Henrik hits a hundred...for real this time!

Last month, I celebrated prematurely when I believed that Henrik Lundqvist, my favorite NHL player, had become the first hockey person to hit the 100 card mark in my collection...but when I went to create something for the post, I realized I had miscounted, he was only at 99.

Well, thanks to Shane of Shoebox Legends, he's at the 100 mark for real this time!

Shane has made me the recipient of much of his collection thinning, and I am very grateful for that, even if most of the cards are being held in reserve for the time being. Whenever a box shows up from him, I open a couple of the team bags he uses to absolutely stuff the box, and when a box arrived on June 1st...I can't even say most recent box, because he hit me with another one on the 17th...and on that box on the 1st, I was going through a stack of 2010-11 Score, and I allowed myself to feel some anticipation when I hit a small run of Rangers...knowing I did not have his card from that set.

And now I do!

Card #335 in the set turns out to be card #100 in my collection of him!

Shane, I can't thank you enough. If I am ever able to get the museum started, you will have some sort of honor in it as a major contributor to the Museum!

When I thought I had hit 100 back in May, I did something I said I should do...and I actually did. I looked up which card was #1 in my collection for him. He joined my collection on January 31st, 2015, when a friend sent me over 3000 hockey cards, thinking I would enjoy the sport. (he was sure right!)

Three of his cards joined my collection that day, but this was the first. Unfortunately the scanner I was using at that time didn't do a very good job. I should probably pull it out and rescan it, considering the importance it would take in my collection. It's most noticeable in the stripes over his face, and on the blue especially in the shoulder pads.

What I was trying to make when I discovered I was one short...is this.

Using the PhotoScape combine tool, I made this cool collage of all 100 cards...and they are order of release, too, and numerical order if more than one from a set. I went with image full, so there's a lot of space. If you want to see it bigger, just click on it. it doesn't include the two multi-sport cards, which is what threw me off when I originally counted them...I counted one of them by mistake. You can see all of them on Cardboard History Gallery, as well, except the Score card that was #100. That will be uploaded when I do my June upload on July 1st (or shortly after, depending on how many I can get scanned this month)
I also tried it with 20 cards across:

I can't decide which one I like better, so you get both.

I know I still have a ton more cards I can add over the coming years, even have a couple more waiting to ship at COMC. But this is a pretty big milestone and one I've been looking forward to since last year, when I realized he was getting close. It was a close race, too, as Wayne Gretzky is at 93 cards (still). He will probably cross the 100 card threshold by the end of 2020, and I would not be surprised if Mark Messier gets there as well...but Henrik will always be the first to 100!