Something that I have learned lately is that hockey card enthusiasts love when they can pick up retail blasters marked 40% off at Walmart or Target. It is nice to know that I am not alone in that struggle. Typically when I am in any of the department stores, the 40% off bin consists of baseball, basketball and football. From time to time there is hockey, but it’s rare.
LINK: 2013-14 Panini Prizm Hockey Checklist
I can’t even tell you when I picked these up, but it had to be in the last couple of months. The upside is pretty good for the price point. Besides, you do get a pack of three Walmart exclusive Blue Pulsar cards. The possibility of hitting a top star or rookie is worth the gamble.
I believe the only items I’d bought previously of this set were some rack/hanger packs at Meijer, because of the blue parallels. I never get my hopes up when I buy blasters and in this case, I’m really glad that I didn’t. The only two base cards that were even noteworthy were Alexander Ovechkin and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The rookies and parallels weren’t much better.
I will end up keeping the Cameron Schilling. He is from the Indianapolis area (where I lived for about eight years), so I keep any of his cards that I come across. The other two rookies did little to excite me. My green parallel is a guy that is now playing in the KHL. Even if he was still on the Devils, does anyone even collect Devils other than Brodeur? I suppose I can stand by my Devils disappointment with the blue Eric Gelinas. The two parallels, along with the Thomas and Bennett rookies, will just go into my trade bucket and hopefully someone will want them down the road.
I plan to give away the three pack of blue parallels in a giveaway package to someone that follows my blog (@beansbcardblog) on Twitter.
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