RAISE THE CUP - A Pair From Trade Night

A busy work week left me struggling to get home at a decent hour let alone take care of important stuff....like post to my blog.  I've had a lot of stuff I wanted to share.

Oh well, it should be a calmer weekend.......should.

Tonight I'll share a pair of cards that I picked up from trade night a week and a half ago.  One I snagged in an actual trade, the other I landed as part of my Pack Wars win.

Both are very nice additions to the ever-growing set.

This Panini Certified Path To The Cup card is now the third from this very cool looking insert set that I have in my 'Raise The Cup' project.

I enjoy the horizontal layout of the card because it allows me to see more of the background and atmosphere of the moment captured.

The bold graphics at the bottom just add punch to the card.  And as a bonus, it's serial numbered to just 99 (almost impossible to see in the upper left corner).

Too bad Panini is now out of the hockey card making business....this would have been a sweet set to bring back year after year.

I never get bored of seeing Ray Bourque lifting the Cup.  Beautiful timing on this photo too....I can feel the emotion coming from the cardboard.

This card comes from the 2013/14 SP Authentic product and I gotta say that the Authentic Moments set really impressed me - especially the photos from the 80's.  Stay tuned as I plan to share a couple beauts.

But back to this card.  As much as I love the horizontal design on the Willie Mitchell, I really like the vertical design for the Bourque.  Odd.  I think in this instance, the taller layout allows me to focus a little more on Bourque first, then the rest of the arena.  The Cup in more in frame as well (which would be tougher to do with a different orientation).

Overall, a pair fit for the binder.  Ever growing.

Current Collection - 116 cards

K4K - The Final Tally

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'd know that my nephew recently participated in the Extra Life video game marathon yesterday, raising money for the Alberta Children's Hospital.

For any of you who are interested, I made a Final Tally post on the K4K blog to give everyone a sense of what he (and the Extra Life community) accomplished.

Thanks!

K4K - THE ATARI HAS MADE AN APPEARANCE!!

The Atari 2600 has made an appearance at our video game marathon.

I think I've got my nephew and his friends confused as I am now kicking their butt.  It's mint.

I've even set up a little quarter challenge and High Score Board.  Prizes for the top score.

I smell victory.

If you'd like to donate to my nephew's challenge of raising $500 for the Alberta Children's Hospital, check out the blog we set up at Kyle4orKids.  All the info is there.

Thanks for your time.

K4K - Today Is The Big Day

In a little less than 9 hours from now, my nephew will participate in one of the biggest video game marathons on earth.  The goal is to raise money for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals all around the world.

He has teamed up with an organization called Extra Life which promotes fundraising for this very worthy cause by playing video games.

Yes....it's sounds crazy.  But it also sounds real fun.

We have the video game room set up, I've cracked out the ol' Atari 2600 and my sister's been put in charge of ordering pizza for my nephew (and a few of his friends who will be stopping by to help out in the day).

While we are still short of our goal of $500, we have received a lot of positive comments, kind donations and have created some awareness to the cause.  Never....NEVER a bad thing.

If you are at all interested in learning more, there are links on the right-hand side of my blog to explain what Extra Life is and a direct link to my nephew's donation page if you'd like to help out.

For now, it's time to rest.  We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.

PACK WARS - October 21 Was A Very Good Day

Wednesday was monthly trader night at the local card store.  A week late this month in order to correspond with the release of Upper Deck's high-end beast of a product - The Cup.

And while I missed out on the case break team draft, I did play a couple hands of Pack Wars.......

and won.

I think I'm like most who play Pack Wars at the card shop.  Win a few, lose most of the time.  It feeds the gambler in me and I think it's one way to support the LCS when breaking a box isn't in the budget.

The product of choice - 2012/13 SP Authentic.

The category called - Birthdate closest to October 22.

I had Alexander Burmistrov.  He was born on October 21.

And the big card in the win....

Ta and da!!!

This beautiful three-color patch obviously comes from the oildrop on the crest, a hard-signed signature that looks really solid (for players nowadays) and a $10 price tag for the price of the Pack War.....what more do you want.

Now, I was hoping for a Linden auto/patch, but we all can't be too choosy.

I'm optimistic that I'll be able to parlay this into a Linden or two for the collection.

Regardless, I've got a few hands I can play now where It'll feel like I'm playing with the house's money.

LINDEN CARD OF THE WEEK - Not Mine.......Yet

Lots of stuff happening on numerous Linden fronts this past week.  None of which directly affecting me.....yet.

But these items I'm about to show you are definitely worthy of a blog post - that's for sure.

First of all, Upper Deck is about to release its ultra high-end product next week.  2013/14 The Cup will mark the official end of last season's hockey card product releases (yes, I know....it's dumb) and it will also mark the third season in a row that my guy has been included in the checklist.

While specific numbers are not yet out, I did notice this beauty as a part of Upper Deck's preview.

Oh man.  The drool factor went up a little just now.

