Collectors Corner #12: The Bill Ranford Super Collector

2006-07 The Cup Limited Logos - Bill Ranford 24/50.

As a fellow Hockey Moderator on SportsCardForum, I've had the pleasure of knowing about Sean's legendary Bill Ranford collection, along with his All-Time Edmonton Oilers Collection, for many years now.

​As a goalie collector myself, hearing about Sean's new Ranford pickups was always something I quickly resonated with and I was stoked to feature him on my blog this afternoon.
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Who/What Do you collect?

Bill Ranford: (everything)
All-Time Edmonton Oilers: (1 RC/Auto/GU/Pictured as an Oiler - for every player ever on the team)

Why Did you start collecting this Player/Set/Team?

Bill Ranford: I think like most kids in 1987, at that time I would have identified my favorite player as Wayne Gretzky. That changed in 1988. For a while I considered Mark Messier to be my favorite, but that was short lived too. After that? I moved onto Bill Ranford. The 1990 Stanley Cup is the first NHL playoffs I have a good memory of (I was 10 at the time). I was an Edmonton Oilers fan, and my favorite player needed to be an Oiler. Ranford was a star in the league, and fun to watch. By 1994 he was really the only big star still left from the 1990 team, and even a lot of the "transition stars" (I'll call them that. The big names they got for their dynasty pieces) like Damphousse & Nicholls were gone. 

Anyway, Bill Ranford was my favorite player, and that was the time (early 90s) that I really got into card collecting. It only made sense to me that I should try and collect all of his cards. From 1990-1993 that was pretty easy, but it started getting tricky after that. 

I took a few years off of collecting in the late 90s / early 00s. When I started again (I'm thinking it was 2002) I really just chased Ranford singles on eBay. These were the days when eBay didn't frown on so much direct contact between seller & buyer, so it was easy to make outside-of-eBay contacts. I was able to turn the purchase of a single card into bigger lot purchases quite often. This just helped build up my unique count quicker, and made me more into it. Getting them all never seemed realistic, but the chase was a lot of fun.

The Edmonton Oilers: Sometime in the 2010 rage, I got the bug to start collecting the Edmonton Oilers team a lot better than I had. My favourite player had been out of the league for 10 years. Some seasons I'd get a lot of stuff to chase, other seasons not much at all. I wanted to find a good way to keep adding new / current players to my collection, without blowing my brains out trying add a bunch of high end rookie stuff - that would be maddening trying to track down, and far too expensive for me.

I'd also seen enough fire sales to know what trap I didn't want to fall into. Picking a handful of current roster players and adding as many cards as I could - only to want to dump them a few years later, getting pennies on the dollar, after they've been traded. I'd seen WAY too many threads of people doing exactly this.

Like everyone (I think) I like Rookie Cards, and I like Autographs. I thought it would be a fun challenge to get a rookie card & and autograph of every Oiler of all time. Somewhere along the way I expanded that to include a game used card, for those players that have them, and I also add a card that shows them as an Oiler (if there was one made).

This style has worked out very well for me. When a new player like Milan Lucic signs with the team, I pick up a couple of cards, and that's it. When he's traded? I don't have anything to dump. The two cards of him I own are locked in my collection, and that's it. 

It's really a love of the team, and a love of history. In some cases, I've bought rarer autographs of players I've never heard of - but this project has made me very familiar with the the team's history, and even the cup-of-coffee players.

Lots of players have signed for the various card companies over the years, and I always aim to get a pack-pulled autograph if available. For those players that have never signed for card companies, I have a mix of "In Person" autos I've bought, "Cut" Autos that I've had made for me (something other than a card was signed, so that was cut up and put into a custom-made card), and cards I've gotten signed through the mail. The whole "TTM Autographs" has been an extremely fun aspect of the hobby for me.

What's your favourite Cards or Item(s) in your Collection?

​I have so many nice ones (In the Ranford PC). I've been using a Decades 90s MegaPatch card that has the Oil Drop from his jersey as my avatar for years. It's definitely a top 5 card for me. My Made-To-Order that includes a Ranford Patch, and a Vezina Leg Pad would probably be the co #1. I've got a triple autograph of Ranford, Gretzky, and Messier, it would be the other co #1. 

