Five random cards

Like just about everyone else in the hobby, I frequently pick up cards that don't fall in any of player, team or set focuses but are ones I just really like. So this is a post to show off a few of those.

Card #1: 2013-14 Upper Deck #117 -- Jonathan Toews

Acquired: Local card shop common box

Price: 50 cents

This is the card that made me want to do this post. It's one of my absolute favorites in my collection, even though I'm not a particularly big fan of Toews, the Blackhawks or 13-14 Upper Deck. There are lots and lots of pieces of cardboard that feature the Stanley Cup. But I don't think I've ever seen one at this angle, where you staring directly into the bowl. I can't be sure, but it sure looks like this photo was snapped at the exact moment Toews took the Cup from Bettman. 

Card #2: 1995-96 Score #70 -- Ron Tugnutt

Acquired: Repack

Price: $3.99 (for the 100-card repack)

Ron Tugnutt is one of those guys I always rooted for as a kid. He played an some abysmal Quebec Nordiques teams and always seemed to have games where he'd make like 50 saves and still lose. He's one of those guys whose cards I tend to pull whenever I came across them. This one was especially surprising, because I use to really dislike mid-1990's Score cards. But it turns out, some of them are really nice. For another example, check out the Petr Nedved card from the same set.

Card #3: 1995-96 Upper Deck #539 -- Hnat Domenichelli (Electric Ice parallel)

Acquired: Sportlots

Price: 18 cents

Since the inaugural Upper Deck release, I have been a sucker for the annual World Junior Championships subset. I'm slowly picking away at most of the base set cards from the early and mid-1990's. Though Hnat (note: great hockey player name!) never became more than a fringe NHL'er, this is one of my favorites for the sheer joy it captures on cardboard.

Card: 2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #42 -- Mats Sundin

Acquired: Local card shop

Price: $7.99 (For a discount blaster)

I picked up a blaster of 2013 Goodwin about six months ago just to have something to open. I didn't think much of the product and I've traded or given away everything from it -- except this one card, which I inexplicably love. I think it's the old-world buildings behind him, which I assume is the old inner city in Quebec City, one of the most beautiful spots in North America. There's an autographed parallel of this that I'd love to pick up someday. 

Card #5: 1991-92 Pro Set #CC1 -- NHL Entry Draft

Acquired: Card show dime box

Price: 10 cents

I've always really enjoyed the NHL draft, both reading about prospects leading up to it and the actual event itself, which is a hive of activity as teams trade players and make picks. I suspect it has something to do with the fact that an imagined future, where every prospect develops as projected and your team becomes the NHL's next great dynasty, is sometimes more appealing than the realities of the present. This card depicts the floor of the old Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo during the 1991 Entry Draft. It was an especially momentous draft -- the one where the Nordiques picked Eric Lindros first overall against his wishes. Lindros, who refused to don the team's sweater that day, sat out of the NHL before he was traded a year later to the Philadelphia Flyers in one of the biggest trades in sports history.