Mail Day! 1980-81 Topps Wayne Gretzky All Star #87

I received this card just a few days ago; another vintage Gretzky to add to the collection.  A 1980-81 Topps Wayne Gretzky 2nd Team All-Star.  This is a card from Gretzkys second year and still remains unscratched; I managed to pick it up online for only $8 shipping in - ignore the tape over Gretzkys helmet, I scanned this from the plastic holder.

Here is a scan from the back of the card, not much going on here - other than the obvious.

Mail Day! Wayne Gretzky O-Pee-Chee Topps Lot

Hey guys, another mail day (my favorite kind of day) to blog about.

I recently won a few more Gretzky Oilers-era cards on eBay to add to my collection.  I guess you can say that I still haven't come off my Gretzky kick that started a over two months ago.

1982-83 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky "In Action" #107 - Picked this card up for $3.25, was disappointed that there was a gum stain (or something) on the left side of the card which the seller didn't bother to mention in the item description or show in the auction picture (click here).

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky 1982-83 Goal Leader #22 - This card came in great condition and for only $0.99.  The stats show just how much Gretzky dominated during the 82-83 season; hell the back of the card shows demonstrates just what kind of force the Oilers were as a team at the time.

I also picked up another 1984-85 Topps #51 - Wayne Gretzky card just because I like it so much that I wanted another.

Mail Day! Checkoutmycards.com Mix

I picked out a small mix of cards from checkoutmycards.com a little over a month ago and received them today, orange envelope packed and all.  Four cards came to be exact; but I accidently ordered a 96-97 Steve Yzerman/Jim Carey Sudden Death card, a card which I already had coming in the mail.

1993-94 Leaf Hat Trick Artists #1 of 10 - Mario Lemieux Title Card.  I first laid eyes on this card from a blog post over at Shoebox Legends; showcasing the entire set of these Leaf Hat Trick Artists cards.  It was cardboard love from first sight and I just had to have it for myself.  I like everything about this card; my favorite player in an unordinary photo shoot-esque pose, top hat tucked underneath his arm with an array of vintage hats lying on the ice in celebration of a hat trick hanging out there in the background.  You don't see cards like this in every set.

1993-94 Leaf Hat Trick Artists #4 of 10 - Mario Lemieux.  I just had to grab the base card of the Lemieux from the Hat Trick Artists set as well.  A great looking card that I picked up for under a buck; to be honest all the photo shots from this insert lot look great and worth trying to put together.

1984-85 Topps #51 - Wayne Gretzky.  I think I was still on my Gretzky kick at the time and liked the look of this card and really wanted it as part of my collection.  On checkoutmycards I was happily able to purchase it at a very low price.

Cards, Pucks & Other Junk

While away I still managed to run into some hockey stuff that I gladly took back with me.  A couple cards, a couple pucks, vintage pins and well, I'll show just you.

While visiting a friend I was given a couple cards from a lot of top loaders that he had kept away in a drawer from when he collected cards as a kid.  While there wasn't much in the lot that I would consider top loader worthy, I did walk away with these two cards:

1997-98 Pinnacle Inside #3 - Wayne Gretzky.  Another Gretzky card to add to my collection is always nice.  This card came from one of my favorite sets, Pinnacle Inside.  Most known for how the cards were packaged inside a tin can that could only be busted using a can opener.  A pain in the ass but it was creative and the cards were designed nicely with the backs featuring a list of trvial facts that you wouldn't know otherwise (or care for).  For instance, did you know that Gretzky's best man at his wedding was former NHLer Eddie Mio?  Not me.

1990-91 Upper Deck #175 - Curtis Joseph.  An Upper Deck Curtis Joseph rookie card was the other card that I decided to take off his hands.

Mail Day! 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee #212 Wayne Gretzky Record Breaker

Received another Gretzky in an Oilers outfit card on the heels of my Gretzky kick.  I had won this on an eBay auction a few weeks ago along with the dual Gretky point leader cards but it just so happened that it was shipped to the wrong address the first time around.

This card celebrates Gretzkys scoring streak of 30 consecutive games from the 1982-83 season.   Gretzky would break his own record the following season going 51 games from the beginning of the season.

Three NHL Legends Announced

EA Sports earlier unveiled the first three of nine NHL Legends that they will be implementing into NHL 12 and also released a trailer to go along with it.

Chris Chelios, Wayne Gretzky and Ray Bourque are shown in the following trailer doing what they did best; score goals and throw their body around the ice.  The trailer also includes some details about how you'll be able to use these Legend characters in the game.  Trailer under the cut.

Mail Day! 1996-97 Score Sudden Death Wayne Gretzky vs Felix Potvin

Another Sudden Death card to add to the collection, making it 6/15 - still a long ways to go.  Like most cards featuring The Great One, this card books in at the highest value from the set. I got it for a steal at 0.99 (+2.50 shipping)/  It features a faceoff against Wayne Gretzky and Felix Potvin.

1996-97 Upper Deck Collector's Choice 3 Star Selections

Inspired by a previous post over at Card Boarded and again as I was organizing my box of cards just earlier today, I wanted to post a feature on a favorite sub-set of mine from the 1996-97 Upper Deck Collector's Choice set that has been carried on over in the series through the years.

