Contest Winnings

Editorial note: I wrote this post back in 2017 but never posted it, for some reason I no longer remember. I did not change it other than correcting a typo I found pre-publication. 

This isn't something that happens too often, but I actually won a card related contest! I am a fringe member of the Collector's Universe forum, which is owned and run by a grading company. My thoughts on that concept are not really a secret so I am not on the forum all that often...I try from time to time but there's way, way too much worrying about nothing and not a lot of real collecting. So, I get annoyed and take months off. However, there are still enough posts that make it worth reading, and I've been trying to work myself back into the message board scene...I used to spend hours on message boards every day. When you aren't able to do things, due to health issues, you have to find something to do, and for many years for me that was message boards. That kind of went by the wayside when I began scanning my collection in 2009, to the point where I didn't visit any of them at all. But I did enjoy them, so I'm slowly working my way back in.

That's kind of a long pre-amble, sorry about that.

In August, I won a contest on there. The game was to predict which driver was going to finish second in a particular Cup race. I don't even remember which race at this point, but I know I didn't get it for the first race after I posted. I didn't track the thread. A few weeks later, I see the thread is still getting new posts, so I clicked on it to see what the deal was...and as it turned out, I missed the part of the original post that if there was no winner, it would roll over...eventually, when Martin Truex Jr. finished second at Michigan...I won! The contest runner posted a bunch of stacks of cards and the winner was going to pick five of them. Since I was the winner, I picked the one that showed as Star Wars, the one that showed as hockey and the rest were NBA. The cards arrived and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that some of the cards were from sets I have very few of, but also a little disappointed because I thought I needed a lot more of the Return of the Jedi cards than I actually did...so there were more duplicates than I expected. For some reason I can never remember that I bought a big lot of series 2 (blue border) cards a couple of years ago, and this is actually the second time I've gotten a "lot" of them expecting to add a whole bunch of new cards, only to find out I had them already. Maybe this time it will stick and I won't do it again...but knowing me, probably not.

Now, here are some highlights. I ended up getting 85 new cards and I am not going to post them all, LOL.

This was one of the bigger highlights for me, as it's only my second card from 2006-07 SP Game Used, and only my third of Denham Brown...but the first that shows him in NBA action. Plus, Serially Numbered cards are an addiction of mine.

Speaking of serially numbered cards, this Greg Oden card from 2008-09 Topps Treasury- a mini card that might have come out of a rip card (what a terrible concept that is) but it's SN 23/25. Nice!

One of my biggest achievements in the hobby was completing 2002-03 SP Authentic, including the autographs and serially numbered cards- of a 203 card set, all but 90 were SN. I pulled Yao's autograph, the biggest card in the set,which allowed me to do that. I couldn't do it with the 2003-04 set as I didn't pull LeBron's autograph, so I didn't chase it as much. I am still missing some of the Spectaculars subset, and Yao, card #100, was one of them!

When I first opened the package, I was pretty happy to get some Mystery Finest cards from 1996-97 Topps. Then I looked a little closer- these are Super Teams redeemed cards, significantly harder to find than a standard Mystery Finest. So much so, that I didn't have a single one beforehand. The first design, with the silver border, was the prize if you had a Conference winner. The second version, which has the broken border, is the prize for Division winners. There is also a third version that I have not seen...but I think may be a Refractor for the Champion winner, which would have been the Bulls that year. I actually like the Division winner design better, so I'm glad I got more of them...although I would gladly add the others if I found them in the wild.

Another good one is this Paul Pierce rookie from 1998-99 Ovation. The 10 rookies included in the set were all redemption cards, thanks to the Lockout. They aren't particularly rare as far as redemption cards go but I only have half of them counting this card. I had previously had the SN'd Gold parallel of Pierce- who just retired in June 2017 - but I don't think I got it via redemption, I think I got it on the secondary market. I don't honestly remember. Being the #10 pick (a steal!) Pierce was the final card in the set, #80.

With these two Mournings I'm now 3 cards away from completing both 1992-93 Hoops and Stadium Club. Getting real close, hopefully I will complete them at some point soon. I thought that this was going to knock Hoops out for me but a quick check of my Wantlist on here showed me otherwise.

 I got three of the Lottery Pick redemption cards from 1994-95 Hoops! That's one of my favorite sets, and I didn't have any of the Lottery pick cards previously. Unfortunately they have some contact damage, enough that the Grant Hill card didn't get scanned.

 This one kind of threw me. This is the wrapper exhange card from 1994-95 Hoops. I would never have done that- I save my empty packs- even if I could have. I didn't start collecting the NBA until February 1996 though so it was long expired by then.

Some more NBA highlights, including some great 1990s inserts. Anytime I can get new inserts from 1996-97 Topps is a great day, and here there are some more, in addition to the Super Teams cards. That's only my third Hobby Masters card- the previous two in my collection I pulled when the set was new. Magic gets me 1 card away from the 1989-90 Fleer sticker insert completed. 2006-07 Upper Deck is a set I have very little of...I think only two packs worth. The Rondo is my first RC from the set.

