Puck Junk Podcast SPECIAL! The One In Which We Box Battle For Ice Supremacy

On a very special episode of Blossom, er, The Puck Junk Podcast, Sal and I take it live on video and battle it out.  Not in a battle of wits (because clearly I would win), or a battle of jokes (I would win that too), or a battle for the Royal Palace of Eternia (Sal might have an edge).  No, we are battling with boxes of 2019-20 Upper Deck Ice!

We each have a box we have been saving for an epic pack war that only your wonderful hosts could provide for your listening, AND now viewing pleasure.  You can check out our Podcast mostly each week wherever you find free podcasts but this week, head over to our YouTube channel and feast your eyes on our opening, reveal, and discussion of 2019-20 Upper Deck Ice. 

(Almost) Box Break - - 2009-10 In The Game Between The Pipes

Okay, so as I go into my LCS one fine day, I notice the Between the Pipes on the shelf and had to have it.  I love the ITG releases and this was the next one that I had yet to bust.  But where were the boxes?

The day before, another hockey collector bought two boxes and the last one was opened to sell packs.  I was mortified.  How could they not save one for me?  Was I not worthy?  Actually I hadn't been in to the shop in almost a month so I didn't expect there to be much.  So upon checking the box, I realized there were 11 of the 18 packs left so I snatched them up.

I am not going to do a traditional review here because it's been done a ton for this set.  You can check out some other reviews and product images over here...

or here...

or here...

Since I didn't open a full box and only had 11 packs, I wasn't sure that I would pull any of the potential 8 hits that could have been in the box.  So after sitting down at the "trading table" in the shop, I began my busting journey.  For the sake of drooling over all of what I pulled, let me just show the two that I was quite happy with.

Three packs in and out popped this:

2009-10 ITG Between The Pipes Greats of the Game Goaliegraph Ed Johnston

This is definitely a keeper.  I almost jumped out of my chair when I saw this one.  I know it's a Bruins card but Ed Johnston is part of the architectural team that helped build the Penguins franchise.  He was the GM when Mario Lemieux was drafted in the first round back in 1984.  He is also one of the reasons the Pens were able to get Ron Francis and Ulf Samuellson although he was on the other side of the fence as a GM for the Whalers (he also gets blamed for them moving to Carolina but that's another story).  Ed has been with the Pens off and on since 1983, 24 years in fact.  Although he wasn't with the teams for their cup years in 91 and 92, he finally had his name put on the cup in 2009 as he is the Senior Advisor for Hockey Operations.

Two packs later, we get this:

2009-10 ITG Between The Pipes Origins Gerry Cheevers Goalie Pad

This is the first memorabilia card that I have ever pulled that wasn't a jersey or patch.  This is a piece of the leg blocker pad (no, I don't know which leg).  I do have one stick card of Bill Guerin but I purchased that and didn't pull it from a pack.  Of course, I was excited to see this.  The card looks amazing in my opinion.  The scan doesn't do it justice (that is so cliche'd but true).  The design is so simple yet very impactful, using the grey and yellow hues on the background tie the before and after shots together nicely.  I have to say that I could have pulled a better card for my PC but this one is still sweet.  I haven't decided if it is going to have a permanent home in my collection yet or not so if anyone might be interested and willing to trade for something similar that would fit better in my Pittsburgh collection, I'm all ears.

Also, I plan on trying to put at least the base set of this together so if you may have doubles or ones that you don't need, I'm listening.

Pack Break - - 2006-07 MVP Hockey Retail

(This was already posted over at A Pack To Be Named Later but I thought I would post it here too for posterity sake.)


2006-07 MVP Hockey Retail.
8 Cards/Pack

I really have nothing to say about these. They are a typical MVP type release with the focus of the card around the silver foil signature of the player. The rookie cards have the name stamped rather than in script. If anything, it is definitely a good way to gauge signatures of some of the more popular players. Especially with all the fraudulent stuff out there. I'm looking your way Ebay...

Nothing too shocking in this pack. Each one contains an insert card, either a rookie or insert set. I pulled an Eric Staal Clutch Performer. Here is a sampling of what is to be found...



#243 Steve Bernier


#177 Sergei Brylin
I like when players use their numbers in their signatures.  It makes it more personal.