The '3 Star Selection' sub-set included 28 cards that featured 3 of the top players from each (26) team in the leauge; additionally 2 of the cards from the sub-set featured the top 3 players from the Eastern and Western Conference All-Star teams.

These were my favorite cards to pull from the Collector's Choice packs as a young collector.  After all my cards have been through, I feel lucky to sill have them in my collection.

St. Louis Blues - Brett Hull / Wayne Gretzky / Al Macinnis.  Pretty solid lineup here!  Gretzky would play briefly with St Louis, 31 games to be exact.  I don't have many cards with Gretzky in a Blues uniform.

New York Islanders - Eric Fichaud / Zigmund Palffy / Todd Bertuzzi.  I liked Fichaud as an Islander but he never lived up to the expectations his fantastic junior career had led to.  Palffy was another personal favorite of mine during these years, I was excited to see him represent Slovakia again during the 2010 Olympics.

Favorite Cards: Wayne Gretzky 1995-96 Topps O-Pee-Chee Parallel #85

Digging through my hard plastics I have from when I was collecting as a kid I came across this one - a Topps/O-Pee-Chee Gretzky parallel from 1995-96.  I can't remember exactly how I received the card but I'm almost 100% sure that it was through a trade with a friend in elementary school, considering the fact that I don't have many of these Topps cards in my collection.

And now over sixteen years later, I think I appreciate and like this card more than ever.  I really love the photography shot on the card; in my head I imagine that Gretzky is about to rush up the ice and go end-to-end.  Also, for some reason these days I just can't get enough of those old school LA Kings jerseys; the white, black and silver.  I'm not even sure what colors or even what logo the Kings are going with these days but they should just go back to the "Silver and Black" era.  But anyway, the fact that the card is a parallel is only an added bonus here.

1998-99 Upper Deck Choice Double Box Break Part 1

Wal-Mart was practically giving away these boxes of 1998-99 Upper Deck Choice at $8 a piece.  So I grabbed two of them with hopes of possibly completing the set and  maybe even the insert sets such as the Mini-Bobble Heads cards that I anticipated pulling from singles when I was about twelve.

36 packs per box, 6 cards per pack.  StarQuest Blue are inserted 2:1, Green 1:7, Red 1:23 and Gold are numbered to 100.  I have yet to see a Gold StarQuest in my life.  Mini Bobbing Heads are 1:4.  Key rookies from the set are Martin St. Louis, Milan Hejduk, Sergey Gusev, Mark Parrish, Oleg Kvasha, Michal Handzus, Tomas Kaberle, and Matt Cooke.

Every pack break from the first box is scanned and listed below.

Mail Day! Dual 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky

I was one a small Gretzky kick a few weeks ago and ended up bidding on (and winning) a few auctions for a few early 80s Gretzky cards.  Figured that I didn't own much of him while with the Oilers and wanted to fill that void at a reasonable price.

#242 - Wayne Gretzky / 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee Game Winning Goal Leader.  Nice card of a young Wayne wearing an obviously airbrushed helmet.  He would score a total of 12 game winners for the Oilers that season - 2 ahead of Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy of the Islanders.

#237 - Wayne Gretzky & Michel Goulet / 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee Shorthanded Goal Leaders.  Gretzky and Goulet (Quebec Nordiques) would tie as the leaders for goals while down-a-man in the 81-82 season, lighting the lamp 6 times shorthanded.

There was another but it was sent to an invalid address and had to be remailed.

1988-89 O-Pee-Chee Stickers Box Break

Hello all.  Today I bring you a box off 1988-89 O-Pee-Chee Yearbook Stickers.  The story goes, I originally thought I had purchased a box of 88-89 O-Pee-Chee cards with a chance of pulling Hull and Shanahan rookies at a very cheap price tag (too good to be true) but after some research I realized that I had actually bought these Panini-like stickers.  The original auction picture only showed the inside of the box with the wax packs which I was unfamiliar with.  Oh well.  You live, you learn.

Although it wasn't what I had hoped for, the stickers are a nice addition to my collection.  And I scored a bunch of various Gretzky, Lemieux and Hull stickers.

Mail Day! 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier

Happy Saturday everyone!

This mail day is a day late.  But I finally received this complete set of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier.  I picked it up for just a penny!  I thought it was a steal.

Here are a few of my favorite cards from the set.

Mario Lemieux. Mario in his prime.

Jaromir Jagr. Included the reverse of this card to show you guys an example of the '91 Canada Cup recognitions that O-Pee-Chee included on the cards of players who participated.  Thought it was neat.

Favorite Cards: 1992-93 Upper Deck Wayne Gretzky

We've been having a few really warm days in a row, I hope it keeps up!

I've been strangely on a Gretzky kick lately; strange because I never really cared for him before.  I remember my uncles calling him a weiner... although it was my cousins favorite player. Ahh feels so long ago.

Here's one of my favorite cards from my collection, Wayne Gretzky #25 from the 1992-93 Upper Deck set.