Trade List > Hockey > 2009-10

The following cards are available for trade. If you see anything that interests you, please feel free to drop me an email.

2009-10 In the Game Heroes and Prospects: 6, 31, 43, 78, 96, 116, 141, 145 

2009-10 SP Authentic: 35

2009-10 Upper Deck: 1 (2), 3 (2), 4, 7, 8, 9 (2), 10, 13, 14, 17 (2), 19, 25, 26, 27 (2), 29, 30 (2), 32, 37, 38, 39, 42 (2), 43, 44 (2), 45, 48 (2), 49, 50, 51, 52, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65, 66, 69, 71 (2), 72, 74, 75, 76, 77, 79 (2), 81, 82, 88, 90 (3), 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100 (2), 101, 102 (3), 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 111, 112 (2), 113, 115 (2), 116 (2), 118, 119, 120 (2), 121, 122, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, 136, 137, 138 (2), 139, 141, 142 (2), 143 (2), 145, 148, 149 (2), 152, 155, 157 (2), 158, 160 (2), 163 (3), 164, 166, 167, 170, 171, 172, 177, 178, 181, 183, 184 (2), 186, 188 (3), 189 (2), 190, 191, 194 (2), 195, 197

 

Young Guns:208. Viktor Stalberg, Toronto Maple Leafs

 

Ambassadors of the Game:AG6. Bobby Clarke, Philadelphia Flyers

 

Netminders:NET2. Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Anaheim Ducks

2009-10 Upper Deck Champ's: 3, 5, 7, 9, 14, 15, 18, 24, 26, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, 38, 49, 55, 65, 68, 72, 73, 75, 77, 78, 84, 90, 92, 97, 99

 

Green:
14. Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres
31. Derick Brassard, Columbus Blue Jackets
84. Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks

 

Red:
22. Tony Esposito, Chicago Blackhawks
37. Nicklas Lidstrom, Detroit Red Wings

 

Minis:
101. Jakub Kindl, Detroit Red Wings "Rookie"
219. Denis Savard, Chicago Blackhawks
224. Milan Hejduk, Colorado Avalanche
321. Ray Emery, Philadelphia Flyers
370. Joel Pavelski, San Jose Sharks
374. Donald Brashear, New York Rangers
387. Saku Koivu, Anaheim Ducks
433. Panoplosaurus "Natural History Collection"
452. Ankylosauria "Natural History Collection"
565. Warren G. Harding "Historical Figures"

 

Champ's Threads:
MT-RK. Ryan Kesler, Vancouver Canucks (GU Jersey - White)

Upper Deck Hockey Card Day: HCD8. Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils

Upper Deck Ice: 16

Random Pack Break: 2009-10 Upper Deck Series One Hockey Fat Pack

It's not very often that I buy packs of hockey cards that don't promise me some O-Pee-Chee nostalgia. Whilst at the Wal-mart checkout a couple of weeks ago I bypassed a jumbo pack of nostalgia for a shot, albeit a long one, at a John Tavares Young Guns rookie card by opting instead for a 2009-10 Upper Deck Series One Hockey Fat Pack. Thirty-two cards for $6 - I couldn't see how I'd go wrong.

Top Half:
173. Rene Bourque - Awesome start! Bourque is from just down the road where I live and is considered a "local boy." Not a bad photo on the card, either.

77. Kari Lehtonen
197. Shawn Horcoff - The most useless piece of trivia you'll read all day comes from the back of this card, "Horcoff set a new Oilers single-season record in 2008-09 for most faceoffs taken (1,756) and most won (947). Bring on Jeopardy!
64. Wade Redden
8. Tim Connolly
126. Nicklas Lidstrom
82. Eric Staal
Hockey Heroes HH16. Martin Brodeur - I wasn't a big fan of this design back in 1991-92 when they started it with Brett Hull. I'm definitely not wanting to see it now.

Netminders NET12. Evgeni Nabokov - At first I thought this was a mid-90s Fleer throwback. Not a fan of this design at all.

145. Teemu Selanne
95. Semyon Varlamov - Great photo!

13. Daniel Paille
140. Stephane Robidas
84. Chad LaRose
116. Jakub Voracek - Is it just me or is Voracek priming to play a little Guitar Hero with that pose?

