What the hell is John McEnroe doing anyways?

I don't hate redemptions. At least not like I hate Mondays and Nazis, but really the world would be a much better place without them.  

See this card I should be holding this card right now, but....

A few days ago I got the usual email I've come to expect from Topps:

Dear Consumer. 

This email is to inform you that the Topps Company is currently beyond the 15 week processing time allocated for the following redemption card:

PIN #: Product: Card/Player Name

AGB19KZUCA Topps Allen & Ginter John McEnroe - Framed Autograph

Our staff is working diligently to process and ship your redemption card as soon as possible. Please continue to check your Online Redemption account for updates regarding the status of your card. 

If you no longer wish to wait for the redemption card, please contact our Consumer Relations team in order to place a substitution request for a card of equal Beckett value. 

Do not hesitate to contact our Consumer Relations department via phone at 1-800-489-9149 or via email at support@etopps.com for assistance. A consumer relations representative will be available to assist you Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30 pm (ET).

Sincerely, 

Consumer Relations

The Topps Company, Inc.

I knew it was coming.  I don't think I've had a Topps redemption ever make it to me on time. It's the only redemption I've redeemed in the last year and  I was super excited when I pulled the card.  Ginter was really good to me this year.  But it begs the question, what the hell is McEnroe doing that he can't sign his damn cards?  And more importantly if he doesn't sign what are they going to send me in replacement?  I shudder to think.  I mean I would gladly take a Jake LaMotta, but I could do with out a Guy Fieri.  

Ah Topps just a couple more years and we can hope you get some competition again in the Baseball card market.  

And one last question, did Topps fire their entire online team?  I mean they put together a blog and never update it, they have a website that's a year behind and a joke, and I get these messages like this one for redemptions they've already shipped.  Topps are you even trying anymore?

I'm still looking forward to eventually getting this card in hand, even if I have to wait till 2012 Allen and Ginter comes out.

And since I'm on my soap box and it's getting close to Christmas, Topps how about next year you stop putting out this half-assed high end stuff and put out a nice mid-range set again based off one of your best products ever.  I'm asking you to bring back STADIUM CLUB!!!(and I wouldn't even mind if you did a Chrome version of it.) 

OK I'm done.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #53

This year Topps put out there Leather nameplate manu-relics and Robin Yount didn't get a card.  But last year's manu-relics Bat Barrels he sure did.  These were put into the Update Series .I was lucky enough to snag one of these limited Black Bat Barrels without breaking the bank.  I also picked up the regular version too numbered to 99 as well.  I have to say that in hand these are pretty neat.  And beat the socks off of the Leather Name Plate cards that just seem kinda cheap, plus the base leather cards aren't even numbered.

#53 on the Top 100

2010 Topps Update Robin Yount Black Manufactured Bat Barrel MBB-156  #d09/25.

Black Friday, I say Good Day to you sir!!!

My Black Friday consisted of sleeping in, recovering from Turkey coma and reading reports of all the stupid people out there in the world pepper spraying each other.  I did however decided in the afternoon to head on down to the LCS to pick up this weeks comic offerings and to check out the deals they kept emailing me about. You may remember I posted about staying away from Panini's Black Friday promotion.  I surely did.  It didn't even matter because by the time I made it to the store all the Black Fridays packs were gone, so I didn't even have to rely on my awesome willpower.  I did however pick up his last box of Score football and another Score Hockey, yeah cheap Panini. But it's hard to pass up cheap boxes with a second box 30% off and double trade night tickets.  Boscos puts a pack of whatever comes out on the prize board and draws one ticket at trade night if you're there you win all the packs if your not the packs roll over to the next month.  Right now there's almost $500 worth of packs up for grabs so damn right I'm going to pick up a few more tickets.

My question to you is did anyone pick up any Panini Black Fridays packs and if so what did you get out of them?  I haven't seen too many posts about it and I'm curious what you might have picked up.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #52

Ah with the Pack 11-0 how about we have a card of a Packer of Yore?

Robert Ferguson.  I'll be honest I have no idea where I got this card.  But it's pretty cool. Die cut and a jersey relic.  Robert didn't have too stellar of a career with the Packers, but not too terrible either.  He played 5 years with the Pack then two more with the Viks.  Robert's best year was 2003, when he caught 38 balls for 520 yards and  4 TD's.  Last year he played with the Omaha Nighthawks in the UFL.  He's not listed on this years roster though.

