Last weekend was the 5th annual Chicago Blackhawks Convention. Like last year, I had absolutely no intentions of going. In fact, I practically forgot about it.

That all changed when a couple of dealers–literally, a married couple who are also hockey memorabilia dealers–called me last Thursday and told me they had two passes to the show they wanted to give me. I’ve known these two for a few years now. They are the same dealer friends who hooked me up with some VIP autographs at the 2010 show, and I always buy from them when I go to the Sun-Times card shows in March and November.

So, I now had two passes to the show. I made a few quick decisions on what I’d do:

• Focus on autographs of my heroes from the 1990s
• Not camp out extra early to get an autograph–or rather, a wristband to get an autograph. No 3 hour waits for me!
• Skip the panel discussions and focus on getting autographs. Honestly, the panels are getting a little stale (life on the road, goalies, stuff like that)
• Not be Mr. Super Blogger. That is, I did not take any pictures, shoot any video or Tweet from the show. All I wanted to do was focus on being there and getting autographs.

RECAP OF FRIDAY, JULY 20, 2012

Shellie and I got there just a bit before 5pm. We perused the dealer room for a bit, and then lined up to get autograph wristbands. We met up with with Sean, a blogger from the Chicago area, and talked hockey for a bit. Shellie and I grabbed some hot dogs (only $4.50 each, but they were big and included chips).

We then decided to get in line for autographs.

Shellie got me an autograph from Marcus Kruger. That was kind of a mistake, because all she did for the rest of the night was talk about how hot Marcus Kruger is. When I told her he is from Germany, she was annoyed that I didn’t tell her–she would have said “Hello” to him in German. (With a name like MARCUS KRUGER, you think his Germanic heritage was obvious, right?) EDIT: Marcus Kruger was actually born in Sweden, not Germany. Now I wish I had told her that he was German. That would have been hilarious.

Meanwhile, I got my 2009-10 OPC Update card signed by Sheldon Brookbank. Some fans and I joked if it would be possible to fit his entire name on my trading card. Well, the answer is he just does some sort of half-assed squiggle that looks like SLB. I hope his on-ice abilities are better than his autograph-signing abilities.

I had a VIP pass to get an autograph from Patrick Sharp. I went to wait in that line, but it was very long. I really did not need another Patrick Sharp autograph, so I tried to trade to someone who had a different VIP autograph pass.

But I had no takers. So I went back into line to get Patrick Sharp’s autograph.

Just then, a chubby guy called out to me: “Hey, I’ll give you 10 bucks for your Sharp autograph ticket.”

Now, most of you KNOW how I feel about selling autographs, it’s wrong MMM’KAY. Even though this was a ticket to get an autograph, it still didn’t seem right.

“Do you have a different autograph ticket to trade?” I asked the man. “I’d rather get a different VIP’s autograph.” Selling is one thing, but trading is another.

“No, sorry, I don’t,” said the guy. “So, how about 20 bucks.”

At this point, I was stunned. What should I do? I looked, and the guy had a Patrick Sharp Winter Classic jersey in his hands that he wanted to get signed. I had a photo that I only kinda wanted to get signed (I got Sharp’s autograph on a nice picture in 2010).

So, I caved in and accepted the man’s $20. He was happy because he could get his jersey autographed, and I was happy because I used the money to buy something I really wanted–more on that tomorrow.

On Friday, I also bought a few cool things…

I found 12 different parallel and insert cards of my favorite player of all time, Chris Chelios. Above is a shiny parallel card from the Cool Trade mail-away set.

A documentary about the Stanley Cup-winning 1961 Chicago Blackhawks, entitled The Forgotten Champs. This DVD came out in 2006, a few years before the team turned things around (and were pretty much all but forgotten in Chicago).

Starting Lineup figures of Chris Chelios and Glenn Hall. Packaging on these are a little rough, but I am going to open them eventually.

Tomorrow, I will post a recap of Saturday, which is when I got the bulk of my autographs.

I will be at the 2012 Blackhawks Convention. I hope to get autographs from Dave Manson, Daniel Carcillo, Brandon Bolig and Andrew Shaw. Wish me luck.

If you want to say hi, send me a text message at: 312-320-4378

I will be there Saturday for sure, but I’m iffy about Sunday.

Last weekend, I found some more 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards that I needed for my set build. Many of them were commons, but 12 of them were pretty awesome and worth scanning. So, for your enjoyment, here are a dozen cards from the ’72-73 OPC set:

272 – Goals Leaders

283 – Assist Leaders

280 – Scoring Leaders

127 – Hart Memorial Trophy

111 – Phil Esposito

226 – Tony Esposito (1st Team All-Star)

136 – Gilbert Perreault

197 – Tim Horton

145 – Ken Dryden…unfortunately, I think this card was trimmed, and I did not realize it until I got home. It measures about 2 3/8″ x 3 3/8″.

185 – Serge Savard

190 – 2nd Series Checklist (unmarked)

334 – 3rd Series Checklist (unmarked)

I now need only 108 cards to complete this set.

My main focus when it comes to old Parkies is the 1963-64 set, but the 1953-54 set is a close second. Last weekend, I bought 5 cards from the 1953-54 Parkhurst set.

41 – Marcel Pronovost

44 – Marty Pavelich

85 – Dave Creighton

88 – John Pierson

97 – William Frank Martin

These 5 put me at 37 out of 100 cards in the set. Once I finish up my 1963-64 set, this one will become a bigger focus.

At the card show last weekend, I spent a lot of time sifting through quarter boxes — more so than I usually do. What unknown treasures might they hold???

Truth be told, I would never, ever beat the 2 Topps C55 Marc-Andre Fleury Rookies I found for 10 cents each a few years ago. Or so I thought.

Dun,  dun, dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

When the three days were over, I picked up almost an embarrasing amount of decent cards – all for a quarter each!

Here are the best cards I found in the darkest depths of the quarter box: Continue reading “It Came from the Quarter Box”

I went to a 3-day card show this weekend called The Sports Spectacular.

It was less-than-spectacular.

Normally, the shows in Rosemont (near Chicago) are great in March and November. But I guess this one was too close to The National. Many of my favorite dealers were absent this time. So, I found far less cool stuff for my collection than I did in March.

I guess that is OK. If you find too much stuff that you want, then you spend all your money, right? Still, I did pretty good. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the stuff I bought:

• 6 more cards for my 1963-64 Parkhurst set
• 1 really big card for my 1957-58 Topps set
• A bunch of 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards
• An autograph from a Hall of Fame defenseman
• 5 cards for the 1953-54 Parkhurst set (that I’m secretly building)
• Quite possibly the best quarter box haul in the history of sports cards

I hope to have scans up of some of my cool new cards later in the week.