#96 Jussi Jokinen
Jokinen is having a pretty good year so far.  I think over the weekend he extended his point streak to 9 games.  I don't understand why he isn't on Finland's Olympic roster.

#48 Chuck Kobasew
I just pulled a Kobasew auto out of my box of 09-10 ITG.  They look the same.


#73 Marek Svatos


#CP11 Eric Staal - Clutch Performers
This is one insert set that I can honestly looks much, much worse than the base cards.

#157 Alex Kovalev
The strange thing about this one is that I used to have a 8X10 autograph of Alex when he was with the Penguins.  His signature looked nothing like that.  I wish I still had it to prove my point.


#71 Jose Theodore

Pack Break - - 2006-07 BeeHive Hockey Retail

2006-07 BeeHive Hockey Retail
4 Cards/Pack

(This is almost the same post as over on A Pack To Be Named Later. I added some things.)

BeeHive is one of those brand names that has a long history in the world of collecting. With its roots in card sets back in the 30s and 40s, BeeHive has put out some of the most sought after cards in all of hockey, featuring the Original Six teams.

I'm not going to get into the history of the BeeHive product but if you want to know more about them, there is a great web resource for all things BeeHive. It is called The BeeHive Hockey Photo Museum. You can find the link here. There are a lot of pictures of the images used for the card production and you can even purchase many of them at pretty good prices. If you are interested at all in nostalgic hockey collectibles these are worth a look.

As for this incarnation of the product, Upper Deck's design is very similar to the Group 3 cards of the mid to late 60s. With the wood border framing, the cards capture the vintage feel but with the modern photography that Upper Deck is known for. The backs of the cards show the last year of game play stats as well as the "Did You Know" facts section which feature a morsel of info about the player and another random fact. For instance, Did You Know that Bobby Carpenter was the first American born player to post 50 goals in a season? Actually I did know that, but I bet other people didn't.

As for production, the retail version feature rookies at about 1:8 packs. There are also five parallel sets featuring different border color variations and randomly inserted GU and Autos with the 5x7 PhotGRAPHS falling about 1:250 packs in the hobby versions. Here are some samples.


#14 Doug Weight


#31 Jason Spezza


#72 Pascal LeClaire - Wood Border Parallel


#17 Jonathan Cheechoo

Pack Break - - 2006-07 Fleer Hockey

2006-07 Fleer Hockey
10 Cards/Pack

(This is almost the same post as the one on A Pack To Be Named Later. I added more of the images on here though.)

I'm not going to say a lot about these ones. They are very similar in design to their baseball and football counterparts. The only difference seems to be in the borders, with half the picture bled to the edge. The backs have the matte finished retro feel to them but once again, in typical Upper Deck fashion, they only display five years of stats

The set features 200 regular base cards and 30 rookies including Matt Carle, Eric Fehr, Mark Stuart, Michel Ouellet, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, and Shea Weber. The insert cards fall about 1:4. There are also glossy parallels, called the Tiffany Collection, inserted 1:36 or 1:360 on the rookies. I didn't pull any of these. The GU cards in the set fall about 1:40 packs and the Autos are 1:432. Here is a sampling.


#136 Jason Spezza


#N3 Ryan Miller - Netminders


#149 Curtis Joseph


#140 Ray Emery

#118 Brian Rafalski


#185 Darcy Tucker


#41 Erik Cole


#97 Manny Fernandez


#7 Ryan Getzlaf


#104 Alex Kovalev

Pack Break - - 2009 Topps National Chicle Football

While being bored out of my mind yesterday, I decided to go visit the People of Walmart after 10 PM. What a scary, scary place. Upon discovering they had nothing in the way of any packs or boxes for that matter, I proceeded to head to the local Target.

Topps National Chicle was sitting in the Power Pack box on the bottom shelf. This had to be a mistake, but low and behold, it wasn't. They were all marked to the $1.59 price. There were only 4 packs so I picked them up as faster than a fat guy in a buffet line. I have never really been a big fan of all the retro sets that have come out. I think at this point in the game, things are getting a bit stale.

