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Friday, September 14, 2012

Box Break: 03-04 ITG Toronto Star


  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
1Jean-Sebastien Giguere60Eric Lindros
2Petr Sykora65Jason Spezza
11Ryan Miller66Marian Hossa
20Alex Tanguay75Evgeni Nabokov
29Brendan Shanahan76Pavol Demitra
37Mike Comrie85Martin St. Louis
38Ryan Smyth86Owen Nolan
46Marian Gaborik96Markus Naslund
47Manny Fernandez97Todd Bertuzzi
59Anson Carter

5 comments:

  1. 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

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  2. I 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.

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  3. interested in trading for any of your rangers (or former rangers) doubles from this set...my tradelist is here:
    http://christianlashade.blogspot.com/2010/01/partial-tradelist.html

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    1. No doubles from this box... other than the Joe Thornton foil

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