richie.rocket.cards
Verified Trader,
Hi HI!
Been a busy while! As some of you may remember, at the time of my last post, I had just moved back to Vancouver and was starting full-time work, and man, it has been great!
Aside from there being few exams and even fewer academic responsibilities, I have been blessed with very flexible holiday requests--and have put them to good use (from a hockey card collecting standpoint anyway).
More on that later, though. First, we pick up from where we left off in July (just after returning from Europe), where a few of my customs came back through the mail over my holiday:
First was a return from Phil Esposito!! For those of you who know me well, the Esposito autograph is hardly the excitement here...it is just for completeness on this card; the Larry Bolonchuk half though
And then a couple back from former Canuck Doug Smith:
And former Leaf Larry McIntyre (who technically never played for the Canucks):
And one really cool non-hockey return, unfortunately bent in half by Canada Post :curse:
Milos Raonic!
2 from Bob Sanguinetti (signed super nicely)
Peter Bakovic:
And two from a goalie that's obscure as they come: Martin Brochu!! Again, both cards bent up by Canada Post (unbelievable)
Later in the summer, I happened to learn that former Canucks netminder Alex Auld was coaching frequently at the Richmond Oval as part of one Pro Goalie Camp. After one of his sessions out there, I introduced myself and he signed these two customs for me:
Some great-looking sets came out over the summer/fall from UD:
Love that Turgeon is being included in new sets! Can't deny how good these old 90s Sabres jerseys look:
And a few other random Canucks pick-ups:
John Craighead RC--remember that name and face now
And finally, this guy now so far removed from the Canucks line-up, but I still think this is a very well-designed card --> Cody Hodgson Ultimate RC
Always liked these Silhouette cards: Ryan Strome
Fast forward to September: I had a staycation in Vancouver and decided to learn how to use a laser cutter for my customs (and maybe one day for custom furniture, who knows).
I started with creating a bunch of cut autos (using autographed index cards I had been collecting over the last few years):
John Schella
Alexei Tezikov
Jan Hlavac
Evgeny Namestnikov
Roman Oksiuta!
Grant Martin
Mats Lindgren
Josef Beranek
Some deceased former Canucks:
Len Lunde
Doug Wickenheiser
Vladimir Krutov
Gary Lupul (this one was hand-cut though)
Rick Blight
Then I went out to a few Canucks training camp practices:
meeting Hunter Shinkaruk and Jordan Subban:
and this guy: Dan Cloutier!
Got these customs signed too by most of our new acquisitions/rookies:
Adam Cracknell
Richard Bachman
Brandon Prust
Matt Bartkowski
Brendan Gaunce
Alex Biega
Jared McCann
Jake Virtanen
and...more Ronalds Kenins! He unfortunately didn't have a great training camp but I expect he'll be back. He actually signed two of these for me. The patch on this particular card is actually a game-used Luongo patch. Kenins does have patches on the market, but none in the correct size (yet).
More custom returns in September/October mail:
Brian Noonan
Randy Boyd
Marc Reaume
Really cool double: Frank Caprice and Craig Levie! As you probably can guess, some guys who played for the Canucks have few, or in fact, no available pictures to use for customs. This is so far the ONLY Levie picture I've found depicted in Canucks uni. Naturally, the card would be incomplete without also getting Frank Caprice's signatures on it:
Drake Berehowsky!
Mike Stapleton
Ryan Walter:
And then a really BIG return: Roberto Luongo to complete this 1/1 dual of (statistically anyway) the two greatest Canucks netminders of all time!! Lu has been signing for many people through the mail lately it seems, which is great because he was apparently quite a tough auto while here in Vancouver. The patches are, of course, authentic to each respective player:
In late September, I paid a visit to local Canucks legend Tony Tanti, who very gladly signed these two customs for me:
The scan doesn't do this card justice. Yes, this one's actually rainbow gold-stamped and looks great in the light. It's just a bit too bad that the laser cutting burned parts of the foil quite significantly. The entire batch (including other players as you will see later, also have this defect). Oh well, can't win them all:
Just prior to the Fall Expo, a package containing these came in:
I recently discovered an autograph company named Sport Authentix, and they had a seriously awesome autograph lineup this fall, including:
Marie-Philip Poulin!! A nice addition to my very slow-going collection of 2010 Olympic Gold winners for Canada:
And the most exciting signing this year so far for me, had to be this next guy: Alexander Mogilny! I remember watching this guy as a 5 year old score like crazy in his early days with the Canucks. Yes, they were do-nothing years for the team but Mogilny has always remained one of my all-time favorite players. He also is a difficult autograph to get so this was a grand opportunity. Quite unfortunately, he apparently refused to personalize the auto 8x12..not sure why--he is just one of two high-profile signers in this post who refused to personalize. As I don't really sell anything, personalization just means a lot more to me.