The Topps National Chicle set features artist renderings of all the top NFL players. One thing that I found kind of different (although other sets may have this, it's a first for my collections) were the artist bio's on the backs. Each card features a different artist from around the country including well knowns such as Monty Sheldon, Paul Lempa, Brian Kong, and Chris Henderson among others.

I posted a single pack break over at A Pack To Be Named Later if anyone wants to see the distribution. I can actually say that I kind of like these and their companion mini cards as well. I'm not too excited about all the parallel cards and their different variations, but I can see myself putting together a base set if I can pick up some more. At any rate, I will let the cards speak for themselves. Here are some scans of what I pulled.

Peer Pressure Purchase Part 2

4 more packs of the 2010 Topps Baseball Series I for your scrutinizing pleasure.

Pack 5

#153 Justin Duchscherer
#63 Josh Bard
#310 Elvis Andrus
#315 Scott Kazmir
#275 Chris Coghlan
#134 Philadelphia Phillies Team Card
#TR43 Adrian Gonzalez - Turkey Red
#LL20 Frank Thomas/Prince Fielder - Legendary Lineage
#TTT4 Adrian Gonzalez - Topps Town
#264 Arizona Diamondbacks Franchise History
#85 Ken Griffey Jr.
#308 Robinzon Diaz

Another Turkey Red card which I thought I liked originally but now for some reason I don't. Weird. I first thought the Legendary Lineage cards were the same team players but I guess not. Maybe the same position?

Pack 6

#57 CC Sabathia
#18 Tim Stauffer
#79 Francisco Cordero
#86 Gil Meche
#131 Dustin Richardson
#265 Anaheim Angels Team Card
#CMT31 Paul Molitor - Cards Your Mom Threw Out (His '82 Topps...I had this one, too)
TMC8 Million Card Giveaway Redemption
#TTT1 Joe Mauer - Topps Town
Another Topps Attax Ad
#224 Rod Barajas
#313 Jason Kubel (this guy is a DH but they show him in the field...weird)
#246 Leo Nunez

I really am digging these Cards Your Mom Threw Out cards (digging; do people still say that?). I think I may have to see what these Million Card Giveaway things are all about.

Pack 7

#41 Los Angeles Dodgers Franchise History
#67 Matt LaPorta
#169 Pittsburgh Pirates Franchise History
#228 Chris Pettit
#222 Curtis Granderson
#51 Eric Young, Jr.
#1 Prince Fielder
#CMT39 Frank Thomas - Cards Your Mom Threw Out (Nuh-uh. She didn't get this one.)
#TOG18 Prince Fielder - Tales Of The Game
#TTT1 Joe Mauer - Topps Town (In consecutive packs. Great collation system, Topps.)
Another Topps Attax ad (They are really pushing this, aren't they)
#262 Homer Bailey (What other sport could this guy play?)
#173 Kendry Morales

The Prince Fielder Tales of the Game says there is an urban legend that at the age of 12, he hit one into the upper deck of Tiger Stadium.

Pack 8

#19 Felipe Lopez
#12 Doug Davis
#25 Adam Jones
#97 Luis Durango
#171 Hernandez/Sabathia/Verlander (AL Wins Leaders)
#CMT7 Orlando Cepeda - Cards Your Mom Threw Out
#TMC4 Million Card Giveaway Redemption
#TTT13 Ryan Howard - Topps Town
#238 Ian Stewart
#90 Ian Kinsler
#205 Chris Coghlan
#301 Jack Cust

Turns out that I only bought 9 packs instead of 10. I will post the last pack next with some scans of the nicer cards.

Peer Pressure Is A Wonderful Thing

As some of you are already aware, and for those of you that don't, I am not a baseball collector. The only reason I even have a substantial pile of baseball is because of my brother finding my childhood collection. When 2008 Topps came out, I tried to get back into baseball collecting but after opening a couple blaster boxes and realizing I only recognized about 20% of the players, I quickly put an end to that experiment.

But here I am, a hockey collector/blogger, in a seemingly endless baseball collector's world. The countless blog entries of trading triumphs, wax crackin victories, and generally interesting collecting stories are thrown in my face on a daily basis. The latest adventure that seems to be all the buzz is the release and availability of 2010 Topps Baseball Series I.

