My cheap box of 2010-11 Donruss Hockey

I just got this in from eBay after using eBay bucks and my $15 Groupon it cost me a whopping $9 and change delivered.  This is the first one I opened I didn't get an autograph or a die-cut card but I did get an extra game used hit.

The Zajac is numbered 79/100 and the Marleau Proof is 45/100. Over all a good rip. I do like Donruss Hockey for the value you get out of a box.  The Les Gardiens and the Ice Kings are dying for autograph versions.

Finally got around to opening a box of 2010-11 Crown Royale hockey.

So finally here's my review of one box of 2010-11 Crown Royale hockey.  My local shop has pretty much stopped carrying any new hockey so I had to get this box online.  


It's a 4 pack box with 5 cards per pack. 


Every 12 box case contains at least:

- 8 Rookie Royalty Signatures #'d to 499
- 1 Rinkside Signatures #'d to 50
- 1 Voices of the Game Signatures #'d to 100 or less
- 7 Heirs to the Throne Materials #'d to 250 or less
- 1 Heirs to the Throne Signature Materials #'d to 50 or less
- 3 Premiere Date Signatures #'d to 100 or less


I really like the base cards. So far they are my favorite of any of this seasons hockey releases.  The card top die-cut crown looks awesome and the photography looks great. 

The Lidstrom is the base card the Miko Koivu is the premier date version 83/100. 


Out of my box I got one Legends card of Martin Brodeur. I like the look of the card with the black and white photograph. The only bad thing is the back top and bottom of the card. Like most dark colored card there are susceptible to chipping and damage. Mine had a bad lower corner and a touch on the bottom left. 


The other inserts I receive where an Achievements Mike Modano 279/499, and a Lancers Teemu Selanne 80/250. Great designs, I love the clean look of the Modano card.

Now on to the autographs and game used cards. 


I ended up getting only one game used card which was a surprise. I was expecting 2 or 3 not really  knowing how they really fell odds wise in a box. The lone game used hit was an Evander Kane Heirs To The Throne 205/250. 


The three autographs where: 
Tyler Ennis Premier Date 20/100, Luke Adam 74/499 RC, and a Kelly Hrudey Voices Of The Game. 
The good: 2 of the 3 where on card. The bad: one, the Ennis, was a sticker. Shocking as this will seem I would of rather had the Ennis and a redemption if they could have him sign on card. I'm not sure how many of the other autographs in the set are stickers. Maybe because it was the Premier Date version it was a sticker. I do think it takes a little bit away from them as a set to have a mix of on card and sticker autographs.

Overall I think Crown Royale is a solid product with great looking cards. Nice inserts and the addition of (mostly) on card autographs shows that Panini is doing great things with their hockey license. 

$10 (only spent $8) twitter challenge.

So here is my entry to the $10 local card shop twitter challenge.  The goal is to try to to get the best card or cards for $10 from your local card shop.  I ended up going to Price's sports cards in Greendale, WI. So here's what I ended up getting for $8 after I had pulled $10.25 worth of cards from the boxes. 

Not shown is the $.25 Allen and Ginter's panda card my son wanted. 

1998 Collectors Choice Reserve Steve McNair, 2010 Topps Sterling Prince Fielder 003/250, 2010, Topps Peak Performance Nick Swisher jersey, and 1980 Topps Tomjanovich, Johnson, Collins. 

1995 Leaf Alex Rodriguez Gold Leaf Rookie, 1998 Sky Box Thunder Ken Griffey Jr. Boss '98, 2001 Bowman Heritage Phil Rizzuto , 1975 Topps Mini Mets team card, 2000 Fleer Ultra Diamond Mine Derek Jeter and Cal Ripken Jr. 

2004 Bowman Chrome Gio Gonzalez autograph and Refractor autograph. 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter's Max Scherzer autograph.

Diamond Giveaway Contest winners.

Congrats to the following posters who won one Topps Diamond Giveaway code.


82RedBirds
White Sox Cards
Rob-AKA "VOTC"
HockyGuy


Congrats to the winners.  Codes have been emailed out or DM on twitter. 

3 boxes of 2009-10 SP Authentic Hockey. 1 super box.

Just got back from the shop and had an itch to bust some hockey. They where all out of 2010-11 products so I got a deal on some 2009-10 that was sitting there.
First two boxes yielded these:

The Simon Gagne has on real bad corner. I'm not sure if it's too late to send back for a replacement.

The last box was super!

Spring training is here! Lets give out some free stuff!

In celebration of the start of Spring training I'm going to be giving away 3 Topps Diamond Giveaway codes to 3 lucky winners.
All you need to do to enter is, comment on this post with what is your all time favorite Topps Baseball card is.
I'll pick three random winners on February 21st.

2011 Topps Baseball pack break.

I finally got around to opening some 2011 Topps Baseball packs. I really like the base design this year.  The white borders look real crisp and the players names are easy to read in silver foil.  The other thing I like about the base design is that the numbers are large and easy to read on the back. If you every make up sets you know that sometime the numbers can be hard to read.  I'm not sure why out of the cards I pulled there are two Mike Stanton cards. As far as I can tell they are the same with just a different picture.

The star of this year's set has to be the Platinum Diamond Anniversary cards. This has to be the card set of the year. They are awesome looking in hand and definitely have a 90's insert vibe.  

Another great insert set is the Kimball Champions set. It is a (so far) 50 card mini sized set.  I think I'm going to attempt to build this one. They have great images on them and the set features a solid list of HOF'ers and current stars. The only bad thing with the 4 I hit was that 2 got caught in the pack sealer and got crimped.

