That Card Show...

That Sports Spectacular Show that was held a couple weekends ago at the D.E.S. Convention Center in Rosemont was not definitely not what it was cracked up to be.  Not by a long shot.  But, nonetheless, I still was able to find some cool things to add to the old collection.

A few observations (some of which have already been made by other bloggers):

1.  They didn't have the show in the normal spot.  It was downstairs in one of the back halls.  The room was large enough to fill with all the dealers and still have plenty of room for the endless list of Tri-Star sponsored signing guests.  But, many of those tables were either empty, taken up by memorabilia and "art" dealers, or in such disarray that it was pointless to even bother looking.  Plus my three favorite dealers were also there...the guy with the plastic over his tables so no one can touch anything and a sign that reads "DON'T PUT HANDS UNDER THE PLASTIC"; the guy with the laptop and no pricing on anything and when you ask him, everything is Beckett Hi Value or HIGHER; and the guys with the two boxes full of National Treasures, The Cup, and UD Black autos that you can't afford and three glass cases full of "Hot Packs".

2.  Quarter boxes are all the rage and many dealers at this show took full advantage.  These tables were everywhere and if you had the time, energy, and patience to give them a whirl, deals were to be had at every turn.  That is, if you could actually get to a table.  The popularity of these has grown to the point where every 400lb, ripped t-shirt wearing, "comic book guy" looking dude with dirty hair and extreme body odor pulled up a chair and parked themselves for hours.  Surprisingly, I did manage a few go-rounds at a couple tables and I'll post those later.

3.  As much as I love my kids, taking both of them to one of these shows is very difficult when you want to "window shop".  Patience is not one of their strong suits to say the least.  But overall, they did quite well, especially after we found the $1 Starting Line Up guy.  Who would have thought that a Steve Bedrosian SLU could give such entertainment.

4.  Trading is still, by far, my favorite part of the show.  These Chicago-land shows afford me the opportunity to trade with a few guys (some bloggers, some not) that never fail to surprise me when we sit down at a table to swap.  So far, there have pretty much been four of us that regularly frequent these shows and use this as our opportunity to unload what others want and save on postage at the same time.  I was able to land some interesting stuff this time too which I may or may not post about.

5.  I mentioned before that many dealers, especially regulars, were absent at this show.  That wasn't good if you were planning on buying wax.  Normally there are five or six dealers with a large supply of unopened boxes and cases.  This time, I only counted three with more than a handful of product.  I'm going to pin that on the fact that the National is coming up quickly and many guys are saving their wares for that show.

The autograph ticket was quite impressive, especially if you are a fan of Chicago sports.  But even while at the show, many cancellation announcements were made for guests that were scheduled to be there.  Something about that doesn't sit right with me when I pretend in my mind that I am an auto hound.  A promoter plans a show as big as this (not National size but definitely not your Sunday afternoon swap meet either) with an autograph guest list as extensive as this was, pre-sells a ton of tickets, including pre-sold autos, and we find out five minutes before line up time that the guest isn't coming?  It just seems strange that these are last minute cancellations.  I would think these things are firmed up all the way up to "game time".  But what do I know?

I'm going to stretch out the posts of what I added to my collection but I suppose I can start out with a bang.  Here are a couple oldies, but goodies for sure and my three new favorite cards that I own. (Don't get to excited because my favorite cards change at the drop of a hat.)  From the 1971-72 Topps set, I give you...

The only "action" photo in the entire 1971-72 set and the biggest card too, is now part of my collection.  The best part is the condition of this thing.  There is a nicked corner at the top and a little off centering but that is pretty much it.  An iconic card for sure.

 My oldest Bobby Orr card and my favorite.  This one isn't as nice as the Dryden but is still in pretty good shape for being over 40 years old. 

Mr. Hockey himself...if it wasn't for the bottom right corner and the surface scratch on the "ED" in Red Wings, this card is almost perfect.  To think, Howe would still play another 10 years after this card was produced.  They don't make them like that anymore.

New Tangradi's; Hooray!

I'm so far behind on posts.  I have about 2 dozen started, but none of them finished.

In the meantime, here are some new Tangradi's for the PC.  Inching closer and closer to my goal with every new acquisition.

I don't know if I already posted the UD Exclusives card or not but here it is again just in case.  I also finally got my hands on the Jeunes Lanceurs version.  I bid on this 4 times and lost.

