Some just do not like to sign.

 As an autograph collector I have learned through the years as to who enjoys signing and those who do not. It seems that if a player has reached a star status that it is rare that the player will sign and that a majority of players that are mediocre will sign but that varies as well. Let us just leave it to make our own notes as to who does and who does not. The two cards that I will be showing are of Hank Nowak and Peter Sturgeon. Nowak played three seasons for the Boston Bruins appearing in 111 games scoring 18 goals and 15 assists in that span.

This card is the 1976-77 O-Pee-Chee card of Hank, and his autograph is very difficult to locate. Hank has a very nice and legible autograph as this was signed in black ball point pen. I have written to Hank numerous times and every time I would get the card back unsigned.

This card is the 1975-76 O-Pee-Chee card of Peter Sturgeon and this one is signed in blue ball point pen and of all of his autographs that I have seen they are all pretty much identical. I kept count as to how many times I sent and, on the 5th, attempt it finally came back signed which made me quite happy. Peter Sturgeon never played a game for the Boston Bruins which is a bit odd because usually there have been players who play several games and never appear on a card, so it seems back then things were different. I will add that the players from today's game their autographs are not legible but appear to be a quick scribble. It is a great feeling opening an auto request and seeing the card signed and it was such a surprise to get one from a superstar or Hall of Famer. I also enjoy finding cut autographs of Bruins players that played during the 20's, 30', 40's and 50's and I hope that someday I can come across an old list of autographs from the Bruins players that I either need or just to pick up a few extras for use in trading, it is a dream but as I have been told that Dreams do come true.

A Autograph is just A Autograph but what about An Autograph??

 So as for the readers of my Blog you all know that I collect Boston Bruins autographs and I am within striking distance of completing the entire collection. I have studied the players I still need on my Want list, and I will add footnotes next to those. Those players would be the Ultra Rare autographs that may just not exist or only a few may be known. So, what is the difference between A Autograph or An Autograph and the answer is really they are the same but in my mind they are different.

A autograph as I perceive A Autograph to be is one that is not that difficult to locate but An Autograph would be one that is Very Difficult to locate. For those autographs that are Ultra Rare they would imply to a player who was not popular or very well-known thus there just may not be An Autograph for that player. 

Let's start with a few autographs that are tougher. We start with this beautiful autograph of Barry Ashbee.

As you can see this is a very nice autograph that on a scale of one to ten would possibly get a 9 or a 10 even as it is dark and I like that it is in blue ball point pen. So Ashbee's autograph would be labeled An autograph and that is because Barry Ashbee passed away so young and of his autographs that are out and about there probably is less than 50 and that is just my guess but I have not seen many and the ones I have seen are in private collections. I was quite thrilled to of added this beauty to my bruins Autograph collection. Barry played just 14 games for the Bruins during the 1965-66 season as he had a back injury. He was 26 years old and came back to play in the NHL during the 1970-71 season with the Philadelphia Flyers. His last season in the NHL was 1973-74 season as Barry sustained a serious eye injury that did damage his retina and ended his playing career.

Barry Ashbee passed away May 12, 1977 at the age of 37. Barry was a great player and I hear people saying that his stats don't show that I reply you had to know about his game and how he was as a teammate. He did get his name etched on the Stanley Cup as the Flyers won the cup that season and Barry appeared in 6 games registering no points but was a +5. That is the one thing that I was pleased to see and that was Barry got his name on that Cup.

The next player is that of Skip Teal, Skip played just one NHL game with the Boston Bruins during the 1951-52 season.

This autograph of Teal also falls under as An Autograph and this is because of the limited games he played in the NHL, and this is what constitutes the rarity of an autograph based on the demand which is low. I would say that there may be around 30+ autographs of Skip Teal out there again just my guess based on what I have seen over the years. This autograph is in Blue ball point and just a bit on the light side but he has a nice-looking autograph with nice form, and you can see it was signed in a quick hand as the flow indicates that. Skip Teal passed away July 8, 2006 at the age of 72.

The next player to discuss is Bobby Bauer and most Bruins Fans who have followed the bruins his name is quite common.

