The Wasteland's 2009 Card of the Year

I acquired a lot of cards this year. I bought a lot (too many considering I was unemployed for six months), and picked up a bunch through trades. Out of all of these I have found one card that stands above all others. One card that makes all other cards gleam a little less.

Oddly enough, and unlike last year's winner, this card was not a 2009 release. I didn't pull it from a pack or out of a little, yellow, padded envelope in the mail. Nor did it come from a card show or eBay.

It came from the most American of market places - the flea market. To be specific Oldsmar Flea Market (The Mightest in the South!)The dealer we got it from isn't even around anymore, or at least he hasn't been there the last couple of times I've gone.

He had just a single case of cards on an old, beat up, folding table. There were about 15 cards in the case and all of them were either higher end relic cards or autograph cards. There were two or three Jason Bartlet auto's, something I considered but didn't feel like dropping money on.

After talking with the guy for about 5 minutes I realized that he didn't really know too much about cards. His prices seemed a little low for the quality of cards that he had, so I'm not sure where he got them from, not did I really care.

I finally spotted a card that I was interested in and asked him how much. He said $15.00, I countered with $9.00.

He accepted and this beauty below was mine.



A 2007 UD Black Quad Jersey-Auto Precious Materials Auto card numbered 45/50. The swatches are all white and as usual Carl's autograph leaves a lot to be desired but to me it's quite a fantastic card and the new centerpiece of my Crawford collection.

If the Olympics are Half as Good, We're in for a Wild Ride

I'm not sure how many of you out there are sitting at home on this New Year's Eve like I am. Those of you that are probably aren't watching hockey, and those of you who are watching hockey probably aren't watching the World Juniors match between Canada and USA. If you're not you are missing some fantastic hockey.

The skaters on the ice aren't old enough to drink (at least in the US). Few of the names are recognizable to the average hockey fan. Some may never make it to the NHL. Yet the action on the ice rivaled anything played in a major league arena this year.

Canada stormed back from a 4-2 deficit to tie it in the third period on a short handed goal. They had the go ahead goal disallowed on a referee's questionable whistle. The five minute overtime was back and forth and saw an incredible save by US goaltender Jake Campbell as he channeled his inner Hasek to stop a shot by Jordan Eberle

Heck there were even Mounties in full uniform!

Canada ended up winning the game in a shootout and will move on to the semi-finals. The skater who scored the decisive goal was the LA Kings 6th round draft pick Branden Kozun. What makes him special? Well he had dual citizenship and had a choice as to which team to play for - the US or Canada. I believe Canadian fans think he made the right choice.

Everyone who saw the game is also a winner. If this game represents the future of hockey, then I would say the game is in safe hands.

2009 - How Did I do as a Collector?

As I celebrate the close of 2009 on the couch (a couch that we didn’t own at the beginning of 2009) I recall that at the beginning of the year I laid out a three prong approach to my collecting strategy for 2009. So let’s take a look and see how I did.

1. No Blasters - Well that one failed mightily. As a matter of fact I just finished busting a blaster of Heritage High Numbers. I did cut down on the number of blasters I bought, which left me more money to spend on-line for boxes.

I found out that Target is way to close for me to resist the siren song of immediate card purchasing. Since all of the loose packs are well rifled through the only option left was the row upon row of blasters. So I delved into them on occasion, and didn’t pull anything special out of them. Was it a waste of money? Perhaps, but it was still fun to rip them open.

2. Pick one or the other - Topps or Upper Deck - I was successful on this one. I chose Topps because I liked the design better and wasn’t disappointed. The base set was filled with great photography and interesting inserts. The short print cards of veterans were nice to chase (even if I haven’t gotten around to getting any of the O’s). I did pick up a few packs of Upper Deck Series One late in the year as a free throw in from Dave and Adam, but they just confirmed that I made the right decision.

