My First NHL Autograph!

I said that I wanted to pull my first NHL autograph, after buying my first NBA and NASCAR autographs as singles. That didn't happen, but it was still a surprise, which is what I really wanted it to be! And a surprise it was- I wasn't expecting a package, I had to do some sleuthing to figure out who sent it, and most surprising of all is that it did not come to my PO box address, but right to my door. After having problems with our mail being stolen right out of the mailbox we have switched to the PO box almost exclusively. In fact I didn't think any of the card people I know even had this address. So when I saw this I had no idea what it was going to be.

Then I opened it, and this came out...

There it is, my first NHL autograph! The kindness of my fellow card collectors, and hockey collectors in particular, never ceases to amaze me. And now that I don't have to worry about not buying my first as a single, this opens me up to start shopping on COMC...if only I had more than 42 cents in my account. Of course, if I had actually done something like buy some cards, I might have crossed this threshold sooner, but in fact I have not purchased any cards since January, all my new additions- over 1000 NHL cards alone- have come as gifts or trades. What a community!

But this isn't all! The package contained 5 cards. One of them....the one that clued me in on who sent it- was this NBA card, that I had claimed on Kirk's blog a while ago and then forgot about.

 To be honest I had actually forgotten that I had claimed this one. My memory is really bad...bad enough that I didn't recognize the name on the return address despite this being the third or fourth time Kirk has sent me mail, LOL. Yes it comes from my friend Kirk aka CaptKirk, who is a regular on the Trading Card Database and his own blog, as linked above. This insert comes from 2015-16 Donruss, a set I really liked. This The Rookies insert is 50 cards long and includes some guys I don't have a lot of cards of. Jokic is one of them for now, but he's having a breakout season this year. Despite the fact that it's his second season he's definitely in the running for Most Improved Player this year. He's going to be the keystone the Nuggets build their team around for the foreseeable future. I think this is my 4th card of him only...maybe 5th. When I claimed it from Kirk it would have been my second. I think. I'm glad he remembered because I forgot totally until I saw it today!

The final card I needed was a hologram. As you should all know by now I love holograms. I think they are the best kind of insert set in card history. I now have 3 of the 9 cards from this insert from 1991-92 Upper Deck. That's pretty good considering I just got my first in January!

I finally completed the NBA set about 2 years ago now, but I'm finding the NHL versions scan better, and also the examples I've gotten are not as beat up as the NBA versions I have. I don't know if that is due to the life they have lived before I got them or if they were not made as well. Such a great card though. Holograms rock!

The package also included two Nets cards, one from the same Donruss set and one from last year's Complete Silver parallel, but I had those already.

Thanks so much Kirk, you truly surprised me with this one, in more ways than one!