2012 Goodwin Champions Sidney Crosby SSP (Case Hit!)

So, I'm a pretty big fan of Goodwin Champions, despite the fact that, judging from the ridiculously cheap ebay prices, not too many other people are. I don't know if it's the all-painted set, the lack of licensing keeping team logos off of the product, or the fact that it doesn't focus on one particular sport, but it seems like the value of what you find in this product just doesn't hold itself for too long after release.

The one exception is the product's horizontal SSP cards.

These case hits play a cool twist off of the variation idea, where basically, instead of throwing on a different picture, or swapping out the bordering color, they simply just do a wide-angle shot of the subject's base card.

Take, for example, the Sidney Crosby that I just got my hands on. The regular version of the cards features Sid in a suit mugging for the camera. Nothing too special. However, when the view pans out to the wide-angle shot, the card includes President Barack Obama holding the Stanley Cup. Now no matter where your political allegiances lie, having a card of the U.S. President holding the Cup is pretty cool, even though I'm sure he'd rather it be from 2010, when his home-team Chicago Blackhawks brought the Cup to the White House.

The SSP was the card I wanted, but the auction also included two other cards. One of them was the regular base card, which was cool, since I needed another. I have one for my set already, but I still needed one more fore my Sidney Crosby collection (base/hits), and this one fills that void.

Card number three of the lot was the jersey card from the set, which I had already acquired. Still, when you consider that I would have paid what I paid just for the SSP alone, any added bonus is a good thing.

My Sidney Crosby collection is growing by the day, and hopefully other auctions like this will come along and allow me to further build up my Crosby cards.