Hockey Hall Of Fame Autos - Sergei Fedorov

(I should probably put this in a better holder
without all the scratches.)

In my first feature of my Hockey Hall of Fame Auto showcase, I chose to show off the first HOFer that I can remember actually pulling from a pack of cards.  

I don't remember exactly when it was but I know it was sometime in the fall because I was wearing a sweatshirt and it was getting cold.  I had taken a trip to Target, for what I don't remember, but I would always peruse the card aisle, as it was very hearty back in 1998.  

One of the choices for purchase was 1998-99 Bowman's Best.  This wasn't your normal $1-2 pack of cards.  These were a super premium card printed on foilboard with all sorts of inserts driving the price up to a whopping $4.99/pack if I remember correctly.  In addition to all the inserts, 1:97 packs would have an autograph, so about one in every four boxes.  

As I was deep into my student teaching assignment prior to graduating college, I felt like I had things going for me. I also had a number of credit cards I got suckered into for the free frisbees, pizza, t-shirts, and BW3 wings (which at the time was still called Buffalo Wild Wings & Weck...hence the W3 part).  Why not? I was about to become the highest paid profession of all, a teacher.  So I'm pretty sure I loaded up with about 1/2 to 3/4 of the box. Why didn't I just buy the box?  Well it's a retail store.  There were packs missing already. All I know is, I bought all they had.  Good thing too because that was the first and only time I ever saw Bowman's Best Hockey in a store.

In one of the packs was this gem, as I opened all the packs while sitting in my 1988 Honda Accord.  Sergei Fedorov at the time was a star. He was coming off a season where he started with a hold out, signed an offer sheet to go to the Hurricanes, and then got PAID by Detroit because of the playoff bonus payout. Essentially, he was paid $28MM for 43 games.  But he was worth it and was pivotal to the multiple Detroit Stanley Cup wins.  

The card itself is pretty nice considering the era it came from. Let's face it, late 90s was still an "early" period for pack inserted autographs.  It is on-card, which is nice, and is well placed right in the cardboard "sweet spot".  It looks to be signed with a thin-tip blue marker. More impressive is how it stuck on the high-shine gloss of the card without smearing. Makes me think they must have prepped the card ahead of time before getting it signed.  I haven't seen many of these so I've always wondered how many of them actually exist since they aren't serial numbered.  As for value, well I'll leave that to the experts. 

Fedorov. Sergei Fedorov.

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