$20 Worth of Blastin' Artifacts

Yesterday, on the drive home from work, I decided to stop into Wally World and see what the card section looked like. Now, with this being Canada, I have learned to accept that the card section will be completely devoid of Baseball or Football. All that exists here is Hockey.

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey, Hockey aaaaaannnd........Hockey!!!

Needless to say the usual players were there. 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1 tins, 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1 blasters, Pokemon, Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh.

Whoop-frakin-eee!!

Lower to the floor are usually the 1 to 3 year old forgotten blasters that they refuse to put on sale because some chump like me might be frustrated enough to actually pay full price. This time, however, the shelf looked different. There were these big red stickers on the boxes that looked as though they might be promising. They read, "50% Off".

This was worth a look.

As I dug around I found something that I was even collecting. 2 years old but still collecting nonetheless.



This is where it got strange. The first handful of blasters were emblazoned with those '50% Off' stickers. Near the back I found a couple with '60% off' stickers. Same product, just different skew numbers. Sure enough, a quick pass under the laser price reader showed one box for $12.49 and the other box for $10.00. I dug around for another box with the same skew number, cashed out and made my way home.

Up until this year I have liked the look of the Upper Deck 'Artifacts' Hockey release. The small size of the set and the players included make this a fun little set to put together. The challenge is there as well for those who want to go for the SP/Serial #'d half of the set as well.

$20 for 80 cards of this set sat well with my wallet and the outside shot at an insert or two made this a done deal. I say outside shot at an insert because the insert ratios with 'Artifacts' blasters is pretty steep. The lowest odds are 1:20 (1/2.5 blaster boxes) for Legends/Stars/Rookies serial #'d out of 999. The rest of the ratios, as listed on the box, are;

Rookie Redemption cards (1:96)
Regular set parallels (1:80)
Treasured Swatches (1:36)
Frozen Artifacts (1:36)
Auto-Facts (1:720)

So, as you can see, going in to this I was not expecting much. I was pleasantly surprised at the end of ripping all 16 packs. Firstly, for those unfamiliar with the look of 'Artifacts', here are a few of the better base cards I managed to pull.

Jonathan Towes, Larry Robinson, Gordie Howe, Evgeni Malkin

Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Hull

As always with hockey cards, the most colourful and sharpest looking cards are the goaltender cards. I pulled a total of 13 goalies. Gotta show the goalies!

Carey Price, Henrik Lundqvist, Tim Thomas, Cam Ward

Marc-Andre Fleury, Vesa Toskala, Josh Harding, Marty Turco

Domenic Hasek, Evgeni Nabokov, Manny Legace

Mikka Kiprusoff, Tomas Vokoun

I mentioned earlier that I was pleasantly surprised after breaking these two blasters. With the odds they way they were I figured on one insert at best. I managed to pull 4 inserts out of these two blasters with two of them being keepers. 2 were from the 'Legends' serial numbered portion of the set, 1 was from the 'Stars' serial numbered part of the set and I lucked out and pulled a 'Frozen Artifacts' Jersey swatch inserted 1:36. Not bad at all.

'Legends' Insert #822/999 - Dino Ciccarelli

'Stars' Insert (Silver Parallel) #051/100 - Alexander Ovechkin


'Frozen Artifacts' Jersey - Lanny McDonald

Lastly, this is one of the lowest print run cards I have pulled since coming back to collecting and to pull it from a blaster was even better. Now, it is no Gretzky or Ovechkin but he is still part of one of the best Dynasty teams of all-time.

'Legends' Insert (Gold Spectrum Parallel) #5/5 - Bob Bourne

Altogether this was a great value break for me, so much so that I am actually heading out the door after posting this and seeing if there are any more $10.00 blasters of this stuff left. If any of you reading are collecting this set or are interested in any of the cards here, drop me a comment or an e-mail and we can definitely work out a trade.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what I had to say. It is always greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

In Honor of NFL Training Camps

This past weekend I decided that since my wife was away that I would travel to Niagara Falls, New York and visit a friend and get in a round of golf. I also decided that I wanted to take in a baseball game.

