2014-15 Panini NHL Stickers

I'm not much of a sticker person to be honest but a bunch of these packs were thrown in as a free gift from the same Dave & Adam's order that produced the Ghostbusters and Donruss boxes. There were eight packs taped together. I'm only going to open one pack here so this will be short and I probably won't have much to say about these.

Eberle was probably the best thing I got out of this pack. There's something about the western Canada teams I like, mainly because they're mired in relative obscurity since NBC doesn't carry their games. This must be some sort of insert or parallel, not really sure. Regardless, it'll go in my hockey binder.

Nothing exciting in the remainder of the pack with these cards. The players I know I kept and the rest went to my son so he can start a collection of them. I've saved the remaining packs for him as he really liked getting the stickers so it's a reward he earns when he's good. Overall, I wouldn't have gotten these but seeing as they were a free gift, I won't complain too much. 

1991-92 NHL Pro Set Series 1 French Edition

As I mentioned in my latest flea market post, I found this on the junk wax shelf of a regular vendor I visit for five bucks. Since the NHL playoffs start tomorrow, I figured I'd tear into this. I busted a box of Series 2 of this same product back in the fall. This, however, is Series 1 and its in French! I don't speak a lick of French but this will be fun anyway.

I won't show off every pack as there were a lot of duplicates and not much excitement but I'll show off the big names, starting with this Messier/Yzerman/Roy trio. Getting cards of Messier as a member of the Oilers is always neat. I'd forgotten he'd played with Edmonton into the 90s. Roy was always one of my favorite goalies after Brodeur and I think I may add him to my hockey PC list.

Modano, Hull, and Fuhr. So two Oilers so far and they must have been loaded in the 80s and 90s with big stars! I like the Modano card as he's depicted as a member of the Minnesota North Stars, as this was shortly before they moved to Dallas. I always think of him as playing for Dallas so getting a pre-Dallas Stars card of him is really nice.

The final trio I'll feature here consists of Jagr, Lemieux, and Gretzky. My favorite of this group is by far Jagr, so much so that I've added him to my hockey PC collection. The dude is still kicking around the NHL and has a pretty good chance at a cup with the Panthers this year.

The main inserts were these all-star cards. I was pretty excited to pull out the Guy Lafleur card, especially since I didn't get a base card of his as he's a hockey PC guy for me.

In closing, I'd like to take a moment and mention that this is my 100th post for the blog! I never thought that it would even survive long enough to see 100 posts so a big thank you to everyone who reads and supports this blog. Here's to 100 more!

2015-16 Upper Deck Hockey Series 1 Tin

I've been patiently waiting for a while now to get my hands on some of the new Upper Deck Hockey (not that I'm chasing the Connor McDavid card or anything). While the family and I were at Wal-Mart getting some groceries a few weeks ago, I stopped by their miniscule card section and found a few of the new tins stuffed behind a bunch of discounted football and baseball blasters. So, since my birthday is next Saturday, as an early birthday present for myself, I forked over the cash for one and brought it home ...

The Winter Classic is one of my favorite games of the year to watch and this particular box came with a Winter Classic box topper of Corey Crawford.

Here are the inserts the that came in the box and all of these are super cool. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd say the UD Canvas cards, but the portraits series comes in a close second.

Horizontal goalies! The Crawford card is just spectacular and speaks to the awesomeness of Upper Deck's photography.

A couple nice cards here of Rick Nash and Flyers captain Claude Giroux. I still think of Nash as a member of the Blue Jackets.

Some more of the stars I pulled out of the tin including another Toews, a Tuukka Rask, and a Pavel Datsyuk. A nice group of players here.

Oh, I bet you're waiting anxiously to see what Young Guns cards I pulled, right?

I didn't wind up with the McDavid card, but I did however get a nice Young Guns canvas card to go along with the others from earlier. I'm not familiar with any of these guys to know if this is a good lot or not, so any of the hockey gurus out there, help me out please.

For a retail purchase, this wasn't bad and I'd probably go out and get another one of these at some point, provided they all haven't been snatched up by now by people chasing the McDavid card. If I get one of those in a future tin, great. If not, that's fine too. Remember, I'm in it for the fun of collecting ... plus I got a nice storage tin for my "good cards" now too.

My First COMC Order

Just before the 4th of July weekend, I splurged and treated myself to some cards from COMC. They came in the mail the day before I left for a July 4th excursion in Akron but I didn't have a blog at that time, so I couldn't share them. Now I do, so here they are ...

My order consisted of five cards, one from each sport I collect. It wasn't a big order, but just big enough to test out their service. Also, I splurged for the expedited shipping, which was only $4.99.

Here's my order:

2013 Bowman Sterling Prospect Certified Autographs - Michael Lorenzen

I ordered this since Lorenzen is a good young pitcher and this will fit nicely in my Reds collection. Funny thing though, I saw this exact same card at the card shop in Dayton I frequent and it was nearly $10 more than I paid for it on COMC.

2014-15 Upper Deck Series Two - Martin Brodeur

We're big fans of hockey in my house and it saddened us last year when Brodeur left the Devils where we were sure he'd retire. This is only one of a handful of cards that are out there that feature him as a member of the Blues and I intend on collecting all of them. I figured the cheapest one available would be a good place to start.

2006-07 In the Game Heroes and Prospects - Mark Messier

I hadn't planned on picking this up as I though it was just another Messier card, but then I looked closer. See the jersey? Yep, that's Messier as a member of the Cincinnati Stingers! Messier as a Stinger? I had no clue that even happened. Definitely had to get this as it's a nice addition to my hockey collection. My goal is to eventually start collecting all of the Stingers cards available. That'll be easier said then done however, as hockey singles are hard to come by in my area.

2008 Leaf Limited Threads - Cris Collinsworth

I just recently got into football collecting so I'm starting with Bengals cards and going from there. I'm not really a big football fan, but do keep up with the Bengals. This was a nice card to add to the handful of commons I already have.

2010 Topps UFC Series 4 Fighter Gear Relics - Dan Severn

As a far MMA goes, we'll watch the big specials on FOX in our house but won't really splurge for a PPV, mainly because they're insanely expensive. This card however, was not. It ran me about $3.50 and Severn is one of my favorites from old school UFC. Nice guy too, I met him at an independent wrestling show a few years ago and he signed my copy of Swamp Zombies, a low budget horror film he has a small role in.

All in all, not a bad pick-up with some nice variety. Shipping took about a week through regular mail. I'll definitely be ordering from COMC again, that is once my budget for cards goes up.