My Hits From Carboard Conundrum’s Recent Group Break

Today, we’ll take a look at the hits I scored from Matt’s recent group break, over at Cardboard Conundrum.

This is only the second group break I participated in(the first one was on The Real DFG last year), and I think I did pretty well.  The cards are posted in the reverse order of the boxes opened.

So here we go!

We’ll start off with 2009-10 Upper Deck Black Diamond.

The Rangers were my chosen team, and as you can see from the first card, the Maple Leafs were my random team.  You can’t go wrong with a Triple Diamond rookie, but I am not familiar with Jay Rosehill.

Harry Howell is from way before my time, but his number was retired by the Rangers in 2009.  I remember when this happened, because Michal Rozsival switched his jersey from #3 to #33 because of this.  I don’t go after any cards from this era(then again I never have come across any that are in my price range), so it’s nice to be able to add a Hall of Famer to my collection.

Phil Esposito is known more when he was with the Blackhawks and the Bruins, but he spent 6 solid seasons with the Rangers.  And, as is the case with Harry Howell, it’s nice to add another Hall of Famer to the collection.

Even  though he’s now with the Blue Jackets, I’m still a fan of Dubinsky.  He played with grit and heart, and even had some flashes of offensive brilliance.  This would be my first sticker auto, but I’ll never complain when it comes to adding another Ranger autograph to the collection.

Next up is 2011-12 ITG Between the Pipes.

Personally, I’ve never busted any Between the Pipes, but I am a fan of the Masked Men series(as well as any other goaltender specific inserts).  This is a regular version James Reimer.  I’m kind of confused as to why the common versions are die-cut.  Still, these are very nice cards in person, and I’m happy to finally have a few in my collection.

Felix Potvin is a name I can associate to the time when I was heavily into collecting.  The early-to-mid-nineties were my collecting heyday, and “Felix the Cat” was one of the many players I collected.  This is a one of the Silver versions, which is out of 90.  There is no serial numbering, and I would have never known if I wasn’t told.

And lastly, we have 2007-08 Upper Deck Artifacts.

This is an awesome card!  Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka were pretty popular when the were with the Rangers, and I was among the many who loved these 2.  So, the firs thing this card has going for it, is the player selection.  The second thing it has going for it, is the 2 different colored swatches, and neither of them are white.  And lastly, it is numbered out of 25(15/25 to be precise).  This is my first dual jersey card, and also the lowest serial numbered card in my collection.  It also happens to be my favorite card of the ones I received from this group break.

There were also base cards, which will get their time in another post.  Thanks again Matt, for a fun experience, and the excellent choices in the boxes you picked.  🙂

Thank You Casey!

A little while back, Casey, of Drop the Gloves fame, put up a post stating that he had a lot of cards that he needed to get rid of.

I was one of the many who commented, stating what kind of cards I would be willing to take off of his hands.  Pretty much, I said that I would be interested in NY Rangers stuff, and, wow, did he send exactly that!

I was not expecting the amount, or quality of the cards he ended up sending.  And to top it all off, there were only a handful that I didn’t need!

Already a great start!  I always find it weird when I see Richter wearing a Hasek-style helmet.  And who can forget the cheesy Rangers “Star Rookie Checklist”?!

In addition to my request of Rangers cards, I also made a mention that I was a Packers fan.  I don’t have many football cards, so this Jennings card, with him sporting the really old-school jersey is much appreciated!

Before this package arrived, I had maybe, 2 Champs cards in my collection.  And the ones I do have can’t beat the ones you see above.  Messier, Gretzky, and Gaborik?!  Plus a red parallel Gaborik?!

Lot’s of really good stuff here.  I especially like the Upper Deck Ice Brian Leetch card.  I only have a few of these cards, and this is my first Ranger, and I must say that it looks very nice!

And I’m really digging the Rod Gilbert “Classic Ticket” card.  It’s a very shiny card, and I don’t have more than a few cards, if any, of any player, from Gilbert’s era.

Black Diamond cards have always looked pretty good through the years.

The Panini Playoff Contenders are some other favorites.  The “Ultra Power” Adam Graves is a card that I already have, and it’s one of his more memorable looking inserts.  Graves wasn’t a superstar, but I appreciate that at least he has a decent number of inserts to look for.

And now we’ll get the my absolute favorite cards from the lot that Casey sent.

The first three!

Even though he’s in Columbus now, I’m still a fan of Dubinsky.  I’ll always remember him wearing number 17, but it’s cool to see him wearing 48, and a shield!

A Stepan rookie was missing from the pc, so it ended up in the absolute favorites pile.

The Dan Girardi, if I’m not mistaken, is a Rainbow parallel of his card in this O-Pee-Chee set.  I’m not very up to date when it comes to parallels.

And now the 3 that I like the most.

My heyday for collecting was the early-to-mid-nineties.  This Stadium Club Finest insert pretty much sums up the period.  Shiny foil insert.

Ryan McDonagh is on his way to becoming a solid defenseman.  This serial numbered “Future Watch” rookie card could fit in with either my serial numbered cards, or my general Rangers collection.  Maybe I’ll start a collection of Rangers rookie cards!

Lastly we have what I believe is a Black Rainbow parallel of Brian Boyle.  The Black Rainbow parallels are serial numbered out of 100.  This one has the distinction of being number 001/100, which is pretty freakin’ cool!!

Thanks again Casey!  I should have some Bruins I can send your way at some point.  🙂

An Introduction

Hello all.  My name is Jason and when it comes to collecting trading cards, I am a fan of hockey and non-sports cards(as if you couldn’t tell from the name of my blog).  I’ve been a fan of trading cards since I was about 8 years old(1987).  It all started with my step brother giving my younger brother and I a binder full of Mets and Yankees cards in it.  Soon after my older brother gave my younger brother and I a few binders of other baseball cards.  I collected baseball cards for a short time, and started collectiong hockey cards around 1990(I wasn’t a big fan of baseball).  It’s a given that I was also buying my fair share of non-sports cards as well.  It seems as if Topps had trading cards for every major property in the 80’s and early nineties.

These days, I’m an occasional collector.  I still have a lot of the hockey cards I had when I was a kid, and every now and then, I’ll end up getting a few packs, sometimes a box.  But I should have plenty to share here.

And here’s the perfect card to kick things off!  😉

This is a 1993 Looney Tunes Hare-OS card.  This card was traded between my younger brother and I many times.  But then we made up a rule that he would have to trade me any Wayne Gretzky card that he got, and I would have to trade him every Mario Lemieux card that I got(I still think that was pretty fair).  We were wierd, I tell ya!