Sunday, January 30, 2011

Neither rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night.....

This weekend was Card Show weekend here in south Calgary. Only one problem. I woke up Saturday morning to almost 20 inches of snow in my driveway. And it was still snowing. And the wind was blowing.
Two options. Back to bed, warm and safe. Or venture out in the insane weather just to go to a card show.

A no brainer if you ask me. On to the card show!

An it's a good thing I did. Although I spent 50 bucks. And I never spend that much. Oops. Let's see how I did. Then you can vote, Epic, or Epic Fail.

First up, table #1, 3 cards for $2. All for future ttm attempts.
A 1972/73 OPC Frank Mahovlich with razor sharp corners...
 an '88/89 OPC Adam Oates card that I was told was his rookie, but turns out it's not. I knew that, but I bit anyways. Oh well.
 and a '74/75 OPC Lanny McDonald rookie. And this is his rookie. Not bad for .67 cents.
 Table #2 brings us to 6 cards for $5.

A Black border rainbow retro box hit #/100 of Ducks sniper Bobby Ryan...
 and another of Derick Brassard, also #/100
 A '10/11 OPC retro of Johnny Bower. I've been looking for a good card to send to Mr Bower for an autograph. This will do nicely. No way am I sending out his rookie or anything....
 An older insert of Miikka Kiprusoff.
 An Adam Pardy Young Gun rookie...
 and Sid the Kid #/999.... all that for $5.
 Now this next part, all from Table #3, is my favourite buy from the show. What you see fom here, cost me $15. A steal. There's currently a warrant out for my arrest.

First, seven '10/11 OPC retro inserts on my quest for a complete team set....
Carey Price, All Star Goaltender.
 Brian Gionta
 Jaroslav Spacek
 Benoit Pouliot. There's a drinking game involving watching Pouliot play, but I won't get into that here...
 Travis Moen
 The older Kostitsyn brother, Andrei
 and Holy Frak! A P.K. Subban retro insert SP rookie. Pernell was also at the All Star Game.
 now, five of the '10/11 OPC Rainbow Retro inserts, again, in pursuit of my team set.

Roman 'I can't believe he's still playing' Hamrlik
 Tommy Pyatt
 Maxim Lapierre. Max was traded to Anaheim a wee while ago....
 our leading scorer, Mike Cammalleri
 and Hall of Famer, a SP of the Big Bird, Larry Robinson.
 finally for our $15, I grabbed two 2010/11 Donruss team sets...

one of Montreal
 and one of Calgary.
Can you believe it? All that for $15??? Sweet.
As I was leaving, I also grabbed a complete 2006/07 Parkhurst set for $8 and a box of Ultra Pro pages for $15. I'll feature some of the cards from the Parkhurst set later... it's a really cool set featuring some of the all time greats.

So? How did I do? Was I a thief? Or should I have stayed in bed?

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

a 2 pack break review...

I stopped by the the card store on my way home the other day, and picked up two packs of the new 2010-11 In The Game Heroes and Prospects. I'll pick up a box of this later on, but I just wanted to see what they were like, and maybe luck would shine with a hit. HA! Anyways....
If you want a more in depth review of, say, two boxes, go here for part one, two, and three. These were free boxes. How come I don't get free boxes anymore? Is it something I said? Could I have offended anyone? Never mind, don't answer that....

On to the cards... the first card I see upon opening the first pack...
 Glorious. The modern day Guy Lapointe, or so I pray at night....

The base cards are alright. Kind of busy, but the use of team colours is nice. I really like the fact of using actual live action backgrounds this year rather than the static ones like last season...
Rick is from the 'Heroes' section...
 One of the Oilers many, many young stars... Mr Spin O' Rama himself.
 Here we have the best American player from the last two World Junior Championships. If you can believe it, Jack will be back for his third try this December....
 another young keeper, Jack Bauer Philipp Grubauer.
 another hero, you may have heard of him.... dig his friend in the back....
 The backs
 both the hero version as well as the prospect version all have the pertinent information. Instead of repeating the same photo on the back, you get a team logo. Nice.
I also pulled cards of
Jaime Arniel
Michael Chaput
Ryan Murray
Michael St. Croix
Shane McColgan
Joey Leach
Brad Ross
Kirill Kabanov
Gabriel Landeskog
Brett Sonne

2 packs for $10. 8 cards per pack. No inserts, no parallels, no hits. So like I said, if you want to see more, check out those reviews I linked at the beginning of this post.
All in all, after seeing these two packs,  I would buy more, and I will.

Monday, January 24, 2011

TTM Success. Gary Bones Bromley.

