Box Break - - 2011-12 In The Game Enforcers (part 2)

To continue the saga of my 11/12 ITG Enforcers box, I give to you the final installment of my box break.  Part 2 features the real "hits" of the box.  I previously called all the cards in the box "hits" because there were only 12 cards and the entire print run of Enforcers is limited in production.  So really, even though they are technically base cards they are still "hits" in my book. 

As mentioned in my previous post, each box of Enforcers contains 2 Game Used cards that could be from a number of insert sets.  The sets that ITG came up with for this release include Head-to-Head Combatants, which feature two heavy weight contenders that have squared off at one point or another; Instigator's, which feature those guys that tend to chip a little too much for the liking of the other teams; Tough Franchise Quads, which feature, of course, the same lineups of the Tough Franchise subset but with GU pieces of each player depicted.

In my box, I pulled...

The first card was a Head-to-Head Combatants card featuring Peter Worrell and Zdeno Chara.  This was the second card featuring Worrell that I pulled.  This is also probably the 5th or 6th Chara GU card I have now too.  The card features two plain black and white swatches but the design of the card is really well done.  These two tussled on a number of occasions, both while Zdeno was a Senator (as you see in the picture) and as an Islander.  Of anyone that could stand up to Chara, Worrell was it.  While Chara generally towers over everyone else in the league, Worrell was only 2 inches shorter and about 10 lbs lighter.  You can find a bunch of their fights on Youtube. 
  

The second GU was from the Instigator insert set and features Gino Odjick.  Again, this is the second card of player in the same box as Odjick was on one of the Tale of the Tape inserts I pulled before.  This is a nice large swatch that actually features two colors, although you can barely see the top corner of black peeking through.  The Chief was most certainly an Instigator in his day.  He played much of his career on the line with Pavel Bure in Vancouver and bounced around the league for a few years thereafter.  In his 12 years, he racked up over 2500 penalty minutes in regular season and another 142 in the playoffs.  He amassing over 200 in five different years with the Canucks, of which three were over 300. 

And now for the autographs.  A box of Enforcers yields 5 autographs that come from a checklist of about 80 different tough guys from hockey's storied history.  Here is my selection...

The first two were of John Wensink and Rich Pilon.  Wensink, shown here in a blue sweater (most likely Quebec) played in 403 NHL games from 1973 to 1983 and logged 840 penalty minutes.  He is probably remembered best for his fights where he would proceed to antagonize and challenge the entire bench of the opposing team.  He played with Terry O'Reilly and Stan Jonathan in Boston and helped make up a pretty feared core group of players.  He also sported a pretty sweet afro.

Pilon played 15 years, most of which for the Islanders and amassed over 1700 penalty minutes.  As much as I like the looks of this card, seeing Mr. Pilon brings back a bad memory.  The year after the two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh, the Penguins boasted the best record in their history.  They faced the Islanders in the now defunct Patrick Division finals.  It was game 7 of the series and it all came down to one stupid shot in overtime by David Volek that knocked Pittsburgh out of the playoffs.  But that's not what I was referring to. 

Pilon is the guy that unintentionally took out Kevin Stevens in the 1st period, knocking him unconscious.  Stevens went in for a check but was hit by Pilon's helmet visor which knocked him out.  As he collapsed, his face smashed into the ice behind all 6' 3" 230lbs of his unconscious body.  Very briefly, you could see blood pooling around his head on the ice. After that incident, Stevens had to have facial reconstruction surgery that required over 100 incisions and stitches, as well as metal plates being inserted to remold the shape of his face.  He came back the next season.  That's hockey.

The second two autos are of Willi Plett and Gerard Gallant.  Plett, here in a Flames sweater, was a late bloomer to hockey.  But when he finally got his opportunity in Atlanta, he started off as a scorer, believe it or not.  He even won the Calder in 1977.  But once he made his way to Minnesota in 1982, the scrapper side of him kicked in and he became a fierce tough guy. 

Gerard Gallant, or the Turk as he was known, was a much smaller guy at 5' 10" but he packed a big punch.  He played most famously on the line with Steve Yzerman in Detroit and racked up over 1600 penalty minutes from 1984 to 1995.  Just look at that face, ready to rip someone's head off.

