Hockey Week - 2006-07 Bee Hive and Fairfield Rookie Bonus Pack

I missed a day earlier this week so I'll combine the Bee Hive pack and the bonus rookie card in one post for the opening night (American version) for the NHL. I ripped a pack of Bee Hive last year and liked it. I regret now not buying the blaster when I had the chance. I got a second pack of it in this box, let's take a look.



47 Saku Koivu
124 David Booth Bee Hive Rookies
100 Jean-Sebastien Giguere
31 Jason Spezza

Another rookie card, nice. That's two-for-two for me in Bee Hive. I got my second (or maybe third?) Giguere card which is annoying because I keep misspelling his name. Koivu's good... Spezza's good... my favorite part of these cards though is the back. They are cluttered, they have a lot of wasted space and the faux-retro is really cheesy. But they use something like ten different fonts on the backs! It's like a kid first figuring out the Font function in Microsoft Word and trying to use every font they can find. I'm surprised UD didn't use Wing Dings on the card. Could you imagine sorting a set where Wing Dings was used for the card number? In honor of these epic backs, I'm going to post a few "Did You Know? factoids from them.

Spezza: Bobby Carpenter was the first American-born player to post 50 goals in a season (1984-85).

Koivu: Koivu began the 2006-07 season as has seventh straight as the Canadiens captain.

Giguere: Bernie Parent of the Flyers and Tony Esposito of the Blackhawks tied for the Vezina Trophy in '74.

Booth: The Michigan State alum notched a team-best five shots on net for the Panthers in an 11/24/06 contest with the Senators.


Ok, we've ripped five packs and not done too badly. Now, here's the pièce de résistance: the One Rookie Card.

Woohoo. a plain white envelope. That is surprisingly see-through when you scan it. No other protection banging around in there with all those packs. Let's open it:

1990 Bowman #7 Eddie Belfour!!!

SWEET! My favorite goalie! His rookie card! ONE I DIDN'T HAVE! I was expecting some random prospect card from the past couple of years but Fairfield dropped the Eagle on me! Great ending to the box. Here's an example of why I love Eddie:



Complete thievery of Sergei Federov right there with a glove that would make Brooks Robinson proud.

Hockey Week - 2006-07 Parkhurst

Third pack out of the Fairfield repack whatsit. Parkhurst is sort of like the Bowman of hockey cards. The cards originally were produced in 1951 in Canada and for some reason didn't have the rights to any New York or Boston players. Topps and O-Pee-Chee eventually took over the hockey card market and Parkhurst stopped producing cards in the '60s. The old cards look great but can be hard to find. I'm sorry to say, retro junkie that I am, I don't have a single original Parkie in my collection.

In 1991, the brand was brought back as a zombie product for Pro Set who used contemporary players in a kinda sorta 'premium' design. Pro Set went bust after a couple of years and the brand transferred to Upper Deck who used it for contemporary and retro sets. UD lost the license and it bounced around for a while between Parkhurst Products, Inc, In the Game and finally settled back with UD, who pretty much own hockey right now. Here's a pack of the stuff from '06-'07 with Bobby Orr on the front. I've never opened a pack of this stuff and the "collect autograph cards of the entire Parkhurst base set" line on the pack intrigues me.


13 Jean Beliveau
33 Gerry Cheevers
34 Don Cherry!!!
108 Jim Rutherford

Ok, the Don Cherry card has got to be the most fantastic thing ever. What the hell is that... a plaid duster? Sheer brilliance whatever it is. Stuff like that makes me regret I'm not Canadian. This set kind of looks like a hockey version of Fleer Greats of the Game. Lots of legends and autographs. No autos here but some decent vintage players at least. I got another two goalie pack with Bruins Hall of Famer Gerry Cheevers and Red Wing goalie I've never heard of Jim Rutherford. Apparently Jim was the GM for the cup winning Carolina Hurricanes, good for him. Cheever's card is pretty cool for the sweet mask with his trademark stitches painted on. He's also got about two cows worth of padding between the gloves and those blockers. There's another Hall of Famer in Jean Beliveau, a 500 goal scorer for Montreal. The dude has a trophy named after him so you know he's good. Here's Jean scoring a goal in game 7 of the 1965 Cup Finals:



This is good stuff right here, too bad UD was stingy with the cards at only four per pack. I really like the old photos, it's nice to see '60s squares in the stands, Jason style hockey masks and no ads plastered all over the boards.

