The Jersey Off My Back

2008-09 Artifacts Treasured Swatches "Mr. Hockey" 

Ahhh, Jersey Cards...

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Premier Triple Remnants Dale Hawerchuk

After opening a couple boxes recently, I really started thinking about the value of the perceived "hits" that are included as part of the release.  I generally am not a "hit" chaser.  I don't meticulously pack search or toss the base cards in favor of the "hits".  I'm mostly a player collector and set builder.  But I still like when I pull jersey's, especially when it's a player I collect.  I like to rub my finger across the swatch and try to figure out what part of the jersey it came from.  But they don't always look good or feel good, and when you pay $100+ for a box of cards, a jersey card that could yield $5-10 if you're lucky on the secondary market probably won't leave a very good taste in your mouth. 

2008-09 In The Game Between The Pipes Origins Gerry Cheevers (blocker pad)

The introduction of the small piece of material into trading cards has long been a staple of the industry, dating back to when Upper Deck started putting the tiny swatches into cards in 1996 (I think Press Pass actually started the phenomenon with their NASCAR sets prior to that but look where that got them).  I don't know the exact date that they started appearing in hockey cards but I'm guessing late 90s-early 00s, at least that's when I first became aware of them.

2010-11 SPA Future Watch Limited Auto Patch Eric Tangradi

Memorabilia appearing in sports card releases were once a HUGE part of the industry.  These little "pieces of the game" were a rare find and highly sought after by collectors.  They became so overwhelmingly popular that they started appearing in every release issued, by every manufacturer, every year.  You can see where I'm going with this.  More demand spawned more supply and thus a by-product of their own popularity, their value went into decline.  Nowadays, you can go into many sports card shops or to sports shows and find thousands of these abandoned in boxes with price tags well under $5 (there is a dealer I see sometimes at the larger Chicago shows with $1, $2, and $5 jersey boxes).

2010-11 In The Game Heroes and Prospects Subway

Super Series Jersey Silver Jonathan Huberdeau

Why?  Well I blame three things; oversupply, lack of creativity on design, and lack of trust in their authenticity.

2011-12 Artifacts Tundra Tendems Dual Fight Strap 

Marc-Andre Fleury & Kristopher Letang 

2012-13 Artifacts Tundra Trios Fight Straps 

Joe Thornton/Brenden Morrow/Patrice Bergeron 

As I mentioned earlier, more demand spawned more supply.  Manufacturers saw the popularity surge and began chopping up every piece of memorabilia they could get their hands on.  Jerseys? Cut em.  Pants?  Cut em.  Gloves, hats, pads, bats, sticks, skates, cleats, balls, helmets, towels, warm-ups, nets, photos, checks??  Cut em ALL!  There's no telling how many pieces of history have been mutilated in order to satiate an industry demand since the late 90s.  I don't know a single collector that would even want to know either.  I'm much more familiar with the hockey card market and I can say that I've seen some items by some manufacturers for early era hockey players that come from paychecks, letter correspondence, and other memorabilia, trimmed to fit cards.  While many of them look cool, it is scary to think about what had to be destroyed to get to that point.

2010-11 Upper Deck Game Jersey Kristpher Letang

As the manufacturers overloaded their products, they began to get lazy.  No more was there thought put into a card design.  Player photos were sometimes abandoned in favor of swatch real estate.  Even the material swatches and patches themselves became overly focused on single color or even just plain white...PWS is a hobby term used quite often now.  In recent years, the higher end sets and more premium cards feature better looking pieces of material with multiple colors and stitching present on the card.  But the industry is by far dominated by "hits" in boxes that contain players that don't actually play, aren't exactly household names, and are just plain boring.

2006-07 O-Pee-Chee Swatches Daniel Alfredsson

Which brings me to my last point.  Authenticating memorabilia has become a very contentious part of the hobby.  The over abundance of fraudulent items that hit the market every year is staggering.  I don't think we have gone six months in the last ten years without hearing about a large dealer, vendor, or supplier being investigated by the FBI and many ending up serving jail time.  Unless you physically remove the item from the subject, cut it yourself, or watch them sign it, there is no definitive way to prove it's real.  Manufacturers have always listed their proof of authenticity on the backs of memorabilia cards but while the industry used to be much more upfront about the origins of their items, they've gradually declined in their details to the point of many saying "here's a piece of something used (or touched) by someone at some point".  I'm being facetious of course but it's getting bad.

2010-11 In The Game Enshrined Complete Package Tim Horton

This isn't one that I mentioned earlier that I opened but take for example a box of Upper Deck Black Diamond from last year.  Prices are close to about $200 for a box/pack that features five cards.  Yes you read that correctly...5 cards plus one bonus Exquisite card.  Basic math isn't my strong suit but six cards for $200 comes out to $33.33 per card.  Considering there are still 50 base cards to contend with and no guarantee that all the cards will be "hits"...the gamble is high.  In real life sales of individual cards start at about 39 cents for base cards and go up from there. 

39 cents!!  For a $200 product?  Nope.

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.

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.

Just A Quick Brag Post

I just wanted to take a moment and brag about my latest addition to my Penguins PC...THIS BEAUTY!!!  2010-11 Artifacts Tundra Tandems Crosby/Fleury #'d/75.  I suppose I could have spared you the details because you can see all of that printed on the card.  I picked this one up off the Bay and was so jacked when I saw the package in the mail because I new what it was.  This is one of those cards that looked good online but looks 1000% better in person.  No Event-Worn nonsense here either.  My only gripe is the small but noticeable nick on the bottom right corner.  Otherwise, this card is EPIC in my opinion.  I'll shut up now.

A Sad Tale of Sergei (Bip) Samsonov

I'll be honest here.  I'm not a Sergei Samsonov superfan or anything like that.  Shocking isn't it?

But I digress.  Samsonov was supposed to be one of the biggest prospects to come out of the European leagues back in the early-mid 90s.  He was a phenomenal goal scorer for the Red Army junior team and had garnered the attention of dozens of scouts.

The Bruins drafted Sergei 8th in the 1997 draft (after picking up a guy some of you may have heard of, Jumbo Joe Thornton with the 1st pick).  He made a huge impact in his rookie season with the team and won the Calder.  A few years later, he played in his only All Star game.  After that, you didn't hear much from the Russian phenom.  10 years later, he packed his bags for Florida and his 7th team in 13 years (Boston, Edmonton, Montreal, Chicago, Chicago's AHL affiliate, Carolina, and Florida). 

But that wasn't my purpose for posting this little diatribe.  My point was to find out if there are any other Samsonov fans out there.  If there are, speak up...

Yes, my friends.  Those are 9 Samsonov Game Jersey's in an Oilers uniform and 4 others featuring him as a Bruin.  How does one come to possess this many Sergei's...I have no idea.  I originally scanned 7 of them along with the two Boston ones.  After going through a box of cards (not from the Garage), I found 4 more.  I've been Bipped by Sergei. 

Would anyone like to take a few of these off my hands?  Let me know.