I told myself I wasn't going to. I pleaded with that inner voice in my head to stop egging me on. "But they are so cool", it says. "But you can trade them away for stuff you need", it says. "But you have an imbalanced, unnatural, bordering sadistic need for opening packs", it says. After reading a half dozen or so blogs yesterday regarding this product, I finally surrendered to the peer pressure (I know it isn't real peer pressure, but work with me here. It's for effect.).

I stopped on the way home and picked up 10 packs of 2010 Topps. As I walked around the store with the packs in hand, I second guessed myself about 300 times until I finally walked back to the counter to put them back in their home and walk away. Within seconds, I returned, chose 10 new packs and began thumbing through the random loose pack box for anything that could justify this madness. For some reason, they had old 2002-03 In The Game First Edition Hockey packs. I grabbed all those, some pages, and my 10 forbidden packs and checked out. I felt so dirty.

So now I am the proud (ashamed) owner of 120 cards from the 2010 Topps set. Since I have no idea what is good/bad/or otherwise in here, I will leave it up to everyone else to decide. Here are the first 4 packs.



Pack 1

#178 Kerry Wood
#83 Mark Teahen
#223 Ryan Church
#TTT7 Josh Hamilton - Topps Town
#1 Mickey Mantle - 1951 Topps Red Back (I've heard of this guy)
#139 Frank Francisco
#189 Adrian Beltre
#249 Jon Niese
#100 Albert Pujols
#20 Tommy Hanson
#145 Justin Upton
#PP44 Roy Holladay - Peak Performance

I suppose getting a Mickey Mantle in the first pack is a good thing. I am not sure if anything else in here amounts to much. I will admit that I kind of like the design though. It reminds me of the mid 90s stuff when I stopped collecting.

Pack 2

#136 Adam Wainwright
#64 Drew Stubbs
#14 Ted Lilly
#159 Vernon Wells
#187 Will Venable
##CMT8 Bob Gibson - Cards Your Mom Threw Out (Interesting name for an insert set)
#TMC10 Million Card Giveaway Redemption
#TTT19 Justin Upton - Topps Town
#132 Cliff Lee
#258 Edwin Encarnacion
#180 Jayson Nix
#215 John Lannan

I really like the Cards Your Mom Threw Out idea. Its like getting the original card, only on heavier card stock, and glossy, and airbrushed, with a different back, and in mint condition. Actually it's nothing like the original card...but still cool. I'm still trying to figure out the Million Card Giveaway card. More on that later.

Pack 3

#115 Grodon Beckham
#182 Coco Crisp (Older brother of Rice and Apple)
#181 Nick Johnson
#155 Zack Greinke
#42 Fielder, Howard, & Pujols (NL RBI Leaders)
#316 Chris Young - Gold #1392/2010
#TR48 Willie McCovey - Turkey Red
#LL29 Carl Yastrzemski/Kevin Youkilis - Legendary Lineage
#TTT16 Kevin Youkilis - Topps Town
#103 Daniel Murphy
#150 Joe Mauer
#44 Howie Kendrick

I Gold parallel serial numbered card is cool although they have been doing this since 2004 or 2005 I think. The Turkey Red card is kind of cool.

Pack 4

#276 Matt Lindstrom
#31 Jason Grilli
#76 Joe Saunders
#316 Chris Young
#307 Henry Rodriguez
#260 New York Yankees Franchise History
#197 Cleveland Indians Team Card
#CMT41 Manny Ramirez - Cards Your Mom Threw Out (I think my mom did throw this out)
#TOG16 Bo Jackson - Tales Of The Game
#FTTT7 Josh Hamilton - Topps Town
An advertisement for Topps Attax (wow, they even have commercials in baseball cards)
#61 Skip Schumaker
#96 Jon Garland

A second Josh Hamilton Topps Town. But, wait. This one has an F in front of the number and the picture on the front is different. I don't know what to think of that. Anyone know what the difference is? Another one of those Cards Your Mom Threw Out and a "Bo Know" card. I wonder if I still have my all time top 10 favorite Bo with the shoulder pads and bat?

I will post more later and maybe some scans.

