Pack Crackin': 2005-2006 Hereos & Prospects

I know it's been nearly two weeks since my last post, but life managed to get in the way of writing about hockey cards - which it tends to do more often than not. Rather than whine or offer excuses, I'll get right back into it with a pack of 2005-06 Heroes & Prospects. I kinda dig these sets since a lot of attention is given to the guys toughing it out in the minors. They make for great TTM fodder, if nothing else. This particular pack revealed not much of anything of interest, however.

About the only thing even slightly remarkable was this card of Joe(y) Ryan. American-born, he is, but he was also a member of the Cincinnati Cyclone when I first moved down to Kentucky - and got my hockey fix up at U.S. Bank Arena. Yeah, quite a stretch for this card to warrant a post. Here's the rest of the breakdown. Tell me if there was anything more interesting...I dare ya!

192: Borje Salming - Swedish National Team
197: Eric Lindros - Oshawa Generals
212: Mark Hartigan - Syracuse Crunch
252: Nathan Marsters - Portland Pirates

Pack Crackin': 2008-2009 Collector's Choice

Moving on to the next pack in the Meijer value box, we have 2008-09 Collector's Choice. Now, this has always been considered a "lower end" offering and the design has typically reflected that line of thinking over the years. The base cards of this particular set aren't too awful, with the team logo in the background of the card reverse being a nice touch. That being said, the inserts aren't much to write home about.

Found one per pack, the Silver Choice Reserve cards are pretty basic, with an embossed log in the lower right and a silver border distinguishing them from the base set. The logo reminds me a little of the Stadium Club Members Only set, but other than that this isn't a bad parallel.

I guess I lucked out with this pack, scoring a second insert in the form of a Dany Heatley Stick Ums card. I'm not a fan of sticker cards, and the look is rather reminiscent of the junk wax era of the early '90s, so into the trade bin it goes. Also, isn't that an unfortunate photo of Dany?

The one keeper I snagged was this poorly scanned Lidstrom base card. It's not a dupe, so that's good. The rest of the breakdown:
172: Sergei Fedorov - Washington Capitals
199: Zach Parise - New Jersey Devils
253: Marc Savard / Tim Thomas / Zdeno Chara - Boston Bruins

Pack Crackin': 2007-2008 Fleer Ultra

Continuing on with the loot obtained via the Meijer value box purchase, here's a 5-card pack of 2007-08 Ultra. The base card design isn't too terrible, but something about the Gold Medallion parallels just doesn't sit right with me. For example, here's the Johan Holmqvist I pulled:

Besides the uncomfortable way Holmqvist seems to be cut-and-pasted onto the background, what this looks like to me is simply a blaring advertisement for Fleer Ultra. I mean, the product logo tiled in the background? Cheap, fellas. I could see maybe the team logo back there, though that would still be pretty busy. Anway, it is what it is.

Since the "insert" card was of no use to me, would the base cards be any more lucrative? No.

51: R.J. Umberger - Philadelphia Flyers
64: Chris Neill - Ottawa Senators
107: Mike Cammalleri - Los Angeles Kings
120: Dwayne Roloson - Edmonton Oilers

Pack Crackin': 2008-2009 Upper Deck

Dipping back into the good ol' value box, we have here a pack of 2008-2009 Upper Deck. Disappointment set in once more as I quickly discovered that there would be zero additions to my collections from this pack. Not only that, but the insert cards don't seem to be in very much demand despite their BV:

Although Michael Frolik had respectable rookie and sophomore seasons, the centerman's production dipped in the 2010-11 campaign and was nearly non-existent last season. Frolik has two more years remaining in his contract with the Blackhawks, but unless he can ratchet up his production it's doubtful that he'll crack the third line.

This Eric Staal Super Skills insert is pretty nice looking and shows a modest BV, but again the demand just doesn't seem to be there for this particular card of the Hurricanes' captain.