Oh well, it still looks pretty awesome in the end:
Along with these cards:
!!
Then literally just days before flying out to the Expo, the Pens were in town. Was hoping to run into Sidney Crosby so I could have a photo with him, but while I did actually get within 3 feet of him, he was being swarmed by a bunch of grown men trying to get everything from posters, cards, magazines, jerseys, to fricken bobble-heads signed.
Shrug, no photo for me. The part that irks me a bit is that most of the men there had already gotten a Crosby signature over the previous two days of stalking him. But, I guess his sig has some value, more = better.
No matter, I met this guy instead, just as cool:
And while everyone was clammering around for Crosby, Letang, Fleury, Malkin, and Kessel, I was looking for an autograph from, and only from, Nick Bonino (signed super neatly):
And then at LONG last: it was time to fly out to Toronto for my first ever Fall Expo (or any Expo for that matter) and the Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Weekend!
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the preceding Thursday night off in order to fly in early and partake in the HI pre-Expo dinner =(
My first order of business after arriving late Friday evening, was to go to the HHOF for a ceremonial puck-drop. There, I met Lanny McDonald:
I hung around to see some of the cool pieces and try my hand at playing goal only to fail miserably and post a Sv% of 25%
Then, off to the Expo!
Before I even got into the building, I already completed a deal with fellow HIer zremez for this Jared McCann YG RC:
Then, on an HI covered weekend pass (thanks gomaz!), proceed in.
Dang, there was so much stuff it was insane. I'd never seen so much sports memorabilia, cards, magazines, photos, autographs, etc, all in one place. The floor was MASSIVE. I think I spent the first 4 hrs going through every card of the first 5 booths...then realized there was like, 60 more vendors and that this would seriously not work.
I think part of the problem was that I had a very small wantlist...stuff from more than 10 years ago. I'd say the bulk of the cards I saw were from the last 3-4 years, or pre-1989 vintage. TONNES of UD Series 1 no surprise, and TONNES of Cup Hockey (holy crap, patches galore). If you looked hard enough, you probably could've found the entire Shayne Gostisbehere Cup ARP print run or something in this place.
Still, I scoured and found some dirt cheap Canucks stuff:
I'd say there was also a SH*T-TONNE of high end names: more Gretzky's, Lemieux's, Howe's, Orr's than I could imagine. Some table had Gretzky RCs graded from 1 to 9.5 all laid out available for sale. Not to mention a fantastic group of signing guests: Niklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger, Bryan Trottier, Bobby Hull, Mike Bossy...just damn!
But knowing me, I was way more excited for some of the lesser names like Mike Walton lol.
Thanks to HI member boredinguelph (Dave) for helping me with this Mike Walton custom on Friday night:
I also got to meet Igor Larionov (truly, I wanted a good photo with Mr. Larionov but the lineup for his graph was so long, it wasn't really possible). I also didn't have anything prepared as it was a spontaneous decision so I bought this book for $8 five minutes before the signing:
And also met Clark Gillies, one of my favorite power forwards of all time! Here, I stuck around until there was a gap in the lineup and literally bent the AJ Sportswlrd attendant's arm in half to score this photo:
I will show the Gillies auto another time when I have the whole project complete =)
Also met Eric Lindros:
And this guy:
Gomaz! Thanks for covering my Expo Weekend pass, introducing me to some fellow HIers, and helping to make my experience memorable!
Throughout the two days, also met other members briefly (there was just so little time, so much to do), including JR Superstar, 99goals, ssinger, RAVMAN, zremez, boredinguelph and others!
Thanks to RAVMAN Darcy for an awesome deal on this Richard Brodeur:
So yep, didn't really break the bank in any regard. My two biggest buys came in the final hours of the Expo--two cards not really on my wantlist but upon seeing them, had to have:
But wait, my trip wasn't DONE. There was still the Induction Weekend events!
