Give 'em their Flowers

Quick, name some active NHL goaltenders who are definitely going to the Hall of Fame. Off the top of my head I had four: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin, and his backup in New York.. Jonathan Quick.

Now, name five all-time great goaltenders of the 21st century. Go. Martin Brodeur, of course. Dominik Hasek was still a beast in the early aughts. Henrik Lundqvist (more frickin Rangers?!?), Roberto Luongo, and um...  Pekka Rinne?

Those would have been my lists until recently. One goaltender has been flying under my radar for about 20 years. Only when I cross-checked my hockey card wantlist and saw who was missing did I ask myself: Is Marc-Andre Fleury a Hall of Famer?

Within 24 hours of realizing I was missing this card for the 'uncommon' tier of my 2003-04 Topps Pristine set build, Fleury -- nicknamed "Flower" -- tied Patrick Roy for second on the NHL's all-time wins list.

551 wins, a Vezina trophy, three Stanley Cup rings, five trips to the Final (including one memorable run with the Golden Knights in their inaugural season), 73 shutouts in over 1,000 NHL games, and an Olympic gold medal with team Canada isn't just a Hall of Fame resume. It's most likely a first ballot entry for the first overall pick in 2003.

How could I possibly have forgotten Fleury? Well, I'm getting old. I'm not paying as much attention to every team in the league because I have less access to the games than I used to (thanks, ESPN+), and I simply forgot he was still playing, sharing netminding duties with (I had to look this up) Filip Gustavsson in Minnesota. Neither of them are playing particularly well. But, to be fair...

Flower is the oldest goalie in the league. Heck, he's the third oldest player in the league, trailing only Mark Giordano and Joe Pavelski(who probably deserves his own appreciation post). Like Adrian Beltre and Frank Gore in other sports, his place among the all-time greats at his position simply caught me by surprise.

I only truly appreciated Fleury when he left Pittsburgh and became the de facto captain in Vegas - and even then I couldn't root for him in the Final because the Knights were standing in the way of Washington's first Cup. Even if he has an Adam Wainwright-like struggle to get one more win he will still be second all-time with 552 NHL victories. And he'll get there with far less fanfare than this guy.

For the generation of hockey fans before mine, there's only one Flower -- Guy Lafleur:

 

 

While I never saw Lafleur play I certainly understood what a legendary player he was in the 1970s and '80s: five Stanley Cups as a key member of the Montreal dynasty, six consecutive 50-goal seasons, three consecutive scoring titles, and two Hart trophies as NHL MVP. An all-time great to be sure. But the two most fascinating things about "The Flower" in my mind happened before his NHL career began, and after it appeared to be over.

For those of you who aren't hockey fans, imagine a godawful franchise like the Athletics(sorry Fuji) or Pistons. They're totally bereft of talent and in desperate need of a young superstar to lift the franchise out of the doldrums. Now imagine that team is so short-sighted and incompetent that they trade their first round pick to the league's most powerful franchise. 

 

That happened in 1970 when Charlie Finley's California Golden Seals swapped first round picks with the defending Stanley Cup champion Canadiens. Montreal GM Sam Pollock knew another French-Canadian star was about to arrive, and he fleeced the Seals for the likely 1st overall pick. Then when it looked like Los Angeles might 'drop' to #1, Pollock traded two solid NHL players to the Kings to help them finish higher than the Seals, just so he could secure Lafleur.

What might have been..

Lafleur retired in 1984 as the Montreal dynasty was seemingly in the rear view. (The Habs won another Cup in 1986) In 1988, Guy was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame - his first year of eligibility. That summer, he decided he wasn't done and returned to the NHL as a New York Ranger.

An active player who was already in the Hall of Fame?!? It was unfathomable to me when I pulled his Nordiques cards in 1990-91, though it would happen again with Mario Lemieux a decade later.

Guy was the one player missing from my 1970s Canadiens collection until I added this 1976-77 Topps card in a fleury of year-end TCDB trades:

I might fill out the roster a bit but the collection is complete for now.

Since this is an NFL playoff weekend I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge another Lafleur:

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur has his team in the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. He racked up an astounding 39 wins in his first three seasons, becoming the first head coach with three 12+ win seasons to start his career. If you read that Instagram post you may have noticed how many haters wanted to give the credit for that achievement to Aaron Rodgers - the same Rodgers who couldn't get it done against the Lions in the season finale last year, costing the Packers a playoff spot.

