It's Not A Card, But Still Very Cool

At the Sun Times show a few weeks back, I mentioned I did some trading with some other collectors.  One of those fine fellows was Sal from Puck Junk.  Sal needs no introduction to the hockey collecting community so I will save my breath and just link to his site.

At any rate, Sal generally takes the trading thing to a whole new level with not only the cards you are looking for, but even more rare pieces that you don't see everyday.  This time was no different.  Sal presented me with a little something that was quite awesome.  Here it is...

First the front...

You can see some serious wear and tear on here, mainly around the creases in the tin and around the slot holes where the paint is chipping.  But other than that, the colors are still great.  Those old Pens jerseys are classics.

And then the back...

Much more wear and tear and what looks like some weathering.  Probably someone had this in a basement that was damp so the tin started to corrode.  You can see lots of scratches on the back of the goalie, probably from rubbing up against the net on the playing surface.

So where did this come from???

Back in 1954, Eagle Toy Company of Montreal began producing a metal version of the already popular rod hockey/table hockey games from decades earlier.  Eagle's difference?  The previous games made by companies like Munro Toys were made of wood.  Eagle received the endorsement of the Montreal Canadiens and was one of the first games to feature detailed player images, team logos, and because of the metal construction, allowed 360 degree player movement. 

For years, Eagle and their competitor Munroe, were huge in the industry.  Each release throughout the 50s and 60s got better with more realistic looking players, the addition of goal lights, timers, automatic puck droppers, and other interesting "upgrades".  The games continued to be produced throughout the 60s and 70s, but more companies got into the game as the years went by.  When the NHL expanded in 1967, demand increased in the US market and production had to expand too.  Eagle was sold to a company many of you may remember, called Coleco.

By the mid-late 80s, the popularity was waning for toys that didn't have buttons, run on batteries, beep, or have video screens.  While the table hockey games were gradually losing popularity in the US, demand in Canada was still high.  Some new companies got into the game, with Coleco selling off their rights to their designs.  Even The Great One himself put his name on a version in the early 90s. 

This is from the 2011 Let's Play Hockey International Expo in Las Vegas.  Yes, they still have tournaments.

Getting back to what I have here, Sal gave me the goalie of the Pittsburgh Penguins team set from, what I think is a 1971 Eagle Toys game.  Based on the short amount of research I've done, it doesn't appear that there was a set made with the Penguins included (unless it was regionally).  The Pens, as well as many other teams had to be ordered for the grand total of 75 cents per team plus shipping.  You can see by the wear and scratching that the less than stellar defense of the early Pens teams put a beating on their only goaltender.  So like many toys of yesteryear, this one was well loved.

But finding items like these in decent condition is tough, especially in recent years as collectors have gotten much more nostalgic and want to find the toys of their youth.  I have seen a few team sets in nice shape go for as much as $100+.  The Pens set that is supposedly in it's original packaging that is out there for sale now is priced at $65.

This is a very cool piece for my Penguins collection.  A little different but definitely a keeper.  

Card Show Recap - - Sun Times Sports Spectacular

Every trip to a card show should be accompanied by some collecting goals.  Otherwise, it becomes just a melee of ridiculous purchases and time spent ogling things you have no intention of ever acquiring for you collection.  A couple weeks ago now, I made my bi-annual trek out to Rosemont, Ill. to take in the sites at the (eh, em) 46th Annual Chicago Sun-Times Sports Collectibles Convention.  Considering this happens twice a year, I'm not sure you can call this an "annual" event.  Bi-annual maybe?  What do I know?  I'm not a marketing guy.  At any rate, I picked Saturday to hit the show floor as there is never enough time on a Friday and Sunday just seems too rushed.

(Check out this link from the Herald to see a few pictures of the show)

As I said, you need a game plan at these shows.  The sheer amount of dealer tables, merch vendors, industry businesses, and memorabilia peddlers can be overwhelming when you consider the 220,000 square feet of show floor these things take up (and that was the small hall).  The National will be here too this year but we will save that for later.

So my goals on this trek...

1. Pick up some set needs to try and knock out an incomplete set or two.  Never an easy task considering many of the "common" tables have very large men parked two deep in chairs, actively engaged in a feeding frenzy over all the $.10 cards they can get their greasy fingers on.  This will require strategy and cunning unlike has ever been seen (not really but you have to have some flare for the dramatic otherwise it isn't interesting).