But still a great card.  #52 on the Top 100.

2001 Fleer Hot Prospects Robert Ferguson Pigskin Prospects Die-Cut Jersey Relic card.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #51

I hope everybody's  Thanksgiving was good.  I'm tired, hungover, and tired of Turkey sandwiches, but relatively unharmed.  I think it's best we get back to the Top 100.

I picked up #51 off of the 'Bay. Long before Ryan won NL MVP, well a year anyway.  I've pulled a couple of these Bazooka backs ripping A&G, but I really wanted one of my main man here or at least some other Brewer.  When this bad boy popped up I snagged it.  I don't remember what I paid, but I remember it was reasonable.  

So number 51 on the Top 100 (which are in no particular order)

2010 Topps Allen and Ginter Ryan Braun #3 Bazooka Back #d 18/25.

State of the Collection 2011 Retrospective

Well with the year winding down and no major releases I really care about till Series 1 Baseball comes out at the end of January, maybe it's time we take a look back at the year that was and how I did with my collecting goals for this year.  I posted my 2011 State of the Collection in early January this year.  You can read the whole post here.

I have to say for as sidetracked as I can get and as much as I was out of town and working this year I didn't do too bad.   Here's what my goals were for this year taken from that January post:

"My goals are pretty simple this year. After moving into my new house, I realize how much shit I have.
One of my goals is to consolidate and reduce my inventory of cards I don't want, through trades and selling.

I also put up my Yount collection at the Yount Collector and I'm slowly uploading scans of each card to photobucket and linking them to each card. I also plan to do the same thing with my Rollie Fingers collection and I hope that I can have that completed by the end of this year, taking my time so as not to get too overwhelmed.

Organize my Brewers and Packers Team sets.  One of my long term goals is to put together a Topps team set from 1971 to present.  I do believe I have 1971 complete so on to 1972!!! You can check out all the action once I set it up at Miles from Miller, my Brewers blog. I guess as a completist I would love to get a team set from every set but I'm just being reasonable.

I spent way too much money on cards in 2010 so I'll be scaling back a bit on boxes but I love to bust open a few packs of new stuff, so I won't deny myself that pleasure,  I think I'm probably going to try and complete the Kimball insert set in 2011 Baseball, I love mini's and inserts and retro so this is a no brainer, they'll go nice with my turkey red sets from 2009 and 2010."

Let's see how I did.  First consolidating and reducing.  Fail.  While I did complete a bunch of trades and sell off quite a few cards I still have way too much crap in the Man-Cave.  And while I've consolidated to a point, I still seem to be acquiring faster than I can get stuff out the door.  I love the posts some of you guys have of your card collections and they fit neatly into two boxes, are super organized, and very focused.  Not me. I wonder do all the extra cards I have from my set building and all the hits and other cards of players I don't collect count toward my collection?  

Next the Yount collection and the Rollie Fingers collection.  This one is split.  The Yount collection is still up to date.  I don't have scans of all the cards linked to the list, but at least the list is up to date.  I never did get around to getting the Rollie Fingers collection up at my Rollie Fingers blog, ah but there's always next year gotta pace yourself.

Next my Brewers and Packers team sets.  I'm in the middle here.  I've made great headway on the Brewers team sets.  I've pretty much got the 70's base Topps sets done.  I'm waiting on a few cards from COMC.  I'm waiting for the Black Friday shipping deal to ship them all.  I moved my Team set needs from my Brewers blog to this one for a few reasons.  One this blog gets a billion times more hits, so many  more eyeballs that might have cards to trade, and two I consolidated all the lists into one place instead of having a list for each card manufacturer.  I'm still horribly behind in getting my Packers organized.

Completing the Kimball Champions insert set.  I'm almost there, I'm almost there with my 2009 Turkey Red Insert set and I completed the 2010 Turkey Red insert set. Now I need to finish my Bowman Mini Football insert set.

Spend less.  Well I didn't keep good records, but with having a mortgage I know I spent way less then last year.  It helped that I didn't get sucked into Heritage this year.  I did however get sucked into Allen and Ginter, but I hit some major hits and I was able to sell off a bunch or stuff to help offset the cost.  The other nice thing was the I pretty much got a set out of each Jumbo box of Topps I opened this year so I didn't by a lot of random rack packs or other boxes.   I probably will get sucked into 2012 Heritage as I love the look of the 1963 Topps, so we'll have to see.

