richie.rocket.cards
Verified Trader,
Hello! Another half year gone by; it was a very eventful 6 months though (on all fronts): saw the Flames destroy my Canucks, met a few rookie Canucks, met a group of former Canucks, met Carrie Fisher, vacationed in Europe, surpassed 600 completed customs, and finally, after 8 long years, graduated and obtained my post-secondary degree! Boy has it been that long
Happy to announce I've also landed a job/position back on mainland BC, right at home in Vancouver, for the next 5 years! Already looking forward to attending local shows more regularly, visiting Derek's store more often (this is already happening), and of course, meeting new and future Canucks come training camp/preseason/15-16 NHL season! Now, if only I could figure out how to afford a house here..
Onto the cards!
Some of you may remember my trip around Easter, down to Rogers Arena to attempt having some customs signed by Canucks players I hadn't yet obtained an autograph for yet. The big prize that day was this Radim Vrbata:
But, there were also 6 other big successes! I truly believe that another fan present that day helped my cause--this fan was trying to get a wedding card signed by as many Canucks as possible, and had brought a big poster explaining his goal to "flag" down passing Canucks players. It worked quite well, as infrequent signers such as Edler, and I believe, both Sedins, all stopped =)
It's probably funny, but while everyone was swarming the Sedins, I was looking for Brandon McMillan:
and Luca Sbisa:
Got 1 from Shawn Matthias:
And another from Brad Richardson:
And one from Linden Vey:
And last but not least, Ronalds Kenins! He was certainly quite a pleasant surprise at the late stages of last season playing alongside Bo Horvat and Jannik Hansen:
Speaking of Bo Horvat, he was doing a public signing at Burrard Acura's grand opening the month previous:
But wait! There's more?!
Yep, another public signing hosted by Vancouver Canucks alumni in May! Quite a few former Canucks were there:
Kirk McLean (who I nearly missed as we were running late):
Orland Kurtenbach and Chris Oddleifson:
Doug Bodger (who I met for the first time):
as well as Jyrki Lumme:
We met ol' Harold Snepsts, and Darcy Rota too:
Now we'll just step away from all the Canucks goodies for a moment..
First, a pair of higher-end rookies (no further explanation needed)
Here are some vintage Kings:
And the latest addition to my 10 card Owen Nolan collection; these cards are pretty darn nice in person. It's cool they (Upper Deck) are slowly introducing 90s stars back into sets, with their 90s jerseys!
Got a few really awesome photo returns through the mail:
Linda Larkin (big shout out to member "gobluesgo" for the help with the address):
And Paige VanZant; I was a bit worried she'd stopped signing as she had called out some flippers for trying to capitalize on her TTM returns by selling them on ebay. But low and behold, here they are:
For those wondering, Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go"
And...she also returned this shadowbox type card!
As mentioned earlier, I also had the fortune of meeting Carrie Fisher at the 2015 Vancouver Fan Expo, where she signed this for me:
And while I couldn't make it down to Anaheim for the Star Wars Celebration 2015, I did manage to send in an item for none other than Mark Hamill himself to sign!
Onto more customs! It's been a very fun ride making these and getting them returned, signed. 600 seems like a big number, but there's still so many players to go!
Here's a cut auto for Alek Stojanov (the guy we traded for Markus Naslund):
2 from Tomas Mojzis
1 from Mario Marois
1 from Jozef Balej
2 from Joacim Eriksson
Completed this Mike Keane, which TurcoCollector3 originally helped me get signed:
2 from Maxime Ouellet
2 from Kellan Lain
2 vintage Young Guns experiments; I may try to get these signed some day
Nieuwendyk
Nolan
2 signed customs back from Murray Baron
2 from Brandon DeFazio
2 from Trevor Letowski
1 from Brad Leeb
1 from Robin Bartel (who liked this custom enough that he wrote a letter to me requesting more); I guess he doesn't see these every day
1 from Derek Dorsett
2 from Patrick Coulombe who plays all the way in France
2 back from Trent Klatt
2 from Mario Bliznak
1 from Randy Holt
1 from Wayne Connelly (whose picture in Canucks uni was an awesome find in itself)
1 from Kevin Primeau
2 from Alfie Michaud
2 from Bob Mason thanks to a friend of mine in Buffalo
2 from Darby Hendrickson (again courtesy my buddy in Buffalo)
2 from Mike Zalewski
2 from Grant Ledyard
2 from Brian Loney
Yea, that scan wasn't very good:
1 from Dave McLelland
2 from Al MacAdam
2 from Larry Courville
1 from Jim Wiste
and via Frank at The Toronto Card Show, Gerry Meehan:
And lastly, a super nice return from one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and one of my personal favorite athletes...Roger Federer!
