More, More, More....I Like It!!!

 Well, I have been getting lucky lately with getting a few through the mail auto's back. The one that came a few days ago was one that I hope to get the other players auto as it's a two-player card. One retired and one current. When I sent the card to the one who signed it, I wrote in the note to see if it would be possible to get the other players auto but that did not happen. I was still quite happy to of got one auto but the second would be so very sweet.

As you can see the auto is of John Bucyk and the card is the 2022-23 Upper Deck Canvas card of Patrice Bergeron. I am not a huge multi player auto type of collector but when I saw this card, I said to myself it would look so nice getting both autos. If I do decide to get Bergeron's auto I may wait to see if he does any upcoming shows either in person or mail in, but I don't believe I will mail one through the mail. That card autographed by both would make any Bruins fan smile.

This is another that I got back through the mail of Lucic, Thomas and Chara. I wanted this one signed by all because these players won the cup in 2011. After I got it back from Chara signed, I thought that maybe Lucic would sign it, but I really doubt that Thomas would sign it so I kind of gave up on trying to get it signed by the three. Again, as with the Bergeron and Bucyk I would only try getting the autos from a show or a mail in, but I won't send it through the mail. I do have two of these cards both signed by Chara. I thank Big "Z" for signing as he has been very good to the fans, I sure do wish others were this kind.

Are there others that have had good luck sending multi player cards and getting them signed? Or maybe half signed?

A Surprise Through the Mail Auto, and worth the wait.

 Well, I will say that even at 60 years old I still am like a little kid at Christmas time waiting and watching the clock for the time Mom & Dad allow us to get up and open presents. I still am like that as I guess it is that word Anticipation. Remember the song if I remember correctly, it was from a ketchup commercial. 

So, I always first thing every morning I check my mail no not my e-mail my actual mail using informed delivery. I see I have a through the mail auto coming on Wednesday. So, I am looking forward to it being delivered. Now I am not sure if others had experienced this where during covid there were days we never got mail, and this really got me mad as we went 4-5 days straight with no mail. I think about that and maybe I won't be getting that through the mail auto I saw on Wednesday.

We usually get our mail around 1:30ish, I check the time and it is still early so I fell asleep in my chair and when I woke it was after 3. So, I race to the mailbox to see that nothing had been delivered and my fear sets in that I guess I will have to wait another day.

Thursday rolls around and I see the mailman walking down the other side of the street and I get excited to finally see who this mysterious auto is from. It had to be a Bruins player since that is all I collect, and I know whom I sent to but since the outside of the envelope my return address I have no way of knowing until I open the envelope.

So, I anxiously await and when I her the mailbox lid shut, I know that I will know who this auto is from. I race out the front door but to my surprise the envelope containing the auto is not there nor is any of the mail from that Wednesday, but the mail is for Thursday's mail.

What is going on here as I tell my Wife that this is totally crazy and now, I am thinking maybe I will never know who sent the Auto and other thoughts cross my mind like maybe it got put in someone else's box which has happened numerous times here.

Well Friday finally rolls in and again the same scene where I see the mail truck at the end of the street with the mail man passing by the other side of the street but this time, I hope I get that mysterious letter and that the cards are signed but by whom.

Again, I hear the clink of the mailbox cover shut and calmly walk to the box and it is there along with the other pieces of mail that were supposed to of been delivered on Wednesday. I go to my desk and carefully tear the envelope and I peek inside and see the card signed but I can't see who the player is but it has three cards all the same. I slide the cards in my hand to see that it is one that I wanted badly.

The mysterious player is none other than Linus Ullmark but he only signed the one card which I am ok with I figure one is better than none. It does make me wonder though why players do this, but I am too excited to be to upset. My collection is built by the Bruins player being shown in a Bruins jersey on the card and since there are no certified autos of Linus in a Bruins jersey, I had to wait for a base card showing him in a Bruins jersey.

