Tomas Kaberle: Bruins Stanley Cup Custom TTM Auto Success

One of my goals for this year was to get a Through The Mail autograph. My most obvious choice was to try Tomas Kaberle as I needed his auto for the 2011 Stanley Cup team project and he was currently with Montreal so I could use Canadian postage for the SASE. So after sneaking into the post office so nobody would see this die-hard lifelong Bruins fan mailing something to 1909 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, the wait began. I had honestly forgot about this as it was mailed on January 24th, the Habs season had ended on May 9th, and Kaberle had lots of spare time only dressing for 10 games and none in the playoffs, but to my surprise the envelope I mailed away turned up in my PO box with the card inside and signed. Kaberle's lack of Bruins cards led me to try printing out a custom based on 1987 O-Pee-Chee baseball and it turn out pretty well, the scan is very light and the auto looks much better in real life with a thick black signature.Now to figure how to do TTM from Canada to the USA.

Cam Neely and the 7 Cent Auto

Buying cards online has been made a little harder for me with the new US postal rates into Canada, so looking for Canadian sellers has become the best way to buy. When I saw this card I hoped I could get it cheap and won the auction for 3.75 shipped. There are few cards of Cam Neely with the Canucks and even fewer in the classic giant 'V' jerseys, while the black and white photo doesn't do these justice, the yellow jersey piece makes a great card and a numbered to 99 of a Hall of Famer and my boyhood hero made this a must buy. The seller offered combined shipping so while looking for anything else interesting I found a certified auto of Bill Muckalt with a one cent start, I threw a bid and won it for 7 cents. Not a card I needed, or really wanted, but what collector would turn down a certified auto for 7 cents.

Custom Card: 2004 Topps Total Adam Ottavino

A custom I made a while ago serving two purposes. First to highlight Adam Ottavino wearing number zero on his jersey. As far as I can find he is the first pitcher to wear zero and one of around 15 players in MLB history to wear that number. Second it to mention how much I miss Topps Total. Topps released the Total brand from 2002-2005 as a huge set, 990 cards in 2002 and 2003, 880 in 2004 and 770 in 2005, giving cards to many players that are often ignored in other smaller sets.  Ottavino is a prime example of the type of player Total would have included, someone who hasn't had a card since 2007 Bowman, three years before his MLB debut. Ottavino was a waiver claim by Colorado from the Cardinals and went 5-1 as a piggy-back reliever in the 2012 Rockies 4-man rotation experiment and has become a valuable bullpen piece in 2013. I highly doubt many collectors would complain about Topps losing one of their uber high end sets and bringing back Total.

2013 Bowman Rockies Team Set w/ Prospect Breakdown

Something that I haven't done in a while is buying team sets, before getting involved in trades and finding site like COMC and Sportlots my collection was basically feed by buying a couple team sets a year. While not a huge Bowman fan this years set a couple things that made it worthwhile for me. First was the Ryan Wheeler rookie card. Wheeler played in 6 games for Colorado while Todd Helton was on the DL so I needed this card for the Rockies collection. The big draw of Bowman is the prospects and the Rockies checklist is pretty good, some people knock getting cards of players they have heard of, so I have broken down the prospects included below.

Thank You Saint Patrice!

That might have been the craziest ending to a series I have ever seen. Things looked pretty grim after Boston lost games 5 & 6 and were down 4-1 with 10 minutes left in the 3rd period of game 7. In all honesty I was just hanging on to watch the last 10 minutes of hockey that I really cared about this season, even Horton's goal to make it 4-2 did little to make me feel better, but after Lucic scored to make it 4-3 you could almost feel it, it was gonna happen, and it did. You knew that after the 3rd period collapse, that Toronto wasn't gonna score in OT. Seeing Lucic step up and put the team on his back was huge, and it seemed like he knew that if they lost this game he was probably gonna be moved in the offseason. In overtime Seguin finally stepped up and got his first point of the series on the final goal. Little needs to be said of Patrice Bergeron, Chara might be the captain but to me Bergeron is the face of the Bruins, and who better than to score the winning goal and give this Bruins fan a few more games to yell, cheer and swear loudly at the television.

A bonus Acetate Appreciation with a 1998 EX2001 based card from the 2012-13 Fleer Retro set.

Acetate Appreciation: 1995-96 Pinnacle Clear Shots

In honor of the NHL playoffs the first Acetate Appreciation focused on hockey. These were among the first acetate cards in my collection from when I collected mostly hockey as a kid. I was reminded of this set after finding the Doug Gilmour in a box of cards and found the Neely on COMC. Hockey seems to have embraced the clear cards more than any sport with Upper Deck seeming to lead the way. Not a ton to say on this one, nice simple design, well done set, Pinnacle is still one of my favorite brands from the card explosion of the 90's.

Trade with Dutch Card Guy

Everyone's favorite European baseball card blogger recent posted his side of our trade and after getting the post today here it's my turn. Upon opening the package I got thinking that American baseball cards coming from the Netherlands to Canada, these cards might have had a more adventurous life than I have. Starting off with an autograph of Greg Smith who was traded with Carlos Gonzalez among others from the Diamondbacks to the A's for Dan Haren, then traded with Cargo and Huston Street to Colorado for Matt Holliday. Smith went 1-2 with the Rockies in 2010 posting a 6.23 ERA, but probably provided more value with the bat, going 4-13 with 2 doubles, 2 RBI and 2 runs scored. Smith recently signed with the Phillies and is pitching in Double-A. The trade came to be based on 2013 Gypsy Queen, in return for a stack of minis, Jeroen sent me 19 base cards, leaving me 13 short of the base set. (Want/Trade list here if you can help me out).

Zistle Trade with Shoebox Legends

Another Zistle trade, this time with fellow blogger Shoebox Legends. The other side of trade can be found here. The card to the right completes my 2013 Heritage wantlist, actually the card to the right IS my 2013 Heritage wantlist. I will never get excited for a set comprised of posed headshots and close-ups of players in the dugout, and even worse the dead tree that was in all the 2012 Heritage Rockies cards is back for 2013, at least this card is dead tree free. So far this the only Wilton Lopez Rockies card so it's nice to have for the PC.

Also coming along was another Heritage card, this time for the Chris Iannetta collection, Darren Holmes, Darryl Hamilton and a red Jordan Pacheco. Two more 2011 Gypsy Queens to widdle down the list and some catchers with an Expos Ron Hassey and sweet Masked Marauders of Brad Ausmus from 1998 Collector's Choice. I really need to start looking for the rest of this catcher based subset.