Kool Kuzy & Co. Kards From The KHL

And now, the finale of my Russian hockey purchases.  First, the extra ones that the seller included for free...

These are a series called Two Worlds - One Game from SeReal in 2012-13.

Other player Celebrations, also from 2012-13.

And some of the All-Star Kings from the same year.  Gotta love the figure skaters.  Any of these above are for trade.

 

From BY cards, this is from the 2016 IIHF World Championships.  Team Russia won the bronze.

Here's Kuznetsov and a couple of his Capital pals from the 2019 IIHF World Championship.  All three from Team Russia, who took bronze again.

The back of Ovie's...

 

This one is also from 2019, and is serial numbered to only 22.  I saw another one of these for sale on COMC along with some of the base cards I've shown.  My advice, go to my Latvian friends on eBay instead.  The prices are a lot better.

Jumping back to 2012-13, here are three different All-Star jersey cards, each serial numbered at a different level.  Hockey swatches are so often more colorful than the other sports, and these jerseys are excessively varied and bright.

 

Front and back of a GU of Kuzy's regular season uniform from Traktor Chelyabinsk,  serialized to 300.

 

And finally, a 2013-14 double swatch from the Gagarin Cup Final series.  Dude ~ Yankees?  Really? 

Hope you enjoyed this look at my import hockey haul.  It's quite a collection of Evgeny, but I'm not sure I'll fill out the rest of his NHL cards.  They're kinda mundane in comparison. 😀

Pasteboard Power Tour 2022: Greencastle PA

The day after the visit to the Bel Air shop, we went back through Westminster and Taneytown to visit a few of the antique shops that we saw on the way the day before.  None of them had any significant cards, so I'll move on to Thursday.  

One shop we were anticipating visiting for the first time was Kevin's Cards in Greencastle.  He had had a big booth in Rocky Ridge Collectibles near Maugansville, MD, but that place was shut down and will be replaced with a soft drink warehouse or something.  Kevin opened his new shop a few months ago, but I hadn't had the chance to see it until now.

I pictured a retail storefront, but the shop is actually just a space on the back side of a shopping center with one window and a door into the entryway.  The main part of the shop is an enclosed space with several rack shelves and some counters.  Here's the view as you come in the door, though this must be an early shot, because the shelves look a bit sparse compared to when we were there.

And there's a bit more around to the right.  That's where I started digging...

Some of the boxes are marked as vintage or certain years.  A lot of the others are just 25¢, 50¢, or $1 by sport, which is the same as in the old space.  Just here there are more of them!

I started with the vintage football...

He's always had those distinctive price tags over the top of each's card's penny sleeve or sheet pocket (sometimes both - I like to return the pockets and holders for "recycling" when I come back).  

Was very happy to find that Cam Newton - it's the final card for that 2011 Topps Legends set.

Stuart found those Cal Ripkens from 1996 SP.  It always adds to the fun when you're with another collector friend and you go back and forth with "Do you still need any of these?" "You ever get this one?" etc.

Another couple set killers - the Luis Bob 2030 was the elusive finish to those, Yordan killed my 2020 Heritage needs except for the Ernie Banks inserts in the high series, and Judge finally knocked out those 5-Tools from 2017 Topps.  (Still need some of the '87s, Gold Gloves, Silver Sluggers, All-Star MVPs, and HRD champs...)  The others are Heritage short prints, header cards, or serial numbered rookies that I didn't expect to find soon.

One unfortunate bonus pickup I got was a dry cough that the owner had (wasn't COVID) that I'm just now getting over completely.  Spending all that time in an enclosed space will lead to that sometimes.

So that wraps up this shop.  The last couple days were at the big show in Chantilly, VA.

Make Less War And More Hockey Cards

Next round of Russian Hockey cards I got from Alaicans on eBay starts with 2012-13 and are going to be all Evgeny Kuznetsov.

This year the silver and gold paralles are a bit more obvious with the foil emblems across the photos.  Gold ones are serial numbered.  The backs are all the same.

There is a subset of Celebrations, which you'll see more of later.

