[hatzosman6]

When I did my last post, almost a month ago, I said that another would be coming soon. Apparently, I lied. Stuff has been moving slowly for me, in terms of cards, so it took me a while to really get a good haul. After waiting for one or two nice cards to come in, I actually did end up with a pretty lengthy post here. Enjoy!

This is mail post #13 on the year.

-------------------------------------------------------


02-03 BAP Ultimate Memorabilia Tim Thomas (040/250)
In my last mail post, I picked up a new copy of this card -- graded BGS 9.5, with the case in great shape. That enabled me to set my old copy of the card free -- and give it a new home alongside the rest of my "regular" collection. These cards are very nice looking, but definitely look better when freed from the case.

-------------------------------------------------------




06-07 Upper Deck Press Plate Black Ryan Suter (1/1)
Here's another addition to my stash of plates. This one came from ebay, and is actually my second of Ryan Suter. I also own the Cyan from the same year.

-------------------------------------------------------


Commons from 06-07 Be A Player
These cards came in from Matt (chadsexington) and will go toward my yearly binder project. Thank you for sending them to me!

-------------------------------------------------------


Commons from 02-03 UD Superstars (Hockey)
These commons came to me in trade from Paul (pwag31). For my yearly binder project, I have long been looking for cards from this set -- but I only wanted cards featuring hockey players. With these commons in hand, I've finally acquired enough!

-------------------------------------------------------


02-03 Upper Deck Exclusives Paul Kariya (/75)
98-99 SPx Top Prospects Radiance Curtis Joseph (/100)
03-04 Upper Deck MVP Gold Script Dany Heatley (/25)
03-04 Pacific Complete Red Dany Heatley (/99)
06-07 Upper Deck Trilogy Ice Scripts Andrew Ladd
Here are the other cards from my trade with Paul. There are definitely some nice parallels here. It's also the first time I've ever owned an Ice Scripts card, and I must say -- these are very well done.

Paul, thanks for the deal!

-------------------------------------------------------


Commons from 07-08 SP Game Used (and a few others)
The next three pictures (including this one) will highlight a trade I made with Jay (nauticalcounsel). These cards will go toward my yearly binder project -- and kill off one of the more difficult sets for me to complete each year.

-------------------------------------------------------


05-06 Upper Deck Diary of a Phenom Sidney Crosby (DP12)
05-06 SP Authentic SP Limited Dennis Wideman
05-06 Ultimate Ryan Craig RC (/599)
05-06 Hot Prospects Red Hot Marc-Andre Fleury (/100)
07-08 O-Pee-Chee Micromotion P.J. Axelsson
Here's a few random cards that were part of the deal. Of these, I plan on keeping the Craig, but the others are available.

-------------------------------------------------------


07-08 Upper Deck Ice Mike Lundin RC (/999)
07-08 SP Game Used Matt Smaby RC (/999) (x2)
07-08 SP Game Used Gold Simon Gagne (/100)
07-08 SP Game Used Gold Mike Lundin (/100)
07-08 SP Game Used Spectrum Marc Methot (/25)
Finally, here's the last of the trade with Jay. I will be keeping the Lundin Ice RC, and one of the SP Game Used Smaby RCs. I may also keep the Lundin Gold parallel. The other cards will be made available. Certainly, I'm glad to have these cards in for my Lightning collection. Jay, thanks for the help!

-------------------------------------------------------


Commons from 07-08 Upper Deck Ice
07-08 Upper Deck Exclusives Henrik Lundqvist (/100)
These cards came to me from Wes (wacards). The Ice commons, like so many other cards from this post so far, will go to my yearly binder project. The Lundqvist is a pickup for the tradelist. The most important card from the trade, however, is in the next picture.

-------------------------------------------------------


05-06 Ultimate Alexandre Picard RC (/599)
Picard was traded to the Lightning at the deadline, and made a good addition to the team's defense. This is his best rookie card, and as such, will go toward my Lightning Best-RC collection. Wes, thanks for helping me out with this one!

-------------------------------------------------------


03-04 Topps Traded Red Andrew Peters (/100)
06-07 Flair Showcase Legacy Marc-Antoine Pouliot (/100)
06-07 Beehive Blair Jones RC (SP)
06-07 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Shean Donovan (/100)
06-07 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Chris Clark (/100)
06-07 O-Pee-Chee Rainbow Mark Stuart / Andrew Alberts (/100)
The next three pictures (including the one above) will highlight cards from a trade I made with Michel Massicotte. The Jones RC will be a keeper for my Lightning collection, but the others are available. However, we all know that I'm a fan of my parallels, so I'm just as happy to keep 'em.

