Too rich for my blood

I'd never begrudge anyone's financial ability to cull together a set of Upper Deck's ultra top-shelf 2006-07 The Cup release, but those who can will be the ones to decide whether it's worth the money. For $400 per four-card tin, though, you better.

The premium of this deep-pocket product is a bounty of autographed jersey patch cards. You'll get two per pack, including one rookie version, numbered, at the most, to 75, save for a number-specific rookie subset. There's even safety-deposit box 1-of-1s circulating: NHL shields, press plates and, get this, the nameplate off of a game-used stick.

I'll tell you what, though. there are some pretty sweet cards. Take another look at that Wayne Gretzky jersey numbers patch card. It fetched more than $440 in an eBay auction tonight. This Evgeni Malkin card? Try more than $650.

But for every gem, you're going to find others, despite their limited numbers (base cards are limited to 249), that will disappoint.

This product definitely appeals to a well-heeled collector. Speculators will take their chances, too. Me? I'm staying on the sidelines. Besides, $400 buys 200 pucks.

Summer chores

With all this time on my hands, it's a good idea to put away last year's bounty. This one, from the 2006-07 In the Game Heroes and Prospects, is one of the nicest. The swatch, a shoulder patch, comes from a Kelowna Rockets jersey worn by Tysen Dowzak.

Review: 2006-07 Be A Player

One of my consistent criticisms of Upper Deck's hockey products is how it's early-season products seldom show players traded at the deadline wearing the colors of their new teams. Apparently, someone at 5909 Sea Otter Place got the memo.

Tucked within its autograph-heavy 2006-07 Be A Player release are cards of some of those sent packing all decked out in their new duds: Then-Buffalo's Dainius Zubrus, then-Calgary's Brad Stuart, Pittsburgh's Georges Laraque and St. Louis' Brad Boyes.

Heck, UD put out not one, but two cards of Nashville's Peter Forsberg. Seeing that Foppa's a free agent, though, I wouldn't expect to see too many more of him as a Predator.

By including these cards, Upper Deck has raised the bar for this season's sets. From the low-end Victory brand to even its staple Series I, the omission of these new looks in any 2007-08 release would be taking a gigantic step backwards.

As usual, these cards pose preparation chores for hounds. Though the bottom strip of the card is ready to go, it's doubtful that many players would take the time to sign there. The photos are pretty glossy. An attempt to sign one straight from the pack led to nothing but bubbles. An Eraser or baby powder will be needed.

My biggest complaint with this product is sheer value. I'm not so sure the autographs I pulled are worth the near $100 price I paid. Beyond those cards, the autographs (the Band-Aid variety) came from Antero Niittymaki, Tom Poti, Tim Taylor, Kimmo Timonen and Vesa Toskala. Rookie cards were San Jose's Matt Carle and New Jersey's Travis Zajac.

Maybe I'm simply being greedy, believing that a memorabilia insert would make the box (eight packs of five cards, with an average of one auto per pack) a much better deal. I guess that's what happens when you're starved for hockey. Another lesson, I'm afraid, has been learned.

I'll pass next time.

Preview: 2006-07 Sweet Shot

As proof in the pudding that Upper Deck keeps trotting out pure drivel for hockey products, I present the company's latest offering, 2006-07 Sweet Shot.

A 100-card base set that mixes players past and present, I believe it's nothing more than a late-season cash grab that offers very little for collectors. Players moved at the trade deadline, such as Philadelphia's Martin Biron and St. Louis' Brad Boyes, are shown in their old uniforms. The cards, which come in a tin, also lack true rookies.

As is mostly the case with Upper Deck's late-season offerings, only diehard collectors, or those with an unlimited amount of disposable income, will likely find this product worth buying.

Please, not Upper Deck

Not that I'm any kind of antitrust overlord, but news that Upper Deck has made an unsolicited bid to buy the Topps Co. is truly unsettling. Market conditions have allowed Upper Deck to gobble up most of its competitors. Sadly, Topps could be its next, and biggest, conquest.

Allowing this deal would leave the industry with one, flippin' huge 1,764-pound gorilla. From a consumer's point of view, I want choices. Lots of them, too. As it stands, I can hardly voice my disapproval with Upper Deck by buying hockey products from competitors.

