Starry Birthday on Ice

Tuesday was my birthday and I drove to Dallas for a Stars game that night. They took on Carolina Hurricanes. It was also hat night so I got free Stars hat as well mini poster of Ben Bishop.

It was wet and raining but I made it to American Airlines Arena to watch Stars take on Carolina Hurricanes. A truck wrapped in their logo and colors greeted me at one of their entrances.

Trophies are displayed behind a case featuring 1999 Stanley Cup to Conn Smythe and Art Ross.

Got my souvenir drink cup featuring Jamie Benn. What I like about it the drinks are bottomless. Drink a Coke product then go back to concession stands to fill it up.

The banners of retired jersey featuring Bill Masterson, (tragically suffered a fatal head injury during a game), Bill Goldsworthy (first franchise player), Neal Broten (Miracle on Ice fame), Mike Modano, and Jere Lehtinen.

Banners of their Stanley Cup, conference, and division titles hang on the rafters.

Unlike few NBA arenas I been to they allow you to get super close to the rink before the game. Talk about close up experience. I manage snag these shots from warmup.

Despite practicing in warmup Joe Pavelski was a late scratch. Anton Khudobin started in Ben Bishop. I been two NHL games in my life and both times the home team started their backup. Jamie Benn had a hat trick as Denis Gurianov scored on powerplay. Sebastian Aho got the only Hurricanes goal of the game. Stars defeated Hurricanes 4-1. Shot from my seat and they are good seats as well action.

Had a good birthday bash at Stars game. Would like make another trek again in the future.

Snow Storm Prompted This Test

It's a rare sight in west Texas: snow! A snow storm from Tuesday night dumped 6-8 inches all over west Texas. I received about 6 1/2 inches by morning day.

With terrible road conditions and Texans don't know how to drive in the ice and snow left me stuck at home most of the day. It also made do this impromptu freeze test and have done quickly before sun comes out and melt it away. I put the pack in ziplock bag and buried it in the snow. I left it there more than 5 hours I had planned originally and ended up being 8 hours.

Here are results starting from back to the pack to the front.

You can barely notice small paper loss on McRae card. It does show on back of Boggs card which was stuck to McRae. Front of Boggs card looks clean but there is trace of a paper loss when feel the card on middle left side. Finley have noticeable paper loss on front of his paper with back of Key card showing from being stuck on his card. Front of Key card looks clean, but like Boggs cards, you have feel middle left to notice a trace of paper loss.

Smith's card looks like the card I pulled previously with noticeable amount of paper loss. Back of Ruffcorn card got part of paper loss remains while the front is clean. Like the previous post middle of pack is where there's hardly any paper loss.Both Munoz and Huskey (cards 7 and 8) are clean like a sheet.

Reynoso (card 9) is clean on both front and back. Hey look its Museum Collection parallel. Even Montgomery card was bit stuck to back of Karkovice card there's no loss at all even when I feel the card. Maybe parallels are immune to paper loss. Back of Karkovice card strangely doesn't show any of paper loss but there is loss on front of his card. Back of Palmer card (card 12) bore brunt of it. Front of his card does show loss, but its less shown than previous cards I pulled consider its near the front.

Now to front of the pack cards (cards 13 and 14) Whitehurst showing significant paper loss. Despite back of Kent card stuck on Whitehurst there's not much paper loss show on the middle. Meanwhile there is on edges of the card.

Here what I noticed from this test so far:
- cards in front of the pack prone to being stuck and having paper loss when pulled.
- cards in the back have fewer amount of paper loss
- card 5 have gotten mixed results from packs I open. It will either have fewer or noticeable amount of paper loss.
- card 6 in the pack will have a clean front, but back side of the card will small or trace amount of paper loss.
- like previous test packs the cards in the middle of the pack pretty much survived from having any paper loss.
- Museum Collection parallel card have no loss or even bubbling.
- card 12 (Palmer), despite being near the front, have smaller paper loss than the previous cards I pulled. Since the entire pack was covered in snow it made me think I should try rotating packs in the freezer every 3-4 hours on my next test.

The sun was out and melted 90% of the snow. It was lovely for a while when you are home and not on the road. I do more tests soon. It's likely a lost cause at this moment, but its worth trying.