So in retrospect I had some minor successes with my goals this year, but there are some areas I could always improve.  I'll have my State of the Collection post up sometime in January.  I will say it's nice to have goals and to set goals. It's helped me in my collecting, not that I adhere to them, but it's nice to have a road map even if you don't use it.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #50

Number 50. Wow the half way point!! Better do a kick ass card quick.  How about a 1/1 sketch  card of an old Brewers ace.  I picked this card up for a steal. To be honest Sheets was injured at the time, although I can't remember which time.  The artist is Chris Henderson.  He's done all sorts of stuff for Topps and other card companies. He does a lot of non sports stuff too, although I couldn't find a website he's got a facebook page, but who doesn't.

#50 on the top 100

2009 Topps 1/1 Sketch card of Ben Sheets by Chris Henderson.

Panini Black Friday?? Pass.

If you haven't heard Panini is doing a huge Black Friday promotion this year.  I keep getting emails for it from my local card shop.  If I buy box off the list of stuff I get 4 of these packs, if I buy any other qualifying Panini product I get 2 packs. Problem is I don't want to buy anymore Panini products this year.

I like what Panini is doing here, I really do.  They're trying, which is awesome.  I really like the way the company interacts with collectors and fans. I like how easy their website is to find a checklist. I like that they update and post everyday on their blog and post a drool gallery.  I'm just underwhelmed by their cards.  Every release seems to look the same and honestly I don't feel like shelling out $100 bucks a pop for their stuff.

I was reading on Blowouts card form that there are shops that are just selling the packs.  Figures, I'm sure this is against all of Panini's policies, but what can you do?  I say more power.  I would love to just be able to buy these packs at $5 a pop to see what I get.

On a side note while I'm thinking about Panini.  Panini needs to make a basic football offering.  Pretty much every offering this year is $5 a pack or was a few have dropped right off. You say what about Score?  Pssshaw.  That's like comparing Topps Kickoff or Opening Day to the flagship release.  No I'm talking about a regular set builders set.  No short prints or chase cards, just a nice low priced flagship set with some nice goodies and a few, I SAID A FEW, inserts and parallels.  I'll say this Score might be low priced, but to put a set together is a bitch.

I mean Panini has done it with Hockey and Basketball.  Looking at the rest of this years releases everything else is over 100 bucks a box, so if anything I won't be opening anymore hobby boxes of Panini or Topps products.  Just my two cents.

For the Hebrews and the Shebrews. Your NL MVP for 2011!!

Ye Hawwwww.  Well I"m bummed he didn't get to go to the World Series, but being named the National League's MVP ain't a bad conciliation prize.  Ryan Braun, Brewer till the next decade.

I love this card.  Topps' choice in photos sometimes just makes me laugh and Braun has some good ones this year.  This is the 2011 Bowman Best insert.  It just looks like someone offered Ryan a nice big piece of pie with ice cream.  His expression says "What kinda pie?"  So congrats Ryan and congrats Justin and Clayton. Whew only 88 more days till spring training.  And I aim to catch at least 2 games down there.  And I get to watch a kick ass Turkey day game with  my Pack and the Lions who haven't look this good since I can't remember.  Ah life is good.  Have a great Thanksgiving everybody, just an early well wishing I'll be posting something tomorrow, weather I have anything to say or just a Top 100 post.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #49

Hey Topps, your not the first card company to make manupatches!!  Here we have a 2003 Upper Deck Patch Collection Rollie Fingers.  I really like these cards.  No qualms about it this whole set was pretty much based on manupatches.  Sorry the picture of Rollie is so blurry, but these cards are super thick.  A beautiful addition to the Rolllie Fingers collection and I'm fairly certain I got this for super cheap.  

#49 on the Top 100

2003 UD Patch Collection Rollie Fingers #140 Patch card.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #48

Another great multi-relic from the Yount collection.  2008 Upper Deck Premier had some great stuff.  I can't remember when I got it or how much I paid, but being the cheap bastard that I am I'm sure it wasn't much.  Some really nice swatches in this card.  And very low numbered.  