The Luxury Suite Rookie was already in the collection but not this GOLD version.  These are serial numbered #/10.  I was 2 seconds away from another but lost.

Another addition to the Letter Marks goal.  I still can't believe the "T" was lost in the mail way back when.  These don't surface very often.  This is numbered #/50.

I'm pretty sure I posted this one before but here it is again.  It's a dual patch card of Tangradi and Alex Pechursky.  I have a couple other Pechursky autos too.  It always cracks me up to see his signature because it looks like it says Fleury Is 40.  This is numbered #/35.

I thought I had this one already but I didn't.  I have ones that are similar (the Debut Threads ones) but not this one.  It's an Auto/Patch numbered #/35. 

These are two minor releases by Choice 2010 and Choice 2012.  These are from the WBS Penguins team sets.  I have a couple more of these to obtain before I have all the AHL cards.

This is the SP Game Used Authentic Rookies numbered #/699.  These can also be found in the Spectrum version numbered #/10.  I will have one of those one day but until then, this will suffice.

This would be my fifth...?  Yeah, fifth I think, printing plate.  I was never a big fan of these but if I fancy myself a SUPER COLLECTOR, I have to have them on principle.  This is the black plate from the Artifacts set.

 Finally, here is his O-Pee-Chee rookie Retro Rainbow Parallel numbered #/100.  I can't tell you how many of these that slipped through my fingers either.  I'm just glad someone had a BIN for a reasonable price.  Apparently I'm not the only Tangradi collector out there.

A Shipping Quandary

I have shipped many a package to the four corners of the Earth.  But one country that I can never figure out is CANADA. 

What is the deal up there?  How is it that I can ship things up there and they get to their destination within 10 days while other items take over a month?  The same goes for receiving items.  I guess I have had record luck lately with Canadian packages arriving within 5-7 days from when they were shipped.  I think I received at least 8 different packages within the last 30 days all in a short amount of time from the moment they were marked shipped.

But yet, I now have Canadian Ebay sellers advertising $2-3 shipping in their auctions but then demanding $18-24 for shipping/handling/insurance/tracking blah blah blah, if auctions are over $50.  The claim is that it is now required.  Required?  By who?  The Post Office?  Postes Canada?  Certainly not by me.  I haven't read Ebay's policy on shipping with a fine tooth comb either, so maybe it's in there.  Sometimes I don't mind paying extra as long as I know I'm getting the product quicker.  But the worst part of this whole thing is...it is taking 25 days + to get the items here.  25 DAYS OR MORE!!!  I just don't get it. 

Would anyone out there like to help me quell this deep feeling of anger and frustration?  Maybe some of our Canadian friends?  Anyone at all.

Another bulk card acquisition

The things in this picture may look familiar to ONE of you out there but to the rest, let me try to explain in the best way I know how...a long, drawn-out, brain drain of a blog post.

I have been on a strange kick these past couple years with my collecting.  I have had my ups and downs just like everyone out there but a couple years ago (or a year, I don't even remember anymore) I fell off my somewhat disciplined collecting wagon and bought a big collection.  It was what was left of two former dealers that had overextended themselves in the late 90s and early 2000s and simply couldn't hang on anymore.  Of course, they were both from Denver so I can't really say how much Broncos and Rockies stuff is in there (but it is A LOT!!!) but nonetheless, it increased my collection 20 fold.  I even attempted to start a blog just about that collection.  That part hasn't come to fruition.  Neither has the goal of unloading it within a year.

About 8 months ago, I picked up another, lesser collection from a guy trying to make some cash during a stint with unemployment.  I made him a decent offer and ended up on the receiving end of another (14) 3500 count boxes of stuff.  There is a ton of basketball stuff in these boxes from what I can tell.  Very few hockey cards, some football, and a decent amount of baseball; but TONS of basketball.  Since I don't follow the NBA, nor collect basketball cards, and basically lost interest after my "heroes" Barkley, Malone, Jordan, and Bird retired, I really have been unmotivated to sort through these.

Fast forward to about 6 months ago, same scenario (unemployment thing) only this time it was for a large, three-row shoebox (are they still called that?) full of hockey memorabilia and autograph cards (I take that back, all but one...there was a Mark Sanchez Rookie Jersey in there too).  Finally...HOCKEY STUFF!!  Again, this is all cardboard I didn't need but what fun it was to sort through? I found some rare Guerin and Jagr GU cards in there as well as some interesting cards from sets I never even knew existed.

