One Random Pack: 1990-91 Pro Set hockey

Pro Set? Hockey? Saturday? I know, but I'm not doing this one for the views, or the comments, just trying to switch things up a bit. Plus, there's that whole Stanley Cup finals thing starting on Monday, so this post will be sort of timely as well.

I have opened more Pro Set football packs than I can remember, but never did open even a single Pro Set hockey pack, so when I saw some packs for a quarter each awhile back, I figured why not give one a go?

Anybody that's ever come around here before, probably already knows that hockey isn't my forte, so if any of the info is wrong, blame the internet.

A member or the United States Hockey Hall of Fame. I didn't even know that there was a United States Hockey Hall of Fame! So apparently he's good enough for our HOF, but not THE Hall of Fame?

The last time I watched a hockey series, this guy, and his Mighty Ducks were playing in the Stanley Cup Finals -- although I'd be lying if I said that I remember him specifically, or anyone else from the series for that matter.

The first name in the pack that I recognized, and that's only because he was once a member of the Portland Winter Hawks. I did have to go look up when that was though, saw that he was on the 1982-83 squad that won the 1983 Memorial Cup.

As I'm reading about some of these guys, I'm starting to notice a trend here, in that half of this pack so far has a Whalers connection, and that's a team that I actually know a little bit about thanks to Chris.

From what I've gathered, this is basically the "good human" award.

And here's your good human of 1990! Evidently being good paid off for Mr. Lowe, as he also has six Stanley Cups to his name.

Hey, Vincent! One word... dehumidifier! It'll work wonders :)

Went to school at Bowling Green State University, I don't really associate Ohio with hockey, but what do I know?

Another Whaler! He also has a fairly well known brother, who may or may not be coming up later in this pack? [spoiler: he will be]

Apparently Petri was hot sh*t over in Finland, came over here and didn't do so well against the NHL's better player's, then went to Denmark and became a legend.

The first player to go straight from high school to the NHL after being drafted.

I'm kind of amazed at how long most the guys in this pack played, at eight seasons, Todd had the shortest NHL career, at least from the fellow's that we've already seen.

John had his career ended by a bout with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, which is unfortunate, but he did beat it, and is still alive and kicking 20+ years later, so eat it, cancer!!!!!!

P.S. Also another former Whaler.

Ooh, the first member of the real Hockey Hall of Fame in the pack. He's also the all-time leader in power-play goals (274).

Another all-star, and another Hall of Famer! Coincidence? I'm not even going to try and list any of his accomplishments, otherwise we're gonna be here all day. Also another guy who spent some time in Hartford... former Whalers are all over this pack.

And with the last card in the pack, we get to the only other name that I knew. I would've bet money that Pierre was in the HOF, but apparently he isn't, anyone know why? I didn't see anything that talked about why he wasn't, I did read about the Punch-up in Piestany though, and how a lot of his teammates were disappointed in his lack of participation. Makes me wonder if something like that could be what is holding up his induction?

It was kind of neat to get a pair of brothers in the same pack, I would imagine that it would have been really cool to do so back in 1990.

I'm sure that everybody who opened these packs back in the day is quite familiar with the coupon cards, but they're new to me, so that's why I'm showing it.

I'd be curious to know if anyone ever used any of these, and if so, what did you get? Kind of interesting too seeing the three states that these couldn't be used in, I kind of wonder what that was all about as well?

Overall it was a pretty fun pack, got some Hall of Famers, got a guy with Portland ties, and learned a few things while putting the post together. The place where I got this has boxes for $8, which is a little high for me on something like this, but I wouldn't mind picking up a few more quarter packs somewhere down the road.

And I'll probably only be keeping Ray Ferraro, so if anybody wants any of the other cards, don't be shy about saying so.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

COMC Shuffle #12

Another week, another ten randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard!

2011 Topps Platinum Diamond Anniversary #20.2

Canceling a game just because of a little rain? Weak! Modern player's no nothing of hardships, I mean just look at what kind of conditions that Honus and his brethren were playing in -- the diamonds are coming down so hard it's a miracle that the photographer was even able to get this shot. And how do you think sliding in that kind of weather felt? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that it probably didn't feel too great, but were they going to do, not play? Pfft!

