This clears up a lot and then some

 I have been doing my blog posts based on what I get in the mail. If you follow or read my blog you will know that I collect right now Women hockey players and mostly I do through the mail autographs. Loyal readers will know that my biggest issue with doing through the mail auto's is dealing with the post office. This is the latest letter that I never got, postmarked Sept. 8 Saint Paul Minnesota. It showed in my informed delivery on Sept. 11 and I checked the mail that day and it was not in the box. I talked with my post offices postmaster and she told me that I should not use the motto that I use at the bottom of my label. This is the lost letter that showed up in my mailbox today.

As you can see the two address labels and my motto. She told me that motto is why my mail gets lost, I have been doing this through the mail autos now for over 10 years and this is the first time I am hearing this. I still and will continue using the labels with the motto as I do not agree with what she said.

There is a reason for bringing up the above info and as it go's with the title of this blog, it does clear up a lot. I remembered who I sent auto requests to using those older stamps but not exactly remembering every player. When I first saw that letter on Sept 11 I said to myself could it be who I think it is?? Let me back track to a previous post. I am trying to get the 1997-98 Women's Minnesota Gophers inaugural set signed by all of the players and currently I need 7 more player auto's to complete that task. The player that I thought of for that lost letter was Marisa Pettiford. I wrote to Marisa asking for her autograph but I told her that of all of the players from the 1997-98 set I never had owned your card so I said it must of been short printed but I knew it existed because I had seen a sale of the entire set and I saw your card. So I kind of hinted that if she had any cards of herself from the set. So today as I got the letter in my hands it was somewhat thicker but not thick enough to do any damage to the envelope from the post offices machinery. So I carefully open the envelope and I saw that it is from Marisa Pettiford. As I was looking inside I could see a stack of cards from that set and I held my breath saying no it can't be. Did she include a card of herself and signed it??

No, but I am not upset with this because she did sign for me and she was kind enough to send me 6 more cards from that set and she signed both of my index cards I made of her.

This is what she sent and until I got this letter today I was going to write her another letter and explain what happened with a letter I got from St. Paul, MN and I send to a lot of players in Minnesota and almost all are postmarked St. Paul. Now I will be sending her another letter but this sure does clear up a lot and the next letter to her will be a huge thank-you. I do have the entire players autographs from the inaugural team but it is on a goalie stick but I want to get that 1997-98 inaugural set signed which would include needing to get Nadine Muzerall's auto which will not be easy. I did send out Nadine's rookie card from this set out January 12th of 2026 but still nothing back but I am hopeful.

I also got back this Rookie card of standout Haley Winn and she sent me a nice note and I was very, very happy to have got this one back signed. It tells me that their are players who do care and take their time to sign and we as fans appreciate that. Her teammate Aerin Frankel is also a great signer for her fans(along with others see my Great Signers page) and we as fans appreciate that. When I go to games and I look and see the players I add more vocals to those players that sign because they care in the same way by us supporting them and they support us. 

As I said in my last post that I would show some baseball cards and today thumbing through the first album I found a whole collection of Jose Canseco cards so for Oakland A's fans here are some early cards of him from his minor league years to one with the Red Sox. The card on the bottom right is the 1996 Collectors Choice and it is dated July 11-14. I remember when these were done for hockey which I will say was fun as it gave the collector a chance to get some cool cards if the player performs on the dates, I believe if he hit a home run if he did you won. We need these kind of things brought back to the collectors instead of some numbered card, which there seems to be more of and less jersey and auto cards but look at what they charge per box. I refuse to spend over $100 for a box of cards that maybe are valued at $25, not for me but when will this all stop?? It is like asking how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop, answer the world may never know. I do not know much about the two minor league cards of Canseco, I am hoping that someone can shed some light.

My next post will be on more through the mail auto's and some more interesting Baseball cards. Enjoy the hobby and as always Stay Safe!!!

It is now Official I have them (Barely)

 After I had sent these first out to be autographed on July 31st I got nervous when a month passed. So I did what any caring person would do. I wrote to Julie just asking if she got the cards and I did not like doing that because I did not want to make her feel bad because that is not my nature. So I got an email from Julie on Thursday telling me that the cards were on there way and that it was a very busy month of August for her and I did reply back telling her I understood. So let me show you the cards that I have been waiting for and I now have my very first 2 player autograph card but I plan on sending it to one more player which will give me three different auto's on this special Titled: First Goal card.

