Last night, I went to Almonte with my friend Beth for some NHL Alumni game.  Despite certain people not showing up (cough, cough, Rick Vaive, cough), it went pretty good.  She had VIP tickets, so rather than stick around after the game, I gave her my stuff to get signed and, being Beth, she came through as always!

Laurie Boschman 3/9
Corey Foster 5/5 (Gave one to Beth)
Dave Hutchinson 2/2
Mike Krushelnyski 7/7
Bryan Muir 5/6

When Beth was getting Bryan Muir, he noticed a card he had never seen before and asked if he could have it.  She reluctantly said yes (since it wasn't hers, but she knew I wouldn't care).  He said Thanks, and asked for her address so he could mail some photos to me as a Thank you.  Glad to make someone's day!

She also got Mark Laforest's signature on my North Bay Centennials jersey which bring the total number of autographs on it to.................5.

I have also been mailing autograph requests through the mail (ttm for the uninitiated) since early September with a good amount of success.  I'll post who I have gotten back so far later on.  Here's today's success:

John Madden
c/o Cleveland Monsters
11/28 - 12/29
3/3

Yesterday, I took advantage of the Boxing Day deals at Out of the Box, and bought another box of 2016-17 Team Canada.

Product: 2016-17 Team Canada

Cost: $70 CDN

Packs Per Box: 5/16

What I got

 Gold Parallel: 5 (John Quennville, Dylan Wells, Josh Mahura, Victor Mete, Stuart Skinner)

Exclusive #/175: 1 (Samuel Montembault)

High Gloss #/25: 1 (Pierre Luc Dubois)

Program of Excellence: 4 (Lawson Crouse, Travis Konecny, Logan Stanley, Natalie Spooner)

Base Jersey: 1 (Maxime Comtois)

Dual Jersey: 1 (Natalie Spooner/Rebecca Johnston)

Local Legends: 1 (Travis Konecny)

Gold Patch #/49: 1 (Tara Watchorn)

Thoughts:

I figured it was worth a shot for $30 off, otherwise, I wouldn't have bothered. Much nicer base set this year, similar to the one 2 years ago.  The design last year looked a little busy in my opinion.

The addition of the retired greats (Gretzky, Lemieux, et al.) is a nice touch, though a challenge if you are attempting to get the set autographed.  It's nice to see rather than 3 cards of one player in a 100 card base set.

The reduction of total cards, and hits, due to the low Canadian dollar will definitely turn people off, especially when being sold at it's regular price.

My opinion, you can probably pick up singles cheaper on the secondary market.

Grade: C+

tko8

Well, my New Years' resolution was to create a blog, so here goes nothing!  Welcome all!  I will be talking about many sports stories I have experienced, such as:

• Ottawa Senators and the NHL
• Montreal Expos and Ottawa Lynx
• Ottawa Rough Riders (eye roll)
• Autograph Hounding
• Hockey Card Collecting

Since I'm more than just a hockey freak, I also may include:

• Muppets
• Looney Tunes

Hopefully this stuff will interest you all, if not too bad!

See You all later,

TKO8