Just for shits and giggles I'll post some of my collection here from time to time.

Here's a few autographs to get things started.

I used to have a huge Ray Bourque collection, my mom took me to the show's all the time and would get me any we could find that I didn't have. I have no clue what happened to it though

Here's some for Serge.

Pretty cool Dale, do you send your own cards to the players for signature, buy on Ebay, or just attend a lot of card shows?

I usually buy from ebay or trade. All those ones I posted so far (except the Rocket Richard one) are certified because that is the way Upper Deck or ITG released them. The Rocket Richard was sent to him and he signed it and returned it to me. There are a lot of players who will sign through the mail.

Here are the book values of the cards above...

Mario Lemieux - $200.00 - almost impossible to find
Ray Bourque - $80.00 - you can pick one up on ebay for about $40
Luc Bourdon - $15.00 - they were selling for $30+ right after his death
Carey Price - $250.00 - ridiculously overpriced...you can get one on ebay for $80-$120
Maurice Richard - ?
John Ferguson - $40.00 - these are impossible to find

Ill ship u a $100 for the whole lot..

deal?

I have one of these...

I wish I had this one.

It's funny that you started this thread.

For no reason whatsoever, I spent the last like 3 days seriously contemplating getting back into collecting cards. lol

I used to love ripping open the packs and seeing what I could find. Obviously it's better to just buy singles, but whateva.

Lots of fun.

I have a huge collection already, but it's boxed up and buried in my Mom's basement now.

My favorite cards are a Jagr autograph, Forsberg autograph, and a 1936 Hooley Smith (who?) card from the Montreal Maroons.

I also had a bunch of complete sets, and a boatload of Pens cards, and lots of Pens autographs from my first trip there.

I always had way more fun with my NHL sticker books

Ah nice...forgot about those.

Pretty entertaining blog posting

I remember bringing mine into school (92-93 edition I think) only to have it stolen by a classmate. Then the stupid kid brings it back to school like a month later to show it off. I made sure to write my name on the inside cover and believe it or not there was his name written under my name that's scratched out. He ended up having to go to the principal's office for that one and I got my sticker book back with a lot of holes filled in.

i used to collect stickers too...and have maybe 10000 hockey cards from as early as 1981..I collected every fricking year except Lemieux rookie..BAD BEAT

Here's one of my favourites.

For some fkin retarded reason, I did this a couple years back. I got a bit of an inheritance and just so happened that a card store opened up just near my house. Before I knew it, I was buying $25 a pack UD Trilogy's by the box. Pissed through more money than I even care to think about to be honest with you.

Card collecting is retarded-expensive these days, and as Dale mentioned already "book" value for most cards is double what you can get them for on Ebay.

They do have some nice shit these days with autographs and limited edition stuff, but it's impossible to get a complete set of anything.

I do have a couple cool cards though (collecting dust pretty much, ldo) and if I get bored on my days off work maybe I'll scan some in and post here.

Don't buy packs. Don't. They're beyond -ev and well into the realm of just plain stupid.

"Book value" is an absolute farce. Since the advent of ebay and the come-lately existence of a large, central market that arbitrates card prices in real time, the entire concept of a few guys at a publishing company arbitrarily setting prices is a dated (and laughable) concept. Sure, the idea that little cardboard pieces with pictures of athletes have "value" to begin with is a farce to begin with, but if they are to be valuated in some way, trust selling prices, not "price guide" prices.

I'm a "returning" collector myself and I must admit, I'm a bit disgusted at what the hobby has become. Ridiculous "parallel" sets, too many brands and variants... It's next to impossible to collect new players with any sort of chance of ever being complete. I will admit that the autographed stuff is cool and I've picked some up (mainly of the old guys), but I think the "game used" thing has gone overboard and the "historic game used" cards that cut up Babe Ruth bats into little pieces border on being criminal, IMO.

The hobby as far as newly produced cards has evolved into a totally illogical mess.
For example, this Rosa Parks "cut" autograph card sold for more money than a comparable well certified autographed 8X10 picture, or even a complete, Rosa Parks signed document! There is no reason why a cut signature integrated into a little trading card should be more desirable than a complete signed document or an autographed picture, but such is the nature of the hobby nowadays. This is overlooking the fact that Rosa Parks cards in a sports card pack begs the question; WTF does this have to do with sports, anyway?

Here are a couple tips that I've found have really helped me enjoy the hobby again:

1) Do it for fun. Yes, people always preach this axiom about collecting, but it's easy to get caught up in the "value" of everything. Don't worry about that shit. The only "value" you need to know can be had with an ebay completed auctions search. If you want the card, buy it. If not, don't. Pay no mind to what it will be worth in the future, because by all indicators, it likely won't be much.

