primetimepawich
Verified Trader ,
Hey everyone, Joe P the Larry Murphy Guy here. I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year's. 2025 was an interesting year for my collection. It started out on a high note, not with particularly high-end cards but with a few tough low-numbered issues I hadn't expected to land anytime soon. I thought it was setting the tone for the rest of the year; alas, it was not. It ebbed, it flowed, and ultimately I was unable to keep up the momentum. I slacked off on my S+Ts for the last 4 months of the year because honestly, my results weren't warranting any.
When I last left you, I was riding the high of landing the President's Choice Stickhandle with an assist from our own Eric Andrews. Every year, I like at least one cornerstone pickup to hang my hat on. That Stickhandle was easily a top card on my wantlist, and if getting it represented a deal with the hobby devil and meant the rest of the year would be a dud, I was willing to make that trade-off. Since July, things were very much trending towards me leaving 2025 with a whimper...
...until they weren't.
Allow me to catch you up to speed. You'll see what I mean.
When this popped up on Ebay, I had to grab it. This is my 4th copy of this card (1 of which is autographed) and was mostly a boredom/impulse buy. These 85/86 Capitals Pizza Hut team issues are hella tough and I just feel obligated to grab them whenever I can. The timing coincided with our last Canada Post strike, but I bought it and the American Ebay seller was more than happy to hold and ship once the dust settled.
Shipping Buddy Kevin Mitchell then helped me out with a few signed base:
21/22 O-Pee-Chee #561 Detroit Red Wings Larry Murphy Autograph 7.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
82/83 Topps Stickers #232 Larry Murphy Autograph 10.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
Plus this neat b/w player photo:
1985 Washington Capitals Team Photo 5.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
I'm not usually a photo guy, simply out of concern for storage room, but was drawn to this one because of the informative back:
Enjoys playing golf and going to movies during his free time? Clearly I was right to collect him because we're kindred spirits.
Upper Deck recently came out with their Detroit Red Wings Centennial box set. There isn't much of consequence in this phase of the release, but Larry was featured and it gave me the chance to pad my numbers with a few cheap pickups:
25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Box Set #96 1.95 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Gold #96 3.95 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Back To Greatness #B2G-LM 6.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
I saw these in a Euro hockey card group on Facebook. Was happy to come to a deal for them because these are popping up less and less in general. However, I do have some concern because this was late October-early November and they still have not arrived in the mail. I suspect no foul play from the seller - we're still in communication and it was hardly the kind of price one would risk their reputation over. And I've seen examples of late deliveries from Europe, so this isn't exactly unique. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing international business and am content to continue waiting, I'd just be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about receiving them:
21/22 Art Of Hockey Autographs Purple #BALM1 Larry Murphy 5/5 13.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
21/22 Art Of Hockey Autograph Portrait Red #PALM1 Larry Murphy 5/6 13.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
This next one was a nice December surprise. Early in the year, Kevin had helped me snipe a super cheap copy of this same card on Ebay, but as with all things that seem too good to be true, the seller promptly cancelled the transaction due to "losing the card". Yahuh. To their credit though, I've never seen them relist the card since, so they're committed to the lie at least.
When a Murphy search on Facebook turned this up in an auction group, I was happy to have another shot at one. The bidding was quickly approaching my walk-away price, but fortunately it held strong and I was able to win with an uncontested bid in the last minute:
20/21 Superlative Collection Superlative Signature Memorabilia Purple #SSMLM1 Larry Murphy 8/9 11.61 by primetimepawich, on Flickr
And from September through December, that was pretty much it, so you can see my lack of motivation to provide an update. Until...
When I last left you, I was riding the high of landing the President's Choice Stickhandle with an assist from our own Eric Andrews. Every year, I like at least one cornerstone pickup to hang my hat on. That Stickhandle was easily a top card on my wantlist, and if getting it represented a deal with the hobby devil and meant the rest of the year would be a dud, I was willing to make that trade-off. Since July, things were very much trending towards me leaving 2025 with a whimper...
...until they weren't.
Allow me to catch you up to speed. You'll see what I mean.
When this popped up on Ebay, I had to grab it. This is my 4th copy of this card (1 of which is autographed) and was mostly a boredom/impulse buy. These 85/86 Capitals Pizza Hut team issues are hella tough and I just feel obligated to grab them whenever I can. The timing coincided with our last Canada Post strike, but I bought it and the American Ebay seller was more than happy to hold and ship once the dust settled.
Shipping Buddy Kevin Mitchell then helped me out with a few signed base:
21/22 O-Pee-Chee #561 Detroit Red Wings Larry Murphy Autograph 7.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr82/83 Topps Stickers #232 Larry Murphy Autograph 10.00 by primetimepawich, on FlickrPlus this neat b/w player photo:
1985 Washington Capitals Team Photo 5.00 by primetimepawich, on FlickrI'm not usually a photo guy, simply out of concern for storage room, but was drawn to this one because of the informative back:
Enjoys playing golf and going to movies during his free time? Clearly I was right to collect him because we're kindred spirits.
Upper Deck recently came out with their Detroit Red Wings Centennial box set. There isn't much of consequence in this phase of the release, but Larry was featured and it gave me the chance to pad my numbers with a few cheap pickups:
25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Box Set #96 1.95 by primetimepawich, on Flickr25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Gold #96 3.95 by primetimepawich, on Flickr25/26 Upper Deck Detroit Red Wings Centennial - Back To Greatness #B2G-LM 6.00 by primetimepawich, on FlickrI saw these in a Euro hockey card group on Facebook. Was happy to come to a deal for them because these are popping up less and less in general. However, I do have some concern because this was late October-early November and they still have not arrived in the mail. I suspect no foul play from the seller - we're still in communication and it was hardly the kind of price one would risk their reputation over. And I've seen examples of late deliveries from Europe, so this isn't exactly unique. I don't want to discourage anyone from doing international business and am content to continue waiting, I'd just be lying if I said I wasn't concerned about receiving them:
21/22 Art Of Hockey Autographs Purple #BALM1 Larry Murphy 5/5 13.00 by primetimepawich, on Flickr21/22 Art Of Hockey Autograph Portrait Red #PALM1 Larry Murphy 5/6 13.00 by primetimepawich, on FlickrThis next one was a nice December surprise. Early in the year, Kevin had helped me snipe a super cheap copy of this same card on Ebay, but as with all things that seem too good to be true, the seller promptly cancelled the transaction due to "losing the card". Yahuh. To their credit though, I've never seen them relist the card since, so they're committed to the lie at least.
When a Murphy search on Facebook turned this up in an auction group, I was happy to have another shot at one. The bidding was quickly approaching my walk-away price, but fortunately it held strong and I was able to win with an uncontested bid in the last minute:
20/21 Superlative Collection Superlative Signature Memorabilia Purple #SSMLM1 Larry Murphy 8/9 11.61 by primetimepawich, on FlickrAnd from September through December, that was pretty much it, so you can see my lack of motivation to provide an update. Until...
