It has been a little while since I last posted about my haul from the Toronto Spring Card Expo. Had a few things come up that were a bit more important than blogging. However, things are now better and I have a little more time available now for hobby talk. So, here we go.
I recently posted how a few eBay lots have brought me close to completion of the 2009 Topps T-206 Piedmont minis parallel set. Since returning to the hobby I have come to really appreciate and enjoy collecting the mini tobacco sized cards that have become quite prevalent in the hobby. What I managed to bring home with me helped complete some team sets and added to another set I am slowly picking away at.
Chicago Cubs from the 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions release lead the way with a total of five cards. Four were actually needed to complete the mini team set.
#224 - Ryan Dempster, #27 - Derrek Lee, #33 - Jeff Samardzija
#95 - Alfonso Soriano, #117 Carlos Zambrano
It turns out I already had the Zambrano, but, doubles are never bad, are they? I found three of the four Toronto Blue Jays minis that I needed to complete the mini team set. All I have left to chase down now is card #48 Joe Carter.
#243 - Vernon Wells, #219 B.J. Ryan, #242 - Alex Rios
While sifting through the pile of minis I set aside two cards that featured Horses. One figurative and the other literal.
Card #18 - Bo Jackson
Card #115 - Smarty Jones
Aside from the T-206 Piedmont mini cards one of the other mini card sets I am working on is the 2009-10 Upper Deck Champs Hockey mini extension set. Finding lots of these cards at a show is pretty hard and completing a set paying the individual prices being asked is just too much pain on the wallet. One dealer had a stack of 25 cards and wanted $5.00 for them so without my needs list handy I grabbed it and hoped for the best. Turns out I only needed 4 of the 25, but, it gives me a number of traders.
Card #270 - Mike Richards, #314 - Don Cherry
The great appeal of Champs is that, much like Allen & Ginter, card subjects are not just limited to athletes. 'Wonders of the World' and 'Natural History Collection' cards found a place in the binder too.
Card #407 - Aurora
Card #512 - Common Raven
The last mini card that joined the bunch was a lone 2007 Allen & Ginter Chicago Cub. Every team set starts somewhere and this 2007 set begins with Michael Barrett.
Card #159 - Michael Barrett
We are almost at the end of the series of posts dealing with my purchases from the Spring Expo. Doing these posts has helped me realize that my search was much more successful than it felt at the time. I managed to pick away at quite a few needs successfully.
The next post will deal with the handful of vintage cards that I purchased going towards one of the latest projects I have decided to tackle as well as a few cards for some projects that I am still tossing around in my head. I also found one of the cards I had been hoping to find for a PC, which also happens to be the first and perhaps cheapest vintage card for said PC.
Stay tuned for that post and thanks for reading this one. I appreciate you spending your time here.
As I sit here watching my beloved Blue Jays take on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and I take a break from sorting out details for my upcoming vacation, I thought I would post the third box of Upper Deck Champ's that I bought. Hopefully this box proves to be just as nice as boxes #1 and #2. For the pack odds breakdown click either link to the breaks.
Before we start........
Soundtrack - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Real Emotional Trash
Okay, well this box break is going to be pretty quick as all there is left to post is the inserts and the hits. All commentary has been voiced so this is purely for enjoyment, and, I have truly enjoyed every bit of this product. Upper Deck has succeeded with the Champ's brand, I just hope they are around to continue this release.
Full Size Base Cards (blue border) - 48/100 (48%) Mini Base Cards - 32/480 ( 6.6%)
Base cards are base cards, we have seen them enough times. I did challenge myself to play General Manager with this box and build three lines from what I pulled. I think I did pretty good....you tell me.
FIRST LINE
Alex Delvecchio (LW) - Wayne Gretzky (C) - Jari Kurri (RW) (How do you tell Wayne he can't line with Jari??) SECOND LINE Ted Lindsay (LW) - Mario Lemiuex (C) - Alexander Semin (RW)
THIRD LINE Bobby Hull (LW) - Bobby Clarke (C) - Lanny McDonald (RW)
My guess is those lines would get me into the playoffs every year. I also pulled Bobby Orr, Tony Esposito and Scotty Bowman who would somehow make their way onto this team. I hear they were kinda good.
The five green border cards I pulled were really decent as well. I got Jeff Carter, Alexander Semin, Mario Lemieux, Vincent Lecavalier and Ted Lindsay.
