone who played with the Devils.

I might as well get the hits out of the way right off the start, with one I picked up just because it was on sale on Black Friday at COMC.

Heading back to the album cover theme, here's a Rob McVicar. A demonic looking creature accompanying someone with Vicar in their name has to at least be somewhat interesting.

A nice close-up of one of Kolzig's Godzilla paint jobs.

As best I can tell, Derek Wilkinson got only NHL level card. This and its associated parallels. Nice choice for the photo featuring a simple, but effective paint job.

Starting off the trade portion, here's a nice look at Beezer's classic Panthers mask, complete with the rest of the card being all Sportsflix-y.

The only other card in there that will go into my pre-lost season binder, since I sort it by player as opposed to card release date. This is one of the SP legends from this year's OPC.

And my post lost-season binder gained a lot of new cards.

And there were a few more that I didn't want to do a full scan of. A couple dupes among this year's Artifacts. Fortunately, one is the Gibson that will be just at home in my Rangers alum binder.

And there's a big chunk out of my To Be Posted cards pile. I still have the rest of the 2*3 Envelope, a #supertraders envelope from A Cracked Bat, a flea market repack and a hockey group break and a Sportlots envelope. I might even get caught up by the Expo!

2015 Fall Expo Goodies Part 4: Impromptu Masked Mondays

Today, some of the cards on their way to the masks binder.

Only one card will be going into the pre-2005 binder. That will be this one. I had no idea that there were Action Packed-type hockey cards in the 90s, although I probably should not be surprised in retrospect. I am surprised the subset would be given such a cheesy name as "Goal Patrol".

Sure, you can't really see the mask that well, but how could I pass on a chance to pick up a parallel rookie card of Sergei Bobrovsky for a mere quarter?

These were also from the same quarter bin. You have another one of my favourites from the past 10 years with J-S Giguere's double-duck mask. Kari's Kill Bill mask makes yet another appearance in my collection. While I do have several of Jason LaBarbera's wrestling masks in my collection, this is my first one of his Hulk Hogan lid.

It has been a pretty Flyers intensive post, so let's wrap it up with one on its way to the hits binder. There might have been issues with the pen at the start, but things corrected itself, and for a few bucks I landed an on-card autograph, numbered to 99 copies, of probably my favourite lunatic in hockey history. He was always someone I wanted an auto from, but hadn't pulled the trigger on it yet, hoping for a cheap one to cross my path. I couldn't wait any longer.

I'm amazed this isn't signed in blood.

And there's another Expo post in the books.

A 2*3 Trade - Part 4 of 4

And finally wrapping this trade up with the masks from the post lockout seasons.

And to open with something entirely unexpected. This looks like just another insert card, but it is actually a SSP from this year's O-Pee-Chee. The design is retro, but the card itself is glossier than the base. But I guess this is actually part of the base, since it is card #603. No, I'm not going to be adding these to my OPC wantlist, but I will consider this an addition to the hits portion of my hockey binder. Considering all the OPC I busted so far this year, pulling a grand total of zero SSPs, this was a nice surprise.

And here's a sampling of some of the other additions. I'm happiest about the BTP cards, since all of those were tied up in the set as opposed to the binder.

Thanks for the goodies. Expect a new envelope in 2015!

A 2*3 Trade - Part 3 of 4

Continuing with the 300 count box that showed up at Chez Buckstorecards as I continue working my way through the mask binder additions. Still with the pre-lockout lost season additions.

You can't go wrong with any Young Gun to lead things off. A nice mask featuring a Bulldog from his AHL days in Hamilton. I've said before that if allergies didn't limit my choices, I'd likely be the daddy of at least one of those beautiful dogs. Minard only has one NHL game to his credit, so that's also kinda interesting.

Then I googled his name. Oopsie! If I'd done it a couple months ago, as least I would have had an address to send this card for a TTM auto.

I needed a cheering up after that one, and Roman Turek's masks usually do it. While I'm the furthest thing from a fan of Iron Maiden, I love Roman Turek's commitment to his fandom with Eddie the Head being a constant on his masks. This might be the one design of his that looks the best with the overhead shot.

These were nice. But these were even better.

Vintage!

Complete with Vin-toons on the back!

Heritage!

Complete with Heritoons on the back!

The latter toons being so much better than the former.

And that leaves only the post 2005 masks to go. Next week!

A 2*3 Trade - Part 2 of 4

And now, a quick look at some of the cards that were the highlights of the cards featuring photos from prior to 2000.

A card like this is the primary reason I include modern cards with pre-2004 folder. They're great looks at the early dats of masks, but don't look out of place in that binder. Plus, who needed to protect anything but the face back in those days.

This was a card that was already in my Senators collection, but not in my mask collection. Perfection!

This was another card that I was fairly certain that I already had in the binder, but it turns out I've just got a lot of cards with Garth Snow in his Abominable snowman themed mask. While that theme has hit the overuse stage thanks to the Avalanche, it would not really be appropriate for Garth to use any other theme once he started with it.

This one might not end up in the mask binder, but will instead end up in the misc. great photos binder. Which means I probably should have posted it yesterday.

A rare goalie card with a nice view of the backplate.

One of the highlights of thumbing through the cards was reminding me of guys who had stints with teams that I'd forgotten about. Jon Casey's stint in Boston qualified.

Owner of one of the least flattering nicknames in sports history - Andre "Red Light" Racicot.

The big winner in terms of volume might have been Stephane Fiset. He was also the big win in photographic choices as well. The top gives a perfect action shot of the chaos in front of the net, and the lower features a card with the goalie about as far from the crease as possible during play. It isn't many times they show a goaltender heading out for the extra attacker, but this could be the first time. And both are Upper Deck flagship shots. Because who else would?

And that wraps up the fist part of the box. I've still got two more mask intensive posts to go, but those will come later this month. Maybe for 2 more MAsked Mondays.