primetimepawich
Verified Trader ,
Hey all, Joe P the Larry Murphy Guy here. Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canadians and a happy early Independence Day to our American members.
Been a while since I've done this so I might be a little rusty, but since we've officially crossed the halfway mark of 2024, I thought I'd get you all up to speed on my pickups so far this year. As usual, it started off kind of slow, but thanks (?) to Leaf, that soon changed.
Quality? Not so much. Quantity? I'd say so. Some I've managed on my own, but thanks again to our own Kevin Mitchell for his US mailbox help with much of this. So let's get to it, and I hope you enjoy the show...
98/99 Topps Board Members #B9 Larry Murphy Autograph 4.99 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
97/98 Revolution #49 Larry Murphy Autograph 3.26 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
Autographed base cards were the original foundation of my PC, and though ones I need are much harder to find now, here's a couple from Ebay. The Board Members was new to me and the Revolution was an upgrade.
92/93 High Liner Stanley Cup Centennial Collector Series #27 2.25 CDN by primetimepawich, on Flickr
I saw a copy of this High Liner food insert in Murphy completed listings and got inspired. I know some members here collect "cameo cards" of their players, and that wasn't a big stretch for me because I already counted a few team photo cards in my PC where Murphy wasn't the primary player featured. So in order to artificially boost my numbers, I grabbed a copy of the High Liner from Ebay, then these issues from COMC that I had committed to memory:
88/89 Panini Album Stickers #375-#376 3.70 by primetimepawich, on Flickr


Some newer Pro Set ink:
20/21 Pro Set 1990-91 Hockey Autographs Red #A90LM1 Larry Murphy 5/25 10.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
20/21 Pro Set 1991-92 Hockey Autographs Yellow #A91LM1 Larry Murphy 3/7 12.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
Not an autograph, but I need to give a shout-out to Michael, Ebay seller "stubsforsale", for this one. He'd listed it a couple years ago but didn't have any Canadian shipping options. Kevin wasn't available as a liaison at the time, so the listing ended and it was out of sight and out of mind. I'd made a note of the seller's username, and earlier this year, I reached out to them on a whim to see if they still had it and were interested in working something out. They did, found it and sent it to me free of charge. Wouldn't take anything for their time looking for it, or for shipping. Nice gesture from a good dude, so if they have anything you like, I couldn't recommend them more. Michael's a big Detroit Lions fan, which I couldn't help with, but if anyone else can, you might have a market for it

Some Leaf Art of Hockey ink:


A thank you to our own Eric Andrews for this one. Both before and after it had been graded for some reason, I'd seen it make the rounds on Ebay and lost out on it both times. I already had a copy of this card and was only interested in this copy as an "upgrade" because it was serial number 5 like Murphy's LA jersey number. But I had my arbitrary budget for it and the grading did nothing to change that, so I was prepared to let it pass me by. Didn't see it for a while after that until Eric sent me a link to it in a Facebook auction group. It was a short auction, so luckily I was able to join the group with no difficulty. Had to time it right to submit my last-minute bid and was able to win it for a price I was more than happy with, a nice change from its Ebay ending prices. Thanks Eric:
21/22 Art Of Hockey Visual Art Purple #VALM1 Larry Murphy 5/5 11.00 CDN by primetimepawich, on Flickr
Making the decision to eliminate multiplayer autograph cards from my wantlist has removed some stress from my collecting life, but there's still a stubborn part of me that keeps an eye on them in the hopes I can get some for a reasonable price. For the most part, that hasn't been the case, but I did manage to break through on a couple:
2023 Ultimate Signatures 2 Bronze Spectrum #US210 Mike Gartner/Larry Murphy 13/15 7.50 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
21/22 Art Of Hockey Iconography Bronze #I15 Larry Murphy/Rod Langway 7/7 10.58 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
A duplicate from Ebay just because I'm a sucker for these with easily identifiable pieces of Koho sticks:
04/05 ITG Franchises US East Original Sticks #EOS2 Larry Murphy /70 15.00 CDN by primetimepawich, on Flickr
Some Ultimate auto/jerseys:





If that were the bulk of my pickups, that wouldn't be so bad, right? Well...the folks at Leaf had something to say about that. Say hello to Leaf Metal - if you know, you know. A sensible collector might try for a couple and leave it at that. I am not always a sensible collector. Despite the para-hell stupidity, if they fall within my budgeted wheelhouse, I feel obligated to try for them. With Kevin's help, I've done pretty well, but I still have a ways to go. Though it was crazy for a while after release, they're starting to dry up now, so if you see any, let me know. I "think" I have them figured out based on the print runs (Leaf's checklists for Metal seem accurate compared to some of their other releases) so I should be able to decipher whether I need them or not. In the meantime, what do you think?


