This is the front of the first goal card these cards are from the 1997-98 Gophers Women's hockey set. This is the inaugural team. I am going to have Brittny Ralph sign the front of this card. The back of this card has been signed by both the First ever goal scorer Julie Otto and the First ever assist Laura Tryba. So this week I will send only one of these cards out for Brittny Ralph to sign and there is a very good reason why I will only send out one at a time, I will explain later in this post.

This is the back of the First goal card and as you can see Julie Otto and Laura Tryba signed under each of their photo's. This is another favorite card of mine and I now have 2 of these cards signed by both players. This is a historic card and I am pleased I own both signed and I want to say a BIG thank-you to Laura Tryba and Julie Otto for taking time to sign this legendary card. I still wonder what ever happened to that first goal game puck, was it removed from the game and put somewhere in the School?? I will ask Brittny when I send her the card to sign as she may know.

This card is Julie Otto's card and I sent her 2 of these cards to sign and she added 1st ever goal, I already have this card signed by her. Julie was the team Captain along with Kris Scholz. I currently only need 7 more player auto's from this set to complete it all signed but I honestly do not think I will get those 7 player's auto's, time will tell.

This index card is from Erin Magee and I wanted to get her autograph and she was a star for the B.C. Eagles. She has a nice autograph. The thing I really love about doing the through the mail auto's and that is getting nice letters telling me thanks for bringing back all of those memories and this happens a lot. What I find interesting is when I send to a star player and the star player signs but a majority of them will not sign and it is very depressing when I get back a Return to Sender. I have got back lots of nice replies from the players and the players who refuse to sign should learn from the ones that do and it shows me the ones who do sign are the better players.

Those players have a heart for not themselves but their fans.

This card is the Tim Hortons Maple Leaf Immortals card of Marie Philip-Poulin and a nice addition to the collection. Poulin is currently the best player in the PWHL and their are others who have their opinions as to being better. It will be interesting this year to see who has better seasons as the players to watch are this years draft picks. Caroline Harvey went number 1 while going number 2 was Abbey Murphy. Looks to be getting competitive in the PWHL which should make for a very challenging season in the PWHL and challenging for the collectors of women's hockey cards.

As I said earlier I would discuss what I meant about sending one card at a time. First these types of cards being a regional are not very easy to locate so if they got lost I would be out both but by sending the first one once I get it back signed by Brittny I will send the second asking her to sign that card too. The post office is horrid and they are trying to tell me that the way I send the cards out in the SASE is not correctly done. In the 10 years I have been doing through the mail autos and the thousands of cards I have sent out I have only had 4 envelopes damaged. 

So yesterday I got no mail delivery even though my Informed delivery showed I had 4 pieces of mail and of the four pieces two were autographs. I still believe those 4 pieces of mail were at my post office but they were not pleased with me because I told them I was tired of getting lost letters. They blamed the lost letters because of the SASE being to thick and getting damaged but 4 damaged envelopes in 10 years, is that bad?? No it is not and I told the postmaster I can not control what the person adds to the envelope like the one she had set aside to show me. The person put a team USA pin in the envelope which caused the damage. I am not changing how I send them out and I was told my address label is not supposed to have anything on the bottom of the label like I have a motto, it reads We Love team USA. I was told I can't do that but today I did a search and was told yes you can.

My next post I will be adding more of my Women's autographs that I get back and I will be adding some baseball cards. Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!!

I just picked up these and the Muzzy second year and what is coming in the mail

 It seems that collecting cards and autographs go hand and hand and there are a lot of times we see issues that make us stop and think. We say is this really worth it, the let downs when a certain player won't sign an autograph. As collectors we see these athletes differently when we should see them as we are: Human Beings. I too get upset when I do not get a certain players auto back as a success but rather a disappointment and it usually is a player that is more noticed by fans because of their talents making them a star versus a player who puts up low numbers. That is wrong because any player that can crack a lineup for that league is a damn good player but we as fans get spoiled because of a players star qualities.

When I got the package yesterday of the 2 sets of Minnesota Gophers Women's hockey cards I was quite excited. Taking the time to read the stats and the interesting card writeups asking the players questions and printing there answers on the back. Have you ever read the backs of the cards now a days?? They look to be written by a 10 year old but maybe they don't care because it seems the collectors today are only interested in a players star quality.

