A Question To Fellow Collectors - Storage and Display

I have a few questions to all card collectors in the collecting blog world. And I was hoping you guys could help me out.

How do you store your collection?

What percentage of your complete sets are boxed vs bindered?

How do you sort individual players for your PC (year, set)? How are these displayed/stored?

How do you display your "hits" (slabbed cards, 1 of 1's, relic cards)?

I am always curious how others sort, track and display their cards. If you guys have any pictures of your card rooms/collection/ man cave, I would love to see them.

The One That Got Away - Bobby Orr Edition

Yesterday I went to a local card show with about 20 vendors. I had no real agent there, it was my first card show in over 10 years and I was there mostly to spectate and grab anything that jumped out at me.

The third table I walked by had a sticker auto of one of my goal players Number 4 - Bobby Orr. Not only was it a Bobby Orr auto but it was Bobby Orr in an Oshawa Generals jersey. I don't know what I was thinking, I walked away from that card adding it to my mental checklist to go back and get it if I didn't find anything else. I continued through the show obsessing about the signed Bobby Orr. As soon as I finished walking the show floor I rushed back to table 3 and it was gone.

For the past 24 hours I have been kicking my own ass for not buying that card. I should have picked it up as soon as I saw it. Not only was it an auto of an Oshawa Generals alumni but it was an auto of Bobby Orr, the greatest General, IN A GENERALS JERSEY.

Now that I have seen this card I must own it, yet I know very little about it. I believe it is an ITG Heroes & Prospects card. I have checked ebay and have come up empty. If any of you guys have info on this card please let me know. As I said I must own this card.

12-13 ITG Heroes And Prospects

I  recently started collecting hockey cards a few weeks ago after a long hiatus and immediately went to a tried and true classic Upper Deck. With Upper Deck you are getting a consistent, quality product with beautiful photography and the joy of chasing Young Guns. Upper Deck has always been my go to and favorite company.

Today at the shop I thought I would switch it up a bit and grab a few packs of 12-13 ITG Heroes and Prospects. I am  vaguely familiar with ITG as a hobby spectator and blog lurker for the past year. And have always  been curious as to what they were all about.  I figured that my love for Junior hockey and a set called Heroes and Prospects were a perfect match. I grabbed nine packs here are my hits (not my photos as I am in the process of moving)

Really happy I cracked a McDavid pre-rookie rookie card. I can`t wait to follow his growth and see where he ends up. I think I may try to track down the autograph version of this card. 

The sticker autos look good and are placed perfectly. Not too familiar with Adam but an auto none the less! 

Not a huge fan of these `Class of 2013`halographic inserts, they kind of remind me of those old McDonalds sets.

All in all I really like this set, the photography is great, the lay out is simple and there are plenty of chase-able cards. This is a set I look forward to completing and cracking more of. 

My Love For The Oshawa Generals - And A New Collecting Initiative

If anyone reading this grew up or has lived in southern Ontario they know the pains of being a Leafs fan. Not  the pain caused by the fact that the team hasn't won the Cup since 1967 or the fact that they haven't been in the playoffs in what feels like forever, it is the pain that is the price of Leafs tickets.

Leafs tickets command a pretty steep price tag and that is if you are lucky enough to get your hands on a pair. Very rarely can you find a pair at face value. Growing up I quickly realized that Leafs games were not in my family's price range and that I would be lucky to go once every couple of years. As a huge hockey fan I found the next best thing, the Oshawa Generals.

Growing up being a generals fan made geographical sense but as any collector from the early 90's remembers the Generals were the buzz team with an up and coming star in Eric Lindros. Cards with Lindros wearing his Generals red/blue/white were everywhere and if you had no idea what the OHL was you knew that the Generals were a minor team with a major star.

The generals have a very rich tradition as a team with an impressive list of 160 players who have gone on to play in the NHL. Luckily  I was able to see some of those players before they moved on to the "big leagues." Players like Tavares, Lindros, Clutterbuck, Horton, Eager and Del Zotto. Although some of these players play on teams I don't like I still root for these guys because of their ties to the Generals. If they score against the Leafs it stings a little but is bittersweet because you feel you have a connection with these guys. 

