USA has won their group at the World Junior Championships after a hard fought 2-1 over the Swiss. I was very impressed by the Swiss in the WJC last year and this year as well.
Looking forward to the next round!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Want/Trade List
I have started to build my want/trade list so please take a look. I will continue to build the list over the next several weeks as I have HUNDREDS of cards from the past 5-6 years that I would LOVE to move...
Thanks!
Chris
Thanks!
Chris
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Waste of Money??
My random muse of the day...
So listening to the radio on the way home from work today I heard an ad for a place offering a surgical implant for people who are deaf or nearly deaf that could dramatically improve their hearing...
Wait a second...that's right...IT WAS ON THE RADIO!!!! WHAT!!!!!?????
Now I understand that there are plenty of people who can hear the ad and think to themselves that Aunt Bertha could really use that surgery so they don't have to yell at her to the point where the neighbors call the cops on them for elderly abuse....
But I really think that they are missing their true target audience by putting an ad in the one form of media that the people they are trying to help will NEVER use! This would be akin to someone putting an ad in a regular print magazine for a revolutionary new device that allows blind people to see...dumb asses...
Ah America...ah America...land of the free and home to the mentally retarded ad executives!!
So listening to the radio on the way home from work today I heard an ad for a place offering a surgical implant for people who are deaf or nearly deaf that could dramatically improve their hearing...
Wait a second...that's right...IT WAS ON THE RADIO!!!! WHAT!!!!!?????
Now I understand that there are plenty of people who can hear the ad and think to themselves that Aunt Bertha could really use that surgery so they don't have to yell at her to the point where the neighbors call the cops on them for elderly abuse....
But I really think that they are missing their true target audience by putting an ad in the one form of media that the people they are trying to help will NEVER use! This would be akin to someone putting an ad in a regular print magazine for a revolutionary new device that allows blind people to see...dumb asses...
Ah America...ah America...land of the free and home to the mentally retarded ad executives!!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Giant Blunders
There are few things more satisfying that watching an NFL game featuring a team you cannot STAND continue its free fall on National TV...
Last week it was as embarrassing of a finish to an NFL game as anyone has ever seen as the Giants screwed the pooch against the Eagles...
Now they are getting their asses handed to them by the Packers by 21 points with 7 minutes left in the 4th.
Big Blue go poo...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Last week it was as embarrassing of a finish to an NFL game as anyone has ever seen as the Giants screwed the pooch against the Eagles...
Now they are getting their asses handed to them by the Packers by 21 points with 7 minutes left in the 4th.
Big Blue go poo...
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
NFL Game Cancelled...WTF?
Ok, so the NFL Sunday night game in Philadelphia has been moved to Tuesday night due to snow...HUH?? This is still football right?? MLB cancels a game because of a little rain, but this is stupid...when did the NFL start standing for the National Fairy League?
Oh wait, the game is in Philadelphia??? Well that explains everything...if this game was in Buffalo or New England it would still be going on...but not in sunny tropical Philly where a flake of snow causes a panic equivalent to that of preparing for the apocalypse...try finding a loaf of bread, gallon of milk, or roll of toilet paper anywhere in that area now...not gonna happen!! I grew up in the Washington D.C. area where there is a similar mentality of impending doom with the approach of a snow squall...
Oh wait, the game is in Philadelphia??? Well that explains everything...if this game was in Buffalo or New England it would still be going on...but not in sunny tropical Philly where a flake of snow causes a panic equivalent to that of preparing for the apocalypse...try finding a loaf of bread, gallon of milk, or roll of toilet paper anywhere in that area now...not gonna happen!! I grew up in the Washington D.C. area where there is a similar mentality of impending doom with the approach of a snow squall...
Saturday, December 25, 2010
2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Box Break #1!
So I picked up a few boxes of one of my annual favorite hockey releases, 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee, for Christmas...
As always, the OPC set is one of the biggest of the year with 600 cards in its first release of the season (an "update" set will be released in 2011 with traded/FAs and additional rookies). There are 500 common cards, 50 short printed rookies, and 50 short printed Legends. Each hobby box contains 36 packs with 6 cards per pack.
Typical Box Break Summary:
- 18 Rookies/Legends
- 36 Retro variations
- 1 In Action laminated card
- 9 Retro Rainbow parallels
- 1-2 Retro var. Black parallels
- 9 O-Pee-Chee Inserts
Base Cards
I like the design on the cards...which is all that matters right? I am not going to give you a detailed breakdown of the design of the common card, rather I will give you a scan of one and let you decide if you like it youself...from my box I pulled 141 of the 500 common base cards from the set with no doubles!!!