What makes a card valuable?? If we look at a price guide it seems it is the players who lead their team in stats and the only time a common type player card is valuable is when the card is limited or an error that not many know about. The not knowing though today does not last as long with the internet and this is what takes the fun out of the hobby for some. I feel that way as the hobby is now based as a way for some to get rich quick instead of just enjoying a players card. I find the hobby to be upsetting and when I see the prices realized at auction I laugh at what is being paid. A card made withing a few years worth millions is just downright nuts. Over a period of time that card will suffer and the price will fall like a rock from the sky.

So lets take a look at these 2 sets and discuss what I am talking about like stand out players and common players. It is all just a way to get a stars cards and forget about the player who seems to get lost and their cards are just a common card.

This card is the 1998-99 Minnesota Gophers card of Nadine Muzerall and this is her second year card. As you can see from me showing this card first that I am excited owning this card so I am doing the same thing which is letting her talent take over as a indication to me and I am going to try and be as excited for every card and autograph that I add to my collection.

This card is the 1998-99 Minnesota Gophers card of Laura Slominski and this is her rookie card. Laura put up good numbers and became team captain her senior year of 2001-02. She went on to coach at various schools, During her 4 years as a Gopher she amassed 162 points.

This card is the 1998-99 Minnesota Gophers card of Courtney Kennedy. Courtney played in 2 Olympics winning a silver medal in 2002 and a bronze medal in 2006.

This card is the 1998-99 Minnesota Gophers card of Shannon Kennedy. This is Courtney Kennedy's older sister who played 3 seasons with the Gophers. She did put up decent numbers 65 points over 2 seasons adding 24 goals.

This card is the 1998-99 Minnesota Gophers card of Ambria Thomas. She is another player who put up good numbers. I was surprised to see that her career ended after her 4 years as a gopher. She amassed a total of 201 points, with 89 goals. She is a tough tough autograph as well. I have written to her twice with no success and I will not be trying again at least with this card. I will not be sending any of these cards out because I do not want to break up the set by not getting the card back. I may buy a few single cards of new players from the 1998-99 team as I have all of the autographs from the 1997-98 team all except 7. I will not take on trying to complete another set as it is too frustrating.

These cards are from the other set I just got. I will show these 3 cards but my next blog post I will be discussing more of these cards. The card on the left is of Gigi Marvin, the middle card is Anne Schleper and the card on the right showing the back of the card is Kelli Blankenship. I chose Kelli's card because of the answers she gave to the questions. The first question her answer made me laugh. Do you have any secret talents?? Answer: I can touch my nose with my tongue. What is the greatest hockey movie of all time?? Answer Youngblood. If you didn't play hockey, What sport would you want to play?? Answer Beach Volleyball. Why did you pick your jersey number?? Answer Because 7 is a good looking number and I have to agree with her there because I wore number 7 as well.

The only two players missing from this set are the Lamoureux twins Jocelyne and Monique. Maybe someday I will find these 2 cards and add them to my growing collection of women Hockey players.

There are times when I feel like just stopping the through the mail autographs and just concentrate on the base cards but it is hard to just stop. What makes me angry is when I get back RTS especially when I know the player has got the request but they just send it back because they just wish not to sign.

My next blog post you will see the cards that I have been going on so much about. Hint it will be my first double autographed card. I have just found out that those cards are enroute and I hope and pray that the postal people do not lose the letter as I am currently at 9 letters lost this year which to me is uncalled for.

So until my next post Happy Collecting and stay Safe!!!

 

This Weeks Mail

 I was planning on having a better week of autographs through the mail, however it did get better with today's pickup. I only needed 1 more autograph to complete the 1994-95 Classic Women of Hockey set. Well back on July 1st I found some information about the last player I needed and I am very elated that I sent the autograph request to that address because as of right now I no longer need the 1 autograph but am complete now with getting all of the American players cards all signed. Here is the autographs I got back so far this week with only 1 more day left with Saturday's mail. Before I start showing the scans I want to say that I am so upset with the way the mail is delivered today. On Weds. I got a catalog and as I am flipping through it there is someone's letter withing the pages and today I did not get my other autograph request because my mailman is terrible. It looks like it is lost yet again. If it is raining outside and I get a magazine that day I kid you not the magazine is soaked because the mailman walks down the sidewalk with the mail out in his hand but there is a funny part. The funny part is he has a satchel on his shoulder so instead of keeping the mail in the satchel where it will be protected from the rain he has it out in his hand. 

