A Snapshot in Time

           A Snapshot in Time

     As an avid collector of NHL jerseys (sweaters for our friends to the north), I have always wondered why fans tend to be more than willing to part with, or outright dispose of  jerseys crested with players who are no longer with that team. I have always looked at each individual jersey as a snapshot in time. Out of the 200+ NHL jerseys in my personal collection, I would be hard-pressed to find even one crested with a player who is still with that team. Each jersey in my collection reminds me of exciting NHL seasons past. For example, as a huge New Jerseys Devils fan, I cannot imagine willingly parting with my Jason Arnott jersey. While Arnott has not been with the Devils for quite some time, that jerseys will always remind me of the Devils’ cup win against Dallas following the 99/00 season. I remember Arnott’s cup clinching-goal in the second OT of game six like it was yesterday. See what I mean? If you let them, your jerseys will serve as time markers in NHL history. In my humble opinion, this is particularly true for jerseys crested with retired or deceased players, as well as NHL All Star games.  

     I would like to urge my fellow NHL jersey collectors, and NHL fans to reconsider before discarding or selling their “outdated” jerseys. If you look at them as memorabilia, and let them live on as reminders of exciting plays, games, and seasons past, you will be glad you kept them. However, if all of my attempts to convince you to keep your old NHL jerseys have failed, please know that I am always happy to make room for your soon-to-be homeless Burger King, and Wild Wing jerseys, as well as several of others, LOL! My friends, the days of CCM, KOHO, Starter, Bauer, and Pro Player NHL jerseys are long gone. If for no other reasons, hold on to them for their future value. Some of the aforementioned jerseys had only a brief life in the NHL, and as a result are highly sought after, and many are very hard to find. If you do not want to keep your jerseys for sentimental reasons, at least do your homework to see if they hold any monetary value. You might be surprised to find that old closet full of jerseys in the spare room is actually worth something. NHL jersey research can be fun, as well as educational. Happy hunting!   

FOR SALE: NHL Pro Authentic On Ice Game Jerseys

                                           

     Ok, with the NHL season officially winding down, and hopefully, ending with the overrated and dirty Bruins being embarrassed by the Nucks, it is once again time to shamelessly promote my NHL Jersey Web site. Keep in mind, the end of the NHL season does not mean the end of jersey sales, no! As any good businessperson would, I keep my site running year-round. There will be a short vacation period from 31 May to 3 June, but after that, it will be business as usual.

     Now, down to business… I currently have MANY NHL Authentic On Ice Game Jerseys for sale on my site http://webstore.com/~goongear , as well as some great replicas! Coming soon to the site: I will be adding a 1991-92 San Jose Sharks, Arturs Irbe Rookie Jersey, size 52! I sold the Aqua version, and will now be listing the white version. I will also be listing a New With Tags (NWT), White 1990-91 Chicago Blackhawks, Chris Chelios, Ultrafil in a size 52! This jersey features the 1991 42nd NHL All Star Patch, (Chicago Stadium)! I ONLY sell rare and vintage, collector quality NHL jerseys from the 2003-04 season and before! NO REEBOK GARBAGE! Reebok Hockey jerseys are a joke, and anyone who would waste a single cent on one should have their head examined, PERIOD! Pick up a 1990’s Ultrafil in one hand, and an Asian sweatshop quality RBK rag in the other and you will understand. RBK jerseys are for bandwagon jumpers and children. No self respecting old school NHL fan would be caught dead wearing a RBK rag! Enough of the rant, you get the point…  

     I am always interested in buying jerseys that you might have for sale, as well as making partial and / or complete trades. If there is a jersey you are interested in, please let me know. Some prices MAY also be negotiable, depending on how much I have invested into the jersey (sweater) in question. You will never know unless you ask! In addition, I have HUNDREDS of jerseys in my personal collection, most are replicas nowadays, as I like to wear my sweaters without fear of being out of several hundred dollars if one is damaged during an evening out. All of my personal jerseys are either 100% MINT, and / or New With Tags. I may be willing to part with some of them, if the price is right. I also have a significant network of friends and fellow collectors, so if you are searching for a particular jersey, let me know, I may be able to help.