-------------------------------------------------------


07-08 Upper Deck Clearcut Winners Patrick Marleau (/100)
07-08 SPx Spectrum Jersey Parallel Scott Niedermayer (/25)
07-08 O-Pee-Chee Mike Lundin RC (SP)
One of the main reasons I made this trade was to acquire cards from sets I'd never seen before. Thus is the case here with the Marleau and Niedermayer. Both are very nice cards -- discounting, of course, Upper Deck's embarassing numbering job on the Series 2 Clearcut cards. The Lundin is actually an extra, so it's a tradelist addition as well.

-------------------------------------------------------


07-08 Upper Deck Ice Black Quad Jersey Stan Mikita
07-08 SP Authentic Holo FX Brendan Shanahan
07-08 Between The Pipes The Mask V Manny Legace
Here's the last three cards from the trade with Michel. All three of these cards rate high in terms of visual appeal. Both companies did a good job with these. The Legace is the first Mask card I've owned from this year's product -- I am still searching for a Tim Thomas for my own collection.

Now, we'll switch gears a bit, and go into some of the more specific items I picked up for my own collection.

-------------------------------------------------------


90-91 Pro Set Bob Gainey
91-92 Pro Set Platinum Terry O'Reilly
91-92 Pro Set Platinum Jim Kelly
When I made my last post, it was from a card show I had attended in mid-May. I found a ton of old Pro Set cards, and finally picked up as many cards as I could from some of the more interesting subsets -- in particular, the coaches and referees in 90-91, and the celebrity captains in 91-92. However, I ended up missing three cards.

Dan (27Leafs27) was kind enough to dig out the three remaining cards, which are pictured here. He sent them along free of charge. That's about par for the course for Dan, well-respected as one of the most generous people in the hobby. Whether or not the cards are worth the paper they're printed on -- in this case, that's up for debate -- they make an important addition to my collection, and finish off another mini-project. Dan, thank you!

-------------------------------------------------------


00-01 Upper Deck Pros and Prospects Matt Elich RC (/1000) (Graded SGC 98)
I was never big into the whole "graded card box topper" thing, but when I saw this card on ebay, I knew I had better pick it up. Matt Elich is one of the players I collect, and I do own an unslabbed copy of this card. Still, the high grade made this one worth it. Why?

Here's the numbers. Of the 1000 copies of this card printed, 413 were graded by SGC. 309 cards were graded SGC 96, and 74 were graded SGC 92. Only 30 copies received the coveted SGC 98. Try to imagine finding an eight-year-old card for a player collection with only 30 copies printed -- you may just pull your hair out.

So, in the end, I decided it was worth it -- especially for under $10. Not a bad oddity for my Elich collection.

-------------------------------------------------------


06-07 Sheffield Steelers Regular Set Shawn Maltby
06-07 Sheffield Steelers Black and White Shawn Maltby
06-07 Sheffield Steelers Silver Shawn Maltby
06-07 Sheffield Steelers Gold Shawn Maltby
Here's a sad story with a happy ending.

James Lindley was formerly associated with the Sheffield Steelers team. James had begun selling some of these cards, and I won an ebay auction for the regular version of the Maltby card in early 2007. It never showed up. After hearing many other horror stories of collectors not receiving cards that they had purchased from James, I had pretty much given up.

A month or two ago, I decided to send one last email just to see how things went. To my surprise, he responded by sending me four versions of the Maltby card via registered mail. I was shocked to see he did the same to at least one other collector who had seemingly been stiffed as well.

So, in the end, I've got four of the five versions of the Maltby card. There is still an autographed version, limited to 20 copies, that I am in the hunt for. Despite the headaches, at least this one ends up as a success -- almost 18 months in the making.





With that, we'll move into the "five stars" of this mail post. It's all quality from here on out!

-------------------------------------------------------


06-07 Upper Deck Trilogy Honorary Scripted Patches Sergei Samsonov (05/10)
I was a bit nervous going after this card. It had been listed on ebay twice before, by the same seller. The high bids were in the $40 range, but the sale was never completed. I wasn't sure why. I took my chances on the third attempt, when the card slipped to around half the price. It worked out just fine -- no problems with the seller at all. Certainly, this is one of the better Samsonov cards in my collection. The print run speaks for itself, and the three-color patch is pretty nice. Of course, one could take issue with the "three team" nature of the card, and we need not discuss Samsonov's signature. Aside from those minor (?) gripes, it's a keeper.

-------------------------------------------------------


07-08 Upper Deck HG Kevin Weekes (07/10)
Weekes has been spared from this year's printing presses -- very few cards have been produced. Aside from his press plates, this is the toughest of the batch. It's the first and only copy to show up, which is surprising for a product that has been out for a while. It came to me from ebay.

