Today we bust our wallet with 2 boxes of 2022-23 SPX Hockey!

Opening up 2 boxes of 2021-22 Upper Deck Premier hockey! What a QUACKER!

Don't mind the cold I have. Look at the box of 1999-00 SP Authentic I ha...

Box break of 2021-22 UD Skybox metal hockey on "MY WALLET HERTZ"

 Below is the video box break of 2021-22 Skybox Metal Universe hockey that allowed me to pull an amazing surprise! Try not to laugh to hard at my enormous hands and screeching voice.....LOL!

Saturday "SLAP SHOT" Jake Evans edition

 Today's "SLAP SHOT" edition is brought to you courteous of a 2020-21 UD SPX Jake Evans rookie jersey autograph serially #22/49

The "Universe" has spoken to me........well.....it kind of gave me a gift actually......No really....It gave me a gift....LOOK!

So things been a little crazy lately to say the least in my end of the world especially with working 6 and/or 7 days a week which is very time consuming so I'm very thankful that I am able to receive vacation days from my employer because I took a personal holiday yesterday to use for an appointment and for a mental health day for myself. I needed to take a break and relax my mind by opening up some hockey cards..... 3 boxes of 2021-22 Skybox metal universe, 2 boxes of 2020-21 Upper Deck Clear cut hockey, and 1 box of 2022-23 Upper Deck Artifacts to be specific.

The first box that I opened was the Artifacts box. It's been a few years since I opened a box of Artifacts and since the price was decent I figured why not. 

I was surprised that I did not pull any other rookie cards other than the Jack Quinn clear cut rookie card. Some of the boxes I've seen opened had at least one or two other rookie cards. However my box only had Jack in it. I did receive my 4 serially numbered cards but they were all of base cards. The autograph was a nice surprise considering Quinn's autograph is listed as a "B" group auto 1:994. Overall I was pleased with what the box provided. 

Moving on to the 3 boxes of skybox metal universe.............

The 2020-21 edition of Skybox metal universe provided one autograph per box where as the 2021-22 edition does not guarantee one auto per box.

Per cardboard connections: "Although the 2020-21 product specifically mentions one autograph per Hobby box, the '21-22 box hit can be an autograph, PMG, Jambalaya, or "other coveted cards."

so basically this is what the odds are for hitting an auto even from these 2021-22 boxes:

Base Silver Autographs Set Checklist

54 cards.

Overall odds - 1:100 Hobby/ePack. Specific group odds noted.

1 Connor McDavid - Oilers - A 1:6,959
2 Jonathan Marchessault - Golden Knights - E 1:143
3 Miro Heiskanen - Stars - E 1:143
4 John Gibson - Ducks - D 1:514
5 Mitch Marner - Maple Leafs - B 1:3,085

etc.etc. Your Matthews, Crosby, John Tavares, and other stars like that are all part of group A. You have a chance of hitting one of their autos but the odds are so far up there that you would have better odds of fighting a rabid wolverine naked inside of a telephone booth with aliens cheering you on and Joe Rogan calling the play by play action. 

 

 

So I opened the first box and nothing earth shattering came out of the box but I am a fan of these cards and I really enjoy anything that shows images of the universe on it (real or artist drawn). The quality control with these cards spoke volumes with decent cuts and no damaged cards at all through the first box. I felt that Upper Deck did deliver on a good box of cards.

I moved onto the second box of Skybox metal universe and that's when while moving onto the last stack of packs (the middle stack) the thing I call "last stack magic" occurred and the universe spoke to me in the next to last pack:

Skybox Metal Box (Universe actually speaking through the box): How ya doing today Tim?

Big Kahuna: Just having some fun ripping some packs and trying to make a set. Why....what's up?

SMB: I feel like blessing you today with something. Allow me to ask you a question my child....Have you found McJesus?

BK: Um.....do you mean Jesus? 

SMB: I'm referring to Connor McJesus.

BK: Why yes...I have some his regular cards and I just pulled a Connor Mcdavid planet metal insert in the previous pack.

SMB: That's great my child......however I'd like to bless you with a special card today. This special card is one that can be hard to find and will make you feel excited and overcome with Joy.

BK: Oh.....so you're blessing me with a Connor McDavid serially numbered card. That's cool!

SMB: No my child......while that would be "cool" I really want to bless you with something wonderful.

BK: Well then......I look forward to whatever you may want to share with me.

SMB: Allow me to bless you with this

 

SMB: I present to you and bless you with his HOLY CHICKEN SCRATCH

 

 

All I could think of in the moment was Han Solo saying, "Never tell me the odds."

In my 30+ years of collecting Hockey cards I have never pulled such a star quality autograph that made me go : OMG OMG OMG so many times (the video of it will be posted on the Youtube channel soon). The funny thing is I need the 2020-21 edition of this card for the set I'm building.......and with my luck.....I pulled the 2021-22 edition of this card....LOL. Even funnier, I was just talking with a fellow collector last week about building the 2020-21 skybox metal universe entire set and I said to him, "watch with my luck I'll pull the card from the 2021/22 set and it won't have an auto on it. I may not even try to build the 2021-22 set at all." I guess spoke it into existence and the Universe said, "here ya go buddy.....you willed it into existence and this one has his autograph on it."

I'm still in shock over pulling this card and while it may not seem like much to some people, it's truly an awesome feeling to me and it's one of the many fun things about this hobby. It was something that completely caught me by surprise and totally off guard when I was opening the packs. Ok universe......ok........thank you for making a rough couple of weeks being forgotten about entirely for a few hours.

Chicken Scratch: "Who signed my puck?" Edition

 

This player is no longer on the Vegas Knights and is currently on the Buffalo Sabres. He was a first round draft pick (18th overall) by the Minnesota Wild in the 2014 NHL entry draft. He is a right winger and has played college hockey for the Boston College Eagles. 

