2007-08 SPx Winning Combos Martin Brodeur/Patrik Elias

I haven't been much of a fan of the SPx product in recent years with the exception of the 2007-08 version. I just feel like everything from that year was designed very well, from the base, to the SPXtreme inserts, to the autogamers which included the Winning Combos set, as pictured above. A Winning Combos dual game-used jersey card is found at a rate of 1 in 18 packs, or 1 per box and (in most cases) features a combination of stars who share a common team or position. There is a VERY rare Radiance parallel to this set as well, which features autographs of both players depicted, and those are limited to just 10 copies. What I wouldn't give to have the Radiance version of this card....

2000-01 Titanium Game Gear Patches Scott Niedermayer /200

Inserted into every hobby pack (1:49 retail) of 2000-01 Titanium is one of 155 different game-used memorabilia cards. Cards 1-50 are game-used stick cards, all of which are serially numbered, and include players such as Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Peter Forsberg, Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, and Brett Hull. Cards 151-155 are dual game-used cards with combos such as Lemieux/Jagr, Hull/Modano, and Forsberg/Sakic. Every other card in between is a game jersey card, which comes with a serially numbered patch variation, as shown above. There's nothing cooler than a boring, single-colored patch, is there?!?

2005-06 Ultimate Collection Jason Ryznar RC /599

Jason Ryznar was selected by the Devils with the 64th overall pick of the 2002 NHL draft. After playing for the University of Michigan for four years, Ryznar played in 59 games for the Albany River Rats and 8 games for the big club in 2005-06. Those have been the only NHL games Jason has played in to date as he would remain in the AHL with Lowell the next two seasons. Following the 2007-08 season, he was invited to the training camp of the Minnesota Wild. From there, he was sent to their AHL affiliate, the Houston Aeros, for whom he played 77 games last season.

1998-99 Topps Gold Label Class 2 Red Scott Stevens /50

Those of you who follow my other blog (you know the one) know that I'm a big fan of Topps' Gold Label line. What you may not have known is that Gold Label was instrumental in kicking off my hockey collection. When the product debuted in the late 90's, a good 90+% of my collection consisted of cards that I had acquired via trades or packs from my local card shop, a shop that hardly carried hockey at the time. Sometime in the year 2000, while at the mall with a couple friends, I happened to notice some retail packs being sold at an EBX store. One such pack was of 1999-00 Topps Gold Label Retail Hockey, the only one of its kind at the store. Having been a fan of hockey and Gold Label, I said "why not?" and bought the pack. There were only three cards in the pack but one of them was my first big hockey pull.

The card on the back had a gold back and I could tell it was an insert. When I saw the name, I could tell it was also a member of the hated Philadelphia Flyers. However, the numbering on the card made that irrelevant. I had pulled a Prime Gold Red Label of John LeClair serially numbered to 25! The odds of hitting one of those were well over 800-1 (probably more considering it was retail)! I was very impressed with the look of the cards and obviously, my pull.

Fast forward to the end of that year and the store was undergoing a change in ownership. The new owner carried a much bigger selection of cards (including hockey). Of course, I went after a bunch of '99-00 Gold Label (among lots of other products new to me) and eventually collated the set. Having seen my interest in the cards, the new owner began setting aside some Devils singles for me each time I visited his store. The collection has been growing ever since.

2008-09 UD Champ's Petr Vrana RC #176

Petr Vrana was selected as the 42nd overall pick of the 2003 draft, making him the Devils' second pick that year (Zach Parise was their first at 17th). That year, Vrana won the QMJHL's Michel Bergeron trophy for Offensive Rookie of the Year (Sidney Crosby won it the following year). Petr has been playing for Devils AHL affiliates (first Albany then Lowell) since the 2005-06 season and put up a career-high 61 points two seasons ago. Vrana got his first taste of NHL experience last season, playing in 16 games and recording his first career goal against the Washington Capitals.

So far, this is the only card from Champ's that I own. I expect that to change very soon. These things are sweet.

2000-01 Pacific Gold Crown Die-Cuts Scott Gomez

Overall, I don't particularly miss the Pacific brand with their seemingly endless, ridiculous parallels (not to mention third party game-used *coughcough*). However, I do miss inserts like these, Gold Crown Die-Cuts, which were inserted at a rate of 1 in 37 packs of 2000-01 Pacific. For some reason, I never particularly cared for the old Crown Royale sets, which were all die-cut and horizontal, but yet I love these. I'm strange, I guess. Of course, my scanner makes this card look 100 times crappier than it actually is. Yeah, I know this was a pretty half-assed post but....I had to show something.

2001-02 UD Top Shelf Sticks Martin Brodeur

July is almost over so here's my obligatory Martin Brodeur post for the month. This card comes from 2001-02 UD Top Shelf. Top Shelf was product that most collectors have probably forgotten about as it only lasted for two years. In the inaugural product, boxes contained 12 packs per box and game-used cards were seeded at a rate of 3 per box: typically one jersey, one stick, and one piece of goalie memorabilia. Above is an example of a game-used stick card from this product. The piece of stick on this particular card is pretty boring but there are quite a few cards out there with really great, unique pieces (link). In addition, there is a gold parallel to this set and those are limited to just 50 copies. Of the 29 cards in this set, 5 are triple relics. Here's a triple (link) of Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic, and Peter Forsberg for the Avs fans out there.