As a generally messy and disorganized person whose filing system consists of stacking everything in one giant pile until it's been there so long that I can't possibly need it anymore and I can throw it away, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that I've let my Zistle inventory become hopelessly out of date. I'm in the midst of trying to fix that now, which means hours of checking, scanning and entering.
But since I have so many new scans on my computer now, I figured I'd milk 'em for some posts, too. I'll start with an assortment of random Steve Yzerman cards, whose the only guy I seriously player collect. According to Zistle, I'm up to 272 unique cards of his so far. Here's a few of them:
One of my favorite Yzerman base cards is from 1997-98 Score, which is more unique than most Stanley Cup cards. Instead of capturing the on ice celebration, these -- and a bunch of other Red Wings cards in the set -- all appear to have been taken during the team parade through Detroit. I like the card so much that I've been trying to track down its various parallels and variations. The first one here is a "platinum" version. It's from a team set that Score produced, so the number is different from the others. I'm not sure if the platinum team card is meant to be a parallel to the regular team-set card, or if it's a separate team set altogether. Either way, it looks nice in hand and scans even better. The second of the three is one of Score's "Golden Blades" parallels. It's basically a very shiny/chrome-y version of the base card. And the third is from a promo set that Score apparently produced, although I can't find much information about it. What's odd about this one is that there appear to be two logos superimposed onto Yzerman's shirt -- a Red Wings logo, which is underneath a Stanley Cup logo. I have no idea what was going on here....Was Score testing something? Or are the logos airbrushed off of the other cards? It's a mystery...
While the Cup wins are obviously the biggest moments of his career, the biggest goal of Yzerman's career was probably the double-overtime game-seven game-winner he scored (after stealing the puck from Wayne Gretzky) to beat the St. Louis Blues during the 1996 Western Conference semifinals. That's the moment this holographic card celebrates. Part of a small set Upper Deck produced during the 1997-98 season called "Diamond vision," it's actually very thick and the hologram, while it doesn't scan very well, is really well done. This is actually a "Signature Moves" parallel, marked by the replica signature that's just barely visible in the center of the card. (Incidentally, my absolute favorite Yzerman base card is from 1996-97 Upper Deck which also captures this exact moment.)
A few Stadium Club examples, plus a Stadium Club Chrome parallel. All four are nice enough, but none are really the fantastic images that Stadium Club is usually known for. It's too bad Upper Deck has an exclusive license for the NHL now; I'd really like to see Topps reintroduce this brand for hockey like it has for baseball.
Here's yet another great base card. It's from a set called Upper Deck Foundations that was released during 2002-03. I can't find much information about the set online, so I'm not sure what the theme or gimmick was. But scanning through the set on COMC, there are a bunch of other cool images from the '70s and '80's. I'd like to bust a box of this someday.
A handful of die-cuts. The 2002 Atomic is the nicest-looking. The All-Star card is a neat design, too, although it's only a matter of minutes before one of those points gets dinged.
The Authentic Moments subsets that have been included in SP Authentic the past three years feature some of the best photography. There's actually quite a bit of overlap between the images used in these cards and the ones depicted in the Signature Renditions line, which might be the subject of a future post. This one celebrates Yzerman's historic '88-89 season when he scored 65 goals and assisted on 90 others -- and finished third in the scoring race. It's easy to imagine all the hardware he would have won over his career if he hadn't played at the same time was Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. By the way, there's also a gold-ink autograph parallel of this card that looks absolutely amazing. I haven't been able to snag a copy myself, though, and they seem to have largely disappeared from eBay, unfortunately.
Here's a great concept to get around a lack of licensing. It's from 2010-11 Enshrined, a set ITG produced to commemorate players who have been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. (Get it?) The card is printed on extra thick stock, giving it a premium feel.
I want to love this card, I really do. It's part of a small insert set Topps produced in 2003 depicting a handful of stars -- Ron Francis, Brett Hull, Patrick Roy and Mario Lemieux -- on the card designs one year before their actual rookie cards. So Steve Yzerman, whose actual rookie card is part of 1984-85 Topps/OPC, is pictured on the 1983-84 design. All of the cards in the set are from designs used in the 1980's, which is basically targeted right at me. But here's the problem: They're all printed on slick, modern card stock. It totally ruins the effect. I'm not sure why they couldn't have used old-school cardboard for these. What a missed opportunity.
I have no idea what's happening here, but it's a great photo.
Random but good. (Check out that early '90's fashion!)
Random but awful. He looks like he's guest-starring on Saved by the Bell.
Random but god-awful. He looks like he's guest-starring on To Catch a Predator.
The Captain and the Cup.
A couple of the more odd insert concepts I've come across. The Lamplighters card has actual mesh in the center of it, presumably to simulate a hockey net. The Time Capsule runs on on Windows 98.
Nose-picking Brett Hull photo bomb.
Here's an insert from a really nice retro set that Topps did in '03-04 based on a nearly 100-year-old cigarette card design. Another reminder of how nice it would be if Topps still had a hockey license along with Upper Deck.
1980's O-Pee-Chee sticker. Never really collected the stickers as a kid, so these don't resonate with me quite the same way as actual '80s cards.
To wrap up this post, here are three sunset cards from 2006-07 releases. I love the look of the Flair Showcase, which is one of at least four Yzerman cards in that set. I'm pretty sure the other three are short prints, though, so I haven't been able to track them down yet. My favorite of this trio is probably the gold medallion Fleer Ultra parallel, solely because it includes full career stats on the back. One of my many -- many -- collecting goals is to obtain all of Yzerman's sunset cards at some point.
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