Finally, the last autograph in the box was Garth Butcher.  While Butcher wasn't necessarily a big time fighter when compared to the others here, he was still a scraper on occassions.  He finished his career with over 2,300 penalty minutes after almost 900 career games.  Where he lacked in fighting prowess, he made up for in his ability to goad his opponents into taking stupid penalties.  He spent most of his career with Vancouver and was their career PIM leader until Odjick came along. 

Butcher was eventually part of that ridiculous trade with St. Louis, along with Danny Quinn, in 1991 for basically all the Blues' second line scoring aside from Adam Oates and Brett Hull.  They gave up Cliff Ronning, Robert Dirk, Geoff Courtnall, and Sergio Momesso and were never the same again.  The North Stars knocked them out of the playoffs in the second round and then went on to go to the Stanley Cup Finals that year.  (although they were destroyed by someone in that playoff...hmmmm, who was it again...oh, yeah...The Pittsburgh Penguins).

And that is it.  12 cards of some of the toughest guys in all of hockey.  If you ask me, I think this was a great value at about $5.00 per card.  As I had said in my original post, there aren't many autos of the guys featured here available in other products and you don't often get a chance to see these players in public appearances either.  As always, the GU pieces are large enough to be meaningful, as ITG constantly strives to achieve.  The designs are great and the production quality is second to none.  All this...WITHOUT AN NHL LICENSE!!!  You hear that Upper Deck?  Why can't you do a non-licensed product for other sports without screwing it up?  Take notes, people.  Geez!!

Enough about that.  I loved this product.  I will most certainly pick up more.  Especially if it keeps this price tag.  Although, I heard a rumor/truth that ITG was officially sold out of this product after about 20 days on the market.  Dealers still have it in stock, but for how long, I don't know.

If anyone is interested in trading for any of these, I would be more than happy to discuss.  Let me know.

SIDENOTE:

Interesting note about Pilon...he is one of the two defensemen getting smoked by Mario Lemieux on the new statue in front of Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh.  I posted the video the other day.

Box Break - - 2011-12 In The Game Enforcers (part 1)

I'm just going to get this out of the way quickly...I love this set!!  There is a ton of controversy surrounding it because it "glorifies" fighting.  I say go cry to someone who gives a flying (bleep!@#$).  It celebrates the men that sacrificed themselves day in and day out to make an impact for the teams they played for, rarely, if at all, getting the recognition they deserve.  Although these aren't the first cards to feature the ice warriors, I applaud Dr. Brian Price and In The Game for making an entire set dedicated to those combatants.  With that being said...

I picked up a box of ITG Enforcers the other day as I was trying to get free shipping on a purchase from DACW but once I started, I figured, might as well get the free gift too. (which coincidentally was 2 boxes of 2010-11 Panini All Goalies which I will review another time).  I have wanted to check these out as I have seen many collector's break boxes and pull some nice, rare player autographs and memorabilia.  By rare, I don't mean serial numbered or anything like that.  I'm talking about players that are next to never included in any card releases in the modern era with GU or Autographs available as a regular inserted pull.  Guys like Peter Worrell, Rob Ray, Stu Grimson, Garth Butcher, Jay Miller, Marty McSorley and Chris Nilan to name a few.  These are the warriors of hockey, the thugs, the goons, the ENFORCERS.

Once a necessary "evil" on any roster, the job of the enforcer was to basically act as a body guard to whatever top scoring line, tandem, or individual star a team had.  If another player needed to be taught a lesson that their superstar player was off limits, then they dropped the gloves.  When the team needed a proverbial motivating kick in the ass, they dropped the gloves.  And each and every time, the hockey masses went wild.  The days of the enforcer have slowly began to dwindle as players have gotten bigger, stronger, and many stars pull double duty and fight their own battles.  Also, with the league cracking down on "extra curricular's", the role of the enforcer has been diminished.  This is why I was really interested in seeing what In The Game did with a set that features the unsung heroes of the ice.

A box of Enforcers is designed as a single pack box.  While the box is large enough to hold multiple packs (a la ITG Decades 80s or Enshrined) there is one 20 card slider box nestled in the center of the packaging.

As you can see by the box itself, there are 12 cards per pack.  Within each pack, there will be five autographed cards that feature the 80 different players chosen for the checklist.  There are also two game-used memorabilia cards which are broken out of one of the many insert sets, including, Dual Combatants, Quad Tough Franchise, Fight Straps, Instigators, 1/1 Fight Strap Dome Fastener cards, 1/1 Enforcer Nameplates.  And finally, there are five "base" cards that come from four different subsets including, Tale of the Tape, Tough Franchises in the 90s, Bloody Battles, and Record Holders.  For the ambitious, there are 90 base cards (not including the memorabilia or autos).