The two red border cards belong to Daniel Alfredsson and James Neal. I also received a package in the mail this week from an eBay purchase that went towards me building this variation of the set. So a bit of a post hijack here but I got Sid The Kid for a decent price.
The one per box yellow border card is of one of my favorite players which is always a special card to pull. I got Al MacInnis.
A bonus hit in this box was one of the 1:80 pack seeded yellow border animal icon cards. I pulled Scott Niedermayer who has a couple Hawks or Falcons (I am pretty sure they are Falcons) perched over his hockey sticks.
Speaking of favorite players before, one of the mini cards I pulled is of a hometown hero and thus a player I collect.
I REALLY don't get why Upper Deck refuses to show Wayne in anything but a Rangers uniform. I see Ray Bourque in a Bruins uniform, not an Avalanche one. I see Bobby Orr in a Bruins uniform, not a Blackhawks one. Wayne retired with the Rangers but will ALWAYS be an Oiler. Sorry America, deal with it!!
The rookie mini cards were Peter Regin (OTT), Devan Dubnyk (EDM), Artem Anisimov (NYR), David Sloane (PHI) and Tyler Myers (BUF).
The Tyler Myers card was bittersweet because I was happy to get it but it served to remind me that Upper Deck has yet to fulfill my Rookie Redemption card from Artifacts for a serial #'d card of Tyler. When should one start to get bothered by the time it takes to ship a redemption? Is 5 months sufficient? C'mon Upper Deck, get it together!!
The Natural History collection cards were Great Horned Owl, Dromaeosaurus, Eastern Cougar, Albertosaurus and Eskimo Curlew.
This time I only received 3 of the Historical Figures minis and they were all Presidents. John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison and George W. Bush. The Adams card is sporting a big bulge under the 'C' in 'Historical', not exactly sure what it is. Kinda disappointed that through 3 boxes I did not pull the only card I REALLY wanted, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Oh well, looks like I will need to keep buying packs until I hit him.
I lucked out on the one-per-box Wonders of the World minis and pulled two, Lake Baikal (home to 20% of the world's surface fresh water, cool stat) and Taj Mahal.
I was not expecting much from the hits this time around after the last box. After getting Crosby, Ovechkin and a Howe SP what else is there, right? Well, not to be disappointed these hits brought me right back down to earth.
The Jersey cards I pulled belonged to Tomas Vokoun (a nice black swatch), Wojtek Wolski (a VERY cool blue swatch) and a TERRIBLY mis-cut boring white swatch of Jeff Carter.
As much as I have liked this product, the Quality Control blows!! Upper Deck should be ashamed of all the mis-cut cards. I have contemplated sending the ones I have back to Upper Deck. I know a great number of people have done this before. If you have, could you please send me an email or comment about what the best and most successful way to return cards to Upper Deck and have them replaced? This failure is the only thing keeping me from loving this release.
The autograph from this box at least was not as bad as the last one. Andrew Cogliano has managed to score more points than he has spent years on this earth in three NHL seasons. The addition of the jersey number to his signature is a nice touch as well. Better than a scrub scribble.
The last hit of this box is the coloured-back variation mini. I got another red back card, this time it was of Brian Gionta of the Montreal Canadians.
As I have said multiple times already. Upper Deck Champ's is a set collector's dream, worth the look from a player collector's standpoint and for sub-set collectors it offers something for practically everyone. This box added 28 new cards to my base set which was light years beyond the last box. Out of three boxes I have pieced together 95% of the base 100-card set. The mini cards will offer a continued interest and a fair challenge to complete. Aside from the major disappointment at all the mis-cut cards I would have to give Upper Deck Champ's 2009-10 offering a fair grade of 'B-plus'.
Thanks for following along these three box breaks and contact me if you are working on this stuff. I always welcome trading partners. If you can help me build the Red Parallel set too, I would be eternally grateful.
Taking a break from a riveting and fun 4-box break of Upper Deck 'Pieces of History' over on Thorzul's blog I decided to post the second of three box breaks I did of Upper Deck's 2009-10 offering of Champ's Hockey. My first box break of this product went quite well and I was pleased with the results. This box managed to overshadow the first with some nice hits and some unannounced hits as well. Before I refresh you on the insert ratios we need to put a quarter in the jukebox.
