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Index	------	Drury Wantlist	Williams Wantlist	Stuart Wantlist	Cheechoo Wantlist	Lupul Wantlist	Hossa Wantlist	LeCavalier Wantlist	Gonchar Wantlist	Krajicek Wantlist	Robidas Wantlist

Collecting Stories

This story starts off innocently enough, about a year ago I went over to my local hobby shop to pick up a couple of screwdowns. I had some cards I wanted to protect, namely a Justin Williams 00-01 SPx RC. For whatever reason though, the screws provided with these screwdowns ended up jammed into the screwhole. The screws were in straight, they definately weren't too tight, but jammed on in there, trapping the card inside. Worse yet, in my attempts to pry the screwdown open, I ended up putting heavy dents into the cards' edge...

So I headed back to the hobby store, told them what happened and returned the unopened screwdowns. With the refunded money, I decided to go ahead and pick up a couple packs of 2000-01 UD Baseball (I was dabbling in baseball at the time). Lo and behold, hiding out in one of the packs was a beautiful Sandy Koufax Game Jersey card!

I later headed off to another hobby shop, where I was able to trade them the Koufax I pulled for $175 of store credit, which bought (among other things) a nice fluffy box of 2000-01 BAP Signature Series. Sadly there were no million-dollar pulls in that box, but it was still rather nice "compensation" for my screwdown problem. And to bring the story full-circle, remember that damaged 2000-01 Justin Williams SPx RC? Well since I dented that one up, I had to go find a new one. I went on eBay, and bid on one, no picture, no mention of the serial number, but the seller was reputable so I went for it. I believe I won it in the $10-$15 range. And the best part, when it showed up, it turned out to be numbered 1414/1500, the double jersey number of Williams. Neat little ending that pretty much made everything well worth it!

Hat Trick!

My first semester of college, two years ago, the time when care packages from home come flying in. Of course, my parents had figured out that I was into this whole card thing, and so with one of those wonderful care packages came three packs of cards, a 99-00 Topps Gold Label, a 00-01 Upper Deck Series 2, and a 00-01 Black Diamond.

The Gold Label was first. I absolutely love that whole brand, some of the best looking cards created and lots of inserts/parallels to be found. Anyway, this particular pack yielded a Sergei Berezin Class 1 Red. Those were harder than normal to pull (1:32), but the big kick came as I looked on the back. The card was numbered 94/100. Now, since moving to the Habs, Berezin has been forced to switch to #95 (thanks Yanic Perreault!). But at the time Berezin was #94, and that had meant I had pulled my first ever card numbered to the player's jersey number. Well OK, I thought it was cool anyway ...

Next up came the Upper Deck. Right smack in the middle of that pack was a stunning Chris Osgood autographed jersey card. It was the first ever autographed jersey card I had ever touched let alone owned. Beautiful card, still have it today. Lots of fond memories. And for the trifecta is one of the pulls that's hardest for me to look back on. The pack of 00-01 Black Diamond probably yielded the best card of the three packs. I opened it up, and out fell a Precious Gems RC, numbered to just 1999, of "some no-name rookie" ... some guy named ... Dany Heatley. Heatley was still 6 months away from being drafted, and since I knew absolutely nothing about the junior leagues, I had no clue who this kid was. I looked him up in the Beckett, saw he was the most valuable RC in the Black Diamond set, but didn't really value the card much more past that. Those more junior league savvy than me jumped all over that card once I listed it on beckett. I ended up trading it pretty quickly. I don't remember what I got, I do remember I traded for full book value though, which at the time was about $50, so I wouldn't say I got taken. But still, I would love to be staring at that card right now. Oh well, can't win them all. And it's taught me to reasearch these "no-name" rookie cards!

The First One

Again, about a year ago I went ahead and bought a box of 99-00 Topps Gold Label wholesale from an online dealer. As I mentioned above, I really love the brand, and was looking to put together most if not all of the base card set. Plus it was a chance to bust open a box of a brand I love, who can pass on that? So I'm coming down to the bottom of the box, I've pulled most of the expected inserts, even a couple of longer shot inserts (a Lindros Black Label Quest for the Cup and a Radek Bonk Class 3 Black), and I'm not expecting too much in the final couple of packs. I pull open the next pack, and much to my surprise there is a Marian Hossa Fresh Gold insert lying in it. Now, I had already pulled one Fresh Gold insert in the box, and with the 1:30 odds I found this rather odd. The whole box I was flipping cards over, checking for that magical 1/1 mark. I knew that they were in there and that they were somewhat sneaky and easy to miss. But this extra Hossa Fresh Gold was just too irresitable. I flipped the card over as soon as I saw it, and sure enough, 1/1! To this day it's the only 1/1 I own and the only one I have physically seen. And, as you may notice from the nav bar, Hossa is one of the players I collect, making the pull even better. He may not be my top hobby target, but hey, I'm not complaning!

Diamond in the Rough

It would figure too. I started work a couple of weeks back, got my first check so naturally I busted it all on cards (it was a small paycheck anyway: we weren't paid for the 4th of July). 4 boxes came from Dave & Adam's and they were all respectable ... some sweet memorabilia and all. Naturally I ended up needing more thick toploaders for the BAP jersey cards though. So I head down to the hobby store to get some thick toploaders.