Here is the card and autograph and the reason I chose this card is because of the background being lighter as I had another card that had a dark background, and he did sign it along the catching glove and jersey. This was definitely worth the wait as Linus should be the hands-on favorite to win the Vezina trophy as he went 40-6-1 with a Goals against average of 1.89 and a save percentage of .938.

It must have been a good week for getting goalies through the mail because a few days later I got this autographed card of Reid Dyck. 

 I then got this one of Kenny Agostino and this is another that was a bit tough to get because Kenny only had a couple of cards showing him in a Bruins jersey and this was the second time, I sent to him, and I am glad I did.

 So that is todays post and I am going to try and do more posts as I hope to do two a week. I hope everyone is enjoying their collections and I look forward to the summer months. Thanks for the visit and Happy Collecting

OH NOOOOO I ACTUALLY DID IT PART II

 In my last post I asked what I should do with the sheet of ten Bruins autos and the three comments were basically saying no do not cut that as it is a piece of history. After reading the comments I do not like my autographs together I like seeing each player with his auto either on his card, but I am not a collector of multi signed items, I do not know why I guess it is just odd for me. So, before anyone scrolls down to see what the sheet looks like, I will say that it did change because of what I did. It looks better but not perfect but who needs perfection. Don't scroll just yet, think of that song Anticipation, you know its keeping me waiting.

I also was lucky enough to find an auto of another Bruins great player John "Jack" Crawford. I say lucky because I actually got his auto for under $10, I will replace it someday maybe but for right now it serves as a filler and the reason it is a filler is because of the trophies as the autograph is very nice. The word filler is not one used much in the collecting circles mainly because everyone wants the best condition cards but when you start collecting autographs of an original six team the first-year players are very difficult to acquire and can be extremely expensive. I have seen Crawford's auto run for over $100 so for under $10 I could not pass it up. This one comes from an old magazine which was a Bruins magazine and as an autograph collector a majority of older player autos can be found in game programs. A lot of those autos can be seen signed next to each players names on the roster which is with the scorecard. There are some teams that do not do the game programs, but I will add that I enjoy doing this during the game as it makes me think that I enjoy the game visually and in a historical way. Yes, I am old fashioned and for those fans who never got to grow up in the 60's or 70's you missed a lot, and the way life was back in those years was a world that was safer and as a collector during those times it was so much more fun collecting. With the computer it takes away the fun, when I started collecting, we had publications like SCD and there were so many ads selling all kinds of cards from Gum to Tobacco etc... We also had dealers that used to do auctions and you had to bid by mail and the auction listing that was mailed out did not have any photos only the cards condition. What made it fun was wondering if you had won or not, but it was great getting the answer back in the mail in a letter. You then had to mail out the payment, so it took a good 2-3 weeks to actually get your items, but it was better because I had things coming in daily through the mail. Another thing I remember was if you bought cards back then the seller would only send in a white envelope, but the card or cards were placed between some heavy cardboard for protection, and it only cost the seller a stamp or two.

Another player that I had some difficulty finding was that of Jim "Seaweed" Pettie. Jim played 3 seasons with the Boston Bruins his first 2 seasons he only played 1 game per season, in his third season 1977-78 he played in 19 games going 8-6 and his overall career stats were 9-7. Sadly, Jim Passed away August 31, 2019, at the age of 65 from Cancer. Jim wore # 31 and Jim Passed away on that very same number 31. 

There are so many players that played briefly, and those players autographs are very difficult to acquire which does make sense and it makes it more costly as well. I call those auto's obscure because a lot of players only played in one career game. Don Cherry only played one game for the Boston Bruins but his popularity from coaching to his Rock 'Em Sock 'Em videos made him much more popular. Don Cherry when I wrote to him for his auto, he includes his things and signed them too. There are a lot of the old timers who enjoy signing but I will add those players years ago had beautiful penmanship unlike the players today and a large majority of today's players will not sign and what I say is it does not bother me because you can't read scribbling so who cares.