Soundtrack - Alice Cooper - Along Came A Spider
Pack Breakdown - 5 cards per pack (3 full size base/2 minis)
Green Border Base (1:5) Red Border Base (1:10) Yellow Border Base (1:20) Yellow Border Animal Icon Base (1:80) NHL Stars Mini red back (1:20) NHL Stars Mini blue back (1:80) NHL Stars Mini green back (1:160) NHL Stars Mini Parkhurst back (1:320) Rookies Mini red back (1:240) Rookies Mini blue back (1:360) Rookies Mini green back (1:640) Rookies Mini Parkhurst back (1:1500)
Okay, with that out of the way here's how the box broke.
Full Size Base Cards (blue border) - 49/100 (49%) Mini Base Cards - 34/480 (7%)
If you read my first post then you know my feelings on this set. The way the cards are designed and coloured make the veteran stars card fit right in along side the current stars. Upper Deck has always dome justice to practically every hockey release they have done. With the recent news circulating around the hobby about the potential serious troubles that Upper Deck is having it would truly be a loss if their hockey product suffered the same fate as their others.
Here is an example of what I mean, Patrick Kane side by side with Al McInnis, Terry O'Reilly, Mr.Hockey and Red Kelly. The cards compliment each other and none of them looks out of place in this retro-themed set.
I pulled the requisite number of Green bordered cards from this box. The players I got were Marty Turco, Ryan Kesler, Bobby Orr, Zach Parise and Pekka Rinne.
Next in order are the Red bordered parallel cards which I have decided to torture myself into collecting. I think these are the nicest looking cards out of all the parallels and the insert ratio, coupled with the low number of base cards, make this an excellent chase in my mind. The two I pulled from this box were Marc-Andre Fleury and Patrick Kane.
The Yellow bordered card from this box was Bobby Ryan. The more I look at these cards the more I want to dub them the "Mountain Dew" parallel. They are not really yellow as they they are more neon lime green.
The Rookie minis I pulled were Bobby Sanguinetti (NYR), Matt Climie (DAL), Tyler Bozak (TOR), Jakub Petruzalek (CAR) and Victor Hedman (TB).
From the Natural History Collection I got a Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Dawson's Caribou, Edmontonia Longiceps, Orodromeus and a Pitcher Plant.
I pulled four Historical Leaders, 3 Presidents and 1 Prime Minister. I pulled Presidents #10, 16 and 33 in Tyler, Lincoln and Truman and I got Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald.
The one-per-box 'Wonders of the World' that I got was of Chichen Itza. I like this set and I like the subjects presented. It looks as though this portion of the set though is going to take the longest. Ugh!!
Now we move on to the "hits" portion of the box. As we do, Alice is serenading a "fortunate victim".
There were 5 hits this time around with one of them being, as I said before, one of the unadvertised hits in the Champ's product. The two jersey cards I pulled were perhaps the two best ones that you could hope for in this product. I pulled a Sidney Crosby black swatch jersey card and an Alexander Ovechkin red swatch jersey card. I have seen quite a few of the Sidneys on eBay but have mostly seen white swatch Ovechkin cards so I was quite happy to get the red version.
The autograph card I received belonged to Nathan Gerbe from the Buffalo Sabres. Nathan played a whopping 10 games for Buffalo and it looks as though his penmanship is about as good as his game. Note to Upper Deck, keep the scribbling scrubs OUT of product you want taken seriously.
Lastly the mini coloured back variant I pulled was a red back of none other than Mr. Hockey himself Gordie Howe. Great card to get, especially with Sid and Ovie jerseys.
The last hit of the box is one of the card I mention in an earlier post. Upper Deck released 'The Champions' series in their flagship Hockey Series 2 product and there were several women's hockey team cards that were autographed. In Champ's it looks as though they have released autographed versions of the other cards. I received my first figure skating autograph of Denis Petukhov. Luckily, having watched the Winter Olympics I had at least some idea as to who he was.
Overall this box was a very fun break and I am happy with what was pulled. There was still the issue of several mis-cut minis and a couple of the full size base cards had dinged corners. The useless scrub autograph is something that you just have to accept nowadays, but I would still welcome tougher seeding odds if the names were more recognisable.
Out of two boxes I have managed 67 of the 100 base cards. Not a bad collation but not incredibly awesome either. I have one more box to break and I should hope it gets me close to, if not even, finished the 100 card set. Between Topps T-206 baseball and Champ's hockey I am getting addicted to collecting mini cards. I am afraid when A&G comes out that this will explode in to a full blown obsession.
