Collectors Corner #17: Rich's Autographed Custom Card Madness!

Rich's custom SP 'Home Edition' NHL Ink Triple Autograph card of Bure, Mogilny and Fedorov.

In this hobby there are custom cards..... and then there are Richard's custom cards. 

Richard is one of the most dedicated autograph 'hunters' I've seen in this hobby and his autograph collections are the stuff of legends. Aside from the autographs themselves, the custom cards that these athletes sign for him are created by Richard himself, as he is also a custom card creator who has been honing his talents in that department for many years now as a 'hobby within a hobby'.

​Richard reached out to me wanting his custom card collection featured on the blog.... And here we are:

Richard's Introduction

Growing up in Vancouver, I was first introduced to hockey cards collecting by my older cousin in the mid-90s (like, who wasn’t collecting back then?!). At 5, I knew pretty much nothing about hockey but I was very intrigued by this “big kid stuff” he was showing off to me…he had so many cards! So my uncle
bought me a pack of 96-97 UD McDonald’s 3D lenticular cards; I pulled Jagr, Arnott, and Nolan—boy I was so excited about these I literally slept with the cards for days! From then on, I was hooked, and haven’t looked back, continuing to grow my collection through my teenage years into adulthood.

One unique facet of my collection is home-made custom cards—which actually stems back to my very early collecting days. The idea came about after my uncle (yes, same uncle) took my picture, pasted it onto a Topps baseball card, and laminated it to give me my very first personalized custom card!

The Harry Potter Glasses before HP.

​My initial attempts at custom cards were very basic: pencil drawings with little attention to detail and stats on the back that made no sense. However, what I was doing actually caught on in school, and there was a whole group of us producing these “Frogland” cards at one point. We loved McD cards, so we tried reproducing Upper Deck ICE ‘see-through’ acetate cards, Teammates foil cards, Grand Moments inserts, etc. There was something innately fun about trying to find ways to recreate the cards we loved…in a frog version. By the time I was 12, I had already constructed more than 500 custom cards, all hand-drawn frog cards based on sets I loved: 91-92 Score, 90-91 OPC, even 01-02 Pacific Vanguard (one of my first attempts making a jersey card with cut up underpants).

one of the very first custom cards

90-91 OPC Patrick McCabe RC

98-99 UD crossed with Bowman Chrome using candy wrapper

01-02 Pacific McD Net Fusion using taped thread

97-98 UD McD Ice upgraded attempt

01-02 Pacific Vanguard early jersey card attempt

91-92 OPC Team Card custom

A Topps Project 2020 Foreshadow, perhaps?

What/Who Do you Collect?

1) All-time Vancouver Canucks NHL autograph collection: Autograph card for every player to ever suit up for the Canucks in an NHL game (and they have to be pictured in Canucks uniform).

2) Olympic Athlete autograph collection: Primarily Canadian medallists, but I have certainly ventured beyond those boundaries; the wantlist for this collection is basically always in flux.

How Did You Start Collecting Autographs on Custom Cards?

I became a more serious collector (and more selective) around the 03-04 season. With access to eBay, I tried my hand at collecting Young Guns Rookies, then upgrading them all to Future Watch autos, and even attempted a player collection (Joe Mullen). 
On the side, I was always adding a few cards here and there to a growing Vancouver Canucks autograph collection. I had a (then) informal goal to obtain at least one autographed card of every Canucks player who had one produced in an NHL product (especially the oft-forgotten journeymen like Steve Bernier, Mika Noronen, David Roberts anyone?) 

Welp, very soon, I ran out of Canucks autographs to chase…and many of my favorite players had no autographed cards at all (e.g. Geoff Courtnall, Marek Malik, Aaron Volpatti). So then what?
I’d like to tell you next that right then and there, 16-year-old me came up with a master plan to make custom cards THE medium for expanding my Canucks autograph project—organized into phases based on TTM (through the mail autograph collecting) success reports, IP (in-person) appearance probability, and player geographical location. 

