Happy Forgetrance Day

 I'm sitting here with a pile of hockey cards every single one of which I have pulled from a pack and taken good care of, some since I was a kid. I'm sitting here feeling like I feel when I register for anything in Canada. I feel like I feel when I have to go to immigration outside of Canada. I feel like I feel when I have to get a superfluous certificate or license. I feel like I've been sodomized without the common courtesy of a reacharound. And I didn't even lose any money! This is a feeling a lot of strong booze tonight did nothing to overcome. It's the kind of thing that makes me want to pack my shit up and go overseas again. A scarring experience. See if you disagree...

I will not list the entire 35 cards I brought to the Eastridge Sports Cards and Games shop today because it would make for the most boring blog post ever. I'll just give you a few: Wayne Gretzky autograph in the Engrained set on a plastic card. Virtually indestructible. Auto is perfect, card is perfect and if it were run over by a truck it would still be perfect. I saw one online that was graded a PSA 8.5/10. I don't know how. I mean Gretzky might have spelled his name wrong? But that might raise the price, no? Anyway, the 8.5 was sold for $1035. I can't find that at the time of this post, but here's one going for 800 bucks. I dunno how long that link will last but I'll give you a pic of mine to compare:

The auto is better, the corners are better, I put this baby in protective sleeve and casing the moment I pulled it and I have the vid to prove it. It has not been exposed to the elements since. I have no doubt it would get higher than an 8.5. Probably a 10. It's not cardboard, it's plastic. Still pack fresh. I don't know what a 10 would go for but it would be in the thousands. Keep that in mind...

Here's another one of mine:

That's Stevie Y. and yes that's his rookie card from O Pee Chee 83/84. PSA 10 is over 4000 bucks. 9 is 5-700.  Keep that in mind.

Pierre Turgeon - Sneaky Pete - recent inductee to the hockey hall of fame. Rookie card. 

Jari Kurri, hall of famer, one of only 9 people to score 70 goals in a season. This card is MINT! Could be another 10.

Hall of famer Dale Hawerchuk. Scored 45 goals in his rookie season and 40 or over six more times in his career. Over 500 goals in the NHL. Hall of famer (first ballot). Rookie card and again immaculate! 

Here's a card with pieces of game used jersey from Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr. 

Ovechkin jersey pieces, Jagr (a hunk of his stick for cryin' out loud! How cool is THAT?), Gretz super action from his second year in the league (80/81) and again -  zoom in on that card, it's almost perfect! Around here Kipper is a hero. I have a card with two pieces of patch from his game used jersey. It's one of only 15 in the world! I have no way of knowing how valuable it is because there are no comps. It's too rare! 

Marcel Dionne autographed card; Ed Giocomin card 19/100 with a piece of his goalie stick; Mike Bossy rookie; Brett Hull rookie; Brendan Shanahan rookie; some other good rookies in good condition; a card with Bobby Clarke, Bobby Orr and Guy Lafleur "Hockey Heroes of the 70's"; Gretzky record breaker from when he was 19 years old in 79/80 (in awesome condition); clear cut acetate card of Cam Neely17/100 to honour his membership in the HOF; and many more NONE of which are worth less than 30 bucks. 

This was what I brought to sell today because I'm in the midst of a 3-week layoff/holiday from work and am getting behind in the bills. I had planned on working security here somewhere to cover the down time but, as I explained last entry, it will take a long time to get all the paperwork and certification for me to do the job I did for several years last time I was here. I worked in the goddamned hospitals FFS! Every hospital in this city! That was less than 10 years ago. I need to get certified again? Even though I've RE-certified and worked in BC, the province next door? 

How could I be so stupid? 

OF COURSE! I went to the card shop with all these cards that I know I pulled from packs and are legitimate, but none of them are "slabbed" or certified or graded. This is the equivalent of certification in the country where you need a certificate to take a fucking shit! OF COURSE you need certificates to get what hockey cards are worth! What could I have been thinking? Business on a handshake? PPPtttthhhhbbbbttt! That's not possible any more.

Those 10 cards pictured above? 7 of the 10 of them are either definitely or most likely worth 500 bucks or more. Do you know what I was offered for those AND 25 more cards that were worth at least 30 dollars each? Remember this is Canada and I haven't certified any of them. Go lowball. Go beyond lowball. Give me your best FUCK YOU estimate and you STILL won't guess low enough. I was offered $440. CANADIAN! 