2.  Find some cards for my Player PCs (Guerin, Lemieux, Jagr, Tangradi [I doubt it] perhaps a footballer or two).  This is usually an easy one considering they guys I collect have a plethora of cards out there that I have been unable to acquire over the years.  I don't really think I will ever complete a comprehensive player list of any of these guys but as long as I keep collecting, I'm sure gonna try.

3.  Pick up some autographs for my Penguins project I started last year.  This is something that has always kind of just happened but was never a priority.  This time that changes as I have an extensive list of guys I need to cross off my roster. 

4.  Do some trading.  What fun would a show be without the aspect of the hobby we all love?  Not very.  That's why I spent the better part of my free time over the few days before the show, digging through wantlists of the collectors/bloggers I knew would be there.  Trading is my favorite part of the show.

5.  Pick up some cards for my Team PCs.  Again, this is usually an easy one as my teams of choice tend to be popular ones.  I try to get at least one cool card from each sport (hockey, baseball, and football) that I don't already have.  Keep in mind, cool is in the eye of the beholder.

6.  Bust some wax.  Usually I have a list of boxes that I am targeting, whether for set building or otherwise.  This time around, with many popular hockey releases cancelled, I don't really have a certain type in mind.  I will just see what has the best bang for my buck and go from there.

Let's see how we fared this time around.

1. Pick up some set needs to try and knock out an incomplete set or two.

In typical fashion, the cattle were a grazing.  Big Time!!  There wasn't space to be had at many tables, even just to take a peek at what was on them.  That makes for a long day when you are a set building on a quest for completion.  So instead, I stuck to the quarter, three for a dollar, and other discounted bins, hoping to find something, anything that will fill my goals.  As luck would have it, I was able to pick up quite a few cards from my Parkhurst Champions set I'm working on as well as a few Victory Rookies I still needed.

But the big score came during trading.  Guys knocked out my 4th complete base set for this years Upper Deck Series I and also contributed to numerous other sets.  I can successfully say that I completed a set (albeit a duplicate one).

2.  Find some cards for my Player PCs (Guerin, Lemieux, Jagr, Tangradi [I doubt it] perhaps a footballer or two). 

No brainer here.  I got a handful of Lemieux's, a handful of Jagr's, a couple Guerin's and one Bettis card for my secret, unpublished "Bus" collection.  I already showed every one the Jagr's the other day after he got his 1,000 career assist and the Lemieux cards too.  Here were the other's in case anyone wanted to see...oh, no?  No scans?  Ok, then.  Moving on.

3.  Pick up some autographs for my Penguins project I started last year.

Surprisingly, this came easy too.  I found two tables with cheap auto cards, mostly certified, and they had plenty o'Pens.  In fact, there was one table that I even put some back from my stack that I pulled because I felt like I was going overboard.  These will all be posted over on my Auto Project blog that you can get to from this link or over on the side panel.  I will say this though, I have 12 more players crossed off the master list.

4.  Do some trading.

Again, no brainer.  There is always at least one trade going to go down at these shows, assuming another trader will be there.  This time, there were three.  Unfortunately, I didn't know about the third until it was too late so I had nothing available for them.  Next time, though.  Trades at these shows goes something like this...I find a small-to-large stack of things from a persons want list, they find find things off my list, and we swap.  Nothing fancy, no book values, no worrying about who gets the better deal.  No pressure.  That's the way I like it.  I ended up with a bunch of stuff for my set lists including the final UD cards I already mentioned up there.  I also ended up with some other really cool things which will be posted about later.  Thanks to Sal & Nick for all the goodies.

5.  Pick up some cards for my Team PCs.

I picked up 6 Steeler cards, 2 Pirates, and a bunch of Pens stuff.  I would say that this goal was met in spades.

6.  Bust some wax.

Wax is obviously a misnomer nowadays.  But I will still call it that probably forever.  I didn't really have a target product this time around.  I had an idea of some things I would have liked to see at certain price points but all of it was high-end and none of it was in my budget.  What I did wrestle with and finally compromise on was a box of 12-13 Panini Classics Signatures, which I already posted about, a box of 11-12 Panini Rookie Anthology, which I already posted about, and a box of 11-12 ITG Between the Pipes which I haven't posted about but will in the near future.  All the boxes yielded some really nice stuff as you can see if you check out the box break reviews.  I was very fortunate and the breaks were a lot of fun.  