Anyone recognize the patch?  For you non-Canucks followers, it's the 20th Anniversary patch.  The only beef I have with this card is that Linden is pictured in a time after that.  It would have been outstanding if UD had put a proper era photo on the card.

But......beggars can't be choosers.  And I guess neither can people with a bit of common sense.

Now that doesn't mean that I'm not chasing this card.  Not at all.  In fact, with a print run of 25, it might be one of the more exciting challenges of the product for me.

Fingers crossed that the checklist won't break the bank.


Just prior to seeing that beauty of a card on UD's Facebook page, I noticed yet another Linden stunner on ebay.

A copy finally showed up (and yes, the photo is that sucky......it's called focus).

This Tundra Sixes patch card from Artifacts has an eclectic mix of Canucks players including Linden.  It's doubtful that I'll pull the trigger on a bid with this copy.  I'm more interested in seeing how high it finishes.

But with only 6 copies of the card in the product, I figured it was worth posting as it might be a while before I see another.


And last....but definitely not least, I was notified about one heck of an auction.  I've got very little intention of pulling the trigger, but massive interest as I think it's one of the coolest items I've ever seen.

First, how many of you have ever seen this photo?

It one of a handful of pics that exist showing Linden in his pre-#16 jersey.

This is the only photo I have from this brief era and it was cut out of a magazine years ago.  I kept it because of the unique #49 shot.  It's such a cool photo....I do wish it was larger though.

But I was forwarded a site that shared the same photo.

Yeah.  That is what it is.

Classic Auctions, one of the premiere sites for sports memorabilia auctions, has got its hands on an 88/89 Linden game-used jersey from his pre-season games.  In fact, CA claims that it's the very first jersey Linden wore in an NHL game (Sept. 16, 1988 in Duncan BC against the LA Kings).

The jersey comes from the personal collection of Canucks Equipment Manager Larry Ashley and has all the proper evidence of being the real deal.

The Canucks wore nameplates on their jerseys in the '88 preseason and there is evidence that this was a recycled jersey prior to Linden wearing it.

Now we've seen the yellow version in a photo, but never the black.  Well, Classic Auctions comes through again.

You can clearly see that in this team photo, Linden is wearing a jersey in which the number ends in a 9.  That's the #49 jersey.

I was also interested to learn that this jersey is very likely to also be a part of another Linden photo.  One that I've had in my collection for years.

This Mohawk team-issued card photo was almost certain to have occurred on the same day as the team picture.  Therefore, it is almost assured that the jersey he is wearing on this card is the #49 jersey being auctioned off.

So what might an item like this fetch in the open market?  I have no idea, but whoever ends up landing this truly unique item will have one jealous Linden collector looking on in awe.

There's always some great stuff out there!!

RATE MY MASK - Devan Dubnyk

With the new hockey season upon us, it's time to get accustomed to new players in new uniforms (Spezza as a Star is still weird) and of course check out the new lids that goalies wearing.

A few to keep an eye out for early on are both Ducks tenders (Gibson with the Pac-Man theme and Andersen with his LEGO look), Kari Ramo's ode to Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven", Jonas Gustavsson's Monsters Hall Of Fame, Ryan Miller's Johnny Canuck alternate lid and lastly...

Giraffes.

But not just any ordinary giraffes.

How about some wild west giraffes.

I really don't know what to say.  I know Dubnyk has a thing for giraffes as it's a play on his tall 6'6" frame and I know that he's now playing in the US Southwest, but this might be the most bizarre mask concept I would have come up with.

Painted by NHL mask guru Dave Gunnarsson, this unique lid sports a very Coyotes-themed color scheme.  The logo is present on the top of the mask and has a bit of attitude to it without going too overboard.

But the rest of the mask is one big leap off of the plank.

If you click on this photo, you'll be able to see all sides of this atrocity.

Depicted on the left side is the legendary sherrif cowboy of Arizona, Wyatt Earp.....giraffe-style, ripe with his huge mustache and Tombstone town sign.  On the other side is his sidekick Doc Holliday.  I take a second and third look, but can't get past the ridiculousness of it all.

The backplate is a little....ok, a lot more simple with the focus being a portrait of his son Nathaniel along with some tributes to members of his family, including his mother.  One writer noted that the backplate looks more like the start of a tattoo sleeve.

Now this is where things go from bad to worse.  One of my beefs with masks these days is the inability to decipher what is actually on the mask - especially from a distance.

I'm sure the Coyotes logo would look sharp...if Devan was looking down all the time (and he might just be), but the sides are just a mess of muted colors.

I can't make out a single thing amidst all the detail work.

Heck, even close up it's still tough to figure everything out.

Now I'll give him points for keeping things thematic, but that's about it.

What I find more surprising is that Gunnarsson seemed very excited with his creation, stating "It's so exciting to create designs that work both on a distance as up close."

Um......ok then.

As for Dubnyk, he commented simply with "It looks awesome."

I guess still having an NHL mask would lend that kind of reaction.  Enjoy it while it lasts.

1.5 out of 5


Now it's your turn to RATE MY MASK!!