Signature Sundays - Dale Hawerchuk

Hockey season is right around the corner, so it seems like the perfect time to get my Signature Sundays series rolling again with a nice hockey autograph that I picked up this summer.  Tonight I present the great Dale Hawerchuk:

If you've been reading along here for the last year or two then you may remember that I'm trying to pick up as many 1989-90 Topps/OPC cards as possible, since it was the first hockey card set I ever collected as a kid.  I've landed autographed copies of quite a few HOFers so far, and Hawerchuk here is the latest.

Dale was the first pick for the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981 entry draft, won the Calder as Rookie of the Year the following season, and went on to have an incredibly successful NHL career.  He was one of the better players in the league during the '80s, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility in 2001.  To this day, he's one of only 19 players in league history to record 1,400 or more career points.

Here's the back, with authentication sticker from Upper Deck up top.  I didn't get the separate "congratulations" card with this one, but I don't care, because guess what this on-card autograph of one of the best scorers in hockey history set me back?  $4.25, with free shipping!

I'll never tire of picking up autographs from this release, the nostalgia factor is just off the charts.  When it's a HOF player and costs me less a fast food value meal I'm pretty much in hobby heaven!

I have one or two more solid autographs from this set still in queue for later this hockey season.  Until then!