Card Show Pickups

This is going to be a short post as I really don't have much to say in terms of review one way or another.  The boys and I decided to break the boredom of a Saturday morning and head over to the Highland, IN Lincoln Center for their quad-annual community garage sale (and card show).  The amount of junk in this show each and every time astounds me.  I can't believe there are people out there that accumulate this much crap to be able to turn around and actually make a buck or two selling it.  It's simply amazing.

But I digress...there is a card show attached to this garage sale each time they open the doors.  The show has anywhere from 20-40 people selling their cardboard wares amidst the seemingly endless supplies of glassware, VHS tapes, and Elvis paintings.  I know I've talked about this show before here, here, and probably a bunch of other places.  So I won't bore anyone with the details.

While I was prepped and ready for a warm up to next week's Chicago Sun-Times Show in Rosemont, I wasn't expecting much and that's exactly what I got.  Believe it or not, the card dealers seemed to have been toned down a bit and most of them were replaced by guys with coins and toys.  I did find a few tables with stuff browse worthy but I didn't really find anything to bite on except at two tables.

The first guy had a table full of autos and GU cards of various sports, including about 1/3 of the table occupied by hockey.  I pickup up this little guy for a couple bucks...

 I'm sure this one will be added to my Penguin Auto Project collection soon.

The only other table I found was not a card table but a "junk" table.  I mean, it had some interesting items on it, but it wasn't organized at all and had giant piles of stuff in various parts of the table.  But like the cardboard sniffing bloodhound that I am, I found a shoebox full of cards.  The front was originally marked "1/2 off price marked".  That was crossed out and replaced with "All Cards $1".  That too was crossed out and replaced with "Single cards $.50 or 3 for $1".  I like the sound of that better.  Here are my three cards for $1.

The first one I found was an Alfonso Soriano card that my son didn't have.  He collects Soriano, although I still can't figure out why.  I didn't scan that one because after taking possession of it, I don't know where he put it or what he did with it.  For $.333 I don't really care either.

The card I was after was this one...

It appeared to be an on-card auto of former Pirate great Omar Moreno.  I didn't have a Moreno autograph and for thirty three cents I couldn't pass it up.  But the real question was, is it a legit auto?  I checked the interwebs when I returned home to find that it, indeed, looks like his auto...however, it only looks like his first name.  Most of the other autos of his show a distinction between first and last name.  I don't see that here.  But, that's not to say I don't believe it's still real.  It's on-card, meaning it was either a TTM or an in person signing.  If it was in person, I'm sure Omar was in a hurry.  It could have been done quickly, bunching itself together, and making it look like it was only his first name.  It could.

I wasted 33 cents didn't I?  Oh well.

I needed a third card and couldn't find one to round out the 3 for $.50.  In the whole box, I couldn't find a single one.  So I settled on this one because it made me smile, bringing back memories.  It also sparked an interest in one of my sons as to how a person was able to play MLB and NFL at the same time.  Yes, folks.  I give you a wood border nightmare, otherwise known as...

So overall, this show was a bust.  It it wouldn't have been for the lady with the $.50 action figure box, we would have all probably walked out dejected.  Instead, it was only me.  I just hope next weeks slightly larger show at the Convention Center will be much more fruitful.

PC Pickups From The Local Show

A week or so ago was the latest installment of the community garage sale at one of the nearby town's Community Center.  The unique thing about this show is that about 3/4 of the floor is made up of all the sellers of everything from antique toys, to records and tapes (even 8-tracks), to sheets, towels, and other strange oddities.  The other 1/4 of the floor is comprised of non other than sports cards and memorabilia. 

The show is put on by a local card show promoter out of the Chicagoland area and it comes through here about 4-5 times a year.  The fun part about the show is the interesting mix of dealer tables.  For anyone that has been to a show ever in their lives, you have essentially 5 "stereotypical" cardboard pushers at every show including:

• The "overproduction era" guy has his table full of 88 Topps and 91 Score cards with price tags from a 1994 Tuff Stuff magazine.  $2.00 for the "Bo Breakers" card?  Really?

• The "NASCAR" guy with everything from cards, hats, and event-worn jackets to the hood from Dale Jr.'s car.  You know the guy...most of his table is taken up by die-cast cars, secured snugly in their packages and there is usually a blue and white Igloo swivel-top cooler filled with Busch Light and Mountain Dew behind the tables.  The weekend before he was here.

