i checked out my cards: keep doin' that hockey

Welcome back to the second in a line of what will likely be around 10 posts representing my 2017 COMC Black Friday binge. Today, we keep doin' that hockey, with some new additions to my Minnesota Wild and Toronto Maple Leafs collections. There's also an Islander/Sabre snuck in.

Speaking of the Sabres, the first card there up at the top is of Marco Scandella, who Minnesota lost to the Sabres in the Tyler Ennis trade. It was a good deal for both sides, but personally I preferred Scandella.

This looks awful, but it isn't. 2016-2017 MVP had this awful foily throwback SUBSET reminiscent of Skybox's Skylines in 2000. I love that MVP offers subsets and this one is a beaut, Clark. 

The best thing about collecting hockey cards is that I still get Upper Deck in all of it's wonderfulness. Above is just the base card for Nino Niederreiter (my first Nino!) from 2015-2016. And its a great base card.

Moving into the veterans and parallels, this red parallel from 2016-2017 O-Pee-Chee Platinum (/199) is one of my nicer Mikkos at this point. My collection is certainly lacking.

I always wanted a Cramer's Choice card, and a couple months back I acquired a Rick Ankiel from 2000 Pacific Invincible. Knowing that Crown Royale brought them back to the hockey world recently, I looked for the cheapest one I could find of a decent and active player. Matt Moulson, now banished to the AHL, was that player. This one is a nicely thick die-cut with red and silver foil treatment and a snow white band for the ink. In-hand, this is a gem numbered to just /199.

With O-Pee-Chee (cough Upper Deck couch) free to do as they wish in hockey, there's plenty of die-cuts still, and they don't suck. From 2015-2016 O-Pee-Chee is this James van Riemsdyk, who I've really come to like this season (not like I didn't before) just in time for him to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. 

And here he is again from 2016-2017 Upper Deck, this time on the Canvas variations. This is one of the more benign photos used for Canvas.

Hey, that's better. And it's Nazem! Kadri was one of my collections I tried to really boost this Black Friday, and I added on goodies.

Like Mikko Koivu, I grabbed his red prim from 2016-2017 O-Pee-Chee Platinum.

As well as his Colors & Contours from 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 Upper Deck MVP. The top is a Level 1 Purple (sure, why not) and the following is a Gold - Level 2. So it looks like I have some rainbows to work on.

Kadri fell to Series 2 in 2014-2015 Upper Deck, but he did so with this beauty, in one of the most Nazem Kadri cards I've seen. Hockey is dominated by action shots, and Upper Deck plays around with their photos all the time, resulting in gems like this.

They also play the high-end game as well, creating bafflingly low-glass small-time hits in expensive box breaks such as this one. The green jersey parallel from 2015-2016 Trilogy (of what, exactly) is a pretty nice one in-hand, but the cheap digital numbering adds a handle of Barton's Vodka to the mix for such a classy set.

So that's our hockey. Still to come from the COMC binge will be:

• Hall of Famers and Legends
• Baby Jays
• Champion Jays
• New Collections
• Dirt
• Hits
• Doc, and:
• What the hell was I thinking Buying this Card

getting blasted: 2017-2018 upper deck series 1 hockey

It's been quiet here, between some increased work activity, the holiday(s), birthday(s), and some other things, but yesterday I was able to saunter on out through the writing hoards of half-dead Black Friday shoppers to finally get my hands on some 2017-2018 Upper Deck Series 1. While never a cheap product, it's always damn near the top of hockey releases - featuring excellent photography, plenty of nice base cards, limited parallels, and some decent, 90s-esque inserts and of course: Young Guns.

This year's cover boy is none other than Toronto Maple Leaf Auston Matthews:

Matthews isn't a guy I collect with much vigor, as his huge breakout rookie season in 2016-2017 has inflated his value among collectors, pushing us hobbyists out of the picture. Your basic foil pack is found 12 times in each $20 blaster, with just five cards in each pack. Cartes par paquet. 

With Upper Deck, you come and stay for the unique photography. Here we have Marc-Andre Fleury, fresh off his drafting by the 17-18 expansion franchise Vegas Golden Knights on draft night in a new, well-selling jersey. 

From new to old, we see Oliver Ekman-Larsson, featured in the best sports uniform, period. Just fantastic.

I'm always amazed at how much product NHLers use in their hair before they cram it under a helmet for the next two and a half hours.

Patrik Laine, AKA Diet Auston Matthews, models our card backs. Laine has just one year of service, showing off the Winnipeg Jets logo in the background of the ice-cool card. Upper Deck hasn't changed much over the years, and I take comfort in that.

