My Collection Quest

This was the last 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey card I bought at The National, and by far the most expensive to date. I have never heard of Alex Faulkner, and had no idea why this card–his rookie card–was selling for upwards of $100. That didn’t make sense to me. He’s not the most famous Red Wing, and certainly not the most famous Red Wing to wear number 19.

This is a good example of why it is important to do your research and know exactly what you are looking for. Thanks to Wikipedia and a friendly dealer from Detroit, I found out that Faulkner was the first person from Newfoundland to play in the National Hockey League. And despite only playing 2 seasons and 101 games in the NHL, he still has “rock star” status and this card–his only card–sells for a premium.

The Beckett high value of this card is $120. I picked this one up for $42. I think I did OK here.

Oh, and this brings me one (somewhat bigger) step closer to finishing my set. I now have 46 of the 99 cards. When I go to the Sun-Times card show in November, I’ll try to pick up 4 more to make it to 50.

School has started again. I am now teaching at three different places (one university, one college and one technical school). All this teaching has given me a bit of extra cash, so I went and bought myself a Bobby Orr rookie card a new computer. Of course, setting it up, getting all my files copied and programs installed, etc. etc. has left me with less time to blog.

And I still got things to talk about, like Bill Gadsby here. I bought this 1963-64 Parkhurst card at The National last month.

I bought this card after I met with Gadsby to get his autograph on several other cards and photos; otherwise, I would have seriously contemplated getting this card signed. Yes, it might seem like a waste to “ruin” a nice vintage card like this. But I could picture how a blue Sharpie autograph would really compliment the American flag.

Question: If you had this old card ahead of time, and were meeting with the player, would you get it signed?

Time for a quick blog update before I teach class this morning. Here is another card that brings me one step closer to completing the Set of My Dreams.

I’m not quite sure why Robert (Bob) Dillabough was included in the 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set. He only played 1 playoff game for the Red Wings in ’62-63. The year this card came out, Dillabough only played 1 game for the Wings, again in the playoffs. So, he was not a regular on the team. Dillabough would go on to be an original member of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1967-68, and an original member of the WHA’s Cleveland Crusaders in 1972-73.

Today is another long day in what is going to be a week of long days. I still have stacks of cool cards from the National to scan and show, but my time and energy is in short supply. So in the meantime, here’s another 1963-64 Parkie, this one of Bruce MacGregor.

Today’s 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey card is of Hall of Fame player Marcel Pronovost. I still got a few more of these Parkies to show off over the next few days, so stay tuned.

A freelance web design project is keeping me busy this week, so here’s a quick update. This 1963-64 Parkhurst card of Lawrence Jeffrey brings my set to 41 cards. Like the card of Doug Barkley, this card is damn near perfect.

Forty! The Big Four-Oh. I now have 40 cards for my 1963-64 Parkhurst set. Douglas Barkley here (card #60 in the set) is the 40th card towards completing my set.  I started putting it together just over 3 years ago.

This card is actually higher grade than most of the other Parkies in my set build. I found a dealer who has a lot of Red Wings that were in great shape. He was willing to cut me a deal if I bought several of them. Most of the Parkies I get are in the $5 to $10 range and have one or more defects. It seemed like a good idea to get commons and semi-stars in EXMT shape for $15 each, like this one here.  Other than the yellowing, which is common for these cards, I really don’t see any flaws.

As you have probably guessed by now, I made a lot of headway towards completing my 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set.  Get ready to see lots of Red Wings in my next few Parkie posts, as I met a dealer at The National from Michigan who happened to have a bunch of ‘Wings cards from this set–all in surprisingly great shape.

Other than the stain on the back, which actually looks worse in the scan than in real life, this card of Vic Stasuik is in great shape. Four sharp corners, good gloss on the front and no creases.

This Terry Harper rookie card brings me another step closer to completing my 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey set. I now have 37 out of 99 cards.