11-12 Canada Vs The World or 15-16 ITG/Leaf The Vault Duncan Keith Auto

I've posted a few Vault cards on here and I don't even know what to call them any more. Lets just say it's a Duncan Keith auto and be done with it.

11/12 or 15-16 Canada Vs The World Duncan Keith Auto

Apparently this card has been sitting under a rock or in a vault for the past number of years and ITG/Leaf decided to let it out into the public after branding it with a V. I am more than willing to look past everything and just treat this as a cool card of an amazing defenseman who appears to be in a Team Canada uniform. Duncan Keith is also my son's favourite player and it's my hope to send out a pair of TTM requests to Mr. Keith from each of us seeing if we could potentially get another auto or two to add to this one.

Sadly as Canada is set to play the USA tonight, Duncan Keith is recovering from injury and pulled out of the World Cup which leaves us without a pretty amazing option on the back end. However, we do have depth at all positions which has been evident as we've been playing without Seguin, Benn, Keith and many other snubbed All-Stars. I want to wish Duncan a speedy recovery and I hope this season he is able to get back to the level he wants to play at and has continued success. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy tonight's game and this card! Thanks for stopping by!

So here is what I bought with my Brendan Gallagher Loot - Part 3

One thing I wanted for sure with my Gallagher loot was a HOF auto. Given my new project I had planned on starting I decided to try and get an autograph of a HOF player whose rookie was already in my collection. Gerry Cheevers had this sweet auto pop up online:

11-12 ITG Canada vs The World Gerry Cheevers Auto

Cheevers has a few autos out on the market but this one just spoke to me. Team Canada jersey with his iconic mask and a nice a large auto are a trifecta that makes this one a winner in my eyes. The card itself doesn't carry much in the way of a book value and in the end I nearly paid full book value anyway. Book value on this is about 15 dollar and I think I had 10-12 into this one once you factor in shipping. Totally worth it for the card and factor in that Gerry is a HOF goalie and I know its a gem for me. 

Gerry Cheevers:

Inducted: NHL 1985 and WHA 2010

Claim to fame: 2 time Stanley Cup Winner, Key WHA defector, Successful NHL Coach

1965-66 Topps Gerry Cheevers Rookie

This rookie is one of my favourites in my collection. Boys at the LCS set this aside for me some time ago and I was able to get it for a pretty fair deal. Hard to believe that Gerry would dress that way to stop Bobby Hull slapshot, in fact I don't even know if he has his chest protector on or not! Maybe he could have used some of J.S Giguere's Michelin Man equipment. 

Here is the back side of my Cheevers rookie. Like the front, it is in pretty good shape, my four corners are the only blemishes on an other wise great card. I am not too sure what this would grade as, the surface is amazing and the back is clean and crease free. The answer to the riddle on the back is No One. Gerry was the only goalie to play all 72 games in the 64-65 AHL season which is pretty impressive given the time period.

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World - Thomas Steen Auto

Here is the last of my Canada Vs The World autos, and it is of former Winnipeg Jet legend Thomas Steen. Thomas is without a doubt my second favourite Jet of all-time behind Dale Hawerchuk. Thomas was Mr Consistent pumping out at least 15 goals every season from his rookie year until his final season(strike shortened) when he only had 5 goals in 31 games. In his 14 seasons, all with the Jets he played in 950 games, scoring 264 goals adding 553 assists for 817 points. True these numbers aren't Hall of Fame worthy, Thomas was much loved by the Jets fans and his number 25 was retired by the organization. In fact, Winnipeg essentially adopted Thomas and even to this day he still lives there where he is currently involved in  civic politics.  

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World

What a nice signature! Black sharpie, on sticker, on card is how this came to be. I do like the Team Sweden photo and Thomas donned the uniform 10 times for his home country. Arguably his greatest performance was during the 84 Canada where he scored 7 goals and 1 assist in 8 games for the second place Team Sweden.

eBay Freebies, thanks to eBucks

With a few purchases on eBay I was able to earn a couple eBucks so here is what I did with mine:

11-12 Canada VS The World Tony Granato Auto

Yep, another C VS TW. I have always had crazy respect for both Tony and Cammy as they are very classy and talented hockey players. Tony had four 30+ goal seasons in his first 5 years before cooling off and retiring from hockey. He has since been a very successful coach in the NHL and is currently an assistant coach with the Penguins where he has been for the last 4 seasons.

11-12 Titanium Game Worn Gear Malone/Connolly

I wish it was Stamkos paired with Connolly, but then again I doubt I would have been able to land it for "free' if it was. I have a couple Connolly autos not, but nothing that is "player worn" so this goes into the PC as an example of such thing.

There you have it two fun cards that set me back nothing! I do like eBucks and their program which certainly provides a little fun for your purchases.

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World - Larry Robinson

Here is another ITG Canada Vs The World auto to join my Darren Helm and Brad Park ones. Like Park, Robinson was a HOF defenseman who played well in both ends of the ice, but unlike Park, won a load of Stanley Cups. As of right now, Larry aka "Big Bird" has his name on the Cup 9 times and nearly a tenth this past June. Larry was at the end of his playing career when I started watching hockey, but I do remember him playing and I remember him on cardboard too, most notably this one:

I honestly don't know why I always think of this card when I think of Larry, maybe it is because I was still young and impressionable and this card features a pretty cool photo of Larry battling it out with Adam Oates. The cool thing is these two guys would be coaches on the same team last season for the Devils before both landing coaching gigs elsewhere in the off-season.

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World - Larry Robinson Auto

Here is the focus of the post, a nice beautiful signature of one of the best defensemen of all-time and I think he is an excellent coach as well. Larry was very classy as a player and as a coach and really hard to find anyone say a bad word about him. He represented Canada on numerous occasions including three Canada Cups. I was able to land this card along with Park and one other in a pretty awesome self-made three card lot deal.

Now all I need is his rookie.....might be a while for that one since I don't have one yet :)

11-12 Canada Vs The World - Brad Park Auto

No Super Bowl talk here, three straight finals (Devils, Tigers, 9ners), three straight times my teams have lost. I am beginning to feel like the bridesmaid that just can't find someone to love me for me in this superficial world....

Anyway, I left my last post on a hanger because here it is: 

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World Brad Park Auto

I am becoming a big fan of these cards especially because of their reasonable cost on the secondary market. I am not going into Brad's life details because I already did that in the last post, just a cool card and a nice auto.

GI Joe Mullen Auto - Canada Vs The World

So the latest installment of Canada VS The World didn't turn out so well, but congrats to the American U20 team on gelling together at the right time and winning the WJHC!

One reason for the Americans being as strong as they are is because of Bettman and NHL expansion (can't deny that), but more importantly for good pioneers/role models such as Mike Modano, Phil Housley and Joe Mullen. 

I have been trying to score a nice Mullen auto for a while and I landed an awesome deal on this auto below!

11-12 ITG Canada Vs The World Auto - Joe Mullen 

What is there not to love about Joe? 502 career goals, over a 1000 points and at a point per game pace! He broke 30 goals 10 times and 40 goals 7 times. He played with class and 2 Byng's and 3 Cups are proof of that and finally he earned his ticket to the HOF. Joe represented his country several times as well but was never lucky enough to medal in any of those events.

This auto is all class much like himself and I am very glad to add it to my collection!