Sunday afternoon was devoted to taking in the Legends Classics game at the AC Center:
Then went to Real Sports Bar after and watched an epic Leafs loss within the final 1s of play.
The next day, while walking around Maple Leaf Square, I ran into one Vladislav Tretiak:
In the evening, I went over to Brookefield Place where the Induction Gala was to take place:
While I had a few things I would have liked to have signed, it was not the major goal for me. I just wanted to see what an Induction Gala looked like.
Quite extraordinarily, there was probably a group of 40 autograph collectors all waiting in the main concourse for ex-players and HHOFers to come by in hopes of scoring signatures. It's actually quite a sight whenever a certain player comes in...because about 25 of them would rush to the player, pens waving, photos shuffling, faces mushing. And if the player started signing, the remaining 20 guys would ALSO rush over. It was a gong show. Some guys were very good with signing, Larionov, and Coffey and Rob Blake come to mind.
I mostly sat at the fountain and just enjoyed the view. Not a single autograph for me that night, but that's ok! Time and place for everything.
I did luck out while everybody else was trying to get Rob Blake though: Luc Robitaille came in right after Rob Blake and nobody saw him...except me. I leaped to introduce myself as Luc is another one of my all-time favorite players. We got this ugly selfie but hey, I don't care, it's a highlight all the same for me:
The night went on. Guys still swarming everybody who was anybody (and sometimes, got autographs of people they didn't even know...so long as they had a HHOF jacket on). Weird.
I met Bob McKenzie:
and just as I was about to leave for the night, out came the big fish (for me anyway): Corey Hirsch!!
I was in Grade 1 when this guy debuted for the Canucks, and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY was praying he would be in the McD 3D set the following year. lol. Hirsch was nice, and was happy to converse for a few moments. Life. Complete.
And so ended my 4 days of hockey-filled madness in Toronto. It was well worth the money spent, but probably something that will have to wait a while before I partake in again. My only regrets are not being able to somehow meet Sergei Fedorov, and Pierre Turgeon (who was playing in the Legends Game). Nevertheless, I had an awesome time!
For those of you who are still here, there is a LOT more coming. I would recommend now going to refill your coffee or to grab another cold one =) Call it a brief intermission (good time for potato chips)
Shortly after returning home home, I went out to Vancouver's chapter of Hockey Helps Alzheimer's, a charity hockey tournament where participants have to raise a certain amount to play with former NHL pros! Obviously, I wasn't playing, but I donated a good amount of money to the cause to gain day pass to all games, lunch area, and ice level!
Of course, was prepared and armed with some freshly printed customs for the day =)
The first guy I met was yet another childhood hockey hero Owen Nolan! I would argue he was, at his peak, one of the top 5 power forwards in the league. He's still a giant in person guys:
Then Dave Babych. He was super friendly and we actually spoke multiple times over the course of the day. There was nobody around to help with this photo so I ended up having to ask one Mark Napier to take this photo for us...3 times as it kept turning out blurry. Still not the greatest, but I'll forgive Mark Napier:
And Marty McSoreley with the ol' Jofa helmet:
Picture with Alex Auld this time:
Guy LaFleur was also in attendance! Thanks Dale for helping me with this awesome photo:
And another legendary Canuck: Greg Adams!
This guy can seriously still fly on the ice. He was skating circles around everyone, setting up everybody, and just a delight to see in full gear again. He was also very nice about taking photos; I met him early in the morning but he was in a hurry to get game-ready and then sought me out at lunchtime to get this:
And sign these:
Particularly proud of this one...it was hand cut (yes, no laser). Some things still need the precision of a human hand.
Kyle Wellwood, who I learned is also a big Mogilny fan:
with Dana Murzyn
and finally, Cliff Ronning to round out the day:
Dont worry guys, that's not the end yet.
The interim week was spent preparing for the next even I will talk about. During this time, I completed two projects which had been sitting on the back burner for some time:
Chris Tanev: one piece is authentic Tanev jersey, the other belongs to Brandon Bollig hah
Kirk McLean glove!
And so, fast forward to just two days ago, I signed up to be a volunteer for yet another charity hockey tournament: Hockey Helps the Homeless Vancouver. What a good way to combine my hockey passion with my philanthropic and advocacy interests!