3. Limit what I buy and stick to it - I did alright on this one. As I already mentioned I didn’t buy any Upper Deck Base. I also skipped Obak, UD Idols, UD X and Topps Unique. After buying a box of Allen & Ginter I realized that I didn’t really care for this years release and have started giving away as many as I can. So if you need some shoot me an email!

This definitely kept the collection down, all of my baseball purchases fit in one box which is nice. Of course, it limits what I can trade to people looking to complete sets, but I’ve managed to work around that so far.

A bonus idea was to give away 5,000 cards. I don’t think I got quite to that level, but I believe I gave away at least 2,500. This year I’m really going to focus on culling the collection, especially older hockey and all of football.

Next up - what I’m going to do next year. Big changes coming!

For Your Christmas Eve Reading Pleasure - An Upper Deck MVP Break

Before I pack my bags and head up to Pensacola for Christmas I figured I'd leave my readers (Hi Mom and Dad!) with one last product review. As an early Christmas present to myself I picked up a box of 2009-10 Upper Deck MVP from Blowout Cards. They had the best price that I could find on the intrawebs and right now they are running some nice year end specials so go check them out (look to the right of the blog for a very convenient link).

Back to the cards. Why MVP? Two reasons my merry readers. The first, and most important, is the price point. Less than $40 will get you 24 packs with 8 cards per pack. You will also get a relic card and usually an insert per every other pack.

Reason number two - on average, every other pack will include a rookie. Odds-wise MVP is usually the best shot you have of landing the big name rookies for an affordable price. True to form my box landed me 12 rookies.

Without further delay let us dive right into what was in my box. We're starting off with those rookies.





Victor Hedman! It's my first card of the Big Swede who's manning the blue line for the Lightning. So far he's seemed to have made the adjustment rather well, although occasionally he does struggle with the speed of the game.

Jonas Gustavsson, The Monster. It appears he's on his way to being the Leafs number one goalie.

Ryan O'Reilly. Along with Matt Duschene he's part of the young blood that's bringing the Avalanche back into contention in the west.

Other rookies were Yannick Wever (Montreal), Grant Lewis (Atlanta), John Negrin (Calgary), David Van Der Gulik (Calgary), Byron Bitz (Boston), Joel Rechlicz (New York Islanders), Alec Martinez (Los Angeles), Erik Karlsson (Ottawa), Ilkka Pikkarainen (New Jersey)

Next up let's see what Lightning cards I acquired along with the Hedman.



If you thought that Vincent Lecavalier would be among these cards then you haven't been reading this blog very long. Another box bought without landing the Lightning captain. Unlike the 2009-10 Series One break I had, he didn't even make a cameo appearance on any other cards.

It was nice to pick up my first Steve Downie in a Lightning uniform card. He's managed to garner a lot of bad press for someone who's only 22 years old, but he seems to have settled down a bit and is one of the more exciting players to watch on the Bolts (and new personal favorite of Wasteland friend Big Mike).

Now we move to the numbered parallels that I got. This year they break down to:

Gold Script # to 100
Rookie Gold Script # to 100
Super Script # to 25
Rookie Super Script # to 25




No super scripts for this guy, but the rookie gold script is numbered 100/100 which is kind of cool.


Your basic inserts - Hart Winners and Hart Candidates. You see the Hart Memorial Trophy is awarded to the leagues "most valuable player" and this is Upper Deck MVP. See what they did there? Huh? Pretty crafty Upper Deck!




A Sidney Crosby Hart Winner. It's always nice to have an insert of the league's poster boy, especially with his awesome teenage mustache.

The MVP Candidates look to be Upper Deck's idea of the best player per team.


And finally the big hit of the box - a Two on Two 4 Jersey Swatch!




On the front Owen Nolan (yes he's still in the league) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard show off their Christmas spirit with a red and green swatch. How nice.



Only white pieces from Olli Jokinen's mesmerizing eyes. Look into them and be haunted! Jerome Iginla rounds out the foursome. A familiar face to Lightning fans. There aren't many fights in the Stanley Cup Finals, let alone between the team's top offensive players so it was a bit of a shock when he dropped the gloves against Vincent.


