Trading Card Challenge - My Favorite "Other" Card

Time for the fifth installment of the 7 Day Trading Card Challenge, sponsored by the Cardpocalypse blog.  Hey, I might actually finish this thing after all!  This challenge asks participants to select their favorite "other" card in their collection.  "Other" in this case essentially means a sports card, but not a baseball, basketball or football card.

For me, the obvious choice here was to go with a hockey card.  Hockey has been as strong a collecting focus for me as baseball since day one, the Sonny to baseball's Cher so to speak.  Of the 31,000+ cards I have in my organized collection today, more than 50% of them are actually hockey cards.

Selecting just one favorite is a real challenge though.  I could spend weeks writing blog posts about all of my favorite hockey cards, and in fact in one sense I've been doing that for 12 years and counting now here on the blog.  To keep this from getting too long, and in an attempt to finish off this challenge sometime in the next few days, I've limited myself to just two cards for this post, a runner-up, and the winner.

The runner-up is my Wayne Gretzky rookie card.  This is actually my most valuable hockey card, but that's not why it's a favorite.  Even growing up a Hartford Whalers fan in Connecticut in the late '80s/early '90s, I knew Gretzky was the best player in the league and the best player I'd ever seen play with my own two eyes (I was fortunate enough to see him play live, but that's a story for another day).

As a kid collector getting into the hockey card scene as it really exploded in 1990, there was one card that was such a holy grail for me even back then.  That was the Wayne Gretzky rookie you see pictured above.  I never managed to acquire one back then, though my Dad did have one in a complete 1979-80 Topps set that he had picked up as an investment back then (another story for another day!).

When I returned to collecting in my 20s back in 2007, this was a card I still wanted badly after all those years, and was one of my first big "splurge" purchases for myself during a period where I had decent disposable income and very few serious life/financial responsibilities.  I've had it for quite a few years now, and unlike many of the tens of thousands of cards in my collection I still take it out and admire it regularly.  Brings a smile to my face to this day.

So, what card could possibly top this one then?

Well, it's another Wayne Gretzky actually!  Surprise, surprise.

I've told the story of this card here before, years back now, but I'll rehash it again quickly here.  I was an absolutely rabid 9-year-old hockey player and fan of the game when the 1991-92 hockey releases hit the shelves.  I was big into cards, and for one reason or another (the details are getting foggier nearly 30 years later here) I determined that I was going to send a card to my hockey hero, The Great One, through the mail, asking for him to sign it.  Yep, my very first 'TTM' attempt.

I'd somehow acquired an address, though I don't recall where I got that from either.  Did Tuff Stuff have information like that back in the day?  I truly do not recall, but I do remember writing out a letter to Wayne, sealing this 1991-92 Pro Set card inside, addressing and stamping it, and dropping it at the local post office.

Many weeks went by, and I likely all but forgot about my request.  I was just a kid with a kid's attention span.  I'm sure I was busy with school, friends, playing and watching hockey, and more.  Imagine my surprise when one day there was a return envelope in the mailbox with my name on it.  Inside sat the card I'd sent, signed by Gretzky himself.  The hands that had potted over 600 goals and 2,000 points already at this stage of his career had handled my measly little Pro Set card, signed it, and sent it back to me.  I was elated, and the card immediately went into a screw-down holder.  It remained one of my absolute favorite cards throughout childhood, and I still have the card to this day.

Now, the question I'm sure you're asking is "did Wayne really sign the card?".  Truth be told, I have no idea obviously.  I wasn't even 10 years old at the time, I wasn't cynical enough to get into that line of thought quite honestly.  It could very well be the case that this was done by his agent, or cleaning lady.  Hell, for all I know my good-natured parents may have planted the return in the mailbox as a way to fascinate and further inspire their hockey-obsessed son.  If I learned that was the case, I'd still love it every bit as much as I do now.

I'll never know who really signed the card I suppose, but I don't really think that's the point.  To me, this is arguably the most significant card in my hockey collection just because of the really great memories of childhood that it invokes.  I keep this guy in a One Touch holder in my top desk drawer to this day.  Every so often I pull it out and just think back to those simpler times, trading cards and playing street hockey with my younger brothers.  Not a care in the world except for when I would be playing my next hockey game, or ripping my next pack of cards.

Yep, an easy choice for my favorite "other" card, for sure.

Thanks as always for stopping by, and I'll be back with the next entry in the challenge in the coming days!  Until then, stay safe!