That subject I will save for a later post.

What was also foremost in my plans was I would now be able to venture into the world of Wal-Mart and Target and see all these wonderful, bountiful shelves of blaster boxes I can only read about and be oh, so jealous of. Having the GPS with me made it all the more simpler too.

The best selection I found ended up being at a Target around the corner from another planned stop on my weekend trip, 'Dave and Adams Card World'. They had blasters of Ginter but I wanted to save my money for another Hobby box entry into Gint-A-Cuffs. They had blasters of Heritage, Series 2 Topps, Upper Deck Signature Series (a bit expensive for me) and lots of others. The one's that caught my eye also happened to be on sale.


These were the last two on the shelf. Normally I can pass on Football cards. 1991 Score Football scared me straight, so to speak. I did venture a little bit into it last year with the Topps Mayo set, but it was mostly out of boredom than a true love of football cards.

The same goes for this set. I have no interest in building the set and beyond the Cincinnati Bengals cards it holds little value for me. However, there is one insert in this set that I am dead set on acquiring. There are mini 1935-style chicle cards with 10 that feature Military Aircraft. My uncle was a recreational pilot but loved war planes, he passed on that fascination to me. I figure for a little over $20 I could take a shot and maybe pull a few of them, if I was lucky enough.

Secondly, I liked the idea of pulling a relic card hit per blaster. Maybe I could get someone half decent and end up breaking even on my purchase. Fingers crossed.

I won't bore you with the base cards, I will just show off the relics and any hits or interesting cards.

First we start off with the main hit, a 'Game Day Gear' swatch of Matt Ryan. I think there might be a Falcons fan I know who may have interest in this card.


There are a few subset cards that focus on events of The Sixties. Two examples I pulled are part of a ten card set that chronicles the Vietnam War and a 5 card set that celebrates Woodstock.


I managed two of the Chicle mini cards out of this blaster. Card #NC76 belongs to Matthew Stafford dressed in his Georgia Bulldogs uniform.

The second card made me VERY happy!!!


Exactly what I was chasing. 1 down, 9 to go. Card #NC36 features the B-17 Flying Fortress. There were nearly 13,000 of these monsters built.

How lucky is that?? I hope it carries over into blaster #2.

I know earlier I said that I would not bore you with the base cards. However, when the blaster yeilds a whole bunch of cards I am searching for I MUST share them with you. Especially when the cards provided are of the Bengal-goodness kind. I pulled.........

Not 1......


NOT 2.....


NOT 3.....


BUT 4!!!!!!!

Cincinnati Bengal base cards from this blaster.

T.J Houshmandzadeh (#43), Carson Palmer (#41), Ken Anderson (#299) and Chad Ocho Cinco (#44). I am ecstatic. I am thrilled. I am over-joyed. In my eyes this makes the purchase worth it.

However, THIS pull sends it OVER THE TOP!!!!!


'Game Day Gear' swatch of Andre Caldwell, and it is ORANGE!!!!

Sadly, neither of the two Chicle cards I pulled were from the Millitary Airplane subset, of course, I think that would be too much to ask. I did get #NC9, William Miller (R) from the political subset, and #NC85, Brandon Pettigrew in his Oklahoma State uniform.


All was not lost as I pulled another Vietnam War subset card featuring the Lockheed AC-130, another monster aircraft.


Lastly I pulled a card that I am going to try the ultimate TTM request with. I know it will more than likely be a fail, but, it can only be a success if I try, right? If any of you TTM professionals would care to share your "success maximization" pointers I would be an eager student.

So, there you have it. A chance taken on some football cards pays of fairly decently. Hitting the Caldwell relic was superb and now I only have nine more of the Airplane Chicles left to find. If you are one who is actually building this set then send me your wantlists and if I can help out I will.

Cheers,