Number 48 on the Top 100

2008 UD Premier Robin Yount Premier Swatches Triple Relic PS-RY #d 14/19.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #47

I remember seeing these cards and thinking wow that's cool. Of course when I got it in hand and saw that it was a Stamps.com stamp, I was slightly less impressed, but the little multicolored patch on the card makes  up for it, that and it's numbered to 25 and a rookie card!  Plus it Jordy Nelson who is with out a doubt my favorite Packer right now, yeap even more favoriter than Aaron Rodgers, Greg Jennings, Clay Matthews, and AJ Hawk. Number 47 on the top 100...

2008 Leaf Certified Materials Jordy Nelson Souvenir Stamps SS-22 #d 09/25

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #46

Back to baseball today and back to my old stand-by, Rollie Fingers.  I have to say that these Sweetspot leather ball autographs are pretty sweet, as long as the ink doesn't disappear, and add to it one of the nicest signatures in the biz, well I couldn't pass this card up and it had to go on the Top 100.

2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Signatures Rollie Fingers #RF.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #45

I'm a child of the 80's. No not born in the 80's, but grew up in the 80's.  I remember when MTV played music videos, you could still buy vinyl at the record shops, nobody had a cellphone, the Atari 2600 and of course Garbage Pail Kids.  I missed Series 1 by a week, but got in on Series 2.  I remember having a complete set of series 2 at one time, where that is now God only knows.  But I've been building a nice little collection of GPK's for awhile now from the remnants of my collection from childhood and a pick ups from ebay.  I've also been toying with putting up a need list on my side bar, I know there are a few other GPK heads out there.  Anyway, I was just surfing ebay seeing if there were any lots of GPK's that weren't too pricey and happened along a guy selling singles from Series 1.  So far this is my only series 1 card in my collection and while not the more desirable of the twins a nice card.  I will say I was a little disappointed when the card came as the auction scan showed a mint card.  Of course the seller never alluded to condition in the listing and I toyed with complaining but in the end I still got a steal.

#45 on the Top 100...

1985 Series 1 Garbage Pail Kids Billy Blast 8b with matte checklist back. KABOOM!

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #44

It's funny for as great a player Reggie Jackson was and for as strong of a following he has, I'm amazed at how cheap I get some of his cards for.  I'm still waiting for the right time and place for a cheap decent rookie, but I remember picking up this card for faily cheap and it's close to his rookie card, plus it's an oddball and I love oddball cards.

Number 44 on the Top 100....

1970 Milton Bradley Reggie Jackson card.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #43

Wow #43 already.  Getting close to the halfway point and I find myself digging further and further into the card boxes.  I still have lots of, what I think are great cards, but you'll find now most of them will be from either my player collections or team collections, so a lot of Younts, Fingers, Jacksons, Brewers and Packers. First up we have a great cards from a great set.  You want to talk about parallels, UD Baseball Heroes has tons.  Here we have red autographed relic parallel numbered to 25. I remember winning this auction.  I spent a little more than my cheap ass would have liked to, but I added an awesome card to my Yount Supercollection.  So number 43 on the Top 100 (which is in no particular order)

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes Robin Yount #99 Red Autograph Relic card #d 18/25.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #42

An incredible pick up a few weeks ago and it had to get put on the top 100 as soon as possible. If you read my Rollie Fingers blog you've already seen it, but I had to get it up here as well. I'd bid on and lost a couple of these and seeing as there are only 5 of these super quad patch cards I new I'd have to jump on one sooner or later.  Well I lucked out and picked this one up for quite a bit less than the other two I missed, so bully for me.  Just a beautiful looking card.  I only wish that the picture matched the patch.  While I love seeing Rollie in a Brewers uniform I think this card would have been much better with him in a Padres jersey or the relic being a Brewers patch.  But I'm just happy to add this card to the collection and the Top 100 which, remember, are in no particular order of awesomeness.