Legends & Rookies
Slated at 1:2, I pulled the exact amount as stated, 9 RCs and 9 Legends. Highlights for the RCs included Taylor Hall (which is up on eBay), Braden Schenn, and Sergei Bobrovsky. Legends included recent additions AL MacInnis and Cam Neeley. A few samples of the cards...
Retro Variations
As predicted, I pulled one of these cards per pack, including rookies Henrik Karlsson & Maxim Noreau and Legends Grant Fuhr & Johnny Bucyk. I also pulled one of Crosby (which is up on eBay right now).
A sample of a few:
Rainbow Retro Variations
As predicted, I pulled 9 of these. Highlights included Wayne Gretzky (up on eBay) and Dion Phaneuf. Samples!!
Black Rainbow Retro Variations
From the estimates I have seen, you tend to get between 1-2 of these cards per box. I ended up with three, including for rookie Justin Falk, Kurtis Foster, and Peverley (as seen below). Guess I got lucky!
O-Pee-Chee Inserts
These were slated at one in every four packs and guess what??? Nine total from the box! I ended up with a good mix of the various inserts from the set including Season Highlights, Team Leaders, Stat Kings, Winter Classic (2010) and Trophy Winners.
In Action Laminated Card
Pulled a Lundqvist In Action card. These are thicker stock cards which also act as a decoy for those looking for the Quad Jersey cards...
Speaking of Quad Jersey Cards...yup WE GOT ONE!!!!
And don't adjust your monitors, that is a black smudge on the Khabibulin jersey...
All-in-all, I was very pleased with the box. One of the reasons why I like this product as it always delivers a good quality product with good pulls for a reasonable price. Box number two has been ripped and I will post up the pulls shortly.
MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!!!!
Friday, December 24, 2010
The Retail Rip-off
So I had to stop by my local Wal-Mart on the way home from work the other evening to pick up a few things...and of course my first stop is the section with the sports cards. Now there have not been any hockey cards at this Wal-Mart in many months (since September at least) so I was not optimistic that I would find anything...
But there in the top card pack holder (for a baseball product), I was delighted to find packs of UD Series One. As a bonus, they were not your standard 5 card retail packs either, but 8 card packs. I greedily snatched up 12 packs and continued on my way about the store to get the items I needed.
After checking out and heading out to the car, I sat in the front seat to see what treats awaited me in the packs...
RIP! Pack one was open...hum, only 7 cards in this pack...ok, no big deal, it happens...
I moved onto pack two...only 7 cards again...I found myself thinking this was odd, but I pressed on...
Pack three was the regular 8 cards...ok...on we go...
Packs four, five, and six all had only 7 cards in each...now I was starting to get annoyed. An inspection of the remaining packs revealed no obvious signs of tampering, but six packs with no hits and 5/6 with only 7 cards...something was starting to smell in the car, and I was certainly not coming from me...but just in case I checked anyway...
Now at this point I should have stopped and returned the unopened packs...but I didn't...I ripped on thinking that there was no way this trend would continue...
Pack seven was another with 8 base cards...eight, nine, ten, all 7 cards each...at this point I was pissed...I tore open the last two packs...eleven was 8 cards and twelve contained only 7...
Nothing...a big fat pile of nothing...I was LIVID!!! I had just pissed away $38 bucks of my hard earned cash on a pile of base cards (of which I am only missing six cards to complete the common 200 in the set to begin with). I felt like Brett Favre after having thrown that pass in the NFC Championship last year which ended the Vikings chances of making it to the Superbowl...angry at myself for being so stupid...the guilt of having bought the cards in the first place (given the wifey would have cut off my sac if she knew I had bought them, which I can typically overcome with a decent pull or two as justification for buying the packs...you know...the whole...I know that these packs set me back $50, but pulled an ultra cool jersey, and a RC which has got to be worth more than I spent on the packs...shoot, I could easily sell these cards and get my money back...UN-HUH...de-nile is not just a river in Egypt my friends...
I gathered up the packs, found the receipt and proceed back into the store to the returns desk...my anger was obvious, but I had to keep myself under control as pissing off the lady behind the counter would only spell doom for my chances of getting my money back...three people in line in front of my only added to my annoyance...
