07-08 BAP Matt Niskanen Auto

When injuries occur, opportunity presents itself. First opportunity for Matt came when Pittsburgh fleeced Dallas in the Neal and Niskanen trade for Goligoski. In hindsight, this trade should have been Niskanen for Goligoski but alas Neal is the player he is because of self-growth and having a decent centre. 

Still, that didn't help Niskanen as much as Letang going down with injury. Letang getting hurt made Matt the go-to powerplay defenseman and he made it count! As of today, Matt has 9 points in 15 games and is an impressive +11. He is on pace for nearly 50 points and is 6th in scoring on the Pens and he is their highest scoring d-man. Will he maintain this pace? Who knows, probably not but I would be willing to bet he could be in the 35-40 point range which isn't bad by today's standards. 

07-08 BAP Matt Niskanen Auto

This is a rookie year auto of Matt Niskanen I bought in the summer with a few other cards in a self-made lot. I paid about a buck for it and seeing his success so far this season makes it that much more fun in the collection! As far as his rookies go, I am not sure if I have any or not. Might be worth a look.

I signed Rostislav Olesz about a day before the Devils did.

About a day before the Devils signed Olesz to a one year deal, I inked him to a lifetime deal for about a dollar-fifty. Like all free agents I guess there way a chance he could have been a Devil, but I clearly picked it up for fun purposes because I didn't have an Ocho-Cinco auto yet. There is no word if he will get that number with the Devils this upcoming season, but I am hopefully he will regain his 14 goal form once again with the Devils. 

07-08 BAP Rostislav Olesz Auto

This card is easily worth 3 times what I paid for it now that he is a Devil and the fact I landed it first just makes it that much more fun. Truth is this card will never be worth more to anyone that it is to me and I like that! I also hope that he does have a fruitful career with the Devils and this upcoming season is slowly shaping up to possibly be an exciting one for us Devs fans.

07-08 Be A Player - David Clarkson Rookie /99

Been pretty busy lately to have many posts, but I still try to steal time away to do this when I can. Things are about to get a lot busier here as we are due to have our second arrival in about 2 weeks which will make things even that much more busier. 

Preparing for the next several months sequestered in our homes, my wife surprised me the other day by placing an order with our cable company to get the "sports pack". Included in the "low" 31.99 a month price is NHL Center Ice. True with another baby on the way, money will get a little tighter, but my wife felt we can make it work and it is a nice present from her to me for all the nice things I do :)

So last night was my first chance to sit down and enjoy some NHL action so of course I picked NJ-NYI and even though the game was a little rusty on both sides of the ice, my boys came through with the Win and David Clarkson had himself another GWG. To commemorate the wonderful first W of the season, here is a recent PC pick-up of my man Clarkie.

I actually tried landing this card on several occasions and the price was always WAY TOO HIGH. The card is numbered to /99, but with 99 copies out there I suspected I could land it for under 20 bucks and I was able to actually land this for well below that mark including shipping!

07-08 BAP David Clarkson Rookie /99

I really like this card and it is the last of the high-end rookies I needed for Clarkie. The card is actually 3-D with Clarkson being glossier than the rest of the card and raised about the surface. It is a much nicer looking card than I thought it would be and I am really happy to finally land it after 2.5 years of trying. Certainly goes to show patience pays off and with the NHL back, prices are bound to jump so spending on my end is likely going to dwindle for a while....

BAM! A Linden card, finally

As I have mentioned before, sometimes people's passions are contagious and I end up trying to land a card into my collection that I might not have ever considered before. Other times, I happen to like the player and I just haven't had the chance to chase one of their cards yet. Linden is a combination of the two for me. In the early 90's I really respected him as a player and I would always keep an eye on how well he was doing on the west coast. There was even a time where I wanted to include Linden as a possible baby name for what would be my first born (son).  My wife wasn't a Linden fan (both name and player) so needless to say that won't be used at any point in our current naming process.

Back to Trevor, at some point he was traded to the east coast where he would bounce around a little between NY, Montreal and Wash. It was a dark time in my opinion and I sorta lost track of him from 97-02. When he returned to Vancouver, I began watching him again, but of course time wasn't on his side at this point and even though he was productive, he wasn't the same game changer he once was.

Nevertheless, my collection which is loaded in 89-90 Linden rookies, didn't contain a single autograph. I have watched countless auctions and it turns out that his autos rarely can be found on the cheap (Brett I know your pain now) and his low numbered ones run for prices that can sometimes challenge Crosby and Lemieux cards. Patience is a virtue and I was rewarded finally with this one for 99 cents plus shipping.

True it is a typical modern BAP signature card with a sticker, I still like it because the auto is front and centre and looks pretty sharp. Sometimes I see he will sign his number with the auto, but that wasn't the case here.

Happy to land this one and who knows, maybe a second will come some day.

Another BAP auto lot

About a year and a half ago, I decided that I needed to increase my autograph collection. At the time it was probably around 20-30 autos. Today I think my collection has increased into the 200 range. Part of the reason are TTM's and the other are Be a Player Lot purchases. I have picked up a several over the last few months and here is one of them.

The lot had 7 cards and my winning bid was $5.51 plus shipping.

The main reason I bought the lot was for shoot-out stud Jack Johnson. I am a pretty big fan of his and I have wanted an auto for some time. When this lot came up, I was hoping I could get it for under 7 bucks and sure enough I did. These are all from the 07-08 BAP set which sorta makes it a rookie auto for the people like me with a "loose" definition of a rookie.

This was prior to the trade that shipped him to hobby hell where all cards tank in value aka Columbus. His auto is an excellent example of great penmanship.

The rest of the autos are pretty cool too!
Here are Chris Phillips (already had one of his), Keith Ballard and Pierre-Marc Bouchard.

The final three are Johan Hedberg (another reason for the lot), Jere Lehtinen and Kris Russell (another rookie auto).

I try and limit my bids to the cost of postage believe it or not. I usually say an auto through the mail will cost me between 1.50 and 2 bucks. If I can land the auto from under 1.50 each with shipping I will do it. Not that I wouldn't enjoy writing them a letter, but my time these days is pretty limited, so if I can spent that time writing someone who's autos are more expensive, then I can accomplish more on a tighter budget.