Rack Pack Busting: New Ultra Hockey

I decided I would take a stab at a couple rack packs of the new 2009-10 Ultra Hockey (I have had these for a couple weeks now so I still have yet to purchase anything in 2010). I don't have any of these yet and was a bit skeptical since Ultra has had basically the same design for the last 3 years.

I was pleasantly surprised by these cards. In fact, I think the design is great. Instead of the script writing on the bottom or side of the card, they decided to digitize the players last name in a silver foil stamp open font with the printed name underneath. They still have the full bleed action photo shots of each player on the front and it fades into a silver border that holds the name plate. Very appealing design in my opinion. The backs also have the players stats for their entire career and not just the previous season.

I was able to pull 2 Team Leader (#TL26 David Backes, #TL28 Jason Black) cards and 2 Rookie Sensations (#RS1 Alex Goligoski, #RS29 T.J. Oshie), as they are inserted 1 per rack pack. I also was happy with the #119 Marc-Andre Fleury - Gold Medallion which is going straight into the PC.

The highlight of the packs was #RED214 Rookie Redemption Card which is normally a 1 per Hobby box hit. I think this is Davis Drewiske, who played 17 games for the Kings last year and was the team captain back when he played for the University of Wisconsin. He only has 1 goal in 32 games so far this year but he isn't known for his scoring. He is one of the old school style defensemen that, get this...plays defense. Go figure. I am scratching it off as we speak and sending off for the redemption. We will see how long this one takes.

Overall, I'd say I am impressed with the set design. It is different from the past Ultra sets and sets itself apart from the other standard issue Upper Deck releases. Despite what others have voiced about the base product design, I like the fact that they used the bleed in borders on the edges. I also really am liking the insert set designs, especially the E-X inserts. From what I have seen, the memorabilia cards are well designed, other than the smaller than average pieces. I'm going to give it a 7/10 for the pack configuration and value and 8/10 for the design.

(A warm welcome goes out to one of my many influencers in the card blogging world who is my newest follower, Rob from Voice of the Collector. Hopefully you find my stuff marginally entertaining as I love reading your posts on VOTC.)

More Fun With Explosives...I Mean Pack Busting

I swear this is the last 5 pack combo busting post for awhile. I only have a few more unopened rack packs/boxes left in there but the random packs are depleted. Overall I'd say I faired pretty poorly considering there was nothing of super value here. There was also nothing of substance to add to my PC other than about a half dozen or so. Maybe this final round will make up for everything...or maybe it won't.

Pack #1: 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

#289 Adrian Aucoin
#413 Jamal Mayers
#407 Joe Thornton
#450 Mikko Koivu (R) - Young Guns
#250 Marian Hossa
#422 Ed Belfour
#330 Martin Gelinas
#DP16 Sidney Crosby - Diary of a Phenom
#221 Nathan Horton - Victory Update Insert

Nice Pack!! Finally a couple cards that I can safely be happy with. The Koivu Young Guns is a fairly decent rookie to pull out of pack of these, barring the Crosby or Ovechkin. I'm also a fan of the Crosby DOAP cards since, of course, one of my collecting goals is to get as many Pens cards as I can.

Pack #2: 2007-08 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey

#323 Travis Moen
#293 Kurtis Foster
#411 Manny Fernandez
#307 Joe Sakic
#302 Cory Sarich
#368 Michal Rozsival
#420 Ilya Kovalchuk
#284 Ryan Smyth - Victory Update Insert

I'm not 100% but I think I need at least 5 of these for my set. Major positive there. I still love the photography on the Upper Deck cards. I don't even seem to mind the fact that they have produced the same product for the last three years with a different player name layout. They are just clean looking cards.

Pack #3: 2007-08 Victory Hockey

#26 Jaromir Jagr
#194 Alexander Frolov
#30 Mike Knuble
#184 Mike Ribeiro
#70 Brad Richards
#GB27 Tomas Vokoun - Game Breakers

Just like MVP, these tend to yeild either a rookie or Game Breaker insert in each pack. This was no exception with the Vokoun. I love goalie cards so this is nice to go in the binder. There was also another Jagr that I don't think I have yet (I think I always say that, whether I do or not).