1933 Goudey #206

Found this on Gus' Wikipedia page:

"Prior to playing in the majors, Suhr played for the San Francisco Seals. In 1929, he hit .381 with 51 home runs and 177 RBI for his team. During that season, he became the only player in baseball history to be sued (in addition to his team) by a fan injured after being struck by a foul ball he hit. The case was dismissed under the legal Baseball Rule, a verdict upheld by the California Supreme Court three years later."

Look at those numbers! And that's at a time when the PCL's play was almost on par with those of the major league's, heck, according to many west coaster's of the time, it's level of play was better than what the "big boys" had to offer.

1998 Topps Stadium Club Leading Legends

I found one of these in a dime box just a few days after getting this one, not that I mind owning two of course, I just thought it was interesting to find one in the wild right after finding out that these cards were even a thing. As far as acetate cards go, these are definitely one of the more interesting one's that I've seen, they look like someone actually took the time to paint gold leaf on to each individual card.

2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue Mojo Prizms #144

One of my favorite Blazers of all-time!

2012 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #BP

One of my favorite's from the 2012 set, probably in the top five.

1998-99 Upper Deck Ionix Area 23 #A2

I'm not working on this insert set, but it seems like during every Black Friday sale, there's one cheap copy from this set to be had, and for the last four years, I seem to be the one who always get's that one cheap copy.

1965 Topps #528

Another one for the "Telstar Four" collection. I've heard that George is very generous with his signature, but with the price of postage now, it's really difficult for me to get up the want to send out any more TTM requests.

 

1975-76 Topps #232

Example #896 of why I don't normally scan vintage cards. I really miss the days of hearing Snapper and Bill Walton playfully go back and forth at each other during the NBC games. And I really (really) miss hearing Snapper doing the color work on the Blazers broadcasts.

2013 Panini Black Friday Panini Collection Progressions - Cyan #8

Yep, I willingly bought an Anthony Bennett card... first person to do so in nearly five years!

2001-02 Topps Chrome Black Refractor #109

I love the '01 black refractors so darn much! Being numbered to /50, they aren't always easy, or cheap, to come by (well, there is someone selling a large collection of them on eBay right now, but that's an anomaly). DA was on sale for less than five bucks, so it was virtually impossible for me not to grab him.

For the first time in over two months, I took five days off from posting, it was a nice break, so nice that I might be taking a few more similar breaks in the very near future. The weather has been crazy nice, and there are a few things that I want to do this summer, things that have been put on the back burner because of this blog -- I just don't have enough time to do everything! Either that, or I'll just try to shorten some of the posts, as I do tend to be on the rambly side, and those do take a fair amount of time to put together. Even if I do cut back for a couple of months, I will at least continue to do these Shuffle posts, if only because they seem to be the easiest to "write" right now. But I don't know, I'm just sort of thinking out loud, certainly nothing's set in stone yet.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Card show groupings?

I am really starting to think that the contents of my haul from February's cards show were never meant to be blogged about... either that or I'm just really struggling all of sudden with card show recaps.

First there was the post from two weeks ago that I had great idea for, but just couldn't make work, and now I've got today's post, which I actually started just a couple of days after the show -- the only problem is, I'm coming back to a draft that's been sitting unopened for over two months, and now that I'm looking at it again, I have absolutely no idea where I was going with it!

I mean I do remember pulling out a bunch of stuff that could be grouped together (sets, player's, etc.), and I even sort of remember scanning them, but after that it's all a blur. Maybe I was going to try and tie them in with my seemingly never ending sorting project (aka the final sort) that I've slowly been doing now for almost six months? I say maybe, but I don't really think so, if only because like half of the stuff in here is grouped in a way that I'm not using to sort my cards.

I'd be curious to know if this has ever happened to any of my fellow blogger's? It certainly has never happened to me before. I do know that going forward, if I ever start a post and think that I might not be coming back to it for a while, I will be leaving some notes for future me to come back to.

