TCDB Trade With A Canuck

 Hello and welcome to my standard "I don't know what I'm going to post about" post, until I come up with something that is fairly easy to scan and yack about.

Since I only have about a dozen regular readers and one or two regular commenters , no one but me would notice if I skipped a month in posting. I have made several posts about my self-regulating posting quota of at least one post per month, per blog.

Long story short this post might end up being one of my worst posts with very very minimal views. Don't say I didn't warn you.

I'm not sure but I might have to sometime soon think about reevaluating my collection and draw a line somewhere about acquiring "new" cards. There are just too many things currently in the industry that take away the fun of collecting. One of the many things is the endless and pointless parallels. It seems every card now needs to have at least a dozen parallels. Now sometimes it is fun to collect the variants and go for the "rainbow" but usually it is just another gimmick to fall for. Cheap in the sense that it is low quality or literally no brainer as in it takes no brain to come up with the idea. However it is expensive in the fact that it adds to the overall cost of the cards and sometimes adds in the materials used to make the cards.

Well that didn't solve a damned thing.

Alright so I had a recent trade with a member over at TCDB from Canada. The trader supposedly originally sent the cards within a day or two of the trade being confirmed, but a week or two later he sent me a message saying the cards had been returned because the stamp fell off, so he resent. I didn't complain because Canada. About a week or two later the cards finally arrive. Sent  of course via PWE with a stamp. There was thin cardboard from a "Coors Light" box nicely painter's taped around a 3 pocket section from a 9 card sheet. I noticed the stamp cancellation was 3 days before arrival, so his sending time honesty wasn't entirely accurate. Again no complaints everything was safe. I sent five Topps 1978 Battlestar Galactica cards, the last of my original dupes from that set for 6 hockey cards (I might already have some of the Caps cards but didn't have them marked in my collection online) and a 1978 Topps Superman: The Movie card I needed for my set (a card I thought I had, maybe I have the sticker with the same photo). My ship out day was a week after the trade confirmation because the trade was confirmed on a Saturday afternoon.

Here are the cards I got.

1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey 41 Ken Hodge Boston Bruins

1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey 402 Ken Baumgartner New York Islanders

1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey 585 Donald Audette Buffalo Sabres

1994-95 Parkhurst Hockey 254 Dale Hunter Washington Capitals

1992-93 Pro Set Platinum Hockey 242 Dimitri Khristich Washington Capitals

1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey 109 Kevin Hatcher Washington Capitals

1978 Topps Superman: The Movie 10 Marc McClure as Jimmy Olsen with puzzle back

The Art Of The Sweep

When I started the draft for this post the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs were in full motion. The Finals series to determine the 2019 Champions between the St. Louis Blues

and the Boston Bruins

was just beginning. So yeah this post draft had a full length playoff beard that almost rivals Rip Van Winkle's beard. The Final Series is long long over and the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup.

Their fourth time in the Final Series and now their first WIN.

Among many things that were interesting about this season's playoffs was the results of the Eastern Conference Champions Road to victory.

The Boston Bruins representing the Eastern Conference had a somewhat normal road to the Cup Finals.

In round one the Bruins beat the Maple Leafs in 7 games.

Then for round 2, in 6 games they beat the Blue Jackets.

Who had swept the Tampa Bay Lightning round 1.

The Bruins then swept the Carolina Hurricanes.

Who in round one beat my Washington Capitals,

then in round 2 swept the New York Islanders

who had swept the Pittsburgh Penguins in round 1.

I just find that a neat sort of pattern.

Now is the time on Sprockets when we dance.

Note: The cards I showed here were totally picked at random. Most of them were in the same semi-unsorted box. The box is only sorted somewhat by sport and/or set.

Hockey Poker: A Pair

From the 11 FEB 2012 sportlots onslaught. We hit the ice and go back to 1969-70 Canada, sort of these are the O-Pee-Chee versions. One thing I've notice with this particular year is it seems that all the player's photos were taken in hallways or some corner of the locker room. The walls you can see are plain painted cinder block walls. I don't know much about the guys from this era of Hockey since I was just a little tyke at the time and it would be another 4 years or so before I became a hockey fan because the Capitals were not in existence yet. I think I was a semi Bruins fan because of Bobby Orr and the Phil and Tony Esposito Hockey game we had. I used to think both Esposito brothers played for the Bruins but it looks like that was only Phil. Back then I thought Tony was the one on the Bruins. On with the Cards:

1969-70 O-PEE-CHEE HOCKEY

1969-70 OPC Hockey 14 Ron Anderson Blues

 Here is a nice card of an Anderson. I tend to collect players with that name because it is similar to my last name Andersen. OK so technically its the same name but spelled different. The origin of the name means "Son of Ander" no matter how you spell it or where you come from even if you add a couple of "S"s.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 143 Jimmy Peters Kings

This card is almost a mirror image of the other card if you squint and are blue/red color blind. A typical posed photo of the player holding his stick down. I wonder if they were actually in their skates when these photos were taken? As I said the walls of the room are plain so they could have been taken while the players were suiting up. Yeah I'll keep thinking that.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 173 Dick Cherry Flyers

My first reaction to this card was Dick Cherry - I wonder if he is related to Don Cherry? (Player/Coach best known for coaching the Bruins) The answer is YES he is related they are brothers. Thank you Wikipedia. Again we have a player in a typical pose with his stick "on the ice". Only there is no ice here.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 197 Ken Broderick North Stars

This is why I kind of dig vintage cards of goalies. Check out the huge leather pads, OK so modern pads are still huge but they use foam and nylon and plastic and simulated leather now. This Mr. Broderick is no relation to the Actor Matthew.

1969-70 OPC Hockey 199 Tom Polonic North Stars

We got another North Star here and another faux "stick on the ice" pose. I bet he doesn't even have his skates on.

A Pair of Vintage Bruins

On Wednesday 08 February 2012, I got two vintage Bruins cards from a sportlots auction. Both cards have seen better days. If I had enough of these Hockey cards to talk about I'd start a "Poor Old Hockey Cards" blog. Unfortunately there are two big reasons I don't do that:

1. I don't have enough of vintage Hockey cards to talk about.
2. I don't have the time. I would have to get paid a nice salary that would replace my current job to be able to blog full time.

1961/62 Topps Hockey 6 Dick Meissner - Bruins

With this card I thought the whole thing was a drawing/sketch but it looks like the background with all the other players is actually a mono colored photograph. No matter what it is it is a very nice looking card, even it this particular specimen is in need of a whole lot of TLC.

1962/63 Topps Hockey 17 Irv Spencer - Bruins

This is a nice vintage Topps card, but why do I get the idea he looks like Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean?