New here, Flyers/Hextall Fan

[hextall]

Hey SCF,

I've collected hockey and baseball cards since I was a kid in the early 90s. I grew up in Los Angeles, but Ron Hextall was always my favorite player and I've been a Flyers fan since then. Around age 6, I found out from a book in the school library that Hextall had scored not one, but two goals as a goalie, and was a feared presence for his physical play and innovative puck-handling. I immediately declared myself both a Hextall and a Flyers fan. I had a teacher that was a Flyers fan and told me about the Broad Street Bullies era, which prompted me to study that period (and hockey history in general). I was hooked. Shortly thereafter, Hextall was traded to Quebec as part of the Lindros deal. While being excited about Lindros, I was mad at him because I felt like he had caused my favorite player to be traded from my favorite team. Of course, after the year in Quebec and the year with the Islanders, Hextall came back to the Flyers, erasing any of that initial anger as the Legion of Doom came into their prime.

My initial collecting goal was to get every Hextall card ever produced. I've definitely achieved that goal for cards produced up until that point, but the number of cards released has, as I'm sure you've noticed, expanded quite significantly since that day in 1994. I had a great LCS owner nearby that encouraged my Hextall collecting and would set aside cards for me, but his shop unfortunately closed down after only a short time. When eBay came around, I was very excited about the prospect of being able to buy cards on the internet, but after getting burned a couple of times in the early days of eBay and losing some of my very limited money (I was 14), I moved on to other things.

Every once in a while I'd think about it, though. I'd taken a look from time to time on eBay and was amazed at how the hobby had changed in my absence. I looked at a checklist on Beckett and was floored at how many Hextall cards were still being produced. Eventually, I started thinking about it more and more, so I created a spreadsheet "just to see" how many I'd need to complete my collection. That turned into me pulling out other cards to sell. After looking through those, not only did I not sell anything, I ended up completing some of the baseball sets I'd tried to complete when I was younger and started purchasing lots of Hextall commons on eBay to work toward completing a set of every Hextall base card from his playing career. Once I got there, I realized that inserts from his career were going for less than I'd expected (I was still in the "/1000 is rare" mindset of the 90s) so I expanded my focus to those as well. Then I realized that I could get a modern game-used jersey card for less than $10, and hey, these newer base cards are better than 90s inserts, and the new inserts are really cool...and I'm back. And now I'm here! My main focus is trying to complete a set of every card from his playing career, with a secondary focus on newer cards. However, this is the first major release cycle since I've been back so I'll probably purchase some boxes and split open some packs for the first time in 20 years. Looking forward to it!

I divide my collection into two parts:
Playing Career (1987-2000)
Post-Career (2001-Present)

Playing Career: 285/342 Base & Parallel
Playing Career: 79/89 Inserts & Specialty

Post-Career is something I'm just getting started on. I have most of the base cards that have come out over the last 17 years (which are mind-blowing to compare to, say, a 1989-90 Topps). I've picked up a fair amount of base and insert parallels, game-used memorabilia cards, 1/1s, things like that. Adding more all the time!

Pleasure to meet you all!

[pwaldo]

Welcome to the site! It sounds like you have a heck of a Ron Hextall congrats and hopefully you can find lots of stuff for your collection here.

[JFried1029]

hextall- Welcome to SCF! You are obviously a dedicated player collector. I hope you can add to your collection here on SCF!

[bakemeister52]

Welcome to SCF and make sure to check out the site!

[adiddle]

Welcome and good luck with such a big collection on Hextall

Unless I missed it but did you ever get any of the cards signed by him

[jonsportscardz]

Hello and welcome abaord

[creasecollector]

Just saw this thread. Wanted to officially welcome you on SCF!

[scottkoz20]

Welcome to SCF. It’s interesting how you have the cards broken down to playing career and post career. I like that a lot!


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[Rybowski]

Welcome to SCF Steve, enjoy yourself here and have fun adding to your Ron Hextall collection!!

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