Three Firsts and a Last

With my latest COMC box, I received my first ever NHL 1/1, a printing plate of my favorite player, Henrik Lundqvist.

2011-12 Rookie Anthology Printing Plate Cyan #75

Unlike a lot of people, I'm a big fan of Printing Plates. I have not counted up how many I have, but this, by being default my first NHL 1/1, is my first from my newest sport. I've actually been fortunate enough to pull two over the years myself, one each in NBA and NASCAR, but the last one was on Christmas Day 2006, so it's been a while. Hopefully someday I will be able to pull one from the NHL. Until then, though, I will pick them up when I can. The fact that my first one happened to be my favorite player is really awesome, too.

Before the COMC box arrived, I posted about getting our new car, and that I got two packs of 2016 National Hockey Card Day. Each pack only cost me $1, and I guess that's a good thing because the first pack only gave me two new cards, and one was the one-per-pack checklist. This was the first card added to my collection that came home in the new car! Just pure luck that it happened to be a Ranger! (and a current Golden Knight, tying my two teams together nicely)

2016 National Hockey Card Day #USA10

The third and final first for me is the first time I have pulled a card from the longest running parallel in cardboard history. The UD Exclusives parallel has been in the flagship Upper Deck set since the 1998-99 season, and I've pulled a bunch in the NBA. However, this is my first hockey example, and the NBA version is not the longest running parallel- the last issuance of it was 2009-10, and the 2001-02 set went by a different name. I opened a pack of 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 2 to get my Card of the Day and was quite pleased to find this one later in the pack.

2010-11 Upper Deck UD Exclusives #359

I don't actually have the base card yet, but I have very little from this set so that's not too much of a surprise. Maybe I will pull it from one of the other packs waiting in my stash? Serial numbered cards and parallels are two of my major obsessions, so this hits both of them, can't beat that.

And the last...I teased this in the past...I finally finished scanning every card in my collection from the 2017-18 seasons! I finished off the NBA a few days ago, when the COMC box arrived, but put off a few hockey cards until I finished scanning all the new editions from said box. Finally, at 4:13 AM on Tuesday, August 7th, I finished scanning the 2017-18 season as currently in my collection. This is the first time that's ever happened. When I got back in the NBA in 2012, I was already setting aside cards already posted to the Trading Card Database to scan later, after I finished doing what needed to get posted. Since I finished that project in December, that later has been now.  I've been working on scanning what was already posted for myself, I've been putting a focus on new arrivals into my collection, which I am also doing quite well on keeping up with, and then I realized that I was close to finishing scanning everything of the current season, I went through my boxes of "later" and pulled out the current season. While I suppose it may be possible that I missed a couple of cards, I think I got them all now. For the first time ever, I'm complete on the current season...and I was able to pull it off in BOTH my sports, something I didn't have in the past. I know to anyone reading this it probably sounds like "so, what's the big deal?" but to me it's a HUGE deal.  I have no idea when the 2018-19 sets will start showing up, but I hope to be able to keep up with this going forward...and this is the first time it's happened. Also, I don't plan to bring in as many cards going forward, because the monthly lease fees for the new Ford Edge are not cheap. In theory it should make it easier to stay caught up. Before we got the car I did pre-order a hobby box of 2018-19 MVP but it's not here yet...anyway, this is the last card that needed a scan to finish off the season.

2017-18 Parkhurst #162

Now, that's not to say I'll NEVER scan a card from the 2017-18 season ever again. I still have some packs waiting to be opened in my stash, but those don't count as part of my collection until I actually open them and find out what cards are inside. And while I'm cutting way back on new card buying, I'm not closing it off completely. I will still always be on the lookout for cards I don't have...and cards are still the only thing I ask for at gift giving (or I should say receiving) occasions. So I will get more cards from the season at some point. I actually have some of my remaining blaster from 2017-18 Upper Deck series 1 within arm's reach, so I could add new cards from the season without even standing up. But I'm going to enjoy the feeling of actually having completed something, and being "caught up"...for the first time ever...for a little while longer.

Forceful Rangers

Back on May 5th I got a surprise package of mostly Rangers from Jedi Jeff out of the blue...I was not expecting them whatsoever! But there was a lot of great stuff in there, and now I'm going to show you some highlights.

First off, I added 22 new people to my collection, and 11 new sets! The package also brought the Rangers to within 3 cards of the lead in my collection, trailing the Tampa Bay Lightning. My friend who sent me almost 3000 cards in January 2015 is a big Lightning collector and fan and sent me his duplicates so they have been in the lead for quite some time now. Wayne Gretzky did pass Vincent Lecavalier for most cards in my NHL collection, with 32 cards. All of these stats come from the tools the Trading Card Database provides.

Ok, now some random or not so random scans.

 The 1993-94 Ultra design is great in the NBA...but the NHL version, with the gray border instead of tan, may be even nicer!

 I think this card, from 1995-96 Collector's Choice, may be my favorite image in the bunch. As someone with pretty severe OCD the fact that the sticks are lined up by style really makes me happy.

 I can't identify that logo on the uniform. It's CHL. I know that much.

 This is one of the 800 card sets I mentioned in the It Begins post.

 I had to share the back of this one...from 2008-09, it speculated that 2007-08 would be Jagr's last year. Far from it, he's still playing...he entered the NHL the year I entered kindergarten, and he's still going!

 I really like the 2009-10 UD design.

 My first card from this set, I really like it. I picked up a cheap autograph from the set on the COMC sale so it will show up again in the not too distant future.

 The first two cards I saw out of the package were the patch I showed on the day they arrived and then this one! I knew it was going to be a good package when it led off with two SN cards.

 My first card from 2012-13 Rookie Anthology.

 By 2013-14, Ultra had been relegated to an insert in Fleer Showcase. Bring back a freestanding Ultra!

 These Rainbow parallels do not scan anywhere near as nice as they look in hand. They are Upper Deck's version of a Refractor.

 The package contained cards from as far back as 1988-89...

...all the way up to 2016-17!

Thank you again Jeff, this was very, very appreciated!

Edit to add: While this is not a gift from Jeff, it did arrive the day I had scheduled this post for! My first non-card NHL memorabilia...