Taking the Scenic Route

Everyone's favorite White Sox blogger, Jeff of 2x3 Heroes, is in the midst of sending out his annual "Tis the Season" packages. I was excited when I got my notification from the USPS that the package was on the way and it would be delivered in a few days. Well, after a few days, no package. I checked the tracking online and it simply said "in route to distribution center". Then, a few days later, the package popped up in L.A., then after a day or so in L.A. it made its way to San Francisco, and finally, after about 10 days of criss-crossing the country, a small priority mail box finally landed on my doorstep. To be honest, I'd kind of forgotten what I'd claimed in the annual year-end give away but it turns out the box contained a ton of hockey cards from all over the place.

The note from Jeff said I took a bunch of "meh hits" off his hands. These are some swell looking hits and I'm glad they're more jersey cards than autograph cards. If you can't make out who the players are on these three it's Ales Hemsky, Roman Horak, and Justin Schultz, unfortunately three names that aren't all that familiar to me.

One name that is familiar to me though is Rick Nash. Nash was the first player selected overall in the 2002 draft and could probably be classified at the first "homegrown" star of the Blue Jackets. 

This card is probably my favorite of the jersey cards included in the box. Glenn Anderson was part of the Oilers dynasty in the 1980s and early 90s where he won five Stanley Cups with the team and made four All-Star teams. He also won a Cup with the Rangers in 1994 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 2008.

Relic cards though weren't the only thing that Jeff included. He also put a huge dent in my team collections for hockey. There were six "team packs" in the box and each one was loaded with all kinds of miscellaneous odds and ends. I'll show some highlights.

First, a nice lot of Blue Jackets. Of all my team I follow, the Blue Jackets are the ones I honestly watched the least of last season.

Some nice Devils including a pair of Jagr's. One can never have too many Jagr cards. Too bad it looks like he might be done in the NHL for the forseeable future. Speaking of which, I'm on the lookout for the lone card he had with the Flames from the Upper Deck main set.

More Devils and some mid-90s action with Brodeur and Stevens.

Old school Oilers!

And also some newer ones. 

My Calgary Flames collection really got a nice boost.

My Shane Doan collection for the Coyotes pretty much tripled in size. Also, there were some Jeremy Roenick cards with the really, really old Coyotes uniform.

Team collections aside, there was a nice mixed bag of cards too with these Artifacts and Score cards. I never really buy much in the way of late season hockey releases so adding cards from Artifacts is very nice. The picture really doesn't do them justice.

There was also a really good grouping of 2016-17 Upper Deck, of which I had none in the collection. That'll also put the bow on this giant box of cards as well. Now, I just have to find the time to get them filed away.

You've Got Mail #49: Sportscards From the Dollar Store

Having a connection north of the border is nice. You get sent things like hockey cards and ketchup flavored potato chips that are nearly impossible to find. Speaking of friends of the north, Douglas of Sportscards From the Dollar Store sprung a package on me filled with some Columbus Blue Jackets and a few other cards (but sadly no ketchup chips) after I left a comment about a Marion Gaborik card on his blog.

Here's the aforementioned Gaborik card, along with a Brandon Saad and a very foil-y Sergei Bobrovsky. Saad was a huge pickup for the Jackets in a trade with Chicago before the 2015-16 season. While the Jackets stunk up the joint at the beginning of last season, Saad gives them a pretty solid name to build around. 

Every time I see Rick Nash, I still think it's weird to see him in a Rangers uniform. I still think of him as a Blue Jacket as he was one of their first homegrown talents. Thanks to Douglas, not only has my Nash collection expanded with these cards, I've also added him to my hockey PC list. Also, side note, I wish Panini still made hockey cards as anything from the Contenders line is just aces in my book.

Besides Rick Nash, there was a nice selection of former Blue Jackets stars included as well. I'd forgotten that R.J. Umberger had suited up for them but I definitely remembered Ryan Johansen and Sergei Federov. 

Blue Jackets cards weren't the only thing Douglas included. There were these Reds and Bengals cards which helped pad out the package a bit. I wasn't planning on buying any 2016 Stadium Club this year but the cards I've gotten from other fellow traders, along with the Billy Hamilton card included, I've finally decided to give in and try to find a cheap box or perhaps a blaster around Christmas time. With that, another great trade package comes to an end.

Five Packs of 2016-17 Upper Deck MVP

Back in the summer during National Baseball Card Day, I stopped into Maverick's card shop with some friends. To get the coveted Kris Bryant card, I was supposed to spend $10 on Topps products. However, seeing as Topps had nothing out that I wanted to spend $10 on, I opted on five packs of the first hockey release of the year, 2016-17 Upper Deck MVP. 

MVP has really been sort of hit or miss for me, some years I like the design (like two years ago), some years I don't (like last year). This year happened to be one of those years where I liked the design. It's not a hit based product and is geared mainly towards set collectors. Here's what I got ...

The nice thing when you are done opening packs with a product like this is that you have a nice fat stack of base cards to sift through. I pulled out most of the cards of the stars to show off the base cards. Fleury started the season back as the top net minder for the Pens due to an injury to Matt Murray. Once Murray is healthy again, that should be a real interesting battle to watch, especially if Fleury is playing at a good level again. I'll always think of Rick Nash as a Blue Jacket since he was one of their first homegrown stars even though he's been a part of the Rangers for a few seasons now. It's still strange to me to see him in a Rangers uniform. I've also added him as a hockey PC guy just because.

Despite the fact I opened a sizable number of Upper Deck Series 1 packs last year, I wasn't lucky enough to pull a Connor McDavid Young Guns card. Oh well, I'll just have to settle for his second year card. I seem to get a new Tuukka Rask card everything I get a batch of hockey packs, not that I'm complaining as I really enjoy watching him when I get to see Boston games.

Believe it or not, these are actually puzzle pieces. The backs form some sort of puzzle but I'm not sure what. These are a bit strange too as the card number, legal print, and other stuff normally found on the card backs are on the front. Personally, I think it's a little distracting.

I got these nice shiny die-cuts. The one nice thing about MVP is that even though it's not hit based, there's still some really neat stuff to be had, such as these. I couldn't tell you one thing about either of these guys, mainly because there is exactly zero coverage of any Canadian teams where I live, unless they're playing Columbus on the local Fox Sports network.

I consider myself somewhat lucky when it comes to opening MVP packs. The first year I got some packs, I pulled out a Mario Lemieux silver script parallel numbered to 25. This year, it's a Jake Allen silver script parallel. Allen is going to have a good chance to prove himself as the number one goalie for the Blues, with Brian Elliott having been shipped off to Calgary. 

All in all, opening these was a lot of fun. Sure you won't get any big hits but you'll get a lot of fun and enjoyment out of it. After all, having fun is what collecting is all about, right?