So since the entire box can basically be considered all "hits", I'll show all 12 cards.  First up we have the "base" cards.  I pulled...

Two of my base cards were Tale Of The Tape cards.  The first features Link Gaetz vs. Gino Odjick.  The second highlights an old school battle between Dave Schultz and Clark Gillies.  The cards show the date and place of the "altercation".  The backs feature what is basically a head to head breakdown of stats including all the basics like height, weight, age, and number of career penalty minutes.  There is also a small blurb about the fight.  Link and Gino fought on my birthday which is cool as I haven't noticed a game dated card before that featured that day.  In fact, they fought twice in that game.  The Hammer and Jethro went at it in their game back in 1975 too.  Gillies was a rookie at the time and trying to make it known that he wasn't going to back down from anyone, not even one of the Broad Street Bullies.  According to the card, Schultz "took a serious beating".  Awesome!

 The next couple "base" cards come from the Bloody Battles themed set which features a sketch drawing of a moment captured in time during an on ice fight.  These cards are just like the Net Brawlers that ITG put out a couple years ago in their Between The Pipes set.  The sketches look awesome and the card design plays real well with the "bloody" theme of the subset.

The first card I pulled features "the Legend" Jon Mirasty against Ryan Hand.  This is a minor league battle from 2006 from the NAHL between Mission de Sorel-Tracy and To Design de Saint-Hyacinthe.  Both guys went at it for almost a minute and when it ended, Mirasty skated away as the crowd cheered.  Doesn't the sketch of Mirasty look like Taz from the WWE?  Or does Taz look like Mirasty?


Here is the video of the fight (excuse the music dubbed over the sound).  

The other Bloody Battle was a fight between two NHL heavyweights...that being Tony Twist and Bob Probert.  This battle, from 1996, saw Twist jump to action after Probert took a shot at Igor Kravchuk against the boards.  For the first time, probably ever, Probert didn't even get a punch off.  Within a few seconds, they both hit the ice as the officials swooped in to take them both to the box.  The card makes reference to the fact that this was the "fourth, and final, battle" between the two of them. 




The fifth "base" card that I pulled comes from the Tough Franchise subset.  In my box, I got the Florida Panthers.  What a lot of newer hockey fans may not remember is that Florida used to be a rough team back when they were in their infancy.  The original roster had guys like Brett Severyn, Scott Mellanby and Paul Laus, who is the franchise's all-time penalty minute leader with 1,702.  In the 01-02 season, they set a club record of 1,994 PIM of which 354 of them were Peter Worrell.  In the last few years, Florida has cleaned up their game and they haven't had a player in the 100 range since 2006.

In addition to Laus and Worrell, the card also features Rocky Thompson and the late Wade Belak.

I'm breaking this into a couple posts since I am a bit long winded when it comes to these.  Did I mention that I love this set?!!

(to be continued....)

Some PC Pickups By Accident

So I've had quite a few opportunities, as most of you already are aware, to purchase larger collections from ex-dealers and collectors that have bailed on the hobby.  Most of them have been turned down but occasionally I lose my ability to make rational judgements and pull the trigger.  Piles, and piles, and seemingly endless piles of cards, cases, boxes, and albums have been piling up all around the house as I attempt to dissect that last large collection I acquired.

Of course if another one like this came my way, I would politely decline and walk away.  Of course I value my sanity and potentially my health (considering my wife could kill me in my sleep) so the logical answer is no thank you.  Of course that's why I failed to listen to those voices in my head and I went with my gut once again.

This time, it wasn't a 40 ft. moving truck full of stuff though.  It was just one box.  One, singular, unitary shoe box (not the kind that stores shoes).  One shoe box filled with GU and Autos.  A fellow collector was in need of some scratch since, like many of our friends and loved ones, has been out of a job for a while and cards don't pay bills or put food on the table.  So, as an act of humanity toward fellow man (and collector), I helped a guy out.  Plus...400 GU/Auto cards for well under a buck a piece isn't a bad deal. 

Eventually I will start to catalog them all and share them with the masses, but for now, I just wanted to share some PC cards that ended up being in there and I didn't know it.  Three in particular...