102. Jeff Woywitka

Bottom Half:
17. Andrei Kostitsyn and his magic hockey stick.

79. Tobias Enstrom
47. Marc-Andre Fleury - this card belongs in "Add the Caption" contest

177. Daymond Langkow
200. Sidney Crosby "Checklist"
122. Johan Franzen
130. Shea Weber
Ambassadors of the Game AG18. Alex Kovalev - At first glance I cursed this card because I though Upper Deck had carried its ridiculous 20th Anniversary set  over from baseball. The design is too similar, and that's no compliment.

69. Nathan Horton
99. Eric Fehr
29. Mikhail Grabovski
181. Peter Budaj - Another great shot with the ice coming forward.. Upper Deck sure loves its goalies.

152. Joe Thornton
136. Dustin Brown
4. Zdeno Chara
188. Owen Nolan - So maybe he wasn't the all-time great that comes with the expectation of going first overall in the draft, but Own Nolan has sure managed to stick around and put together a solid, sometimes great, career.

No Young Guns (they're 1:7 packs) but that's fine. As usual, the base set is beautiful, filled with beautiful and dramatic photography. I got a good mix of names, including lots of upcoming Hall of Famers.The inserts - didn't like them at all. If anyone needs any of them, drop me an email.

One of Kobe Bryant's Last Upper Deck Cards Isn't an Easy Find

If it weren't for 2009-10 Upper Deck Exquisite, this would have been Upper Deck's final fully licensed NBA card:

From the front, it's got the same design as 2008-09 Upper Deck Basketball, which is odd considering there's also a 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball set. So how can this be one of Upper Deck's last NBA cards? The back tells the story of the card's origins:

This is a promo card released in the DVD of the Spike Lee documentary Kobe Doin' Work. While the title is horrible, the movie's not bad. It follows Bryant through an entire game in April, 2008 and articulates his greatness as a player. If you care, here's my review for it. The DVD was released in late November, while Exquisite hit shelves only a short time after.

Be careful, though. If you go to track down the card and buy the DVD, mine was very damaged. It was inserted loosely in the case and flopped around in transit leaving the card pretty beat up. And I'm not sure if every DVD has the card as well, so I can't make any promises.

Who Are These Masked Men?

A couple of days ago, I received an email from In the Game containing a brief peek at the upcoming goalie-centric 2009-10 In the Game Between the Pipes set and four of its subsets:

What I find so fascinating is that In the Game continues to produce excellent-looking products despite the face that they don't have an NHL license. You wouldn't even no it by looking at these. And they don't even do it by seeing what they can get away with, going to court and reaching a settlement later. 

No date for Between the Pipes has been announced.

In the Game Offers Interactive Upgrades for Draft Hopefuls

I see one of the trends we're going to see more of in the next year or two is more interactive products. I believe much of this is going to center around online initiatives like Topps Town and Upper Deck U, but there's bound to be other programs as well.

A couple days back In the Game unveiled some interactive plans for their upcoming 2009-10 In the Game Heroes and Prospects set. Each card in their Class of 2010 insert set will come with a serial number on the back ranging from 1 through 30. If the player depicted on the card is drafted at that position in the June draft, collectors will be able to send in and upgrade their card to a memorabilia version. Upgraded versions will be limited to 10 copies.

So if the serial number on the back of your Taylor Hall says 1 and he's drafted first overall, you qualify for the memorabilia version. From a dealer's standpoint, I think this is a great idea as now there's going to be people chasing down multiple copies of the same card as they try to predict the spot in which they're picked.

This program reminds me a lot of Upper Deck's old Predictor and Crash the Game inserts where if the player won an award or hit a homerun on a certain date, then you'd get an upgraded version of the card or even a small set.

The preliminary checklist for the Class of 2010 cards is:
C-01    Taylor Hall
C-02    Kirill Kabanov
C-03    John McFarland
C-04    Cam Fowler
C-05    Tyler Seguin
C-06    Joey Hishon
C-07    Erik Gudbranson
C-08    Brett Connolly
C-09    Brandon Gormley
C-10    Stanislav Galiev
C-11    Quinton Howden
C-12    Jeffery Skinner
C-13    Mark Pysyk
C-14    Alexander Burmistrov
C-15    Vladimir Tarasenko

2009-10 In the Game Heroes and Prospects is scheduled for release on January 27.