     Lastly, I want everyone to know that signing up for a Web Store account is FREE! I left FEEBAY one year ago to strike out on my own, and I spent the roughly the first seven months selling on various sites around the internet. I did not stumble upon webstore.com until Dec of 2010. I wish I had discovered it earlier! The site is great! It is easy to use, and best of all it is 100% FREE! That is right, NO FEES! You keep every penny! Even if you do not wish to sell on Web Store, I urge you to sign up for a free account just so you can shop there! You will love it! The site is growing fast, and many of the members are FEEBAY refugees. There is plenty of room, so join us! Give FEEBAY the finger and start lining your own pockets instead of theirs!

2011 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, Chara's DIRTY HIT, and more!

NHL Playoffs

    

     While my readers certainly understand that this is a hockey jersey / sweater blog, from time to time some other issues need to be interjected into the mix to keep things fresh. With that said, I would first like to say that San Jose Sharks fans have all but cleaned out the Sharks jerseys I had for sale on my site http://webstore.com/~goongear I think I have one MINT 1991-92 Sharks  Authentic left, and maybe one Pro Player replica hiding someplace around here that has not been listed. WOW, a BIG thank you to my Sharks customers!

     I make no secret about it; I am a DIE HARD NJ DEVILS FAN! My second favorite team is the Carolina Hurricanes. I personally am having a rather crappy NHL Playoff season… I could throw a one-man pity party, or I could man-up and root for some other teams. I choose the latter! Unlike the East, where I hate pretty much every team, except the Devils and Canes, there are many teams in the West that I love.

     It really pains me to see the Sharks and Kings matched up in the first round, as I really like both teams but know one will be going home after the first round. (BTW, for you TRUE old school Kings Fans, I have an AWESOME 2001-02 Ziggy Palffy Authentic for sale on my site). Back to the West… As much as I like the Hawks, I do not see any way that they can make it past the scoring machine that is the Vancouver Canucks. The Nucks are firing on all cylinders right now, and they look unstoppable. In fact, I picked them to win the cup. I would like to see the Hawks make a series out of it, if for no other reason, so I can sell some of the early 1990’s Ultrafil Hawks jerseys for sale on my site. Selfish, I know… I always try to look for that silver lining… The Nucks have a weed up their rear-ends for the Hawks anyway, as the Hawks ended the Nucks season each of the past two years. The Nucks want revenge!

     One bright spot for me in the East though is hoping that the Habs smoke the Bruins! The “B’s” are OVERATED! They are big and slow, and if it were not for Thomas in goal, I do not even think they would have even made the playoffs. Now before I get a bunch of hate mail from B’s fans, please remember that the term “overrated” is subjective, meaning that it is my opinion. Now, I must also say that after watching Chara ride Pacioretty into the stanchion, I thing he knew EXACTLY what he was doing! Chara should have been suspended for the remainder of the season for that cheap shot! You do not take a guy half of your size, lean him over the half-wall, and ride him into a stanchion, PERIOD! Look at the hit. Chara knew EXACTLY where he was on the ice. He (Chara) could see the half-wall, the player, and the puck the entire time. In addition, even with that knowledge, Chara made NO ATTEMPT to let up on the hit! In fact, he leaned into Pax. I would like to see Chara try that with Hal Gill! Chara would end up eating his own teeth for lunch! Enough of the Bruins rant… I just hope the Habs send the B’s home!

     As always, comments are welcome, so feel free to add your two cents worth to the conversation. As long as the comments are clean, I will publish them. This is a family friendly blog, so I like to keep the colorful language in check. Also, please feel free to either subscribe to this blog, or follow updates via e-mail. Options for both are located in the right margin. Lastly, do not forget to visit my sponsors located at the very bottom of the blog. There you will find MANY other great hockey items for your viewing and purchasing pleasure.

Patrick Roy / Wayne Gretzky Game-Worn Jock Strap! Really?

Patrick Roy / Wayne Gretzky Gamer(s)

WARNING: Epic Fail Alert !!!