 2000-01 UD NHL Legends Legendary Game Jersey J-ML

It is always nice to be able to pick up a Lemieux GU on the cheap.  Usually when you see his stuff at a shop, online, or at a show, it is always priced at 4-5 times what I want to pay for it.  This one is quite nice despite the plain black swatch.  And a NHL Legends card is fitting today as Lemieux was immortalized in bronze on the concourse area outside Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh today.  They held a ceremony around noon and unveiled the statue which features Mario in his patented "split the defender" move which he made quite famous. Here is the video in case anyone wanted to see.

 2003-04 Beehive Beige Border Game Used Sticks BE-35

Honestly, until I opened this box, I was unaware that these even existed.  This set eluded me (although I do have some singles here and there) somehow.  Probably never seen it because I wasn't actively engaged in teh hobby or in procuring any more Jagr.  I was still pretty jaded at that point about him leaving for the Capitals for some beads and small pox infested blankets.

The cards look really cool, in my opinion.  The GU piece is of a game used stick that was cut down or shaved and die cut into the Beehive logo with the "Bee Hive" stamp across it.  They aren't serial numbered but considering that I haven't seen these at all, I doubt there are many out there (and if there are, they are probably in collections...just speculating).  These were issued in Beige Borders, Red Borders, and Blue Borders.

2000-01 Private Stock Game Used Gear #89

I have quite a few of these already but not the Jagr.  I've seen this with a black swatch a bunch on Ebay but I have never won the auction.  Now I don't need to worry about it anymore.  Too bad this wasn't the Patches version numbered out of 388.  Those were a much harder pull back in the day and I only remember ever seeing one cross my path.  At the time it was $60...way too pricey even then.  The card itself isn't very exciting.  It's kind of plain and unassuming but nonetheless, it goes well in my PC.

Tradelist?!?!?

I've been working on putting my trade list together so I can start getting rid of some of this excess mess.  By working, it has been a very slow process.  I have a ton of stuff to go through and keep accumulating more.  I need to be on Hoarders (sans garbage and putrid smell).  I have always had a bunch of stuff to trade but just haven't gotten to the point of listing it all.  Of course that helps no one so here is a start.

I have my own website that I had a long time ago and tried to link to the blog.  It didn't work as Blogger refused to list my posts on blogrolls in a timely fashion (or ever).  So the site has been sitting idle for quite a while.  I figured what better way than to use it to show off some PC cards in a gallery and put stuff up for trade.

If you see anything you might need, let me know.  There isn't a bunch up there yet.  Mostly football for now but I'm working on it.

Work In Progress
TRADELIST

Really?

I'm still trying to figure out if this is real or a joke.  Apparently the Tampa Bay Rays are set to announce, if they haven't already, that DJ Kitty is their new mascot.  Yes, that DJ Kitty.

Fun with the Golden Giveaway (or the opposite of fun)

I have a bunch of Topps Golden Giveaway cards.  I say a bunch because it is a bunch to me.  To you, it may be a few, or a couple.  But to me, a non-baseball collector that still buys the Topps flagship stuff every year, it's a bunch.  14 to be exact. 

Now that the Golden Giveaway site is live, up and running (for now), I have decided to give it a shot.  My first plan was to try and sell these on the bay but that never works out as expected.  So rather than have to pay $2.50 to ship these to someone that won them fair and square for $.99, I figured I'd enter them and see what happens.

This year, for those not in the know, the premise is kind of simple.  You enter the codes and win player or team coins that are once again trade-able in the virtual trading area of the site.  You can also win some of the die-cut cards that have been issued just for this promotion.  The first 100 people to enter 200 codes will win a complete set of Golden Moments Die-Cuts.  Also, they have apparently upped the ante, with the addition of a 1/1 card with an actual 14K piece of gold embedded in it, to the mix. I'm definitely not in the running for that but it will be interesting to see what kind of cards I can win.  I've read all the negative comments so far but I am going to judge for myself.  Let's share.

With my first ever Golden Giveaway promotion redemption card...(drum roll, please)  We have...

 

 Troy Tulowitzki.  Ummmm.  Ok.  I think if I get enough of these I'll have them shipped.  It will probably cost a bunch but these look kind of....wait, what?  You mean these aren't real coins?  There is nothing to ship in this promotion except cards?  Well ok then, bring on the cards.

 

 Ok, not a card but I think I remember this guy from an Arby's commercial or something.  Or maybe he just works there.  Wasn't he also a Beach Boy?