Regarding his Edmonton Oilers All-Time Collection: I could pick the Gretzky RC and/or Auto. That would be easy. The photos I sent along I tried to include a variety of my "favorites" - a lot of it has to do with the rarity. I expected a Don Ashby autograph to my white whale forever, and I was thrilled when I was able to land one. Bill McDougall was the the insanely tough to track down 90s autograph, that doesn't seem like it should be that hard. A hobby friend of mine, Joe, is actually the one who found it, via a Swiss auction site. He jumped through a few hoops to buy it himself (knowing I was looking for one) and it showed up in the mail one day for me! 

Floyd Whitney was another cool one. Typically I just mail stuff out, I don't contact anyone before my autograph requests. I figure I'm already asking them to take up some of their time for me, I don't want to bother them with extra emails from someone they don't know (when I've found that kind of information). Mr. Whitney (Ray's father, BTW) was an Edmonton Police officer, and the Oilers practice goalie for a couple of decades. He was used as an emergency backup once, and I do like to chase those guys too. I couldn't find an address for him, but I found a way to contact him - so I did, told him about my project, and asked if I could send something along to be signed. He was happy to oblige, and let me know that the custom card he was signing for me was the only autograph request he'd ever done!

Mike Toal was the last signature I needed of pre-McDavid OIlers, so that was another one that was really satisfying when I landed it. 

Nelson Skalbania was another that just thrilled me to add. He's the man who brought Peter Pocklington in as a partner, would later sell his share of the team to Pocklington, and had the foresight to sign a 17 year old Wayne Gretzky in Indianapolis, before selling him to Pocklington & the Oilers.

What's On Your Current Wantlist? Are there any ‘White Whales’ you’d like to add one day?

1998-99 MVP Super Script #188 Bill Ranford /25. It's the only card made of Bill Ranford, while he was still an active NHLer, that I don't own. I would love to add another Shield card, or a "Property of" style stick card. They exist, but I've never had the chance to pick them up. Additionally I'd like to pick up these cards. That would make my collection "complete" through the end of the 2014-15 season (I put complete in quotes, because it doesn't include 1/1s):

2006-07 ITG BTP - Double Jersey Gold /10 (/w Fuhr)
06-07 Frozen Artifacts Jersey PLATINUM x/10
06-07 Frozen Artifacts Patches Platinum x/5
06-07 Tundra Tandums /w Fuhr PLATINUM x/5
11-12 Limited Game Pucks Prime Signatures /5
13-14 Artifacts Spectrum Patch Patch-Patch /15
13-14 Artifacts Tundara Sixes Bruins: Bill Ranford/Brad Park/Phil Kessel/Joe Thornton/Ray Bourque/Tim Thomas /3 (Red Strap)
13-14 UD Trilogy - Signature Pucks NHL Sheild Logo /3
14-15 Artifacts Black Auto /5  

Newer stuff than that I'm not as focused on "get everything" as I once was. There's some Leaf Masked Men parallels (five of them, all /5 or less) I'd like to pick up. I'm also missing just three pieces to complete an Oilers logo from Upper Deck's 2013 Oilers Collection. 

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Edmonton Oilers All-Time Collection: I do like to add Emergency Backup Goalies, despite their names not being on rosters. Darren Beals backed them up for a single game in 1987. He's got a couple of junior & minor league cards - I have never seen a signed one, and can't track the man down to send a request. I thought I had, but it ended up I send the card to a cousin of his, by the same name. He tried to get me a current address, but couldn't. 

I also collect "off ice" people. GMs, Owners, Coaches, etc. Daryl Katz would be an amazing add - but I'm under the impression he doesn't like signing. I'd also like to get something signed by Bill Hunter - the original Oilers owner in the WHA. Barry Fraser, the Oilers head scout from the team's NHL inception through 2000 is another I'd really like to pickup. He retired to Mexico, which makes an address really tough to track down.

Contact Info: How can other collectors reach out to you?

​You can find me on both SportsCardForum & Hobby Insider, as 30ranfordfan. I have the same username on both eBay & COMC as well. My Email address is: [email protected]

Sean's Bill Ranford Card Gallery

Pieces From Sean's All-Time Edmonton Oilers Collection

If you want to get in contact with me about getting ​YOUR COLLECTION featured on my blog, feel free to leave a comment on this post below, fill out a contact form on my Contact Page, or send me an email at [email protected] and we will be in touch very soon. :)

​Happy Collecting,

​- Crease