Ed Belfour: 1992-93 Bowman (Foil All-Star)

 

Today's post is a card from an older set, 1992-93 Bowman. As you can see, it's a card from the All-Star Game, which was held in Philadelphia that year. It was first of many Eddie Belfour's All-Star Games. Not only that, he was selected to the starting lineup for the West (I mean the Campbell conference, of course :) ) and he did very good - Eddie only allowed one goal in his period.

I really like the gold foil frame with a simple Bowman logo in the upper left corner. It gives the card a sense of eliteness, at least for a 1992 card. The photo is ok, it tells a story - Eddie is in his net, observing the game in the corner, waiting for the pass in front of the net, as he has his stick ready to intercept.

 Do they even make All-Star Game cards anymore? I can't remember when was the last time I saw one. 

Ed Belfour: 2002 Titanium Double-sided Game Worn Jersey

 

I've been kinda busy lately, so here is just a quick update.I made a promise to myself to get a jersey card of Eddie Belfour ASAP. And here it is... An actual piece of Eddie's jersey. And that's not all, folks! If you turn the card, you get... this...

Another piece of Dallas jersey! This time it comes from Pierre Turgeon, so basically I got two jersey cards for the price of one, in a way.

There is not much to tell about the photos, they are just quite standart player shots. What I like about this card (apart from the obvious, jersey :) ) is the background, because it does blend in quite well and doesn't take away the focus from the main photo. In addition, gold text contrasts nicely with Dallas colors. The font itself is quite interesting - some of the letters are capital, some of them are not and it seems to be pretty random. Belfour with a small b looks strange and so does Turgeon with a small t, but with a capital R.

I'll try to update the blog more often, but no promises :)

Box Break: 99-00 Upper Deck MVP Stanley Cup Edition

My box has finally arrived! This post can be considered another addition to "my firsts", this time it would be my first box break. And boy, did I enjoy it! I invited a friend over to help me get through all the packs (36 in total), to keep me company and to increase the unpacking fun. And fun we had.

I hoped I would be able to complete the base set and that goal was indeed achieved. The set consists of 220 base cards, two of which are checklist and 25 of them are Prospect subset. Here is how it looks like:

 

I honestly like the set, it has pretty sweet looking base cards IMO with decent, but not-so-awesome photographs and nice font, I also like the "net" below players' names. Moreover, the set includes the very same card with silver foil AND silver autograph, called the Silver Script. I got a couple of those. On other person's blog I read that also Gold Script and Super Script exist, but I got neither of those, so I don't think I'm gonna pursue those.

As for particular cards, I like the photos and equipment of Mike Dunham and Sean Burke, I shed a tear for Tomáš Vokoun, as he is not included in this set :-( Being a Eddie Belfour collector, I was really looking forward to finding his card in the pack. As I was opening the packs, Eddie was nowhere to be found. I was panic-stricken, for there was only one pack left. Believe or not, Eddie became my card number 360/360, the very last card from the box and I felt a HUGE relief and a little wink of fate when I found it. Not only it expanded my Belfour collection, it completed the base set as well!

I posted the Sedin twins cards from the Prospect subset to show how the Subset looks like - not much different from the NHL cards of the set. Sedins were the only two players from SHL, the rest was chosen from CHL, therefore the names of the rest are in red, not in yellow. What I find interesting is the Wayne Primeau card. Normally, his name should be in red area, as shown on Hašek's card, because they were both Buffalo players. If you inspect the card further, you will see that Primeau was traded to Tampa and therefore the color changed. Nothing strange, really. What IS weird is the fact, that Tampa cards use completely different color - dark blue, rather than turquoise. It is actually only used on San Jose cards. 

Below, you can see a selection of Silver Script cards. I find Terry Yake's signature particularly interesting. Look closely. What do you see? Looks like Terry uses one technique to write all the letters. We laughed out loud, when we opened the pack and saw this signature.

Let's have a look at the inserts now, shall we? :-)

 

This insert is called "Cup Contenders" and is very neat-looking. It is covered in shiny foil and gives the illusion of speed, using black and white dashes. Although it is not clearly visible, it uses team colors. In this box, I got

5 Cup Contenders:

Milan Hejduk, David Legwand, Marian Hossa, Vincent Lecavalier and Steve Kariya

I'm not sure about Steve Kariya being so elite though. 

 

 Stanley Cup Talent: 8 players

 I can be quite satisfied with the amount of cards I got here, the total number is 20, so I got almost a half. Not bad. I really like team colors again and half of the Stanley Cup on the left.

The players I got in this insert were:

 Ray Bourque (in Boston jersey, although he is shown wearing the Avs jersey in the base set), Patrick Roy, Brett Hull (who scored the cup winning goal in 98-99, which made me extremely happy, being the Stars fan :) )

nice looking Sergei Fedorov card, Jaromír Jágr, Jeremy Roenick,  Keith Tkachuk and Peter Bondra.

 Great selection of players indeed. Too bad Eddie is not included.

