Voting: Show & Tell Contest Final Week!

[aweeks]

Last weeks winner was: 87sluggo!
25cc coming your way, 2 points in the contest standings, and 1 point towards the Race for the Price!
Second place goes to brian045, who will receive 1 point in the standings.


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I had been chasing this last card for my Normand Leveille PC. I had only seen one of the 10 available on ebay but the seller was holding it for ransom. As much as I wanted to purchase the card at that time, I held on to my morals and refused to give into an extremely greedy seller (he wanted twice as much for this card /10 than it cost me for my 1/1 Black sig). I figured sooner or later another one would show up on eBay. A year later and I still have yet to see another one.


Back track to last December. I purchased a box of Certified and pulled a redemption for a SP Auto RC. As of last week, it still hadn't filled so I contacted David, a CSR w/Panini, with the help of Chris (vergaspuck). I explained to David that I would like to swap out the redemption for a vintage B's player. I had all but one Leveille card to bring my non 1/1 PC to 100% but I certainly didn't expect them to swap out the redemption with the one I needed (even if by chance they had one in house). I went on the tell him the story of Leveille and how I was THE Leveille collector in the hobby and how excited I was when Panini signed him on (after 20 years of zero Leveille cards on the market). Up until 2010, the only Leveille card ever produced was his 1982-83 OPC RC. I thanked David for his help and was happy to receive whatever it was that he was going to replace my redemption with.


A day later I got an email with a link to the exchange. Needless to say, I was shocked when I saw the exchange card was THE one card I needed to bring my PC to 100%.......10-11 Certified Shirt off My Back Prime GU Auto /10. I emailed him back, immediately, and thanked him immensely, as well as Chris, for helping this collector with a near impossible card. David emailed me back saying "no problem. Glad to help. We just so happened to have two in house, so it's your lucky day".


Never in a million years did I think that this would be the card I would get. I will forever owe a HUGE thank you to them for their excellent customer service and genuine care for the collector


With that said, my collection currently stands at....
23/23 non 1/1's (100%)
2/10 1/1's (20%)


Here is the last piece of the puzzle..... 8/10




This is not the oldest card, but it took some time to work out a deal. I will start off with I live in California and the card was located in Manitoba. A friend on another site knew of someone who had this card. He sent me a PM with the name of a card shop who knew who had the card. So, I looked up the card shop on the internet and found their e-mail address. I e-mailed the card shop and the owner told me a customer had the card and would sell it for the right price. I made an offer and the owner said he would pass it on, but the card owner only came to his shop every now and then. No answer for two months, but I did not give up. I e-mailed the card shop owner to follow up and he said he had not seen the card owner for a while. A few weeks later, the card shop owner said the card owner accepted my offer and he would bring the card into the shop when he could. A few more weeks go by. The card finally arrives at the shop. I pay with PayPal and wait for my treasured card. It arrives in about two weeks, which is about right for mail from Canada to the States.


The bottom line is I worked through two middlemen to find the card owner. Three PMs and Fifteen e-mails and six months later, this was the result


2011-12 In The Game Ultimate memorabilia Ultimate Number 1/1







My entry this week isn't a high end card, although it is a SP and I don't recall ever seeing one listed on eBay. As a player collector I try to fill in each new series every year as best as I can. So in that respect I'm happy to have acquired this card, although that's not why I'm entering it. To me this card represents a friendship made with someone halfway around the world, and the trust and respect that we as collectors can show to each other. I grew up in a time when instant communication wasn't available, if you wanted to contact someone you phoned them or wrote them a letter. If you weren't at home you hunted down a payphone and put in your dime. (yes, I am older than Curt lol) I came late into the online sports forums, when another Iginla collector clued me in, and it opened up a whole new world to me. After 20 years of collecting I now had a world wide set of contacts available for buying and selling cards. So I jumped in and started making deals. This card (SPA SOTT 2005/06) represents something new in that process. I received a pm from another collector (on a different site) that lived in Sweden, asking me if I had this card, and did I want it. Well yes I did want it, but what could I send him in return I asked. Turns out he collects older Russian players (Kharlamov is his main pc), and I had nothing in that area to send back. No problem he said, it belongs in your pc, so I'll send it to you. If you find something I (he) can use in the future great, if not, don't worry about it. I was blown away by this, first time it had ever happened to me. We didn't really know each other at that time(I'd seen some of his posts), but we have since become good friends. I managed to find a 2 color Kharlamov upgrade for him (since it's virtually impossible to find something new that he doesn't have), and we have done more deals sending cards back and forth over the years. When I was dabbling with photoshop and trying to make map grids he was of great help to me. So Vic, buddy, thanks for the card, but more importantly thanks for the friendship and chance to "talk shop" about hockey cards with someone halfway around the world.








I don't a have a fancy story, nor did this card have to cross continents to get to me (although it might have crossed borders). This card, however, is the first card in my Blackhawks PC. After attending my first game in almost 20 years with my then new girlfriend, I decided to start up a Blackhawks PC since the rest of mine had hit stall points. Watching Seabrook, I was impressed with his play and decided to check out his cards. I searched Ebay and saw this one ending soon. I threw in a bid not expecting to win as i had no idea of the market for hockey cards at the time. I managed to get it for a very nice price in hindsight and it started a PC that has managed to make it to over 250 cards, most of which are of the higher-end variety.

[aweeks]

Need more votes please!