Ok so for those reading this post if you have not scrolled down to see what happened to the sheet, I say way to go. Here is the result.......

This is the front and the next scan is the back. It came out ok but I will someday get to cut it up and I sure hope that day comes soon so for now I can enjoy looking at it.

Well, that is another post, and my next post will be for the Baseball collectors and the Non-Sport cards as well so stay tuned and comments are always welcomed!!!

What would you do???

 Well, I finally have found time to write a new post for my blog. Before I get started on today's topic, I would like to let my followers and others who read and do not follow that my blog is not just about hockey cards and players. I will be writing about Baseball cards and non-sports cards as well. So, with that out of the way lets jump into today's topic.

I actually just bought this very tough autograph sheet of the 1945 Boston Bruins with a total of ten different autographs. The one tough auto is that of John "Jack" Shewchuk. Of the ten different I need four of them, but the problem is the autographs are signed on a piece of paper but on both sides which leaves a dilemma of destroying maybe two of the four to get two and the one I really want is Shewchuk's auto. As you can see from the photos the problem. I really am not a collector of multi signed items I would rather have single signed autos. So, should I cut the autos out to try and salvage at least two of the four I need, or should I leave it intact and make a card with each player's name on the front side and add the others to the back side??

I definitely am keeping the Jack Shewchuk auto intact as he was the reason, I grabbed these ten autos. Of the ten I need these four Bill Jennings, Ken Smith, Jack McGill and Jack Shewchuk. The only way I could get two is if I cut the top 2 Ken Smith and Jack McGill, but Shewchuk is on their reverse side. It would have been better had those three signed the same side. 

One of the reasons why I want the Shewchuk is because he is on a lot of other serious auto collector's want list as is Bill Jennings so I could cut those two and have them and that would allow me to sell the others that I already have.

I will have a part II showing what I did with these autos, but I would love to hear what others think as to what they would do. Tough decisions!!! It really is interesting seeing what these collectors back in the day had for the players to sign on. This looks to be an address book as the pages show the name, street, city and phone. This is not the first time I have seen where players sign on each side and these autos are signed in fountain pen which was very common back then.

 My next blog will be part II and I will be adding some non-sport and some baseball cards. So, if you like what you see then please start following and as always comments are always welcomed.

Talk about a Surprise and Luck and look Mom no postage.

 As a serious Boston Bruins autograph collector, I have come to realize that there are several players who do not like to sign cards. I do not understand why but I have a few reasons that could be accurate. I have discussed this with several other autograph collector buddies, and they believe some players feel that the cards they sign are sold online. That could be a possibility or one that I believe is that some players don't want to waste their time signing and dropping off the return envelope either at the post office or in their mailbox at home. I have had two players actually stick the cards back in the return envelope but do not sign the cards and send them back. I get a bit upset about that because it takes 5 seconds to sign a card and the time, they take to just throw the cards back in the return envelope, that bothers me.

The fun thing about sending for players autographs through the mail is checking the mail everyday by using the Informed Delivery tool which shows you your mail for the day you check it with a nice clear scan of each piece of mail. So, this morning I checked the mail to see if maybe just maybe I would get an autograph and sure enough there was one. The odd thing is it had the Yellow Return to sender sticker across the front. I said something is weird about this and the weird thing was it had my mailing address because it was the return envelope with my address label in the top left corner and in the middle. Then I finally figured it out. The player never put any postage on the envelope but that should have been put on by me. Unless I had no stamps because it was sent to another country. Sure, enough that was the case and on the reverse side of the envelope there was a light tan label in green lettering and the box checked off says Unknown. The cancellation stamp is light, but I can make out the word Teplice so I figured the only way to see where these cards came from was to open the envelope and upon doing that the three enclosed cards were all signed by Jiri Slegr and the cards show Jiri wearing the Bruins jersey. The three cards are the 2005-06 MVP hockey, and the other card is from the 2005-06 Upper Deck Series 2 set and there were two cards from that set. I remember sending these were sent well over a year ago.

