My Charmed Mistress Who’s the Boss at Melrose Place

No, I’m not referring to my wife. I’m sure she fits one of those descriptions. But today I’ll be deviating a bit from my usual hockey autographs.

(this one’s for you Dave H)

During my hounding experiences, I have managed to obtain a few signatures of other celebrities besides hockey. One of those times was at the Wayne Gretzky Celebrity Tennis Tournament that was held here in Brantford during the 80’s. I have posted cards I got signed in previous posts. Here are two I got of Alyssa Milano. I believe she would have been around 14 at the time. But knowing that she would be there and I would have behind the scenes access, I was prepared. I took a couple of pages from my daughter’s teen magazines. Having attended a few of these events, I found this one no different. Gracious signers all. Anyhow, here are the pair.(of pictures)

A change of pace from all the guys. I’ll probably show some more of these in the future. This is a past post that didn’t get posted as I had issues with Wordpress.

Value Packs

I was at the drug store the other day and noticed a small card display by the checkout. I picked up a few packs to soothe my itch (wasn’t picking up Benadryl cream) of the pack breaking kind. At 99 cents a pack, I considered that a bargain. 1 package with 08/09 UD series 1 and 2 packs with 08/09 OPC containing two packs. Hence, the title value packs. Now I’m not expecting to hit anything big but you never know.

First up, Upper Deck. We all know what is possible in these packs. Here’s what I received.

All base. I’ll put these with the rest of my 08/09 UD.

Now the first package of OPC.

Inserts and subset

Marquee Rookie, retro variation and gold parallel

Second package

OPC legend, retro variation and gold parallel.

I’ll have to admit the decoy card got my heart racing a little.

These also will go with my other 08/09 OPC.

Did I mention these were 99 cents a pack. I thought they were a value deal. Just thought I’d throw that in again.

I noticed there were also packs with Artifacts in it. Also ones with Pacific. I’m going to have to check this out again and see what they restock the display with.

A Great Mail Day

 

This mail day made the opportunities I missed this week palatable. Before I show you the mail, I’m going to recount my last week. On Monday, Canadian Olympians Patrick Chan, Caroline Ouelette and Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir made an appearance at my place of employment. But since I now work from home, I don’t have the 1 1/2 hr one way commute to contend with. With the way this winter has been, it has been great. The timing did not work out for me so I couldn’t make it. Unhappy about this but not crushed.

 

 

 

 On Friday, Hayley Wickenheiser was a guest speaker at the  Brantford Home Builders Assocaition luncheon

 

.

 

Since this was a luncheon I was working (at home) at the time, again timing did not work with me and I was forced to miss this event also.

Somehow, the much maligned Canada Post saved my week. I went out to the community mailbox (already have them now, rest of Canada) and found this.

A plain brown (manila?) envelope with the return address from Brantford’s Lord Mayor, Walter Gretzky.

Adding to the mystery was the enclosed note.

Now the old wheels started to chug.  I recounted  here on my obtaining a gift (indirectly)  from Walter. There was also something else in the envelope. A receipt from McDonalds with my name and address written on it. He had already hand delivered the photos to our guest in 2012. He must have had this somewhere since then and thought he had promised a picture. Sent and received. This is the kind of surprise that I like. The gift that keeps on giving. And here it is.

 

A different photo from the one I received earlier so that’s a bonus. You can tell the inscription is in a different colour marker and appears to maybe have been traced over. Still a nice way to end one week and start another.

Now I’ll be watching that mailbox for things other t than bills, coupons, reminders.

Mail Call w/e Feb 21

 

A few packages that came in last week. Been a while since I have received anything, so its Sharing Time.

 

 

It’s been a while since I won and received a Listia auction. There’s not a lot with free shipping to Canada but this was a Canadian seller so the above 10 cards were had for 73 credits.

 

Sent and e-mail to the Vancouver Canucks for a fan pack. Received the above postcards and sticker in 11 days. I guess doing it during the Olympic break must have hurried this along.

 

Last but not least.

This bulging brown (manila) envelope from Jeff at 2 x 3 Heroes. He had a Tis the Season post(referred to in the post it note on the envelope). He had a lot of extra cards and you could write in your team with two alternates. He also has the PWE club that I;m a member of. Check out his site for details. Anyhow here is what I received.

 

Five bulging team bags full of goodness. Two from my team, the Blue Jays. Got some coloured parallels , minis and inserts. I didn’t collect all these products when released so I got a healthy does of cards for my baseball collection. Two bags of Rays and one Brewers. There’s between 30-40 cards in each. Thanks again Jeff for your dump.

Happy Valentine Day from OPC

82/83 OPC #373 RC, that is. 