 Sabathia is a large man.  This coin is not.  Still no card.

 Alright this is different.  A Hall Of Fame coin of Nolan Ryan.  Nolan Ryan seems to be popping up everywhere in my Topps cards this year.  He is also in coin form.  Still no card.

Not a card.  I have now put these all up for trade.

Blah, blah, blah.  Now this is getting boring.

 Oh, look. Something different.  A team card, I mean coin.  Still no cards.

 No cards.

No cards.

Oh, look.  Still no cards.

Hey it's the Mick.  Not in card form.

I'm selling this for $9,000.  Oh, wait a minute.  It's not 2010 and this isn't a card. 

So there you go, 14 codes, no cards.  All these are for trade, not that it matters.  BUT WAIT.  THERE'S MORE!!

When you unlock 3 of any category, you get a free code.  I have a bunch of player coins, and at least 4 HOF ones so I get 2 free codes.  Ready for 2 more coins?

 

 What's this?  A card?  An honest to goodness card?  It's a Vladimir Guerrero die-cut.  It looks kind of Topps Finest-y doesn't it?  I may want these if I get more.  If.

Free Code #2

This defies all odds considering what every other collector seems to be reporting.  I've seen quite a few people claim to have unlocked hundreds with only a couple dozen cards.  Here we had 14 codes and 2 cards which comes out to 14% if I know math and I don't.  I'd say I did better than most but not as good as I expected going in to this thing. 

I will say this, not as much fun as the Million Card Giveaway or the Gridiron Giveaway or the Diamond Giveaway.  I think Topps fell flat on this one.  The gold coins do nothing for me and there is no real incentive to collect them all once the free sets are given away and you hit the 30 mark for one coin type.  At least then you get the Willie Mays auto.  Ten of one type gets you a chance at a Griffey auto but that's only a "chance". 

I'm not sure I will participate any more in this unless I pick up more codes in a pack or two but since I already finished off the base set of Series I, there is no need to pick up more.  I'm just working on some of the inserts now.

42 Years Ago Today, The Metal Was Born

This isn't a card post, although it could be cross related if we go back to my box break of 2008 UD Heroes Football.  Instead, this is a post about the significance of today on the world of music.


42 years ago today, Black Sabbath's self-titled debut album hit the shelves of record stores in the UK, marking the beginning of Heavy Metal.  Sure there are arguments over where the true "heavy metal" origin came from (Steppenwolf is credited with the term in "Born To Be Wild" and the Kinks "You Really Got Me" had all those fuzzed out guitars) but Sabbath created a sound that became the basis for every metal act thereafter.

If you are only familiar with the "Paranoid" and "Iron Man" Sabbath, you don't know what you are missing.  This is one of the heaviest, thickest, albums ever created.  I just wish I was alive at the time to hear how heavy it was compared to anything in existence at the time.  I can't even comprehend the impact it had on the world of music.

I do still remember to this day the first time I heard it.  I was in third grade, it was one of my friends older brothers' records, and it scared the living crap out of me (in a good way).  From the opening bell tolls and the pouring rain of the impending thunderstorm on the title track, I was hooked.  When I started playing my own music back in high school, I chose to play the bass because of Geezer Butler's work on the Wizard and the intro to NIB.  I wanted to sound like that, play like that, create music like that.  I still haven't made it quite that far but it's an ongoing venture.  Maybe one day when I grow up.

Is There A More Dangerous Line In Hockey Right Now

Than these 3 guys right here?

Grant it, it was the Jets but 3 goals and 8 assists between them...That's just wrong.  Since December 10, they have combined for 41 of the Penguins' total 79 goals

National Hockey Card Day...In America & Canada??? No way.

Tomorrow is National Hockey Card Day.  A holiday of sorts that had been relegated to our friends north of the border up until this year.  It has now crossed over in the United States and will be observed by hobby shops all across America.  But for as much as I love the fact that the NHL and Upper Deck are trying to get into the spirit of promoting the sport and the joy of card collecting, I have to wonder if there is some sort of conspiracy against us Yankees. 

Case in point. 

The way this works is that you go to your local hobby shop.  As a participant (Diamond Dealer certification from Upper Deck is required), there will be a specially marked 5-card pack awaiting your arrival.  Within this pack are five cards from a unique set of 16 cards designed just for the occasion.  As we now have the US and Canada as participants, it's only logical that there are two sets.  The main 15 cards are available in the packs while the 16th card can be obtained via purchase.  All well and good.