The rest of the pack came out like this:
7: Matthias Ohlund - Vancouver Canucks
26: Jeff Halpern - Tampa Bay Lightning
34: David Perron - St. Louis Blues
72 - Brandon Dubinsky - New York Rangers
117: Rostislav Olesz - Florida Panthers
180: Phil Kessel - Boston Bruins

Pack Crackin': 2010-11 Upper Deck Victory

A few days ago, whilst posting about the two 2003-04 Victory packs acquired via the Meijer value box purchase, I offered my opinion regarding the sheer ugliness of that particular set's card design. Apparently not ones to learn lessons, the Victory designers put together another questionable set in their 2010-11 product - a pack of which found its way into my recent bulk purchase.

Each pack is advertised as containing either a rookie or "Superstar" insert. My pack, of course, contained just this rookie:

Defenseman Adam McQuaid had a short, quiet start to his NHL career. He notched just one point in 19 games on the Boston blue line. His sophomore season was not much louder, but culminated in a Stanley Cup ring. Entrenched on Boston's third pairing, he's not one to shy from a fight or a big hit.

As for additions to my personal collections, this pack contained only one - #47 Steve Mason (CBJ). For some reason my scanner just couldn't handle the color contrast properly, so no scan. It's not like you're missing anything. At least the card isn't a dupe.

The remaining cards break down like this:
5: Lubomir Visnovsky - Anaheim Ducks
11: Patrice Bergeron - Boston Bruins
60: Kari Lehtonen - Dallas Stars
101: Jaroslav Halak - Washington Capitals

Pack Crackin': 2009-10 Upper Deck Series I

Now that the Stanley Cup hangover has subsided a bit, it's time to get back to crackin' open the packs from the $20 value pack I picked up at Meijer. Today we have Upper Deck's 2009-10 Series I, and what a disappointing pack of cards this is. First, the insert:

Yep, not much to get excited about. The card design is kind of groovy, in a '70s Studio 54 sort of way, but there's not a lot of demand for this particular card and it does nothing to plug the holes in my collections.

In fact, nothing contained in this pack helped me out on the Red Wings / Blue Jackets front. Ah well, such is life in the world of hockey card collecting. Here's the breakdown of the rest of the contents:

1: Phil Kessel - Boston Bruins
9: Ryan Miller - Buffalo Sabres
95: Semyon Varlamov - Washington Capitals
144: Loui Eriksson - Dallas Stars
145: Teemu Selanne - Anaheim Ducks
162: Matthew Lombardi - Phoenix Coyotes
192: Sam Gagner - Edmonton Oilers

Pack Crackin': 2003-04 Upper Deck Victory

Two of the sixteen packs contained in the "value box" that I picked up from Meijer a few weeks ago were 2003-2004 Upper Deck Victory. For the sake of brevity, I've combined the crackin' of these two packs into one post. First off, I have to say that the 2003-2004 UD Victory base set design is one of the worst in the history of hockey cards. Superimposing the player photo on the card graphic gives the cards a bit of a cheap look to them. I prefer the old-school look, with the focus being the players and not flashy use of "artistic expression". I must not be alone in that sentiment, since Victory sets subsequent to this one have ditched the extreme design elements.

Anyway, on to the 12 cards contained in the two packs. First up are my team collection pulls:

Both are Red Wings, obviously, and neither are dupes. That's not saying a whole lot, though, since I had zero cards from this set prior to this Datsyuk anad Legace pull. Despite my general dislike for the design, I will pursue completing the team sets for this issue since Victory is one of the sets I regularly include in my Red Wings and Blue Jackets collections.

Each pack contained an insert, but both were of the Freshman Flashback subset:

The scans don't do justice to the use of foil, and the cards do look better than the photos (and the base set, for that matter). I'm still not pleased with the excessive use of color on the left side of the cards, or the cheesy glow to the edge of the player, but the effect isn't as horrific as that of the base cards.

Igor Radulov played two seasons for the Blackhawks before heading to Russia during the 2004-2005 season, where he's been playing ever since. Niko Dimitrakos stuck with the NHL a little longer, being traded to the Flyers in March of 2006 for a 3rd round draft pick - ouch. After a couple of more seasons in the AHL, Niko headed East to play in Europe. In 2011 he was back in North America looking to make a return with Vancouver, but was released during training camp. A short stint with the AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins followed before Niko returned to Germany.