  

     Ok, the first, and only order of business in this posting is to give a BIG shout-out to my very good friend “Giff” AKA “Dan of the Desert.” Dan has finally decided to chase his dream and become a collector! It is not what you think though… Dan, not wanting to be a bandwagon jumper and collect hockey sweaters like the rest of us, has decided to collect NHL items that are far more rare… Yes folks, Dan has decided to start his very own collection of Patrick Roy game-worn jock straps. That is right, Patty Roy gamer jocks! (You see, Dan lives in the Phoenix area, and it is wwwaaaaaay too hot for sweaters in the desert, but gamer jocks…???  Now that’s another story)!  When asked what he would consider his “Grail” to be, he stated that among the gamer jock community, there is a single gamer jock out there somewhere, legend has it, that was reportedly shared (worn) by both Patty Roy, and Wayne Gretzky at an All-Star Game; not at the same time mind you, but supposedly, they traded off between periods. Legend also has it that Wayne and Patty conspired for the sole purpose of creating a one of a kind (1/1) “super-gamer jock” that would become the worldwide grail of ALL gamer jock collectors! (Think of it as being like the multi-player jersey material swatch cards that people collect…) Anyway, this particular gamer jock has been sought after by many collectors without success! Dan however, claims he is going to accomplish what the others could not… Dan says that because the Patty / Wayne jock is rumored to be extra salty and showing signs of HEAVY game use, it is worth whatever the current owner wants for it, and he (Dan) is willing to pay any price to obtain it. (You see, Dan thinks it possesses special magical powers, you know, like “The Ring”… In fact, Dan refers to the Patty / Wayne jock as “The Precious” if that tells you anything)… Ooooookay then… Chase that dream Dan!

UPDATE: Dan wants the current owner of “The Precious” to know that he would be willing to trade the gamers that Patty “The Enforcer” Roy wore when he beat down both Osgood and Vernon (no COA’s though, sorry)… Wow, what a smokin deal! (In my personal opinion, Svend Robinson has a better shot at becoming the next PM of Canada than Dan does at possessing "The Precious.") 

   

For those questioning the authenticity of the aforementioned story, please take note of the posting date.. (This is Dan’s 15 minutes of fame, he can thank me later).

The Jersey Jihad Continues! / Devils CHOKE!

     Spring is almost here, and the NHL Playoffs are just around the corner! Soon every bandwagon-jumper on the planet will be rushing to gobble up every available old school authentic they can find (so they can hide the fact that they are bandwagon-jumpers). Others will simply be taken to the cleaners by investing in an Asian Sweatshop-Quality Reebok rag… (See my entry “Reebok Hockey Jerseys SUCK!”). Either way people, please pay attention to what you buy… That brings me to the first order of business in today’s rant… The Jersey Jihad continues!

     The other day while cruising FEEBAY looking for Scammers and Frauds, I ran across this gem (LOL!!!), a counterfeit / FAKE, 1991-92 Detroit Red Wings, Bob Probert jersey. (See pics below). Now, before I even start laying into this HOAX, see if you can figure out for yourself what is wrong with it… (Insert Jeopardy music here)… Ok, time is up! For starters, take note of the back of the jersey. Notice that the name and numbers are of shall we say, an incorrect font… In addition, the name runs straight across instead of in an arch as it is supposed to be. Lastly, the front of the jersey is missing the Alt Captain’s “A.” This just goes to show you that this person is not very good at being a scammer or fraud, and would be better off sticking to his day job… OR, perhaps he had been taken for a ride by another FEEBAYer, and is simply trying to pass on the love and recoup some funds at the same time. Who knows…??? Either way, the moral of the story is, DON’T BE THAT GUY!!! 