This is the card I got back today and it completes the 1994-95 Classic Women Of Hockey American players now completely signed, YIPPEEEE!!!! She did send me a nice note and she signed her name twice on the note. I can see the autograph is the initials S. B. and her uniform number 12. Her autograph is on a lot of autograph collector's want list but I sure am glad I can cross off her name from my want list.

This is the other autograph I got back this week of Ali Brewer who played 4 years at Brown University. Her autograph is creative and the oo1 indicates her last year. During the 1999-00 season she posted incredible numbers. In 32 games she went 25 Wins 4 Losses and 3 Ties. Incredible save percentage of .939, Goals Against average 1.44 and 7 shutouts.

This autograph is from Stephanie O'Sullivan who played 4 years at Providence College and she played in 4 Women's World Championships. In those 20 games she played at the World's she scored 32 points, 12 goals and 20 assists.

Getting back the autograph from Stephanie Boyd keeps the week from being a total disaster but I now wonder who the missing letter is from. It was postmarked St. Paul, MN but a majority of the letters sent are from the state of Minnesota which is a hockey hotbed. I just hope it is not from Marisa Pettiford because I did send her a autograph request and I hinted in my letter to her that her card was the only card that I never owned and I know the players do have cards they got and was hoping she might include one signed. Now do you see why I am so upset???

I am hoping that I get  back more successes in tomorrow's mail and that missing mail piece shows up but I do not count on that happening. I am going to start keeping track of all the mail lost when my regular mailman delivers mail. If it continues I am filing a complaint as this is just not right and it happens way too often. I will be adding a new page soon titled My Weekly Auto's Pickups. By having it's own page I can keep track of when the auto's arrive and I can do updates to the lost mail that seems to happen at my lovely post office. The thing that I get so upset about is I do not know who the lost mail is from since the letter coming back with the autographs is the envelope with my address label.

To update I still have not heard back about my multi player card that I am only 1 autograph away from having both autographs on the card. If and when I do get them back signed I will be sending the 2 cards to one more player but only sending one of those at a time and that way if one gets lost I will have the card with both autographs but not the third autograph.

There are still several Women's autographs that I need and I do have some photo's of what these players autographs look like and these are 2 that I would love to add to my collection.

This autograph is of Isabelle Chartrand who played for Team Canada and won a Gold medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics. She also won a gold medal in the World Championships. She was a very good defensive player and it showed with her plus minus.

This autograph is another one that I would really like to add to my collection of Dana Antal and I did send out an auto request to her. She does have a few cards but I never picked one up. I hope I get back her autograph soon. She does have a very nice auto as you can see her signing has that quick light flow.

Also check out my other new page titled Dream Cards. This will show the cards that I someday would love to own. I do plan on buying a couple blaster boxes from the 2025-26 Upper Deck PWHL and I have been thinking about buying a 2007 In the Game box and opening that and post the pulls. Stay tuned and as always Happy Collecting and stay safe!!!

Rookie Gems Rewind

 I want to talk about the Women's rookie cards that I have in my collection and some cards that I hope to find and add to my growing Women of Hockey Autographs. There have been times when I send these cards out for an autograph and yes there is the thought that I may never see the cards again. They can get lost in the mail or damaged in the mail or what happens the most is the person you are sending to never signs the cards and I have been told that there are some players that never open the envelope. It gets thrown in the trash or the person just misplaces it. The longest I have ever waited getting an autograph back was 9 years. Can you imagine what their mail area looks like??

Let's look at some of the more prominent Women Hockey Players.

This card is the 2004-05 Ohio State Buckeyes Rookie card of Lisa Chesson. I was fortunate to get all 4 of her college cards signed. It would have been great if I could have got Shelby Aldous to sign this card. This is the way the Ohio state Buckeyes cards were done with multiple players on one card was usually the rookies.

This little Gem is the 2002-03 Minnesota Gophers rookie card of Natalie Darwitz. The one thing about these cards are a majority of the college cards were perforated. You only have to fold the cards three times and they easily come apart. Thanks to a collecting friend for the picture.

This card is the 1997-98 University of Minnesota card of Nadine Muzerall. She put up decent numbers in her 4 years, played in 129 games, 139 goals, 96 assists for 235 points. Nadine is the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeyes. Her first season as head coach was 2016-17 season and she has won 2 NCAA Championships 2022 and 2024.