Now that I have gushed about my love for an OHL team and it's player it is time to announce my new collecting goal/challenge. And that is to collect an  auto of each of the Generals alumni that has made it to the bigs and any card featuring a player in a Generals uniform.(most likely from the Heroes & Prospects set.) This challenge sounds easy enough as most OHL cards go for pennies but what some people may not know is that the generals have one of the games most elite players name hanging from the rafters and that player is  Bobby Orr.

I look forward to this challenge and will post a list of all the Generals Alumni I am looking for on a tab on the side.

Also if you haven't been to a minor hockey game be it the OHL, AHL, QMJHL or any other equivalent league, do yourself a favour and check it out. The atmosphere is electric and you get to see some of tomorrows stars today.

-CBC

From A Pack To A Top Loader: Rookie Redemption #2

I am really starting to believe in beginners luck. Last week I bought three packs of 2012-2013 Upper Deck Series 1 and three packs of 2012-2013 Upper Deck Black Diamond. I cracked all of them on my lunch break and was not disappointed with what I saw. The hit out of the six packs was the following -

After doing a little research I found the following on the Upper Deck blog. As you can see these are pretty limited and very exciting.


 I can't wait to redeem this and see who I get. Does anyone have any predictions or thoughts as to who it will be?

-CBC

From A Pack To A Top Loader: A Day With The Cup Chris Kelly

Today on my lunch break I decided to see if the card shop near my work was able to get in a box of 2011-2012 Upper Deck Series One for me. Unfortunately they were unable to get a box for me but they were able to get four Blasters which I was more than happy to crack.

I was excited because I have only cracked 3 packs of this product and I intend on completing the set. Out of the blasters I got a bunch of base, a few canvas cards, a Byfuglien and Kopitar jersey card and a few forgettable young guns. The real hit of the blasters was the "Day with the Cup" insert of Chris Kelly.

I was amazed at the book value of this card and instantly had the friendly neighborhood shop owner put it in a top loader for me. Apparently the "Day with the Cup"cards are really short printed and are found in 1:1000 hobby packs, 1:2500 retail packs and 1:5000 blaster packs.

This card is for trade so if you are interested or know someone who is please feel free to contact me. I am looking for many things and am open to hearing all offers.

-CBC

That Time in 1991 When I Got Paul Coffey's RC for FREE

WHO:      A 7 year-old Card Bored Collector

WHAT:    1981-1982 O-PEE-CHEE Paul Coffey's RC

WHERE:   A card show in an empty store front in a strip mall in Scarborough, Ontario.

WHEN:    The summer of 1991

WHY:       Because who didn't collect Hockey cards in 1991?

HOW:       The roll of a dice

In 1991 my family took me to a local card show hosted by small stores and private collectors in the area. There were maybe 20 vendors crammed in an empty store front, in a strip mall next to a grocery store. The doors opened at 9am but I dragged my parents there for 7am because the flyer for the show stated that the first 10 people in line would get a "prize" and there was no chance I was missing out on the chance at a "prize". We were the first one's there, if my memory serves me well we were there before most of the vendors. When they finally open the doors my parents and I were presented with our "prize" a raffle ticket to play a dice rolling game. 

The game was simple you rolled 6 dice and the sum of your roll got you a prize that corresponded with the total you just rolled.  Obviously the bigger prizes were located in the harder to roll numbers and the junk prizes were located right in the middle. I was the first on through the door so I went to the game with my ticket and asked if I could take my roll. The guy took my ticket, handed me a cup with 6 dice in it and wished me luck.

I shook the dice it the cup and rolled them across the table, six 6's. I rolled the highest number you could possibly roll. I was ecstatic. I was no more than 12 steps into the show and I just won a huge card at the time. The guy reluctantly handed me my prize in one of those massively thick screw down cases that looked like the card was embedded in diamond. I remember taking the card and feeling like a king. I remember the guy running the booth offering me 5 roles in exchange for the Coffey RC card and I declined. I was just the owner of a card with a book value in the three digit range and I couldn’t wait to show all my card collecting friends at school and my cousins.

What my parents would tell me later in my life was that the guy running the booth was no more than 18 and he that he was on the verge of tears when I won the Coffey. That card was his main draw and he was hoping the game would offset his costs of hosting the show and help him turn a profit. They also told me that they turned in their door prize tickets because “They felt bad for the kid.”

The Coffey rookie card will always hold a special place in my collection and my heart. Every time I win something be it a free coffee in Tim Horton’s roll-up the rim or a few dollars on a slot machine my family always tells me that I am lucky and use this story as a bench mark.