But wait..where is the Pavel Bure stuff? And heck, where is the "real" Canucks stuff for that matter?
There was definitely a short period where a lot of really awesome Canucks cards became available on the secondary market. Without further delay:
Kevin Bieksa Hotagraphs: thanks Bieksa for all the years of great hockey in Vancouver, I hope he'll win a Cup somewhere before his retirement:
Alex Edler Glacial Graphs (was on the wantlist ever since the set came out)
Mike Fountain auto I didn't know existed
My first "certified" Bo Horvat auto
A couple Alex Burrows cards:
Todd Bertuzzi Honorable Numbers patch auto! If anyone has the 05-06 Limited Logos Bertuzzi patch auto, I'm looking for one of those also!
Nicklas Jensen Cup patch auto RC
More Cup: Sakic/Naslund dual Honorable Numbers! How much cooler would it have been if Naslund was depicted in the old skate logo jersey eh (to match the patch)?!
And THIS: 00-01 BAP Update Heritage jersey Trevor Linden!
Boy, this card back in the day went for CRAZY amounts. I remember bidding $96 USD on one maybe 10 years ago, and STILL lost. Glad to finally check this one off the list:
On that note, here's a Bure Heritage jersey that has been equally elusive:
A new Bure auto to add:
And yet another Bure auto:
And still another (thanks Derek for the trade):
And finally, certainly the lowest numbered Pavel Bure card I own (at least, amongst officially licensed cards):
13-14 Sp Game Used Game Gear Pavel Bure /3!
I have to say, I never thought I'd own one given the large Bure following out there. But it was good timing and a bit of luck I think, that helped me land this surprise whale.
That's it for now, stay tuned for more cool stuff upcoming in the fall (when I may actually try to attend the HHOF induction weekend event)!
Happy to announce I've also landed a job/position back on mainland BC, right at home in Vancouver, for the next 5 years! Already looking forward to attending local shows more regularly, visiting Derek's store more often (this is already happening), and of course, meeting new and future Canucks come training camp/preseason/15-16 NHL season! Now, if only I could figure out how to afford a house here..
Onto the cards!
Some of you may remember my trip around Easter, down to Rogers Arena to attempt having some customs signed by Canucks players I hadn't yet obtained an autograph for yet. The big prize that day was this Radim Vrbata:
But, there were also 6 other big successes! I truly believe that another fan present that day helped my cause--this fan was trying to get a wedding card signed by as many Canucks as possible, and had brought a big poster explaining his goal to "flag" down passing Canucks players. It worked quite well, as infrequent signers such as Edler, and I believe, both Sedins, all stopped =)
It's probably funny, but while everyone was swarming the Sedins, I was looking for Brandon McMillan:
and Luca Sbisa:
Got 1 from Shawn Matthias:
And another from Brad Richardson:
And one from Linden Vey:
And last but not least, Ronalds Kenins! He was certainly quite a pleasant surprise at the late stages of last season playing alongside Bo Horvat and Jannik Hansen:
Speaking of Bo Horvat, he was doing a public signing at Burrard Acura's grand opening the month previous:
But wait! There's more?!
Yep, another public signing hosted by Vancouver Canucks alumni in May! Quite a few former Canucks were there:
Kirk McLean (who I nearly missed as we were running late):
Orland Kurtenbach and Chris Oddleifson:
Doug Bodger (who I met for the first time):
as well as Jyrki Lumme:
We met ol' Harold Snepsts, and Darcy Rota too:
Now we'll just step away from all the Canucks goodies for a moment..
First, a pair of higher-end rookies (no further explanation needed)
Here are some vintage Kings:
And the latest addition to my 10 card Owen Nolan collection; these cards are pretty darn nice in person. It's cool they (Upper Deck) are slowly introducing 90s stars back into sets, with their 90s jerseys!
