Blast from the Past - 2000-01 Black Diamond Game Gear

**GabbyGuy** · 04-04-2013, 06:26 PM

Go back in time to the year 2000. Game-used cards were still a new thing.

The first complete set of game-used cards I attempted was the 2000-01 Upper Deck Black Diamond Game Gear cards. They featured game-used items that were not just jersey/patch swatches from that time. They had pieces of goalie pads, gloves, blockers. Pieces of other player skates & gloves. Pretty unique for that period in our hobby. I really liked how they were made and displayed. So I went for it.

I was able to put the whole set together and had a lot of fun doing it in an era when the internet "hunting" of cards was just in its infancy.

So today I just re-scanned the best cards I have in the set...I have duplicates of most of them (I like different material variations). The only ones I do not have duplicates of are the Gretzky Glove, the Messier Skate, and the Fuhr Pad. The Fuhr Pad was the most difficult and rare card to obtain. Not many Fuhr Pad cards out there (although Beckett and Upper Deck never listed it as an SP).

I also picked up two Upper Deck "TEST" cards of Bill Ranford and JS Aubin that were never inserted in the product. I moved the Ranford TEST card to a big Ranford colector (I have a soft spot for player collectors

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Anyway, here are scans of the complete set. Enjoy the view! :beer:

First set that came out:

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Gretzky Glove, Luongo Pad, Kolzig Pad, Messier Skate (awesome piece!), Fuhr Pad, Lindros Glove, Selanne Glove, Salo Blocker

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Salo Glove, Dafoe Pad, McLean Glove, Hasek Pad, Biron Pad, Shields Pad (embroidered "STE" from his name STEVE), Burke Glove, Burke Blocker

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Barrasso Blocker, Barrasso Glove, Vanbiesbrouck Pad, Vanbiesbrouck Glove, Vanbiesbrouck Blocker, Joseph Pad

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Then Upper Deck had an UPDATE series:

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Jagr Skate (beauty piece), Fedorov Glove, Drury Glove, Sakic Glove (Easton E), Denis Pad, Aubin Pad, Turek Pad, Osgood Pad (awesome piece!)

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Thornton Glove, Yashin Glove

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The TEST card of JS Aubin (scan on the left). Notice the photo difference from the actual card inserted in Black Diamond (scan on right). Photo on back of card is different also.

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Both the Ranford and Aubin TEST cards together (Ranford is not mine anymore):

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Later, Upper Deck inserted a few of these Game Gear cards in SP Authentic as "Buyback" autographed cards. They included Curtis Joseph (#/4), Olaf Kolzig (#/20), and Martin Biron (#/43). I picked those up also to round out the set:

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Biron 17/43, Joseph 3/4, Kolzig 01/20

I now collect a few other game-used cards subsets because collecting this Game Gear set was so fun. I enjoy the HUNT!

If anyone has any of these cards that have special game-used pieces in them (and wouldn't mind parting with them), please get back to me. I'd love to upgrade.

Thanks for taking a ride back in HOBBY time with me!

--Curt

**mingus_md** · 04-04-2013, 08:32 PM

Very cool cards. I have been working on the Rangers team set of 2000-01 Titanium Game Gear for a while, so I have a soft spot for that set, but this set is also really really cool too. These cards were so innovative at the time. Thanks for posting pics of them.

**johnse27** · 04-04-2013, 09:18 PM

I could use the McLean glove and Barrasso glove if you would be willing to part with them. That would of course leave me with that elusive non SP Fuhr pad. Let me know if you would be willing to part with them. Great set though, I have enjoyed collecting them also.