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.