Beckett Associates Mystery Case Break

Found these plastic sealed cases in the Wal-Mart checkout aisle last night for $5.49, curiosity got the best of me and well - here it lands on my kitchen table.

Put together by MJ Holding Company and released by Beckett Associates, the package promises $50 catalog value and every 10th pack contains $100 in book value cards.  It took me a utility knife to open the case and the cards were sealed inside a white envelope.

Check under the cut for the goods.

2011-12 Upper Deck Victory 5 Pack Rip

Dropped into the shop on the way to lunch with a friend today and picked up a few packs of the latest Victory.  The first series of cards released for the 2011-12 season; looks like they decided to put Crosby on the package again this year - sporting his infamous porn stash.  Fine by me.

Here's a rundown of the packs breaks; cards are in order from my favorite to so-on from each pull.

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.

TTM Success! Theoren Fleury

Receiving a return from Fleury felt a little up in the air, but he pulled through signing all 3 of the items that I had sent out.

Here's the custom that I made, now sporting the signature.  I'm now 2/3 on my first send out.

Fleury also signed a 92-93 Upper Deck card and a 97-98 Kraft Peanut Butter lid that I sent along.  He even returned a Sakic/Brodeur lid that I sent with the package by accident.

Overall very happy about the return, Fleury was one of my favorite players and someone who I looked up to as a kid.  Great to have him as part of my custom collection.

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.