While there, I noticed they had some 01-02 Stadium Club packs. They were in a bin of stuff the store was trying to get rid of, $3 a pop. So I grab a couple of those ... why not, I am still looking for a few RCs from the set and Autos/Jerseys are 1:12.

The pack of thick toploaders turns out to be $8. $8 for 25 of them. It's the only hobby shop in the area and I sure didn't want to wait until my next D&A order to get thick toploaders. So I begrudingly paid up ...

So I was a bit ticked as I headed to open the packs. $0.32 per thick toploader?! The first Stadium Club pack contained little really. A Luongo New Regime and a Cole RC (which I already had). The second one though I opened from the top as usual and counted only 5 cards. That meant a memorablia card. I saw the bottom corner of it too before I flipped the card in front of it ... it said "Jerseys". Even more excited I flipped the last card on top of it and saw this beauty. 01-02 Stadium Club Souvenirs Triple Jersey Sakic/Forsberg/Drury (12/25) BV $300!

BV-wise it is my top Drury card in my 4-year collection. Personally I think I'd rank it 2nd or 3rd if I had to pick a spot. By far the best Drury card I have ever pulled! Who would have thought ... 2 years of looking for it semi-seriously and I find it in a bargain bin on the floor of a hobby shop that specializes in baseball just outside San Diego. The hobby can be very funny sometimes!

Marian Strikes Again!

I bought a box of 97-98 Donruss Preferred at D&A's with some Christmas money I got. I got it for two reasons: 1) Nostalgia, I remember the first hobby store I went to had a couple lying around and I thought they were so cool with the tins and everything. 2) Marian Hossa's premier RC ... the one that books for $150. Mmmmm.

97-98 Donruss Preferred has a fragmented base set for those who don't know. The normal cards are Bronze, there are some Silver scattered throughout packs (no odds, but in half a box I have hit 4, so they are tough) and fewer Gold and even fewer Platinum. Hossa's RC is a silver, which is what makes it the premier RC, it's by far the toughest pull of any of his RCs.

So I started busting tins and about 5 packs in I found a silver. As I traditionally do to heighten the suspense, I slowly pulled the card in front of it away. The back of the silver was facing me and I saw the Senators crest. My first thought was that it was the Hossa RC. I actually thought I had pulled the Hossa RC, until I looked at the tiny picture they have on the back and said "Uhh ... he's kinda old to be an 18-year old Marian Hossa." Yeah, it was actually Alexei Yashin. That was a cruel trick and it definately brought me back to earth pretty quick.

A few more packs later I saw another Silver. As always I slowly removed the card in front of it. The Silver was actually upside down, so I saw the bottom of the back of the card first, and amazingly enough it contained the Senators crest as well! I thought "Surely they wouldn't be mean enough to do this to me twice, this has got to be the real thing!"

Out of nerves, I guess, I actually put the whole pack back without looking at the Silver and consulted my Beckett Plus with all the Silvers listed. To my horror I saw 4 Senators with Silvers: Alexei Yashin, Marian Hossa, Daniel Alfredsson ... and Alexandere Daigle! Somewhat disappointed I returned to the pack knowing with my dumb luck it'd be Daigle for sure. I slowly pulled the card in front off, finally revealing the familiar face of Marian Hossa!

I was absolutely dumbfounded and amazed. I was sure I had blown my chances with the Yashin earlier in the box, but to my delight here it is! And that's not even the kicker. The very next pack I saw a Silver Cut to the Chase card. I slowly removed the card in front of it ... and saw yet another Marian Hossa. The $150 RC in one pack, and the $100 parallel of the RC in the very next pack!

Pristine Pull

To .. uhh ... "celebrate the new semester" I hit up Dave and Adams again. I ended up with 2 packs of Topps Pristine, 2 packs of SP Game Used, and a box of Parkhurst Retro.

I decided I'd open one of each premium pack, then the Parkhurst Retro, then finish off the premiums. So I hit up the first Topps Pristine pack and the big pull there was a Marty Turco Personal Endorsements autograph. Not so shabby at all. I made my way to the SP Game Used and found ... a Marty Turco SP Cup Contenders Jersey. I broke open the Parkhurst Retro box and found a ... Marty Turco Game Used Jersey. Seeing a pattern. Now, I have nothing against Turco, but I'd much rather have the guys listed on this webpage than him and I was getting rather tired of him taking up all the good pulls. Having finished the box I returned to the premium packs. Diving into the Topps Pristine, the first sub-pack revealed ... an Uncirculated Marty Turco Refractor (/59). Once again that foolish Turco had taken up another nice pull. Sure I was going to get another Turco Relic card as well, I opened the next sub-pack and to my amazement saw:

The actual patch I had been dreaming of pulling! Not just the jersey, but the patch! And that wasn't even the end of it, turning it around I noticed the small word "Refractor" under the number and saw the serial number: 5/10! Upon first glance I hadn't even realized that it was a Refractor. I hadn't just pulled any old Patch, I pulled a Patch parallel ... numbered to only 10!

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Index	------	Drury Wantlist	Williams Wantlist	Stuart Wantlist	Cheechoo Wantlist	Lupul Wantlist	Hossa Wantlist	LeCavalier Wantlist	Gonchar Wantlist	Krajicek Wantlist	Robidas Wantlist