Hockey Week - 2006-07 Upper Deck Power Play

Hockey season starts today! Ok, it's not starting in America, but the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning are opening up the NHL Season with a couple of games in Prague. There's two other games being played in Europe too up in Norway or something but I can't remember who's playing and I'm too lazy too look it up so forget about Norway. PRAGUE IS THE PLACE TO BE! There are pretty buildings and a thriving technology center and beer strong enough to strip paint and according to a show I watched on G4 at three in the morning a robust sex tourism industry. You can Google that last one yourself, I don't want that in my browser history. Anyway, the Czech Republic rules and is as good a place as any to start up the NHL season. Thrashers' #1 pick ever Patrik Stefan is from the Czech Republic, so you know it's a hell of a hockey region if they knew enough to get his no scoring ass out of the country. So to honor the start of a new Hockey season, I bought this thing:

Five packs for five bucks. AND a rookie card! Can't beat that with a broken hockey stick. I now have hockey packs to rip all week which will thrill all three readers who love hockey and bore the crap out of everyone else. All you other people can go watch playoffs or the NFL or something! It's time for Hockey!! First pack is a 2006 Upper Deck Power Play, which I have never heard of before in my life. A brand new experience for a brand new season.

81 Mark-Andre Fleury
38 Pavel Datsyuk
44 Todd Bertuzzi
15 Jarome Iginla
51 Pavol Demitra
GR1 Jean-Sebastien Giguere Goal Robbers

Not one, but TWO goalies with hyphenated first names in this pack. Be still my beating heart. One is a neat looking insert card of J.S. Giguere with a really stupid name: Goal Robbers. Goalies don't rob goals. They are supposed to protect the goal, not skate off with the thing. It has the old duck shaped hockey mask logo on the sweater though instead of that crappy new logo so I'll let the dumb name slide. Lotsa gold on these cards. There's a gold swoosh on the bottom and more gold in the background on top and lots of gold on the back with more swooshes and the photo from the front completely in gold. At least the foil is silver to break up the monotony. Pretty good pack here, two goalies, two Lady Byng trophy winners, a guy who punched another guy in the back of the head and the best card in the pack: Jarome Arthur-Leigh Adekunle Tig Junior Elvis Iginla. Elvis is Everywhere! Not only is Jarome a great player who sort of resembles Dave Lister from Red Dwarf, but he's wearing the cool alternate Calgary uniform featuring the devil horse with flaming snots. I never realized that Canadian horses sneezed fire. No wonder mounties are so fucking bad-ass. Here's the back of Pavel's card:


Kinda boring, especially the gold reprise of the photo on the front. Only five years of stats, lame factoids and no biographical information so you don't know if they were born in Moose Jaw or Winnipeg. Pretty weak if you ask me. The only saving grace is that there are pronunciation guides for everyone's name. So now you can pronounce Pavel Datsyuk properly and quit saying PAY- vl Dots-eye-OOK like some non-hockey knowing goofball.

A Pack(et) A Day: 2006/07 Magic Entertainment Shoot Out Update & Panini EURO2008

The other two packets of soccer cards sent to me by John in England.



Yes, I fully realize that I'm ripping English football packets while wearing a Celtic kit.

2006-07 Upper Deck Be a Player

I love reading A Pack A Day, so I'm thrilled to post here. I live in Las Vegas and I enjoy collecting pictures of little men. I bleed Cardinal red and believe that Albert Pujols just might be Jesus. Despite my baseball love, I'm bringing some hockey to APAD today. Be a Player promises one autograph in every pack; let's see if I pulled someone awesome or someone not so awesome.

UC29: Up Close & Personal w/Marc-Andre Fleury's Caterpillar Eyebrows (#359/999)

His favorite band is Nickelback and his favorite comedian is Jim Carrey. Additonally, his favorite book is the Bible, Jarkko Ruutu is his best friend in hockey, and he'd most like to meet Elisha Cuthbert. Wait, that's Leaf Studio.

#85 Jamal Mayers

Pictured as a white St. Louis Blue here, Mayers is currently a black Toronto Maple Leaf.

