A Chip Off the Hammer

"Hammer" otherwise known as Dan Hamhuis is a BC boy that the Canucks picked up a few years back in free agency. There's no doubt that that signing was one that would benefit the Nucks defence. He now represents the core of Vancouver's back six and he brings a calm and cool presence to the team.

I was able to get a little "chip" of Hamhuis history in form of his jersey on a hockey card. Take a look:

How much? A buck 99 and it was shipped free to my house. The colour is not a generic white and it comes from a set I am familiar with. I have a Daniel Sedin GU card from the same set I picked up awhile ago via trade.

Although this card isn't groundbreaking by any means, I am a fan of GU memorabilia cards and this fits the bill. Looking forward to watching Hammer lead my team next season.

GO NUCKS GO!

Dan Cloutier PC - BTP AUTO

Since I bought that big lot of Cloutier cards months back I still haven't gotten around to showing you all the neat types of cards I acquired. So today we will take a peek at one more page of Cloutier cards and then an eBay pickup that's in the form of an AUTO.

All these cards are from Cloutier first couple years and as you can see he is wearing Rangers gear in all but one of them. That card on the bottom right hand corner comes from a really cool set called UD3 "New Era" (whatever that is). On the opposing left we have Cloutier in what looks to be his junior gear on a card of a company I have never heard of - TetRad. That pillar down the middle is horrendous and the back of the card is no better!

I'm glad that TetRad company is out of business cause that card is just plain weird! 

Now onto the good stuff, an autograph of good old Clouts!

Cloutiers AUTO looks a little weak compared to some of his other stuff, but it stills brings back nostalgic memories. This is one of two sigs Dan has in the regular AUTO set BTP puts out. His other is included in "La Belle Province" subset and is an SP. That might cost a couple more loonies but I should find a deal sooner or later...

The AUTO designs this year don't fall too far from the tree compared to the past couple years but they still show a more modern, sleek looking design. Hey thanks for the AUTO Dr. Price!

GO NUCKS GO!

#200: THE GOALIE PROJECT (Updates P-Z) + C4K Announcements!

Months ago I started updating all the goalies in my Goalie Project to get my ongoing list up to date with my current collection. Today I'm finally going to finish that update and get the entire list to par with what's in my binders.

First though, are the rules of the project, what three cards I'm collecting in particular:

1. Rookie card
2. Card in a Canucks jersey
3. Card in another teams jersey

So without further a due, lets get through this in alphabetical order. Starting with...

COREY SCHWAB

Yes I am aware I spelt Schwab wrong on the little paper card on the left but I am human you know! Schwab wasn't a huge time goalie in Vancouver but at least I'm close to completing him with 2/3 of his cards collected (RC in the Devils uni and the card in another teams jersey on the right). 

GARY SMITH

"Suitcase" is a different story. Both of the cards I own of his fall under one lone category and that would be of him in a Canucks jersey. So I still have some digging to do with him.

GARTH SNOW

A couple of Snow's rookies are on this page along with a variety of base and parallels of Snow in Canucks gear. I love the different designs the early 2000's had. It's neat looking back at them and comparing them to the sleek and cool designs of today. 

On this second page of Garth Snow are again cards of him with the Canucks but also feature Snow in Pens gear and as well sporting the Islanders colours. That means Snow can be checked off of the list at a perfect 3 for 3!

STEVE WEEKS

Just a simple 1/3 here. No rookie of Weeks yet nor do I have a card of his in anything but a Canucks jersey. Some work to be done here...

KAY WHITMORE

These two pages of Kay show a wide variety of sets from the 90's junk wax era. Your typical stuff like Pinnacle, Donruss, Series 1 etc. Included is a perfect 3/3. Whitmore is in the books!

WENDELL YOUNG

No rookie/Canucks cards here. 

So to finish this all up, here is the newly updated Goalie Project list (drum roll please)...

Green indicates complete...