Portraits fall 1:14 and I was lucky enough to land this Vladimir Tarasenko, the Russian Tank. I'm not sure lucky is the best word, though, as this season's version of the Portraits insert is black-and-white and could not be more uninteresting.

The Canvas "parallels" are 1:14 and the highlight of the inserts, using a canvas-like feature on a light cardboard stock with an alternate photo choice, usually one of the players in a rare pose or from a different angle, such as this one that looks like it was shot from ice-level in an ensuing scrum. Brodie wouldn't be my top choice of players to receive here, but I am appreciative of the Canvas inserts as always, regardless of the player pulled.

The Shining Stars (Defenseman in Series 1) looks straight out of 1998 or so Upper Deck, featuring an impossible to scan foil board with stamped, gold-foil logos. While very nice in-hand, they're a nightmare to scan. Here we have Seth Jones in the awesome Columbus Blue Jackets third jersey, featuring the cannon logo.

And here they are, the Young Guns. Falling 1:6, I grabbed the guaranteed two per blaster. Pierre-Luc Dubois was one of the better ones in the 2017-2018 set, but we're not even close to the class of 2016-2017.

The Sharks' Marcus Sorensen was pulled as well. This year's cards are very blue in design and look great with the teal Sharks jersey.

Now on to the Leafs.

Here's a great shot of Uncle Leo playing in the outdoor game. Komorov has only played in two outdoor games, the 2014 Winter Classic in Ann Arbor and the 2017 Centennial Classic at BMO Field. This one is from the latter.

Mitch! makes an appearance. Marner, like Matthews and William Nylander, is also a tough guy to collect right now.

Nazem Kadri - not so much. With so many Maple Leafs collectors losing their minds over Auston Matthews, Kadri has fallen behind, even though 2016-2017 was his best season and 2017-2018 might shape up to be just as good. Its another one of those alternate photo type UD cards, featuring Kadri in a third grade class Maple Leafs team photo.

As much as I complain about the secondary market on Auston Matthews cards, I can manage to pull him once a blaster on a good day. Aside from an action shot, Upper Deck couldn't have made a better card than this one, featuring a very old school Toronto St. Pats uniform. Just awesome.

So there you have it. UDS1 has been found, and it's beautiful. The End. 

getting blasted: 2017-2018 o-pee-chee

Last weekend I had the urge to rip some hockey cards. I was hoping for some Upper Deck flagship, unaware that the release date isn't until November 9th. Not to worry, though, as MVP and O-Pee-Chee were already on the shelves, and I happily walked away with a fresh blaster of the latter.

O-Pee-Chee is an important set in regards to the history of hockey, and it's recent resurrection has resulted in a very popular and fun set. I made a run at the complete set a few years back, but gave up rather quickly despite its availability. At the time, it just wasn't in the the cards.

The main set is simple and reminds me of some Score designs in the mid-to-late 1990s. The cards are purely cardboard without much noticeable gloss on the front and zero gloss on the back. OPC remains one of the few sets that please the sense of touch for those who collected before the 1990s miss.

First, the Maple Leafs. Believe it or not, the Matthews above is my first of the NHL's version of Aaron Judge. He's featured on card No. 1 in this set, and is very much "The Guy" in NHL collecting right now. I'm not working hard at collecting Matthews, I'll center that attention on Nazem Kadri.

Marquee Rookies, Checklists, Season Highlights and League Leaders fall at 1:2, and somehow I only noticed this one aside from the checklists.

Falling 1:2 as well are the vintage parallels, which are really my favorite thing about this set. They can get frustrating if you're going for a complete set, but overall are fun and excellent-looking in 2017-2018. I managed one Maple Leaf, Connor Brown.

Rainbows come at a rate of 3:blaster or 1:8 packs. Managing three was huge, even if it involved two New York Rangers. As we'll see coming up, though, I broke the odds multiple times in this blaster.

This Aleksander Barkov is a parallel-parallel, a Mini Black Foil insert coming at 1:41 packs. You'll generally see one of these per hobby box, and I was lucky enough to get one in a blaster. If there's any Panthers collectors out there, get at me. I'd love to share this with someone who might appreciate it more, and I have mini top loaders to protect it in.

As I mentioned above, I broke the odds multiple times in this little box. The Barkov would have made me happy enough, but the following was the true gem:

Despite the rounded corners being completely cut off, you can get an idea that the above Shea Weber Playing Card Foil Parallel is a real beauty. These come at a rate of 1:66, so this was a huge pull for a $20 USD blaster. Good stuff like this is why folks come back to OPC so strongly every year.

O-Pee-Chee continues to impress, and I implore any hockey collectors to go out there and grab some of this product.