Freezing Baseball Card Test

I bought a box of 1994 Pinnacle baseball. Problem with buying wax boxes from that year to middle 2000s now is the UV coating on the cards will cause the cards to "brick" and stick together. You have to be careful on pulling the card off or you will end up with paper loss. First two packs have significant paper loss and the loss is down the middle of the cards. Since I been hearing freezing the cards might work I decide test that theory. I decide do it two ways hoping for different results. I opened three packs, puts the cards in ziplock bag and put in the freezer. Then I put three unopen packs in the freezer. I left them in for three hours.

First with the cards in ziplock bag. The cards are still stuck after I took it out. To get them unstuck I put the cards on palm of my hand then palm press strike it with my other. Often it works but you still have few cards that are stuck together. For those few cards that are still being stuck you have to be careful peeling or bend it lightly. The results look like this:

Small amount of paper loss on Brian McRae card. Wade Boggs look almost clean with little paper loss while Chuck Finley have it down the middle.

Jimmy Key barely have paper loss in the front while the back have noticeable loss after being stuck on Finley's card. Dwight Smith have noticeable loss. Front of Billy Wagner is clean while back of his card does show paper loss.

Those three cards are clean on front and back.

Armando Reynoso card is clean front and back. Back of Jerald Clark card is clean while good amount of paper loss on front of the card. Same with Chad Krueter on both front and back.

Wayne Kirby got paper loss on both front and back. Scott Fletcher back also have paper loss but is clean on the front as he was top card of the pack.

You can tell the paper loss on those cards. Devereaux and Alexander got on both sides of the cards.

Henke got small amount while Stottlemyre got it down to the middle. Back of Christman have loss being stuck on Stottlemyre but is clean on the front.

Four of those cards are clean on the front and back

Back to paper loss with the four cards. Horn got it on the front while the back is clean. Montgomery was top card of the card so the front is clean than the back of his card.

Biggio and Justice got the worse of it on paper loss. Both sides of Bonilla's card have small loss as well Tapani.

Snow got snow on his card while Perez got on the back but is clean on the front.Nilsson and Buechele cards got no paper loss.

No loss on Martin and Frey cards. Back of Beck's card is clean while the front got snowy paper loss.

Back to paper loss with Hoiles who got it bad along with Mack and back of Hulse's card. On this batch about 12 out of 42 cards have no paper loss. Few have clean fronts but some loss on the back.

Now time for unopen packs test.

Not much paper loss on all the cards. Tartabull is almost clean. You have to feel the card to notice there is paper loss but not much.

Tomlin card does have paper loss. Back of Billy Wagner card does show some but the front is clean. Ruffcorn card is clean on front and back.

Three of the cards are clean front and back. By this time I notice the collation starting to suck.

The cards have noticeable paper loss on front and back. Shoot it ruined Ken Griffey Jr card.

Not bad on the second pack. Small specks of paper loss shown on the cards.

Cooper showing specks of paper loss while remaining cards are cleans. Back of Pena card did have small amount paper loss from being stuck on Cooper's card.

King and Castellano cards are clean on both sides with cards going back to paper loss. DiSarcina back is clean but did have it on the front. Banks have it on both sides of his card.

Last two cards of the second pack showing amount of paper loss in the middle. Perez have it on both sides while Surhoff on the back.

On the final pack these four showing small amount of paper loss.

Paper loss showing right by Mitchell's name. Mike Moore back showing paper loss from being stuck on Mitchell while the front is clean. Manny and Charlton cards are clean on both sides.

Dave Magadan card is clean on both sides then back to paper loss with following two cards. It's noticeable on front of Smiley's and back of Lofton's cards.

Final two cards showing loss as well. Like cards in the ziplock bag about four of them will most likely be clean on front and back of the cards.

From my freezing experiment its a mixed result but freezing unopen packs seems to have less paper loss than loose ones. Also I notice there's fewer amount of the paper loss from the cards on back of the pack. It's the card on front of the pack you have deal with good amount of paper loss. Maybe I should have rotate cards from time to time. For packs of this Pinnacle set its the middle of the pack you have good opportunity on cards not having paper loss.

So far freezing theory does work often, but its still a crap shoot. You still have to smack the pack and/or bend it lightly to loosen even after its been in the freezer for hours. I got few more packs and going to test it again based on how long being left in the freezer to rotating it.