Thanks for coming back here and taking the time reading what I post. As always, if you are collecting the Champ's set and want to trade some of your stuff for my stuff please contact me and we will work something out. I am off to San Diego for a vacation but hopefully I will bust and post the third box in this series before then.
Until then, play us home Alice!!
P.S - If you are so inclined and enjoy "concept" videos. There is a much longer mini movie from 'Along Came a Spider' (this song was cut from it) and you can click here to view it.
While the wait continues for the next Baseball product I will be forking over my hard earned money for, I decided to stop-gap my craving by collecting Upper Deck's 2010 version of their successful 'Champ's' Hockey which premiered in the hobby last year. The big chase cards out of this release are the 'Museum Relic' cards which feature fossilized dinosaur remains and are seeded at 1 redemption card per case. Hopefully luck is on my side and I pull one.
As usual with LFB2B Box Breaks now, first things first.
Soundtrack - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81
Box Breakdown - 20 packs per box Pack Breakdown - 5 cards per pack (3 Full Size/2 minis)
Full Size Base Cards (blue border) - 49/100 (49%) Mini Base Cards - 32/480 (6.6%)
The simplest way to describe 'Champ's' is to think of it as a set collector's AND a player collector's dream. There are so many different variations and combinations that come into play here that there is something for everyone. Where Topps 'Allen & Ginter' and UD's 'Goodwin Champions' are full sized base sets with mini parallels, 'Champ's' is a full sized AND an extensive mini base set with variations AND parallels. What makes this work is that NONE of the parallels or variations make up ANY of the base set, leaving the set collectors happy and giving the player collectors a formidable task. I know that the capitalized words are wearing thin now so I will stop, I think I made my point.
Let's get to the cards........
The full sized portion of the base set is made up of 100 cards featuring stars of today and yesterday. There are 4 parallel versions of these 100 cards all with varying insert ratios. The base set is a blue bordered card with a photo of the player in an outdoor frozen pond setting surrounded by an antique looking gold frame. Also featured on the front of the card is the position of the player and their jersey number, a nice touch.The muted colours of the jerseys help with the overall look of the cards and give it an excellent retro feel. Here is a few.........
My only beef? We all know what jersey Wayne should be wearing! Tsk,tsk Upper Deck.
The green border parallel singles are inserted at a ratio of 1:5 packs. Following the pastel coloured theme of the set I can see why they might have called these "green", I would have gone with teal, maybe? Could be just me. I pulled Ray Bourque, Patrick Kane, Henrik Zetterberg, Brandon Dubinsky and Doug Gilmour.
The red border parallels look super nice and I am trying to decide if I want to collect this set. 100 cards is very possible and will pose a nice challenge. The insert ratio for these is 1:10 packs. I pulled Steve Mason and Mike Richards.
The yellow border parallels come in two different versions. Seeded at 1:20 packs is the version I pulled featuring Vincent Lecavalier. I searched eBay for a scan of the other version called the 'yellow animal icon' border and found one featuring Sid The Kid, these are seeded 1:80 packs
Now we get to the "meat" of the 'Champ's' set. The minis. Cards #'d 101-580 are all mini cards, however, the way these cards are grouped is what truly makes this worthwhile. The hockey players cease to appear with card #388, from that point on we get 'Wonders of the World', 'Natural History Collection' and 'Historical Figures'.
This for me is how these multi-subject sets should be done. Keep each subject contained within its own subset. That way, those of us who are OCD can feel like a set is complete without having to have all the cards in the entire set. See, there will be no number gaps in what we have decided to collect so we will not feel compelled to fill those gaps with unrelated cards thus needing to collect all the unrelated cards.
Anyway here is how the minis fall.
They are 2/pack with differing seeds. Cards #101-196 are all Rookies and they are seeded 1:4 packs. I got Jakub Kindl (DET), Brandon Segal (LA), Jamie Fritsch (PHI), Matt Pelech (CAL), Sean Collins (WAS).
Cards #197-388 feature NHL players from the past and present with some subjects from the full size set repeated BUT (sorry for the caps, I know) using different photos. WOW!! What a concept!! I pulled 17 all together with a cool slant towards goalies, almost 1/3. Craig Anderson, Steve Mason, James Neal, Mikka Koivu, Scotty Bowman (note the difference from the full size card above), Brian Gionta, Jeff Carter, Evgeni Malkin, Roberto Luongo, Mike Green, Jussi Jokinen, Ilya Bryzgalov, Chris Mason, Tomas Vokoun, Dustin Brown, Alexandre Burrows and Jody Shelley.
