primetimepawich
Verified Trader ,
Not gonna lie...outside of a few premium pickups, my beloved Larry Murphy collection has been a dud this year. I've still got my eye on stuff and pick away when I can, but it's been slow, REAL slow. So needless to say, I've been bored. I'm part of a hockey autograph collectors group on Facebook, and on a whim, I decided to revive an old collection and see if I could find any upgrades within the group. I'm a Hab fan (which has been harder in some years than others and really has nothing to do with my Murphy collection) and some years ago, I put together a collection of a signed rookie card of each of the members of Montreal's last Cup-winning team in 92/93. But some were bubbly or smudged, others were in pen and harder to see than marker, and others contained a greeting or personalization to someone else. In short, I thought I could do better. So I took it to the group, a collector answered my call, and we struck a small deal for 5.
That's a story for another day though. This collector, seemingly inspired by our deal, dug out his other Habs traders to see what he could market to the group. He took some photos of binder pages and showed them to me first. He had signed cards from a lot of Habs of the '80s and '90s, both prominent and not so much. It was a real blast from the past seeing these draftees of the '90s who only had a cup of coffee, but the one that caught my eye was a guy who never even got a sip.
In 1991, it's fair to say that 11 year-old me was pretty naive about the inner workings of the game. I happily drank the Habs Kool-Aid and assumed whoever they selected at the draft table was the best player they possibly could've drafted and was sure to move the needle because hey, it was the Habs (Reading prospect message boards today, I have since come to learn that I'm not alone and not much has changed over the years) In 1991, that player was Brent Bilodeau. Now, mind you, I never saw the guy play. I just saw his stats and the occasional profile in hockey almanacs. As his offensive game evolved in junior, I was certain that coupled with his impressive size, he would morph into an imposing force at both ends of the ice. Working from a WHL hockey card of his, I sketched a picture of him and swapped his junior colors out for those of the Habs in anticipation of his NHL arrival. When Super Nintendo hockey games first allowed for the Create a Player option, the first player I created was Bilodeau.
Unfortunately, those of you who know your hockey draft history might know that there was but one player from the entire first round of the 1991 draft who never got in so much as an NHL game...
Brent Bilodeau.
When a saw a lonely signed Bilodeau card in this collector's traders, the memories came flooding back and I considered getting it for old time's sake. Then I went down the rabbit hole and got to wondering, if I got this card and had to go all the way, what all did he even have for hockey cards? So to SCF I went to check their checklist. The answer there was 34 cards in total. How many of those could I find? How cheaply and quickly could I put them together? The answers to those questions are "most of them", "quite cheaply" and "within 2 weeks" (probably less if I'd been more organized and checked some sites sooner)
I bought the autograph and set out on my mission in September. Through a combination of Ebay, COMC, Sportlots, Center Ice Collectibles and Armchair Sports, I knocked almost all of them down. And to supplement them, I went back to the Facebook group to put out the call for IP autos. A few people answered the call and we made some small deals. One member even gifted me with 7 cards he'd had signed in his time working with the Fredericton Canadiens. Everyone was really nice to deal with, but all had the same question: "Why Bilodeau?" Now you know.
Yesterday, I completed a trade for the last certified auto I needed, a 1991 Classic 4 Sport autograph /1000 I found in a Google image search. So barring a few issues from his later playing and coaching career, plus a UD Anniversary 1/1, unless I can scrounge up any more IP autos I need, what you see is what you get and I'm pretty much done. Here they are in all their glory.
Behold! The next big thing who never was:
(Side note: the PSA graded UD RC is currently his only graded rookie and cost more than the majority of what you just saw combined)
Thanks for the look, and if you have similar unheralded PCs we don't know about, I'd love to hear the stories behind them.
Joe
That's a story for another day though. This collector, seemingly inspired by our deal, dug out his other Habs traders to see what he could market to the group. He took some photos of binder pages and showed them to me first. He had signed cards from a lot of Habs of the '80s and '90s, both prominent and not so much. It was a real blast from the past seeing these draftees of the '90s who only had a cup of coffee, but the one that caught my eye was a guy who never even got a sip.
In 1991, it's fair to say that 11 year-old me was pretty naive about the inner workings of the game. I happily drank the Habs Kool-Aid and assumed whoever they selected at the draft table was the best player they possibly could've drafted and was sure to move the needle because hey, it was the Habs (Reading prospect message boards today, I have since come to learn that I'm not alone and not much has changed over the years) In 1991, that player was Brent Bilodeau. Now, mind you, I never saw the guy play. I just saw his stats and the occasional profile in hockey almanacs. As his offensive game evolved in junior, I was certain that coupled with his impressive size, he would morph into an imposing force at both ends of the ice. Working from a WHL hockey card of his, I sketched a picture of him and swapped his junior colors out for those of the Habs in anticipation of his NHL arrival. When Super Nintendo hockey games first allowed for the Create a Player option, the first player I created was Bilodeau.
Unfortunately, those of you who know your hockey draft history might know that there was but one player from the entire first round of the 1991 draft who never got in so much as an NHL game...
Brent Bilodeau.
When a saw a lonely signed Bilodeau card in this collector's traders, the memories came flooding back and I considered getting it for old time's sake. Then I went down the rabbit hole and got to wondering, if I got this card and had to go all the way, what all did he even have for hockey cards? So to SCF I went to check their checklist. The answer there was 34 cards in total. How many of those could I find? How cheaply and quickly could I put them together? The answers to those questions are "most of them", "quite cheaply" and "within 2 weeks" (probably less if I'd been more organized and checked some sites sooner)
I bought the autograph and set out on my mission in September. Through a combination of Ebay, COMC, Sportlots, Center Ice Collectibles and Armchair Sports, I knocked almost all of them down. And to supplement them, I went back to the Facebook group to put out the call for IP autos. A few people answered the call and we made some small deals. One member even gifted me with 7 cards he'd had signed in his time working with the Fredericton Canadiens. Everyone was really nice to deal with, but all had the same question: "Why Bilodeau?" Now you know.
Yesterday, I completed a trade for the last certified auto I needed, a 1991 Classic 4 Sport autograph /1000 I found in a Google image search. So barring a few issues from his later playing and coaching career, plus a UD Anniversary 1/1, unless I can scrounge up any more IP autos I need, what you see is what you get and I'm pretty much done. Here they are in all their glory.
Behold! The next big thing who never was:
(Side note: the PSA graded UD RC is currently his only graded rookie and cost more than the majority of what you just saw combined)
Thanks for the look, and if you have similar unheralded PCs we don't know about, I'd love to hear the stories behind them.
Joe
Yeah, even in concept, I have no idea how that was supposed to work.