…except that’s not how it really happened. 
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The truth is, the first two players I planned to mail cards to (for autographs) were Greg ‘Gus’ Adams, and Petri ‘The Streak’ Skriko…and I DIDN’T HAVE ANY EXTRA BASE CARDS FOR THEM. It was just more economical to make a few customs with my primitive Photoshopping, print them at home, and mail those instead.
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Early on, I figured I was only going to send customs to a few favorite players for signatures—but with a high TTM success rate, and more freedom to get to in-person signings, it became more and more tangible to actually try to get everyone (everyone to ever suit up for the Canucks that is = 623 players).

The floodgates had seriously OPENED.​

In many ways, this process has become more than just about autographs. It was educational: it was a way to learn Photoshop, learn about the printing press, colour palettes, laser cutting, and let’s not forget all the hockey history! As well, the successes with the Canucks project gave me the impetus to begin making customs for other athletes in non-major 4 (North American) sports (try curling, beach volleyball, speedskating, even moguls).  
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These days (pre-COVID), I enjoy not only Canucks games, but also traveling the continent to take in all sorts of live sporting events, meeting athletes post-game, at meet-and-greets, or at open practices! Of course, the autographing is a major bonus!

2004-05 ITG Franchises Greg Adams auto (Custom)

2004-05 ITG Franchises Petri Skriko auto (Custom)

What's Your Favourite Cards or Item(s)?

​My favorite favourite custom card features hard-signed autographs from Pavel Bure, Alex Mogilny, and Sergei Fedorov in the style of 11-12 Panini Contenders NHL Ink. Not only are those 90s jerseys absolutely beautiful together, but all three are very hard-to-find signers, and to this day, I don’t think there is a hard signed card featuring this trio!

Rich's SP Home Edition NHL Ink Triple Autographed card of Bure, Mogilny and Fedorov.

​These following three actually came from Upper Deck The Cup uncut sheets ( Depicting the Artist Proofs of the card) that someone subsequently cut up (ironically), then sold individually on the secondary market. I just ‘finished’ them:

13-14 UD Cup Scripted Sticks Pavel Bure Artist Proof with auto /stick

13-14 UD Cup Dual Honorable Numbers Bure Francis Artist Proof with auto and custom patch

13-14 UD Cup Honorable Numbers Pavel Bure Artist Proof with custom patch/auto

​Here are a few Canucks customs featuring players that don’t get any hobby love:

Aaron Volpatti Custom Crown Royale Rookie Silhouettes

SP Home Edition 07-08 UD Exquisite Dual Number Pieces Burrows and Courtnall dual auto patch

Marek Malik Custom Rinkside Signatures Autograph. (AKA: Mr. "Went Between His Legs!").

​A cut autograph of the late Ed Dyck—still the only Ed Dyck autograph I have ever seen:

A Custom Ed Dyck Booklet-Style Cut Autographed card.

​Finally, one featuring Team Canada curling legend Jennifer Jones in the style of a ShadowBox card:

SP Home Edition Custom Jennifer Jones (Curling) Shadow Box Autograph card

What's on Your Current Wantlist? Are there Any 'White Whales' You'd Like to Add to Your Collection one Day?

For the Canucks autograph project, I am down to 9 players (yes, the last 2%) and am looking for their autographs basically on any medium for conversion into cut auto cards: Dale Dunbar, Danny Gloor, Steve Hazlett, Bruce Holloway, Dennis McCord, Steve McKichan, Danny Seguin, Steve Stone, Sid Veysey. They are at this point all whales!

​Rich's Wantlist can be viewed here by following the link below: 
https://1drv.ms/w/s!At2OiAMPJAdLqxy6I-m3U_1w2as2?e=EdqvBa

For other athletes, I am really hoping to meet (and get some customs signed) by Olympic medallists Dara Howell (freestyle ski), Marc Gagnon (short track speedskating), Laurie Blouin (snowboard), and Steph Labbé (Canada soccer). 
Private signings? I’m hoping for another Brendan Shanahan, Gary Roberts, or Zigmund Palffy signing soon (I don’t think Palffy’s ever even done one). Oh, the possibilities =)

Contact Info: How can other Collectors reach out to You?

​Hobby Insider/Sports Card Forum username: sbangayan86

Insagram: @ho.richard.k

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.ho.7165/
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Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/137244730@N08/
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Rich's Collection Gallery

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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,

​- Aaron / creasecollector