Pack #4: 2008 Donruss Classics Football

#52 Ronnie Brown
#76 Kevin Curtis
#33 Jon Kitna
#28 Jason Witten
#85 Devin Hester

This pack was strangely similar to the last pack of these I opened, with the Brown and Curtis cards on top. It even had the Hester, although this one wasn't serial numbered.

Pack #5: 1997-98 Collector's Choice Hockey

#167 Wayne Gretzky
#238 Rob Zamuner
#9 Paul Kariya
#77 Mike Vernon
#123 Vitali Yachmenev

This is the first pack I have opened in a long while that actually had a Gretzky card that wasn't some kind of advertisement. It's him in his Rangers uniform skating behind the net. It almost looks like he was cropped from a different photo and placed onto this card because the proportional size of him in relation to the rest of his surroundings is a bit off. Weird. Of course these are Collector's Choice so they are about as good as furniture shims.

BONUS Pack #6: 2007-08 Ultra Hockey

#109 Anze Kopitar
#173 Alex Tanguay
#54 Simon Gagne - Gold Medallion
#106 Alexander Frolov
#190 Ilya Kovalchuk

I miss counted here but it doesn't matter. This was the last and final pack of 2007 Ultra Hockey. I am going to see how may I am away from at least a base set and maybe put this one together. Not a bad pack though, considering the talent.

Busting 2: Electric Bugaloo

More fun with clearing out the closet. I spent a few hours this weekend trying to start to begin an attempt at possibly taking on an organization project. I started with my football stuff since it is the smallest sport in my collection (actually baseball is with only a few hundred cards; double actually its basketball since I have none). If I find anything interesting, I will post it. On with the break-age.

Pack #1: 2005-06 Parkhurst Hockey

#326 Fedor Tyutin
#312 John Erskine
#293 Viktor Kozlov
#133 Steve Konowalchuk
#139 Jan Hrdina
#40 Brad Stuart

A chance at some of the biggest rookie cards of the last 10 years and I get...nothing. The Konowalchuk was interesting because it reminded me of when he announced his retirement due to his congenitive heart condition. He had Long QT syndrome, which I have a relative that has the same thing. Weird how cards can dig up memories.

Pack #2: 1991-92 Pro Set Series I French Hockey

#156 Ray Ferraro
#177 Rick Tocchet
#252 Michal Pivonka
#111 Jon Casey
#211 Rod Brind'Amour
#189 Phil Bourque
#295 Phil Housley (AS)
#298 Garry Galley (AS)
#237 Dave Capuano
#297 Dave Christian (AS)
#36 Carey Wilson
#320 Brett Hull (Hart Trophy)
#171 Gord Murphy
#184 Mark Recchi
#190 Paul Coffey

The only thing worse than this pack of 91 ProSet would have been a pack of 90 ProSet. I did pull 3 Pens cards out of here, undoubtedly ones I already have but nonetheless...

Pack #3: 2008 Score Football

#145 Matt Jones
#120 Kevin Walter
#174 Bobby Wade
#128 Joseph Addai
Matt Leinart - Donruss Decals
#437 Ali Highsmith (R)
#326 Chris Cooley - Glossy Parallel

I am seriously beginning to hate these cards. I didn't mind them at first but now after opening a ton of them, it is losing its' novelty. I did get another sticker for my Trapper Keeper, with that Leinart. He's dreamy...

Pack #4: 2007 Topps Football Rack Pack

1 Awesomely delicious stick of oversized gum
#173 Reggie Brown
#116 Michael Jenkins
#124 Drew Carter
#232 Terence Newman
#219 Chris Cooley
#203 George Wrighster
#404 LaDainian Tomlinson (LL)
#168 Jerricho Cotchery
#215 Joe Klopfenstein
#235 Dunta Robinson
#273 DeMeco Ryans
#91 Kevan Barlow
#285 Walter Jones
#183 Darrell Jackson
#35 Jeff Garcia
#166 Amani Toomer
#318 Thomas Clayton (R)
#335 Rhema McKnight (R)
#362 Patrick Willis (R)
#377 Marcus McCauley (R)
#287 Brady Quinn (R)
#389 Eric Weddle (R)

Wow! I can't believe I opened a pack that had gum in it. The smell alone brought back fond memories of opening packs of Topps cards back in the mid 80s. I also can't believe there wasn't one of those stupid Favre cards in there. There were six rookies, none of which amount to anything from a "hit" perspective. I think I may hand collate a set of these. I have to have at least 60-70% of the set laying around.