So I guess there isn't much else to say other to reiterate once again that I don't know where I was going with this one, but at least there's bunch of fun stuff in here, and cheap fun stuff at that, as this was all from either 6/$1 boxes, or everyone's favorite, the dime boxes.

I like to think that I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to football happenings before I was born, and yet, somehow I never knew that O.J. played in San Francisco?

Along with all of his 6/$1 boxes (which almost all of the cards in this post came from), Jim, also had a two-row shoebox full of mini's. At a dime apiece, I probably should've spent more time looking through them, but I've already mentioned in a previous post how little I was feelin' this show, so I only ended up giving the box a quick thumb through.

If you've ever come around here before, it shouldn't be too much of mystery as to why I picked out most of these particular Kimball Champions. Even though I've abandoned most of my sets in progress, this is one that I would still like to see through. I have been going about it a bit lazily though, as it's been over two months and I still haven't checked to see how many of these guys I actually needed.

I already had all of these, but I am completely powerless when it comes to resisting HoloGrFX inserts and parallels. No matter how many of one particular card I have, I just can't walk away from them.

Everything that I just said about HoloGrFx, applies to Hoops Decade as well. I have such an affinity for both of these sets, which I think stems from the fact that these two sets were the last one's that I was buying/working on before I took my decade or so off from collecting cards.

I always feel like die-cut and/or textured cards should carry a premium, thankfully though, the folks in charge of deciding what things are "worth" don't always agree with that sentiment.

John Stockton... Boss? Most definitely! Ron Mercer... Boss? Um, not so much, well, maybe in college.

  

Ray Allen... Boss? Certainly! Damon Stoudamire... Boss? He had his moments.

I don't keep track of which of these Elway Prism's I have, I just grab them anytime I see them in the bargain boxes, which as it turns out, is fairly frequently.

I was never a fan of either of these guys, but I was a big fan of the Hot Numbers insert set, so...

I was a big fan of both of these guys though, well, all three of 'em if you count David Robinson.

Not a great show for finding Junior's, still though, two is better than none.

People like to give Panini the business for their nickname cards. Sometimes I think that some of those people have forgotten that we had nickname cards in the 90's as well, and it was just as lame of an idea back then as it is now, although they were at least better looking back then.

It's not very often that I come across Chipper inserts, definitely not the most exciting inserts ever, but I'll take them.

For someone who isn't a Jordan fan, I feel like I've been showing an awful lot of his cards as of late. The top card is a Broder, I enjoy the image on the Fleer, and the other card isn't even a real card, it's just an advertisement for Sports Cards magazine?

It's not often that I'm attracted to newer inserts, but I absolutely had to have the Rodman Essential Legends card, which I feel obligated to say looks a hundred times better in person.

I'm always amazed that there aren't more Tim Duncan collector's out there, I mean he's only one of the best player's to have played in the last 25 years, and an easy argument could be made for his inclusion on a top ten all-time list.

Try as I might, I don't seem to find a lot of Barry's in the bargain boxes, I suspect this is because his cards are always scooped up by the folks who get there before me, aka the diggers who live considerably closer to these shows than I do.

David's never really gotten much love from collector's, at least not after all the excitement over his Hoops rookie card died down.

I already own both of these KG's, but you know the drill, if there's one thing better than owning one copy, it's owning two.

I have now found six copies of this Shaq Teammates card at the last three shows that I've been to. I'm no legaloligist (and I don't play one on TV), but I believe that this means, at least according to the decision that was handed down in the landmark case of Roe v. Dwayne Wade, that I'm now required by law to find three more in order to complete a full page's worth :)

I only have two more posts of card show stuff to get to, which is good news, considering my recent struggles. I had planned on going to the show in a few weeks, but after my big purchase a couple of days ago (it arrived yesterday!!!!), that is no longer going to be doable, which in a way is good news as well, because I at least now won't have to be getting up at 3am on a Saturday morning for a little bit longer. I will loosely plan on trying to go to the show at the end of June, that too is good news, as it means that I now have over five weeks to finish those last two posts. Plus, those two will just be a bunch of random crap, so I don't even have to try and come with a theme... happy day!

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.