But here's where it goes awry.  Has anyone checked out the checklists for the two sets?  Yes?  Then you know what I am talking about.  No?  Well let me explain.  Better yet, let me show you.  First the American set.

Here are the first 8 cards in the set.  The cards are divided up between "American Icons", America's Franchises", and "Stars And Stripes" subsets, if that's what you want to call them.  We have quite a few stars here and a pretty decent rookie in Landeskog.  The Icons have three of the top American born players of all time.  Not too shabby.

The second batch of 8 feature more top stars in the NHL as well as Willie O'Ree, one of the pioneers in the racial integration of the NHL.  You can also see the "pay" card which is Tim Thomas triumphantly taking his lap around the ice after winning the Stanley Cup last season.  All 16 together...not a bad set to have.

But here's the Canadian set.

Let's see...hmmmm.  Three of the greatest players of all time, arguably top five if not higher best goaltender of all time, and two of the top rookies of this years class.  Hmmmm.

Let's see here we have the biggest phenom of the last 20 years in Sidney Crosby, the best player drafted since Crosby in Stamkos, and the best player to be drafted since Stamkos in Taylor Hall.  Oh there is also a Gretzky card and the #1 rookie in this years class too in case you didn't think there was enough value here.

Are you kidding me?  Are you freakin' kidding me? 

This is just another in a long line of reasons why moving to Canada as a hockey collector is not such a bad idea.  Why on Earth did Upper Deck create a Canadian set of cards featuring, oh what a concept, an all Canadian greats and future stars set but make the American set riddled with European born players with accents thicker than Ivan Drago?  So much for the "America's Franchises" moniker. 

Don't get me wrong...I love Jagr and most of you know that, I also have nothing against Chara, or Rinne, Lundqvist, or Ovechkin (well maybe Ovechkin).  But this is an American set.  An American, limited edition set at that, to be given primarily to collectors and to help spur interest in the hobby with the youngsters.  You aren't going to win young hearts and minds with Russians, Czechs, and Swedes that barely speak English.  I'm sorry, but you aren't. 

I commend UD for doing a nice job with the "American Icons".  They should have made the entire set based on these and other current US born stars.  I mean, where's Roenick, Tkachuk, or LaFontaine.  Kane, Parise, and Miller are there.  But how about other current stars like Bobby Ryan, Phil Kessel, Paul Stastny, or Dustin Brown?  What happened to the "Hockey Is For Everyone" campaign?  It should say, "Hockey Is For Everyone, As Long As You Aren't American Because Then You Have Little To No Chance Of Amounting To Anything".

Why does this bother me so much?  I don't really know.  I thought about this a bunch before posting this too because I felt like I wasn't being fair to Upper Deck.  But you know what?  I don't care.  I think, and this is one collector's opinion, that although they attempted to include the US in the festivities of this special day, they did nothing more than patronize fans and collectors (us) with a "going through the motions" attempt at putting something on cardboard.  Will I participate?  Probably because I'm a collector and that's what we do.  But I don't have to like it because, well, I'm a collector and that's what we do.

I'll definitely be attempting to get my hands on a Canadian set.

2008 Upper Deck Heroes Football Retail Box Break

This set was released in July of 2008. So yeah...I'm late on this one.  Real late!

But that's ok.  I found this in one of those discount shelves in the card aisle and it was "heavily discounted".  Did you ever peel the stickers off these things?  They mark them up before they mark them down.  Gotta love retail.

At any rate, we have a nice little retail box 2008 Upper Deck "Heroes" Football.  Since I'm rarely on the football card tip, I figured this would be a nice change of pace since the last thing I need is more 11/12 Upper Deck, 11/12 Pinnacle, or 11/12 O-Pee-Chee...well maybe not OPC because there are so many inserts/parallels/non-base cards in those that it's been impossible to make a dent in this one.  Plus, going through my football, I noticed I don't really have many of these that I could find other than a few Steelers in the PC.

The set contains 2-4 different cards of each of its subjects including current (at the time) veterans, rookies, legends, and some interesting cards in the mix.  The last 25 cards feature track & field "heroes", olympic "heroes", and (why not?) guitar "heroes".  There are a total of 266 cards in the set and according to the master checklist, there are a few groups of numbers missing from the checklist.  In fact 261-263 are just non existent.  Not sure why other than they couldn't get the planned subject on board in time to produce the cards.  I just wonder who it was?