Pack #5: 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

#139 Michal Rozsival
#439 Chris Phillips
#262 Erik Johnson
#481 Ray Whitney
#516 Brian Lee (R) - Rainbow Parallel
#125 Rob Niedermayer - Retro Parallel

Good News! 2 Parallels in one pack, on being a Marquee Rookie. Not bad if I do say so myself. Better News! I needed all of them for my set completion. Even Better News! I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

Random Pack Busting Madness

As the title says, here is some random pack busting madness. No rhyme or reason. Just enough to satiate my crave for the good stuff.

Pack #1: 2007-08 Ultra Hockey

#41 Colby Armstrong
#59 Wade Redden - Gold Medallion
#SK2 Dany Heatley - Scoring Kings
#170 Kristian Huselius
#10Kevin Bieksa

Not a horrible pack to start things off. Each pack of these has one gold medallion card so that was a given but the Scoring Kings insert was one that I didn't have. I also got a former Pen with the Armstrong. I still wish they never would have traded him.

Pack #2: 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

#281 Ryan Suter
#181 Brian Rafalski
#293 Jay Pandolfo
#13 Chris Kunitz
#SH1 Joe Thornton - Season Highlight
#280 Radek Bonk

I started to get a little excited with this one because it was thick. Could there be a Jersey or Auto? Of course not. It was one of those Upper Deck Coupon slugs. At any rate, 2 packs and 2 inserts. The Thornton is another one that I didn't have in my quest to complete the 07-08 OPC set (although it is only a pipe dream). The Kunitz is cool because he is now a Pen so that will go into the book. The only downfall was that Bonk card. Everytime I pull a Bonk, I die a little more inside.

Pack #3: 2006-07 MVP Hockey

#124 Stephen Weiss
#43 Jamie Lundmark
#59 Ray Whitney
#260 Vaclav Prospal
#57 Cory Stillman
#90 Adam Foote
#35 Jaroslav Spacek
#H17 Jaromir Jagr - International Icon

Three packs and three inserts. That has to be some kind of record. The Jagr is one that I didn't have in my PC. I stopped collecting Jags after he left for "greener" pastures so my collection of Jagr stuff in uniforms other than Pittsburgh are limited. As for the rest of the pack, the only two that go into my player albums are the Whitney and the Foote.

Pack #4: 2006-07 Ultra Hockey

#29 Jarome Iginla
#45 Martin Havlat
#165 Steve Bernier
#108 Chris Higgins
#20 Zdeno Chara
#38 Justin Williams
#DM12 Marty Turco - Difference Makers
#169 Doug Weight - Gold Medallion

I guess I must just be naive when it comes to inserts. 4 Packs, 4 inserts. Again, the GM cards are one per pack so that is no surprise. I have a bunch of these already but have never ventured to try to put a set together. Maybe I will try.

Pack #5: 1997-98 Donruss Hockey

#108 Ted Donato
#227 Keith Tkachuk (Checklist)
#78 Alexandre Daigle
#181 Brendan Shanahan
#128 Sean Burke
#69 Derek King
#8 Valeri Bure
#42 Shayne Corson
#2 Paxton Schafer - Rated Rookie
#212 Domenic Pittis (R)

I don't know how this got into the mix but it is always fun to bust stuff from a long time ago. The pack was unimpressive when it comes to players, with the highlight being the Shanny. But here it was, pack number five and no chance for another insert, right? Wrong. Here was a Paxton Schafer Rated Rookie. These were a 10 card set that featured Tomas Vokoun and Jean-Sebastian Giguere. Of course I get the Schafer, a goalie for the Bruins that played all of 3 games for them back in 96-97. He played another 6-7 years after that but never made it back up to the NHL. There was also a Domenic Pittis rookie. He was a Pens prospect, picked in the second round back in 1993 Entry Draft. He played one game for the Pens in 1996 and then spent most of his NHL career with Edmonton before leaving for the Swiss league.