 

Golden Memories: 2 cards

Golden Memories tells the story of the players who managed to win the Cup and informs us about how valuable they were for their respective teams. I like this insert more then the previous two, because of the oval-shaped design, funky looking font (reminds me of some bar or something) and those little stories.

So far, I got Mike Modano and Martin Brodeur, both are players which I like a lot.

 

Second Season Snipers: 1 card 

Very modern-looking insert, covered in rainbow foil. It reminds me of the Matrix somehow. I like the gold foil used on the MVP logo, the dividing line and on the Snipers font, which looks also very cool, as if it was shot through by a bullet.

 

Clutch Performers: 2 cards 

 This type of insert is the nicest of the whole set IMO. Again, it doesn't really show on the picture, but the gold foil used on the frame looks just plain cool. It contrast with the background with enlarged and faded copies of players extremely well. And yay for me for getting Jaromír Jágr! :-)

Last, but not least...

 

Great Combinations: 1 card

I was VERY lucky to get this card. Actually, I got it a week ago in one of the packs, but nevertheless, I waited for this moment to show off. That little black round thing in the middle is an actual game-used puck!

Design of the card is quite plain and simple, but most of the game-used memorabilia cards are. Still, a wonderful catch!

That's about it! I plan to finish my collection of every insert in this set, but I have no interest in collecting the "Script" cards, as they are just way too many and not so easy to find in our country. 

Tomáš Vokoun: 1997-98 Donruss Rated Rookie (RC)

I got a delivery a week or so ago that included this card. I wanted it bad, because it became my first Vokoun RC card. And what a card it is!

First of all, it is an insert card. Second, it's my only Montreal Vokoun card. Lot of people don't even know that Tomáš played for the Canadiens.

Actually, he played in just one game for Montreal. And his debut was not really that great - he played only one period, recorded 10 saves and allowed 4 goals, which set his stats at Saves percentage 0.714 and dreadful 12.00 goals against average. But nevertheless, it was a start.

The card itself is decent. It doesn't show on the scan, but those letter behind Tomáš are actually foil as well as the Rated Rookies logo. Take a look at Vokoun's mughshot - he has hair! :) I can't remember when was the last time I saw him with hair. His bald head became synonymous for him - that and the glove on his right hand.

His number is different - I don't remember him wearing 37 in NHL or in nationals, but one thing remained unchanged from the beginning - his loyalty to Sher-Wood sticks. I believe he is wielding Nike-Bauer nowadays, but he had been using Sher-Woods for a long long time.

Pack Break: 2 packs of UD MVP Hockey 2001-2002

I liked this pack so much, that I went back for more and bought two of them this time. I hoped for a goalie (Belfour, if possible), or at least one of Czech players, and this is what I got.

 

I was really happy to get Martin Brodeur, actually I discussed him with a couple of friends that day. Coincidence or fate? :-) Another pleasant surprise for me was Jaromír Jágr, the best Czech forward ever, here shown in the Washington jersey, probably shortly after being traded. Nice moment. Apart from that, I got one RC, Chris Nielsen. It seems that everytime I get a prospect in this set, it's a player that never really broke through in the NHL. I googled Chris Nielsen (as I never heard of him) and found out that he only appeared in 52 NHL games. 

Oh and I finally got an insert!  

I think it's kinda neat, I like the effective design, shooting Fedorov and shiny silver foil, that is, unfortunately, not scanned properly. I'm not a big fan of Fedorov, but this card just gets me.

By the way, my first box is on it's way, I am collecting the whole UD MVP 99-00 Stanley Cup Edition. I got about a hundred base cards so far and I look forward to my first big box break. 36 packs. Yay. Can't wait!

Tomáš Vokoun: My very first jersey card!

This is my very first jersey card and what's more, it features Tomáš Vokoun. I can't tell you how excited I was when I first took this card into my hands and touched the jersey parts. It didn't cost me much, but it's very valuable for me nonetheless.

Although Vokoun is pictured in a Panthers jersey,  the jersey is actually of Nashville Predators, where Tomáš spent a big part of his career. The photo is not really great, but I guess that's not what jersey cards are about.

I hope to add some more game used memorabilia in my collection, once I get enough funds, I'm buying a Belfour for sure! 

Pack Break: UD MVP Hockey 2001-2002

 

 This was the second pack purchased today. The contents of it were much more satisfying for me. Let's have a look at it.

 

First of all, I just LOVE the design, it looks awesome - silver lining, stylish frames painted with team colors, nice selection of players... What's not to like? 

I especially like the Chris Pronger insert card. The background resembles honeycomb, it's shiny and embossed... and it has Chris Pronger. A very beautiful card indeed.

The pack also included two rookie cards - Gregg Naumenko and Kirby Law. Unfortunately, neither of these players saw more than a couple of games in NHL. Still, they are a nice addition to my collection.

The rest of the guys are (or were) NHL stars, core players for their teams. There is one interesting fact about the Sami Kapanen card - the front states he is playing on defense, which is obviously not true. The information is corrected on the back though, stating he is a left winger.

Overall, it is a nice set and I'm considering buying more packs.