Pinnacle, Donruss and Upper Deck Rundown

Picked up a bunch of packs of random cards in an attempt to knock some cards from the want-lists, aside from some base that I needed I also pulled a few inserts - nothing to write home about but enough to scan and post a blog about.
First, lets start with the two packs of 2010-11 Panini Pinnacle - didn't really put a dent into what I have left to complete the set as I only managed to pull two cards that I needed; # 110 Tomas Vanek and #234 Dana Tyrell Ice Breakers.  Although worthy of a scan would be this card:

Martin St. Louis + Steven Stamkos / Chemistry On Canvas #3 - Nice feel to these cards, literally.

Through The Mail Trade: The Cardboard and Me

Happy Halloween everyone; it's snowing in some parts of Newfoundland today apparently but at the moment here in St. John's it looks more like a torrential downpour.  The longer the weather gods decide to put off a snowstorm the better in my opinion.

A big thank you to Barrett over at The Cardboard and Me for the cards as part of a trade that we made about a month ago.  I received the package today in good standing and it surely took a chunk out of a couple of my sets that I've been recently collecting.

#22 Vincent Lecavalier   #36 Patrick Marleau   #65 Daniel Alfredsson

Barrett sent 22 2010-11 Pinnacle cards my way - all of which I needed towards putting this set together.  I decided to post a scan just of my three favorites from the lot.  I'm not sure how many cards I still need from this but the want list has been updated if anyone is interested.

#180 Dion Phaneuf     #122 Marian Gaborik   #137 Daniel Briere

Also included in the lot were 17 cards from the 2011-12 Victory series.  The want list for this set has been updated as well, link on the sidebar for anyone who cares.

#1 Wayne Gretzky   #23 Joe Sakic   #4 Paul Kariya  #10 Steve Yzerman

And he also sent over 32 cards from one of my all-time favorite sets, the 1997-98 Donruss Studio collection.  I've only recently picked up on attempting to complete this product so the 32 cards really help me out here.

Thanks again for the cards Barrett, I really enjoyed them and I hope you liked my half of the deal just as much.  Check out his blog.

Halloween 1989

2010-11 Panini Donruss

Picked up a fat pack of 2010-11 Donruss on the cheap maybe a week ago; really like the look of these cards, pretty simple with decent photographs.

At 40 cards per pack I decided to post just my top 10 favorites from the rip.

Patrick Kane #107 - The first overall draft pick in the 2007 Entry Draft; arguably the best American born player in the league at the moment.

Pavel Datsyuk #45 - Now on to one of the most underrated players in the league, Pavel Datsyuk -  Datsyuk's cumulative GVT is 80.8, putting him third among skaters, behind Crosby (82.8) and Ovechkin (an incredible 108.7), even though he is only 10th in total points over that period. Datsyuk's value has always been as a two-way player, over the last four seasons Datsyuk is plus-103, second only to Ovechkin's plus-105.

Nathan Gerbe #182 - Gerbe is the shortest player in the NHL at 5'5" - which is basically the reason why I'm into him so much these days (I'm also just 5'5"). 

Joe Thornton #80 - Former first overall draft pick in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins - Joe remains a marquee player.

Rick Nash #49 - I'm convinced that if Nash was on a better team he would be putting up much higher numbers. 

Luke Schenn #168 - Fifth overall pick in the 2008 Draft and a key part of the Leaf's long-term future.

Thomas Vanek #121

Ed Jovanovski #113 - Added Jovanovski due to him being one of my favorite d-men when I was a kid, especially when he played for Team Canada - a team he has suited up for a total of seven times.

Dustin Brown #235

Tim Thomas / Boys Of Winter #59 - As you can tell, not the jersey version of these cards but I guess in these fat packs something of that sort doesn't come easy. Nice picture of Thomas in the Winter Classic gear nonetheless.

As for collecting, lately I've been attempting to organize my collection in plastic sheets, numerical order by sets and years.  It honestly feels like I'll never see the end of it - so many cards, especially from the junk wax era.  And when I have it all finished I have no idea where I'm going to find the space in my apartment to hold a dozen or more binders.

Other than that I've been working, same job - never received a call back after my interview from that previous job that I mentioned; I'm kinda happy that I didn't when I think about it.  I'm pretty stoked on heading back to post-secondary in January, I haven't been in a classroom environment in maybe over 6-7 years - hopefully it goes very well and I thoroughly enjoy it.  So during that time frame I figure that I'm going to have to slow down on the card collecting hobby.

1997-98 Donruss Studio

Stopped into a hobby shop that I've never been into before seeking penny sleeves earlier today and noticed a box of cards sitting on the shelf  behind the counter that I haven't seen in a very long time for sale - 1997-98 Donruss Studio.  I used to love the look of these cards as a kid and I still do; so for only $2 a pack I picked up two of them to rip to go along with my penny sleeves purchase.  Each pack comes with two portraits and five cards.

2010-11 Donruss

July has come and gone. 43 posts.  I've never posted on a blog as consistently as I have with this one; come to think of it, I've never kept a blog for any longer than a week or two.  Let's see if I can keep it up.

Another Wal-Mart grab; A three pack break of the latest Donruss 2010-11.

Pack 1

140 - Daniel Sedin. 41 goals and a total of 104 points last season.  Best base pull from the pack break.

115 - Martin St Louis.
115 - Corey Perry.