Tickets
I hope most of you enjoyed my last blog on Pocket Schedule collecting. Maybe, I even inspired some collectors to move away from cards and switch to sked collecting. In this article, I will write about another collectible with similar characteristics as schedules, ticket and ticket stubs.
Like cards and schedules, tickets display beautiful photos of past and present stars from your favorite sports teams. They may be die cut, have nice graphics and logos, or even actions scenes of great moments in sports history. Many sports teams issue a booklet of tickets to their season ticket holders. Each game ticket has a different picture on it and the group of tickets makes up a set for that season. But, unlike sports cards, the hobby is controlled by its collectors and not by card manufacturers. Acquiring ticket stubs is quite inexpensive and can be fun once trading partners are set up in other cities.
People collect tickets for different reasons and in different ways. Most collectors chase milestone events such as: a player’s 500th goal, 3000th hit, or a player’s first and last professional game. The most beautiful and interesting ticket I have even seen is the November 22, 1999 ticket for the induction of Wayne Gretzky into the Hockey Hall of Fame. The oversized ticket has a hologram in its center and when viewed at different angles, you are able to see images of Hall of Fame inductees: Wayne Gretzky, Andy Van Hellemond, and Scotty Morrison.
Other people collect tickets of specific events like: Super Bowls, All Star, or Playoff games. A friend and fellow collector named Mike, tries to acquire a home game ticket from each team that is playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs along with all tickets from the final series. My favorite and most important event tickets in my collection are from the 1972 Canada Russia Summit Series. I have all eight tickets of the eight games played, and even the exhibition games played in Sweden and Finland. Probably the most important ticket in hockey history is from Game 8 played in Moscow where Paul Henderson scored his famous game-winning goal. But, the toughest ticket to find of the eight, is Game 1 played in Montreal because the ticket takers at The Montreal Forum took the large commemorative half of the ticket, and gave fans a small stub with only seat locations on it.
Inaugural event tickets are also very collectible. A team will usually issue a special ticket for their very first home game or if they move into a new arena or stadium. In 1996, the Philadelphia Flyers moved into the Core States Center. To mark the opening of the center, there were a series of die cut tickets released by the 76ers, Phantoms and Flyers. The Flyers had one large colored ticket for a game between Team Canada and Team USA during the World Cup of Hockey. The ticket had large photos of Eric Lindros and John LeClair in front of their countries flags. A similar style black and white ticket was issued for the Flyers first home game and launch of their 30th season. This ticket showed a collage of all-time great Flyers and included: Bobby Clarke, Ron Hextall, and Bill Barber.
The last type of ticket collected are photo tickets, which are my favorite. You can collect photos of your favorite player or try to put together a set of season tickets. Some of the more beautiful ticket sets include: 1994-95 Boston Bruins last year at The Boston Gardens, 1995-96 Montreal Canadiens last year at The Montreal Forum, and the Detroit Red Wings 1995-96 70th Anniversary and 2000-01 75th Anniversary. These tickets display beautiful photos of players, team photos and action scenes from the teams’ history. In 2001, to celebrate their 25th season, the Toronto Blue Jays issued season tickets with each ticket having a different memorable photo from the team’s twenty-five seasons. However, the sports franchise that consistently puts out the nicest tickets is the Florida Panthers. Each of the team’s nine tickets for Opening Nights have been a different die cut ticket with their logo and hockey scene. The 2001 Opening Night ticket was a hologram of the Russian Rocket Pavel Bure scoring a goal. Even the Panthers’ regular season game tickets are special. Florida’s nicest tickets were for the 1999-00 season, when each ticket had an important photo from the opposing team’s history. Of course the Boston Bruins ticket had Bobby Orr flying through the air after scoring his memorable 1970 Stanley Cup winning goal.
As you can see, collecting tickets and ticket stubs can be very interesting historically. Whether you collect the ticket for its beauty or the memory of the event, ticket collecting is a fun, inexpensive hobby that can give a fan many hours of enjoyment. Feel free to contact me for more information, or on how to get started in ticket collecting.