April...I think...came another collection.  This time it was another dealer collection from a guy who only did shows and weekend swap meets.  A few years ago he decided to call it quits and started to dump everything.  That was, of course, in a bad financial time for lots of collectors and he couldn't get what he wanted for it.  So he hung on for a while until now when he found a buyer.  Then somehow I ended up with it through a third party transaction and the guy still didn't get what he wanted for it.  This collection is much more sorted and organized than the previous ones but there are also 20 Home Depot cardboard moving boxes (you know the 20x20x18 ones?) full of various sizes of individual count boxes...all marked, numbered, and apparently sorted.  I haven't even begun to pick this one apart yet.

Which brings me to the photo above (I might even be forgetting something in here too).  As many of you know, Voice Of The Collector, and co-host of the internet based Cardboard Connection Radio, Rob Bertrand put out an appeal to the blogging community not so long ago to help him cut his collection down so he could refocus on what he really wanted to go after.  I, being the "high roller" that I now appear to be, piped up on the hockey cards, we worked out a deal, and now I am the proud owner of what you see above.

We have a complete base set of 2005-06 Upper Deck Hockey, featuring a large array of inserts (over 100 in fact) and game used cards, as well as a huge chunk of the Young Guns intact (no, Crosby and Ovechkin aren't there but I still went for it).  I had this on my set needs list but never actually got around to adding what I wanted.  Now, my work is definitely been diminished.

We have a mostly complete 2006-07 Upper Deck Hockey set (about 30 cards or less short), again complete with a large array of inserts (over 30) and game used cards with a big pile of Young Guns to go with them.  I'm not sure I have the missing ones since I don't have a ton of 2006-07 stuff but I'm sure I have a few.

There is also a 2004-05 SP Authentic Hockey base set with a few of the All-Worlds thrown in.  I didn't have any cards from this set at all before getting these.  In fact, I had never even seen them before.  2004-05 was one of those voided years in collector's heads because of the lockout.  There were only a handful of sets produced by ITG, Upper Deck, and Pacific at the time.  I wouldn't mind finding some of those Young Guns Legends SPs from the flagship Upper Deck set though.

And finally, we have an almost complete base 2010-11 SP Authentic base set with, (even though I already knew, I'm just now realizing) a bunch of the Essentials SPs, a couple Future Watch cards and some HoloFX cards.  I have this set completed less 2 cards, already.  But having another one isn't necessarily a bad thing.  I may even have the missing cards in my doubles since I bought a couple of boxes of these last year trying to get those last 2 cards. 

Basically, this gives me at least two more Upper Deck flagship sets to add to my set needs list as well as a ton of inserts and GU cards that I may or may not hang on to.  Another cool thing is that apparently Rob is just like me when it comes to storing sets, in that he cuts up the box labels and affixes them to the boxes.  I bet 40% of hockey collectors do the same thing.  We should do a poll.

It is all great stuff and I am glad I now have it in my collection.  Thanks again to Rob over at VOTC!!  I really appreciate the opportunity to take this off your hands and help you toward your next collecting goal.

Box Break - - 2007-08 Fleer Hot Prospects Blaster Box

Retail is a crap shoot when looking for "hits".  You luck out once in a while but almost always walk away feeling like you missed something.  That can also be reinforced by a poorly collated pack out for a product or simply a 1:3000 chance at hitting anything.

(sorry for the blurry picture.  you get the idea though)

Such was life back in 2007-08 when Upper Deck released the Fleer Hot Prospects set.  These came 4 cards per pack with 11 packs in a blaster box (44 cards).  Sure a hobby box would net you a couple game used cards but good luck finding one of these anywhere now.  And good luck finding them priced at the $7.49 that this blaster was.  Yes, that's $7 and $.49 American.

I completed this base set long ago but have always tried to get my hands on some of the Hot Commodities cards, both the Red Hot (#/100) and White Hot (#/10).  There are also regular issue Hot Commodities (#/999), as well as Rookie Auto Patches both regular and SP and Hot Materials cards.  I have never pulled a GU, Patch, Rookie, or White Hot card from a pack.  In fact, of all of this that I opened in my lifetime (and trust me when I say it was a lot!!!) I have only pulled 3 Hot Commodities cards and 1 Red Hot Commodities.  That's how tough these parallels and inserts were.