#42 on the Top 100

2011 Topps Marquee Rollie Fingers Gametime Mementos Quad Patch GMQP-2 #d 1/5!

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #41

Still keeping with the Packers theme here. A great pull from last years Prestige.  I got this quad relic with not only Mr. Rodgers on it, but Manning, Romo, and Schaub.  It's the only relic I have of Mr. Rodgers.  . Mainly because everything Rodgers is hot right now and I'm cheap and poor. That Manning piece is pretty sweet too

#41 on the Top 100

2010 Panini Prestige League Leaders Quad Relic #19 with Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, Tony Romo, and Matt Schaub #d 03/25.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #40

Whew number 40 already.  Getting close to the half way point and like I said your going to start seeing more and more cards from my team and player collections.  I have to say out of the Packers Jordy is my favorite.  I have a totally hetero man crush on him.  I started picking up his higher end autos and relics back in 2009.  He was mainly a punt and kickoff returner, but I could see greatness in there.  And he had his best game of his short career in the Super Bowl last year.  I guess if you're going to have a career game why not in the big one.  Jordy's card prices have slowly been climbing and I've slowed my grabbing, but I ended up getting this sweet SPx  auto jersey for next to nothing last year well before the Packers were contenders.  Probably pretty close to the beginning of the season after Rodgers got hurt and I thought we were done. The only thing better would have been some color in the swatchs.  Anywho...

#40 on the Top 100

 2008 UD SPx Jordy Nelson Rookie auto triple relic #164 #d 049/599

I shit you not!

So I meant to post this with my Score Hockey Box break but forgot to include it.  With all card releases the card companies have to offer a no purchase necessary option to it's products.  This is the NPN blurb on the box of the Score hockey.

It's pretty standard.  They make it as inconvenient as possible so you won't do this, but then I noticed this for its Canadian entrants.

Now I don't know what to think really.  Is this is some weird Canadian law that makes them do this? Or is Panini trying even harder to dissuade Canadians from sending in NPN entries?  Or is it a statement that Canadians are good at math and like a challenge and that Americans are lazy?  Or all three?  Just reading it gives me a giggle. "Canadian entrants must also correctly answer the following mathematical skill-testing question."  So it's not even that they make Canadians try, but they have to get it right as well.  And I'm curious do they want only whole numbers or are you suppose to take it to a specific decimal place? And if you look close Panini doesn't want any Frenchies either!

I'm sure all my Canadian readers out there are more than capable of plugging this little equation into a calculator and sending in the right answer, but if your too drunk after watching the Canucks game here it is to the last decimal place.  873.5237.  I might just have to send in a couple NPN's see if I win, 'cuz I don't have to answer their dumb question, I'm American!!!!!.

Have a great week everybody!!

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #39

The Big Hurt.  One of my favorite players who never was a  Brewer.   I only own a few Thomas relics and no autos from him.  Pretty much all the relics and what not I pulled over the years.  I've also slowly been acquiring older inserts and base cards through some great group breaks.  Colbey's upcoming one in particular could net me a few more, seeing as all the boxes he's opening have multiple inserts and almost all of them have Frank Thomas in them.  

That being said #39 on the Top 100

2005 Donruss Timber and Threads Frank Thomas Bat relic #TT-11

Cheap Group Break over At Cardboard Collections

Yo, this ain't the contest pimp, nope I'm his older wiser brother the Group Break Pimp.  Head on over to Cardboard Collections for a super cheap, and I mean cheap, group break going on with some old school pinnacle boxes.  Back when Pinnacle was an actual company and not just a brand.  Lots of good teams still available and I know for a fact Colbey will work a deal out with you if you want lots of those remaining teams.  Hurry yo ass on over there I want to get this group break underway!!  Check it out here.

Pimp out.

New Score hockey good for autographing or great for autographing?

I was sitting down last night sorting through my hockey cards, which I still need to collate, and a thought struck me with this years design.  They would look great with a black or blue Sharpe auto on them.

Here we see the Tom Gilbert card I posted earlier.  Nine white card stock with a matte finish.

Now the card with a photoshopped signature on it.  It works!! Mmmm. I might have to do some TTM's with some extras.

Another thought occurred to me as well.  I need to pick a team.  I really do enjoy hockey, I just can't get in to it though not having a team of my own.  I mean I love football and baseball.  The Brewers and Packers are my main teams.  I'm not a huge basketball fan, but I'll root for the Bucks, just don't ask me to buy any Panini cards.  But when it comes to hockey I have no one.  I love going to the local minor league team here in Anchorage.  They're not too bad.  As a matter of fact the Anchorage Aces won the league cup, the Kelly Cup, last year.  For the first goal they throw frozen salmon on the ice, which is then donated to the food bank.  No I need a team.  But I don't want to be a the guy who picks a team because they just won a championship, Steelers fans I'm looking you.  Wisconsin doesn't have a professional NHL hockey team.  Oh I've got 3 teams in the geographic neighborhood, the Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Wild all surround me.  And the Blackhawks and Red Wings have lots of great history being part of the original six.  And I like history. When I was younger I liked the Sharks, mainly for the logo, not for the teams skill.  I'm torn.