#37 Ryan Smyth

Captain Canada is pictured as an Islander - he played 23 games for them. Now a member of the Colorado Avalanche, where heart and grit = 5 years, $31 million.

#49 Joe Sakic

Did you know that Joe Sakic has never missed a penalty shot in his career? Neither have I!

BAP Signatures: Craig Conroy

Here's a full list of the autographs in this set. I could've done a lot worse than a former Blue. Anyone else think it's weird that only one Sedin brother has an auto in this set?

2006-07 Topps Turkey Red Basketball

Tonight is the first of most likely seven NBA Finals games that I won't be watching, so tonight is the ideal night for ripping this Target cheapie pack of Turkey Red. The Larry Bird wrapper is a cruel ruse, albeit one that didn't work on me until the price went down to $1.59.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
260 Steve Nash Checklist "Pick 'n' Roll"

93 Antoine Walker
110 Dirk Nowitzki

114 Luke Walton Red Parallel
119 Mike Dunleavy
217 Mickael Gelabale

Looks like some UN vs. Silver Spoon class warfare was going on in this pack. We've got the German Nowitzki, the Frenchman Gelabale, and the Canadian Nash. On the other side of the coin we have Bill Walton's son ("Come onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!") and Mike Dunleavy's son. I believe the Dunleavy child of privilege went to the hoity toity private school in Milwaukee's north shore suburbs known as University School while his dad was coaching the Bucks.

And Antoine Walker? Well...he's just a regular ol' black guy.

If you need the Nowitzki to complete you set, or if you're just into freaky white dudes, you can get in touch with me at Thorzul Will Rule.

2006-2007 Topps Full Court Basketball

I know, what am I doing buying this crap. A basketball set from last year that I have no intentions of building, what am I doing opening this? I'm trying to keep this blog interesting is what I'm doing. If you want the same ol' packs all the time, I'll go buy a box for five bucks and you'll get '88 Donruss every day for a month.

44 Larry Hughes
79 Josh Howard Photographer's Proof #1314/1999
26 Gilbert Arenas
46 Al Jefferson

I only got 4 cards and not 5, but one was a serial numbered Josh Howard parallel so that's not too bad. If this stuff had a glossy finish instead of matte, it would be identical to your typical Stadium Club release. Even the Photographer's Proof is an old Stadium Club insert isn't it? Why didn't Topps just call it Stadium Club? Hell if they called it Stadium Club, I might have bought a Blaster in a fit of nostalgia last year. Nobody has an emotional attachment to Full Court for Pete's sake. This is pretty nice stuff actually, a stealth Stadium Club with 4 stars in the pack. Actually Topps did bring back Stadium Club this year, but it's a $20 a pack premium offering. I wish they'd do that in baseball, just call Co-Signers Stadium Club and keep it the same product and everyone would be happy. They could even bring back the Members Only set, but this time charge $500 for it and include a two gamers, a numbered Rookie, an auto and the severed finger of a Triple -A utility infielder in every pack. The high rollers would eat that up!

2006-2007 Upper Deck Mini Jersey Collection Hockey

I've always wanted to buy a pack of this stuff in any sport but the $7.99 price tag for three cards and a Barbie-sized jersey scared me off. For some inexplicable reason though, the a few of the Quik Trips around here got a bunch of boxes of this stuff last year, sometimes two or three boxes per store. Without fail every one of those boxes gathered dust. One station dumped the cards somewhere and is using the box for holding keychains. The day I bought up a bunch of packs to bust open here I saw one of them when I got gas and just couldn't resist any longer. To my surprise, it rang up at $2.99! Of course this is the same place selling packs of Upper Deck First Edition for $4.99, so maybe it's not that big a surprise after all. In any case, lets see what jersey *ahem* sweater I pulled.

Penguins sweater with an alternate captain "A" on it
3 Chris Pronger
8 Brad Boyes
15 Dion Phaeneuf

The cards are completely superfluous to this set so I'm not even going to bother talking about them even though Chris Pronger is a good player. I got a Penguins home jersey with an alternate captain "A" on it. At least I think the white jerseys are the home jersey... I think they switched it up a couple years ago as a gimmick... It's a white jersey in any case and I don't know which player it belongs to because of the way it's wrapped up. Who is this? Could it be Mario? Gotta open it up...