The good thing is I needed Jiri Slegr's autograph on a card showing him in a Bruins jersey. I scoured eBay for such a card with his auto but I never found any. These are the nice surprises that keep me loving the autograph collecting and I thank Jiri for taking the time to sign and mail. What really surprises me is these cards took quite a trip over the first time and then back and there is no damage to the cards whatsoever.

I can now happily cross Jiri Slegr's name from my Bruins autograph want list and not only was this a surprise it was a lot of luck because of not being damaged during shipping which was postmarked 11/25/22 which tells us it took about a month to arrive. One thing I will always remember about getting Jiri Slegr's auto the story that go along with the autograph.

These four cards are the first in my Hockey Hall of Fame Snubs Autograph Collection. Neal Broten played 1099 games over 17 seasons in the NHL. Scoring 239 goals 634 assists for 923 points. He also won a cup with the New Jersey Devils 1994-95 team, and he scored 7goals and 12 assists for 19 points and 4 of those goals were game winners. Sure, would be nice to see him in the HHOF.

The next player is Tom Barrasso who played 19 seasons in the NHL. Tom won the Calder and Vezina Trophies his rookie season 1983-84. He also won back-to-back Stanley Cups the first in 1990-91 and 1991-92. He went on to win 369 games, losing 277 and in the playoffs, he won 61 lost 54 in 119 games. I hope to someday see him in the HHOF.

The next player is Pierre Turgeon who was the number one pick during the 1987 NHL entry draft. He would go on to play 19 seasons in the nhl. He played in 1294 games scored 515 goals and added 812 assists for a total of 1327 points. I would have thought that scoring 500 or more goals should be an automatic and he had over 1300 total points. He definitely should be in the HHOF at least in my book.

The final player is Bernie Nicholls who played 18 seasons in the NHL appearing in 1,127 games. He had 475 goals, 734 assists for a total of 1209 total points. I hope to someday see his name in the HHOF.

I hope everyone has a great and Happy New Year and as always Happy Collecting and Stay Safe!!!

Merry Christmas to All

 I thought I would take the time to say Merry Christmas to everyone who reads and follows my blog. I am going to start adding more content with more posts as we begin a new year. I hope all of you get some nice presents like a couple boxes of cards to open or anything else related to the hobby.

Enjoy the time with family and friends some that we have not seen in a while. It's nice having a meal together with the family, chatting about things like thinking back to things we did years ago and most importantly remembering how life used to be back in the day.

I can still remember as a collector buying boxes and boxes of cards and back then the inserts were not jersey cards, they were the numbered parallels and the certified auto cards were not in existence yet but were not that far off.

So, thanks to my followers and readers who enjoy this blog, and I will be adding more in the new year and if you enjoy my blog please follow.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!

More Hall of Famer Auto's Hockey style

 So, with all of the hockey hall of famer autographs that are coming in I thought I would show them in today's post.

My goal is to get as many as possible and currently I have over 50 and these 50 do not include any of my Boston Bruins player autos as i have just about all of those Bruin's autographs. In every collection that I do, each different has its own album. So that means I have to get all the Bruins I don't have for the HOF Album.

I also have in the works an album for the Hockey Hall of Fame Snubs which are players that have the credentials but for some reason have not got the nod but hopefully someday they get the nod that they deserve.

The first card is the 2020-21 Artifacts Lord Stanley's Legacy signatures of Hall of Famer Dick Duff. The moment I saw this card I wanted to find one at a decent price and I believe I did as I grabbed this one for a cool $20. Dick Won a total of 6 Stanley Cups 2 with the Leafs and 4 with the Habs. Dick was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006.

This card is the 2000-01 Upper Deck Epic Signatures autograph card of Michel Goulet. There are a lot of collectors and hockey fans that may not remember just how great Michel was as a player. When I looked at his stats, I never knew he had 4 seasons scoring 50 or more goals from 1982 to 1986 and his best season was the 1983-84 season when he had 122 points with 56 goals and 66 assists. Michel had 548 career goals and 605 career assists for a total of 1,153 points. Michel was inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1998.