Upper Deck Brings Back the Hologram

Even though Upper Deck is still holding back on their double top secret designs for their MLB-less line, I came across something today that's got me excited: holograms are making are making a comeback. Scouring over the initial info for 2009-10 SP Authentic Hockey, I noticed that the Holo FX line has been brought back from the dead. The throwback insert set will stay true to its roots offering a large checklist of 42 cards and a much rarer die-cut version that will act as a case hit in the product.

Basic Holo FX cards will fall 1:12 packs, while the die-cuts will be 1:288 packs.

While the return of holograms makes me giddy, seeing the mock-ups shows that they're not the same FX-branded cards I fell in love with more than a decade ago:

2009-10 SP Authentic Hockey Holo FX

1996 SP Authentic Baseball Special FX

A big part of what I liked back then was the holographic face, many of which turned and even winked as the card was turned. The new cards have a generic background. Sure, it's a hologram but it's not the same. So while I appreciate that Upper Deck is reaching back into their archives to bring something spectacular back, there's still some work to be done.

Box Break: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey (Blaster Box)

Collecting hockey cards (or any cards for that matter) isn't as popular as it once was. Still, the name O-Pee-Chee remains a household name in Canada. It's longstanding connection with the sport resonates far beyond any hobby shop, online auction or Wal-mart checkout aisle. So is that tradition enough for me to continue buying the set year after year? What can I say? I'm a sucker for continuity, even if the set isn't my favorite this year.

The 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Hockey set was the first new puck and stick set I'd worked in some time. I was turned on by the large set size, low price and the fact that Wal-mart carried rack packs with lots of card in them. While not the prettiest set, it was a fun way to catch up on the sport a little that I've largely lost interest in.

Little has changed for the 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee set. It still has a big checklist, a retro design and lots of basic inserts that bring a bit of shine. While heading down to the city I asked my wife to check for a couple of rack packs and she ended up bringing home a blaster box of 14 regular packs instead. Before I ripped the first pack, the box was already a winner.

Blaster boxes contain 14 packs of six cards with practically no chance of a major hit. That's fine. I just want to work on the set so a few of the 100 short prints would make me happy.

The design has a standard O-Pee-Chee design (at least for the Upper Deck era, now in its fourth year). The brand logo dominates the front. It's way too big, in my opinion as I'd like more focus on the photography. Card backs give complete stats and little else. It's easy, it's simple, it's really quite underwhelming.

The checklist consists of 600 cards, 100 of which are shortprints. Inserted 1:2 retail packs, they make building a set challenging but not impossible. I still need a few from last year but I've been able to pick them up quite cheap. The rookies continue to be a big draw. There's 50 of them. The second half of the shortprints are somewhat disappointing. It's not that I don't like the Legends concept, but many of the ones I got I recall seeing in last year's set. I would have much preferred Upper Deck dug a little deeper into the deep history hockey has.

My blaster box had 67 singles towards the set, including seven shortprints. With no duplicates, I was very happy with this.

The inserts start with two parallel sets. The first is the Retro variations, inserted 1:2 packs. I guess the lawsuit with Topps last year over stealing designs got the best of them. Here's my take: the set already has a retro feel. If an old design can't be used then don't bother. While I like the old school O-Pee-Chee logo, the rest isn't working for me. The white borders don't work with the card stock and action shots. I don't know why this is but I don't like it. My box had the expected seven Retro cards, not that I was extremely excited.

On the more shiny side are the Rainbow parallels. Tougher to find at 1:8 packs, they are the most modern thing in the set. The foil finish, something I'm pretty particular about, compliments the design well. Although I'm not going to even consider going after a set of these, they're one of the highlights from the set for me. I managed to pull two Rainbow cards from my 14 packs. Not a huge leap odds-wise, but still nothing to complain about.

