Posts Tagged ‘Buffalo Sabres’

We all know Panini is a terrible company, right? If you did NOT know that, let me give you the latest example that illustrates why they care little about collectors.

Their 2010-11 Donruss hockey product had an insert called Tough Times which celebrated the tough guys of the NHL. This particular set focused on guys from the 80s and included players like Jay Miller, Lyndon Byers, Joey Kocur and some others. They also made an on-card signed version of each card numbered to 250. As is the case nowadays, there were redemptions for a handful of the players. Being a collect of all things hockey fights, I naturally wanted to build both versions of the set. I picked up four of the redemption cards: Lyndon Byers, Joey Kocur, Torrie Robertson, and Dave Brown. I received the Byers and Kocur cards eventually, although it did take awhile. The Robertson and Brown say in my account, unfilled, first for 6 months, then a year, then over a year…until late last week.

In my mailbox were two bubble mailers from Panani, each with one of my Tough Time redemptions, only they were of Robertson or Brown. Instead, they were these:

Wait, what? These guys were not even in the set!

So apparently Panini could not get signed cards of Dave Brown or Torrie Robertson, so instead of replacing them with some other signed cards, they created new cards to fill in. I don’t think I have ever heard of this before, have any of you? There are, to my knowledge, no unsigned versions of these cards, so they only exist in signed form. So now there are two Tough Times sets with different players.

This isn’t even what I want to complain about. I’d more than happy to receive hard signed cards of two enforcers instead of some junk cards as replacements. I have two problems with these cards:

1. Gord Donnelly is a fitting replacement for Torrie Robertson. However, Donnelly never played for the Dallas Stars in the 80s; he was a Nordique and a Jet during that time and only played for the Stars during the 94-95 season.

2. The serial number for the other Tough Times autographs are at the bottom of the back of the card, in that little brownish box, not at the top.

I’ve said it once, but I’ll say it again: Panini overlooks the details SO MANY TIMES that its gotten to the point of comical. How hard would have it been to use a picture of Donnelly in a Nords or Jets jersey? And most importantly, WHY COULDN’T YOU PUT THE SERIAL NUMBER WHERE IT IS SUPPOSE TO GO?! HOW HARD IS THIS?

Seriously, someone should be fired for this. Collectors are picky; they like consistency in their sets, so why toss the serial number is some weird place when the other cards all have them in the same spot?

Time and time again, Panini overlooks the details and then their cards look like utter garbage because of it. Panini, you just need to GO AWAY AND NEVER COME BACK! Go back to Europe and produce soccer cards and use all the foil and sticker autos you want. Stop pretending like you give a damn about collectors and leave. Seriously, leave!

In related news, I picked this up at my LCS…

Ehhhh, what are you gonna do?

I also picked this up…

Only the finest in German engineering. The Bruins staved off elimination today in overtime and head back to Boston for Game 7 on Wednesday. I may have to throw up a mega PJ-JO post to bring the B’s a win.

In other card news, I bought a handful of packs of Topps’ 2012 Gypsy Queen because I’m an idiot and a sucker. I hadn’t read a lot on this product for this year, so I went in sort of blind.

I bought five packs in all and here is a quick run down of what I got.

The cards are thick stock and the painted effect looks real nice. There are plenty of old timers mixed in with current players. There are also SP variations of some cards; I think the Schmidt is one of them. The backs look old timey and give a brief write-up.

There is a mini in each pack and as you can see, there are parallels. The Latos is a sepia parallel numbered to 99 and there are also Straight Cut and Gypsy Queen back variations. Yeah yeah yeah.

This is a sort of interesting insert set; dudes sliding.

There is also this insert set, Moonshots. This was probably my favorite card of them all because I was, and am, an Albert Belle fan. I need to see if there is a Belle auto in this set…

Speaking of which, I did pull two hits, if you want to really call them that.

Um, okay.

Overall, it’s a nice looking product and it really makes me wish Topps could make hockey cards again. If anyone wants any of these or any of the other base cards I got, let me know; they’re yours.