Alex Auld - 3/3 COMPLETE! 27 TOTAL
Murray Bannerman - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Martin Brochu - 3/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Richard Brodeur - 1/3 COMPLETE! 16 TOTAL (1 JERSEY, 1 EVENT-USED, 1 AUTO)
Gary Bromley
Bruce Bullock
Sean Burke - 2/3 COMPLETE! 21 TOTAL
Frank Caprice
Jacques Caron
Ed Dyck
Ken Ellacott
Bob Essensa - 3/3 COMPLETE! 14 TOTAL
Mike Fountain - 3/3 COMPLETE! 11 TOTAL
Troy Gamble - 2/2 COMPLETE! 21 TOTAL
George Gardner 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
John Garrett - 2/3 COMPLETE! 3 TOTAL
Glen Hanlon - 1/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Johan Hedberg - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Rick Heinz
Corey Hirsch - 3/3 COMPLETE! 53 TOTAL (1 AUTO)
Charlie Hodge - 2/2 COMPLETE! 3 TOTAL
Arturs Irbe - 3/3 COMPLETE! 29 TOTAL
Jason LaBarbera - 2/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Ken Lockett
Roberto Luongo - 3/3 COMPLETE! 62 TOTAL (2 JERSEY)
Drew MacIntyre - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Cesare Maniago - 1/3 COMPLETE! 3 TOTAL
Bob Mason - 1/3 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Dave McClelland
Steve McKichan
Kirk McLean - 3/3 COMPLETE! 153 TOTAL (1 AUTO)
Rob McVicar - 1/1 COMPLETE! 1 TOTAL
Alfie Michaud - 1/1 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Tyler Moss - 3/3 COMPLETE! 5 TOTAL
Mika Noronen - 3/3 COMPLETE! 6 TOTAL
Maxime Ouellet - 2/3 COMPLETE! 3 TOTAL
Félix Potvin - 3/3 COMPLETE! 32 TOTAL (1 AUTO)
Andrew Raycroft - 1/3 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Curt Ridley - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Dany Sabourin - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Curtis Sanford - 3/3 COMPLETE! 7 TOTAL
Cory Schneider - 1/2 COMPLETE! 12 TOTAL (2 JERSEY)
Corey Schwab - 2/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Petr Skudra - 3/3 COMPLETE! 4 TOTAL
Gary Smith - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL
Garth Snow - 3/3 COMPLETE! 23 TOTAL (1 AUTO)
Kevin Weekes - 3/3 COMPLETE! 10 TOTAL
Steve Weeks - 1/3 COMPLETE! 11 TOTAL
Kay Whitmore - 3/3 COMPLETE! 20 TOTAL
Dunc Wilson - 1/3 COMPLETE! 2 TOTAL

Wendell Young - 1/3 COMPLETE! 5 TOTAL 

Aaaaaannnnddd the want list:

Murray Bannerman (RC - Canucks Card)

Richard Brodeur (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Gary Bromley (ALL THREE)

Bruce Bullock (ALL THREE)

Sean Burke (RC)

Frank Caprice (ALL THREE)

Jacques Caron (ALL THREE)

Ed Dyck (ALL THREE)

Ken Ellacott (ALL THREE)

George Gardner (Non-Canucks Card)

John Garrett (RC)

Glen Hanlon (RC - Canucks Card)

Rick Heinz (ALL THREE)

Jason LaBarbera (Canucks Card)

Ken Lockett (ALL THREE)

Drew MacIntyre (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Cesare Maniago (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Bob Mason (RC - Canucks Card)

Dave McClelland (ALL THREE)

Steve McKichan (ALL THREE)

Maxime Ouellet (Canucks Card)

Andrew Raycroft (RC - Canucks Card)

Curt Ridley (Non-Canucks Card)

Dany Sabourin (Non-Canucks Card)

Cory Schneider (RC)

Corey Schwab (Canucks Card)

Gary Smith (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Steve Weeks (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Dunc Wilson (RC - Non-Canucks Card)

Wendell Young (RC - Canucks Card)

Aaaaaannnnddddd now some statistics for my own amusement:

Rookies Collected: 27/51 (53%)

Canucks Collected: 33/51 (65%)

Non-Canucks Collected: 28/46 (61%)

TOTAL PROJECT COMPLETION: 88/148 (59%)

So with these stats I'm about over half way done with the project. I have some older and tougher finds left to dig out but I'm up for the challenge. 

