Sunday, August 19, 2018

2018 Sportlots purchases: hosers, not posers

The NHL season may still be weeks away but as far as I'm concerned it's never a bad time to pick up PC cards from that sport.  Via Sportlots I hit three of my favorite collections and have a nice bunch of stuff to show off, but since I figure this won't be the most popular post in the series it's gonna be more "show" than "tell".

So let's chill with some icers:
Young WolverWing star and potential future captain Dylan Larkin, who just re-upped with Detroit for five seasons, is my smallest hockey PC for now since a lot of his stuff isn't affordable, but I did land this group of six Upper Deck-branded issues, two from 2016-17 and the rest from 2017-18.  My favorite from the bunch is card #2, a 2016-17 Upper Deck ice base, which you can easily tell from the scan is translucent.  These give me a new Larkin count of 19.
Next, I got five scans' worth of blog favorite C Brendan Morrison.  My main focus here was brands I knew I liked from Pacific, Topps, and Upper Deck.  This bunch from 1998-99 to 2000-01 includes some lookers, especially Black Diamond, Topps Gold Label, and SPx.
More of the same kind of fun here, ranging from 2002-03 to 2006-07.  The Stadium Club cards (including a Silver Decoy parallel) are cool as they include a cameo from fellow Wolverine Mike Comrie.  I'd love to find more cards with multiple Michigan Hockey alumni on them.  Pacific makes a few nice appearances, especially the always fun Invincible, and Ultra also makes the first of a bunch of appearances.
Here we finish up the verticals with a span of 2005-06 to 2010-11 that's 100% Ultra and UD.  Maybe they're nothing exciting but each has a solid basic design from a brand I respect.
The first of two horizontal scans begins with 1998-99 and ends with 2002-03.  The former is repped by a pair of Pacific brands plus SPx Finite, the 100% numbered set.  Pacific, UD, and a Topps Heritage offering with the "TV" design close out the group.
We'll end this group on a 100% UD run from 2002-03 to 2006-07.  That first Upper Deck card could just as easily be a Stadium Club design.  UD's Vintage and SPx bookend a couple more flagship sets for the brand.  In all I jumped Morrison's PC to 82 cards.
And last up is my other original hockey favorite, goalie Marty Turco.  While largely sticking with the same brands as those seen in Morrison's scans, I scared up another five images of new additions.  These open up with a new RC from 2000-01 Topps Stars and then zip all the way through 2004-05.  There's also some nice example of Pacific, Topps, and UD brands in there, including Stadium Club and Invincible!
Here's an all Ultra/UD scan for Turco ranging from 2005-06 to 2009-10.  My favorite is the Flair Showcase card from '06-'07, keeping the Fleer name that was then owned by Upper Deck.  By the way, with the Ultras grouped together like this it's fun to see how consistent they were with the scripting of the last names.
Here the last few verticals were mixed in with the first of the horizontals, the latter of which tend to do goalies more justice with some great photos.  The former include a 2009-10 UD product and two more from 2010-11, plus Certified from the same year.

And then the x-axis cards begin their show with a trio of Pacifics from 2001-02 and '02-'03, including a very cool die-cut Atomic base, then Topps Chrome and the TV set Heritage design from that latter year.  I totally need to get the Refractor version of that Chrome card.
Here a quartet of Upper Deck cards (three flagship and one Vintage) made from 2002-04 bookend a couple great crease photos from 2003-04 Be-a-Player Memorabilia and In the Game Action.  And a lot of great game action is exactly what we get, though what exactly is going on in that first image from UD?
From this point on it's all Upper Deck and cards made between 2005-06 and 2007-08.  The first one you see is from a product called Power Play while the third and fifth are from the ever shiny SPx.  Meanwhile, three flagship cards run along the right column, and they hail from consecutive years, which is pretty cool.

Even more so than for Morrison this purchase was productive when it came to my Turco collection which finally broke through the century mark milestone to a lofty total of 112.  Too many Turcos?  Nope!

Stay tuned for three more football posts done up by position groups, hopefully before the season starts!

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