2011 Goodwin Champions trade/swap/giveaway post

Alright alright... settle down out there. We all know why you're here. There's been a billion posts on 2011 Goodwin Champions and this is just one more. I'll save you the review and just make it a show and trade post. Or a show and giveaway post if you have nothing I want.

If you've been following Cardboard Junkie, and really, who isn't? Then you've seen him go a little ga-ga over Champions. And rightly so. They're cool cards and his card shop sold him a stack really cheap. If there's anything you want or need to learn about these, go there. I'm just showing pictures for trade purposes.

John McGraw

 Stevie Y!!!!!

 Grant Hill.... I was just saying the other day I've never heard of this dude, now I have a card of him.

 Keanu... I mean, Damien Hobgood.

 Hey! A black bordered mini of Delino DeShields Jr the Second!!!

 Now he's got a green bottom, what's that mean? and do all black border mini's have red Lady Luck backs?

 Rhino is looking old. Real old. Nice sweater Mr Rogers.

 A creepy pic of John Havlicek.

 Hey look!!! Whitey Ford off to fight the bloody Germans after they bombed Pearl Harbour! Go get 'em Whitey!

 Now this next one kind of blew me away. It's a die-cut from the Figures of Sports insert set. This card featuring an vastly over rated Jerry Rice. This is a box hit ladies and gentlemen. This is on par with autographs, relics, and printing plates. I just don't get this one....

 Excuse me, do you have Jerry Rice in a can?
Why yes, yes I do.
Don't you think you oughtta let him out then? BWAHAHAHAAHAHHAA!!!!

moving on.

I'll finish up with my only short print, General Robert E. Lee. Apparently there is a car named after him.

You just heard the horn in your head, didn't you???? I knew it.

So there you have it. two packs, $9 worth. Whomever is looking for any of these, drop me a line. I'm sure dayf needs a couple... maybe Mr Lee since he's from that area...

a new box break review....

Hot damn it's time for a box break.... I haven't busted a box since around the Super Bowl, and I've been dying to. Why haven't I? Because there hasn't been anything worth my time since last football season. If you read between the lines and determine that Topps is doing a horrible job with their exclusive baseball license, that's odd, because I feel the same way. Eerie how we think alike, isn't it?

Anyways, onwards with the first hockey product of the new 2010/11 season. Upper Deck Victory. Now normally I don't buy this entry level stuff... but re-read the first paragraph, and the fact that it contains the first rookie cards of my new favourite player, P.K. Subban, and add in the low, low cost of this box, and voila! Or is that Voici!? Whatever.... here it is in all it's glory.
Hey look! UD put Sidney Crosby on the box. Just like they have for the last 4 years. How unique. How daring. And if that ain't enough.... why not put him on the wrapper too?

Oy. Moving on to the base cards.... everyone loves base cards. (at least I do, so sit back and fake it if you have to)

Everyone's favourite Fin, Miikka Kiprusoff. The man may need therapy after the amount of vulcanized rubber that will be flying at his face this coming year....

Defending Stanley Cup Champ Patrick Kane. Do NOT ask the man for spare change. Trust me.

Montreal's uncontested number 1 netminder. No pressure kid. Everyone is allowed to make a mistake now and then. Uh.... except you, that is.

Rookie phenom John Tavares

and of course who everyone outside of the greater Pittsburgh area calls "whiny little bitch." Or at least, that was the nickname given him by Montreal fans during the last playoff run. The man whines more than Gretzky ever did. And believe me kids, that's a lot.

and we'll round out with the best player in the game today.... Alexander "I date a different Russian Supermodel every week" Ovechkin. Hey. I would if I could too.....

Now the box has 36 packs, 6 cards per. 5 of those cards are base cards, so you get 180 out of the 200 card base set. Less one gold parallel.

The other 36 cards are divided up into 3 catagories. Rookies. Found 1:2 or 18 per box. Game Breakers. Found 1:4 Or 9 per box. And Stars of the Game, also 1:4 or 9 per box. Apparently there are memorabilia and auto cards to be found, but UD isn't man enough to post those odds which means to me and you, It ain't gonna happen.

I did pull all I was supposed to.... including my 18 rookies. (50 of them numbered 201-250 to complete the set)

Brandon Yip and look! A Montreal Rookie!!!

Initials and everything. But the wrong initials. J.T. Wyman is no P.K. Subban.
Here's the gold parallel I pulled. Could've been a lot worse.

and here's what the two insert sets look like, first the Stars of the Game....

and Game Breakers.