Sidney Crosby! Kick ass! A hockey player I've actually heard of! This will go great with my Burger King Alge Crumpler Jersey.

Waaaay back here, I busted a pack of the NFL jerseys that were giveaways in Burger King kid's meals. A few hamburgers later, I finally pulled the Alge jersey that I really wanted (but not before getting a Packers jersey that ended up as trade bait). There's one problem with it though as you can see from the back:

Ouch. That's gonna be a fine. Somewhat prescient of BK to have that on the jersey way back in September. This kind of stuff doesn't happen in hockey.

2006-2007 Upper Deck Bee Hive Hockey

I've always been intrigued by Bee Hive hockey cards, but I never got around to buying a pack. The only retail Bee Hive I ever saw was a few packs in a Quik Trip gas station in the 90's but back then I was not prepared to drop 7 bucks on a pack of cards even if it did have a cabinet size card in every pack. I saw this pack in a blister pack and thought why not. There were a couple of other Upper deck packs in the blister, here's what I got out of them:

UD Victory - diddley
Some UD crap - squat

Now to the good stuff.

5 Mats Sundin
160 Eric Fehr rookie
33 Martin Gerber
16 Patrick Marleau

I apparently lucked out and pulled a 1:8 pack rookie card. I don't know if Eric is any good or not, but he''s hurt right now. And when did Washington dump the eagle and go back to the hockey stick logo? Sheesh, you completely abandon a sport after the most disastrously ill-conceived lockout in the history of sports and they go and screw up the logos when your back is turned. I kind of like these cards though, there's sort of a nouveau retro type of thing going on. The original Bee Hive was a hockey player photo set that was issued from 1934 until 1967. I've never seen any of them before, but there's some galleries online. The rookie card looks a lot like the Bobby Hull card from here. So I guess this set is like Hockey's version of Heritage, or at least Vintage. The backs have a vintagey feel to them don't they? There's a store near me that has a bunch of blasters of this stuff that hasn't been touched in months. It will probably stay untouched though, this stuff is nice but not nice enough to drop twenty bucks on.

2006-07 Topps Turkey Red Basketball

Every so often, you want to open a pack of cards but there's absolutely nothing to be found. This happened to me this weekend. I pulled into the Quik Trip to fill up after having a crappy day. I was hoping to snag a pack of cards, but QT has been very hit and miss the past year. Some of them have an entire rack full of the newest cards, others a lone box of old Topps amid some dusty gaming cards. The QT I pulled into was apparently Hockey Central for the state of Georgia. Just about every hockey set from last year was there save Beehive and Upper Deck Ultimate. Not interested in hockey, I found some Topps series two blister packs which I passed on since I've almost finished the set, and a few basketball packs. One of the basketball packs they had was Turkey Red, which I had been avoiding. I like the baseball set, and the football set was ok, but basketball didn't do anything for me. The big turn off was that Topps dropped the number of cards per pack from 8 to 6 for some reason. Way to add value, Topps. The pack busting bug bit me though, and I figured that Larry Legend wouldn't let me down this one time. Besides, if the pack sucked, I could bitch about it here.


214 Renaldo Balkman RC
200 Adam Morrison RC
171 Mike James
109 Rafer Alston Red Parallel
235 Bill Russell
227 George Gervin


You know what, this pack wasn't half bad. Two rookies I had actually heard of, two legends and, well, not much else. Still, a 66% success rate is pretty good considering I haven't seriously followed the NBA since Mookie Blaylock was in a Hawks uni. Isiah Thomas caught a lot of shit for drafting Renaldo, but he looks like a pretty good bench player. The 'Stache didn't light it up his rookie year, but didn't really suck either. Rookies are nice, but I love the Old School players. Bill Russell is just plain awesome, although the card would be much cooler if he was posting up Wilt. My favorite though is the Ice Man, George Gervin in the sweet ABA Virginia Squires uniform with the WAAAY too short shorts.

I'll have to admit, I really like these cards. The schoolyard motif they used for all the backgrounds is actually pretty cool and is done much better than in that bizarre Topps Matrix set from a few years ago. That being said, this is probably the last pack of this I buy unless it turns up in a dollar box somewhere. I probably got damn lucky with this pack and I don't need to be wasting my money on this stuff when there's Goudey to buy. Still, it's worth snagging a few good commons from this set.