Coming into 2024, there was a small group of 3 cards I was hoping to land. None were special, but all were a bit different and would add something new to my PC. One has eluded me but has a large enough print run that I'm not worried and believe it's just a matter of time. Another I finally landed with a successful snipe from Kevin:
2023 Ultimate Inscriptions Silver Spectrum #UILM1 Larry Murphy 8/25 9.50 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
The last one is my favorite pickup of 2024 so far. Not GU, but as soon as I saw it on the checklist, I was intrigued. I'd seen similar cards of other players and thought they were a cool concept, but I still had to be smart about it. And with a print run of 15, I didn't know if that would be possible. Seeing sales prices of other cards, they seemed like a niche thing that set collectors could give me issues with. The first copy to hit Ebay was listed with a ridiculous asking price. The second, I was the runner-up at standard auction. The third time...was the charm:
21/22 The Cup Championship Etchings #CELM Larry Murphy 13/15 19.72 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
What's next for me? Well, some of you know my current targets. I won't share those here in the hopes that I'll be able to make progress on and share them in future. Some currently exist on Ebay, taunting me from afar, so we shall see. Until then, that's my show, and I hope you enjoyed it.
-Joe Pawich
Been a while since I've done this so I might be a little rusty, but since we've officially crossed the halfway mark of 2024, I thought I'd get you all up to speed on my pickups so far this year. As usual, it started off kind of slow, but thanks (?) to Leaf, that soon changed.
Quality? Not so much. Quantity? I'd say so. Some I've managed on my own, but thanks again to our own Kevin Mitchell for his US mailbox help with much of this. So let's get to it, and I hope you enjoy the show...


Autographed base cards were the original foundation of my PC, and though ones I need are much harder to find now, here's a couple from Ebay. The Board Members was new to me and the Revolution was an upgrade.

I saw a copy of this High Liner food insert in Murphy completed listings and got inspired. I know some members here collect "cameo cards" of their players, and that wasn't a big stretch for me because I already counted a few team photo cards in my PC where Murphy wasn't the primary player featured. So in order to artificially boost my numbers, I grabbed a copy of the High Liner from Ebay, then these issues from COMC that I had committed to memory:



Some newer Pro Set ink:


Not an autograph, but I need to give a shout-out to Michael, Ebay seller "stubsforsale", for this one. He'd listed it a couple years ago but didn't have any Canadian shipping options. Kevin wasn't available as a liaison at the time, so the listing ended and it was out of sight and out of mind. I'd made a note of the seller's username, and earlier this year, I reached out to them on a whim to see if they still had it and were interested in working something out. They did, found it and sent it to me free of charge. Wouldn't take anything for their time looking for it, or for shipping. Nice gesture from a good dude, so if they have anything you like, I couldn't recommend them more. Michael's a big Detroit Lions fan, which I couldn't help with, but if anyone else can, you might have a market for it


Some Leaf Art of Hockey ink:


A thank you to our own Eric Andrews for this one. Both before and after it had been graded for some reason, I'd seen it make the rounds on Ebay and lost out on it both times. I already had a copy of this card and was only interested in this copy as an "upgrade" because it was serial number 5 like Murphy's LA jersey number. But I had my arbitrary budget for it and the grading did nothing to change that, so I was prepared to let it pass me by. Didn't see it for a while after that until Eric sent me a link to it in a Facebook auction group. It was a short auction, so luckily I was able to join the group with no difficulty. Had to time it right to submit my last-minute bid and was able to win it for a price I was more than happy with, a nice change from its Ebay ending prices. Thanks Eric:

Making the decision to eliminate multiplayer autograph cards from my wantlist has removed some stress from my collecting life, but there's still a stubborn part of me that keeps an eye on them in the hopes I can get some for a reasonable price. For the most part, that hasn't been the case, but I did manage to break through on a couple:


A duplicate from Ebay just because I'm a sucker for these with easily identifiable pieces of Koho sticks:

Some Ultimate auto/jerseys:





If that were the bulk of my pickups, that wouldn't be so bad, right? Well...the folks at Leaf had something to say about that. Say hello to Leaf Metal - if you know, you know. A sensible collector might try for a couple and leave it at that. I am not always a sensible collector. Despite the para-hell stupidity, if they fall within my budgeted wheelhouse, I feel obligated to try for them. With Kevin's help, I've done pretty well, but I still have a ways to go. Though it was crazy for a while after release, they're starting to dry up now, so if you see any, let me know. I "think" I have them figured out based on the print runs (Leaf's checklists for Metal seem accurate compared to some of their other releases) so I should be able to decipher whether I need them or not. In the meantime, what do you think?


















Coming into 2024, there was a small group of 3 cards I was hoping to land. None were special, but all were a bit different and would add something new to my PC. One has eluded me but has a large enough print run that I'm not worried and believe it's just a matter of time. Another I finally landed with a successful snipe from Kevin:

The last one is my favorite pickup of 2024 so far. Not GU, but as soon as I saw it on the checklist, I was intrigued. I'd seen similar cards of other players and thought they were a cool concept, but I still had to be smart about it. And with a print run of 15, I didn't know if that would be possible. Seeing sales prices of other cards, they seemed like a niche thing that set collectors could give me issues with. The first copy to hit Ebay was listed with a ridiculous asking price. The second, I was the runner-up at standard auction. The third time...was the charm:

What's next for me? Well, some of you know my current targets. I won't share those here in the hopes that I'll be able to make progress on and share them in future. Some currently exist on Ebay, taunting me from afar, so we shall see. Until then, that's my show, and I hope you enjoyed it.
-Joe Pawich