Box Break & Review - 2017-18 Parkhurst Hockey #4

It may be a new year, but I'm continuing with the 2017-18 Parkhurst Hockey blasters.  After the third blaster I was 87.3% of the complete set.  Will I finish it with this blaster?  I'm thinking no, but we shall see.

Base Cards - 108 cards (36% of the complete set) with no duplicates.  This is what I've seen with all four blasters other than the one pack that contained two inserts.  There haven't been doubles in any blasters.

Black Parallel (1:12 packs) - 1 - #13 Jakob Chychrun

2017-18 Parkhurst - Black #13 Jakob Chychrun 

Red Parallel (1:3 packs) - 4 - #27 Sam Reinhart, #113 Alec Martinez, #246 Blake Wheeler, #300 Checklist (Auston Matthews)

2017-18 Parkhurst - Red #27 Sam Reinhart 

2017-18 Parkhurst - Red #113 Alec Martinez

2017-18 Parkhurst - Red #246 Blake Wheeler

2017-18 Parkhurst - Red #300 Checklist / Auston Matthews

International (1:5 packs) - 3 - #PI-8 Alex Ovechkin, #PI-11 Henrik Lundqvist, #PI-23 Nino Niederreiter

2017-18 Parkhurst - International #PI-8 Alex Ovechkin

2017-18 Parkhurst - International #PI-11 Henrik Zetterberg

2017-18 Parkhurst - International #PI-23 Nino Niederreiter

Prominent Prospects (1:12 packs) - 1 - #PP-16 Nico Hischier

2017-18 Parkhurst - Prominent Prospects #PP-16 Nico Hischier 

Blow The Horn - 1:10 packs - 1 - #BH-6 Auston Matthews

2017-18 Parkhurst - Blow the Horn #BH-6 Auston Matthews

East Vs. West (East 1:13 packs, West 1:13 packs) - 2 - #E-4 Erik Karlsson, #W-4 P.K. Subban

2017-18 Parkhurst - East vs. West #E-4 Erik Karlsson 

2017-18 Parkhurst - East vs. West #W-4 P.K. Subban 

Everything was in line again in this blaster.  As for my set completion, this is where collation frustration kicks in.  Before this blaster, I needed 38 cards to complete the set.  That's over 10% of the cards.  In this blaster, I got THREE cards that I needed.  That is it.  105 of 108 base cards in the box were multiples.

I don't have the answer and it's not my job to.  However, this is pretty ridiculous, to be honest.  It's another reason that I see set collectors becoming more and more frustrated with companies.  This gives me little confidence that I will complete the set with the cards in the final blaster.  That means I will have spent $100 and still not completed the set.  To be honest, it seems like a valid reason for why set building has all but died.  What are your thoughts?  Feel free to leave comments below.  

If you shop online and haven't signed up and used ebates yet, you're missing out.  I also use it on eBay to get money back from purchases there.  Between referrals and cash back, I've gotten over $150 in a year (including $15 back on one Black Friday purchase last week).  FREE CARDS!

If you're on Twitter, please give me a follow.  You can also find me on Trading Card Database.  I love trading cards, when it makes sense.  Happy collecting!

So It Begins...

After listening to David Wright (@LongFlyBall on Twitter) on last week's episode of Beckett Radio, I am hooked the 1991 Topps set.  Like any good, all-American 12-year old I had plenty of of these in 1991 but I am starting from scratch.

Much has been written about the errors, variations and glow backs.  I'm not going to post that here.  If you don't know and are interested, check out Junk Wax Gems and this article from tanmanbaseballfan.com.

My first purchase was a 500-count vending box off eBay.  It is also the first vending box I've ever purchased.

Starting from scratch and only taking glances at some of the information on the web, I didn't know too much about these.  I thought that the glow backs were rare but to my surprise the they accounted for more than 75% of the vending box.

The glances I've taken at online info has discussed the sheets, so I broke down the cards by sheet and whether or not they are glow backs.

***None of the cards were with the bold 40th Anniversary logo.***

It's possible I miscounted somewhere and that's how I ended up with 512.  Or maybe I got lucky.

My three favorite cards from the box are glow backs.  I will probably try to pick up all back variations of them (along with Will Clark).  Sorry for the off-center picture but I wasn't willing to take another.  I wanted to show a picture of the glow back, but I had no luck getting good pictures.

You may or may not have caught it in the chart above, but there was one card in the box that does not have a sheet designation for it.  It's also entirely possible that I am blind and missing something in my old age.  It's something that I will be looking more into.  It's a shame this card has a defect/marking on the back in the doubles column.

There's a final card I want to show from this box.  I'm sure I've seen it a million times and on it's own, it's just a cool picture.  It's having the knowledge of this and a card that would be produced later that makes me wonder if any player has ever had a more...shall we say, interesting...couple of pictures on their cards.  It is the only thing that I will probably ever know Oscar Azocar for.

Oscar Azocar 1991 Topps

Oscar Azocar 1993 Stadium Club

I ordered a couple more vending boxes today, so there will be more 1991 Topps analysis to come.

One Trade Closer to Completion

Six days ago I wrote a post about a Twitter trade pickup for my 2016-17 Parkhurst Hockey set.  Three of us on Twitter helped each other inch closer to completion and earlier this week I received a mailer from Robert (@robbyt86 on Twitter).  Thank you so much, Robert!  

After getting this lot of cards into my set, it stand at 355 of 400 cards, or 88% complete.  Just 45 more to go and I have another 20 coming from a collector on the Sports Card Forum boards.  Once I receive those, I will bump my post in those forums in hopes I can complete a final trade to knock the rest of the cards off.  If not, I may just have to go the Sportlots.com route.  If you opened any of these and have some to spare, you can find my set needs here.  

Twitter Set Trade Mailday

My collecting has changed a bit in the last 12 months.  I have made a shift toward vintage and away from modern.  I still buy some modern, just not as much.  Another change has been a move back to my "innocent" days of collecting, building sets.

I picked up a few blasters of 2016-17 Parkhurst Hockey.  Even though it was stated to be a Canadian exclusive, many in the States have found them.  A couple other guys that I interact with on Twitter are set builders as well and have also decided to work on the set, giving us some trading partners.

I returned to my desk at one point today to find a bubble mailer on my desk.  It was from Cliff (oriolesrise on Twitter) and was full of cards that I need for my set.

Yes, that is an Auston Matthews rookie in the picture.  After five blasters, I did not have one (although I did hit a red parallel in the first blaster I opened).  Cliff ended up with two from the same box.  I think anyone that's opened this product would say that the collation leaves a bit to be desired.

I'm thrilled to have these and be that much closer to set completion.  It's time to go mark these off.

Thanks, Cliff!