The 2003-04 ITG Toronto Star set was available in the Greater Toronto Area. For those of you who do not live in the centre of the universe, the Toronto Star is a daily newspaper. Dave and Adams had boxes for $10, so I threw one on to my order. The one thing that struck me immediately was the suggested retail price of each pack - $3.49! For 4 base cards and a foil insert. I got 20 packs for $10. I saved $60 by waiting 9 years to buy a box. Lets take a look at the base.
I don't card what A Pack a Day says, I like the base a lot. A nice full body picture of the player, team logo in the top corner and a single bare across the bottom with set logo and player name. I find the front of the base cards to be very simple and attractive. The backs are okay. A single year of stats and a brief blurb on the player. The head shot on the back is from the same image as on the front. What I couldn't find was what position the player was. For some reason, I feel that detail is a must on every hockey base card, especially the low end sets. I got bit lucky with my box and one pack had an extra card. So I ended up with 81 of 100 cards. The collation was not random. I'd have 8-9 cards and then need the next two and the pattern would continue.
I like the foil cards as well. Full body with head shot in background all wrapped up in a shiny package. The foil cards is a 30 card set. Although I have to admit I didn't get to see any foil cards other than Joe Thornton. Every pack had a Joe Thornton foil card. In fact, there is a small picture of him on the box. Seriously, who is the joker who thought that up? So I have 19 Joe Thornton foil cards available for trade.
Even with the Joe Thronton debacle, I like this set. A low risk, low reward box, but it scratches the itch. I think it'd be a good TTM set as well. No buyer remorse on this one.
Although I still need 19 base cards. Looking for the following.
| # | Player | # | Player | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jean-Sebastien Giguere | 60 | Eric Lindros | |
| 2 | Petr Sykora | 65 | Jason Spezza | |
| 11 | Ryan Miller | 66 | Marian Hossa | |
| 20 | Alex Tanguay | 75 | Evgeni Nabokov | |
| 29 | Brendan Shanahan | 76 | Pavol Demitra | |
| 37 | Mike Comrie | 85 | Martin St. Louis | |
| 38 | Ryan Smyth | 86 | Owen Nolan | |
| 46 | Marian Gaborik | 96 | Markus Naslund | |
| 47 | Manny Fernandez | 97 | Todd Bertuzzi | |
| 59 | Anson Carter |
I kind of remember when these came out--you had to buy The Toronto Star and get the coupon out of the paper--then find a participating retailer to buy the pack--promotion ran for one month--there was a different foil card every day so the retailer had to have a different box each day for the featured foil card--had a hard time finding a retailer so only picked up a few packs
ReplyDeleteI bought two boxes of these for $2.50 each at a show a few years back. I will see if I have any of the cards you need.
ReplyDeletePLMK. I would like to finish this set.
Deleteinterested in trading for any of your rangers (or former rangers) doubles from this set...my tradelist is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://christianlashade.blogspot.com/2010/01/partial-tradelist.html
No doubles from this box... other than the Joe Thornton foil
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