Total Collection

      Here it is folks: My entire collection of hockey cards.

Every single hockey card I possess is either in one of the binders you see, on the wall in behind, in one of the two boxes, or just strewn about the image.

So there it is. Mount Sportscard. I have two zippered binders, four non-zippered, two boxes, and 23 cards on a wall. I have one binder and one box of soccer cards, plus one on the wall. And there is also a duotang with 8 quidditch cards. Yes, quidditch cards. Starting from the top of the tower, here are the names of the binders/duotangs/boxes.

Special Soccer Cards

Special Hockey Cards (Box 1)

Special Hockey Cards (Box 2)

Quidditch Cards

Soccer Cards

International and Other Leagues

American Teams 3

American Teams 2

American Teams 1

Canadian Teams

Vancouver Canucks

And here's my Wall of Fame, as I like to call it. Pardon the bad panorama setting. (The three remaining Wall of Fame cards are actually on stands.)

So there you have it. My entire collection.

Pack (kind of) update # 2

     It's time for possibly my biggest pack update yet, and possibly my biggest ever!    
     Yesterday, a close friend of mine gave me his collection of hockey cards, after I let him go through the pages and pick out the few he wanted to keep. The rest of them passed on to me. The many cards mostly featured 91-92 Pro Set, 08-09 Upper Deck Ovation, and 09-10 Upper Deck Victory. Most of the Pro Set cards I already owned, as I previously got a large box of Pro Set duplicates at the same friend's garage sale. However, highlights of the 1400 (give or take 100) cards were many of the 91-92 Pro Set HHOF series, with the sepia pictures. I got Georges Vezina, The Punch Line (Maurice Richard, Elmer Lach, and Toe Blake), Jacques Plante, Terry Sawchuk, Joe Malone, the Kid Line (Charlie Conacher, Busher Jackson, and Joe Primeau), and Gordie Howe. There were also the non-exciting ones of Before the Zamboni: Sweepers and Scrapers, Arena Designs: Separate and Not Equal, and The Modern Arena: Built for Comfort. It also featured Ace Bailey Benefit Game:First All-Star Game and Bill Barilko: The End of the Innocence.

Name of card, left to right, top to bottom:

 Jacques Plante: The Innovator, The Punch Line: Knockout Artists, Georges Vezina: The First Ironman, Joe Malone: The NHL's First Scoring Leader, The Kid Line: Toronto's Terrific Trio, Gordie Howe: "Mr. Hockey", Howie Morenz: The "Stratford Streak", Ace Bailey Benefit Game: The First All-Star Game, Bill Barilko: The End of the Innocence, The Modern Arena: Built for Comfort, Before the Zamboni: Sweepers and Scrapers, and Arena Designs: Separate and Not Equal. 

       The 08-09 Upper Deck Ovation cards featured many first-season cards, most notable of Carey Price and Jonathan Toews, and also Tobias Enstrom and Bryan Little. The RCs from the Ovation had players like Derick Brassard, Shawn Matthias, Kyle Turris and, best of all, Claude Giroux.

                                  RCs                                                    1st seasons

         
           One 09-10 Upper Deck Victory card that caught my eye was a first season Max Pacioretty, but also a first season Blake Wheeler, which I got two of.

           The one and only Pro Set card that interested me was an All-Star Guy Lafleur, from his final season in the NHL. It says on the back that he bowed out with style, but I'm not sure that 12 goals and 16 assists is stylish, and not quite All-Star worthy, even if he is Guy Lafleur.

            One more card that was somewhat of appeal was a 91-92 Upper Deck советские звезды (Soviet Stars) Sergei Federov. This is my second of that card, but I'd thought I would share this find with you.

Ah, binder organizing...

How to organize...by team? By name? By favourite? What a good thing to spend your time doing.

Why I Wish the Abbotsford Heat Stayed

       So now you know. I am from Abbotsford, a city not known for it's hockey obsession. Even though most of the people I know are hockey crazy. That's probably why I know them. So why go to an Abbotsford Heat game if the Canucks are next door? The Abbotsford Heat moved early this summer, and now the excessive amount of money the city spent on the Abbotsford Entertainment and Sports Centre will go to waste. What will we use it for? Sure, it's a good concert venue, but is that really something to have the building's fate riding on? (Although when Christian hip-hop artist tobyMac came to town on his Hits Deep Tour, the AESC did have it's largest attendance ever).

 Every so often, the Abbotsford Heat played host to a Legend of Hockey, such as Lanny McDonald, Kirk McLean, Mike Bossy, or Grant Fuhr. Half an hour prior to the game, these legends had an autograph session, where you were allowed to bring one item to be signed.

Unfortunately, I only made it to the Grant Fuhr session, but I gave two cards to my companions, and kept one for me to be signed, therefore getting three cards with a graph. Being the generous sort, I gave one to my friend for his birthday, and I traded another away. I still have the oldest Grant Fuhr that I got signed that day, a 90-91 Upper Deck, now with a nice, clean graph, written in blue sharpie, which goes along with the Oilers colours at that time.
If only people in Abbotsford cared about our local team a bit more. The only time we got good attendance was when the 'Nucks affiliate came. Alas! Woe is the Heat.

WHA Hall of Fame at the Canada Sports Hall of Fame PACK!

           The Canada Sports Hall of Fame recently hosted a WHA feature, and I was lucky enough to be in Calgary at the time, and had some time to kill. I had never been to the Hall, and I reveled at the incredible hockey artifacts and the great interactive features. With the WHA feature came souvenirs, and what's a Hockey Association without hockey cards, right? There were 10 cards in each pack, and they were $10 each, a bit of a steep price, but the collector in me won out, and I made the purchase. It featured the famed Winnipeg Hotline of Ulf Nilsson, Bobby Hull, and Anders Hedberg, the brother combo of Marty and Mark Howe, and a World Hockey Association card, featuring the AVCO World Trophy. It also came with players such as Pat Stapleton, Robbie Ftorek, Andre Lacroix, and the first-ever hockey card of Paul Hoganson. R.I.P. WHA.

Paul Hoganson, Pat Stapleton, Joe Daley, Robbie Ftorek, Al Smith, Andre Lacroix.

Ron Grahame, The Winnipeg Hotline (Ulf Nilsson, Bobby Hull, Anders Hedberg), Marty & Mark Howe.

The One and Only....JERSEY CARD!

       Yes, it's true. I only have one jersey card. It's a 2010-11 Black Diamond Game-Used Quad Jerseys Lanny McDonald. It does have four patches compared to the usual one, and looks like they are from when McDonald played for the Flames and/or Rockies. There is a stain on the bottom-right patch, and it is more likely from my clumsiness than a real stain on his jersey. As usual, the patches are certified by the president of Upper Deck to have been used in a real NHL game.

A Misleading Card

      Now comes the time to show you a card that got me quite mad at it. A 1992 O-Pee-Chee Denis Potvin, remade from 1974-75. It says the front has a picture never used on a card, and it also says that the back is a reproduction of his rookie card, from 74-75. I quote: "This card back is a reproduction of his card RC #195 from that year, and in NRMNT condition is valued at $65.00 in the fourth Edition of the Charlton Standard Catalogue of Hockey Cards." My card isn't in mint condition, of course, being a hand-me-down, but if it was, according to this card, I could sell it for 65 bucks. I have a hunch that it means his rookie card is worth $65, and not my card, although it sounds as if it means my card. Maybe I'm lucky, and it does mean I have a good card, but not likely. OPC usually has great cards, but I am kind of mad at them for this.

Here's the front

And the back (ANNOYING)