TTM Success: Craig Smith

Sent: 21 February 2013
Received: 13 March 2013
Transit Time: 20 days

Here's a nice, relatively quick return from one of Nashville's youngsters. Centerman Craig Smith was drafted by the Predators in the 4th round of the 2009 draft and spent a couple of years with the University of Wisconsin Badgers before joining the NHL club last season. The Wisconsin native put together 36 points (14 goals and 22 assists) in the 72 games of his rookie season. This year has been a bit of a sophomore slump for Craig, however. I sent this 2012-13 OPC base card to the team address just after Craig scored his first goal of the season - against my beloved Red Wings, no less.

Current TTM Stats:

32 Sent; 13 Received; 20 Pending - 41% Success Rate

TTM Success: Keith Yandle

Sent: 25 October 2011
Received: 21 February 2013
Transit Time: 485 days

Wow. This return shatters my record, by a mile, for the longest transit time. I guess this sort of thing lends credence to that whole "never give up hope" mindset that some people are always shilling. I sent out this 2010-11 Donruss card of Keith just after his two-point night on October 23rd, 2011, when he scored the game-winning goal against Anaheim.

While the photo of Keith that graces this card is a fairly decent action shot, I am dismayed by the Red Wings fan sitting against the glass in the background (just to the left of the number "3" on Keith's shoulder). Really, kid? Wearing your hat sideways? Like it's still 1994? Sad.

Current TTM Stats:

29 Sent; 12 Received; 17 Pending -  41% Success Rate

TTM Success: Nick Foligno

Sent: 24 January 2013
Received: 9 February 2013
Transit Time: 16 days

Traded from Ottawa to Columbus on July 1st of 2012 for blue-liner Marc Methot, Nick is one of several new Blue Jackets taking to the ice for the 2013 "season". Born in Buffalo (where his father Mike played for the Sabres), Nick has had a solid career over five seasons as a centerman for the Senators. So far this season his production is off his recent performances (1 goal, 4 assists), but if Monday night's puck handling exhibition was an indicator of things to come it won't be long before Nick starts racking up the goals again.

I sent this 2011-12 Score #325, the most recent card I have of Nick, just a couple of days after he scored his first goal as a Blue Jacket during the team's season opener against Nashville. Not a bad signature along with his #71 (which is a reverse of his dad's number 17).

Current TTM Stats:

24 Sent; 11 Received; 13 Pending - 46 % Success Rate

Back in Blue

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, which seems to be a recurring theme on this blog, but to get rolling again I'd like to showcase my latest eBay wins - a couple of Blue Jacket relic cards that I picked up from a seller in Canada for less than $4.25 (including shipping).

The first is this Derick Brassard 2010-11 Upper Deck Game Jersey insert (GJ-BR) from Series 1.

The swatch isn't very exciting (but it was game-used) and the card design, particularly the font, is rather meh, but a jersey card is a jersey card. Brass, who along with Derek Dorsett and R.J. Umberger has become the face of the Blue Jackets since the departure of Rick Nash, isn't having a spectacular year so far. But then again, he's not at all an offensive powerhouse. Although he has only 2 goals this year, his goals-per-game average is actually right on the money when compared to his output from last season.

Next up is this Gilbert Brulé 2005-06 UD Ice Cool Threads insert (CT-GB).

Brulé was a big deal for Jackets fans in the mid 2000's. As the club's first-round pick (6th overall) in the 2005 draft, fans and team executives expected a lot out of the Edmonton native. Instead, Brulé turned in three forgettable and injury-plagued seasons before being shipped off to the Oilers for Raffi Torres (who is also no longer with the team, leading me to consider the G-man one of the worst of the 1st-round busts). The card isn't much more exciting, especially considering that this is a "photo shoot jersey", but as I repeatedly say when dealing with Blue Jackets relic cards - a jersey card is a jersey card.

Cincinnati Card Show - January 13th

Well, the flu has been keeping me down these past several days so I've got quite a bit of blogging to catch up on - starting with the card show I attended last Sunday. Held at the Blue Ash Crowne Plaza on the east side of Cincy, the show was a little more than an hour's drive for me so I really had my fingers crossed that there would be enough hockey-related material to make the trip worthwhile. Not only that, but I haven't been to an organized show for more than a year. My last attempt was a show in Lexington where I was quite literally laughed out of the place because of my interest in hockey. To say that Kentucky is not hockey friendly is a gross understatement. Anyway, off to Cincy....

Sadly, the show was home to only four dealers - and only one of those had any hockey cards to speak of. Even more unfortunate, for me, was that those hockey cards consisted of unopened packs of 1990-91 Upper Deck. Not wanting to leave empty handed, I coughed up $1 for six packs and slunk back to my car and got started on my 60+-minute drive home.

At home, my pulls were less than thrilling (not that there's much about this set to be excited about in the first place). I pulled one of the terrible hologram cards, which I think is the Brett Hull solo card. They're unnumbered with no info on the backs and so poorly designed that I can't make out anything about the uniform. I won't even bother scanning it. Instead, here's the Kip Miller Young Gun from one of the packs:

Michigan native Kip comes from what, in my opinion, is a true hockey dynasty. His cousin Ryan is the Sabres' netminder while his other cousin Drew currently skates for the Red Wings. Kip's brothers Kevin and Kelly also spent a number of years in the NHL with various teams. So not a great pull from an investment perspective, but a nice addition for my "Michigan Natives" collection.

The six packs also yielded up three cards for my Red Wings collection, which is not a great ration but I'll take 'em.