LaFleur did his best to manage Rodgers' insatiable ego, and when the Packers finally parted ways with their iconic quarterback, many predicted a long rebuild for the youngest squad in the NFL.

 

Instead LaFleur has his team back in the playoffs, facing the Dallas Cowboys in a matchup of passers with the top two touchdown totals in the NFL. Meanwhile Rodgers is making vague threats against comedians on Pat McAfee's show. But sure, Matt LaFleur owes all of his success to that guy. Okayyy. 

Regardless of tonight's outcome, the Packers have a bright future with young stars on both sides of the ball. It won't be long before Jordan Love, Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Luke Musgrave, Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, and Quay Walker reach their potential and lead the Packers back to prominence. And it will be under the tutelage of the most underrated head coach in the game. 

Thanks for reading, and Go Pack Go!



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Cardbarrel Pros and Cons

It's the last weekend of the NFL season and I am hyped for some Packers playoff action (win or go home counts as a playoff game, right?) ... unfortunately I don't have any new football items for you. Or is that a good thing, since the card blogging community is one of the few places where the NFL isn't king?

I've got another non-baseball topic upcoming (what can i say? it's the middle of winter!) but before that I'll give the people what they want: Baseball cards. Nothing but baseball cards in this post, I promise.

On New Year's Day I placed an order at Cardbarrel for some set fillers and Boston binder fillers. I picked out some random goodies, too. Exceeded the budget just a bit, so this will be the last purchase I show off for a while.

First of all, the shipping time was lightning fast. Yes, I'm a state away from Cardbarrel HQ but Mehmet prepared this shipment on New Year's night, sent it out on January 2nd, and it was in my mailbox on the 4th. That cost me $3.95. COMC charges $4.99 for shipping and it takes a month or more to get your items. Dave and Adam's are also based in New York state. I get my orders from them in 2-3 days. Costs me $12.95. Minimum.

Another perk of purchasing on Cardbarrel - you can find lots and lots of quality cards under 20 cents each. Baseballcardstore might have them cheaper (depending on how their prices are structured at at any given moment) but it might be 6-8 weeks before your order arrives. Sportlots can have better bang for your buck - if you find a seller with low shipping prices and an inventory loaded with quality cards at 20 cents apiece.

Cardbarrel's prices are much more specific. 15 cent cards, 18 cent cards, 20 and 25... some cards that should be 15 cents are 50. That said, a majority of the cards in my latest order were two dimes or less each:

Every 1994 Ultra set filler I needed was under 20 cents except Paul O'Neill (20c), Omar Vizquel, and Deion Sanders (23 cents each).

I could have been one card closer to completion if I'd realized that the Eddie Guardado you see above was already stashed away in my All Time Teams binder. Instead of spending 18 cents on that, I could have purchased Paul Sorrento - who I didn't realize was missing because Jim Thome was squatting in slot #48.

Some stars and Hall of Famers for my 1996 Score set build. 40 cents for Mattingly, 16 cents for Clark. Didn't we establish that those guys are equal?

I upgraded an off-center Bernie Williams for two dimes (new card in center) but now I have to consider upgrading another - the Dante Bichette is dinged at the top.

These are the only two baseball sets I'm currently completing - and Cardbarrel only sells baseball cards. Which means I might not need to make another purchase from their site for quite a while. A double-bummer considering I'm just about two orders away from earning a $20 gift certificate.

The rest of my recent order featured almost enough Red Sox base cards to fill out every remaining space in my albums. I'm down to just six open pockets across six BoSox binders.

Some much-needed 1984 Donruss and 1992 Bowman Sox; I only had one Red Sox card in each set. I've heard that 1984 Donruss had a noticeably lower print run than most other '80s sets. Can anyone confirm that?

One more Sox card, a couple more '92 Bowman, and some Oakland A's. I've had a post idea in my head for a while where I discuss all of the 1956 Topps recreations in recent years, but it would require a lot of research. Maybe someday. [I will get to an Athletics post in the near future.]

Cardbarrel is not ideal for inserts and parallels; their stock is limited and their prices are often higher than COMC. There are some exceptions - such as this non-SN'd gold refractor of one-time All-Star and local legend Jeffrey Hammonds:

This cost just 80 cents - the most of any single card in this order - but its heavily curled. Not CB's fault.