Got a few really awesome photo returns through the mail:
Linda Larkin (big shout out to member "gobluesgo" for the help with the address):
And Paige VanZant; I was a bit worried she'd stopped signing as she had called out some flippers for trying to capitalize on her TTM returns by selling them on ebay. But low and behold, here they are:
For those wondering, Joshua 1:9 - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go"
And...she also returned this shadowbox type card!
As mentioned earlier, I also had the fortune of meeting Carrie Fisher at the 2015 Vancouver Fan Expo, where she signed this for me:
And while I couldn't make it down to Anaheim for the Star Wars Celebration 2015, I did manage to send in an item for none other than Mark Hamill himself to sign!
Onto more customs! It's been a very fun ride making these and getting them returned, signed. 600 seems like a big number, but there's still so many players to go!
Here's a cut auto for Alek Stojanov (the guy we traded for Markus Naslund):
2 from Tomas Mojzis
1 from Mario Marois
1 from Jozef Balej
2 from Joacim Eriksson
Completed this Mike Keane, which TurcoCollector3 originally helped me get signed:
2 from Maxime Ouellet
2 from Kellan Lain
2 vintage Young Guns experiments; I may try to get these signed some day
Nieuwendyk
Nolan
2 signed customs back from Murray Baron
2 from Brandon DeFazio
2 from Trevor Letowski
1 from Brad Leeb
1 from Robin Bartel (who liked this custom enough that he wrote a letter to me requesting more); I guess he doesn't see these every day
1 from Derek Dorsett
2 from Patrick Coulombe who plays all the way in France
2 back from Trent Klatt
2 from Mario Bliznak
1 from Randy Holt
1 from Wayne Connelly (whose picture in Canucks uni was an awesome find in itself)
1 from Kevin Primeau
2 from Alfie Michaud
2 from Bob Mason thanks to a friend of mine in Buffalo
2 from Darby Hendrickson (again courtesy my buddy in Buffalo)
2 from Mike Zalewski
2 from Grant Ledyard
2 from Brian Loney
Yea, that scan wasn't very good:
1 from Dave McLelland
2 from Al MacAdam
2 from Larry Courville
1 from Jim Wiste
and via Frank at The Toronto Card Show, Gerry Meehan:
And lastly, a super nice return from one of the greatest tennis players of all time, and one of my personal favorite athletes...Roger Federer!
But wait..where is the Pavel Bure stuff? And heck, where is the "real" Canucks stuff for that matter?
There was definitely a short period where a lot of really awesome Canucks cards became available on the secondary market. Without further delay:
Kevin Bieksa Hotagraphs: thanks Bieksa for all the years of great hockey in Vancouver, I hope he'll win a Cup somewhere before his retirement:
Alex Edler Glacial Graphs (was on the wantlist ever since the set came out)
Mike Fountain auto I didn't know existed
My first "certified" Bo Horvat auto
A couple Alex Burrows cards:
Todd Bertuzzi Honorable Numbers patch auto! If anyone has the 05-06 Limited Logos Bertuzzi patch auto, I'm looking for one of those also!
Nicklas Jensen Cup patch auto RC
More Cup: Sakic/Naslund dual Honorable Numbers! How much cooler would it have been if Naslund was depicted in the old skate logo jersey eh (to match the patch)?!
And THIS: 00-01 BAP Update Heritage jersey Trevor Linden!
Boy, this card back in the day went for CRAZY amounts. I remember bidding $96 USD on one maybe 10 years ago, and STILL lost. Glad to finally check this one off the list:
On that note, here's a Bure Heritage jersey that has been equally elusive:
A new Bure auto to add:
And yet another Bure auto:
And still another (thanks Derek for the trade):
And finally, certainly the lowest numbered Pavel Bure card I own (at least, amongst officially licensed cards):
13-14 Sp Game Used Game Gear Pavel Bure /3!
I have to say, I never thought I'd own one given the large Bure following out there. But it was good timing and a bit of luck I think, that helped me land this surprise whale.
That's it for now, stay tuned for more cool stuff upcoming in the fall (when I may actually try to attend the HHOF induction weekend event)!
I'll have to check my Bertuzzi pile. I may actually have the Limited Logo's card. It's been a while since I riffled through them. And the last Russian Rocket card ? Wow ... *jaw hits floor, cannot recoil back due to the awesomeness in this thread*
