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.

2013 Hockey Card Collecting Goals

Looking back on 2012, the year after I returned to the hobby of hockey card collecting, it's pretty obvious to me that the NHL lockout had an immense impact on my motivation. As a meager show of protest against the repulsive greed shown by the Bettman Bloc I have resolved not to purchase new NHL-licensed merchandise for the foreseeable future - which includes cards. Such a stance has clearly taken a toll on my ability to grow my collection, but I have indulged in the second-hand market (eBay) from time to time in order to get my fix. As most of you know, hockey card collecting is an addicting hobby and any period of inactivity is destined to be short-lived. So as I am once again swept up in the wake of the hobby, I've decided to set out some goals for 2013 (assuming the 2012-13 NHL season will not exist).

1. Organize. My collection is in complete disarray. I made some significant progress in 2012 thanks to Zistle and SCF, but there's still an incredible amount of work to do. While most of my trade stock is sorted, cataloged, and properly stored, the cards that comprise my collections are scattered. I need to get that under control - sooner rather than later.

2. Trade. I've completed two trades on SCF thus far, and none on Zistle, so I have to work on increasing those stats. Not only do I want to get away from the often ridiculous shipping prices demanded by eBay sellers, but I have thousands of base cards and low-value inserts that I'd like to unload - preferably helping other collectors out in the process. The problem for me has been, so far, twofold - lack of cards I need on other collectors' trade lists and what seems to be a general reluctance by other collectors to actually engage in online trading.

3. Expand. Right now my active collections are Red Wings, Blue Jackets, and TTM autos of American-born active players. I want to expand to include player collections of all Michigan-born players. I've already got that underway with Keith Aldridge, but in 2013 I want that collecting focus to play a more active role in my acquisitions.

So there they are - my three hockey card collecting resolutions for 2013. I'd love to hear about some collecting resolutions from others in the hobby!

eBay Score: Jaroslav Balastik

I got this nice on-card auto for just $0.99 from a seller in in York, PA, that I've bought a couple of cards from in the past. He's definitely got some quality items at very reasonable prices (and low shipping).

The design of this Fresh Ink subset of 2005-06 Fleer Ultra is so-so.  I'm not a huge fan of the spilled ink look, but it doesn't do enough to distract away from the player photo so I can live with it. Balastik (or Balaštík) is another of the Blue Jackets' Czech draftees, being taken in the 6th round of the 2002 draft. He emerged from the Czech Extraliga in 2005, playing in 14 games for Columbus' AHL affiliate Syracuse before being elevated to the Blue Jackets for the balance of the season. In 66 games, Balastik was 12-10-22 with 26 PIM, but stood out for his sniping skills during shootouts - 6 of 9 (67% for my fellow math illiterates)! Despite numbers that weren't too terribly off from the team as a whole, the Jackets sent Balastik packing back to Europe where he remains.

The reverse of the card is really rather disappointing. The certificate of authenticity aside, there's really nothing to the back other than the mailing address of Fleer. What the hell do I need that for?

eBay Score: Jordan Pearce

My first foray into the Between the Pipes offering from In The Game comes in the form of this 2011 Jordan Pearce Goaligraph.

During his collegiate career with Notre Dame, Jordan earned the CCHA Goaltender of the Year for the 2008-09 season - after which the Red Wings signed him to a two-year contract. For the last three seasons, Jordan has bounced between the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL) and Toledo Walleye (ECHL) as the Wings extended his contract through the 2012-13 season - which we all know will soon be completely eliminated.

I managed to acquire this nicely signed (on-card) specimen from a seller in Warrenton, Virgina for just $0.99 plus a very reasonable shipping charge.

eBay Score: David Vyborny

Sticking with an unintentional Czech theme, I scored this 2008-09 Fleer Ultra Uniformity David Vyborny #UA-DV game-used jersey card (and once more, for the perfectionists - Výborný).  The swatch is rather bland, as are most of the Jackets relics on the market, but the card design isn't too terribly bad. Not necessarily exciting, the subdued wintry accents nevertheless convey a nice hockey "mood".

Originally drafted by Edmonton in the 2nd round of the 1993 draft, Vyborny was a rising star in the Czech Extraliga. He was tearing up the league as a member of Sparta Prague when he joined the Cape Breton Oilers of the AHL for the 1994 season, where he notched up 61 points in 76 games. For reasons that I don't understand, Edmonton didn't keep Vyborny in North America after that season. Although he returned to setting records in the Czech league, it wasn't until the 2000 campaign (the inaugural season of the Jackets) when Vyborny reached the NHL after Columbus signed him to add some offensive pop to the line-up. And pop he did. While not necessarily a superstar, he would set (over the next several seasons) franchise records for plus/minus and consecutive games before eventually returning to the Czech Republic after the 2007-08 campaign - where he continues to play though his numbers have dwindled significantly.

Purchased from a seller in northern Wisconsin for just $0.99 plus a fairly reasonable shipping charge, this pick-up wasn't a bad score.  Booking at $8, there haven't been very many of them on the market lately.