Rink-ing in the New Year + Blogaversary Contest Results

Yes, I know that title is a really bad play on words. Sorry for that. Happy New Year a few days late! I celebrated on New Year's Eve when I received my last piece of cardboard for 2016. It was a big, expensive win from the Land of Listia. In recent months, I hadn't spent much time searching there, but I continued to see emails reminding me of how many credits I had and one day after Christmas I decided to take a look and see if I could go on a 'shopping spree' to remedy the fact that I wasn't gifted any cardboard(except for my Secret Santa package). After a few minutes of looking, I happened to find this awesome hockey relic.

The 'Canes are my 'local' hockey team and I have enjoyed taking my girls to a game or two. Ron Francis was the heart of the Hurricanes teams that went to the Stanley Cup finals in 2002 and brought the 'Caniacs out of the woodwork in NC. Sadly, he had left the team by the time they were able to bring the cup to the Triangle. He also happens to be the team's current GM. Finding this in my mailbox was a great way to end my collecting year.

Now, on to the long overdue results from my blogaversary contest. This year, there were 17 total entrants which is down by one from last year's contest. I was pretty happy with that considering my multiple, long posting droughts in the later part of the year. With that in mind, I've decided to have two winners again. However, this time around, one winner will be the person on top after the nine randoms and the other winner will be the person who is at the bottom. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest, your support and kind words mean a lot. Good luck to all. Without further delay, here is the final round from the randomizer:

Congrats to Angus and night owl! I will start working on putting together your customized prize packages right away. Thanks for reading.

Batting 1.000 On Hockey Repacks

A week or two ago, just before I found a discounted UD series one hockey blaster, I picked up my second 100 card, 1:4 has a hit hockey repacks from a not-so-local Target.

I'll admit, I cheated a little bit on this one. You'll see why in a bit. I picked it up because I kinda liked the face card and was interested to get a better look at it. When I did, I caught a glimpse of the side of the package and saw something unique. The combo of interesting face card and unique looking card buried in the stack made me take it with me to the register when I was ready to check-out.

I was lucky to find a trio of Devils that were on the roster around the time I became a fan of the team. I have an especially fond memory of Stephane Richer. I recall renting an NHL game for the NES(I think) and I chose to play with the Devils. His likeness within the game was on par with Gretzky and Lemieux. They instantly became my team(fortified by all of my friends telling me I should like the Rangers) and Richer became one of my favorite players on the team. Using him in the game kinda reminded me of playing Tecmo Bowl with Bo Jackson.

The bottom row boasts two other great players from the late '80's, early '90's. I had to include the Stevenson RC in the scan simply because you just don't see rollerblades on many pieces of cardboard.

Great photos, especially the Lemieux/Bush meeting on that UD card.

There it is, right there in the center, the face card of the repack. I love that also hiding in the stack was a similarly designed Ovechkin. I dig that old photo of Joe Malone too. Get a load of that old school equipment and sweater!

I was pretty happy to pull this silver signature parallel out of there as well. So, what exactly was that unique looking card I saw from the side of the box? Well, I could tell that it was a thick acetate card of some sort, but I had no idea what kind it was.

This is prett awesome! The signature is on-card. Though I wasn't familiar with Drew Stafford, it's still a cool card. This makes me 2:2 pulling 'hits' from these repacks. This was a ton of fun to bust. My local Target(s) don't stock these for hockey so it won't become a habit to pick them up. When I happen to see a few of these on the shelves, I'll be sure to take a peek though. If the face card is worth it, I'll definitely crack a few more of these. Maybe I'll be able to keep,the streak alive. Thanks for reading.

A Mega-PWE Filled With...Hockey?!?

I recently claimed some hockey cards from JediJeff of 2x3 Heroes. Back in my younger days, I was an pretty huge NJ Devils fan. To this day, I guess I'm a casual fan. So, when the opportunity arose to claim some Devils cards, I jumped. Jeff has said that he's going to continue to drop cards on everyone until they're gone and the first installment arrived the other day.

These were the highlights. There were guys included that I had to Google, but these guys were on the teams back when I followed closely. My favorite of the bunch is definitely the Brodeur in the upper left corner. Great player+great shot holding the Stanley Cup=incredible card! I was thrilled to see not just one, but two cards of players hoisting the trophy. The envelope was heavy on the captain of those squads too, Scott Stevens. 

Jeff also helped me cross off three more 2015 Topps series one base cards. I'm betting sooooo close to finishing that set, just a few more to go. Thanks Jeff.