This card is the 2008-09 Upper Deck Masterpieces autograph card of Bernie Federko and is serial numbered 02/35. These cards are a canvas card with a frame that looks like it has a matt. The color of the border is green with a gold lettering and design. Bernie never won a Stanley Cup but did go on to score 369 career goals while adding 761 assists for 1,130 career points. Bernie was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

This card is the 2008-09 Upper Deck Masterpieces autograph card of Guy Carbonneau and is serial numbered 19/35. Guy won 3 Cups two with the Montreal Canadiens and 1 with the Dallas Stars. Guy scored 260 goals while adding 403 assists for a total of 663 career points. Guy was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

My next post will be about my newest collection as I am starting another, and I am calling it My Hockey Hall of Fame Snubs autographs. So, check back and please remember I enjoy the comments. Happy Collecting and Stay Safe!!!

Non-Sport and Sport, A Pelican, Western and Blades.

 Well as an autograph collector it can at times get to be boring once you are close to all autographs needed for the team you collect. To spice things up I am starting to collect Hockey Hall of famer autographs along with the female hockey players autographs. I have added quite a few more to the hall of fame collection and I also am starting to get interested in the non-sport cards. 

The cards I found to be very interesting are the 1910 American Caramel Wild West cards these are the E49 American Caramel cards. These cards feature a colored lithograph photo of the subject, and the reverse is a checklist along with the American Caramel Co. There is a total of twenty subjects including cards of Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett and the top one has to be Buffalo Bill and this one of Kit Carson. There is a total of 20 different subjects and the cards are colored lithographs with the name in light blue.

Why I am able to start collecting non-sport cards is because I love history and these little trinkets show these individuals. There are some non-sport cards that offer a nice write up about the individual. I will show the few that I have and show the reverse side where the description can be seen. There are several tobacco cards issues that interest myself and one is the N 151 W. Duke, Sons & Co., N.Y. Celebrities & Politicians. There are some very famous ones like U.S. Grant, Abe Lincoln just to name a few. These cards look a lot like the Old Judge type of cards with the sepia toned photos and they all have that light caramel color. The cards read: Honest Long Cut Chewing and Smoking The best tobacco sold 2 OZ. for 5 CTS.

My interest in the duke tobacco cards is because years ago I collected all the Baseball tobacco cards and I owned many of the players who played in the very first year. Those little cards hold a special place with me as they tell a lot about the players, the players from the Old Judges show the player catching a ball hanging from a string or about to hit the hanging ball with a bat. Topps has made some of the Allen & Ginter and they try to make the cards have that uniqueness, but they fail. You would think with the technology today that they could, but the cards issued back in the day are simply breathtaking and, in my mind, there has never been anything close to the beauty of those tobacco card trinkets. One of my favorite tobacco cards was the T-210 Old Mill Red Border card of Shoeless Joe Jackson. The card shows him with the New Orleans Pelicans.

I bought this card around 1982 and I paid $125 for the card and within a month I called my friend up to see if he had got anymore T-210's in. He replied hold on I am going through my mail now. So, he comes back and says do you have your checklist ready? I replied Ready!!! So, he said Jackson and I said which one because there were around 5 different players with that last name, he says Joe. I said OK I will take it. He comes back saying but you already have one. I said I don't care so I was able to get that one for $100 and the card was about the same in condition, so I was very pleased two Jackson cards from the same dealer and I paid a cool $225.00 for both. This card is from Series 8. Now this is the only photo I have of this card, and it was a scan black and white, but the color of the borders is Red hence the name Red Borders.

Now here are some new additions to my Hockey Hall of Fame Autograph collection. My goal is to get a certified autograph from as many certified autograph cards that are available. What I really like the most are the older certified autograph cards.