Some of the Star Wars cards I got. There were 9 new base cards, which I scanned all of but didn't show, and some of the stickers, which I needed much more of. The #49 sticker was the one they reprinted in the Abrams' book about the Topps Return of the Jedi set so I had to scan that one.

The set that saw the largest influx of new cards was 1991-92 Pro Set French. I more than doubled my collection of the set, although considering it's a 600+ card set and I now have 30 something, I still have a lot more I can add. I added a bunch here and only scanned a couple (and one of the English versions) because they were all done on the Database already.

Quite a few of the new addition are from the All-Star subset. Somebody sign Jagr already!

100 Years Ago Today

The very first NHL game was played! It was a very different time. The world was in the throes of World War I. (at the time called the Great War). Professional sports leagues, other than baseball, were generally small and regional, and struggling to find a footing. Professional hockey had been around a while, and the NHL was born in 1917. In fact, it was born in spite, of the owner of the Toronto team in the previous top professional hockey league (I have not been able to find out what the exact problem was) and has grown into something great over the last century. At the beginning, only 4 teams made up the league, and two of them did not survive that first year- one folding after it's arena burned down!

Today, it's one of the big 5 sports in the world, and considered the top hockey league in the world. 31 teams make up the league- including two of the original four- with expansion looming (I hope). Even more important for the sake of this post- it's my newest obsession. Since I began watching in November 2016, the NHL has taken up more and more of my life. And I'm not complaining one bit. I love the game, already, it's become something that I cannot live without. It has been a part of every single day of my life, and it's not a stretch to say it will be a part of the rest of every day of my life, during the season or off-season.

I've put a lot of effort into studying it and learning as much as I could over the past year. I'm still a rookie, still with much to learn, but I'm going to enjoy learning as much as I can.

I think my hockey addiction should be pretty obvious by how many times I've written about the sport this year. That isn't going to stop any time soon...in fact, it'll probably only increase as I begin to really scan the cards my fellow collectors have gifted me with- I'd say roughly 5500 of the 8000 NHL cards currently in my collection were an outright gift, with the rest coming through trades and purchases. I am eternally grateful. If the entire world was made up of people like those who collect hockey cards, it would be a lot better place.

I'm just so enthused with the sport, and with the cards, that I wanted to get a special post up to celebrate my newfound passion.

I don't have much of the early history of the sport documented in my collection, yet, and even less scanned. The NHL has a rich history of cards, with the first set of NHL cards being issued in 1923-24. My oldest is currently from the late 1950s, so like I say...not much early era is documented.
What I do have, however, are some of the history of the game subset cards from 1991-92 Pro Set.

1991-92 Pro Set #334

This card is the earliest game action photo to appear in my collection. I have no idea when it's from or who appears on the card, but it's a great old shot that's somewhat diminished by the scanner I was using at the time putting lines across it from top to bottom.

The oldest image in my collection comes from the same subset, of Georges Vezina, who the trophy given to the top goalie of each season is named after. He played from 1910-1925, before dying of tuberculosis in 1926. He played every game, from when he debuted to when he went out of his last game, a very impressive feat in my opinion. All this info comes from the back of the card, by the way.

1991-92 Pro Set #333

So I got to thinking...I became a fan of the NHL in it's 99th year. That's a lot of time to miss, which I am always kind of going to be frustrated about, as I almost got into it all the way back in 1995-96....but...what year was it for my other sports that I'm such a big fan of?

NASCAR started in 1948, and I discovered it at Christmas 1992. 44th year.
NBA became my focus in February 1996, and makes up the vast majority of my card collection. That was the tail end of it's 49th year.
The Olympics also play a role, as I'm a huge Olympics fan. Technically, the Olympics started in 776 BC, and I really became a fan in 1992, so 2768th year. Yikes! However, there were no Olympics held between 393 and 1896, so 96 years after the debut of the modern Olympics. Just imagine if they issued cards for the ancient Olympians. How cool would that have been? Of course, they didn't wear clothes for some of that time, so maybe they would need to do a little more close-ups on the cards...of course, if the Greco-Roman world hadn't been crushed by Christianity, nudity wouldn't be a big deal, so maybe not. But I digress. One things for sure, I doubt ice hockey would have been as big a success if you had to play it naked. Brent Burns and Joe Thornton may disagree. (See this year's ESPN The Magazine body issue)

Although I may be disappointed that I didn't discover the NHL until it's 99th year, I'm glad I "discovered" it in time to see the 100th anniversary celebrations. That's something that I hope I remember for a long time. Right now, as I type this, I'm getting ready to watch a matinee game between the Hurricanes and Maple Leafs, who are wearing throwbacks to the Arenas uniforms. It's the only time this season that throwbacks will be worn, which is a shame as the 100th season would have been a great time to wear throwbacks. The new jersey supplier said no, though. Too bad they didn't get the Canadiens to play in Maroons throwbacks, that would have been cool to have the uniform designs of the first game 100 years ago back on the ice...or at least the Oilers, with Patrick Maroon!

I don't usually post this early, but what the heck- matinee game, matinee post.