At any rate, let's show what was in this thing...

First, here are some of the base cards.  As you can see there are variations on the same subject matter.  Each player featured has 3 regular cards in varying poses and a 4th "checklist" which features some type of artist rendering of that player.  Here we have Fast Willie Parker, former Steeler running back and all around nice guy.

I figured with his awesome catch in the Super Bowl, why not show some love to Super Mario here.  This is an example of the Rookie Heroes cards.  These feature the various players from the rookie class of 2008 in their college uniforms.  There are also two different cards for each of these players featured. 

There are also apparently parallels of all the base cards.  And not just one or two different parallels...There are SIX versions of each card in this set!  SIX!!  Each one is either a base, #/350, #/125, #/75, #/25, #/10, or #/1.  In my box there was only one parallel card and this was it.  It's a Legends card of Lions great Billy Sims.  The card is numbered out of 75 so it falls right in that middle of the road of the serial numbering.

Here are three of what surprised me.  These are Guitar Heroes...surprising that the makers of Guitar Hero didn't sue Upper Deck.  There are four subjects chosen for this small subset including Tom Morello, Tony Iommi, Steve Vai, and Justin Hayward.  For those who may not know these guys...Morello was/is the lead guitar player for Rage Against the Machine.  He also played with Audioslave and has a number of side projects.

Tony Iommi for anyone that has lived under a rock their whole lives, virtually invented the heavy metal guitar riff.  He is the father of metal, period.  Tony is one of the original founding members of Black Sabbath and has also done various solo projects and side projects to boot.

Steve Vai, I don't even know where to begin.  He is considered by many to be near the top of a short list of the greatest guitar players of all time.  It would be hard not to agree with that too.  Vai has toured with many bands including Whitesnake, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Frank Zappa.  I could go on and on but I won't.  Look it up. 

The other guy, who I didn't scan, is Justin Hayward.  At first I thought that it was pretty cool that they also threw in the singer/guitar player/writer of all the songs for the Moody Blues...assuming there were a whole bunch of guitar players in the set.  When I finally looked up the checklist, I was shocked to see that these were the only four included.  Now I couldn't figure out why he was in there.  Nothing against him or anything but come on?  Joe Satriani (Steve Vai's guitar teacher by the way), Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton, Hendrix, BB King, Jeff Beck, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Brian May...I could go on forever here and still not come up with Justin Hayward (again, no offense).

Well as you can see I got off track there a little bit.  One of my other "passions" is music.  I am what friends and family call obsessed with it.  I always have been.  I even considered starting a music blog well before this one but I don't even have time to keep this one up to date, let alone another one.  So anyway, where were we.  Oh, yes, the rest of the cards.

Really the last thing to speak of in the box was this GU relic of Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe.  I guess each player has a relic card as well as an auto too.  A master set of this would simply be impossible to put together.

Overall, I really like these for some reason.  For one, they were inexpensive but don't really look cheaply made.  With Score, you can see they are cheap, same with Victory or MVP in Hockey.  But these are nicely put together, have nice designs, good photography, and give you a nice bit of information on the backs of each card.  I also like the artist cards because I am kind of a sucker for those for some reason.  I'd consider another one of these if I could find one as cheap as this one.  It would have been nice to see a few more serial numbered cards or another GU but I shouldn't expect anything more from retail.

Super Sunday For Sure

 

Congratulations to the New York Giants on their 21-17 victory over the New England Cheatriots.  A well deserved victory for sure.  And to New England...it couldn't have happened to a better team.  Better luck next year.

After a host of great catches by his receivers and a couple nicely played drives down the field, Eli Manning walks away with his second Lombardi and his second Super Bowl MVP.  I will say this, that new Corvette that he was gifted for his accomplishment was quite nice.  I would have taken those keys and took it for a spin in the endzone.

Overall, the game was quite slow in the beginning and looked like it could have come down to the next big play.  The second half was much more entertaining to watch, especially the fourth quarter.  Of course with Brady and Manning, the fourth quarter is about the only time they come to life.  Speaking of coming to life...what about that halftime show?  I thought Madonna was supposed to be old?  She looked pretty good for 53.  And those two rapper/singer/cheerleaders or whatever they were...did anyone catch the one that flipped off the camera and then it went haywire for a second?  Always something controversial.