Sometime in the last five weeks, a thief stole the first pair of skates ever worn by Hockey Hall of Famer Marcel Dionne.
Stored in the back room of his memorabilia shop in Niagara Falls, Ontario, the brown leather skates with straps were given to him as a Christmas gift in August of 1953 when he was just two. A photo of him dressed in a Montreal Canadiens sweater and wearing the skates was also taken.
Dionne told Niagara This Week he noticed them missing while giving a tour of his shop to a group from his hometown in Quebec on Friday. He planned to show the skates to the group, which included 20 kids participating in a local hockey tournament and noticed they were no longer sitting on the table where he kept them.
“It’s more of a sentimental thing than anything else,” he said of the skates, which were given to him by his mother, who passed away five years ago.
Here’s a really fun baseball card-related reference from a tobacco industry newspaper published 130 years ago having to do with the “round album” produced by Goodwin & Co.
“The new base ball album is a novelty.”
One of the earliest notices for what baseball card collectors now call the “Goodwin Round Album” (A35) can be found in “Tobacco: An Illustrated Weekly Journal,” August 18, 1889. The date for this album is 1889, not the oft-reported 1888. pic.twitter.com/GX6CCa9NeE— Tom Shieber (@tshieber) April 20, 2019
An extremely rare, fully intact album sold through Mile High Card Company for over $9,800 five years ago.
Below is an advertising poster that was produced for the 75-cent album, discovered within the last ten years and sold for $115,000 through Robert Edward Auctions.
The 12-page lithographed album had a single hole in the side, with a tasseled cord holding them together and allowing the pages to be pulled out for viewing. The pages had images of the top players of the day including Cap Anson, Buck Ewing, King Kelly, John Montgomery Ward and Charlie Comiskey along with some advertising.
Upper Deck was one of the sponsors that stuck with Tiger Woods when his career and personal life went on a downward spiral. Now, they’re reaping dividends.
Before his triumphant return to king of the golf world at the Masters, Tiger paid another visit to the company’s southern California headquarters where he signed items for Upper Deck Authenticated and talked about his long-running partnership with the company:
Woods signed his first autograph and memorabilia deal with Upper Deck in 2001. His cards have gotten hot since last weekend. You can check out some of them on eBay here.
Related Stories:
The Wayback Collector: Old Judge Cards Can Be a Collector’s Worst Nightmare
Police: Man Steals Baseball Cards, Pulls Knife at Walmart
Advertising Posters Promoted Early Tobacco Cards
Several Pitfalls for Collecting Old Judge Cards
Mike Kelly is King of Nineteenth Century Baseball Cards
1888 Goodwin Champions Inspired Today’s Issues
1887 N184 Kimball Champions Set A Tough Issue For Collectors
Ramblings: Tiger’s Troubles Reveal Perils of Buying Current Athletes
