Back in 2008 or 2009, ITG released Ultimate Memorabilia 9th Edition.
The product featured the very first cards with patches that dominated the cards. Panini would copy them with Prime Colors and then UD followed too with Premier Mega Patches. But ITG was the first to do it, and they were awesome.
From around 2008/09 for about 4-5 years, I was buying as many of the really nice ones as I could from UM9. They also made them in UM10 and UM11.
I owned over 80 of them, sold off a dozen or so that lost their luster for me and was sitting with 72 more several years.
A few Toronto Expo's ago I was found a Lemieux all-star piece from UM9 that was my only addition to the PC in many years probably 7+.
I knew that there were a couple Gretzky's on the checklist; one LA and one Rangers. I'd seen the LA piece as it resides in Jeffrey Griffith's collection but I'd never seen the Rangers piece. Every 5 years or so I would hassle Jeffrey to see if he'd sell me the Kings piece and while he did flinch a couple weeks ago, I wasn't able to offer him enough to pry it out of his very diamond-like hands.
But at least I knew where it was and if I won the lottery I would have given him his ask.
Literally the next day after chatting with Jeffrey, I am looking at all the Gretzky's listed on eBay by a Pinnacle sports and they have listed, the Rangers Gretzky piece. My eyes went buggy. But the BIN was way more than I wanted to spend. I made an initial offer and crossed my fingers. They countered too high for me, I re-countered and they declined. And I was resolved to the fact that I just wasn't going to be able to afford either Gretzky piece from the UM9 product.
Fast forward 10 days or so, I am meeting with a Slab Sharks client at Tim Horton's and he shows me pictures of a couple cards he is about to make a deal on with Pinnacle. And my mind races and I say "hey, maybe if you ask him to add the UM9 piece it will help both of us get the deal done." By the end of the night, he had secured the card for me for the amount of my original offer! I was so stoked. I had finally secured a Gretzky for this much loved sub-PC.
Well, I just got home from picking up the cards from my Slab Sharks client and after almost 17 years of collecting these cards, I finally landed a Gretzky!
Here it is in all its glory:
200809 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 9th Edition Ultimate Emblem Wayne Gretzky 1/1
And in the next post is my whole collection of the UM cards...
The product featured the very first cards with patches that dominated the cards. Panini would copy them with Prime Colors and then UD followed too with Premier Mega Patches. But ITG was the first to do it, and they were awesome.
From around 2008/09 for about 4-5 years, I was buying as many of the really nice ones as I could from UM9. They also made them in UM10 and UM11.
I owned over 80 of them, sold off a dozen or so that lost their luster for me and was sitting with 72 more several years.
A few Toronto Expo's ago I was found a Lemieux all-star piece from UM9 that was my only addition to the PC in many years probably 7+.
I knew that there were a couple Gretzky's on the checklist; one LA and one Rangers. I'd seen the LA piece as it resides in Jeffrey Griffith's collection but I'd never seen the Rangers piece. Every 5 years or so I would hassle Jeffrey to see if he'd sell me the Kings piece and while he did flinch a couple weeks ago, I wasn't able to offer him enough to pry it out of his very diamond-like hands.
But at least I knew where it was and if I won the lottery I would have given him his ask.
Literally the next day after chatting with Jeffrey, I am looking at all the Gretzky's listed on eBay by a Pinnacle sports and they have listed, the Rangers Gretzky piece. My eyes went buggy. But the BIN was way more than I wanted to spend. I made an initial offer and crossed my fingers. They countered too high for me, I re-countered and they declined. And I was resolved to the fact that I just wasn't going to be able to afford either Gretzky piece from the UM9 product.
Fast forward 10 days or so, I am meeting with a Slab Sharks client at Tim Horton's and he shows me pictures of a couple cards he is about to make a deal on with Pinnacle. And my mind races and I say "hey, maybe if you ask him to add the UM9 piece it will help both of us get the deal done." By the end of the night, he had secured the card for me for the amount of my original offer! I was so stoked. I had finally secured a Gretzky for this much loved sub-PC.
Well, I just got home from picking up the cards from my Slab Sharks client and after almost 17 years of collecting these cards, I finally landed a Gretzky!
Here it is in all its glory:
200809 ITG Ultimate Memorabilia 9th Edition Ultimate Emblem Wayne Gretzky 1/1
And in the next post is my whole collection of the UM cards...
