Pocket Schedules
Just as most young boys growing up in Montreal do, I collected hockey cards as a child. And then again as a young parent, I introduced my son to the wonderful world of hockey cards. But in 1995, I was turned off. With all the different brands, inserts and parallel sets, I was not able to keep up with the cards or the expense of collecting cards. That is when a good friend introduced me to Pocket Schedules.
Pocket schedules are the little paper booklets that you can pick up at the local convenience store. They list the games of your favorite major or minor league sports team, have some advertising, and usually display a colorful cover photo. Pocket schedules or skeds as hard-core collectors call them, have most of the same attractions as sports cards. Skeds portray beautiful photos of your favorite players and team logos. There are sets to collect (1 schedule for each team in the league), and even subsets and parallel sets. The different sponsor variations for a team’s schedule acts as a subset and some schedules are very hard to find or are short printed. A good example is the 2001-02 Washington Capitals pocket schedules. There are 8 different covers this season, which include Capitals stars Jaromir Jagr, Olie Kolzig, Peter Bondra, Jeff Halpern, and Sergei Gonchar. For some reason, the Gonchar cover had limited printing and is very difficult to find.
A feature of schedule collecting that I enjoy is that there is continuity or sked runs. Esso gas stations have issued NHL league schedules since 1936-37. It is always fun to find a schedule that fills a hole in my collection or pick up the latest Esso schedule every September and add it to the run. Another beautiful sked run was the Detroit Red Wings Stroh’s sponsored schedules that were issued between 1953 until 1974. Each schedule cover had artwork showing a player or action scene, and included Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio.
The big advantage over card collecting is that schedules are free. It’s very easy to obtain current schedules from the teams and team sponsors like gas stations and convenience stores. You can call, write or e-mail the team or team’s sponsor. Sked collectors are always very happy to trade 10 of their local teams’ schedules for 10 of yours. The older or limited printed schedules are a bit tougher to find.
With the popularity of pocket schedule collecting, you are able to find them at memorabilia shows or card stores. Shows devoted only to schedule collecting are organized at certain times during the year. The largest schedule conventions or sked meets are held in Harrisburg (March), Chicago (May), and Detroit (August). There are also three newsletters devoted solely to schedules with the most popular being The Skedder News. The newsletters contain articles about sked collecting, current lists by sport, auctions, and classified ads. They are a great way to gain information and build your collection and trading partners.