My Five Favorite: Martin Brodeur Game Used Cards

Continuing with my Martin Brodeur week in honor of his career and announcing his retirement, I am showing off my five favorite game used cards in my Broduer PC. Now, bare in mind, most of the game used cards in my collection are pretty boring. One color swatches of fabric that may or may not have been used in an actual game. I prefer to think of it all as game used, just to say I have something that my favorite player wore or used in an actual game. And besides, ignorance is bliss.

Also, the collection is pretty small, like I mentioned yesterday. Brodeur has gotten to be a pretty pricey player to collect. Comes with being considered one, if not, the greatest goalies to ever play the game. When you have 20 records as a goalie in the NHL, then I'd pretty much just hand you the title of greatest goalie ever, with apologies to fans of Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Terry Sawchuk and Bernie Parent.

So, here are my five favorite cards:

5-2001-02 SPx Hockey's Treasures Game Used Stick And Jersey

The reason why this card means a lot to me is because it was my very first Brodeur game used card. I bought it a while back at the Westchester Sports Card show and paid $20.00 for it. I probably overpaid for it, but all I knew was I wanted to seriously collect Brodeur and I was buying as much Brodeur stuff at the show that I could. I think I only bought a few more base cards. But I came home with this gem as well.

4-2006-07 Bee Hive Matted Materials Game Used Jersey

This was an eBay purchase. I always like my jersey cards to have more than one color in them if I can help it. That's what drew me to this card. It's predominately white, but there is a touch of red in it. Plus, the price was pretty low because the seller misspelled Brodeur's last name in the listing. It always pays to check any variations of a player's name you can think of.

3- 2008-09 Upper Deck Ice Frozen Fabrics Dual Jersey

 
Another eBay purchase. And for the same reason as the Bee Hive card. I just love game used cards that have more than one color in it. This one is split red and white 50/50. Hey, I don't have a lot of high end Brodeur cards, so I find joy in my cards regardless of price or piece of material used.

2- 2007-08 SPx Winning Combos Martin Brodeur/ Patrick Roy Dual Game Used Jersey

One of the few Brodeur game used cards I actually pulled or had pulled for me from a group break. This one may be just one color swatches, but they are jerseys from two of the greatest goalies in NHL history. Anytime you can get two of the greatest on one card, it's a win.

1- 2010-11 Artifacts Tundra Trios Martin Broduer/Zach Parise/Patrik Elias Game Used Triple Patch Card

This one is my pride and joy of my Brodeur game used collection. This one was not cheap either. I made a trade with a fellow member of tradingcardcentral.com for this beauty. The price was an Evgeni Malkin autographed card I pulled from a box of Upper Deck Ice. The guy I traded with wasn't sure if that card was enough for what he was giving up, but agreed to make the trade. I am still very happy to have this beauty in my collection. The Elias patch is the only one that's not a triple colored piece, but I really don't care. This would have been out of my price range and I cannot thank the trader enough for trading this to me.

There you have it. My five favorite pieces from my Brodeur game used card collection. Hopefully over time I can pick up more pieces to grow my collection. I'm sure now that he's retired the prices will go up. But when you are a fan of a player, you will find ways to add new pieces to your collection and I'm no exception. Trades, purchasing, it doesn't matter. Anytime I can add a new Brodeur piece, I'm taking the plunge.

My First Derek Jeter Pick Up

When I first got back into collecting cards back in 2003, one of the players I wanted to collect was Derek Jeter. At that point, Jeter was already an all time great. He had won 4 World Championships, was a World Series and an All Star Game MVP. He was at the top of his popularity, Which was why collecting Jeter was, and still is quite difficult.

Want an autographed baseball? Prepare to shell out over $300.00. His autographed cardboard routinely goes for anywhere from $100.00 to $300.00. Even his game used cards are priced at a premium these days.

Back in 2003, I went to the Hofstra Sports Card show on Long Island. I was looking for anything Yankees, like I still do. I just went in without a game plan and dove into boxes and looked until I found something I wanted and bought it.

On this day, I found this card at a table that had a bunch of other patch cards. I was pretty uneducated about cards, especially patch cards and paid what the lady asked without negotiating. These days, I would have tried to haggle her down from the 30.00 I paid.

Still, regardless of what I paid, it's my very first Jeter pick up as well as my first patch card and it remains in my collection. It's one of my favorite cards in my Jeter collection and I don't see myself parting with it anytime soon. I have since added cards to my Jeter collection, but this one is my favorite.

Tuesdays With Teixeira: 2005 Donruss Zenith Patch Card

So, the 2014 season has started out like the 2013 season did. Teixeira winds up on the DL. Thankfully, it's not his wrist, just a hamstring issue and thankfully it's not for the whole season, just 15 days. Still, I was really hoping for a bounce back season from Tex. Not that his spring training numbers left me with a whole lot of confidence, especially when he said his wrist may never be 100% again. Sheesh.

I haven't really been picking up any game used cards as of late, with the whole rumor going around that some of the jerseys may not be game used at all. But when I saw this 3 color patch card on eBay, I knew I had to have it. It's also numbered to 100, so that made it even more appealing to me. Plus, I loved the Zenith cards. The foil can be an issue though. They peel off rather easily, so you have to handle these cards with kids gloves.

The Yankees got slaughtered at home today, 14-5. Ivan Nova was rocked early and the bullpen just couldn't stop the Orioles onslaught all day long. Hopefully, Teixeira can get back soon because the Yankees are going to need him in the middle of that lineup sooner than later.

What Would I Spend $1,600.00 On?