     Now, while this next item is relatively unrelated to “jerseys” in particular, I just need to vent on my favorite team for a minute… The New Jersey Devils had an excellent opportunity to close the gap on Buffalo, and Toronto on Tue night, as the Sabres lost in regulation, and the Leafs picked up only one point. Instead, the Devils decided to CHOKE, and lose to the Senators! WAKE UP NEW JERSEY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN IN THE PLAYOFFS FOR THE PAST TWO MONTHS!!! I know, they have been on an unbelievable run lately, but come on, losing to the lowly Sens, the last place team in the league! Especially when you are trying to make a playoff push… I can see losing to a good team, there is no shame in getting beat by a top ranked team, but the LAST PLACE team…??? After all of the hard work the Devils have put in to creep as close to the playoffs as they are now, and to fall short in the end will be more than I can stand. Remember, the Devils were 27 points out of a playoff spot at the All-Star break. Now they are just 8 points out! No team has EVER come back from more than 12 points out to make the playoffs! The Devils have a chance to shatter that record! Come on Devils, you can do it! HERE WE GO DEVILS, HERE WE GO !!!

Collecting Hockey Sweaters / Jerseys

Collecting Hockey Sweaters

     I have received roughly the same question, through various channels (my blog, Twitter, etc…), asking if any or all of the hockey sweaters that appear in the right margin are for sale. In short, yes and no… Let me explain.

     All of the jerseys (sweaters) that appear in the right-hand margin were for sale at one time or another. Some of them are still for sale, while others among them were sold in the past. I keep the pictures posted so readers can see examples of the collector quality jerseys I sell in my web store http://webstore.com/~goongear . As I stated in my very first blog posting last fall, I have been buying, selling, collecting, trading, and customizing rare and vintage NHL sweaters since 1991. What started out as simply purchasing a replica sweater of my favorite NHL team (NJ Devils), quickly turned into an obsession. Or something else, depending on one’s perspective… However, words like “hoarder” and “packrat” carry with them a negative connotation, so I prefer to be called a “collector.” At one point, my personal collection exceeded 200 sweaters, all of them NHL authentic.

     While amassing my huge collection of authentic NHL sweaters, I began to take notice that there was an actual market for hoarders, I mean collectors like myself. As I was watching the hockey sweater market develop, CCM did the unthinkable and discontinued the production of Ultrafil sweaters in the mid 1990’s and went to Air-Knit. As luck would have it, I had hoarded, I mean collected MANY Ultrafils over the years. Once Ultrafils were discontinued, every serious collector on the planet made a mad dash to gobble up as many as they could find, within their budget of course (LOL)… (Now, CCM, KOHO and Pro Player Air-Knit jerseys are on the collector list as well, since Reebok took over and started producing the Asian Sweatshop-quality garbage you see today!) On the down side, I am one of those collectors that also likes to wear his sweaters. That is until some (insert expletive) who was not paying attention, burned a hole right through the sleeve of my Whalers Ultrafil. I will spare you the rest of the story. However, it was at that moment I hatched a plan to turn my jersey hoarding illness, I mean jersey-collecting hobby into a for-profit venture.

     Now I must warn you, some of you may cringe at what I’m about to tell you, but keep in mind that I had just watched my favorite jersey take a direct strike form some clown’s smoke, and I like to wear my jerseys. Now with those things in mind… Over time, I gradually sold off my collection of “authentics,” and replaced them with “replicas.” That gave me the ability to wear my jerseys without having to worry about taking a $300, $400, $500 loss or more, if the unthinkable happened again. This way, I would only be out $200 at worst. For the record, I keep my personal collection “timeline accurate.” i.e. I do not slap a name and number, or patch on just anything. For example: I ONLY use the same brand of jersey worn by the player, and only place letters (“A” / “C”), and / or patches on that jersey if they were actually worn by that player, and during that specific timeframe. In other words, I match the player, team, season, jersey brand, appropriate “A” /”C”, and special patches that go together and are legit, PERIOD! As a collector, I laugh every time I see some TOOL wearing a bogus jersey! In short, if the player was not even playing in 05-06, when the league went to RBK garbage, don’t put his name and number on the jersey, PLEASE! When I see MAKITA 21 on an RBK rag, I laugh. When I see a 1992 Stanley Cup Finals patch on a Starter jersey, I laugh. When I see a 2010 Stanley Cup Patch on a CCM jersey, I laugh! I can go on and on, but I’ll stop there, I think you get the point. I really hate the frauds that slap jerseys together and try to pass them off as legit, i.e. sell them to unsuspecting fans.