Thought it would be appropriate for today. (my scanning skills show up again)

Drafted by Washington Capitals in

Round 10 194th overall in the 1981 NHL Entry Draft

Center Chris Valentine was a very productive NHL player, but he will best be remembered for

his time in the German Elite League.

Valentine earned a reputation as a skilled offensive player when he scored 128 and then 142

points in his two seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Despite his incredible production, he was a 10th round pick.

After producong at more  than a point a game pace in the minors in 81/82, the Capitals called up their young prospect.

Valentine did not miss a beat pumping in 30 goals and 67 points in his first 60 NHL games.

Despite missing 20 games while playing in the minors, Valentine finished tied for fourth in team scoring as a rookie. Despite his first year success and producing 17 goals in 23 games in year two, he played 51 games in the minors. The next year he got into 22 games but scored only 11 points.

In the 84/85 season he signed with Dusseldorfer EG. This began a highly successful and rewarding stage of his professional career. Valentine provided major production for the club, leading the league in scoring seven times during his 12 years in Germany. He also led the club in scoring routinely and led them to four straight championships starting in 1990. He added a 5th title to his resume in 1996. After scoring 903 points in 525 games for Dusseldorfer, he retired as a champiuon in 1996. They subsequently retired his #10 in his honour.

One Life Wealth Management

2520 Unit C St. Laurent Blvd. S

Ottawa ON  K1H 1B1

I don't have his autograph (yet) so I'll be sending this out shortly.

Feb 9th 1964-The Night that changed America

Today marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first live appearance on North American television on The Ed Sullivan Show.  I, along with 73 million, had been waiting for this moment. In the pre-internet days, news traveled a lot slower. We had heard of the group, their songs and their story. But now, to see them "live", was the ultimate. I was twelve years old at the time. To paraphrase a bit " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,but when I became a teen, I put away childish things. This was the start of my exodus from card collecting. I remember starting to buy 60/61 Topps hockey and baseball when they were issued. It became a yearly ritual with my brother and friends all involved in flipsies, bike wheel spokes and got-em, got-em, need'em. But now, my tastes were changing along with my buying habits. I, along with my sister, would buy 16 and Tiger Beat magazine to keep up with the musically changing world. It was also time to save money for the next important phase in my life. Sports was gone and being replaced by music. I must have had a mono track mind. I would need lessons and a guitar. I got all this at the Yamaha music centre. Now my teacher's name was Geoff Edmunds. He said his brother was some musician named Dave Edmunds.  As I said earlier, pre-internet days information was far and wide. At least at the centre, I could rent a guitar, learn, play and feel what it was like. What's not to like. Getting a job as a delivery boy for a drugstore helped my cash flow situation. After almost two years, my dream was accomplished.

Rock n' roll heaven. (guess I thought this was a cool look)

Of course, I wasn't the only one affected this way. I could jam with some of my friends. Now THE DREAM was to be a rock star, not an NHL player.

Well, neither of those aspirations came true for me. And in 1980, I stared collecting sports cards and memorabilia again. Picking up memories of long ago plus stuff that was new to me. I'm still collecting and still rocking in the free world.

"Something" from the music collection. (see how I worked that in)

I'll be watching the show tonight from 8:00-10:30 There is also a live streaming forum on CBSnews.com from 6:30-8:00. 

As they say, be there or be square.

Treat???Post

I was looking through some of my stuff the other day and ran across this item

40 Collectible hockey cards. The best to collect

This pack contains genuine Upper Deck Hockey Cards. Upper Deck is a federally registered trademark of the Upper  Deck Co.

Treat Entertainment Inc is no longer in business. I seem to remember then putting out repacks during the height of the card explosion in the 90's. And I'm glad to get genuine cards. Wouldn't want any counterfeit Lindros cards.  It's a little fuzzy but the price tag was $6.99. Now I'm a cheap thrifty shopper so I know I didn't pay full price. As near as I can remember, I paid around $1.00. Time to crack this one out of it's shell.

Here's the 20 cards from the left hand section.

Here's the 20 cards from the right hand section.

Now I still have another unopened package

 I'm assuming that the cards are  the same as the four cards shown are too.  Nice selection of stars, veterans and star rookies. The follow up set to Upper Deck's first hockey release. The design is very clean with a strong focus on photography. At the time, the glossy look was high-end, setting it above nearly every other hockey card set. The white borders and general layout are very similar to the 1990-91 set. The biggest difference is the NHL 75th anniversary logo along the bottom of the card. Card backs have another large photo, vitals, stats for the previous five years and career numbers.

However, not much of a treat.

But the Post.

Now, if you've been following some of my previous posts, here is pack number four for me for this set. Only two more to go.

And that wraps up another post about nothing. Kind of like card collectors in cereal getting cards.