Signature Sundays - Autos and Buybacks from Coast to Posts

Recently I was the recipient of an extremely generous little bubble mailer of cards from my friend Brad, who writes over at Coast to Posts.  Brad managed to pack an amazing punch with just a handful of cards, check it out!

A nice mid-'90s Mike Modano Panini sticker to lead things off.  Looks like Brad maybe had this one signed during one of his many TTM adventures, and I'm guessing he sent it in response to the Mike Modano "autograph" I posted a few weeks back.  Unlike mine, this one appears as though it may have actually been signed by Mike!  Great stuff indeed, but not as great as the second autograph Brad sent:

Love it!  If you've read my blog for a while you may recall that 1989-90 Topps/O-Pee-Chee was the very first hockey set I collected as a kid.  My Dad used to bring home packs for my brothers and I to rip through after work, and we'd spend hours ripping, trading, and sorting the cards into our three ring binders.

A few years ago I decided to accumulate as many 1989-90 Topps and O-Pee-Chee autos as I can get my hands on as sort of a fun way to recollect those sets for a second time.  Al MacInnis was actually the first autograph I landed as part of that project, but that was the O-Pee-Chee version.  Absolutely awesome having the Topps counterpart to match.  An extremely thoughtful card for Brad to send my way, indeed!

How about a couple of rivals from back in the day courtesy of 2014-15 Upper Deck Artifacts?  From my favorite all-time team, the Whalers, captain Ron Francis...

...and from their rivals, the Boston Bruins, fellow HOFer Cam Neely.  Nice throw-ins to round out the package for sure, I'll never turn down any Whalers cardboard, but aside from the autographs the real stars of the show were these:

In the 2010-11 Upper Deck French release, the company included foil-stamped buybacks from their inaugural '90-91 hockey release.  It should come as no surprise that as a lover of all things buyback I really adore these cards.  I'm not crazy enough to ever attempt a set because these are way more scarce than Topps' baseball buybacks, falling at just one or two per hobby box.  Even commons, like this John Druce, usually sell for at least a couple bucks on the secondary market.

Still, I accumulate them whenever I can, and Druce here makes a baker's dozen for me!  That alone would have been the icing on the cake of a great trade package, but this was only one of two buybacks that Brad sent my way!

The other is a rookie card of the great Derian Hatcher!  Derian and his brother Kevin were big, bruising defensemen (younger brother Derian stood 6'5"!), and carved out lengthy careers at the NHL level.  The brothers were actually inducted in the US Hockey HOF back in 2010.  Love this shot from the draft too, so '90s!

Brad, it was so kind of you to share these great cards with me.  Each and every one was a winner, but the autographs and buybacks especially will be treasured parts of my hockey collection going forward.  Thank you!  I started a return stack of cardboard for you this weekend and should have it en route within a few days...