This autograph is another beauty as it is quite dark and looks to be signed with a fountain pen. I would grade this an 8 out of ten. If you look at it closely you can see the black vertical box and that is a hockey stick blade as this autograph came from a Boston Bruins team photo. Upon further review I checked to see if the ink had smeared as it looks in the scan, but it is something on the photo to make it appear that way. There is some chipping as you can see but luckily it does not interfere with the autograph. Bauer's autograph is definitely An Autograph and that is because he like Ashbee died quite young at the age of 49. The difficulty of Bauer's autograph would be because of his passing and the fact that he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a player in 1996. It is too difficult to even try and guess as to how many Bauer autographs exist. I have seen four others so including my copy I have seen only five but I am sure more exist.

This autograph is that of Eddie Shore and it is taken from the very same photo as the Bauer autograph and looks to be signed in the same fountain pen. As you can see there is the chipping and another black stick blade but overall, I would grade it a 5out of 10. I have always loved hoe Eddie made the letter "E" in his first name and his autograph is pretty much identical and I will show another Shore auto for comparison.

As you can see in this photo the letter "E" does look a bit different but with all of the Shore Auto's I have seen I will say that his last name looks to be identical most times. I have seen plenty of Shore autographs so his autograph I would call A Autograph. There are quite a few out there as a majority I have seen are cut autographs from checks he signed. To be honest I would rather not have one from a check as the ones I have seen are mostly from a yellow check. His autograph is what I would call Semi tough, but I would say that the three other auto's I have discussed are tougher to locate and that is the difference between An Autograph and A Autograph.

More Difficult Bruins Auto's.

 So, I thought I would show more tougher Bruins Autographs. These players are not well known and that is due to their short time with the Boston Bruins as I will discuss each player. The first player is Paul Gladu he played in the 1944-45 Season appearing in 40 games at the age of 23. He scored 6 goals and added 14 assists for 20 points and in those days that was not too bad. He appeared in the playoffs during the 1944-45 season appearing in 7 games and scoring 2 goals and two assists for 4 points. He was a rugged left winger, but he never played another NHL game as he finished his career playing in the minor leagues.

His autograph is not very flashy as many players from that era had what I call flamboyant auto's. As his appears to be a bit plain but I will add that it is much easier to read than most of the current NHL'ers. Paul passed away on February 1, 2015, at the age of 93.

Orval Tessier played two seasons for the Boston Bruins his first season was the 1955-56 season in which he scored 2 goals and 3 assists for 5 points in 23 games. He would be sent down to play in the minors and came back to play his final NHL season during the 1960-61 season where he appeared in 32 games scoring 3 goals and adding 4 assists for 7 points. His autograph is flashier than Gladu's auto as he uses more of a sweeping flow. Tessier is a very difficult autograph to acquire through the mail as I got back several RTS (Return to Sender). I was lucky to find this one as his autograph is tough to locate but well worth it when you acquire one.

Bob Ring is a mediocre autograph as to how tough it is to acquire, and he was a one game wonder appearing in one game for injured Bruins Goalie Eddie Johnston. He allowed 4 goals on 21 shots as the Bruins lost to the New York Rangers 8-2. He never played another NHL game as his 33 minutes in net would be all in his short career. As for his autograph as I have seen three different ones, I will add that they are all identical and this autograph he even wrote his jersey number and team name. Bob Ring passed away on June 22, 2017, at the age of 70.

Barry Wilkins played 3 seasons for the Boston Bruins appearing in 8 games and in the 8 games he added one assist. He went on to play for Vancouver, Pittsburgh and then two seasons in the WHA for the Edmonton Oilers and Indianapolis Racers. His autograph is identical as I have seen only 4 total and they appear identical. Barry Wilkins passed away on June 26, 2011, at the age of 64.

Of the four autographs I will say that the toughest would be Gladu, Ring, Tessier and Wilkins. Tessier has the flashier auto and of these four is my favorite.

More Bruins One Year Wonders.