From here on out, this is where the box got a little confusing. The odds on the packs list Canadian Heroes as being 1:72 packs. So when I got one I was pleased. Then I got another and another. When I was done opening the 14 packs I had two members of the Canadian Women's hockey team and a shiny Ray Bourque. A trip to the Upper Deck site revealed the ladies are part of an otherwise unannounced set named Canadian Heroes - Other Sports. What? Since when was women's hockey not hockey? Looking at the checklist it also includes some men who wore the maple leaf as well - and played hockey. It doesn't make sense but the horizontal design is nice and I like that the ladies are getting a little attention too. But "Other Sports"?

2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey also has several shiny but not too significant inserts for Team Checklists, All-Stars and In Action. To me, they're really just jazzed up versions of the base cards. They're also really ugly, taking to the Retro design and adding a foil front. Not much of a fan. I pulled two checklists, one In-Action and one All-Star.

Finally, there's the usual jersey and autograph cards, but they're a major longshot. OPC Materials are all quad jerseys and fall 1:1080 packs. OPC Signatures are a little easier but still 1:432 packs (retail). Needless to say, I got none.

Overall, I'd say 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee is a step back from last year. Nothing really jumped out then but it was fun to collect and the design was acceptable. This year the set is boring and uninspiring. It mixes old and new, but not in good ways. I still like opening rack packs but blasters don't offer much more bang.

Inserts

• Retro (1:2):7 (103. Brian Rafalski, 185. Mathieu Garon, 199. Andrei Kostitsyn, 406. Adrian Aucoin, 409. Mike Modano, 492. Scott Clemmensen, 580. Dick Duff)
• Rainbow (1:8): 2 (31. Carey Price, 397. Mike Knuble)
• Canadian Heroes (1:72): 1 (CBH11. Ray Bourque)
• Canadian Heroes - Other Sports: 2 (CB-CL. Charline Labonte, CB-GF. Gillian Ferrari)
• In Action: 1 (ACT5. Bobby Ryan)
• Team Checklists: 2 (TC2. Ilya Kovalchuk, TC6. Eric Staal)
• All-Stars: 1 (AST4. Evgeni Malkin)

Click here for more pictures and a full breakdown.

Upper Deck Masterpieces Aren't Dead Yet

It might not be around as a full-fledged baseball set this year, but it looks like the Upper Deck Masterpieces line isn't gone entirely. The beautiful piece of artwork shown above is an insert that'll be found in 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball.

The early checklist shows a total of 35 cards in the set, although I couldn't dig up the insertion rates. I haven't picked up any basketball cards since Kobe was considered a youngster and the Grizzlies were still in Vancouver. That will likely change once these are released. 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball is scheduled to hit shelves in September.

And, yes, I was under the impression 2008-09 was it for Upper Deck and basketball too.

Preview: 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

Even though the Stanley Cup finals don't start until later today, it's already time to start looking ahead to next hockey card season. Upper Deck appears to be taking an approach of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" with their base brand 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Hockey. But that's not stopping them from making the base set a little nicer to look at.

The configuration of the set appears to be the same as last year: 600 cards including "Marquee Rookie" and "Legends" shortprints appearing at a rate of 1:2 packs. The look has a modern-vintage sort of feel to it. While I find there's still a whole lot of border, it looks a lot cleaner to me than the 2008-09 incarnation. Regular set Gold parallels will fall 1:4 packs.

Retro Variation and Retro Variation Rainbow parallels return, although Upper Deck hasn't announced what design they'll be paying tribute to. Retro variations will be one per pack, while collectors can expect to find one or two Retro Rainbows per box.

Upper Deck has announced that there will be a Canadian Heroes insert set with an average of one in every box. There's not much else to go with other than the fact that you won't find any European or American stars. My guess is they will replace the Winter Classic inserts from the 2008-09 set.

The emphasis on O-Pee-Chee is that it's for set builders, but even set builders like some hits. OPC Quad Materials return with four jersey pieces embedded. Look for lots of team combinations such as the Avalanche card below or a Penguins card featuring Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury. OPC Quad Materials will be a moderately tough find at one-in-four hobby boxes, or three per case. The set will also have some tough-to-find autographs inserted at two per case, or one-in-six boxes. Besides the gorgeous Gretzky shown below, the checklist of signers also includes Gordie Howe, Crosby, Carey Price and Jarome Iginla.

Hobby boxes will hold 36 packs of six cards. Twelve boxes make up a case.