Trip to the Sportscard Fall Expo

11/15/09

Today, I took a trip up north to the 2009 Sportscard and Memorabilia Fall Expo in Mississauga, Ontario. It was a last minute decision, but I'm glad I went. This was my first time to the Expo and the drive up from Buffalo wasn't bad.

My buddy and I walked from vendor to vendor checking out all of the amazing merchandise and it wasn't long before I came across a guy selling a Tyler Myers UD Exclusives Young Guns. One of my goals for the show was to pick up a few of Tyler's rookie cards and thought this would be the perfect start to my new personal collection.















We continued on our way and I soon came across a vendor selling base singles. I needed one card to complete both my 08-09 Champs Minis (Malkin) and Trilogy (Zetterberg) base sets. The vendor had both of these and I was also to pick up a majority of the 09-10 Artifacts base I needed.

My friend found a vendor selling a Jhonas Enroth UD Black Letterman Auto. He purchased the card. He had a number of the Letterman redemptions available, but unfortunately no Tyler Myers. He did; however, have a Gilbert Perreault Quad Jersey Auto that I was more than happy to take off his hands.











We soon made our way over to the Upper Deck booth and ran into the guys (Geoff, "Pokerstars," Brad and his girlfriend) from CloutsnChara (http://www.cloutsnchara.com). We said hello and I gave Brad the Artifacts Colorado redemption from our trade. The guys were in line to bust some UD Series 1 and then were heading over to the ITG booth to bust some ITG Ultimate 9th Edition. We walked around for a little bit more, saw some amazing cards and picked up a couple more Sabres PC cards. I found a vendor selling the regular Tyler Myers and Jhonas Enroth Young Guns and picked both up for a fair price. This vendor also had a Tyler Myers Young Guns High Gloss #6/10. I inquired about the price and he was asking for $100. I decided to give it some thought. We then headed to the ITG booth for the guys Ultimate break.
















The guys busted a couple loose packs for some members on the site and got some crazy redemptions from ITG. They then busted a case and let me sit in to bust one of the packs. This ended up being pretty comical as this was the first time I was busting anything real high end. I found my hands shaking pretty bad and was so nervous I tried opening the pack with the wrong side of the blade. I eventually pulled it together and pulled a pretty nice Mario Lemieux card. The guys busted another couple boxes and then they took us out for Pizza!

After some pretty good Hawaiin pizza, we made our way back to the ITG booth for the guys to bust another case of Ultimate. They let me bust another pack and I wasn't as nervous this time. Geoff tried to convince me to pick up a box, but I decided against it as I have a honeymoon to Ireland to save up for in the near future. However, Geoff did a good job of selling how great of a deal it was to get the free redemptions from ITG. So I went to the ATM and picked up a pack. My buddy also picked up a box of 2002-2003 UD Mask Collection (he pulled a Gerry Cheevers autographed mask, SICK PULL!!!). Anyways, I went back to the ITG booth where Geoff and Brad had just got done pulling another couple of sick 1/1's. I only hoped to have such luck. I sat down and started to break feeling the nervousness come over me once again.

1st card...Cam Neely Ultimate Base Card Silver (09/90). Not a bad start.










2nd card...Paul Henderson, Vladislav Tretiak Ultimate Dual Autograph Silver (06/09). I was pretty happy pulling a dual auto #/9, especially one including Vladislav Tretiak. I will admit that, at the time, I had no idea who Paul Henderson was, but I have since learned that he scored the game winning goal for Canada in games 6, 7 & 8 of the Summit Series (Color me impressed!).










3rd card...Ilya Kovalchuk From Russia With Love Silver (20/24). Looks like this was a Russian pack.














All in all, I was happy with the break and may consider breaking more in the future. Now it was on to the redemption. I was very excited to see the following...














Gordie Howe Ultimate Redemption Card Black (14/19). This is a piece of Gordie Howe New England Whalers Jersey. There is a very thick seam going through the middle and is a beauty of a card.

After the break, it was time to jet home as I had a hockey game in two short hours. All in all I think it was a successful day. I picked up some of my first Tyler Myers PC items, finished off a couple of lingering 08-09 base sets, met and hung out with the guys from CloutsnChara and took my first steps towards high end breaks. Next time though I am going to do a little more planning and saving. Thanks as always for the look!