Though this deal will have its greatest impact on baseball cards, I believe that Upper Deck's track record in hockey, where it places a greater premium on high-end cards, provides a glimpse of things to come for baseball collectors.

I'll pass on the Parkies

If you like collecting cards of old-school players, the 2006-07 Parkhurst will be just the set for you. For me, though, it's a disappointment. Then again, I was spoiled last year. Not only did that set have 700 cards, meaning 13- to 14-card team sets, but they came autograph-ready. No erasing or other prep work. They are, by far, my favorite cards for hounding.

This year's release, however, takes a step back in time. Besides the big-name stars (Jean Beliveau, Bob Baun, Bobby Orr, etc.) of days long past, you'll also find cards for Boston's Willie O'Ree, Buffalo's Danny Gare (shown above), Calgary's Hakan Loob, Hartford's Kevin Dineen and New York's Reijo Ruotsalaine.

You can even get a card of ESPN's analyst Barry Melrose, from his days of coaching the Los Angeles Kings. Though the trademark mullet is in full bloom (and noticeably darker), it's a shame he's not wearing one of his zoot-suit pinstripe numbers.

Still, though, that's hardly enough to get me to buy a box. Even the promise, but no guarantee, of four autographed cards fails to inspire. The Enforcers subset elicits a yawn.

I can see producing an old-timers set, perhaps even using the Parkhurst name, during the lockout, but not now. I'm sure there is a market for this product, I'm just not in it.

Preview: 2006-07 SP Authentic

Given its stale photos, skimpy team sets and relatively weak Future Watch checklist, the 2006-07 SP Authentic is worthy of pausing before dropping big dollars. Yes, you stand a good chance of pulling a sweet autograph. Beyond that, though, I'm not so sure.

As usual, my biggest beef with this 100-card set is that it's another late-season product that fails to show traded players in their new uniforms. Case in point: St. Louis' Brad Boyes is shown playing for Boston, even though the product's so-called "release date" is three weeks later than the trade deadline.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, today's printing and distribution technology means, to me, nothing more than a lack of effort at Upper Deck. A last-minute seeding that freshens the lineup, even if it adds 72 hours to the production process, would certainly generate some urgency and, hopefully, create some positive press.

Thin teams sets are inherent to any 100-card offering. Take Tampa Bay's team set -- Vincent Lecavalier, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis. How many more cards do I need of them? I'm sure Lightning fans would have traded at least one of those guys for a Johan Holmqvist card. My trio would be Paul Ranger, Shane O'Brien and Holmqvist.

My final disappointment? The base Future Watch lineup. Other than Columbus' Fredrik Norrena and San Jose's Joe Pavelski, there's not much there. Even Phoenix's Enver Lisin, who bolted home to Moscow after 17 games earlier this season, has a card. Again, pretty thin.

Sabres collectors, however, should take note cards of five prospects: Mike Card, Adam Dennis, Michael Funk, Mikko Lehtonen (as a Predator) and Clarke MacArthur. The Flyers have five as well.

My advice: Check online auctions for must-have trophy cards, but wait for bargain bags of base sets to show up at stores.

Following up

On Monday, it seemed like New Jersey's Zach Parise, in what I found to be out of character for him, went out of his way to avoid signing autographs. Two days later, though, he was back to normal, signing these cards. He scored two goals in the Devils' 4-3 overtime victory over the Lightning last night, giving him six in four games so far this series.

Mr. Automatic

Hounding after hounding, New Jersey’s Sergei Brylin is one of the most consistent signers not only on the Devils, but in the league as well. To me, this is a pretty sweet card, the best of 37 signed this morning.

Another sweet pull

Every so often, when you least expect it, along comes a card that reminds you why you started collecting in the first place.

Years ago, it was all about getting your favorite player. Rookies didn't carry the premium they do today. Game-used memorabilia wasn't even on the drawing board. You got a stick of pink bubble gum.

These days, though, it's different. It's not uncommon to drop a couple hundred dollars on a rookie card. Game-used memorabilia is so common that even the most affordable box promises a card.

When you pull a card like this one -- a 2006-07 Fleer Hot Prospects Prized Prospects autographed jersey patch card of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, numbered 120/199 -- you know you've gotten something special.

Granted, the two-color patch comes from a jersey used in a photo shoot and the autograph is on a sticker, not the card itself. Something tells me, though, that I'll learn to live with that.