Another new insert set for 2011 is Vintage Reproductions set.  Topps is going back and reprinting some of the great old cards from some of the all time great baseball card issues.

Replacing the Topps Million Card giveaway card this year are the Diamond giveaway cards.
Topps Diamond Giveaway site.
I ended up getting 3 of them but will have to wait until the site gets up and running later this month.

I was also lucky enough to get a Don Mattingly jersey in one of the last packs I opened.  Nice designed card. I'm not sure I like the dark boarders of it but it could grow on me.

Also remember to save your hobby wrappers for the announced series 1 wrapper redemption program.

Sets or technology I miss

I've been slowly digging through some real old binders and boxes of card from high school and college and  started to reminisce on how cool some of the sets where back then.  I'll add more when I stumble upon them.

Pacific Omega

Pacific always tried out different things and pushed the boundaries of card technology when they where in business.  I always though cards where more fun when they where around.

Donruss Igniters insert set

Just a sharp looking insert set. Great color and photography with embossing on the front. And only numbered out of /5000!

Upper Deck Ice McDonalds

I really think Upper Deck should go back and make Ice an all acetate set again.

Groundhog's day 2010 Bowman Platinum 6 box case break.

I picked up the case fairly cheap last week.  I had only ripped one box previously so I didn't really know what to expect. The case really reminded me of the Bill Murray classic Ground Hog Day. It seemed I was opening the same box over and over again.  OK, not really but when you see the scans you'll understand.

Topps missing autograph mail day.

Just got this in the mail from Topps today. I purchased a box of 2010 Bowman Draft Pick and Prospects and it didn't have an autograph in it. So I went to the Topsp web site and followed their directions for submitting the required information to get the missing autographed replaced.  It's easy and painless and Topps did an excellent job sending the missing autograph quickly.

Lousy pack wars luck but some nice cards. Hockey edition.

I just got back from the Thursday night pack wars at Price's Sports Cards. I didn't have much luck getting any big hits but came out with a few nice cards.  The shop didn't have a lot to choose from the the Hockey department this time. Hockey is a slow seller here for the most part so I'm happy with what I can get sometimes.

First up was some 2010-11 Score hockey packs.  Panini America brought back the Score brand from the dead.  For a $1.00 per pack it's a steal for the price. The photography is good and getting one glossy card per pack is a nice addition. I ended up getting 2 Hot Rookies out of 3 packs and 1 Playoff Heroes insert. I was hoping for a Snoglobe insert but no luck this time.

The other hockey round we did 2009-10 Upper Deck series one since they where out of 2010-11 for now.
These shop was selling packs tonight for $2.50 a pack so it was another great rip for the price. The one thing Upper Deck hockey always has going for it is the photography. The images always look great and with the glossy coating on the cards makes them really pop.

I ended up with 2 Young Guns and a Martin Brodeur Hockey Heroes insert. I also scanned in the Ryan Miller base card to show off the great photography.

A box of Donruss Hockey from about a week ago.

Just to show I don't just do baseball cards. I used to be a huge hockey fan pre-strike by strayed away since then. I've been slowly getting back in to the groove and with a bunch of nice products and a new player the the hockey card game this year with Panini America (Donruss) making cards I've had a bunch of products to choose from.

I really like the look of the base cards and rookie in the first edition of Donruss Hockey. They look clean and crisp and they done a great job with the photography.  The inserts are awesome looking.  My favorite is the Ice Kings set and the Goalie acetate cards are a close second.  For the GU and autograph hits I ended up doing very well and had no complaints other than I didn't get an autograph but the Taylor Hall RC jersey made it for that. 

Panini America's web site

Here are some scans:

2010 Bowman Platinum Baseball box break.

So I stopped by the local card shop and picked up a box of 2010 Bowman Platinum baseball to rip. 
The base cards look good in hand with a foil finish to them. They don't scan well on my scanner though.
The different color parallels and refractors really look great.   I ended up with a Justin Morneau gold /539,  a Hak-Ju Lee green /499, and several refractors all /999. 


The other hits in the box where the bonus box topper redemption autograph. I redeemed it and this popped up: congratulations, you unlocked a Gorkys Hernandez - BONUS - Refractor Autograph.  The other versions are, Refractor Autographs, Green Refractor Autographs, Blue Refractor Autographs, Red Refractor Autographs, Superfractor Autographs and Printing Plate Autographs.


My other hits where a Keyvius Sampson Refractor autograph, and a Scott McGough Autograph Jersey /740.  So according to the box and the sell sheet I was supposed to get two on-card autograph Refractor cards and (1) autographed relic card per box. So I was shorted one of the autograph refractor cards. 


So it look like I'll be contacting Topps customer service and emailing the required information for the missing autograph.  


All and all a nice looking product but a little disappointed in the missing autograph. 
Here are some scans of the cards. 

Topps Million Card mail day.

I finally got around to getting some of the cards in my Topps Million Card Giveaway delivered.
Some of them are pretty beat up but that's expected due to the age. I'm not sure with a promotion that large that Topps had much to pull from.
I got 18 cards delivered and it cost just over $11.00 shipped for them. Topps did a nice job packaging them up and each card was sleeved with a penny sleeve and then put in a top loader.








Here is what I got in today.

Welcome to the 400 Level.

Thanks for stopping in for the first installment of my new blog. Check back now and then for some sports card breaks and other sports related musing.  While you're at it check out one of the finest card related sites on the web. Freedom Cardboard. It's a great site with an excellent group of very knowledgeable people.