09-10 Artifacts Hockey 3 Box Break and Product Review

Last weekend, I busted three boxes of 2009-2010 UD Artifacts Hockey. Artifacts was a highly anticipated product for me this year. I just got back into the hobby last season and 08-09 Artifacts was one of the first products I busted. Despite hitting an amazing dual patch of Vincent Lecavalier and Paul Ranger in my only box, I found myself passing over Artifacts for other products. However, my feelings towards Artifacts began to change after hanging out on the Clouts'n'Chara website (http://www.cloutsnchara.com/). I started to see the value in each box, which averages a "hit" per pack and regularly produces patch cards.

Prior to my three box break, I purchased a spot in CnC's 09-10 Artifacts group case break. I drew St. Louis and thought I wouldn't have much success, but ended up with a Paul Kariya patch card numbered /5. I have not yet received this and my other hits in the mail, but will post once I do.

Now, onto the break. In general, I was very happy with the break for a number of reasons. I hit a patch card in each box, one was a Sabres personal collection (PC) "hit". One of the boxes was an autograph hot box (3 autos instead of the typical 1). I hit some of the more recognizable rookies including Artem Anisimov, Riku Helenius and Luca Caputi. Finally, all of my memorabilia cards had a print run of /100 or less. All in all I felt it was a great break and definitely see myself picking more up in the future.

Before I get into showing some of the nicer hits, I want to run down some statistics from the break. Keep in mind I purchased three boxes.

Box - 10 packs, 4 cards per pack

Price per Box - $80 USD (purchased at The Card Store in Cheektowaga, NY)

Base Set (100) - 58/100 (58%) 29 duplicates as well

Artifacts Legends (35) - 5/35 (14%)

Artifacts Stars (15) - 2/15 (13%)

Artifacts Rookies (50) - 7/50 (14%)

Rookie Redemptions (42 - 1 per box) - 3/42 (7%)

Parallels (Avg. 1 per box) - 1 base parallel (/50), 1 rookie parallel (/25), 1 legend parallel (/75)Autofacts (97 - Avg. 1 per box, except "hot" boxes which average 3 per box) - 5/97 (5%)

Game-Used Memorabilia (Avg. 3 per box, including one multi-player card per box) - See below for scans of memorabilia cards.

I will now do a quick run down of each box. Most everything is for trade or sale. If you see something you like, you can contact me on the CnC website. My username is: southbuffalo39. Also, all "hits" from the break and my other traders can be found in my photobucket found here (http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u234/southbuffalo39/).

Box 1

Parallel - Sam Gagner Base (46/50)

Legend- Steve Yzerman

Star - Patrick Kane

Rookies - Mikael Backlund, Brandon Segal

Rookie Redemption - Ottawa

Autofacts - Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Michael Peca, Drew Doughty

Game-Used -

Phil Esposito Frozen Artifacts Jersey (06/25)

Jonathan Toews Treasured Swatches Jersey (25/25)

Ray Bourque Frozen Artifacts Jersey/Patch (08/35)

Box 2

Parallel - Rookie Alexander Sulzer (24/25)

Legend - Alex Delvecchio

Star - Henrik Lundqvist

Rookies - Riku Helenius, Artem Anisimov

Rookie Redemption - Ottawa

Autofacts - Derek Sanderson

Game Used -

Curtis Joseph Frozen Artifacts Jersey (26/50)

Sam Gagner/Patrick O'Sullivan Tundra Tandems Jerseys (060/100)

Jason Pominville Treasured Swatches Jersey/Patch (15/25)

Box 3

Parallel - Legend Peter Stastny (74/75)

Legends - Clark Gillies, Lanny McDonald

Rookies - Luca Caputi, Michael Sauer

Rookie Redemption - Colorado

Autofacts - Doug Weight

Game Used -

Nicklas Backstrom Treasured Swatches Jersey (49/50)

Nicklas Lidstrom/Pavel Datsyuk Tundra Tandems (37/50)

Al Macinnis Frozen Artifacts Jersey/Patch (24/35)

In Conclusion - All in all I was very happy with the product and the break. As noted, I think there is great value in Artifacts which affords the collector a good opportunity to hit patch cards, autos and some good parallels. As a Sabres collector, I know there are a ton of cards and parallels to chase. I have heard of some quality control issues with the memorabilia cards in Artifacts. My only issue was on the Derek Sanderson Auto, which had an imprint at the bottom. Based on what I've seen of the product and my breaks, I would give this product an 8/10. Thanks as always for the look! UD Black recently came out and UD Series 1 is coming out this week. I have never busted a box of either, but am thinking about it and will be sure to post results and reviews of these and all of the 09-10 Hockey products I bust this season.