Favorite Past Memories Of Collecting

[gfel2795]

I remember showing them to my dad and him telling me he had no idea who that Niklas is, but Emerson is supposed to be really good.

Ahh, fate.

Haha...reminds me of going to a Ranger game with my dad and grandfather and seeing Sergei Zubov and Mike Hurlbut. My dad told me "I don't know about that Zubie kid but mark my words, son...this kid Hurlbut is going to be something special.

[Yzerfan]

My favorite memory of hockey cards is my uncle bringing me 3 or 4 packs of cards on Saturday night when he would come over and watch the Red Wings game with my dad. I remember one night I was so excited because I pulled 3 94-95 Ultra Sergei Fedorov inserts. I was hooked after that and Ultra was my favorite set. I just had to find that Fedorov Autograph!! Needless to say, I never did find it but I had a lot of fun trying.

[Wickabee]

Haha...reminds me of going to a Ranger game with my dad and grandfather and seeing Sergei Zubov and Mike Hurlbut. My dad told me "I don't know about that Zubie kid but mark my words, son...this kid Hurlbut is going to be something special.

Dude, I held onto a Per Djoos (probably my favourite hockey name of all time) Pro Set RC because my dad said, "Someone told m he's supposed to be amazing"

Hahaha, Per Djoos.

[87sluggo]

11 years old and sorting my OPC pile into keepers (Dryden, Lafleur, the other Canadiens, Canucks, Bossy & Trottier) and the cards for Wallsies........ goodbye to at least 5 Gretzky RC's


2001 getting back into the hobby and buy 3-pack blasters at 7/11, scoring my very first auto from a pack of 99/00 UD MVP - Tom Poti. I was ecstatic, I still have that card!


A few weeks later, from another 3-pack blaster, a Steve Yzerman auto from a pack of 99/00 UD Gold Reserve. I just stared at it. Got home, put it in a top-loader and carried it around for weeks............

[Yzerfan]

11 years old and sorting my OPC pile into keepers (Dryden, Lafleur, the other Canadiens, Canucks, Bossy & Trottier) and the cards for Wallsies........ goodbye to at least 5 Gretzky RC's


2001 getting back into the hobby and buy 3-pack blasters at 7/11, scoring my very first auto from a pack of 99/00 UD MVP - Tom Poti. I was ecstatic, I still have that card!


A few weeks later, from another 3-pack blaster, a Steve Yzerman auto from a pack of 99/00 UD Gold Reserve. I just stared at it. Got home, put it in a top-loader and carried it around for weeks............

Do you by chance still have that auto and is it available? LOL

[fleemur12]

In the late 80s, many of the NY Rangers players chose not to live in Manhattan, but rather near their training facility, which happened to be my hometown. I had been a fan of the team since the 70s and started collecting Rangers cards in the 80s. Imagine my surprise when I was in the men's room at a local pub, and in walks nobody less than Brian Leetch! I'm thinking to myself, this is about the coolest thing ever to happen to me in my 20 years, and I better take the opportunity to introduce myself! He's one of my heroes! So here we are. Brian Leetch and I. Standing next to each other. Peeing. And I'm so excited, I blurt out, "Hey Brian, I'm a big fan, it's really nice to meet you!", and I do the instinctual thing and offer him my hand to shake. Standing next to him. In the bathroom. At the urinals. Peeing.

It wasn't until a few seconds after I decided to break the ice that I realized I was standing there babbling about "the team" and "being my favorite" with my fly open, offering my unwashed hand to Brian Leetch. Also with his fly open. He looked at me like I was nuts. I was so embarrassed, I quickly flushed, quietly cursed at myself, and fled back to the table with my friends. Not even a minute later, Brian walks up to the table and introduces himself to ME, apologizes for being rude and not shaking my hand earlier and offers to buy us a round of beers. So Brian goes up at the bar to order and my friends and I are huddled together at the table whispering like little kids who just met Santa for the first time. Brian comes back with our beers and a couple of his friends - Troy Mallette, Kris King and Mike Richter! I collected my first piece of non-card memorabilia that evening - a white napkin with four autographs. I also lost my first piece of memorabilia at some point that very same night, a victim of beer-fueled excitement. It did not really matter that much to me. I had all I really wanted stored safely in my head.

[xpucksx]

For me, it was back in the 70's, and my parents best friends son used to baby sit me. He was in his teens, and played hockey (which in Columbus Oh at the time was a RARITY) so he would bring over hockey cards, and we would talk about the sport, and his favorite players ,and use the cards to play a "mock" game that he made up using the stats on the back of the cards. We would hold a draft (which was randomly drawing cards and then trading to build a team) and then play.

It was cool b/c I knew about something that no one else did at the time. He is also why I am a Leafs fan to this day. they were from Toronto, and lived down here during school season as his parents were professors at Ohio State.

I got into baseball and football cards after that as well...

[Yzerfan]

In the late 80s, many of the NY Rangers players chose not to live in Manhattan, but rather near their training facility, which happened to be my hometown. I had been a fan of the team since the 70s and started collecting Rangers cards in the 80s. Imagine my surprise when I was in the men's room at a local pub, and in walks nobody less than Brian Leetch! I'm thinking to myself, this is about the coolest thing ever to happen to me in my 20 years, and I better take the opportunity to introduce myself! He's one of my heroes! So here we are. Brian Leetch and I. Standing next to each other. Peeing. And I'm so excited, I blurt out, "Hey Brian, I'm a big fan, it's really nice to meet you!", and I do the instinctual thing and offer him my hand to shake. Standing next to him. In the bathroom. At the urinals. Peeing.

