A last makes a first

 I don't think I've even seen a card issued for a team's LAST game. Of course, that makes sense because teams don't fail very often, thankfully. The last NHL team to fold was before I was even born, until, perhaps, this year. 

The Arizona Coyotes have been poorly managed for longer than I've been in the sport. Just a couple of years ago they got locked out of their arena for not paying the rental bill, for example. For the past two seasons, they have been playing out of a college arena, which led to the road locker room being a tent in the parking lot. Yeah, just two of the more extreme examples, but their biggest problem is not having an arena capable of hosting major league hockey. 

So they are probably done. Probably? Well, the current owner, IF he can get a piece of land, AND completely build a new arena ready for play by the 2028-29 season, will get the Coyotes restarted. Those are pretty big ifs and I am somewhat dubious it will happen. 

For now, the contracts of all the players and the hockey operations have been sold to the new Utah NHL franchise, which will debut next year without a name. I will be calling them the CoyUties myself. 

I watched the last Coyotes game on Center Ice. It has never been my favorite team but watching the last game made me sad, for the players, the fans, the team support staff and broadcasters....it was the saddest broadcast I've ever seen. 

Now Topps has issued a card for the last game in the Topps Now set. 

This photo was taken at the conclusion of the game when all the players came out to salute the fans. You can tell by the faces visible and the body language that it was not a particularly happy moment for them, despite blowing out the Oilers. It was truly the end of that era. 

I'll be curious to see what the future holds- both for the new Utah team that will be made up of former Coyotes, but especially to see whether the Coyotes themselves can be restarted. Only time will tell.

Sticky Gold

 I've said before how much of a fan I am of the Topps Now NHL stickers. They have had a Serial numbered to 10 parallel since they started, but this year they added a 1/1 Gold parallel. I did not expect to ever get one, considering how rare they are, but today I did! Brayden Point's 1/1 Gold was the first card I saw when I opened this week's mailer! 

While this is my second NHL 1/1, this one is a bit more special because I pulled it instead of bought it.

This is a big thrill for me and today would have been a great card day if I didn't realize I screwed up and missed National Hockey Card Day last week. It's still pretty good but now I'm happy and depressed at the same time. 

Fishkill, NY Card show report!

 Today I went to the Fishkill, NY card show for the first time, which was really pure luck. My Mom has been not doing to well since she fell last May, and hadn't left the house since October. Well, she finally felt good enough to try going out again on Friday, and we ended up celebrating her continuing recovery with a trip to KFC, which happens to be in Fishkill. On the way home we passed a banner on the church there that there was a card show on Saturday. So, my brother and I went down to it. We had planned to go to the Newburgh card show which is also the first Saturday of each month, but I ended up spending my money here, so only one show was attended. But it was a good one! 

The first dealer I shopped from had a lot of higher end Rangers, which were great to see but a lot of them were more than I was willing to pay for a card. I kind of expected it to be, but I had to ask, and one of the cards I wanted the most was $140. Yeah, no, my personal limit of $20 per card- which is I admit a little flexible sometimes, can't stretch that much. These were $10, $10 and $15, which I was a lot more comfortable doing. 

The second dealer is where I got most of my cards that I purchased. He had lots of boxes covering almost every sport but I only went through the hockey. Unfortunately, I missed the fact that the box was clearly labeled as $2 on the two most columns, so I thought I was buying $1 cards...but I was not. And now that I had them in my hands I couldn't leave without them, so I paid the dealer his desired asking price and honestly...I don't regret it. 

The Dumoulin in a Clear Cut parallel!

I'm a sucker for unlicensed bootlegs.

These are die cut in the glove netting, really cool design

The photo on the Connor card might be my favorite. How cool.

Love the Dazzlers! I got my first blue ones today. I pulled the Green Krebs so I guess I'm halfway to the rainbow now! Need the Orange and Red. 

The Damphousse is a First Day Issue - my first for the NHL.

My first card from 1992-93 Bowman

There were three cards from the $5 bin, which I was aware of the price, and that was the Kolesar and Raddysh cards above...

and this one, which is probably the most visually stunning. It's a shadowbox and that's an actual autograph in gold ink. It's also my first card of him, which is good for me. There's actually quite a few people who appear in my collection for the first time today so I'm thrilled with that. Most of the Young Guns, most of the Portraits, and a couple of the O-Pee-Chee cards too. Nearly 20 people all told today. Of the Young Guns only Keegan Kolesar appears more than twice in my collection, as this is my third card of him. 

After that large purchase, I took a quick walk around the room and made two single card purchases. There was very little NASCAR presence but I found a good one, and the Van Horn is marked at $15 but came out of a $5 box. 

After the show and lunch, we went to my town's St. Patrick's Day Parade, which was great...best one I've been to! More bands, more groups marching, more fire engines. Couldn't ask for more. 

As I'm getting home from that who should be there but the mailman with the latest Topps Now delivery, and I got a blue parallel!

You probably can't see it here, but...

the Blue parallels are SN10! It's the second one I've gotten this year. This pack of stickers delivered 4 or possibly 5 new people to my collection, I can't remember if Quentin Byfield got one in last year's set...I think he did, which would mean 4 new people, it's amazing how little I remember what I have until I scan it. With my arm injury I wasn't able to scan them last year when they arrived like I normally had been doing, and just haven't gotten a chance to get to them yet even though I know right where they are. I believe that is my first (and second!) Francouz card as well.

Turned out to be a great show, and it's monthly so I'm already looking forward to going back.