On the card front one fact remains, UD is still putting out high quality, beautiful hockey cards.  Say what you will about the company and it's questionable business practices, it can still put out  damn nice products.  And I'll say this Panini can do low end like a pro, it's the companies high end stuff that seems terrible.

Anywho, just thought I'd throw this out there.

cb out.

Cynicalbuddha's Top 100 #38

Time to switch gears and bring out some vintage gold and green.  I don't own a lot of vinatge Packers cards, it's on my to do list, but I do have a few.  I really love the 1955 Bowman cards.  Everyone looks like an angel.  Pay no attention to the lines on the bottom there just from the penny sleeve and scanner.  Bill was Packers 2nd round pick in the 1952 Draft and played the bulk of his 12 seasons with the Packers.  He also played with the Brown and Cowboys.

#38 on the Top 100

1955 Bowman Bill Howton #140.

Score Hockey Box Break and Review

2011-12 Score Hockey Box Label

Well looky here.  I swore I wouldn't be putting another set together this year, but being at trade night last night I saw that Score Hockey was out.  And I'm a sucker for cheap boxes.  Now I'm not really a hockey guy, but I do love ripping cheap packs and last years set was fun to try and put together, I'm still not finished by the way if anyone has some singles laying around take a look at my need list.  So I created a nice little box label for my set.  Feel free to grab it if you like it or just make your own.  This year the old favorites are back and some new inserts as well.  And a couple new parallels too, because what would a Panini product be with out parallels?

Here we have the Score base design.  Nice simple, great action shorts.  The glossy parallel also makes a return, but this year Panini actually stepped it up a little by labeling the cards as glossy on the backs.

Here you can see the regular back and a glossy back side by side.  I actually will give Panini a two thumbs up for this one.  Now they just need to do it to football as well.  I can't remember how many times I've been sorting a Score set and come across a glossy I put in my base set or is just randomly in my extras.  The glossies are one per pack.  There's also at least one rookie or insert per pack too.  Although I notice not always, but most of the time.

Of course we also have the Hot Rookies again and there are also SSP Hot Rookies I'm not sure how many but I did pull one.

Sean here is number 557 so I would assume that there are at least 10 and when I did a quick search of the 'Bay the only SSP on there was going for almost half the price of a box, nice.

The one insert I didn't get one of that returns from last year is the snoglobes.  I really like that set from last year.

I did get two sudden death cards.

Two playoff heroes.

And three from my other favorite set from last year Net Cam.

The new inserts include:

Making an entrance.

Franchise Retros

 Score B.  I guess if I was going to get a Score B card might as well be of someone I know.  It was also slightly damaged.  Strike one Panini.

Also falling one per box are these First Goal cards.

I also got one Gold Rush card.  The box and packs don't have odds, so I went to the sell sheet and these fall 1:36 or basically one per box.  The black ice parallel are one per case. 

According to the box I was also suppose to get a NHL Shield die-cut but didn't pull one instead I got this.

Could be better, but I won't sneeze at an auto from a Score product.

Also according to the sell sheet there  are Stanley Cup Champs (I did see some cards with the Stanley Cup Champs logo but I don't know if it's a parallel or an actual insert or if these are even the cards they are talking about), Santa SPs and a Super Secret that they won't give away.  And there are rookie autos and buy back autos as well.  Lets see how I did.

According to the sell sheet I'm suppose to get  3 Making an Entrance inserts, check. 3 Net cam, check. 2 Sudden Death, check. 1 First Goal, check.  1 Playoff Heroes, got two, check and check (maybe this is why I didn't get a snowglobe). 1 NHL die cut shield, nope, but I'll take the auto in place of that. No odds on snoglobes.

Over all I think I did very well with this box.  It's too bad Panini stopped numbering inserts in its Score products, but over all the design is nice, the inserts are pretty nice, and there's actually some cool stuff you could hit in here.  I do plan to buy a few more boxes of this and I'm going to try and put the 550 base set together and sell off any SSP's and inserts.  Especially if SSP's are going for 15 to 20 bucks.  I'll have a need list up when I start collating and I'm sure I'll have a ton of extras if you need any.

 cb out.