Wound up

It didn't take me long to get ready for New Jersey. Thirty minutes, if that, to cobble together a nearly full team set of cards and pack a handful of pucks. Now, all I have to do is wait until next Monday.

I don't have that much left for the Devils, mostly players I haven't seen this season -- Scott Clemmensen, Scott Gomez, Patrik Elias, Paul Martin, Jay Pandolfo and Brian Rafalski. And, yes, I have that blocker for Martin Brodeur.

Given the chance, I'll get the Zach Parise cards signed, too. I've been using this setup -- photo corners on a spiral-bound 4x6 notecard book -- for years. Very discreet and you can present up to four cards at a time.

Thanks Easter Bunny!

Among the eggs, jelly beans and chocolate bunny in my Easter basket this morning were two retail packs of 2006-07 Fleer Showcase.

This jersey swatch card of Dallas' Ladislav Nagy, shown from his days in the Arizona desert, was inside the first pack I opened.

The swatch, I believe, is from an older Phoenix Coyotes sweater -- the days of the black-plum (or was it eggplant?)-sand-and-who-knows-what-other-colors geometric howler -- not the current more-aesthetically-correct uniforms.

Parkhurst takes a step back

An advertising insert inside a box of 2006-07 Bee Hive, featuring Numbah Fo-ah, Bobby Or-ah, promises the Spring 2007 release of Parkhurst. It sounds like it'll be taking a step up (four autos, on average, per box means more $$$) and away ("your favorite players from yesteryear!") from last year's effort. No release date, yet, from Upper Deck.

It makes me believe that the 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee is, indeed, the monster set of the season. Last season's Parkhurst ranks as my favorite -- lots of cards, huge team sets and Sharpie-ready.

And, for those of you keeping score, that insert came out of my box. I broke down and got one. My review been updated.

Left to ponder

I have this theory about hounding that the deeper you get into a regular season, the fewer autographs you'll receive. Teams in contention for the playoffs are focused on the tasks at hand. Those out of the running are mentally planning their vacations.

Adding to it, I suppose, are that players are simply tired of being hounded for autographs.

This morning's session with the Carolina Hurricanes, which added four pucks and four cards to the collection, only supports my theory.

Though they still have a chance of making the playoffs, most of the players who stopped to sign -- Rod Brind'Amour (on the puck shown above), Cory Stillman, Scott Walker and John Grahame, among a handful of others -- seemed aloof. Requests to Erik Cole, Andrew Ladd, Tim Gleason, Frantisek Kaberle and Anson Carter all fell on deaf ears as they boarded hotel vans.

The biggest mystery, however, was the whereabouts of Eric Staal and Cam Ward. Not one of the 20-plus people out this morning saw either of the recognizable Hurricanes stars. Perhaps a season's worth of hounding has led the pair to find alternative exits at the hotel.

Either way, I'm beginning to think that the best hounding comes early in a season. Hopefully, I'll remember that next season.

Review: UD's 2006-07 Beehive

One of the problems with late-season card sets is they seldom reflect what has happened within the second half of the season. Take Upper Deck's latest offering, the 2006-07 Beehive, for example.

Let's see. Nashville's Peter Forsberg is still in his Flyers uniform. Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi is shown in one of his rare games with the Panthers. The Islanders' Ryan Smyth is, yep, you guessed it, shown with the Oilers. I'm sorry, but given today's technology, I believe there's plenty of time to show, at this stage of the season, players with their new teams.

Couple that with a 100-card set, featuring nothing but top-name players, and Upper Deck has produced another yet product that disappoints. At first, I said I would going to pass on this product. A trip to the card store, under the guise of needing rookie toploaders, was my undoing. Another lesson learned, I suppose.

Granted, there are plenty of variations, including 5 x 7 cards, autographs (including such old-timers as Patrick Roy, Ray Bourque and Tony Esposito) and scrap-filled memorabilia cards. I don't want to sound ungrateful, but my pulls were far from that lineup. Mine was Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom. Thrilling, huh? The autograph card? Chicago's Rene Bourque (not a sticker autograph, either).

The 60-card rookie subset, too, offers the usual suspects -- Boston's Phil Kessel, Colorado's Paul Statsny, Los Angeles' Anze Kopitar, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal and San Jose's Matt Carle, Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic.

