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.