What was the second most expensive card in this order? A 2005 Topps Heritage Manny Ramirez:

Indicated with a -minus here because it was not shipped. Was I informed of this? No. Was I reimbursed my 60 cents? Nope. And what would I do with 60 cents of store credit anyway - order three commons and pay $3.95 shipping? Nah.

Sigh... anyway, here's the rest of my order.

The cheapest 2011 Topps Chromes I could find, a Dick Mountain 2023 Update to replace the Chrome I sent to Dennis, and... Stephen Strasburg's sunset card?

Two Alan Trammell cards, including a 1982 Topps single for my All-Time Teams binder - replacing the "one and done" copy I sent to MoTown Cards so he could complete the set.

And finally, two Terry Francona cards including a 1986 Topps Traded single...

...which is poorly centered and a little rugged on the back. Almost looks like an O-Pee-Chee card. You're buying blind at Cardbarrel; there are no scans on the site. There's no perfect store I suppose. Each LCS and online shop has its pluses and its minuses.

Have you recently purchased anything from Cardbarrel? How was your experience? What's your favorite/least favorite online shop for sports cards?


Thanks for reading, and ....

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Two and Two

In my previous post I mentioned receiving an eBay purchase - but I didn't include those cards.

The post before that I mentioned buying myself two Starting Lineup figures for Christmas - so that my daughters could wrap them and leave them under our tree. I didn't show those off, either.

Perhaps I should rectify these two omissions before my Cardbarrel order arrives. [edit: too late]

Let's start with the two card PWE from eBay. While searching for some card supplies I stumbled upon a seller who was offering two hockey cards I needed - for two dollars each.

This special Wayne Gretzky SP is card #512, technically part of the 1993-94 Pinnacle set:

I did not know this existed until I joined TCDB a few years ago and began cataloging my collection. It irked me that this "chase card" counted toward completion, especially since COMC sellers were asking $20 and up for this Gretzky card. Two bucks to call this 30 year old set complete? Deal!

802 goals? Pfft. Alex Ovechkin has more than that.

But that wasn't the only bargain I snagged from this seller. Twenty years ago Topps released its final hockey card set, and one of the inserts from that flagship release featured eleven Cards That Never Were -- or as Topps called them, "Lost Rookie Cards":

This implies that the featured players never got a proper rookie card the season after making their NHL debut. While Jeremy Roenick does fit this criteria -- he played 20 games during the 1988-89 season and this is the 1989-90 design -- some players in the set do not. Ron Francis, Mario Lemieux, and Joe Sakic are among the players who did have a proper rookie card after their rookie season. These cards ain't lost.

The J.R. I received in the eBay PWE has scratches up and down the front, which is disappointing for sure. But I can't be too mad; COMC sellers ask at least $6-10 for this one. Now all I need is the Brett Hull. Hopefully I'll find that one for $2 or so because I'm not paying $10-15 to finish an 11-card insert set.


Now for the SLUs. I got a nice head start on building a basketball collection when Jon sent me some loose Legends. Lots of centers on my shelf, not enough guards. But which 1980s/'90s era stars can I afford to add?

Michael Jordan? Nope. Despite the overabundance of his piece, there are more than enough MJ collectors to drive up the price (an issue I'll encounter soon re:1988-89 Fleer.)

Reggie Miller? That would be my first choice, but um... it's incredibly expensive. Small market regional releases of players who weren't included in the "all star assortment" are waaaay out of my budget.

I almost bought a Magic Johnson, but then I noticed the figure didn't lay flat and retracted my offer. However, they had another piece that looked much sharper:

This Clyde Drexler fit my budget ($7.00 + shipping) and makes my inner child happy because it's an out-of-market "unpopular" team. Also, it's from the very limited 1990 set. Not limited in the production run neccesarily (although I never saw any of these around) but in the checklist -- just 17 subjects:

My camera is crud so here's the complete list: Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Charles Barkley, Dominique Wilkins, Spud Webb. Drexler, Chris Mullin, John Stockton, Karl Malone, David Robinson, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Byron Scott, and Tom Chambers. That's it.

 

I'm not opening the "Glide" yet but if I do, it will add a much needed non-center to my SLU shelf -- and two new cards to my basketball card box.

The second SLU I got myself for Christmas was a bit more expensive. Probably not opening this, either:

Dan Marino was one of the two dozen NFL stars I had in my collection as a kid - mostly quarterbacks, but a few running backs, receivers, and linebackers when I could find them. I've never had a sealed Marino figure as an adult and settled on the 1989 piece rather than replace the long-lost '88 or '90 figures I once had.