It wasn't until a few seconds after I decided to break the ice that I realized I was standing there babbling about "the team" and "being my favorite" with my fly open, offering my unwashed hand to Brian Leetch. Also with his fly open. He looked at me like I was nuts. I was so embarrassed, I quickly flushed, quietly cursed at myself, and fled back to the table with my friends. Not even a minute later, Brian walks up to the table and introduces himself to ME, apologizes for being rude and not shaking my hand earlier and offers to buy us a round of beers. So Brian goes up at the bar to order and my friends and I are huddled together at the table whispering like little kids who just met Santa for the first time. Brian comes back with our beers and a couple of his friends - Troy Mallette, Kris King and Mike Richter! I collected my first piece of non-card memorabilia that evening - a white napkin with four autographs. I also lost my first piece of memorabilia at some point that very same night, a victim of beer-fueled excitement. It did not really matter that much to me. I had all I really wanted stored safely in my head.

This is the most amazing story I have ever read...I'm still giggling

[bradu]

great stuff in here! As I'm reading I keep being reminded of more and more fond memories "I" have that are similar.

As a middle schooler, a couple friends and I opened up our own 'card store' in my garage one summer for a few weeks. There were several neighbor kids and friends from school that we invited over. We even went to local card shops and got some wax boxes on consignment, bought whatever we could find at local stores and just marked them up barely, etc. So much fun! Ended up having a big falling out with one of the friends who thought I had stolen something from him or something, who knows. We are still close friends today, we remained best friends throughout or childhood. It was funny, because ultimately, we'd just end up sitting around and opening up most of the packs ourselves when 'business was slow.' But it was tons of fun!

Somebody mentioned creating a game with hockey cards...thats' something I always did, too. I'd make up these elaborate dice games including goals, assists, and fights. Any time I went to the card store and came back with 10 packs, I'd have a full night of fun setting up my own 'fantasy' league using the cards, running a mock draft, trading, etc. Always did the same with baseball, too. Today, I'm a huge fantasy hockey nut and this is where it all started.

I started collecting with basketball in 86...yes, Jordan's Fleer RC. At one point had 7 of those. Then in 87 I started doing baseball, too. Around 89, we would go to the LCS and buy up all the old basketball wax they had there! They had packs from the late 70's and 80's all the way up through Fleer 86-89, all for a buck a pack or less. I would then LOVE to take in a big box of traders. Back then, you could take in a 500ct of base stars and stuff, and still get 50% trade in value towards unopened wax! So I'd go in, trade in a bunch of junk and come back with a few boxes of wax to rip through! Those were the days!

As mentioned my hockey collecting started in 90-91 like most others...I loved that even the base sets had all my favorite tough guys, Probert, Kocur, Crowder, Gaetz...

[redwingsfan11]

I have two top memories. Back in 2001, my dad met up with me after school and we went to our LCS, which happened to have boxes of 97/98 score for really cheap. So my dad got me 3 boxes. Once my dad handed over the cash to the guy behind the counter, I was in an immediate rush to get home. Once i did, i took off my jacket went to my living room table, laid out all three boxes and ripped all packs one by one. I remember getting a bunch of epix and artists proof cards, which at the time i thought were the best looking cards of all time. I spent the rest of the night, meticulously organizing and putting all cards in sleeve protectors and top loaders. When a person uses the cliche, "i'm detail oriented" in an interview, i'm actually telling the truth. Its just part of my nature, i can sit for hours on end organizing and mapping things out with pleasure. Well fast forward to today, i have all the base cards and 80% of the inserts that i pulled which sort of disappoints me because they got lost in translation throughout time.

Now about a year and a half ago, i got a small part time job at a restaurant across the street from my building to put some cash in my pocket while i was attending college. It was hard work but it also yielded some good money, so for the first time in my life i was able to bust wax that i personally paid for myself. This was pretty big, because i was ALWAYS a singles guy, but i gave into the temptation of a new experience and decided to break a box of 01/02 Crown Royale Hockey hoping to get a Pavel Datsyuk Rookie card /267. Around 3/4 of the way through the box, all i had gotten were my two triple threads jersey cards and an insert, still awaiting the promised rookie. I believe i had around 2 or 3 packs left and at that time i was feeling a bit bummed, once i opened the next pack, i saw difference in the shape of the card, indicating that it was the rookie, but i didn't know which one. So i slowly went through the cards and pushed the rookie out of the bunch, slowly revealing the color of the players jersey. Sure enough, once i saw a red jersey, with the letters "Pa" in the name, I freaking jumped up for joy, yelling and running around my apartment as if i was an 8 year old kid. Keep in mind i was 21 at the time. As i'm writing about this, i have the hugest smile on my face because of the emotions and joy that i'm reliving. Its not the most valuable card out there, but i mean cmon, how often does someone actually buy a box for a specific card and ACTUALLY gets it. Once that happened, i tried to my luck again and brought a box of titanium with the FOOLISH hope of landing Kovalchuk's rookie /17....yeah it didnt happen.

The hobby provides me with joy that doesn't compare to other activities or hobbies in my life. Not to say that collecting cards is the beginning and the end of my life, but im sure you guys know what I mean.