1) Stay away from packs. Seriously. They're a roulette wheel that pays 4-1 if you hit your number. Just an enormous suckers game.

2) Have focus. Understand what players you want to go after (as far as players from the past or players of today) and go after them. Don't waste your time with "trade bait" or buying crap that you don't want.

3) Think back to the players you enjoyed as a kid and consider collecting them. Right now, cards from the 70's, 80's and early 1990's are in the absolute doldrums of pricing. This presents great opportunities for people who lived in this era and remember those players fondly (and also remember how much some of these cards used to sell for). To give you an idea: I'm pretty much 100% complete as far as having every major baseball rookie card from 1970-1993 and it hasn't cost me that much.

4) Lay in for a stock of supplies up front. I decided to go with Pro Mold PC1 snap tites sheathed in team set bags for all my cards and ultra pro 1/4" recessed screwdowns for anything with a sale value above $200. Toploaders in penny sleeves are fine (and cheaper) too. Having a decent stock of supplies on hand will make your collecting life easier.

5) Make lists of what you have, what you paid and what you need. Card collecting can be overwhelming- the better handle you have on it, the more you will enjoy it.

That's all. consider this your subscription to my newsletter.

Here's some of my Guys...

I am a big fan of the old Kings jersey.

I like it too but I wonder if that's just nostalgia talking.



Maybe I'd feel differently if I had to see it all the time.

very cool.

Here's three I picked up in the last few weeks. Needless to say I'm very happy with them...especially happy with two of them.







I now only need two (Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe) to finish this set.

Here's the others.

Sergei Samsonov? Really?

HOF

obv

What year/brand is that set?

1999-00 Upper Deck Century Legends

Stuff like that really makes me want to get back into card collecting.

It's fun if you set realistic limits.

Could be right.. lol.

Very nice collection Dale. The Gretzky looks awesome. Way better than the one I got graded by PSA (it came back a PSA 4). Bring some stuff down for the draft.

I had these three Gumps...



...and I just picked this one up a couple of weeks ago.



Gump Worsley has the most career losses by any NHL goaltender in history. He may be passed by Curtis Joseph this season.

So Andrea randomly picked up a pack of McDonald's cards for me last week, and it kinda made me lose my mind.

3 awful meals and 25 packs later, I'm 2 main cards and 1 checklist short of the completely McD's base set.

But there's more... I also impulsed a bunch of boxes from e-bay and found a card store nearby where I bought another couple boxes, and basically spent the weekend opening packs and getting back into collecting.

I know packs are a bad gamble, but damnit, the fun more than makes up for it. Plus, I think I ran good, and even the low end of the Beckett guide prices total out to more than I paid for the packs.

The coolest pull so far is an 08/09 Upper Deck Series 2 Alexandre Burrows Black Printing Plate which is serial numbered "One-of-One." It appears to be the actual metal plate that they used for printing. I don't know how they do it, but that's what I'm assuming. There are actually 4 different plates per card, one for each of the base colours, I think, so "One-of-One" is a bit misleading, and they have these plates for each card in the 500-card set. But, it's still pretty cool, and one-of-a-kind. I'll probably throw it on eBay at some point though, because I don't really care about Burrows, and I feel like the odds of me running into the Tyler Kennedy plate is probably slim, ha.

So yeah, anyways. I figured I'd bust open some packs, build a few complete sets, and then move on into focusing on some of the current Penguins, most notably Kennedy, Staal, Letang, etc, as well as picking up a few Crosby, Malkin, Lemieux pieces, as I come across them.

I don't think there's a more entertaining gamble than busting packs, though. I'd take it over casino gambling any day, for pure entertainment value, heh.

Bought a few McDonals packs..First card i open is Carey Price "Goaltending Great"

Can i sue them for false advertising or something??

The funny you should be talking about hockey cards. The big Sportscard Expo is coming up at the International Centre in Mississauga. It runs from Nov 13-15 and I do have a booth (number 510). My son and I have been selling cards for the last 2 years. I setup this business for him to give him some sense of business such as cashflow, profit margins, etc. So if you do attend the show, pop by the booth.

We did the last Expo and I sent my son in for the Upper Deck redemptions. He got a Patrick Roy auto out of 3. We put it in our showcase and in 10 mins, it sold for $300 (I could have gotten more and hassle for an extra $200 but to me, it was free money for the kid).

Good luck at the show Wayne, cool idea for your son.

Hi Wayne...I didnt know this, maybe ill drop by and say hello.

Quick question, not sure if you can answer..I have maybe 20000 cards sitting in my parents basement like a lot of people. I started collecting cards around 1980 and have a lot of cards PRE the boom(early 90s) i believe. Is there any money sitting there? Is there appraisers out there that can take a look and see what i have?