If you can help with my want list let me know and I'd be glad to work out a trade with you!

Now for some C4K Annoucements:

1. I have stopped my Cody Hodgson PC. As much as I love the guy and I think he's gonna turn out to be a wicked player, I've made no progress since starting my Cloutier PC. Therefore, I've wiped it off the "to do" list. His cards are at their prime right now and I just don't have the resources to collect him at the moment. 

2. I've added "C4K Collection Totals" where the link to C4K Hodgson use to be. That will be an up to date running list of my collection as I valuate it by means of Beckett. Helps keep me organized and you informed on how our collections are growing together.

3. Don't talk about fight club...wait...that's not it...this is Collecting For Kicks 200th post!

GO NUCKS GO!

TRADE: Matt from Cardboard Conundrum

Today I received two bubble mailers, one of them was from a trade I made with Matt from Cardboard Conundrum. After busting my box of 2011-12 Titanium and Rookie Anthology, Matt displayed interest in a few of my hits (specifically those of his favourite team - Pittsburgh).

After a few days of trade bartering I think we ended it with a trade we both were very happy with. Lets sum it all up.

TO MATT:

2011-12 Titanium "Four Star" Pittsburgh - Malkin, Fleury, Kennedy, Letang /75
2011-12 Luxury Suite GU Stick and Jersey - Jason Spezza

TO ME:

2011-12 Titanium "Four Star" Rangers - Lundqvist, Richards, Gaborik, Staal /75

I chose this card from Matt's tradelist simply because of the fact that I had a hard time letting go of the Pittsburgh version of the "Four Star" card. I really like the design and idea of this GU set and the player selection was pretty even both ways. I'm probably most excited about having a Lundqvist hit on this card. Essentially this card was a one for one trade with the Pittsburgh card. 

2011-12 Crown Royale "Scratching the Surface Signatures" - Jeff Carter

I'm psyched about this card! I've had my eye on this "Scratching the Surface" set since Crown Royale came out this year. The way it works is the border around the ice rink is actually what holds in the business card sized arena. It's a really neat detail that looks awesome. Even better is the hard signed signature. I'm not the biggest Carter fan but this card was too good to turn down.

2011-12 BTP "Future Stars Authentic Goaliegraph" - Eddie Lack

My second Eddie Lack AUTO in the collection! You can never get bored of these signatures given that penmanship. He currently holds one of my favourite sigs on the Canucks roster. I'm pretty sure this is a sticker AUTO but boy does ITG do a good job at covering it up if it is. The border makes for a good way to disguise it.

Anyways a 3 for 2 trade that we both enjoyed! I think both parties got some great cards and saved a chunk of money trading instead of purchasing on the secondary market.

Thanks Matt!

GO NUCKS GO!

The Suite Life of Burr and Sam

Excuse my bad Disney sitcom reference in the title. I assure you anyone over 20 doesn't know what the hell I'm talking about, but anyways it fit well with the card I'm going to show off today.

It comes from (you guessed it) Luxury Suite and features Alex Burrows and Mikael Samuelsson. Get it yet? No? Google it.

Samuelsson no longer plays for the Canucks (thank goodness) and the only reason I bought this card was for the guy on the left. It's a safe assumption to say everyone in Vancouver is a Burrows fan (including myself) and a Burrows hit was on the checklist for sometime. The fact that it's a dual jersey is fun and for only 4 bucks shipped, why not?

This card is by no means rare at /599 copies but like I said I bought it Burrows and really nothing else. 

Now go look up the Suite Life of Zach and Cody, I'm man enough to say that is a show I watched in grade 5...

GO NUCKS GO?

A Hit From Nashville? + Matt's Group Break

First up is a quick eBay buy I got for a fairly reasonable price. It's a GU/AUTO piece and is of a player that I first discovered playing NHL 12 (believe it or not), see mom video games do teach you things!

