To mix things up, I wanted to try writing something different today.

Since this blog primarily revolves around my own collecting habits, recent pickups and my opinions of this great hobby of ours, I wanted to turn the tables and feature other collectors in this new Collector Showcase written portion of my blog. This will give me the chance to showcase some awesome collections, but also give these great collectors some exposure and (maybe) help them track down some more cards to add to their already impressive collections. 

First up is Naim Cardinal's Ingidenous NHL Rookie Card collection:

After finding out Enroth would get more cards in the KHL Exclusive Collection Part 2, which was released in the fall of 2019, the newly added Vintage inserts intrigued me the most. Most of all because Enroth was in the set, but I was most looking forward to see how SeReal would handle the vintage insert set, and I believe they hit it out of the park with these cards.

​Aside from them being fairly scarce (numbered only to 22 copies) the beige border which dominates most of the card gives it that old school poster vibe, coupling that with the font used for the text and I think it makes for a really sharp card. Also, in regards to text, I've noticed that every SeReal card usually uses both Russian text and English text for the names, as these cards are distributed worldwide to a mass audience, but on these inserts, at least on the from anyway, only Russian text can be seen, further adding to the vintage theme SeReal was going for with these inserts. 

​The photo on the card has a very specific filter to it as well, as it almost looks hand painted in a way which I thought was a nice touch as well when looking at the detail of these cards. Speaking of detail, but cards' finish isn't glossy, but it's rather matte which finishes off the card rather nicely in my opinion. 

I don't normally go in-depth when looking at card finishes or designs on this blog of mine, but I feel like when a company is going for any kind of "vintage" theme on their insert sets, those awesome moments of attention to detail need to be highlighted. 

Well, now that was a fun way to finish off the week with a great card for the collection. 

Happy Collecting, 

- Crease

Just a quick update to the collection tonight. It may not be mighty, but every addition counts, right?

Today I added another base card autograph to the collection. This card comes from the 2018-19 SeReal KHL 11th Season Premium Collection and sits nicely with the other parallels from the SeReal KHL 11th Season Collection. 

I acquired this card from a Russian collector who had a few IP autographs from Enroth and was selling them. I managed to add this to my collection with ease, but the mail was a little slow (took over a month to arrive). Aside from that little hiccup, it arrived today safe and sound. 

Oh, and for those counting, this card is number 473 for the Enroth collection to date.

Until next time,

​- Crease

It's been a little while since I added to my Upper Deck 300 Win Club set. After missing a couple of key auctions on a few cards which bummed me out, luck finally was on my side as I was able to snag the Barrasso stick card recently. 

This Tom Barrasso card was a big piece for the set, as he has a ton of collectors out there which makes this card tricky to grab for the right price. Barrasso notched 369 wins in his impressive NHL career and was awarded a card in this set back in 2015-16 Upper Deckl Series 1. This card features a nice cut of wood from one of his old Heaton (I presume) goalie sticks. 

Another sweet add to my set! This is my 16th card from the 300th Win Club set to date and I'm always looking to add more from my want list! 

​Happy collecting, everyone!

​Will this year be the year of the BuyBack? Apparently so. Let's dive a little deeper into this, shall we?

Late this afternoon I was excited to see another yellow bubble mailer sitting in the mailbox today, as I knew exactly what was inside before I even opened it. Don't you love mail days like those?

These cards might not look like much, but it completes my 2018-19 Upper Deck Synergy Last Line Of Defence green parallel insert set, limited to 199 copies. I'm not primarily a set collector, so making the decision to chase a particular set of cards is a rare thing for me. While I've completed some low-end goalie sets in the past, this is the first paralleled set of goalie cards I've completed so far, which is a new collecting 'milestone' for me. Though this isn't a complete master set for this subset (there are also Midnight Parallels #/25), I am still stoked to put this set to bed. 

I received these two cards from a fellow Hobby Insider forum member, as he broke very large amounts of 18-19 Synergy and gifted these to me free of charge in order for me two finally finish this green parallel set. Love that! 

Until next time, 

​- Crease