So I was a team manager for a team named Dorsey, featuring former pros Blair MacDonald and Doug Bodger:
(as I had previously met Doug Bodger, no picture with him this time around).
I also met Jack McIlhargey, Dennis Kearns, and Darcy Rota once again:
Does anyone remember this dude??
Yep. That is 1997 Florida Panthers 1st rounder Mike Brown!! He's actually rather blunt, and rather slow on the ice lol, but nevertheless, was friendly and signed these two customs for me:
then met Moe Lemay
and Denis Pederson
and John Craighead
and two Canadian Women's National Team members: Bailey Bram and Brianne Jenner:
and two time Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Johnston
and got a picture (of horrid quality) with R-->L Rob Flockhart, Bob McCammon, and Ron Flockhart:
and last and not least, yet another Canuck legend: Geoff Courtnall!
Yes he was a monster on the ice, but this is particularly significant for me as, when I was 4 and began my collection with some '91 Score cards, the ONLY two Canucks I pulled in 4 packs was, yep, Geoff Courtnall, and Greg Adams.
He signed a couple things for me also, but they are both not yet complete. Will show on the next update!
Tired yet?
Just a quick conclusion to this gargantuan post:
With a bit of leftover Expo funds, I managed to work out a deal on a very awesome card with a local vendor at the November Bossa Show..
Luc Robitaille Honorable Numbers patch-auto /20! Love the look of these cards and love those 90s Kings jerseys!
And finally, (and yes, this is the last finally), a MAJOR acquisition. Future centerpiece to my collection/display/basement. This man is incredibly elusive when it comes to obtaining an autograph. I suppose for good reason.
There are a lot of his autos out there on ebay for example, but difficult to tell if any of them (if any), are authentic.
I can't say he has the nicest auto either...and unfortunately, he also does not personalize. I suppose it will retain a higher value that way? No idea.
Anyhow, very happy with the way this turned out! Thanks to Capulet Art Consulting for the very reasonable price on the custom framing (with UV protected plexi-glass).
Can you spot the signature?
Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed! Till next time
Been a busy while! As some of you may remember, at the time of my last post, I had just moved back to Vancouver and was starting full-time work, and man, it has been great!
Aside from there being few exams and even fewer academic responsibilities, I have been blessed with very flexible holiday requests--and have put them to good use (from a hockey card collecting standpoint anyway).
More on that later, though. First, we pick up from where we left off in July (just after returning from Europe), where a few of my customs came back through the mail over my holiday:
First was a return from Phil Esposito!! For those of you who know me well, the Esposito autograph is hardly the excitement here...it is just for completeness on this card; the Larry Bolonchuk half though
And then a couple back from former Canuck Doug Smith:
And former Leaf Larry McIntyre (who technically never played for the Canucks):
And one really cool non-hockey return, unfortunately bent in half by Canada Post :curse:
Milos Raonic!
2 from Bob Sanguinetti (signed super nicely)
Peter Bakovic:
And two from a goalie that's obscure as they come: Martin Brochu!! Again, both cards bent up by Canada Post (unbelievable)
Later in the summer, I happened to learn that former Canucks netminder Alex Auld was coaching frequently at the Richmond Oval as part of one Pro Goalie Camp. After one of his sessions out there, I introduced myself and he signed these two customs for me:
Some great-looking sets came out over the summer/fall from UD:
Love that Turgeon is being included in new sets! Can't deny how good these old 90s Sabres jerseys look:
And a few other random Canucks pick-ups:
John Craighead RC--remember that name and face now
And finally, this guy now so far removed from the Canucks line-up, but I still think this is a very well-designed card --> Cody Hodgson Ultimate RC
Always liked these Silhouette cards: Ryan Strome
Fast forward to September: I had a staycation in Vancouver and decided to learn how to use a laser cutter for my customs (and maybe one day for custom furniture, who knows).
I started with creating a bunch of cut autos (using autographed index cards I had been collecting over the last few years):
John Schella
Alexei Tezikov
Jan Hlavac
Evgeny Namestnikov
Roman Oksiuta!