Thanks

Admission is $12 which I think is outrageous. I might be able to sneak you in for free. If you want, I can look over your stuff but the truth is the old stuff is hard to move. People love the new cards.

On another note, Mario Lemieux is signing on Sunday but he is charging $179. Do I pay? Gordie Howe is signing on Saturday and he is $99 which I am considering.

Also Dale knows alot about cards too.

Thanks I am hoping for a good show.

wtf

Yes $179 plus if you want an inscription (like HOF), it costs another $50.

I guess your answer is no?

That's really disappointing to hear. $179 is bloody ridiculous, and just goes to show why kids were priced out of the hobby 15 years ago.

Does anyone know if Mario will still sign for randoms that come up to him on the street?

Stupid Zach talked me into starting a card collection, so I started with the new 2009/10 upper deck series 1 (which came out today).
I went and bought a box, and got a great card with the Dale Howerchuk Game Patch. So I obv went and got another box, which wasn't a great one. I just took a couple (bad) pics of my jersey cards to share.

Nice banana.

That's what she said.

sweet card ironic my brother in law just bought a dale howerchuk jets throwback one of my favorite players.

time to go and get my cards out of the basment storage and see what i have i know i got teemu selanee rookie autographed and my all time fav bob essensa also a few guy lafleur's got close to 10k cards all 1999 and erlier,

After a very very long weekend. The day is finally over. The Sportscard Expo started for me on Thursday evening at 6:30 pm when I left my home. My van was stocked with a ton of hockey cases. I hit the highway and it was seriously packed. I was going to turn back and forget about it but decided not too. I finally got to the International Centre at 7:30 pm. Dropped the stuff off and left.

Day 1 was crazy since I had to setup the booth. My son and I were running around like crazy. I thank god that I dropped the stuff off on Thursday evening. We got to the Expo at 10:30 am and got setup right when they open at 1 pm. By then I was beat tired. Day 1 was the best day for sales since I had a regular come in and purchase a ton of wax from me. My son did the Upper Deck redemption and got nothing. A regular customer did get a John Tavares Priority signings 1 out of 25. He asked me about it and I told him that it was the 1st official autograph by Tavares. A dealer then offer him $100 for it. I told him I will get him more for it. I sold it the next day for $175 for him.

Day 2 was slow for me but others said it was busy for them. I did okay. The highlight was when we paid $100 for Gordie Howe's auto on a puck. We got added to the puck Mr. Hockey and HOF (forgot the year). Howe kept jabbing my son with his elbows and then before the picture with him, he took his sharpie and scribble on my son's hand. It was funny. Then he said to me, I bet your son skates fast. I said oh no he skates like my wife. The regular customer that got the Tavares then got a Martin Bordeur 1 out of 2. I sold it the next day for $250 for him. I did steal a Tavares rookie from a guy for $50 and sold it in 10 mins for $65 (sold it cheap). The reason for the cheap price (since Tavares fetches around $90) was because he had already brought $200 in cards from me already and that was all he had.

Day 3 was busy at the start. Lots of people and the buzz in the air about Mario. When Mario came lots of people were standing around snapping pictures. We had purchased our ticket the day before so we got in a little early. I got an Authentic Penguins Lemieux jersey (not those fake ones) and paid my $300 plus $50 for inscription. He signed it on the black 6 with HOF (I forgot the year). My son actually got to shake his hand and off we went. There must have been over 500 autos for him today. It seriously was crazy. I actually purchase alot of stuff from other vendors this year unlike the last one. I must have spent at least $1,200 on additional stock.

I did reach my minimum goal in sales so it was a success I guess. I did come back with addtional stock from all the purchases. I am prepaid for the next one in May (April 30 - May 2).

Mario Lemieux, HOF 1997.

Also, I'm practically building a card store in my office, based on how many packs I've been breaking. Starting to see if I can unload some on eBay, since I also keep buying Penguins cards from there. I need to make some money back, with the hits I don't really care about, lol.

Some buffoon today wrote an article in the Toronto Star about Mario's appearance on the weekend.

Here are a few of the cooler pulls I've made since I got back into blowing money on hockey cards:






And, for Serge, even if he left the forum...

the sakic/roy and sittler/mcDonald ones are pretty awsome, so these new cards actually have the patch from there jersey imbedded in the card ?? iv never seen these before but thats a pretty awsome idea if so. must def add to the value im assuming ?

Yeah, the patches are apparently worth a bunch more than just a regular jersey swatch. The friggen card is almost a full centimeter thick too, lol. It's really cool to look at, though.