My 3-Year-Old Daughter's Favorite Hockey Team

A conversation between my daughter and me earlier today, while reading an alphabet book about animals. We got to "P is for Penguin," and this exchange happened.

Me: Do you like Penguins?
Her: No.
Me: I do. They're my favorite hockey team. Are they your favorite hockey team?
Her: No.
Me: What is your favorite hockey team then?
Her: The Butterflies

There you have it. My daughter's favorite hockey team is The Butterflies.

If You Can Look Past Some Flaws, You Can Get a GREAT Deal

I just recently picked up a 2005-2006 Upper Deck Ice Sidney Crosby rookie year jersey card for just 15 BUCKS!!! How? All I had to do was look past some minor flaws, and the card was mine. Here's the card:

The cardboard next to the top right and bottom left of the swatchhas a slight crease to it. I would guess the die-cutting blade got a little dull and pushed on the cardboard a little too much, but from this far away, it's hard to see anything. Let's move closer.

Well, it's tough to see even that close up. Which make the deal even better. The creases ARE there, but with them being very minor, you can barely see them. That flaw, though, brought a $40 down all the way to $15.

I'll take it!

Trade With Wax Stain Rookie - Malkin Rookie Jersey, Staal Rookie Auto, and Other Penguin Awesomeness

After trying, and failing, to get my hands on a SICK Sidney Crosby Prime Jersey /5 off of Dave from Wax Stain Rookie, we worked out a FANTASTIC deal for some other cards that are pretty good in their own right.

The top of the list EASILY is a rookie-year jersey card of Evgeni Malkin from 2006-07 Sweet Shot. Through our e-mail exchange, Dave told me he had a Malkin rookie card from this set, which was pretty cool. I don't have any rookie cards of Geno, so I, naturally WANTED the card. Upon further research, I not only found out about the inclusion of the jersey swatch, but also that these relic cards ARE The rookie cards for this set. Very cool. I was absolutely blown away with the fact that I had a shot at this cards, but there's more...

I was also able to get my grubby little hands on a Jordan Staal autographed rookie card from 2006-07 Be A Player. Yes, it is a sticker auto, but the fact that I can get a rookie auto of a (now former) Penguin is always fantastic, especially a player of Staal's caliber. I will definitely miss him on the team, but I understand the appeal of playing with your brother.

While I am DEFINITELY a big Sidney Crosby guy, you can't be a Penguins fan without going after every Mario Lemieux card you can. This 87-88 O-Pee-Chee mini is a cool rarity that I haven't been able to see before. Then again, I am in the U.S., where the OPC brand has been relegated to an Upper Deck low-end product.

There was also a rookie year insert of Crosby, a 2005-06 Upper Deck Stars in the Making card. Sometimes card companies are forced to make some bold claims of their rookies to fill slots in their inserts, but in this case, I think Crosby becoming a star was a pretty safe bet.

Those were the big hits, but here are some of the other cards included in the deal.

I got my hands on a COMPLETE 30-card set of 2005-06 Upper Deck Diary of a Phenom cards, which spotlight Crosby's rookie season. Before this, I had been able to pick up some cards here and there, but it would be WAY too much of a pain to try and build this set. This definitely takes a huge collecting burden off of my shoulders.

There were also a few other Crosbys thrown in, most of which I did not yet have. I think I'm now up to 98 base cards and inserts and 10 hits, so if anybody has anything that I do not have, let me know and I will make it well worth your while.

There were also a few other Penguins cards as well. I especially love the Malkin Season Highlights card where he is posing next to his Conn Smythe trophy (Playoff MVP). I'll go after anything and everything featuring the Penguins Cup wins, so this was a very welcome surprise.

Well, there you have it. Go give Wax Stain Rookie a look if you haven't, or at LEAST take a look at the fantastic Crosby hit he pulled that ended up initiating this trade. It's enough to make even the biggest Crosby hater just a little bit jealous.

Trade With Brad

I just recently completed a trade with blog-reader Brad. I came to know Brad after he became one of the few participants in BOTH my baseball and hockey break, and fared pretty well in both. Anyway, I threw in a few baseball cards into his hockey break package, and here's what he sent me:

2011 Topps Chrome Starlin Castro Black Refractor 98/100

2010-11 SPX Marian Gaborik Dual Jersey

2011-12 Upper Deck Joe Vitale Young Guns

A good, simple and easy trade. Thanks for the cards.

I couldn't find a blog to link to for you, Brad, so if you have one, post it in the comments section.