Grant Martin
Mats Lindgren
Josef Beranek
Some deceased former Canucks:
Len Lunde
Doug Wickenheiser
Vladimir Krutov
Gary Lupul (this one was hand-cut though)
Rick Blight
Then I went out to a few Canucks training camp practices:
meeting Hunter Shinkaruk and Jordan Subban:
and this guy: Dan Cloutier!
Got these customs signed too by most of our new acquisitions/rookies:
Adam Cracknell
Richard Bachman
Brandon Prust
Matt Bartkowski
Brendan Gaunce
Alex Biega
Jared McCann
Jake Virtanen
and...more Ronalds Kenins! He unfortunately didn't have a great training camp but I expect he'll be back. He actually signed two of these for me. The patch on this particular card is actually a game-used Luongo patch. Kenins does have patches on the market, but none in the correct size (yet).
More custom returns in September/October mail:
Brian Noonan
Randy Boyd
Marc Reaume
Really cool double: Frank Caprice and Craig Levie! As you probably can guess, some guys who played for the Canucks have few, or in fact, no available pictures to use for customs. This is so far the ONLY Levie picture I've found depicted in Canucks uni. Naturally, the card would be incomplete without also getting Frank Caprice's signatures on it:
Drake Berehowsky!
Mike Stapleton
Ryan Walter:
And then a really BIG return: Roberto Luongo to complete this 1/1 dual of (statistically anyway) the two greatest Canucks netminders of all time!! Lu has been signing for many people through the mail lately it seems, which is great because he was apparently quite a tough auto while here in Vancouver. The patches are, of course, authentic to each respective player:
In late September, I paid a visit to local Canucks legend Tony Tanti, who very gladly signed these two customs for me:
The scan doesn't do this card justice. Yes, this one's actually rainbow gold-stamped and looks great in the light. It's just a bit too bad that the laser cutting burned parts of the foil quite significantly. The entire batch (including other players as you will see later, also have this defect). Oh well, can't win them all:
Just prior to the Fall Expo, a package containing these came in:
I recently discovered an autograph company named Sport Authentix, and they had a seriously awesome autograph lineup this fall, including:
Marie-Philip Poulin!! A nice addition to my very slow-going collection of 2010 Olympic Gold winners for Canada:
And the most exciting signing this year so far for me, had to be this next guy: Alexander Mogilny! I remember watching this guy as a 5 year old score like crazy in his early days with the Canucks. Yes, they were do-nothing years for the team but Mogilny has always remained one of my all-time favorite players. He also is a difficult autograph to get so this was a grand opportunity. Quite unfortunately, he apparently refused to personalize the auto 8x12..not sure why--he is just one of two high-profile signers in this post who refused to personalize. As I don't really sell anything, personalization just means a lot more to me.
Oh well, it still looks pretty awesome in the end:
Along with these cards:
!!
Then literally just days before flying out to the Expo, the Pens were in town. Was hoping to run into Sidney Crosby so I could have a photo with him, but while I did actually get within 3 feet of him, he was being swarmed by a bunch of grown men trying to get everything from posters, cards, magazines, jerseys, to fricken bobble-heads signed.
Shrug, no photo for me. The part that irks me a bit is that most of the men there had already gotten a Crosby signature over the previous two days of stalking him. But, I guess his sig has some value, more = better.
No matter, I met this guy instead, just as cool:
And while everyone was clammering around for Crosby, Letang, Fleury, Malkin, and Kessel, I was looking for an autograph from, and only from, Nick Bonino (signed super neatly):
And then at LONG last: it was time to fly out to Toronto for my first ever Fall Expo (or any Expo for that matter) and the Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Weekend!
Unfortunately, I couldn't get the preceding Thursday night off in order to fly in early and partake in the HI pre-Expo dinner =(
My first order of business after arriving late Friday evening, was to go to the HHOF for a ceremonial puck-drop. There, I met Lanny McDonald:
I hung around to see some of the cool pieces and try my hand at playing goal only to fail miserably and post a Sv% of 25%
Then, off to the Expo!
Before I even got into the building, I already completed a deal with fellow HIer zremez for this Jared McCann YG RC:
Then, on an HI covered weekend pass (thanks gomaz!), proceed in.
Dang, there was so much stuff it was insane. I'd never seen so much sports memorabilia, cards, magazines, photos, autographs, etc, all in one place. The floor was MASSIVE. I think I spent the first 4 hrs going through every card of the first 5 booths...then realized there was like, 60 more vendors and that this would seriously not work.
