Reeling in those White Whales.

 So today my post is about those pesky White Whales. What are white whales you ask?? They are cards that are quite difficult to acquire because of several reasons. One being there are a lot of collectors buying them up but mostly because a lot of the cards are not opened meaning they are still in cases. 

My White whales are a bit different as I collect autograph cards so those become white whales because of the players ability to want to sign or not. There are a lot of players who will not sign and today I will show some of those players auto's that I was finally able to reel in. A majority of my autograph collection are the Boston Bruins autographs as I have 800 different player autographs not counting all of the duplicates that I use for trading. I also collect Hockey Hall of Famers and some of those halls of famers are tough to get.

Ok so this autograph is of Sergei Zinovjev and it took me a long time to get this one autographed. I have noticed that if you sent a autograph request to a player new to the team they usually will sign the card but not this one.

This is Matt Glennon and I tried at least 4 different auto requests before finally getting the card signed. Matt has a unique looking autograph, but I was so glad I could cross this one off of my want list.

This is Peter Sturgeon, and he was very difficult to acquire. It took me over six different requests, I even tried sending a birthday card and adding the cards I wanted autographed, but it came back as a RTS (return to sender). Finally, I got him as I was informed by another collector telling me what he tried, and it worked I got not just this one but two others as well so three autos of one tough auto and they will be used for trading players I need. So these players are from sending through the mail and what makes them white whales is the difficulty of the player wanting to sign them.

These next cards are of cards that are certified autographs, and these cards were at one time my white whales that I was finally able to reel in.

This card of Manny Fernandez took me over 5 years to finally locate and I asked other collectors why this one was tough, and they told me that some cards were short printed, but I believe it was because there are a lot of collectors who collect just goalie cards and they hoard these cards to use as trading. Whatever the reason this is a very tough one to locate as I have only seen five total.

This card is the 2011-12 Panini Private Signings and what makes this one so tough is because of these cards popularity as there are so many collectors building the set. Simmer's card eluded me for over 5 years, and I was finally able to reel this one in. Some cards were short printed, but I do not believe Simmers was. I just posted this same card in a post not long ago, but I had to add it to today's post as it is a very tough card to acquire. Has anyone else been searching for this card??

This card of Normand Leveille is the Panini Limited Select Signatures card, and it is another really tough find. I was so glad to finally grab this card as it eluded me for many years. I know of some collectors who had multiples of Leveille autographed cards. 

And today's final certified autograph card is of Mark Recchi and what makes this one tough is because Mark is a tough one to get and this card is quite popular with many collectors as Mark played for several teams and there are team player collectors that try and get all of a player's cards. 

So that is some of my thoughts and opinions and I welcome hearing your comments as to who your white whales are and the ones you have reeled in. Are any of your white whales any of the cards I have shown today?? Happy Collecting and Stay Safe!!!