Starting off with this 2001-02 Upper Deck NHL Legends autograph card of Gilbert Perreault. He is another one that has a very nice auto and each one he does they all look identical. I wish today's players would do the same instead of a quick scribble of letters or initials.

This next autograph card is the 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Signatures autograph card of Bill Barber. His autograph is another nice one that when I see the autograph first, I know the player just by the autograph.

This autograph is the 1999-2000 MVP Pro sign autograph card of Dave Andreychuk. His autograph is somewhat legible as I have seen many others that look alike especially easy to see the first name than the last. This is a tougher one to locate as the autograph inserts from MVP are difficult pulls. So, I was glad I was able to grab this one.

This is the 2004-05 Upper Deck Legends Classics Signatures autograph card of Dickie Moore. As usual the players from the good 'Ol Days have beautiful penmanship as with the case for Dickie Moore's sweet signature.

This card is the 1999-2000 Upper Deck Retro Inkredible autograph card of Tony Esposito. A nice-looking autograph that is consistent each time. His Brother Phil Esposito has a beautiful autograph and like Tony's it is consistent every time.

This card is the 2013-14 Panini Play Book certified autograph card of Phil Esposito. You can see the beautiful signature and I love how he crosses the "T" from the letter "O". I wanted to show this card to compare with his brothers autograph.

This card is the 2004-2005 Upper Deck Legends Classic Signatures card of Andy Bathgate. This is another on card auto and another legible and beautiful autograph. every letter is easily read unlike today's players. I think they should bring penmanship back.

This card is the 2001-02 Topps Heritage autograph card of Henri Richard. His autograph is always identical looking, and I can see the letter "H" for Henri and the rest of his last name. Very glad to add his autograph to my Hall of Fame collection.

This card is the 2004-05 Upper Deck Legendary signatures autograph card of Doug Wilson. Another nice-looking autograph. I like the design of these cards and another on card autograph.

I wanted to get this post up yesterday but because I had a few cards in the mail yesterday I waited to get them into this post. I plan on doing more non-Sport posts on the Wild West cards and other cards I pick up that just seem to give me that pizzaz feeling of wanting them. Yes, it is that feeling of being bitten by that collecting bug many, many years ago. Happy Collecting and Stay Safe!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

 I thought it would be nice to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. We will be traveling north to be with Mom and siblings. We are thankful that the weather has no precip in today's forecast. I am working on my next blog post and should have it up tomorrow. The post will include some Non Sport cards like the wild west and other older cards and of course some Hockey Hall of Famers.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

This Card Design is Super Cool

 Ok so I decided I would do a post on one of the new inserts from 2022-23 Upper Deck Hockey cards. I am not a collector that believes in having my cards graded or my autographs authenticated. I choose not to because those holders are too bulky, and they are easier to view in the card album. I brought the card grading up because of the new insert, it is called Population Count and it looks like the card is inserted in one of those holders. The cards are very beautiful as they look to be a metallic type of design.

As you can see with my David Pastrnak card and notice the count on this one is 1000. There are certain tiers, 1000, 500, 100, 50, 25, 10 & 1. I am not attempting to go for the rainbow unless I find the lower numbered cards at a reasonable price.

Depending on who the player plays for the cards background reflects the teams color and each tier number is based on different colors. This is one insert that I applaud Upper Deck and it looks like it will be a hit as it has hooked myself. 

As for the other new inserts there is Attacking Zone which is a SP and I like the looks of the Freestyles cards. I still will not buy a box because it is too risky as I would rather put my money towards a card that I need but there are others that enjoy trying to pull the bigger hits. Good luck to them and I am glad there are lots that still open the boxes because if not for them the cards that I need or want would not be available.

No Not Leaving!!!!

I was asked by some if I was going to keep this blog going and yes, I am. I stopped because of being busy with my job. I will be doing more posts in the future as I have lots of cards that I have picked up that I will be discussing and showing. If there are certain cards you would like to see, or certain player autographs please reply in the comments.

Happy Collecting!!!