As I mentioned, the packs contain 4 cards in the retail version.  Most packs had a "decoy" in them back when they were released but you tend to find these in those "discounted" re-pack boxes now, mostly without the "decoy" cards.  As you can see by the photo to the left, the packs look just like the boxes.  They also tell you to "Find Autographed Rookie Patch Cards".  Oh yeah?  How about you find one and give it to me?  As far as I'm concerned, there were never any in here.

When I checked my box break list, I didn't see this one on here so I figured I'd at least add it to my archive and share with everyone.  So here is what I was able to manage pulling from this $.17/card box.

Base Cards:  42 (with 2 doubles)

Here is a sampling of what the base cards look like.  Nothing real fancy here.  Just an ice themed border with coloring to match the team.  I can't believe I pulled two doubles out of the same box but then I remembered how poorly collated this product was back then.

I don't usually scan card backs but figured why not this time.  The backs repeat the photo from the front only washed out in the predominant team color.  There is a quick blurb about the player and, from what I can tell, a maximum of 5 years of career statistics.  It cuts short 11 years for the two gentlemen featured here.  The players number is also sort of watermarked behind the stats.

Inserts:  0

Well technically that's because there aren't any.  The rookie cards and Hot Commodities are all high numbers in the base set.  I didn't pull any of those, nor did I figure I would.

Game Used:  1

A Game Used card in a retail blaster pack of Hot Prospects???  I'm just as shocked as all of you.  But there it is in all it's glory.  These are numbered #/100 and interestingly enough, this one is number #1 (hey, I could sell this as an "Ebay 1/1"!!!  I know, I know.  I shouldn't even joke about that.)  Unfortunately it's Mr. Tuomo Ruutu and it is a plain black swatch.  You would think that serial numbered #1 cards would have some kind of multi-color or something nice in there for being first.  They would if I was in charge.

Autos:  0

No shock there.

Rookies:  0

Again, no shock.

So overall, I beat the odds on this one for sure.  I just wish I would have pulled a better GU.  I can't knock the fact that it was out of #/100 though.  The base cards I pulled are all doubles/triples/quadruples or more in some cases so if you know you might need any, by all means let me know and I can try to help you out.

Some new Penguin PC Additions

I seem to always be busy checking the auction sites when I am in card mode.  I don't know why because I already have more than I know what to do with but I guess that's just the collector in me (or the hoarder).  I have even loaded the app on the phone so I know when any of my player PC guys get new cards.  Ain't technology grand?

I just wanted to take a quick minute and share a few for my Penguins PC that I have picked up recently.  Enjoy...unless you are a Flyers fan.  Then you can go !@#$%%^&

2008-09 Trilogy James Neal Rookie Premiers #/999 -  I think this one goes without explanation.  Neal had his best year ever as a Penguin this season and there is nothing but upside.  Plus, his rookie cards can be had for mere pennies on the dollar.

2011-12 SPx Winning Combos Dual Jersey Mario Lemieux/Sidney Crosby - Another awesome addition to the PC.  Not only is it a Penguin addition but also an add to my Mario Lemieux player collection.  I paid probably a little more than I should have for this one but I couldn't resist.  Especially since these pieces "supposedly" came from 2005-06, Crosby's first year and Mario's last.

2001-12 Crown Royale Rookie Autograph Joe Vitale - I thought I had a Vitale auto already but I guess not.  Now I do.  This one was obtained out of a box (yes I picked up another box).  I was stoked when I saw it since pulling a Pens "hit" is rare in my case (at least this year so far, as in 2011-12 stuff).  Vitale has already shown he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the league for years to come.  As long as he can stay injury free, I think he will have a spot on the Pens roster for some time.  At the very least, he will be here another 2 years for $1.1 million.

 (2) Nick Johnson cards

2010-11 SP Authentic Future Watch Auto #/999 & 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Marquee Rookie  - The auto was one that I was actually looking for for a while.  I don't know why but I just wanted it.  The other I already had in the set but this is the single for my PC.  Unfortunately, Nick was picked off waivers by the Wild at the beginning of this season so he is no longer a Pen. 

And finally...

2010-11 Upper Deck Exclusives Young Guns Eric Tangradi -  Another crossover as a Penguin PC card and a Tangradi player PC card.  This is the Young Guns Exclusive numbered #/100.  I had a shot at this one numerous times but finally landed it a few weeks ago.  I'd like to get my hands on a 26/100 one.  Why, just because.