Breakdown:

Total inserts: 10
Rookies: 12 (13 if you include the Backlund Gold Script)
Duplicates: 1
Base Completion (not counting rookies): 166/200

Final Thoughts:

Overall I really liked this box break. It's not designed for the big hit seekers, but if you're into team collecting and rookie cards definitely give it a whirl.

I'll probably buy another box just for fun to see if I can complete the set and maybe pick up a Tavares Rookie.

Final grade - Rookie Defenseman*


All cards pictured (except for Hedman and Gustavsson) are available for trade. The rookies that I listed but didn't include in the photo are also available.

*A needless reminder that the Wasteland Grading system means absolutely nothing and should have no bearing on if you buy this product or not

No Problems With This Trade

My trading has slowed down a bit over the past weeks. The holidays have intervened as has the job. After staring at a computer for eight hours the last thing I want to do is stare at my card collection and figure out what I have that other people want.

That being said, I've had one trade offer that I've been putting off for some time, mostly because I was too lazy to check out that person's list of cards needed to see what I had. Luckily for them they posted a card that I really kind of wanted so I knew I had to get off my ass and put an offer together.

The cards I had sitting unloved in a pile on a dresser in the kitchen (remodling a home office had caused some major rearranging) were 30-some Yankee Stadium Legacy cards that I've picked up from various packs and boxes over the last couple of years.

I knew Marie over at A Cardboard Problem was attempting the audicious task of putting the entire set together. I went through her list of needs and was able to put together about 20 cards that it looked like she needed. I wrapped them up and shipped them out and waited for one card in return.

A couple of days ago my mail slot had a nice, little, yellow-padded envelops sitting among the bills and Christmas cards. Inside was this little gem -




My first Adam Jones Relic card. The Gold Glover had a pretty nice second season with the O's and looks to be a cornerstone for the rebuilding team.

It's nice when a trade accomplishes two goals:

1. Acquire a card I want or need
2. Get rid of cards I have no use for, but others do

So a big Thank You to Marie!

Farewell, Goodbye, and Na Shledanou Mr. Krajicek

I’m not going to lie, I’m a little bummed out. Yeah the Lightning won and yeah Vincent has 5 points in his last 3 games, but I’m still not feeling all that chipper. What’s got me down, might you ask? Well, it’s simple. I have to find a new scapegoat for the Lightning.

As of last week Lukas Krajicek is no longer a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was sent down to Norfolk last week (just in time for the Blizzard of 2009!) and according to GM Brian Lawton he “won’t be on re-entry waivers under any circumstances”.

The dismissal seems mostly performance based, Coach Tocchet said he was “at the scene of the crime” too many times. The crime apparently being turnovers or overall less than stellar play. It will be interesting to see who is going to replace his 17:31 of ice time. The masses are begging for The Savior (Matt Smaby), the 25 year-old, 240lb defenseman who’s been raring to get in the lineup since the season started.

I have to believe money also plays a part in his dismissal. The Lightning will have to pay his whole salary since he has a one way deal, but it looks like they aren’t interested in placing him on re-entry waivers because they would be on the hook for half of his salary if a team claims him.

The Times mentioned that there was some interest from other teams, but they wanted to trade an “asset” to the Lightning. That means another player, which would mean salary for the Bolts. So if the Czech defenseman is moved it will likely be for a draft pick.

So after 23 games, 17 shots, -4 and 1 assist I have no one to pick one when the Lightning lose a game. I guess I’ll have to take a look at the roster and choose a new person to blame. At first glance the candidates are: David Hale, Matt Walker, Stephane Veilleux or Alex Tanguay.

I think I’ll have a candidate selected by the time the new year rolls around. I want to give them another week and a half to show why they deserve the wrath of The Wasteland.

