Hockey Trading Cards

On my second cup of tea this morning, and looking for something to write about. I realized that I have not shared a passion I have for the almighty hockey cards.

I will admit it was a passion of mine when I was much younger. I had this great collection but two things went awry. The first thing was my absolute hatred for the Boston Bruins. As a Montrealer at that time I detested anything Bruins. Even to the point where I clothes pinned all my (gulp) bruins hockey cards in the spokes of my bike because hey they deserved it AND it made a cool sound. In retrospect-perhaps that was not such a good idea. Those Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito etc. cards would be a nice complement to my collection.

Another thing we used to do besides trading them - got-em got-em - ooohhh need-em (which we all knew what we needed on sight-no cataloging required - thank you) -  was flip them on the side of a cement wall. the winner of the game would have to cover as much of a card already on the ground as possible. It was a fun game but ruined a lot of cards.

The last thing from back then that happened to me card collection was my Mom. I had a wooden cigar box I kept my surviving cards in. My Mom in her infinite wisdom gave them away - to some deserving kid I am sure. (She worked in a school and must have figured someone needed them more than I did.) As a result, I no longer have that collection that included a Ken Dryden signed post card from his rookie season.

I went away from collecting them for a while and re-started collecting at the beginning of the 90's. I have several nice rookie cards that are not worth anything because the hockey card manufacturers decided they would over print those as well as the major players of the day. A card is in demand - no problem lets reprint it. They even printed coach cards and referee cards and once paired up a local celebrity with a team - I will always remember the Penguins were paired up with Mr. Rogers - somewhere out there is a Mr. Rogers hockey card. Pretty funny if you ask me.

I have re-started collecting since the lockout and while most of my cards are not worth very much out there - they are fun to look at and remember the players. In some cases fondly and in others not so much, making one shake one's head and mutter why.

I have started sending off cards to various players through the mail as in the old days. I know some will respond and some will not. I just hope if they are not going to sign personally, they just send them back not get someone else to sign them. I have read that Mike Modano does this - not only is it a failure - it ruins perfectly good cards.  I am only sending cards I would not mind losing as there is no guarantee it will be returned signed. I will be keeping out abreast of developments in this area. There will be more details on the group Hockey Cards on Planet Puckhead, if you are inclined to join in the conversation or you can leave your thoughts and comments. Keep in mind, however it generally takes a while to get a response from the players sometimes months. Then you get a surprise in the mail - kind of like a mini surprise Christmas. It is all good.