A lot of these cards I have babied and kept in climate controlled storage at over 100 bucks a month since the turn of the century. $440.00. That's not even a rent payment! That's not even enough to treat my sister and bro-in-law and two kids to a nice steak dinner. That's over 4 decades of collecting, preserving, and paying for storage. 440 bucks. I almost told the guy off when he gave me the news over the phone. I don't know how I controlled myself when I went back to the place where I had left the 35 cards and picked them back up again. I told the guy some shit about being sure I would have missed them and now I won't have to. But I wanted to consume him to keep myself from eating my own lips like the native monster that personifies greed called the Wendigo. 

This is what I see when I walk down the street here. I feel like Rowdy Roddy Piper in "They Live" being able to see the fucking hideousness that walks among us. But I still don't think, I refuse to think, they are the majority. They're just stronger than the downtrodden commoners of Canada who drink their beer, watch their hockey, spawn their babies, and voluntarily perform their wage slavery. It's very sad and I see good Canadians feeling the stress of it every day and I don't know how much longer they're going to bear it. I hope not much longer. 

If you haven't guessed this is my annual Remembrance Day blog post. It's almost 2 AM here and it's been Remembrance Day for almost 2 hours. I've been wearing my poppy for over a week now and we've been talking about watching some war movies this long weekend to observe the day. As always I think there are better things we could be doing. Re-read from the beginning till this point in the post but this time think of all those guys who charged up onto the beach when the door on the troop transport boat dropped. Think "Saving Private Ryan." They were pretty sure they were going to die but did it anyway. Why? So that capitalism could run amok like it has in their countries? I doubt a single one of the soldiers who died or survived the heavy fighting in any of the "great" wars would have included the word "capitalism" in any conversation of why they were fighting. Democracy, freedom, peace, equality, justice, and good words like that for the children they left behind would have been the words they used. I've heard them speak. We all have. So tell me honestly, do YOU think they'd be happy with what they see now? 

I think I've asked this every Remembrance Day and I have yet to get an answer. Are our "Greatest Generation" satisfied with our stewardship of our countries? Is this celebration of unabated greed what they fought, bled, and died for? What do we honour in these soldiers? Let's THINK about it for once on Remembrance Day! What exactly were they fighting for and why have we rewarded their heroism with the exact opposite? 

Okay, I'll readily admit things are not as bad in Canada as they are in some nations. But if things were the way they should be, the way they ought to be in order to properly honour our war heroes you can bet things elsewhere would not be as off the rails as they are. 

Canada used to be a country that set trends in the world. This is one I'd dearly love to see us set! Why can't we make our country into something the war heroes we perfunctorily observe every November 11th would be proud of? I don't mean just in empty words like "freedom," "democracy," and other words that the Eagles would say are "just some people talkin'," I mean reality. Are we free? You can't find a study anywhere that shows what the average Canadian thinks about that. I wonder why that is.... Do we feel that things are really democratic in Canada? Bitch please! We have exactly ZERO control over anything! 

This is Canadian democracy and we're constantly told, "What? Stop being so negative! You don't know how good you got it! Do you know how many countries WISH they had pepperoni pizza? Get back to work, procreate and stop your bellyaching." 

My readers this is not the way things were before or after any of the wars were fought by our greatest generation (at least not to this extent) and I would submit to you that the fighters would be horrified at what has become of the nation they fought for. Furthermore, I will propose, (as always) that we do something, ANYfuckingTHING, to stop our country from slipping into this madhouse of unchecked moral relativism and selfishness any further.

I'm too tired to list all the things we should/must do. But look at the above experience. When/how/why did our country get to the point that businesses charge UNreasonable markups? When/how/why did we get to the point where the customer is not always right but always screwed over? If the world (as quoted last post) has enough for the needs of everyone, a rich country like Canada has WAAAAY more than enough for the needs of everyone! How then are there so many people struggling, poor, on welfare, working paycheck to paycheck, unable to eek out an objectively prosperous existence? 

I'm sorry but for the umpteenth year in a row Canada is NOT honouring its soldiers and heroes, it giving them as big a fuck you as I got from the card dealers today. We need to give a shit about this! Otherwise let's change the name of this holiday to Forgetrance Day.