His signature style has seem to have been pretty consistent over the years with not much change. The only time it seems to make a difference is in the thickness of the pen/marker he's using when signing.

This signature belongs to #89 Alex Tuch. 

Alex usually signs with an "A" and then his last name along with his jersey number "89". Unfortunately with the way he signs his last name you would not be able to figure out that it his last name is TUCH unless you see his name on the card/jersey. The signature is presentable and for his efforts we the hive-mind at Enough Already salute Alex with a 4 sharpie salute.

 

 

*- The top 2 pictures is of the puck that own of Alex Tuch that I obtained through a break courtesy of BIGHOUSE BREAKS - Hit Parade frozen dozen hockey puck autos.

Sunday Night "SLAP SHOT"

 

2019-20 Upper Deck Engrained Dominik Kubalik rookie signature shots carbon fiber card #RSS-DK and serially # 90/249.

If you're interested in this series of cards and seeing what else is in the set then click on the link for more information: https://www.cardboardconnection.com/2019-20-upper-deck-engrained-hockey-cards

NHL (still not all star yet) "SLAP SHOT" Edition

 

2013-14 National Treasures Tyler Toffoli rookie NHL gear card #53/75. Tyler has still yet been elected to a NHL all star game.

Sunday night "SLAP SHOT"

 

Sunday night "SLAP SHOT" edition brought to you Buffalo Sabres Left Winger Victor Olofsson. This is his 2019-20 UD The Cup rookie masterpieces 1/1 card. The plate was used in the production of his Exquisite rookie patch auto card. I am the proud owner of this card which was purchased through Ebay.

WWE RAW MONDAY BODYSLAM edition

FIGHT OWENS FIGHT!!!! I added this card to my wrestling PC last year. My first Kevin Owens autograph!

CHICKEN SCRATCH: Who in the world signed my card?

Welcome to another edition of "Chicken Scratch". This is where we take a look at an athlete's signature and give it a sharpie rating based on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being a lazy signature (a horse could sign better with a pen in it's mouth) and then a 5 being a signature of a nice crisp clean legible signature. On very rare occasions we also have a special reserved 6 sharpie salute for perfect signatures.

Today's star athlete signature is brought to you courtesy of Gabriel Arias who's the shortstop of the Cleveland Guardians. This card below I pulled from a blaster of Absolute baseball (from gamestop of all places - it was in the bargain bin) and I was rather most surprised to pull an actual autograph 3 piece jersey card and not just a single piece jersey card as my luck with blasters is not that great.

Let's take a look at some of his signature across other cards (not mine) since the Absolute autograph was on a sticker.

 

So it would seem that he really has to cram his signature style together when he's signing on small areas as opposed to larger signing areas. Some folks do that and some do not while others just make a straight line at times. Look at those loops in his signature when he has the space to write.

His "G" is very consistent and his "A" is as well across the signatures.

It would appear the "G" and "A" in his signature is consistent on a baseball as well.

The ball player appears to take a little time to make his signature appear legible with at least 2 letters. I could see the "G" but I would never guess that his name was Gabriel or his last name was Arias from the "A". Some athletes will take the time to make a nice crisp signature and others will just write out their signature in letters. IMO......Gabriel makes an effort in his signatures with emphasis in the first letters of his first and last name and then scribbles out the rest of his name For this reason....the Big Kahuna and the tribe feel that he will be the receiver of 2 sharpies for his efforts.

Holy Moses..........what a heck of time..........Life can be fun

Welcome to what's left of the Big Kahuna's mind....since he was here last. I guess that I took a bit of a vacation in a way from the blog for a slight while......4 years almost.....yikes. I've had so many life changes (including loss of family members) during the pandemic that I just didn't feel like doing much of anything  anymore including this blog. Losing 6 family members during the years of 2020 -2022 (including my father and step father) was a very emotional time for me and I became very withdrawn from a lot of things (long story short) especially with the way the world was at the time. I had to refocus my efforts on improving the quality of my life again so that I could begin to feel "normal" again and get back into life and get back into the things that made me chuckle and enjoy life no matter how small it was. Did I give up on my card collecting? No........heavens to betsy NO..........that's always the one thing that has been a form of therapy for me in weird kind of way......it's kind of hard to explain but reading the stats and the information on the cards has a bit of calming affect on me. Long story short.........I'm back to this blog......I'm here writing these random thoughts at 1:00am in the morning. I have a weird sense of humor (ADHD and few other mental quirks contribute to that) and enjoy posting about sports cards and insulting most politicians and laughing at memes. I still hate the Astros for cheating and I still loathe the New York Yankees. I love Italian food and I enjoy watching virgins being sacrificed into volcanoes. I still love watching Monty Python and Mel Brooks and funny fart vids. Sarcasm is my friend and I love life no matter how hard it throws the screwballs, sinkers, spit balls, fastballs, and knucklers my way. Adapt.......Change.......and overcome. That is how we survive.......and on some occasions.....a shot or two of whiskey.....Jim Beam Red Stag is my choice before bed (helps to calm my racing mind). A lot more to come...........I promise.

So to get things started I am going to share the YouTube channel I have started. Only a few vids but I'm working on it so bear with me.....it's all new to me so feedback is welcomed whether it's positive or negative.

MY WALLET HERTZ

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtBysvufcAl33pa9kwavPsg

 

And we also have an Instagram page as well :

MY WALLET HERTZ

https://www.instagram.com/my_wallet_hertz/

Oh and I had a little fun pulling a 1/1 from a 2022 Bowman Chrome Baseball hobby box this year. 

Great way to start the year imo.