If you take the time to read some of my other entries, you will see that I point out specific examples, including photos of the fake garbage they try to pass off, mostly on FEEBAY, go figure.

     Now, back to the original subject… If you want to know what jerseys I have for sale, including some that appear in the right margin, either you can click on the link I provided earlier in the entry, or, up in the top right corner of this page you will see a link to purchase “Rare and Vintage NHL Jerseys.” Just click on that and it will take you there. There is also another link below that one if you want to follow goon-gear on Twitter (Goon24). There I post “Tweets” whenever I’m putting items on sale. I usually run a sale or two each week, so if you follow on Twitter, you will be the first to know what is on sale! I love to help new hoarders, sorry, I mean collectors get their collection going. I am always happy to help in any way I can. If you have a question regarding the timeline accuracy, or actual authenticity of a jersey (sweater), please feel free to contact me. I can tell you in seconds if the jersey is bogus or not, and tell you why it is or is not! I also have vast resources (other collectors) at my disposal (in my network), so if you have a special request for a certain jersey, please do not hesitate to ask! If anyone can find it, I can! Happy hoarding, (sorry, there I go again), I mean collecting!  

goon-gear's Rare and Vintage NHL Hockey Jerseys!

Goon-gear’s Rare and Vintage NHL Hockey Jerseys

     In addition to our usual informative hockey sweater tidbits, occasionally we here at goon-gear feel it is ok to shamelessly plug our own offerings. Since leaving Feebay many months ago, traffic for our jersey sales site(s) is entirely up to us. While Feebay, by virtue of its name certainly provided plenty of traffic for us, they also took ALL of our operating profit. When you have to fork over a combined 20% of each sale to Feebay, and Pay Pal (which is also owned by Feebay), business becomes a breakeven proposition at best.

     In our never-ending quest to generate awareness to our leaving Feebay and starting out on our own, not only can we be found here on our blog, but we are now also on Twitter. Goon24 is goon-gear’s Twitter account ID, and our Web store address is http://webstore.com/~goongear

     For those of you who have not yet conducted business with goon-gear, here is a little glimpse into our business. Goon-gear has been buying, selling, collecting, trading, and customizing NHL authentic and replica sweaters (jerseys) since 1991. We sell only old-school jerseys, i.e. rare and vintage NHL jerseys. In short, that means pre Reebok (the 2003-04 season and earlier). We sell new and collector quality pre owned NHL jerseys from CCM, KOHO, Pro Player, Bauer, Starter, Sandow, Sand Knit, etc, NO REEBOK garbage, PERIOD!  

     We are not in business to sell quantity. For goon-gear, it is all about quality. If you are looking for garage sale garbage at trailer park prices, you are in the wrong place. If you are tired of the inflated prices, and fake Asian sweatshop counterfeit hockey jerseys on Feebay, try us. We do NOT sell knock-offs, counterfeits, etc… Part of the reason goon-gear left Feebay was because the Asian sweatshop counterfeit jersey market drove the prices of real jerseys into the ground. Customers were being burned so often that they stopped buying, and honest sellers were paying the price. When you see a 1994 Messier Rangers Stanley Cup jersey being sold for $59 by a sweatshop outlet, a real one that is worth $300+ becomes worthless, UNLESS you know the difference.

     Do not fall for counterfeits, and do not waste your money on Reebok garbage! You get what you pay for! If you really want a jersey that everyone will envy, and one that will last forever (with proper care), then buy an old-school CCM or KOHO jersey! Stop by our web store at http://webstore.com/~goongear and have a look! If you do not see what you are looking for, give us a shout. Goon-gear has MANY more jerseys than what is listed in the store, and if we do not have your jersey, we can probably get it, or customize one just for you! Buy from a trusted source that knows the NHL sweater business, buy from goon-gear! Our web store link is in the upper right hand corner of this blog! We hope to see you soon!