Overall, despite the long losing streak the Lightning have been playing a little bit better. They’ve been killing penalties, scoring on the power play and winning face-offs. Vincent might be waking up, since the benching of Tanguay and Jeff Halpern the Lightning captain has been playing inspired hockey.

In those three games he has 2 goals and 3 assists, he has launched 12 shots at the net and won the majority of his face-offs. He’s back checking in the defensive zone and skating harder. He’s seemed to regained a bit of the edge that he used to play with and I wouldn’t be surprised if he picks up a fighting major sometime in the next couple of games.

I’ll wrap up by saying good day to Mr. Krajicek. Please spread your wealth while you’re in Norfolk. Your $1.4 million salary will by a lot of cheeseburgers for your teammates. I’ll miss your soft checks and the wonderful sight of you flipping the puck out to center. I honestly believe if you had been given an entire year you would have eventually hit the scoreboard.

That's Right, I Saved Orlando Jai Alai

Let's check the timeline.

Saturday - Orlando Jai Alai celebrates the closing of the building with a fantastic Citrus Invitational.

Monday - I start writing a post about jai alai.

Tuesday - I post the column.

Wednesday - News stations announce that a mysterious person has an agreement in place to become the new owner and jai alai will resume in February.

It's quite clear my blog is the catalyst for everything.

That, my fellow readers, is a prime example of a logical fallacy. It really is the only thing I remember from Psychology 101 in college. At least I remembered something.

The real story is that this unknown person with "deep pockets" was impressed with the play over the weekend and announced his intentions to buy the building over the weekend. The employees were told Monday that they would not be losing their job at the end of the month. I had seen rumors pop up on a couple of jai alai message boards while I was writing my column, but nothing official was confirmed.

The good news is that Orlando Jai Alai will be around for at least another season. The as yet to be named buyer is planning on the fronton being able to secure card games (i.e. poker) which most experts see as key to the survival of the building.

The fact that poker games aren't allowed in Seminole County (which is where the building is located) is kind of a minor hurdle that has to be cleared. The fact that neither the fronton in the past or the Sanford Orlando Kennel Club have been able to get past this minor problem is a bit of a concern that can be debated at a later time.

For now, let's celebrate the fact that someone saw something in the play this weekend that inspired him to plunk down some money and save something. Officials are hoping the deal is finished by January 1st so that the eight week season can begin in February.

Securing card games will be very important to the survival of the sport in Orlando, that's not a disputable point. There has to be a reason to bring people in the building and right now poker and blackjack, along with slot games, bring people in to gamble.

Even I game to be a fan of jai alai in a roundabout way. I didn't set foot in Tampa Jai Alai to watch the "merry festival". I was there because they were showing a boxing match that we couldn't get in our dorm room. I want to say it was a Julio Cesar Chavez fight, but my memory fails me right now (damn college drinking!).

Getting people in the door is the first step, once they're in the play of the game has to bring them back. That means the talant level has to be there. Orlando trails Dania and Miami when it comes to the overall level of it's play. Let's face it,when Gino is one of your tournament backcourters you need to step it up.

So challenge number one for the new owner will be working out an agreement to bring better players either from Europe or the other frontons in the state. He would also need to develop local talant as well. The players on the court are closer to 40 or even 50 then they are to 25. Younger, more exciting players would strenghten the play and keep more fans.

Challange number two would be marketing the sport correctly. That means facebook, twitter, you tube videos, a better web site, etc., etc. Find local or national advisors to place advertisements on the wall or padding. Improve the on-site restaurant so that it's worth a dinner out. Find a presence on the local college campuses. UCF isn't that far away and it's one of the larger colleges in the nation. God knows college kids like the hipster, throwback to the '50 & '60s act now more than ever. Appeal to that trend.

This post dragged on a little longer than I expexted. I inteneded to just post the "I saved jai alai" joke and then move on, and now I've delved into marketing plans.

So I'll leave you with this. If you find yourself in the Orlando area in February, take a night and head over to Castleberry (about 20 minutes from Disney) and give jai alai a chance.