The remainder of the two packs worked out like this:
10: Simon Gamache - Atlanta Thrashers
77: Sammy Salo - Edmonton Oilers
118: Janne Niinimaa - New York Islanders
132: Todd White - Ottawa Senators
136: Ray Emery - Ottawa Senators
145: Shane Doan - Phoenix Coyotes
151: Rico Fata - Pittsburgh Penguins
197: Michael Nylander - Washington Capitals

Anyone else think that the 2003-2004 UD Victory set was one of the ugliest in hockey card history?

Pack Crackin' - June 8th, 2012

I'm normally not one for breaking open boxes of multi-brand packs, the likes of which lurk on the shelves of major retailers such as Meijer and Target. Lately, however, I've been intrigued by a few posts in the card collecting blogosphere touting some decent finds to be had in these types of products. So on my next trip to Meijer I snagged this hefty specimen for the grand sum of $20.

Boasting sixteen packs and two memorabilia cards - guaranteed - it seemed like a decent deal. I figured the "randomly selected" memorabilia inserts would be lame (more on that a little later), but the chances to pull some other inserts from the unopened packs was enticing. As far as the packs go, here's what the box contained:

The quality represented here isn't too shabby, though the duplicate Victory packs and the Power Play pack were somewhat disappointing. At least the variety is relatively contemporary - and there was no Pro Set to stink up the place.

First up from the guaranteed memorabilia cards is this 2006-2007 Joe Nieuwendyk SP Game Used Jersey, number AF-JN. The two-color swatch is actually kind of nice, but there's no place in my collections for this card so off to the trade list it will go.

The other memorabilia grab is this 2005-2006 Sergei Samsonov UD Game Jersey insert, number J2-SV. Less impressive than the Nieuwendyk card, but still avoiding the "plain white" pitfall, this card also does not fit with any of my collections. There appears to be little demand for it on eBay, so in the trade list it will sit.

Alright, on to the packs. To avoid an excessively long post (and to give me fodder to keep the blog active for several days), I'm going to dedicate one post to each pack. Working from left to right starting in the bottom row, first up is the 2006-2007 Upper Deck MVP pack. Of the eight cards in the pack, the only one earning a spot in my personal collection is this #88 Sergei Fedorov:

The card design of this set is quite nice and rather classy, though I never did like the silver signatures emblazoned across the front. Ruins a good TTM opportunity. Anyway, no matter what you may think of Federov, he's one of the very few players that appears in both my Red Wings and Blue Jackets team collections.

The insert card of the pack is this Markus Naslund Gotta Have Heart (HH24) pull. A nice looking card, but once again no place in my collections and practically no eBay value.

The remainder of the pack broke down like this:
116: Jarret Still - Edmonton Oilers
117: Jason Smith - Edmonton Oilers
171: Martin Brodeur - New Jersey Devils
225: Curtis Joseph - Phoenix Coyotes
240: Joe Thornton - San Jose Sharks
292: Alexander Ovechkin - Washington Capitals

So there you have it.  I'll have much more in the coming days, but now it's time to get ready for the short trip to Cincy to watch the Reds take on succumb to my Tigers.

Pack Crackin': May 5th, 2012 - Part 3

The third and final pack I picked up at Target was from the Upper Deck's 2011-12 Series 2 release. Like the Series 1 pack I had acquired during the same trip, there was only one card of any significance:

The Bill Sweatt Young Guns card seems to be averaging about a buck on eBay, so no real value has yet been assigned to the Vancouver winger's RC. Reportedly a defensive-minded player, Sweatt made his NHL debut this past December for the Canucks, participating in only two games before being sent back down to the Chicago Wolves. His time with the Wolves this past seen has been moderately productive, as he racked up 34 points in 74 games with a +9 rating. If he sticks with the Wolves next season, I'll likely fire off this card looking for a TTM auto from the Illinois native.