This one cost three times more than the Drexler and it's bent at the bottom, but I'm happy with it.

None of my NFL figures are open. I'm not sure if I'll buy a loose lot this year or continue hoarding sealed pieces. For now I need to buy a paper background for these figures (and maybe a better camera.)

This was kind of a sneaky "SLU Showcase" post; I'll be back to baseball cards this weekend.



Thanks for reading!




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This Is Why

Big mailday today. Six packages arrived in the mail - three from Sportlots, two from TCDB, and one from eBay. 35 cards total. Varying degrees of satisfaction.

Christmas Evening, as in eight days ago, I spent a small fraction of the cash I'd received as gifts and hit up Sportlots for some set fillers. Had to purchase from four different sellers due to postage and inventory. If you're one of those weirdos who collects baseball and hockey cards (there are dozens of us!) you've probably noticed that sellers who have hoards of hockey cards rarely have the baseball/football cards you're looking for, and vice versa. 

And so I placed my order on the 25th, expecting that maybe one or two would ship from Canada, one or two would ship on the 27th or 28th, and at least one seller would be on vacation and wouldn't ship until today.

I got all four orders already. Here they are:

This order was based around two cards that had been oddly difficult to track down. Finally I'd found someone selling this 1993 Donruss Eric Karros Diamond King insert for under three dollars. Tocchet is the last "common" I need for the 1988-89 Topps set - though it cost me 52 cents (the highest of these four cards) and the bottom has both a dirt spot and a rough corner. Karros cost just 37 cents - but it's a little off-center and has a wonky corner. Still, the foursome was just over three dollars shipped.

I needed just two cards (excluding the super rare gold SPs) to complete my (wife's) 1995-96 Playoff One On One hockey set. Sabres32 happened to have them both, but not much else I needed. Perreault was sort of a throw in; 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee is a set I might consider building someday.

Trombley was initially in a bigger order but since I couldn't find a fourth card from Sabres32 I bought it from him/her instead. You know the rule.

Here's a few representatives from that bigger order, a 32-card mailer that nearly completed two sets:

I decided to complete the 20-card Pro Pointers insert set to fill out the extra pockets in my 1995-96 Donruss hockey binder. Irbe was one of the seven base cards in this order from the actual set and completes the run of 1990s Donruss flagship puck. 1994 Ultra is nearly there - I've got less than ten cards to go. Two of the cards have some bricking damage as you can see; the seller did reimburse me for these.

This PWE actually arrived before New Year's. A four-day turnaround beats nearly every TCDB trade. I sought out the Hakeem Topps card because I didn't want to spend 90 cents for it on COMC. However I did end up spending that 90 cents on the last Pro Pointers card I needed after Lindros and Kariya arrived. The Mario Lemieux is en route from COMC (along with 75 other cards) but it will take a lot longer than four days to arrive.


Speaking of slow wait times... I really, really tried to wrap up my TCDB trading in 2023. I even offered an inducement. But, despite pestering the last two traders as if I was at the office, these swaps took > 2 weeks to complete.



I will give saavik a pass on the turnaround time. She's a student, and her profile page indicates shipping will be a little slow. But I removed something from a different offer when she specifically asked for this one and only card. I sent her the Don Larsen insert she requested on the 16th. She sent me this Clayton Kershaw on the 26th:

Scotch-tape and a penny sleeve. It's amazing this card survived without a scratch.

The last trade took nearly four weeks to complete. And it is my last TCDB trade for a reason. I made an offer to Dtd500 on December 8. He countered on the 11th by removing the Olajuwon Topps card you saw above, and substituted it with another PC player. I accepted, and shipped on the 12th. 


Hoping to receive my six-card PWE by Christmas I messaged him on the 18th "Have you shipped my end yet" He said he was busy with the holidays and would ship the next day, on the 19th. 

Sigh... Christmas mail, am I right? So...let's see what we got.

Yes, Blue Prizms are worth the wait. Unfortunately these two were not eligible for my contest. Mihome316 won, btw.


This is why I'm happy to be done dealing on TCDB. People have busy lives and stuff happens. But when you buy something, those mail delays somehow cease. A purchase made a week ago(or less) can arrive at the same time as a trade shipped out three weeks ago.


(It also helps that the holidays are over.)



Thanks for reading!




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