Belfour Card of the Week - 2005/06 Upper Deck Ice

Upper Deck must definitely be my favorite hockey card producer. Not only do they use great pictures, their card design is often great as well. This brings me to today's card...

I know, it is a base card and most of my cards are base cards, but look at the effort UD made to make the set stand out. First of all, there is a nice picture of Eddie in his silver Eagle mask during his second Toronto year. Then, there is the overall card design. The ice texture is embossed and Eddie himself stands out not only from the frame, but you can feel the silhouette being embossed as well if you touch it. Nice, clean, effective; just the way I like my design.

The back of the card shows only 5 seasons... not ideal, but better than nothing. It continues with the oval theme and uses a unique picture, which is definitely a plus. Cool card.

Belfour: A pair of die cuts

When I bought these two cards, I thought they looked really neat, as I had not encountered a die cut before. One of those cards was numbered, so I naturally thought I have something very special and valuable  in my hand!

I do not.

It matters not,  I like the cards anyway.

Pacific Atomic 2002 is not even made of cardboard, the card is made of plastic, which makes it very durable. It features Eddie in my favourite gold mask in the best jersey the Stars had. The card is cut around the Stars logo.

On theck, there is a green version of the Eagle helmet, with a pair of wishbones, which he wore with white Dallas jersey. The back of the card is not very informative, I like stats and this card is lacking in that department, it only shows career totals, Not cool. But hey, at least they used a different photo on the back.

This Upper Deck Three Stars Spotlight is not an insert, as I had originally thought, merely a numbered 0100/1000 parallel card. It still remains my only numbered card I have so far.

The scan does not do the card justice, it is actually quite pretty! Stats are there for the last 5 seasons, better than in the previous example, but still not quite satisfactory. Good effort though.

Nevertheless, I find the die cut cards cool.

In The Game: Two Belfour Cards

I made myself happy and expanded my Eddie Belfour collection by 30 cards or so, mostly base cards, or inserts. I am still a casual collector on a budget and I am gonna go after that higher value stuff when I got what I need.

Anyway, today I present two ITG cards I got. Tandems, paired with Dominik Hašek and Decades 1990s. In theory, both are good concepts. In reality, however... I am not that pleased.

Let's take a look at the Tandems cards first, which I believe is better.

As I said, the concept is good. Both goaltenders met in Chicago between 1990-92 seasons and they were a No. 1 and No. 2 goalie in 1992. However, I would hardly consider them a tandem, as Hašek barely got to play in 1990-91 (only 5 games) and his 20 games in 1991-92 were not a great number either. Hašek got some game time in playoffs though, playing 3 games in 1990-91 and the same number of games a season later.

The photos are... not so great. They are not exactly high-res and Eddie's photo does not match the era at all. Judging by his mask, the photo is from 1995-96 or 1996-97 season. By this time, Hašek was a Sabres superstar. The fact that the photos are repeated in the back does not make it any better.

They can be considered rivals, because of their competition for net time and memorable 1998-99 Stanley Cup finals, where Dallas Stars beat Buffalo Sabres in a classic goalie duel

.

ITG did not make it any better on the other card, Betwen the Pipes, Decades 1990s. I like the card design, but I hate the photo, so blurry and low-res! I am sure there must have been a better photo of Eddie from his Chicago era available, it is not like he was a one game wonder!

Eddie started wearing this mask in 1992-93 and swapped it for the "wishbone" design after 1994-45.

Despite all of that, I am happy to get these two cards and expand my collection. I will post some more later.

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 :)

Ed Belfour: Pro Set 91-92

Ahh, Pro Set 91-92. This again brings back great memories - I used to own nearly the whole set back at my elementary school days. The regular card features Eddie ready to play. It's not a terribly interesting card, but I like it anyway, it just screams early 90s. Eddie's 90-92 Eagle mask is clearly visible.

The second card, marked "Leader" portraits Belfour as a midseason leader in GAA for 91-92. Eventually, Eddie ended up with GAA 2.70, which was not bad at all.

Finally, the third card features Ed during his trophy harvest after a spectacular 1990-91 season. I really valued this card at the time and it is still great.

Ed Belfour: Score 91-92

These cards are from my old card collecting era, with the exception of the purple US one. At the time, I really digged the cards with trophies - they felt somehow more valuable. Now, I find these particular cards are quite plentiful, but I still like them for their nostalgic value.

I believe those are all the Belfour cards from the set, that could be obtained by "normal" way, i.e. by opening boxes and packages. According to hockeydb.com, the rest was National/Fanfest  and Young Superstars, which were quite impossible for me to get in my country at that time.

Eddie had a remarkable season in 1990-91. In his rookie season, he won Vezina, Calder and Jennings trophies, which is a feat not accomplished by many. Apart from that, he was a leader in wins (which set a new season record for Blackhawks) and goals against average. Those cards commemorate his terrific success and that's why I still love them.