The rest of the mediocre pack broke down like this:
272: David Booth - Vancouver Canucks
273: Manny Malhotra - Vancouver Canucks
287: Mathieu Garon - Tampa Bay Lightning
340: Evgeni Nabokov - NY Islanders
400: Jeff Carter - Columbus Blue Jackets
408: Semyon Varlamov - Colorado Avalanche
417: Jussi Jokinen - Carolina Hurricanes

While much of this Canucks-biased pack will be headed to the trade list, I was mildly pleased to pull a Jeff Carter CBJ card. It fills a hole in my collection, for sure, but his lame performance in a Blue Jacket sweater this season leaves a sour taste. It is ironic, though, that after throwing a hissy fit over being traded from the Flyers to the Jackets he's ending up with a legitimate shot at The Cup.

Pack Crackin': May 5th, 2012 - Part 2

The second pack I acquired from my trip to Target was from Upper Deck's Series 1 release. The design of the 2011-12 UD set is much more appealing than the Victory product, so it's always a pleasure to add more of these cards to my collection. The insert card from this pack is from the Canvas subset:

I think these cards have a pretty classy look to them and, at 1:6 odds, are not difficult to come by. I'm not an Evander Kane fan, though, so this one is destined for the trade list.

The Steve Downie common that I pulled has an outstanding photo. Now that's one helluva celly! You'd think he just tied up Game 7 of The Finals. Unfortunately I already had a copy of this card, but even if I didn't it's headed to the trade list for one of you Lightning fans to snag.

This Shane Doan common didn't catch my attention for what's in the foreground, but for how UD totally screwed up the beyond-the-glass scene. First, and not at all a screw-up, is the goblinesque white-haired woman sending Mr. Doan the stink-eye. Classic! But UD screwed the pooch on the placement of their logo. Instead of covering the mustache-less Wilford Brimley look-a-like, they slap it right across the hockey hottie sitting next to Mrs. Snarls. Way to go, Upper Deck.  Way to go. Anyway, card 53 was not already on my trade list - but it soon will be.

The rest of the pack worked out like this:
32: Jaroslav Halak - St. Louis Blues (dupe)
93: Patric Hornqvist - Nashville Predators
94: Ryan Suter - Nashville Predators (dupe)
136: Niklas Kronwall - Detroit Red Wings (dupe)
141: Kari Lehtonen - Dallas Stars (dupe)

Not a great haul, by any means, and with a slight Nashville slant. My loss is your gain.

Pack Crackin': May 5th, 2012 - Part 1

Living in central Kentucky means going without many of the comforts you would normally find in larger metropolitan areas. Major-league sports franchises, for one, and - equally as important - local card shops. Within 30 miles of my home there is exactly one LCS, and they never stock anything hockey related. So it's with great sorrow that I am reduced to satisfying my pack addiction through outlets such as Walmart, Meijer, and today's pusher - Target. I'll admit that I've never picked up a pack at Target before, so while Mrs. Hockeyfan and I were out rushing from errand to errand, I found a spare few minutes to see what they had to offer. Not much, as it turns out. I picked up a pack each from Victory and both series of Upper Deck. I was about as thrilled as you are, but here's what I ended up with... starting with the Victory pack:

2011-12 Victory 220: Aaron Palushaj

By far the most remarkable card was this Aaron Palushaj rookie. Perhaps the most valuable, book-wise, of the Victory Rookie subset, this card stands out to me because Palushaj is a fellow native metro-Detroiter. Besides the local connection, he's a great candidate to become an addition to my USA-born TTM collection. I haven't been brave enough yet to ship off a card to any teams north of the border, so how long it takes to get his John Hancock is anyone's guess. For now his RC will be added to my trade list.

The remainder of the pack was comprised of:
48: Michael Frolik - Chicago Blackhawks
103: P.K. Subban - Montreal Canadiens
130: Jason Spezza - Ottawa Senators
133: Mike Richards - Philadelphia Flyers
177: Phil Kessel - Toronto Maple Leafs

Trade bait, every bit of it.