Cards from the Night Owl (Part 1)

I received a nice size box in the mail the other day from none other than everyone's favorite nocturnal resident, Night Owl.  I haven't been able to find many traders yet but I am getting there.  Night Owl, as most people know, is a Dodger collector and since I have been out of baseball for so long, my selection is sub par at best.  After searching one day through trade lists, I actually happened upon some stuff on his list.  So I am guessing this was my payment.  And what a payment it was.  I am going to break it down into separate sections since there is so much to display.

On top of the box was a note that said that there wasn't a whole lot of non baseball, which was fine with me considering what he did decide to include.  Since my focus is on Pittsburgh sports, he stayed with the theme and greeted me  

first with this:

1991-92 Upper Deck 50/50 Club (Lemieux, Gretzky, Hull)

I didn't even know Night Owl had hockey cards let alone these beauties.  I will say that I already have the 50/50 card (in fact I probably have about a dozen or so) but it is one of my favorite sketch cards, ever.  It features three members of the 50 goals in 50 games club members.  For those non-hockey fans, I would say this is the rare hockey equivalent of the 40/40 club in baseball.  Very hard to achieve. 

The 50 games criteria is actually 50 team games, not player games.  At the time the card was printed, these were the three active players that were part of the club.  It features Mario Lemieux who scored his in 88-89; Wayne Gretzky who tallied his contribution three times in 81-82, 83-84, and 84-85; and Brett Hull who is a two time member with back to back years in 90-91 and 91-92.  The other members of this elite club include Rocket Richard and Mike Bossy.  Lemieux also missed the club three other times, mainly due to injuries, in 92-93 (50 in 48 but team 78), 95-96 (50 in 50 but team 59), and 87-88 (50 in 51).

Then with this...

 

1991 Foodland Penguins Jaromir Jagr

The second card is one that has eluded me for many, many years.  I have always tried to get my hands on the Foodland cards of the early 90s but other than a few singles, I have not been very successful.  I have bid on these sets hundreds, literally hundreds of times on Ebay to no avail.  At least now I am one card closer.  

Those unfamiliar with these sets should know this one is from the 1991 Penguins Foodland Safety set.  It was a regionally produced set that was distrubuted by the grocery store Foodland in conjunction with the "Take A Bite Out Of Crime" crime and safety promotion campaign.  There are 15 cards in the set, this one being number 11.  I don't normally scan the backs of cards but this one had to be shared.  As we see here, we are reminded that Hockey is an international sport and everyone needs to learn English to play it.  We also learn that stereotyping is bad.

This is actually Jagr's Foodland rookie card since it was the first one that was produced for him in any of these sets.  I have the Lemieux, the Randy Hillier, and John Cullen from this set already.  I know I used to have the Zarley Zalapski and Tony Tanti cards from this one too but I have no idea what happened to them.  1996 was the last year that Foodland put these sets out.

And then this gem...

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Gold Sidney Crosby

I wish there was a better way to scan shiny cards.  This shot really doesn't do this one justice.  The Gold Parallel versions of the OPC set look exactly like the regular issue but are glossy and have a metallic coating that make them look almost like refractors without all the prism-y things.  What better card to have from this parallel set than this one.  World Junior Gold Medalist, Art Ross winner, Pearson Award winner, Hart Trophy winner, Olympic Gold Medalist, and Stanley Cup Champion.  I think he won a couple ESPY Awards too.  Regardless of what you think of this guy, who wouldn't want that resume?

More to come on this awesome box from Night Owl...