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!!!