• The "hit" guys where there is nothing but jersey/auto cards, super sick "MOJO" hits, and short prints galore, all of which have higher than Beckett HI price tags.  They also have "the case" where you find the greatest anomaly in all of sports cards...the "HOT PACKS".  They had one of these too.  Not this exact one but their's was numbered 4 or 5, I forget.

• The "common" box guy who usually has a nice mix of 1960s-1980s 3500 ct boxes jammed to the gills.  Good luck getting to his table to take a gander.  You might get a lucky break if you can throw a Twinkie down the aisle.  One of the on lookers is bound to take the bait, freeing up a spot.  What a sight that would be.

• The "look-up" guy who has nothing priced, nothing labeled, and doesn't really want to talk to you other than to tell you that everything on the table is a "real nice card".  Try your best to buy something and you may have to wait 15 minutes while he looks each item up in the price guide only to then spend 12 more minutes trying to calculate his profit/loss ratio after he reluctantly lets you have the card for 2X HI book value.

Our show here didn't disappoint either.  Considering I generally move past all of the above dealers, I was able to find a few tables with some stuff I could use.  Since I don't want to single anyone out in particular for being either a bad seller or a good seller, I'll just cut to the chase and show you what I picked up for my PC.

The first group all came from the same seller.  It was an older couple with some monster boxes filled with older baseball, some older football, and quite a bit of older hockey.  I didn't bite on any of the hockey stuff because most was very banged up despite having a bunch of stars.  What I did find came from......wait for it......A FIFTY CENT BOX!!!

1972 Topps Pirates Team Card #1

The Wold Champions...at least I can say this happened in my lifetime...of course not in the year here but the late 70s.  I can all but guarantee it won't happen again while I am still alive and possibly the lives of both my children.  Maybe grandkids?

I also found a plethora of Pops...

  A 1976 and 1967 Topps

  A 1968 and 1972 Topps

 1972 and 1974 3-D Super Stars cards

 And finally, a 1979 Topps.  I already have a couple of these but for $.50, what's one more?

And a few from Dave Parker...

Total cost...$6.00.  I know, it adds up to only $5.50 at $.50 a piece but I hate change so I told her to keep it.  She told me to consider it a down payment for next time.  Fair enough. 


The next guy was an older gentleman from a nearby town that had a hodgepodge of miscellaneous stuff.  There was really no rhyme or reason to his set up at all.  Most product was mixed together and other than the few better singles carefully laid out on the table, he had a bunch of 800 count boxes randomly placed with $.10 each penciled on the lids.  For $.10, I took a look and found a few for the Pirate PC.

 

And a couple more for my Topps Baseball set.  He had a ton of inserts from this years' Topps but out of all of them, I only needed these.

And I can't forget the one hockey card I found in there.  It was this 1994-95 Leaf Limited Gold Pavel Bure.  I actually didn't really know these existed because this was from a 10 card insert set that fell about 1 every 48 packs.  Keep in mind that was in 1994 so it was fairly hard to pull (fairly, considering it was in the heat of the overproduction era).  I never bought any of this back then because I had no money of my own in 1994 and wasn't really collecting then.  Most of what I have from this set are all the base cards and I have only picked those up after the fact.  They are serial numbered out of /2500.

Finally, I picked up three beasts for my PC from my favorite couple from the western Chicago suburbs.  This husband and wife team deals in about 80% hockey and they usually have some really nice stuff.  Plus, they are fun to talk to and are more than reasonable on their pricing.  Most stuff is under case but they are always more than happy to open them up, let you touch, and work out deals.

I've bought some neat stuff from them before and showed them on here, although I couldn't find the posts to link.  This time around, here's what I was able to walk away with...

 It's a little blurry on the scan because it is imprisoned in a screw down case.  But, this is a 2005/06 SPx Winning Combos Mario Lemieux/Jaromir Jagr Memorabilia card numbered out of #/99.  The only thing better would have been Jags on the Pens.  But either way, I'll take it.

Double your pleasure on this one...I picked up two Marc-Andre Fleury Rookie cards.  The scan dust really ticks me off because these are beautiful cards in person.  They are from the 2003-04 Pacific Invincible set.  The one on the left is the Red Parallel version numbered out of #/850.  The one on the right is the base rookie.  These were short printed in the main collation of the product and usually only fell about 1-2 per box.  The base rookies are supposedly serial numbered out of #/799 but mine isn't marked.  Since I have no others from this set to compare it to, I'm going to presume this may be the retail version which might not be numbered.  Either way, both are huge adds to my Penguin PC.