That player is Blake Geoffrion. This rookie from Nashville caught my eye while (like I said) playing NHL 12. I acquired him from a pack of cards in the Ultimate Team game mode and slotted him in my lineup. I started scoring goals with him and he was great on the PK (some players you just play well with). Thus, I started following him in the real world.

First though, here's the card I picked up:

Decent sleek design from UD's SpX product. Not a fan of the base this year but what can I do? Like I said this comes with an "Event Used" swatch, which would be white (bleh) but fortunately comes with an AUTO too, sticker AUTO I should say (bleh). I'm making this card out to be a bad thing when it really isn't! I really like Blake and having a "hit" of him in the collection is great. I've started to make a conscious effort to try and broaden my "hits" selection. Instead of always going for Canucks I'm trying to seek out players from other teams I like too!

The back congratulates me for giving UD money for cardboard and informs me that the swatch is not GU but instead EU (which I didn't know until after I bought the card). Still though it's a great one to add to the collection!

Geoffrion made his NHL debut with the Preds and stayed for half the 2011-12 season until he got moved to Montreal. Interesting fact here, Blake's great-grandfather was Howie Morenz and his grandfather is Bernie "Boom Boom" Geoffrion! Large skates to fill my friend, large skates to fill indeed...

On another note, Matt from Cardboard Conundrum is holding his second box break. For anyone interested click the link and join! His last one was great from what I saw and even though I'm not able to participate in his second, I'm sure it'll be just as good if not better!

GO NUCKS GO!

BOX BREAK & REVIEW - 2011-12 Rookie Anthology

A couple weeks back I received two boxes from Panini America to break and review on my blog. The first was a box of Titanium which you can view here. That box was a ton of fun to open because every pack had a hit and I happened to get myself a pretty solid box (if I do say so myself).

Today we switch it up with a product I was considering buying even before I got myself a box for free and that was 2011-12 Rookie Anthology. I love the idea of the set and it serves an important purpose within almost all of Panini's releases. Basically they created a new product with a new base set and new GU and AUTO cards but included RC's (some AUTO's some with GU materials) from past sets such as Pinnacle, Crown Royale, Luxury Suite, Certified etc.

What comes out of these boxes are a very wide variety of products and some SICK cards indeed. For myself, I was intrigued about this product the day I heard about it because it gives collectors an opportunity to dabble between many products in one box instead of just the regular one product per purchase.

Included within the box were 10 packs with 5 cards per pack, plus a bonus pack with one single "hit" card. That gives you a grand total of 51 cards with 5 GU or AUTO cards within that total. I was stoked to open up these packs so let's get to some of the cards:

The base cards may be some of the best designed from Panini this year. I'm always a fan of the team colour designed cards and the banner on the bottom of the fronts highlight well the players name, position and number. Even better is the classy use of gold foil for the team logo and Rookie Anthology logo.

The backs continue with the same kind of design at the front but I notice one technical error that bothers me. They put the players name, number and position on top in the same order and design of that on the front. But when I was first shuffling through the cards I didn't realize that the player number was not in fact the card number and was confused when I found two cards with the same number. The design team at Panini decided to put the "Card No." in the middle of the card, thus making it inconvenient to sort through. That's my only thumbs down on the design stand point. 

BASE DESIGN RATING: 9.5/10

Next are the cards considered "hits" that fall one per pack. You'll have to know when purchasing a box of Rookie Anthology you will get your condolence prize which is the 6 non GU/AUTO cards that are considered "hits". Included in those 6 will most likely be 4 Pinnacle RC's (which will get to soon) and 2 random other RC cards.

I have no clue who either of these guys are but they are both from Chicago so they are up for trade. Like I said before, this is where you'll get the wide variety of products released earlier this season by Panini that they are now updating. The Shaw card on the left is from Crown Royale (which I busted this year as well) and a Panini Contenders is on the right (which I ripped one pack of this year). 

Here are the afore mentioned Pinnacle RC's. In scanned form they look like a Dufex foiled mess. In reality they are still a Dufex foiled mess. I thought these cards might looked better in hand then what I had seen in scans online but they aren't that much better. Surprisingly they are not all that shiny nor are they bright. They're dark and because of that, show little detail.