This card is another little Gem of Gigi Marvin and this card is the 2005-06 University of Minnesota Rookie card. I did get Gigi to sign the card which I was very pleased with. Looking at the card you can see how young she looks and I have 3 of her college cards from each year that she has signed.

This card is the 1997-98 Collectors Choice National Heroes Rookie card of Hayley Wickenheiser. I added the back of the card so the reader can see how young she looks. There are others that feel her first rookie card should be the 1994-95 Classic Women of hockey card.

This card is the 2004-05 Upper Deck Young Guns card of Cammi Granato. Here is where I draw the line, I am only showing this card because it is a young guns card but her true rookie card is the 1993 Classic '93 Hockey Draft card as you can this card below.

I always liked this card of Cammi and you can see how young she is versus the 2004-05 Young Guns card. Classic did a lot of nice hockey cards throughout the 90's.

This card is the 1992 Classic Four sport Rookie card of Manon Rheaume and this is her true rookie card. Manon has over 1,800 cards and a large majority of these cards were done by Classic. She has signed thousands of cards for classic. I sent a autograph request to her a few years ago and I got it back signed but instead of her beautiful autograph she just initialed the card M R '33. I did send her another auto requests in the middle of august hoping she signs her full name as I asked her to do in my letter to her. We will see.

This card is the 2003-04 University of Minnesota card of Natalie Darwitz, this is her second year card. These cards have a unique design and I do like these designs but of all of the University of Minnesota cards I have seen my favorite are the 1997-98 Inaugural year cards as I love the outline surrounding the player. My dream is to someday locate as many of these Minnesota cards through the years as possible. 

This card is the 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Canadian Heroes True Rookie card of Marie Philip-Poulin. She does have a young guns card but to me this is her true rookie card. The Young guns rookie has her in the new PWHL with the Montreal Victoire. This card shows her with team Canada, many believe she is the best player today but after next season we will have to wait and see if she is still at the top. With the next crop of rookies playing this season and after this season the next batch of rookie cards collectors will have to dig deep into their pockets to be able to get their rookie cards. Caroline Harvey who was selected as the number one draft pick at this years draft and Abbey Murphy who was selected number two. Those 2 players should be doing what Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini are doing in the NHL as two of the best players. I believe that Harvey will be the best female player with Murphy right behind her. It will be good seeing more stars over in the PWHL now and in the future for years to come.

This card is the 2013 Sports Illustrated for Kids card of Amanda Kessel and this is her rookie card. Amanda played 4 years at the University of Minnesota and is a 3 time NCAA champion with the Golden Gophers. I have never been able to get her to sign any of her cards. I have seen her autograph and it is just intials as in A.K. but it would be nice to get one of her cards signed but that is not very likely through the mail.

This card is the 2024 Upper Deck PWHL Young Guns Silver Outburst Rookie card of Taylor Heise. Taylor is not a great signer as I have sent to her at least 5 different times with nothing to show for her autograph. I would never send her a expensive card because you may never see that card ever again. She is a very good player with lots of talent, great skater and has good hands for making difficult plays look easy but she does not like signing through the mail, at least for me anyways.

This card is the 2004 Halifax Herald Team Canada card of Dana Antal and her rookie card. These cards are beautiful with the yellow, red and brown borders. I have only sent one autograph request to her and I am waiting for a reply. It was sent August 17 so it has only been gone a couple weeks. I hope I get her auto as it would be another nice addition.

My next post I will be writing about some autographs that I am hoping to get back signed this week and this is a short week due to the holiday (Labor Day). I will be posting those autographs that I get in for my next post and I am planning on opening some boxes and posting what I pull from the box. I will add that the hobby boxes for the Upper Deck PWHL cards are a bit boring to open because they only include 6 cards a pack. From opening several I will say that the way it works is the pull card is always on the back while the base are the first 5 cards. If there were more cards per pack it would allow for a mixture of more than one insert card per pack. The Young Guns are on the back and any insert are on the back. They need to have a bigger base set and now that the league has expanded to 12 teams let's hope next years cards have 100 base and more young guns. Next year should be one of the best year with the first 2 picks in this years draft. Caroline Harvey going #1 and Abbey Murphy going #2. It should be a battle looking for their young guns rookie cards but how much will it increase a box of PWHL cards is the question. That is what I get upset about as it should not affect the increase but let us wait and see, I bet it does.

Happy Collecting and as always stay safe and enjoy the hobby the best way you can that you find enjoyable to you.