Who Bring's A Beckett To School? - CONTEST ENTRY

[jagrnyr68]

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:


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:


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.

[jagrnyr68]

OOPS, just realized what i did, can mods please move this thread into the appropriate section? thanks

[gmoney168]

Who Brings a Beckett to School?

By Jake Lester aka jagrnyr68

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 second 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 all day. I would look up prices to my cards that usually came from 00-01 Victory and 00-01 Topps. 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. One day my older brother and I got out of school an hour early and I got a 01-02 Upper Deck pack. This was my first pack from the year and also my first Upper Deck pack ever. 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:

It was a 01-02 Upper Deck YG RC #211 of Ilya Kovalchuk.

I think my exact words were “Oh my god! An Ilya Kovalchuk rookie card! This card is $60!” Of course neither my mom nor 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 mad at me. 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.


It was now about five months forward, 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. This time we went to a place called Fumbles. I loved this place because they used to have game-used cards for five dollars a piece, something I liked a lot because I didn’t have access to that many game-used cards. I had about $50 to spend and decided to go with some packs. I was really eyeing the 01-02 Titanium Draft Day Edition. It had one 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, a Patrick Lalime jersey. But then I went to the next card and out came this beauty:

It was a 01-01 Ilya Kovalchuk Titanium Draft Day Edition rookie card #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 remembered that 01-02 was Kovalchuk’s rookie year and I started freaking out. I got a new Beckett at Christmas so I looked up my new rookie card to see it book at $60. Sure, the value is great but the fact that I pulled another nice Kovalchuk rookie from a pack was even better. When we got home I took my Upper Deck rookie card out and put them next to each other. Even though I’ve pulled some other cards that have a higher value, (Ovechkin Upper Deck rookie) 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.

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 rookie cards. Sportscardforum.com 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. Even with the hobby converting towards jerseys, autographs and rare one of one parallels, it’s nice to reflect on the earlier years when these were barely visible. Thanks for reading.

[gmoney168]

Articles: https://www.sportscardforum.com/articles/?p=720
Digg: http://digg.com/hockey/Who_Brings_a_...Forum_Articles
Prop: http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/...orum-articles/
Buzz: http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:0433...o-School?usc=1