-------------------------------------------------------


00-01 Upper Deck MVP First Stars Keith Aldridge (19/25)
This card is pretty much feature-worthy in and of itself! It was on my most-wanted list for a long time. It actually sold fairly well on ebay, mainly because of a bid war between myself and another Stars collector. I couldn't let it slip by, though -- who knows if another copy would ever appear. Sadly, it's not even the last Aldridge card #/25 from the 00-01 season that I need. The Upper Deck Exclusives Level 2 card is still on my wantlist.




In closing -- what two cards could best a player collection pickup of that magnitude?





-------------------------------------------------------




07-08 Between The Pipes Crease-Cut Number Emerald Tim Thomas (1/1)
Well -- it was going to take a 1/1, wasn't it? Howabout two of them?

-------------------------------------------------------




06-07 Upper Deck Press Plate Black Tim Thomas (1/1)
Indeed, I'll take two!

No exciting stories to tell on these two. They were ebay pickups that involved big bids and a little bit of nervousness. Not my favorite way to go about doing things -- I'd much rather wager a deal with someone in another manner, and I'm one that prefers hard work over brute force bidding. But you do what you have to.

The BTP card came from a collector in Germany. The Press Plate came to me from the other side of the world, near Vancouver.

For the BTP card, I now own both the regular and emerald version of the Number card (/10 and 1/1, respectively). I also own two 1/1s from the set -- including the emerald Emblem card.

For the Press Plate, it's my third from the 06-07 set. I only need the Cyan version to complete the set of four! Strangely, I still have yet to see an 07-08 Press Plate of Thomas, Samsonov, or Weekes.

With these cards in hand, I'm up to an even ten 1/1 cards of Tim Thomas -- and these are #21 and #22 for my player collections in general.

-------------------------------------------------------

News and notes:

**I am continuing to update the Upper Deck Press Plate trackers. Here are the links: 05-06, 06-07, 07-08.

**To replace the Keith Aldridge card on my most-wanted list, I added in the 00-01 Pacific Copper parallel of Dieter Kochan. I am aware that two sellers on the Beckett Marketplace have the card listed at high book -- $25 -- but I refuse to buy from either of them. We've got two evil forces at work here. First, a multiplier in the price guide that simply doesn't work right. Second, two blisteringly arrogant sellers with their heads up their you-know-wheres. I'll keep watching for a copy to surface somewhere else.

**Aside from the plethora of Matt Smaby and Mike Lundin cards I am catching up on, I do still need the Best-RCs of a few other recent Lightning additions. I am looking for Mike Smith's 03-04 UD Premier RC, Junior Lessard's 05-06 UD Ultimate RC, and Jussi Jokinen's 05-06 The Cup RC.

That'll be it. Thanks everyone!

LINKS:
Andy's Hockey Cards - Player Collection Website
Vipers Best-RCs Project - Lightning Best-RCs Project
Wantlist - Tradelist

-------------------------------------------------------

[bakeryracing]

Nice tim thomas stuff congrats! your 13th mail of the year. And its Friday the 13th. Anyone else scared? Cause I am.

[IAMCANADIAN®]

Sweet Pickups, Andy!

[ovechkin05]

those are some awsome cards congrats on your new additions

[dufflebagboy]

NICE STUFF!! CMB and LMK for the marleu CCW and P.M me

[dufflebagboy]

bakeryracing Wrote:Nice tim thomas stuff congrats! your 13th mail of the year. And its Friday the 13th. Anyone else scared? Cause I am.

I have been scared since yesterday lol

[ovechkinlover999]

Very Nice Mailpost!

Really enjoyed this one!

[Steve Ott fan]

Great Stuff. I'm curious, how did you go by extracting that Thomas Ultimate Mem. RC from its case? I have a few Steve Otts and I'd like to free one of them so I can put it in the Ott binder.

Jay

[gbbadger]

Always fun to read your posts Andy.

[hatzosman6]

Big thanks for the replies, everyone!

bakeryracing Wrote:Nice tim thomas stuff congrats! your 13th mail of the year. And its Friday the 13th. Anyone else scared? Cause I am.

Yup, I'm tempting fate here. Well, nothing too bad happened yesterday!

dufflebagboy Wrote:NICE STUFF!! CMB and LMK for the marleu CCW and P.M me

Sorry -- didn't really see anything that interested me.

Steve Ott fan Wrote:Great Stuff. I'm curious, how did you go by extracting that Thomas Ultimate Mem. RC from its case? I have a few Steve Otts and I'd like to free one of them so I can put it in the Ott binder.

You're going to need a good clamp on the "body" of the case. Then, as crazy as it sounds, take a hacksaw to the top of the case just below the label (and within half a centimeter of the card itself if you can). When you get the label sawed off, get a flathead screwdriver and pry the rest of it open!