I arrived at the counter, presented the cashier with the 12 packs and began pleading my case...the words came easily, as I had rehearsed it in my head multiple times and once with the lady in front of me (who sensed that I was incensed about something) while waiting for my fellow consumers to complete their returns...serious collector, bought tons of these in the past and should have expected to receive at least 2 rcs, a few 20th anniversary cards, and a few other inserts...blah, blah, blah...to the cashiers credit, she let me blather on for a minute, even though I am positive she was as lost as a blind guy trying to catch firefly's on a warm summer night...whew...
I had plead my case...the ball was in her court...silence overtook the area for a few seconds (save for the usual noises found at the front of a busy Wal-Mart at the peak of the Christmas shopping season)...I waited...oh man this is taking way too long for her to process, I am going to lose my case and be stuck with these packs...as I opened my mouth to begin reasserting my case, she smiled, took the receipt, and told me she would take them back...
WHEW...I had won...I frankly never expected to get all of my money back on these...had the cashier been someone who was a collector or even knew the slightest bit about the hobby, I would have been screwed....
I thanked her, pocked my cash and proceed onto my next destination happy that I had narrowly escaped the retail-pack rip-off...
But there in the top card pack holder (for a baseball product), I was delighted to find packs of UD Series One. As a bonus, they were not your standard 5 card retail packs either, but 8 card packs. I greedily snatched up 12 packs and continued on my way about the store to get the items I needed.
After checking out and heading out to the car, I sat in the front seat to see what treats awaited me in the packs...
RIP! Pack one was open...hum, only 7 cards in this pack...ok, no big deal, it happens...
I moved onto pack two...only 7 cards again...I found myself thinking this was odd, but I pressed on...
Pack three was the regular 8 cards...ok...on we go...
Packs four, five, and six all had only 7 cards in each...now I was starting to get annoyed. An inspection of the remaining packs revealed no obvious signs of tampering, but six packs with no hits and 5/6 with only 7 cards...something was starting to smell in the car, and I was certainly not coming from me...but just in case I checked anyway...
Now at this point I should have stopped and returned the unopened packs...but I didn't...I ripped on thinking that there was no way this trend would continue...
Pack seven was another with 8 base cards...eight, nine, ten, all 7 cards each...at this point I was pissed...I tore open the last two packs...eleven was 8 cards and twelve contained only 7...
Nothing...a big fat pile of nothing...I was LIVID!!! I had just pissed away $38 bucks of my hard earned cash on a pile of base cards (of which I am only missing six cards to complete the common 200 in the set to begin with). I felt like Brett Favre after having thrown that pass in the NFC Championship last year which ended the Vikings chances of making it to the Superbowl...angry at myself for being so stupid...the guilt of having bought the cards in the first place (given the wifey would have cut off my sac if she knew I had bought them, which I can typically overcome with a decent pull or two as justification for buying the packs...you know...the whole...I know that these packs set me back $50, but pulled an ultra cool jersey, and a RC which has got to be worth more than I spent on the packs...shoot, I could easily sell these cards and get my money back...UN-HUH...de-nile is not just a river in Egypt my friends...
I gathered up the packs, found the receipt and proceed back into the store to the returns desk...my anger was obvious, but I had to keep myself under control as pissing off the lady behind the counter would only spell doom for my chances of getting my money back...three people in line in front of my only added to my annoyance...
I arrived at the counter, presented the cashier with the 12 packs and began pleading my case...the words came easily, as I had rehearsed it in my head multiple times and once with the lady in front of me (who sensed that I was incensed about something) while waiting for my fellow consumers to complete their returns...serious collector, bought tons of these in the past and should have expected to receive at least 2 rcs, a few 20th anniversary cards, and a few other inserts...blah, blah, blah...to the cashiers credit, she let me blather on for a minute, even though I am positive she was as lost as a blind guy trying to catch firefly's on a warm summer night...whew...
I had plead my case...the ball was in her court...silence overtook the area for a few seconds (save for the usual noises found at the front of a busy Wal-Mart at the peak of the Christmas shopping season)...I waited...oh man this is taking way too long for her to process, I am going to lose my case and be stuck with these packs...as I opened my mouth to begin reasserting my case, she smiled, took the receipt, and told me she would take them back...
WHEW...I had won...I frankly never expected to get all of my money back on these...had the cashier been someone who was a collector or even knew the slightest bit about the hobby, I would have been screwed....
I thanked her, pocked my cash and proceed onto my next destination happy that I had narrowly escaped the retail-pack rip-off...
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