[bruinsfan08]

Not a single pack, but my biggest ever hit came from a box that my family opened together. I'll just re-post the text from the box break thread I posted when it happened...

So this morning, after saving up cans & bottles for months, we took them to the redemption center to cash them in. I promised the boys that we would break some packs with our "winnings," so I headed over to the LCS to see what they had. Nothing new, but there was one box of Series 1, and one box of Series 2 sitting on the shelf, and for the price, I couldn't pass. I picked the Series 1 box, but it turned out to be the French version, so I opted for the Series 2 box instead. I think it turned out to be a solid decision on my part. I sat at the lunch table with my wife and our three boys, and we each pulled out a bunch of packs to open. It was a blast! We always have fun, but this one was unexpectedly excellent.

Anyway, here's what we ended up with...

Young Guns:
452 Nick Bonino
458 Jon Matsumoto
459 Evan Brophey
470 Matt Kassian
473 Linus Klasen
496 Johan Harju

Nothing spectacular, but six YG's, no complaints here.

20th Anniversary Retros:
259 Ben Eager
340 Alexei Ponikarovsky
396 Kimmo Timonen
428 Dominic Moore
431 Tyler Bozak
462 Justin Mercier Young Guns

Again, nothing mind-blowing, but still a decent box.

Here were the bigger hits of the box...

Henrik Lundqvist Game Jersey
James Wisniewski UD Exclusives #032/100
Dana Tyrell Rookie Exclusives
and my first UD Exclusives High Gloss of Ray Whitney #06/10

A solid box overall, despite none of those cards being for my PC.

But wait.

My 7-year old, Timmy, while opening the packs with us, blurts out the phrase "Hey, a Bobby Orr autograph" which I thought couldn't possibly be right.

I was wrong.



Now there's a sweet PC hit. To think, if that UD Series 1 had been the English version, I wouldn't have this card sitting in my hands right now. Timmy says that I can keep it for my collection, as long as I promise to get him a Brad Marchand autograph for his. I think I can manage that.

Although I thought I would hold that card forever, it was gone just a week later. The Orr went for thousands. Plural. There was a brief bidding war between a pair of set collectors, but it eventually found its way into the PC of a gentleman who had put together every complete set of Hockey Heroes since the very beginning, including all the autographs. This being the toughest card to land from that set, he made an offer I simply couldn't refuse, and no other buyer could match. I used the funds to build up my collections of Neely, Ovechkin, Lucic, Marchand, McQuaid and Seguin, as well as helping me to land several big autos for my all-time greats PC. As a bonus, along with the PayPal spent buying the card from me, the buyer generously "threw this in"...



In my book, that's a PC cornerstone, considering who I collect.

Not only did I get Timmy his Marchand auto, I picked up a few nice autographs and jerseys for all three of my boys' collections. I also bought the family tickets to a Bruins game and took everyone out for dinner before the game. Not bad for a box that I didn't really want to get in the first place, eh? Thank you Upper Deck for making a French version of Series 1, because although it may have been cool to pull a Taylor Hall Young Guns in French, at best, I think I scored bigger with the Series 2.