Welcome to Blake’s Takes, where I look at the players and teams that stood out to me during the past week of hockey.
News & Views
Was Ryan Reaves Autographing Tom Wilson Injury Photo Going Too Far?
On Tuesday, Las Vegas Golden Knights forward Ryan Reaves hit Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson with a blindside hit. Reaves was ejected from the game, and Wilson also left the game with a concussion. Fan response ran the usual gamut, from lauding Reaves for giving Wilson a taste of his own medicine, to demonizing Reaves for making what many would consider a dirty hit (while, presumably, not understanding what “irony” means).
Two days later, Inscriptagraphs, a sports memorabilia store based in Las Vegas that specializes in autographed items, was selling 16″ x 20″ photos of Reaves standing near an injured Wilson — and signed by Reaves in red ink with the inscription “He ran into a Lion in the Jungle,” which Reaves said in a postgame statement.
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Why Buyback Autographs are the Best Rookie Cards to Collect
If you were building a “best player’s ever” RC collection, it would be very easy to pick players such as Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Carey Price. Pavel Bure, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr, and Martin Brodeur would be great choices from the 1990’s, and Guy Lafleur, Ray Bourque, and Dino Ciccarelli would be great choices from the expansion and modern eras. With a list like that, spanning several decades of hockey history, your next question would likely be, “What version of their RC should I get?” The question is tougher to answer especially when you consider the modern era and how many different RC’s are produced each season. Buyback autographed RC’s are the easiest way to answer the question and provide are very unique, rare, and ever-growing collection at the same time.
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Blake’s Takes: Many Happy Returns
This week is all about returns! A few Toronto Maple Leafs are on their way to joining the lineup if they haven’t already. And Erik Karlsson made his first trip to Ottawa as a player on the opposing team.
Opinion: The NHL Needs Its Own Day
Or Maybe Even Its Own Month
I’ve been thinking about this for a long time now. Most major sports own a specific day or time of year that helps turn all the attention in the sports world to them — but not the NHL.
Best of the Worst: 2018-19 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey
While we all loosen our belts and pass on the leftover green bean casserole, like every NHL team that passed on Jaromir Jagr’s contract last season, let’s take a deep dive into the Upper Deck’s latest offering of fresh, hot hockey photography from the 2018-19 Series One flagship set.
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Blake’s Takes: Can Ovie Top Gretzky?
The NHL had another big week, and so did I. This week I focused on my trip to Little Caesar’s Arena in Detroit to see the Red Wings, and a few big goal scorers.
Blake’s Takes: The Good, the Bad and the Penguins
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Changes In Store For COMC.com
How the New Fees Affects Card Flippers
Over the last 10+ years, COMC.com (or Check Out My Cards) has been toiling away in the trading card marketplace, striving to become one of, if not THE leader in individual trading card sales. After having evolved from a small web portal known as LowPriceCards.com into the juggernaut that it is in a few years, COMC has emerged with an inventory of over 18.3 Million cards and sells and ships more singles to collectors all over the world than any other service provider.
Led by a sort of “grass-roots” style guerrilla marketing campaign (which to me appeared to be based mainly on word of mouth and appearances by COMC people at the big sports shows), I have seen COMC grow from servicing about 3 million cards in their inventory when I first joined to over six times that amount today. First joining COMC in the fall of 2013, I happened on the website after meeting the owner, Tim Getsch, at the National Sports Collectors Convention. The former Microsoft employee’s pitch was simple enough. “Just try it out,” he told me. “If you like it, stick around. If you don’t, feel free to email me personally and tell me why.” That’s what brought me into the fold as a user. Customer service and the feeling like the owner gets it will most likely win out with me in the end.
Fast forward to this past weekend and the “Huge Announcement” from COMC. Like any company that is looking to survive for a long period of time, the goal has to be to make money. Sure you want the customer experience to be the best and people to love you all the time and what you do but the existential aspect of running a business will eventually give way to the fact that pats on the back don’t pay bills. Continue reading “Changes In Store For COMC.com”
Fall 2018 Sport Card & Memorabilia Expo Recap
This weekend marked the latest entry for the Sport Card & Memorabilia Expo, which was held the weekend of November 9 to 11 in Toronto.
The show is fully stocked, from top-to-bottom, with exceptional memorabilia, unique autograph and VIP experiences, and of course cards. The show provides something for just about every type of collector in the market and you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a good time while in attendance.
Although most of the dealers stay the same from show to show, their offerings remain fluid and the inventory they carry has a decent turnover rate. This gives each show something new and exciting to look at every time.
The first thing that strikes me as I enter the show is the number of fake jerseys I see hanging from the vendor’s displays. They range from marginally horrible to outright hideous.
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