So all in all a fun break. Nice cards. Slippery little suckers though. These will never stick together.

So if you're looking to bust some hockey, pick up a box. $22.95 at Blowout, $28.95 at DACardworld, $34 CDN at my LCS.

Or, I suppose I just could've spent my money on the guy I wanted. There's a Black bordered P.K. Subban rc (black parallels found 1:1440, so P.K. is found 1:72000) on the bay right now at $39.95. So there ya go.

is it just me, or in this day and age of over political correctness and fear of offending ANYBODY, isn't it kinda odd that the best P.K. Subban is a BLACK parallel? Maybe it's just me... kind of an inside joke if you don't follow hockey.

"Uh, Can I get a coffee, Black?"

"Can't you see I'm talking, White?"

maybe too obscure of a reference........

sell sheet FAIL

I ordered a box of Upper Deck Hockey Series 2 and it arrived today. However, that is not what this post is about.
Inside that box was a sell sheet for '09/10 UD Champ's hockey. This was a big hit last year. Think A&G but for hockey. And nicer. Anyways....

Here is the cover of the sell sheet.

and here is the inside.
did you see any hockey cards? In fact, forget the pictures, did you read about any of the hockey players?

Look again.
FAIL

I got bored...

so I decided to bust open the box of 2008 Timelines I had sitting on my shelf. I knew nothing of this set before opening it. The box promised two autos. Cool. Most of you are familiar with the product I'm sure, so let's go through the subsets and maybe you can help out with questions I have...

303 Evan Longoria. Kinda cool looking subset. I thought they had one for each team, but it looks like more of a highlight set.
339 Joey Votto

It's looking like a retrospective of Upper Deck sets from the past. Alright. But I'm not to fond of this set though.

333 Clayton Kershaw

I've never liked this set. Never. Nothing good to say about it.

192 Jay Bruce Silver Prospects. Die cut... but why?

379 Clayton Kershaw Gold Prospects and shiny. Again, die cut. Meh.

103 Chad Billingsly

Now this is more like it. I like the dimensional effect of the picture over the white background.

133 Greg Maddux

I'm not thrilled with the balck and white, but it's Mad Dog... what ya gonna do?

176 Clay Buchholz

another black and white, but with a gold emblem stuck on it. Another parallel?

These are the best cards in the set IMO.

7 Smoltzie (the only Brave in the damn box)

20 Pujolies

34 Nick Markakialphabetgreekuzofettakis

I love the colours on these cards. Team oriented, cool design, and the backs have a different picture on them. If you're going to put a picture on the back, it better be different than the one on the front. Am I right?

I got a few of these too... a gold parallel again???

I also pulled my very first YSLBSwasteofspace cards. My first ones. Ever. Hopefully my last ones. Ever.

Now, onto the two autos.

Cha Seung Baek Gold auto

and David Murphy

a lot of wasted space on that card.

Overall I give the box an A. I love the cards, and the checklist looks good. The only player out of all the prospects and rookies I pulled that I did not know right away, was my auto of Cha Seung Baek. Figures.

I thought about trading with others to try and complete this sucker, but I did not receive any duplicates out of the box. I think that's the firstUpper Deck product I've ever seen that had no duplicates.

My big pet peeve? Other than the obvious SP's.... people like me bust boxes for the fun of it. I could buy this set on the bay for probably $8.... but I bust wax because of the fun, the chase. Putting together the set. So when you advertise two autos per box, don't give them to me in the very two first packs of the box. Mix things up a little...

Upper Deck oops...

so you're a young up and coming writer for the brand new Upper Deck Blog. It seems all the kids are doing it... and you publish an article on some baseball predictions with liberal sprinklings of fancy Upper Deck baseball cards scattered throughout the article for an added spice, not to mention free advertising.

Good idea, right?

It was, until you scroll down far enough to see the Matt Holliday Sweet Spot auto.

oops. Maybe should've tried to find one not so faded...

2008/09 Upper Deck McDonalds Hockey

Shall we try this again? For those of you just joining, let's recap the first three packs here. How awful was that? Unbelievable. But like a sucker, I keep coming back for more.
Card one; Anze Kopitar - Kings - cool. A very good player on a bad team...

now the part I'm dreading..... if it's Henrik Zetterberg, I'm gonna lose it!

SWEEEEET!!!

Mikka Kiprusoff - Flames KIPPER!!!! YEAH!!!!

Can it get better?

Carey Price! WOOHOO!!!

The two goalies from my two favourite teams. awesome. Much better than the last try.....