A couple stat leader cards.  Nice to see the home and away uniforms for Traktor Chelyabinsk.

 

Each year there is usually a set of stickers issued along with the regular card sets.

These All-Star cards were in the first batch I got, but I'm showing them again for a complete idea of each year's cards.

On to 2013-14.  Similar design and parallel styles.

 

A game card that reminds me of the Attax that Topps put out a few years ago, which makes sense, since their logo shows up on these.

Now we're really getting fancy.  This year's All-Stars are very shiny with silver foil on the base, gold and red on the parallels, both of which are serial numbered.

Same with the Fastest Skaters.

 

Logo "puzzle" cards are neat.  There's a 9 card set for each team.  These are built for pages and binders.

 

Under The Flag inserts - players from the different countries.

I'm gonna cut it here since that's the last of his regular cards.  The next ones he has are in a Capitals uniform on American cardboard.  

The last post will be the coolest stuff.  Gamers and extra cards.

Pasteboard Power Tour 2022: Bel Air, MD

Tuesday brought what turned out to be the highlight of the week.  Stuart sent me a link to the Bel Air Sports Cards shop a while back and I put it on the list immediately while planning our tour.

It's about an hour and a half drive from my house, straight through Westminster and around the top of the Baltimore beltway.  It was well worth the trip.  I will be going back often.

Just inside the door, there is a big area of monster boxes of recent singles by sport, and a wall full of older sets.  Further in is the Card Bar, a long counter where you take your boxes and sift through them or break your wax.  They even offer free sodas and Gatorades, which helped me because Stuart never takes meal breaks in the middle of the day when we're in a shop.

Behind the counter (to the right in the photo above) there are several more rows of inserts and other singles, and at the far end are even more.  Vintage, 80's, 90's, 2000's +, they have it all.  They're open from 11 AM to 6:30 PM Tuesday thru Friday and 10-4 / 12-4 on the weekends.  The late close on the weekdays works well for me coming from such a distance - I don't have to get up before the sun.

Anyway, on to the loot!  I dug through mostly the insert boxes, but found a bit of everything.  And I'm sure I didn't get through all they had out.  And there is a whole back room that they can pull stuff from as well!

I attacked the big box of 1957 Topps they had early.  Most were $3 each and really nice.  

Stuart pitched in and dug me out all these baseball from 2003 Topps, 2004 Topps Fan Favorites, and 2006 Greats Of The Game.

I'm pretty sure I found these in their vintage football too.  I can't confirm that 100%, but I'm pretty confident.  I had stacked these up after the week was over and couldn't match them to the other stuff.  The price tags are similar enough to the '57s that I think I'm right.  Volney was an upgrade.  (He could be from somewhere else too).

Then I got into the football insert boxes.  I think I went through six or eight three row units.  Found a ton of this Prestige set including that Zeke insert I got before.  When I settled up, he just gave the totals to the big stacks I had, so I didn't have an itemized list, but these were most likely a quarter each.

More Prestige and then 2015 Score.  And a few of those crazy 2009 Philadelphia inserts. Knocking out listings left and right.

Some of the earlier 2000's inserts I've been after, and all the way back to the late 90's.  Plus an early 90's Joe Montana header card. Some of those E/X Centurys I put on my favorite sets list.

Among all those inserts I kept finding Washington football cards that I didn't have as well.  I actually brought my whole list binder and looked them up as I went.  Probably saved me several dollars and a few dozen dupes.

And finally, some non-sports that I got from them - but actually at the Chantilly show over the following weekend.  I've got about a dozen scans from that show, so I'll put these here.  They had every one of the remaining Charlie's Angels I had on my list.  But I messed up - #109 should have been #108, which was an upgrade anyway.  Will confirm that later.

Like I said, this is a great place to go digging for singles, which is what I like best about card shopping.  It's too bad I've shunned so much of the current year's offerings, I'd have spent a lot more time in the front area with the base cards.  But I still know that I'll have to go back a couple times before I'll have any idea that I've seen most of what they have to offer.  If you're in the area, stop in and sit at the Card Bar with Mel & the boys....