Though I didn't pull a true rookie card of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, I did find the parallels shown above in my box. Buffalo's Drew Stafford and Nashville's Alexander Radulov stood out among the true rookie cards.

I do applaud Upper Deck for a kind of quirky innovation. Most card sets I have compile the teams in alphabetical order, beginning with Anaheim. The Beehive base set simply reverses the order, beginning with Washington's Alexander Ovechkin as card No. 1.

That, in itself, is not enough, though, to lift the Beehive product out of the scrap heap of disappointment that Upper Deck and its various nameplates have produced this season.

The mall crawl

After our Dinosaur World adventure earlier today, Colin and I found ourselves walking through the mall in Brandon. Who do we see walking in front of us? Tampa Bay goalie Johan Holmqvist, his wife and their two children.

Colin tried to say hello. Holmqvist, apparently, didn't hear him. That didn't stop his daughter, though, from picking a horse next to Colin on the mall's merry-go-round.

I didn't know what to say. After last night's 5-2 loss to Florida, in which Holmqvist was charged with two goals in a period of mop-up duty for starter Marc Denis, any form of congratulations would have been gratuitous.

And I certainly didn't ask him to autograph anything, seeing that he signed this card (shown above) for us yesterday.

Go figure

Wanna know just how strict Florida’s Ed Belfour enforces his one-card rule? Though he signed this card, he refused Colin’s request to sign a blank Florida Panthers team sheet.

It's a small world

In the grand scheme of things, getting a couple cards signed by New York Islanders' defensemen Freddy Meyer isn't a really big deal. What is kinda cool, though, is the fact that we have both lived in Rochester, N.H.

Though he signed cards from his time with the Philadelphia Flyers, he said he's happy with the move to Long Island.

"I'm getting a lot more playing time," Freddy said.

Addendum: Take a closer look at the cards. The O-Pee-Chee card spells his first name as Frederick. The Upper Deck card spells it Fredrick. His profile at NHL.com offers his full name - Frederick Meyer IV.

Review: 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee hockey

As much as it pains me, I have to give Upper Deck some credit for this 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee set. Aside from my standard complaint about the shiny surfaces, it's exactly what I expected -- it's a decent product for collectors.

Not only is there a big set (700 cards) to chase, including a 100-card Marquee Rookies subset (I pulled 19 out of each the two boxes I bought), but there's a nice twist to an old concept of multiplayer cards.

The so-called Showdown card features a 2006-07 rookie and a second-year player. It's my guess, too, that the one with Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby (the middle of the three shown above) will draw some interest. Can you imagine getting both players to sign that card?

The memorabilia cards are nice, but nondescript. It's affordable, too, with a box fetching between $36 and $52 in card stores. You don't have to worry about duplicates, either. Out of the two boxes, only 11 of 432 cards were doubles. That's pretty good, if you ask me.

If there's a knock on this set, it has to be directed at the photography. Very few cards I've seen show compelling action. In fact, some look like they were shot during warm-ups. For a set that carries a name so steeped in hockey card history, a little extra effort by Upper Deck's photo editors would have been appreciated.

Try getting this set signed

It looks like Upper Deck is borrowing from the Topps Total concept from a few years ago with its upcoming 700-card offering, 2006-07 O-Pee-Chee. (Patience is required.)

A 500-card base set, plus a 100-card Marquee Rookies subset, will be the biggest set of the season. And, for the record, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin (shown at left, from Upper Deck's Web site) is card #564.

One of the nice things about a set this size is the inclusion of everyday players into the lineup. Among others, you'll find cards for Boston's Mark Mowers, Buffalo's Adam Mair, Detroit's Andreas Lilja, Minnesota's Wyatt Smith, Ottawa's Tom Preissing and Tampa's Nolan Pratt.

Besides Malkin, the rookie lineup includes, as expected, Boston's Phil Kessel, Los Angeles' Anze Kopitar, Montreal's Guillaume Latendresse, Nashville's Alexander Radulov, Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal and San Jose's fuzz-faced trio of Matt Carle, Joe Pavelski and Marc-Edouard Vlasic

Despite Upper Deck's Feb. 27 release date, a Tampa Bay-area card dealer, who I spoke with yesterday at a Toronto Blue Jays spring training game, told me that he's getting the cards next week.