A custom in style of "Cards that Never Were" we have a 1969-70 Topps Ivan Boldirev. A name that I had not heard of until recently looking back on the 1970's Bruins Cup winning teams, a player than not only has his name on the Stanley Cup, but went on to have a fairly impressive NHL career.
Born in Yugoslavia in 1949, Ivan Boldirev's family emigrated to Canada in 1951. Like any other kid in this country he found hockey and would be drafted by the Boston Bruins, 11th overall, in 1969. The NHL was a 14 team league at that time and the Bruins were a strong and deep team making it hard to crack the roster. After spending all of 1969-70 with the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central League, Boldirev was called up as a spare body for the 1970 playoffs, and despite never playing in an NHL regular season or playoff game, his name was engraved on the Stanley Cup, as far as I can tell becoming the only non-goalie to appear on the Cup before playing in an NHL game. He would eventually make his NHL debut in 1970-71 playing in 2 games for the Bruins, then in 11 more in 1971-72 before being traded to the California Golden Seals mid-season. In 1974-75 he would play in his first playoffs, with the Blackhawks, 6 seasons after being immortalized on hockey's Holy Grail. For his career he would play in 1,052 games, scoring 361 goals with 866 points playing for the Bruins, Golden Seals, Blackhawks, Flames, Canucks, and Red Wings. He scored at least 20 goals for 9 straight seasons and reached a career high 35 three times.
One of my goals for this year was to get a Through The Mail autograph. My most obvious choice was to try Tomas Kaberle as I needed his auto for the 2011 Stanley Cup team project and he was currently with Montreal so I could use Canadian postage for the SASE. So after sneaking into the post office so nobody would see this die-hard lifelong Bruins fan mailing something to 1909 avenue des Canadiens-de-Montréal, the wait began. I had honestly forgot about this as it was mailed on January 24th, the Habs season had ended on May 9th, and Kaberle had lots of spare time only dressing for 10 games and none in the playoffs, but to my surprise the envelope I mailed away turned up in my PO box with the card inside and signed. Kaberle's lack of Bruins cards led me to try printing out a custom based on 1987 O-Pee-Chee baseball and it turn out pretty well, the scan is very light and the auto looks much better in real life with a thick black signature.Now to figure how to do TTM from Canada to the USA.
Buying cards online has been made a little harder for me with the new US postal rates into Canada, so looking for Canadian sellers has become the best way to buy. When I saw this card I hoped I could get it cheap and won the auction for 3.75 shipped. There are few cards of Cam Neely with the Canucks and even fewer in the classic giant 'V' jerseys, while the black and white photo doesn't do these justice, the yellow jersey piece makes a great card and a numbered to 99 of a Hall of Famer and my boyhood hero made this a must buy. The seller offered combined shipping so while looking for anything else interesting I found a certified auto of Bill Muckalt with a one cent start, I threw a bid and won it for 7 cents. Not a card I needed, or really wanted, but what collector would turn down a certified auto for 7 cents.
The "certified" auto's left in this project are almost done, and so far this has been the hardest to find, a 2010-11 O-Pee-Chee Signatures Daniel Paille courtesy of eBay. Listed as a short print, this is the first copy of this card I have seen and I was pretty nervous about getting it. Due to a move I was without internet access at home and this auction ended on a Sunday. So before leaving work on the Friday I put a max bid of $82.00 on it and hoped for the best. Come Monday morning at work I was happy to find I had won the auction for $24.50 shipped, a reasonable price in my books.
0E9s37FciBBQ,hk+285Q~~60_58.JPG)