Nonetheless, I was happy to pull the bottom card you see here of Eddie Lack. If when Luongo gets traded Lack is next in line to become back up full time in the NHL. Although recently he has scared fans saying he doesn't wanna sign a long term contract right away. Hopefully he doesn't leave the NHL to go play in Sweden! Anyhoo, here's a little hint...you might see some more of Lack in the very near future ;)

First up for the real hits in this box is this dual GU card of rookies David Rundblad and Mika Zibanejad. I know more about Zibanejad than I do about Rundblad but this card doesn't have a whole lot of meaning to me personally. It is a cool concept though, it's not a highly recycled idea (even though it has been used a few times before) and the execution of the design is well done. 

I apologize for the slightly blurry and dusty scan. I decided to crop the scan out a little further since I scanned it crooked in it's top loader. 

This card is THICK! And what I love about thick cards is that you can feel the high quality in your hands. This is a Rookie Treasures card that comes from the Rookie Anthology set and not that of another product included within it. The design of this card is drool worthy and just screams high-end. The gold foil touches are beautiful and the fonts and faded designs have class slobbered all over them. The only critique I have is the sticker AUTO. These cards would be soooo much better with hard signed signatures. My two swatches of GU material were mediocre at best (but at least they aren't white)!

The back has a different player photo but still is classy and royal looking. I love the layout of this card, I just wish my scanner wasn't so dirty!

I told you Eddie would make another appearance! I was stoked to pull this card after pulling his Pinnacle RC from a pack before this! This card is just kick ass in every way. The foil technology to carve out "ROOKIE" above the long swatch of green material. Plus that signature is one of the coolest and abstract of the Canucks projects. What's ironic is how I've been chasing this exact card for awhile on eBay and have been outbid numerous times, now I got it for free!

The back continues with the cool and sleek design of Certified. I really like the way Lack plays, he's been brought up through the organization in a similar way Schneider was and I think would do well protecting NHL nets next season part time with Schneider. If you think I was excited about this card, wait till you see the next...

Here's a hint, you saw him in my box of Titanium...

He plays for the Pittsburgh Penguins...

He shares the card with a guy that has gaps in his teeth...

And they were drafted 1st and 2nd overall in 2004...

If you don't have the answer by now you have summer hockey brain...

YES! This card was a very exciting pull. Evgeni Malkin is the type of player I'd love to start pulling regularly, and when he brings along a friend like this, it's even better. Two of the biggest names in hockey today, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin! Along with two coloured swatches of GU jersey, this is a card I think I'll be keeping for awhile!

I really like how Panini used the logo's of the Penguins and Capitals from 2004 and not there more recent versions of 2011-12. Also included is the draft year logo. Definitely one of the nicer pulls of the year personally.

Last but not least was this single card pack included in the box. I could already feel from the thickness that it was a GU card and from most of the pulls I've seen online that means it is probably from Luxury Suite.

This dusty scan of a very nice card is a GU Jersey and Stick card from Luxury Suite of Mr. Jason Spezza. This card is very nice looking and has a unique swatch of memorabilia to it but it is going to be shipped off soon to a fellow collector via trade.

"HITS" DESIGN RATING: 9/10

Since there are so many different releases it seems there are so many nice looking "hit" cards and that is definitely the case!

SET IDEAS: 8.5/10

This product really restricts you from getting creative with your different sub sets and GU and AUTO sets. But Panini did a really good job of designing bringing in some different ideas like the Draft Day card I showed earlier. As well, the versatility of the products included give a wide range of what could have been a repetitive bunch of rookie GU and AUTO cards. 

BANG FOR BUCK: 9/10

This product screams value with almost a good break every time. You're getting 5 hits a box which boiled down to 20 bucks a GU or AUTO'd card. Personally I think it would be easy to get back your money on eBay if you so desired to. This is a product I think I'll be diving into once again!

OVERALL RATING: 36/40 (90%) (A)

This product comfortably gets in "A" in my books and I would recommend it to all that are looking for a fun break!

Thanks Panini America and thank you Tracy!

GU NUCKS GO!