I think part of the problem was that I had a very small wantlist...stuff from more than 10 years ago. I'd say the bulk of the cards I saw were from the last 3-4 years, or pre-1989 vintage. TONNES of UD Series 1 no surprise, and TONNES of Cup Hockey (holy crap, patches galore). If you looked hard enough, you probably could've found the entire Shayne Gostisbehere Cup ARP print run or something in this place.
Still, I scoured and found some dirt cheap Canucks stuff:
I'd say there was also a SH*T-TONNE of high end names: more Gretzky's, Lemieux's, Howe's, Orr's than I could imagine. Some table had Gretzky RCs graded from 1 to 9.5 all laid out available for sale. Not to mention a fantastic group of signing guests: Niklas Lidstrom, Chris Pronger, Bryan Trottier, Bobby Hull, Mike Bossy...just damn!
But knowing me, I was way more excited for some of the lesser names like Mike Walton lol.
Thanks to HI member boredinguelph (Dave) for helping me with this Mike Walton custom on Friday night:
I also got to meet Igor Larionov (truly, I wanted a good photo with Mr. Larionov but the lineup for his graph was so long, it wasn't really possible). I also didn't have anything prepared as it was a spontaneous decision so I bought this book for $8 five minutes before the signing:
And also met Clark Gillies, one of my favorite power forwards of all time! Here, I stuck around until there was a gap in the lineup and literally bent the AJ Sportswlrd attendant's arm in half to score this photo:
I will show the Gillies auto another time when I have the whole project complete =)
Also met Eric Lindros:
And this guy:
Gomaz! Thanks for covering my Expo Weekend pass, introducing me to some fellow HIers, and helping to make my experience memorable!
Throughout the two days, also met other members briefly (there was just so little time, so much to do), including JR Superstar, 99goals, ssinger, RAVMAN, zremez, boredinguelph and others!
Thanks to RAVMAN Darcy for an awesome deal on this Richard Brodeur:
So yep, didn't really break the bank in any regard. My two biggest buys came in the final hours of the Expo--two cards not really on my wantlist but upon seeing them, had to have:
But wait, my trip wasn't DONE. There was still the Induction Weekend events!
Sunday afternoon was devoted to taking in the Legends Classics game at the AC Center:
Then went to Real Sports Bar after and watched an epic Leafs loss within the final 1s of play.
The next day, while walking around Maple Leaf Square, I ran into one Vladislav Tretiak:
In the evening, I went over to Brookefield Place where the Induction Gala was to take place:
While I had a few things I would have liked to have signed, it was not the major goal for me. I just wanted to see what an Induction Gala looked like.
Quite extraordinarily, there was probably a group of 40 autograph collectors all waiting in the main concourse for ex-players and HHOFers to come by in hopes of scoring signatures. It's actually quite a sight whenever a certain player comes in...because about 25 of them would rush to the player, pens waving, photos shuffling, faces mushing. And if the player started signing, the remaining 20 guys would ALSO rush over. It was a gong show. Some guys were very good with signing, Larionov, and Coffey and Rob Blake come to mind.
I mostly sat at the fountain and just enjoyed the view. Not a single autograph for me that night, but that's ok! Time and place for everything.
I did luck out while everybody else was trying to get Rob Blake though: Luc Robitaille came in right after Rob Blake and nobody saw him...except me. I leaped to introduce myself as Luc is another one of my all-time favorite players. We got this ugly selfie but hey, I don't care, it's a highlight all the same for me:
The night went on. Guys still swarming everybody who was anybody (and sometimes, got autographs of people they didn't even know...so long as they had a HHOF jacket on). Weird.
I met Bob McKenzie:
and just as I was about to leave for the night, out came the big fish (for me anyway): Corey Hirsch!!
I was in Grade 1 when this guy debuted for the Canucks, and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY was praying he would be in the McD 3D set the following year. lol. Hirsch was nice, and was happy to converse for a few moments. Life. Complete.
And so ended my 4 days of hockey-filled madness in Toronto. It was well worth the money spent, but probably something that will have to wait a while before I partake in again. My only regrets are not being able to somehow meet Sergei Fedorov, and Pierre Turgeon (who was playing in the Legends Game). Nevertheless, I had an awesome time!
