jagrnyr68
07-19-2009, 01:23 AM
There are many cards that I have that can be considered favorites, but I have two that definitely stand above them all. Going back to 2001, I was only in 2nd grade, so I didn’t know that much about the hobby. I recently bought my first hockey beckett that had Ilya Kovalchuk and Jason Spezza pictured on the front, and I looked at this thing 24/7. I would look up prices to my cards that usually came from 00-01 Victory and 00-01 Topps. Well I always went by 01-02 Upper Deck and saw that Ilya Kovalchuk’s RC was at $60, which I thought was outrageous because it only came 1:4 packs. Well one day, my older brother and I got out of school and hour early and I got a 01-02 Upper Deck pack. This was my first pack from the year, actually my first Upper Deck pack ever believe it or not, and I waited until we got into the car to open it. I usually look at the back of the last card first, and this pack happened to show Ilya Kovalchuk’s picture. I immediately freaked out and quickly went through the cards to see this masterpiece:
http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/jagrnyr68/PC/Nate127-2.jpg
01-02 ILYA KOVALCHUK UPPER DECK YG RC #211
I think my exact words were “O MY GOD! AN ILYA KOVALCHUK RC, THIS CARD IS $60!” Of course, neither my mom or older brother believed me, but I carried my beckett to school so I took it out and showed them. There was always a competition of cards, so when I got this, my brother was ****** at I don’t think he talked to me for the rest of the day. As soon as I got home I showed it to my dad, who was pretty impressed that it was worth that much. This pull was my favorite because it was my first card that I pulled that was over $25 and it got me into starting a collection of Kovalchuk.
We take a trip in time forward about five months to around Christmas time. I was still amazed I got the Kovalchuk and I couldn’t stop taking it out of one of my boxes to look at it. Of course, I got mostly cards for Christmas and a lot of spending money. Usually after Christmas, we go to Rochester and check out some of the card stores, and this time we went to a place called Fumbles. I loved this place because they used to have game-used cards for $5 a piece, something I liked a lot because I didn’t have access to that many game-used cards. Well of course I had about $50 to spend and decided to go with some packs. I was really eyeing the 01-02 Titanium Draft Day Edition, 1 jersey and rookie in every pack for $15. I said why not, and he let me pick out the pack. I knew there was some chance of a hit or miss but I thought I would do decent with a new jersey to add to my collection. I got to the van and opened it up without looking at the back this time and looked at the first card…….Patrick Lalime jersey…..ouch. But then I went to the next card and out comes this beauty:
http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/jagrnyr68/PC/Nate127-1.jpg
01-02 ILYA KOVALCHUK TITANIUM DRAFT DAY EDITION RC 435/780
At first, I didn’t even know it was a rookie, I just thought it was a numbered parallel of some sort. But then I thought “01-02, of course! Kovalchuk’s RC year!” and I started freaking out. I got a new beckett at Christmas so I looked it up to see it book at $60. Sure, the value is great but the fact that I pulled another nice Kovalchuk RC from a pack was even better. When we got home, I took my Upper Deck RC out and put them next to each other. Even though I’ve pulled some other cards that have a higher value (Ovechkin Upper Deck RC), these two pulls are by far my favorites. I’m glad I took the chance to buy that pack so I was able to add that Kovalchuk to my growing collection.
Well with 01-02 being several years back, I’m rarely able to get my hands on any loose packs to see if I could pull anymore Kovalchuk RC’s. The forum has helped me out a lot with adding cards to my collection by giving me a couple more RC’s and even giving me my first jersey. To think I recently opened a 07-08 Upper Deck S2 retail box and got a Patrick Roy jersey; this card would have been something I would've hollered about for days if I pulled it five years ago, but with the change in the hobby, i set it down and went on. So even with the hobby converting towards jerseys, autographs, and rare 1/1 parallels, it’s nice to reflect on the earlier years when these were barely visible. Thanks for reading.
http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/jagrnyr68/PC/Nate127-2.jpg
01-02 ILYA KOVALCHUK UPPER DECK YG RC #211
I think my exact words were “O MY GOD! AN ILYA KOVALCHUK RC, THIS CARD IS $60!” Of course, neither my mom or older brother believed me, but I carried my beckett to school so I took it out and showed them. There was always a competition of cards, so when I got this, my brother was ****** at I don’t think he talked to me for the rest of the day. As soon as I got home I showed it to my dad, who was pretty impressed that it was worth that much. This pull was my favorite because it was my first card that I pulled that was over $25 and it got me into starting a collection of Kovalchuk.
We take a trip in time forward about five months to around Christmas time. I was still amazed I got the Kovalchuk and I couldn’t stop taking it out of one of my boxes to look at it. Of course, I got mostly cards for Christmas and a lot of spending money. Usually after Christmas, we go to Rochester and check out some of the card stores, and this time we went to a place called Fumbles. I loved this place because they used to have game-used cards for $5 a piece, something I liked a lot because I didn’t have access to that many game-used cards. Well of course I had about $50 to spend and decided to go with some packs. I was really eyeing the 01-02 Titanium Draft Day Edition, 1 jersey and rookie in every pack for $15. I said why not, and he let me pick out the pack. I knew there was some chance of a hit or miss but I thought I would do decent with a new jersey to add to my collection. I got to the van and opened it up without looking at the back this time and looked at the first card…….Patrick Lalime jersey…..ouch. But then I went to the next card and out comes this beauty:
http://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/jagrnyr68/PC/Nate127-1.jpg
01-02 ILYA KOVALCHUK TITANIUM DRAFT DAY EDITION RC 435/780
At first, I didn’t even know it was a rookie, I just thought it was a numbered parallel of some sort. But then I thought “01-02, of course! Kovalchuk’s RC year!” and I started freaking out. I got a new beckett at Christmas so I looked it up to see it book at $60. Sure, the value is great but the fact that I pulled another nice Kovalchuk RC from a pack was even better. When we got home, I took my Upper Deck RC out and put them next to each other. Even though I’ve pulled some other cards that have a higher value (Ovechkin Upper Deck RC), these two pulls are by far my favorites. I’m glad I took the chance to buy that pack so I was able to add that Kovalchuk to my growing collection.
Well with 01-02 being several years back, I’m rarely able to get my hands on any loose packs to see if I could pull anymore Kovalchuk RC’s. The forum has helped me out a lot with adding cards to my collection by giving me a couple more RC’s and even giving me my first jersey. To think I recently opened a 07-08 Upper Deck S2 retail box and got a Patrick Roy jersey; this card would have been something I would've hollered about for days if I pulled it five years ago, but with the change in the hobby, i set it down and went on. So even with the hobby converting towards jerseys, autographs, and rare 1/1 parallels, it’s nice to reflect on the earlier years when these were barely visible. Thanks for reading.