This year is quickly shaping up to be one of my best for this collection. Not in terms of quantity, but the quality of additions is up there for sure. 

Another white whale was finally located today with the addition of the 2010-11 Between The Pipes Masked Men Gold version/10. I have only seen one copy surface, and you're looking at it. I have the Final Vault silver stamped variation /5, but I have been on the lookout for a copy of the original pack-inserted Gold version for almost nine years now. Crazy to think of the time that has passed. 

I even mentioned this Masked Men Gold card as one of my white whales in my featured Beckett article this past fall. Safe to say I was beyond stoked to cross this card off the list!!

I acquired this from a collector who offered me this exact same card in the past a few short years ago. They only wanted to trade for this card and would not sell, so a deal couldn't be made. To my surprise, after I sent him a few follow-up PM's about the card, this collector had then told me they had went ahead and sold the card anyway at a show at one point (???). To my disappointment, that's the way it goes sometimes and I had to stop the pursuit.

​As a weird twist of fate, the exact same collector reached out to me last week through this website's Contact Page (knowing or unknowingly that I was the same Enroth collector they dealt with in the past) once again telling me they had this card in their possession. I was pleased to see that this collector still had this card, even when they had told me in the past the card was eventually sold, but even after all this time they still wanted to trade for it only.

Strange, but it is what it is.
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After looking at what they collected, which was mainly mask cards, I was able to buy a ITG Final Vault Gold Stamped 1/1 mask card online in order to make a one-for-one trade for the Enroth Masked Men Gold card. Even though I had to buy a card I didn't need, I was happy it was finally enough to secure the Enroth. This card was finally coming home! I received the card today and it was well worth the wait all these years. 

Sometimes patience pays off. It definitely did with this mail day today. Huge thanks to Rob for allowing me to finally add this card into my Enroth collection. Glad we could work out a nice little trade!

Note: Included in this deal was a 2009-10 Enroth Young Guns rookie card as a nice little extra, so with these two Enroth cards added today, my total for this collection now stands at a whopping 490 cards. Just 10 away from 500!!

Happy Collecting. 

- Crease

Another sweet addition to the collection today with this 17-18 KHL Exclusive Collection Stick & Jersey 1/3. This card marks my 10th jersey numbered card, but more importantly, the 488th card in my Enroth collection. 

While this card is originally from 2017-18, it was released in the 2nd installment of SeReal's KHL Exclusive collection product, 2018-19 KHL Exclusive Collection - Part 2 as an added chase card. 

Two of the Three cards in this print run were pulled right away from Group Breaks and went straight into Dinamo Minsk collectors, so while I thought all hope was lost, I was luckily able to have a collector from Minsk, Belarus offer this one up to me. Knowing this would probably be the last time I would see one availible, I couldn't let it slip away.

This card finally completes the 3-card KHL Exclusive Collection memorabilia rainbow: Stick /5, Jersey /5, Stick & Jersey /3.

Today I received two very cool items for my Jhonas Enroth collection today. 

The first one is card related, as I managed to snag the Dinamo Minsk New Year's Exclusive Team Issued card for the collection. For those who are unfamiliar with the other two New Year's cards in this collection, these rare cards were only availible to season ticket holders, so while many were probably issued, they are very hard to track down. A collector in Belarus, Minsk was kind enough to send me this year's 2019-20 New Year's Exclsuive card free of charge, which is beyond awesome. I love it when hobby generosity is given or received; it just goes to show you that this hobby is full of wonderful people. 

The next item I wasn't expecting to add, but it was what the Dinamo Minsk New Year's card was wrapped in when packaged in the envelope. Now I'm not certain exactly what this is or where it came from (I assume the arena), but it looks like a pre-game lineup card for a game between Dinamo Minsk and Admiral Vladivostok. Jhonas Enroth's name is a top the list on the left-hand side, written in russian text, which looks like ​Юнас ЭНРОТ. An odd but cool item for the collection no doubt!

Until next time, my fellow collectors!

​- Crease