For those of you who are still here, there is a LOT more coming. I would recommend now going to refill your coffee or to grab another cold one =) Call it a brief intermission (good time for potato chips)
Shortly after returning home home, I went out to Vancouver's chapter of Hockey Helps Alzheimer's, a charity hockey tournament where participants have to raise a certain amount to play with former NHL pros! Obviously, I wasn't playing, but I donated a good amount of money to the cause to gain day pass to all games, lunch area, and ice level!
Of course, was prepared and armed with some freshly printed customs for the day =)
The first guy I met was yet another childhood hockey hero Owen Nolan! I would argue he was, at his peak, one of the top 5 power forwards in the league. He's still a giant in person guys:
Then Dave Babych. He was super friendly and we actually spoke multiple times over the course of the day. There was nobody around to help with this photo so I ended up having to ask one Mark Napier to take this photo for us...3 times as it kept turning out blurry. Still not the greatest, but I'll forgive Mark Napier:
And Marty McSoreley with the ol' Jofa helmet:
Picture with Alex Auld this time:
Guy LaFleur was also in attendance! Thanks Dale for helping me with this awesome photo:
And another legendary Canuck: Greg Adams!
This guy can seriously still fly on the ice. He was skating circles around everyone, setting up everybody, and just a delight to see in full gear again. He was also very nice about taking photos; I met him early in the morning but he was in a hurry to get game-ready and then sought me out at lunchtime to get this:
And sign these:
Particularly proud of this one...it was hand cut (yes, no laser). Some things still need the precision of a human hand.
Kyle Wellwood, who I learned is also a big Mogilny fan:
with Dana Murzyn
and finally, Cliff Ronning to round out the day:
Dont worry guys, that's not the end yet.
The interim week was spent preparing for the next even I will talk about. During this time, I completed two projects which had been sitting on the back burner for some time:
Chris Tanev: one piece is authentic Tanev jersey, the other belongs to Brandon Bollig hah
Kirk McLean glove!
And so, fast forward to just two days ago, I signed up to be a volunteer for yet another charity hockey tournament: Hockey Helps the Homeless Vancouver. What a good way to combine my hockey passion with my philanthropic and advocacy interests!
So I was a team manager for a team named Dorsey, featuring former pros Blair MacDonald and Doug Bodger:
(as I had previously met Doug Bodger, no picture with him this time around).
I also met Jack McIlhargey, Dennis Kearns, and Darcy Rota once again:
Does anyone remember this dude??
Yep. That is 1997 Florida Panthers 1st rounder Mike Brown!! He's actually rather blunt, and rather slow on the ice lol, but nevertheless, was friendly and signed these two customs for me:
then met Moe Lemay
and Denis Pederson
and John Craighead
and two Canadian Women's National Team members: Bailey Bram and Brianne Jenner:
and two time Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Johnston
and got a picture (of horrid quality) with R-->L Rob Flockhart, Bob McCammon, and Ron Flockhart:
and last and not least, yet another Canuck legend: Geoff Courtnall!
Yes he was a monster on the ice, but this is particularly significant for me as, when I was 4 and began my collection with some '91 Score cards, the ONLY two Canucks I pulled in 4 packs was, yep, Geoff Courtnall, and Greg Adams.
He signed a couple things for me also, but they are both not yet complete. Will show on the next update!
Tired yet?
Just a quick conclusion to this gargantuan post:
With a bit of leftover Expo funds, I managed to work out a deal on a very awesome card with a local vendor at the November Bossa Show..
Luc Robitaille Honorable Numbers patch-auto /20! Love the look of these cards and love those 90s Kings jerseys!
And finally, (and yes, this is the last finally), a MAJOR acquisition. Future centerpiece to my collection/display/basement. This man is incredibly elusive when it comes to obtaining an autograph. I suppose for good reason.
There are a lot of his autos out there on ebay for example, but difficult to tell if any of them (if any), are authentic.
I can't say he has the nicest auto either...and unfortunately, he also does not personalize. I suppose it will retain a higher value that way? No idea.
Anyhow, very happy with the way this turned out! Thanks to Capulet Art Consulting for the very reasonable price on the custom framing (with UV protected plexi-glass).
Can you spot the signature?
Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed! Till next time