 I thought I would continue with more of the obscure Bruins autographs. In the early years the teams would actually loan players to other teams. The first player to discuss is Jack Shill. Shill played his first year with the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 1933-34 season playing 7 games and adding 1 assist. The following season 1934-35 he was loaned to the Boston Bruins, and he played 45 games with them scoring 4 goals and adding 4 assists for 8 points. One thing to note it seems players that appeared in a few games the fans did not try getting their autos. It appears that these players signed either team photos or signed a page from an autograph book. The autograph books were common years ago and it was easy telling them apart because the paper had a flat edge on one side with rounded corners and they common color was a dull olive green and others were gold pages. The autograph of Shill is from a fans paper of athletes of other sports along with other notable hockey players. As you can see in the photo the autograph of Joe Primeau and a wrestler named Hap Watson and the next player at the very bottom of the photo Eddie Burke but before I get into Burke let me add that the wrestler Watson I believe used to wrestle at Maple Leaf Gardens and this all makes sense that the original owner of this autograph sheet was a collector who attended events at Maple Leafs Gardens which is why Joe Primeau's auto is on the sheet.

Eddie Burke played 16 games for the Boston Bruins during the 1931-32 season scoring 3 goals and then went on to play 3 years with the New York Americans from 1932-35. He played a total of 106 games in the NHL and the final three years 90 games with the Americans. His totals 106 games played, 29 goals and 20 assists for 49 points. If you look at his autograph, you can see these players took their time to sign but if you have seen other vintage autographs from the 30's and 40's the formation of letters in that era all looked relatively close which I assume these players all had learned to write during their school years and today I have asked the students today if they have a class on penmanship and I am told no.

It appears that Eddie Burkes auto is a tough one to locate but I honestly believe that his auto may be a bit easier to find than that of Jack Shill. I say this because Burke passed away October 7, 1993, at the age of 86 and Shill passed away October 25, 1976, at the age of 63. The difference being that the 23 years older Burke was to Shill, and that Burke passed away during the 90's when autograph collectors were doing through the mail auto's but as the evidence in the sheet autograph photo, we know his autograph came from this sheet and along with Shill's auto being on the same sheet. Burke was born in 1907 and Shill was born in 1913. One-year wonders for the Bruins but just six years apart.

Finally, Something to Open.

 Well, I am not much into opening boxes as I tend to just go after my autographs that I need. I know there is a Jeremy Swayman rookie card in this product. There is a very slim chance of pulling his rookie autograph card but with that slim chance I said I will give it a try. I bought two boxes of the newly released 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP cards. I opened one box and I got 5 rookies but not one was a Swayman rookie. It seems years ago it was more fun to rip open wax boxes and back then there was no jersey cards or autograph cards in the boxes. When the jersey and autograph cards were added to the packs it took away the fun and it diluted how collectors felt about just pulling base cards. If a collector did not pull an auto or jersey swatch they would get upset and think about how much money, they spent.

There are a lot of collectors who would rather put the cash down on a card they need versus taking a chance on pulling nothing of any intetrest. It is just taking a huge chance and I don't do it that often. I will be opening the second box and will post the cards I pulled. Let's hope I pull that Swayman Rookie Auto (I probably won't even get his rookie card let alone the auto.

Well, I opened the second box, and I was wrong as I got the Swayman Rookie card but not the auto and as I was opening, I did not think I was going to get the Swayman because each box you get five rookie cards so on the last three packs, I really thought I was not going to get his rookie card but on the third back left I pulled him. I got very luck as I ended up with 6 rookies instead of 5. That last box was better as I also picked up a spencer Knight rookie card. Below are just some of the cards from both boxes.

This is the 2021-22 Upper Deck MVP Rookie card of Jeremy Swayman. I will say that I was quite happy to pull this card as I got 6 in the second box. When you are to get only 5 as I did in the first box and you are at 5 and you don't pull the rookie you are after you feel down but it did not take too long to feel great. I like the colors of the card, I am toying with the idea of starting a player collection of Swayman but that is still only a thought but stay tuned as to if that becomes a reality or not.

This is the Spencer Knight Rookie card, and this came from box 2. The Knight Rookie is another Rookie sought after by collectors as he is another good-looking goalie for the future.

These two cards are from the subset Hart Attack and the one to the Left is the gold version of Nathan MacKinnon and the one to the right is David Pastrnak and is the common version. I like how the cards sparkle. So overall this was a decent break. I will probably be opening the 2021-22 Upper Deck Series one, hoping it is out by the release date. Fingers crossed and my next post will be more Obscure one game winners autograph cards, cut auto's of the Boston Bruins.