Cards For Sale On Ebay

Hey, everyone. In an effort to get rid of things that don't interest me, and further develop my ever-growing Sidney Crosby collection, I have listed a few items on Ebay. If you have a spare minute go check them out and make me an offer on whatever strikes your fancy. (Link here)

2010-11 Luxury Suite Group Break: The Results

After all the waiting, the two boxes of Luxury Suite are HERE!!!  So, without further ado, here is the video:

Well, there you have it. I wish that the hits were a bit more evenly dispersed, but with so few cards, sometimes that gets to be difficult. For the two participants who did not get a hit, I will include some from my own collection, to make sure each person goes away with at least one autograph and one relic. I hope that everyone, at the very least, is satisfied with that. I went ahead and scanned in each card, sorting them out by person, including the four cards that I added in from my own collection to the hit-less participants.

Matt Pederson

Brad's Blog

Dave H

Robert

Jeff Wilk

Commishbob

Well, I hope you all enjoyed the break. Sorry it got so light for a couple of you, but hopefully, the additions will help make up for that. I hope to do more sometime soon. I REALLY want to get an active hockey card blogging community, and hopefully, doing events like these will help get people excited about it.

One more thing, I NEED all of you to e-mail me your mailing addresses. Send them to matt-pederson@hotmail.com. I'll try get these out as soon as I possibly can.

Thank you all SO MUCH for your participation, and I hope to see you all at the next one I do!

Luxury Suite Group Break: They're HEEEEEEEEERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, everybody. I just now (at 6:30 p.m. CST) got the package from UPS and will get everything opened, recorded and posted tonight. Due to the fact that there are two little girls at this house that need to be fed and put to bed, I don't know how early it will all be up, but I'm going to make this happen! Keep checking in!

My First (And Last) Pack of 2011-12 Panini Rookie Anthology

With every new Panini hockey release, I fight off the urge to purchase a box, which is a fight I often lose. Their Rookie Anthology release came out a few weeks ago, which is actually a pretty cool idea. What they do, essentially, is update their other releases with rookies who made their debut after a product's release. They even go so far as to design these cards as a continuation of their previous releases (Contenders, Pinnacle, Crown Royale, etc.) and number these particular cards to go pick up right where the previous sets left off.

The only problem, though, is that I am not much of a prospector or rookie collector. Still, new, shiny, objects always grab my attention, so temptation was running high. I was able to subdue it, though, and kept myself to just one pack.

I will say that I LOVE The base cards. The majority of the card surface has kind of a matte finish, with a glossy silhouette where they player photo is. The design and colors are sharp and crisp, with just the right amount of foil to show off the player's name and team logo.

My base cards were of Evander Kane, Patrice Bergeron, Tim Thomas and Daniel Sedin. Each pack contains either a rookie card or a hit. My rookie was a Crown Royale card of Jarod Palmer from the Minnesota Wild. A bit of a dud, but I DO like how each pack has something in it, allowing pack rippers to avoid the dreaded 5-base-card Panini pack that I saw way too often in Certified.

I may not have gotten a hit, but I DID get two Penguins jersey cards from this set via ebay. The seller lives in Fargo, so I was able to save on shipping by driving to pick them up myself. The Rookie Rivalry dual-relic cards feature rookies from two rival teams, which is a pretty cool concept. I got Joe Vitale and Robert Bortuzzo from the Penguins, who share card with What's-His-Name from the Flyers and That-Other-Guy from the Capitals.

Earlier today, I purchased the complete 100-card base set for $13 shipped, which should keep me away from any pack ripping or box busting, which I was very happy with. When you combine the $5 I spent on the two hits and $13 for the set, it came to less than the cost of two packs of this stuff.

Sometimes, as much as new things excite us, we just have to cut ourselves off, and realize we can't go after everything.

Group Break Goodies from The Daily Dimwit

Any time that Sam at The Daily Dimwit hosts a group break, I jump at the chance to join in on the fun. Of course, I always pick the Cubs, and being a big Josh Hamilton fan, I snagged up the Rangers, too. He opened a box of 2009 Goudey, 2009 Topps Unique, and 2008 SPX. I also received two random teams: The Giants and The Diamondbacks.

I was able to snag two hits: a jersey card of Derrek Lee from Goudey and an autographed card of Eugenio Velez from SPX. Considering how many Lee relics there are out there, and how cheap they are now, I'm surprised I don't have more than I do. The Velez actually ended up being the only card, out of four teams, that I got from SPX.

