It's a rare mid-week day off for me...and I'm welcoming it with open arms. A busier end to the calendar year has me energized and excited for what the new year might bring.
While my hockey card collecting has been much slower in 2025, my enthusiasm for the hobby has never been stronger. It provides a daily impact in my world - very grateful for that.
I've spent the past few months working full-time at my nearby sportscard shop and for the first time as an employee, I've picked up a card for my Trevor Linden PC. The shop owner pulled it out of his product rip for the most recent Upper Deck Premier product that was released.
He knew right away that the card would be going to a good home.
This beauty of a hard-signed autograph is from one of the insert sets placed into this high-end product (next to The Cup, it's the most pricey per box). While not a super-rare bird, cards like this (signed offerings from Trev) have seen higher price tags associated to them of late...making me a less likely target as a buyer. I'm still coming to grips with the overall elevated prices of cards in general.
I had only seen one other copy of this signature on the open market - and a dollar amount that had me shudder. This card isn't even numbered. But the store owner put a much more reasonable price on the item. It was an insta-buy in my eyes. Couldn't be happier.
I love seeing others add to their collections, but there's no replacement for finding a card that pockets in to your own personal PC. After all these years, it still is a thrill to add a new card to the box - and strike off another line from the master checklist.
After a very robust Linden offering in the 2024/25 window (included in 8 product releases), what will the 25/26 collecting season bring? Who knows. But Trev already has a card to chase there too. I'm confident it'll never end...and I have zero issues with that. We should all be so lucky.