Lastly, voting closed for right wingers and no one made it into my HOF. Mike Gartner got the most votes with 12 (48%) but was well short of the 60% needed. Don’t forget to vote for defencemen and goalies.

Time to present the last batch of potential Hall of Famers: the goalies! Before I give you the candidates, let me say that voting for the left wingers is now closed. No one got the required 60%, so no one gets in. The closest to making it was Michel Goulet with 52%. Sorry Michel, no Hall for you. Don’t forget to cast your vote(s) for right wingers and defencemen.

Now, the (not always) masked men…

Okay, enough about the Hockey Hall of Fame and all that jazz; let’s rip a pack of 90s era junk!

I’ve done a card-by-card rip of some 90s junk before. First there were two packs of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee (pt. 1/pt. 2). After that were two packs of 1990-91 Upper Deck, their inaugural year in hockey (pt. 1/pt. 2). Then there was 1994-95 Pinnacle (pt. 1/pt. 2)Now we return with 1991-92 Upper Deck Series 1.

The 91-92 set consists of 700 cards, released in two series. Series 1 had 500 cards while Series 2 had 200 cards; there was also a French version. There were a few different inserts and subsets including  the Award Winner Holograms, IIHF World Junior Championship players, and Canada Cup participants. There are also a ton of rookies including future Hall of Famers Dominik Hasek, Peter Forsberg, Nicklas Lindstrom, and Teemu Selanne. Other rookies include Glen Murray, Nikolai Khabibulin, Alexei Kovalev, Keith Tkachuk, and Doug Weight. The big chase/insert is the Brett Hull Heroes subset. This was a nine-card subset, but the crown jewel was the autographed checklist card, limited to 2,500 hand numbered copies. Did I get one? We’ll see…

Awwwww yeah! First card is of enforcer Enrico Ciccone! My hopes are high for this pack. While not exactly a tough sounding name, Enrico could throw ‘em. One thing I like about this set is that Upper Deck used two different photos for the front and back. And not just a little photo on the back, but a nearly full sized photo. I wish this was more commonplace today. Ah well.

This is one of the cards from the Canada Cup subset. Janne had a brief NHL career including three separate stints with the Devils (two regular season and one playoff series). Nearly his entire career (20 years!) were spent playing in Finland, where he won a bunch of different awards.

Not much on Glynn other than he was part of the deal with Brendan Shanahan that brought Paul Coffey and Keith Primeau to Hartford. Is that the Blues logo on the puck?!

A number one draft pick and 500+ goal scorer? Nice! Did you know that he played for Canada’s Little League team in the Little League World Series in 1982?

According to legendsofhockey.net, “prior to his injury [Bureau] was considered in the upper echelon of defensive centres in the NHL.” Wait, what?! Really?! Also, is that Hasek flopping around on the front? I’m calling this an unofficial Hasek rookie and listing it on eBay with a BIN of $7.99.

HELMETLESS-JO! We all know Craig was the last NHLer to go lidless, but did you know he has four Stanley Cups under his belt? You probably did, actually. What I didn’t know was that he actually started his career with the Bruins. Huh.

Oh Glen Wesley…

Best. Card. Ever.

Bruins hot pack! Galley was a pretty solid blueliner throughout his career, even putting up 70 points in a season. Whoa!

Plavsic and I have something in common: we both spent a year at UNH, him playing for the Wildcats and me basically failing out. Anyways, I love the back of this card. Will you accept a collect call from “HEYMOMTHISISADRIENANDIJUSTWONAMEDAL”. I’m not sure what medal he is sporting here, but Adrien was a member of Team Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics who won the silver.

Interesting shot on the front as Volek battles an unidentified Penguin. Interesting because during the next season, Volek would score an OT winner in Game 7 of the second round matchup versus Pittsburgh, preventing them from winning three straight Stanley Cups.

Before there was Zdeno Chara there was Zdeno Ciger. He recorded a 31 goal season in 95-96 and then left the NHL for six seasons before returning for one last skate for the Rangers and Lightning.

Is it too late to fill this out and send it in.

There ya go, a pack of junk from the junk era. Stay tuned for part 2.