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.

2010-11 Pinnacle 10 Pack Break

As the latest release from Panini's Pinnacle brand starts to roll out I find myself breaking packs of the 2010-11 release that I picked up maybe a couple months ago.  Ten packs to be exact, that were stored away for some period of time in one of the boxes on my desk.  I decided that it was finally time to tear into them and see what they held; given that I'm sorta near to closing in on the set (minus those Ice Breaker rookies) these ten packs should help in bringing me even closer.

Mail Day! 1974-75 Topps #232 - Guy Lafleur

I picked this card up for something under $3 on the day that I received the Guy Lafleur TTM.  I was on a kick for pre-1980s cards at a cheap price online and came across this one.

Favorite Cards: 1997-98 Upper Deck Collector's Choice StarQuest

As I was flipping through my binders recently I came across my collection of 1997-98 Upper Deck Collector's Choice StarQuest sheets that I saved.  This 90-card, four-tier insert set features color photos of some of the top NHL Superstars printed using the hobby's top technology at the time.  The 45 cards in Tier One were randomly inserted one in every pack; the 20 cards in Tier Two were randomly inserted one in every 21 packs;  the 15 cards of Tier Three were randomly inserted one in every 71 packs; the 10 cards of Tier Four were randomly inserted one in every 145 packs.

I collected 35/45 Tier One cards, 2/20 cards from Tier Two and just 1/15 of the cards from Tier Three.  I never did pull a card from Tier Four.  I still enjoy these cards and like them much more than the StarQuest cards released in the 1998-99 Collector's Choice set and the parallel system used.

After I complete my 96-97 Score Sudden Death Project I think I'll start attempting to put this StarQuest set together.  If any of you guys have any of these for trade that aren't included in the scans, let me know!  I've included scans of all the cards I have in my collection under the cut.

Mail Day! 1996-97 Upper Deck Post Cereal "Grow Like A Pro"

I recently made a $3.00 eBay bid for (and obviously won) a 1996-97 Upper Deck/Post Cereal (Canadian Food Issue) "Grow Like A Pro" 24-Card Set.  The cards feature an NHL player wearing his NHLPA uniform on the front and a childhood photo of the player on the back.  I previously had only owned two of these cards from the set (Lindros & Yashin) from when I collected cards as a kid; I've always liked them, wanted more and enjoyed the inclusion of the childhood photos on the back.