Boxing Day!!

Miraj Trading had their annual Tax Included Boxing Day Sale, and I got some money for Christmas, so I figured, what the hell.  I got a hobby box of O-Pee-Chee and Upper Deck, and a tin of Upper Deck as well.  I thought I would make it all complete by getting a blaster box of O-Pee-Chee at Toys R Us as well.  I had one of each!

2018-19 O-Pee-Chee

Blaster Rookies/SPs

Hobby Rookies/SPs

Blaster Retro

Hobby Retro

Hobby Retro Black Border (#/100)

Hobby Minis

Hobby Player Cards

Hobby Silver

Hobby Blank Back & Gold

Blaster Various Inserts

2018-19 Upper Deck

Tin Oversize

Tin Young Guns

Hobby Young Guns

Tin Canvas

Hobby Canvas

Tin Portraits

Hobby Portraits (and a couple of other inserts)

Tin Insert

Hobby Stonewalled

Hobby Inserts

I wasn't expecting much from the O-Pee-Chee Blaster Box, and that's exactly what I got!  The hobby is always fun to open and the design is decent too.  A bit of a pisser that they shrunk down the number of cards in a box.  Not a huge fan of the retro design (I hate horizontal cards) but the design on the retro rookies looks good.  Didn't get a patch, but got a blank back instead.

Really love the design on the Upper Deck base cards.  It's also nice to pull two Young Guns of that Cock-A-Leekie kid from Montreal.  I might get one of them graded, if not both.  Didn't get any exclusives, mind you that's not why I bought it.  Game jerseys seem to be rarer this year, which is kind of a double edged sword.  Before you could get two per box and now it's 3 per case.  At least the market isn't over saturated, but they haven't lowered the price on the box!  I can't find any info on that Petersson card.  Maybe some will pop up on Beckett.

Overall, not bad.

Black Friday!!!

I went to Out of the Box Sports Cards on my lunch break and took advantage of the Black Friday sale.  They had hobby boxes of 2017-18 MVP for $25, but I bought enough of that crap, and I pretty much pulled the same cards out of the two boxes I bought.  I decided on 2018-19 Team Canada that was on for $60 since I hadn't bought any yet.

Here's what I pulled:

5 Red Parallels #/225

4 Program of Excellence

2 Provincial Prowess

1 Base Jersey

3 Premium Swatch Autographs #/199

Wow.  I'm not going to complain about pulling 3 Premium Swatch autos.  The Raddysh and Fortino are definitely patches.  I'm unsure about the Ellis.  It looks like the puck from the Team Canada logo, but it feels like part of the jersey.  My favourite card is the Drake Batherson Provincial Prowess.  He looks very impressive since his call up to the Sens, and I hope to get it signed.

$20 off and 3 big pulls.  Definitely a win.

The "Other" Card Show

I went to the local card show last week to see what was there.  It kind of sucks, because it takes place during the same weekend as the Toronto Expo.  I still found some stuff.  I got a base set of 2017-18 Upper Deck Series One for $3 and a set of 2014-15 OPC Platinum for $30.  Last show, the guy selling the Platinum set wanted $40 for it.  The show before that, he wanted $50.  I guess if I waited for 3 shows, I could've gotten it for free.  Someone had a jumbo box of 2014-15 OPC Platinum for $90, so I figured it was worth a shot.

Rainbow Parallels

Retro Parallels

Retro Rainbow Parallel

Black is numbered /100

Traxxxxx, or whatever the hell these are called.

White Ice #/199 (though it looks more greyish to me)

Blue Trax #/65

Black Ice #/25 (again, looks more grey or silver)

A couple of nice looking die-cut inserts.

A couple of rookie signatures (Blue Duclair is #/25)

This box was a lot more fun to open than I thought it would be.  I was actually excited to see what was in each pack.  Love the base and retro design, as well as the die cut inserts.  2 hard signed autographs per box is a nice touch.  Not sure how rare the blue trax are, but considering I pulled 5 and they're numbered to just 65, I'm a little surprised I pulled that many.  I was just glad I didn't pull any redemptions.

I Hate Deco Pens

Last week, I went for the Sabres as they were leaving town.  It turned out there were "handlers" for Casey Mittlestadt and Rasmus Dahlin, so they were a no go.  They all left at once so I had to pick and choose.  Phil Housley and Jason Pominville were the first two I recognized, so I went for them.  And that was pretty much it.  It was more than what some guys got.  Could've been worse, and I appreciated them taking the time to sign, but not really worth the time.

Phil Housley x 1 (Jets puck)
Jason Pominville x 2

Sorry, no picture, but you're not missing out on much.

On Saturday, I went for Rouyn-Noranda.  It was windy as hell, so I waited in my car.  The bus pulled up early so Krista and I scrambled out of our respective vehicles to get inside.  Beth wasn't there, and Krista and I don't follow the Juniors as much so we weren't sure who was who.  Two guys came over and signed the stuff we had.  Then Dany Sabourin came around and asked who had stuff for him.  I was surprised because the Goalie Coach typically doesn't travel with the team, though he does other things.  Beth eventually arrived and got all of her stuff done.  I don't really do this often, and I need to brush up on recognizing Junior players.

Peter Abbandonato x 2
Felix Bibeau x 2
Tyler Hinam x 2
Rafael Harvey-Pinard x 1
Dany Sabourin x 5 (Gave one to Krista for her goalie collection)

After that, we drove to the Briere-Somethingorother Complex in the east end as a Junior A team that Felix Potvin coached was in town for the weekend.  We arrived fairly early and had about an hour to kill.  He signed all of my items, but three didn't turn out because I didn't know how to properly prepare a deco pen.  I went back the next day to have the three cards re-done, and he ragged me a bit until he saw the erased gold markings on one of the cards and remembered.

The Remparts were in town on the weekend too, so a chance to get Patrick Roy was available.  I wanted to wait until after the game, but the power went out at the arena with two minutes to go in the second period.  There were about 15-20 people waiting, which is a lot less than normal.  They called the game at 7pm, and the power came back on 10 minutes later.  Patrick came out and signed one for everybody.  I was hoping to get Drew's set card done, but he was signing in black so I got my magazine done instead.  It actually looks good in black.  Now to relax for a few days.

More Junior Hounding

Froze my ass off waiting for the London Knights after the game.

Adam Boqvist x 3
Liam Foudy x 1
Dale Hunter x 7
Matthew Timms x 1

Eventually found the hotel for the Sudbury Wolves too, after 8 tries!

Macauley Carson x 1
David Levin x 1
Jake McGrath x 2
Cory Stillman x 5
Peter Stratis x 1