Just like the full size set there are parallel versions of the mini cards featuring NHL players. However, these parallels are a bit tougher to pull than their full sized counterparts and the variations are on the back rather than the front. As well, the ratios are different for the Rookies than they are for the Stars. It sounds way more complicated than it is, that is why I am here to clarify. Here are the ratios;
NHL Stars Mini red back (1:20) NHL Stars Mini blue back (1:80) NHL Stars Mini green back (1:160) NHL Stars Mini Parkhurst back (1:320) Rookies Mini red back (1:240) Rookies Mini blue back (1:360) Rookies Mini green back (1:640) Rookies Mini Parkhurst back (1:1500)
With this box I was crazy-happy to pull a NHL Stars Mini Parkhurst back of the best defenseman of all-time, IMHO. Yeah, he is a Flame so I am a bit partial. Big Al MacInnis.
I did pull a Rookie Mini red back from a pack I bought a week or so ago, just wanted to show it so you know what they look like. Although "red back" is pretty descriptive.
The 'Wonders of the World', 'Natural History Collection' and 'Historical Figures' cards all fall 1:2 packs. Cards #389-416 are the 'Wonders of the World' of which I only got 1, Deep Sea Vents. I am still trying to figure out the card but I think I may have a candidate for "Worst Card of the Year".
I pulled 6 of the 'Natural History Collection' cards which number from 417-514. These are a visually eye catching design and would make a great collection of cards on their own. My six feature The Rocky Mountains, Edmontonia Longiceps, Pachycephalosauridae, Dawson's Caribou, Grizzly Bear and Purple Violet.
Lastly making up the final cards of the entire set, spanning numbers 515-580 are 'Historical Figures' which are comprised of Canadian Prime Ministers and American Presidents which means that YES there is another Obama card. I pulled 3 featuring Louis St.Laurent, Brian Mulroney and John Tyler.
Now we come to the part of the break that most people wait for and probably most people just scrolled right down to, the "box hits". I ended up with three relics and one autograph. The only disappointment I had with the autograph is that it is of a back-up goaltender who, outside of his immediate family, I am guessing has a sparse fan base. Other than that, the autographs are hard signed which is how it should always be. A plus to this one is that it also has his jersey number included in the autograph. I got Pascal LeClaire from Ottawa.
The two hockey related relics I pulled feature a pair of Right-Wingers, one a Hall of Famer, one not so sure. Glenn Anderson and Marian Gaborik.
I specifically said hockey related relic because the last relic I pulled is from an 33-card relic set called 'Hall of Legends'. I cannot find the ratios for these cards but I understand them to be a fairly difficult find. I have seen some on eBay featuring Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and looking at the checklist which has been posted the athletes are truly impressive. I was happy to find Philadelphia Phillie Mike Schmidt in a pack. I especially like that the photo used for the card is an up to date photo. Classy.
Overall I am very pleased with the 2009-10 Upper Deck Champ's product and will be purchasing at least two more boxes trying to build the 'Natural History Collection' and the Mini NHL Stars. This a set that can keep a collector busy for quite some time and offer something different at every turn. There appear to be unannounced inserts in Champ's as well. When I picked up my box at my LCS the dealer showed me an Upper Deck 'The Champions' autograph card of Gaetan Boucher he had pulled from a box he had opened. As far as I know these were only announced in Upper Deck Series 2 hockey and I see no card for Boucher listed.
When you look at the care and thought that goes into the hockey releases from Upper Deck you cannot help but wonder what happened with baseball. If this had been the same model that was applied to Goodwin Champions I think it would have quite possibly been the "Set of the Year" in 2009.
Thanks for sticking with me throughout this break and for constantly checking out 'Long Fly Ball To Because.......'. If you are collecting Champ's yourself then send me an e-mail and let's work together to help each other out. If you saw anything in this post you want feel free to contact me as well, we can work something out I am sure.
Lastly, to play us out is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
#224 - Ryan Dempster, #27 - Derrek Lee, #33 - Jeff Samardzija
#95 - Alfonso Soriano, #117 Carlos Zambrano
#243 - Vernon Wells, #219 B.J. Ryan, #242 - Alex Rios
Card #18 - Bo Jackson
Card #115 - Smarty Jones
Card #270 - Mike Richards, #314 - Don Cherry
Card #407 - Aurora
Card #512 - Common Raven
Card #159 - Michael Barrett