One thing I love to do is to search the internet and find new blogs to read. I came across a blog called Drop The Gloves. There is a bat around blog where you are asked one question: How Would You Spend $1,600 For Cards On eBay? Here is the link to the blog: http://www.fightstrap.com/blog/2013/04/19/marathon-bombers-boston-and-a-contest/

 Admittedly, I had a hard whittling down the list I came up with. I came up with so many cool cards. Cards I have always wanted to add to my PC's, but after playing around with the list a bit, I was able to come up with 3 cards I would kill to have in my collections. They cover teams and players I collect, both vintage and modern. Here are the three cards I chose

1-2010-11 Mike Bossy UD The Cup Base Patch Parallel # 1/10-Buy It Now-149.99

I have autographs and game used cards in my Bossy PC. But I do not have a patch card in my collection. The one I chose has a gorgeous three color patch from what was the home uniform. Back when I first started watching hockey many, many moons ago, the whites were the home and the colored were the road unis. I miss those days.

2-2008 UD Premier Bat Barrel Mark Texieira-Buy It Now $449.99

I know. For that price, I could probably own a whole Teixeira game used bat. But since we are just spending our theoretical $1,600.00 on cards, this would be one card I would absolutely love to own. I'm betting this was a piece of a bat used from his days as a Texas Ranger, but I do not care. I have always wanted to own a bat barrel card and the chance to own one from one of my favorite players would be too good to pass up.

3-1965 Topps Joe Namath Rookie PSA 4.5-Buy It Now $990.00 

The number one card I have to buy before any other would be a 1965 Topps Joe Namath rookie card, the card to own from the 1960's. Originally, I was looking for a raw card as I generally do not collect slabbed cards. But the ones I saw were not in great shape, not that a grade 4.5 is. But this one looks better than the others and at the Buy It Now price, I could still pick up the other 2 cards for my collection. This card would be the centerpiece of my New York Jets PC.

So, there you have it. the 3 cards I would pick up if I could spend $1,600.00 on cards on eBay. I'm sure I probably could have gotten more if I played around some more, but if we are talking quality, then I don't think I could have picked a better 3 cards to add to my collection. Maybe one day, I will be able to. But for now, I will drool over these pictures. 

My Five Favorite PC Cards: David Lee

I am a huge New York Knicks fan. I have been since the 1982-83 season. I have cheered for players like Ewing, King, Oakley, Richardson, Starks, Jackson, Houston, Marbury, Amar'e, and Anthony. I have cheered this team when they were great, I cheered this team when they were bad. I have always supported my Knicks.

Tonight, The Knicks won the Atlantic Division crown and the magic number for sewing up the number 2 seed in the playoffs is down to 2. As I celebrate this achievement, I find myself looking out west and keeping an eye on the Golden State Warriors, who right now are in for the 6th seed, yet haven't locked up a playoff spot. I am hoping they do soon. My current favorite player is on that team and I would like to see him get to the playoffs as well.

As you can guess, I am talking about David Lee. I have followed his career since his first year in the NBA. This guy was, and still is, good for a double-double every night. He hustled, fought for the ball, and was one of the better rebounders in the league. I remember in a double overtime against the Bobcats, he scored the game winning basket on a tip in with 0.1 seconds left on the game clock. He got better every year, but for some strange reason, when his contract was up, the Knicks signed Amar'e Stoudmire, he of bum knees and bad back and traded Lee to the Warriors. I consider that one of the dumbest moves the Knicks made in a while. Lee has averaged 18.6 points a game with 11.30 rebounds per game this season, while Amar'e has been injured much of the season. I know a lot of people like to say the Knicks don't get Carmelo Anthony if Lee is a Knick, which I disagree with. Anthony wanted to come here and would have even if Lee was here. My only fear is Lee would have been included in that deal.

I started collecting Lee cards during his time with the Knicks. I have kind of stopped because I focused on other things, but would still pick up the occasional card here and there. Lee is very affordable, so I know I can, and will, start picking up a lot of his cards in the very near future.

Here are my 5 favorite cards in my David Lee collection.

I'm a huge fan of patch cards. I love the Knick colors and I think they look great on card. Here's a pretty nice one. I picked this up off eBay pretty cheap. In fact, almost all of the David Lee prime cards (autographs and game used) I picked up were under 10.00, with the exception of 1, which I will show later.

This one is one of the more recent cards I picked up. Gorgeous 3 color patch. Love how the orange, white and road blue look on this card. Saw it and had to have it.

Love this Topps Front Row autograph. The silver card with the Knicks logo behind Lee in the background looks great...and shiny. I like shiny cards. Lee's autograph is a simple D-Lee, which is fine because that's his nickname. Of course, you want the full name, but I have seen worse autographs.

This Upper Deck Trilogy Signs Of Stardom is one of my very favorites because it was the very first David Lee autograph I picked up. Real cheap too.

This is my favorite David Lee Card. As you all know, Exquisite is one of the more expensive cards you can buy. I have seen this card on eBay recently for about 120.00. Remember when I said there was one card I paid over 10.00 for? This was the one and I paid the astonishing price of 12.00. How I got that deal, I will never know but I am happy it's in my collection.

I want to add more Lee to the collection. I do not have a card of him in a Golden State uni. My original intent was to collect his Knicks cards, but I am willing to grab some Golden State ones as well. I would love to add an autographed Knicks jersey, signed ball, 16x20 signed photo and maybe a game used shoe, signed.  Maybe one day I can. I have been hunting for a Lee jersey or T-shirt, Knicks, that I can wear and replace my Marbury jersey. Yes, I have a Marbury jersey.

Go Knicks!