Each pack of Unique features a serial numbered rookie (/2699) or red parallel (/1199). I got red cards of Dan Haren, Ryan Dempster, Carlos Zambrano, and Freddy Sanchez. My two serial numbered rookies were of Elvis Andrus and Derek Holland. Not bad at all.

I also got some decent SPs of the Cubs, most of which feature players no longer with the team. There were also a couple of cards from the 2,500-card 20th Anniversary set. I got Mario Lemieux (YAY!) and Madeline Albright (not-so-yay).

I also pulled a short printed Sport Royalty card of Nolan Ryan from Goudey. I like Nolan Ryan quite a bit, but I know that Sam is a much bigger fan than I. Since he wanted the card, I told him to keep it, and in return, add in the Penguins cards he has from the 20th Anniversary set that he once tried to collect. He did, along with EVERY hockey card that he had from that set. Wow.

This ended up being quite an awesome break. I'll do more of his for sure, but after being the beneficiary of a Yovani Gallardo bat knob auto 1/1 on his last break and seeing him pull a Prince Fielder auto from this one, I have learned my lesson.

PICK THE BREWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luxury Suite Group Break Update

Just wanted to keep everyone posted on the group break. It looks like the cards are going to be delivered on Monday. I was hoping to have it all done this weekend, but it looks like we'll all have to wait a few days longer. I will TRY do have it all up on Monday, but between work, spending time with the family, recording the break, uploading the video, and writing the post, I may or may not have it up Monday night. I will try my best to make it happen, though.

See you then!

One More Pack of 11-12 Panini Titanium

I just don't learn, do I? Against my better judgement, I decided to pick up one pack of 11-12 Panini Titanium.I love the product, but I say, "against my better judgement," because I have had HORRIBLE luck with individual packs of these.

Unfortunately, this pack was no different.

Move along, folks. Nothing to see here.

The hit was decent in that it is serial numbered, and contains two jersey swatches, one from each of two players, and I like (not love) the Bruins, but this wasn't what I was hoping for.

I did, however grab a couple of cards for my collection of Penguin Hits. One was a dual relic card from the Rookie Anthology Set, featuring Dustin Jeffrey and Harry Zolnierczyk. I'm not a prospector by any means, so the more singles I buy of this product, the less likely I am to spend the money on a box. This WOULD be a good product for a group break, though.

The other is from brand new Penguin Brandon Sutter, who came over in the Jordan Staal trade. Until the 12-13 products come out, everything of his will be in the black and red, but it does come pretty cheap, which is good.

Well, there you have it. Even if my pack was a little bit of a bust, I did walk away with a couple of great cards for my Penguins collection

Ebay Pickups

Here are a few not-so-recent cards I picked up for my collection off of ebay. They've been sitting around in my "blog draft" folder for way too long, so let's get these moving along!

2011 Topps Precision Kurt Warner auto
AWESOME looking signature. Not only was he a fantastic football player, but a great guy as well. As apathetic as I am to the sport, for me to go after an autograph for the dollar amount that I had to, that says something.

2012 Topps Historical Stitches Josh Hamilton
I'm not sure why they went flannel with the fabric, but it's still a great looking card.

Some Penguins Hits:
10-11 Certified Sual Jersey James Neal
11-12 Crown Royale Jersey Mario Lemieux
11-12 SPX Dual Jersey Marc-Andre Fleury & Jordan Staal
10-11 Decades: 1980s Prime Jersey Bryan Trottier
Neal's productivity last year shows that he will make the loss of Jordan Staal MUCH easier to take. The Fleury/Staal card is awesome looking with the two swatches, even though Staal has left for his family reunion. Trottier, despite being featured as an Islander, with an Islanders jersey swatch, will always be a Penguin to me. And how could I pass up a Lemieux jersey? If I wasn't putting almost all my resources into my Sidney Crosby collection, this would NOT be the only relic of his that I own.

10-11 Decades:1980s Auto Phil Verchota
This brings my running total of Miracle on Ice autos from this set up to 25%. 5 down, 15 to go.

And lastly, here's a couple more Lemieuxs. The Dream Team card was a rarity in the early '90s, and grabbing it for a buck was well worth it, since I got combined shipping with the other Penguins, and the case came with it. The Great Outdoors insert was a throw in, so I got it for FREE!

Well, that's all for now. I'm sure I'll find more to spend my money on, but until then, you'll just have to drool over these.