As I eluded to in my last post, I would get to why Gary Bromley attracted the nickname 'Bones". And no, it was not because of this iconic mask he wore while with the Vancouver Canucks.
 Gary was a slight of a man. He was only 5'8", and only 160 lbs. I was that in the sixth grade. Anyways... teammates ragged on him about being a rack of bones, etc... and the nickname Bones, stuck.

As you can see, Mr Bromley was kind enough to return my ttm request. He signed an 8x10 photo and three cards in black and blue sharpies.

His 1974/75 OPC rookie....
 From his time playing for the Calgary Cowboys courtesy In The Game...
 and as I remember him, with Vancouver on his '79/80 OPC card. Unfortunately, no card of him exists wearing his Bones mask unless ITG has issued one and I missed it, but that's unlikely.
Thanks Gary!!!!

Friday, January 21, 2011

1974-75 Topps Card #7 Gary Bromley RC

Card Features - Gary Bromley
Okay, okay, it's been awhile. Next time, nag me. It works for my wife.
We have past the first six leader cards and are into individual players. The first player chosen to be in this set? Rookie Buffalo goalie Gary 'Bones' Bromley. 1974-75 was Gary's best year in the NHL, as he went 26 wins, 11 losses, 11 ties. Gary would jump ship in two years to Calgary of the WHA. After his stint in the WHA, Gary would play three final seasons in the NHL with the Vancouver Canucks.
Look for a post in the next day or two explaining Gary's nickname, and the reason why he is still well known today.

Yet another contest..

Go HERE. Now. Do it. Or not. But if I win, they'll be no complaining out of you.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Wait no more....

Okay, so I'm finally getting around to posting this. A wee while ago, I mentioned stopping by my card shop and coming home with a few things, among them 7 packs of 2010/11 OPC. And a couple of you actually said you wanted to see what I got.
So here are the highlights...

An Atlanta Thrashers Team Leaders insert from last season. Interesting that Kovalchuk isn't there anymore, and neither is Hedberg.
 A black bordered rainbow retro parallel of Paul Stastny. One or two per box.
 A rainbow parallel of Maple Laff Tyler Bozak. Leaf. I meant Leaf, not Laff..... heh....
 In the same pack as Bozak, I got Dion. Talk about a team pack. Is he still dating Elisha? I miss Elisha.
 Also among the seven retro parallels I got was future superstar Erik Johnson
 and a 'Legends' retro of the human sieve, Grant Fuhr. You knew if anyone was going to pull him, it would be me.
 I didn't get any SP Legends cards, but I did pull five SP Rookies. Out of seven packs, that was pretty good. I think.

Zac Dalpe, a 21 y/o center for Carolina has 3 goals and 1 assist in 14 games this year.
 Jared Cowen, a 6'5" 230lb defenceman of the Ottawa Senators has only played in 1 NHL game so far, but was a man among boys at the recent World Junior Championships...
 Dustin Tokarski. Can anyone tell me why, with Tampa's horrid goaltending, Dustin has not received his shot at the NHL yet?
 Bob. Bob has come out of nowhere to become the #1 netminder for the Flyers. Really happy to pull this card.
 Oh. And some kid outta Edmonton. Is he any good? Anyone?
Anyways, them da hits. Not to mention all of the wonderful base cards towards my set.

Regarding the retros... I love these. Love 'em. If any of you have some, and feel inclined, send them my way. I'll leave a light on.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

an Unbelievable TTM success!

A long time ago, I saw a ttm success posted on Cards On Ice. I nearly lost my mind. I immediately emailed Tricia for the address she used. A little background......

My all time favourite player is Ken Dryden. The best goalie in NHL history. Ken played 7 seasons in the NHL. He won 6 Stanley Cups. He won Rookie of the Year, and 5 Vezina Trophies as best goalie. He led the league in wins 4 times. Shutouts, 4 times. Goals against average, 4 times. He made 6 All Star teams. His career record ended at 258 wins, 57 losses and 74 ties. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1983.

He's a successful trial lawyer. Best selling author of a number of books. Was the President of the Toronto Maple Leafs. And has been a Member of Parliament in the Canadian House of Commons for the past 6 years. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Cornell University, and a degree in Law at McGill University. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Ottawa, University of Windsor, York University, McMaster University, Saint Mary’s University, Niagara University and University of British Columbia. At Cornell, he was a member of the Sigma Phi Society and vice-president of the Quill and Dagger society.

Not your average athlete. Yeah, maybe a bit of a mancrush.... but LOOK!!!
8x10 glossy hand signed gloriousness! And he sent it in a hard case designed for diplomas and degrees...
at last, my tax dollars going to something worthwhile.

Hard case or not, this baby ended up in a frame on the wall of the man cave. A personalized auto from my childhood hero. It doesn't get better than that.

Do you have something similar?