This Week in sullivan_fan's World...

Online trading community at its finest, NHL expansion, the KHL and a new outlet to funnel my hard-earned money into highlight this edition, so let's get to it.


When Online Trading Goes... Right

A little over a year ago, I got a private message on http://www.tradingcardcentral.com/ from a guy saying he had tons of Steve Sullivan cards for me, but he collected Leafs also. I had to give a few nice pieces from my PC to get these bad boys but it was worth it in the end. Once I got his address I found out he lived just a few hours down a patch of Northern Ontario highway called the 144. After some back and forth chatting, he told me of this other trade site where I might find more Sullies. Sure enough I did, and http://www.ultimatecardboard.com/ is where I now do the bulk of my hobby-ness. A few Leafs for Leafs trades down the road and I get a message one day. The jist of it was:

"If you need this, send me your address, it's yours"

The "this" in question was am 01-02 UD Young Guns Greg Andrusak for my Leafs RC project. Not a huge card but a very nice gesture all the same. Knowing I had to repay him, when an extra 05-06 UD Ice Glacial Graphs Matt Stajan came into my possesion, and it wasn't in his bucket, I knew where it was going. Sure enough, that wasn't the end of it. About a week later I open my mailbox to find a HUGE package which I thought was a book... then I recognized the address. In the package were the 96-97 Leafs Yearbook, 06-07 Leafs Yearbook, and two issues of Chill magazine, one with Eric Lindros, the other, Bob Cole. Oh yeah, AND a photosheet of Bower, Mahovlich, Keon and Horton HHoF pics.

This is what online trading communities like UCB and TTC are all about, commeraderie. We may compete for the better PC, but whenever possible, we help each other out.


NHL Considering Expansion?!?



So there's been some talk about ANOTHER expansion to the NHL, but why? Does the NHL really need more teams in say, Houston, Las Vegas and Kansas City while teams in Atlanta, Florida, Carolina and Nashville are struggling.


My opinion? Fix these prolems by taking the teams out of the cities that rather spend their money on football and Nascar (not that there's anything wrong with that) and bring them to cities that crave hockey. Cities that would pay to watch a game, recession or not, rather than those where only the rich take out their possible investors to "watch them there crazy canucks fight on the frozen water". Move these duds into true marketable hockey towns. Winnipeg, Hamilton, etc.




Speaking of Expansion...


On the expansion front, other talks have been regarding possible European expansion. Honestly, this is completely rediculous. Especially when you have a perfectly good potential partner over in Europe already. Have the two seperate leagues play out their regular season and then do a Challenge Cup, kinda like the current CHL Memorial Cup. Wouldn't that be a nice way for Gary Bettman to tap into the European market?


And Finally...

OK, so I've discovered a new way to expand my Leafs collection. Magazines. I've already gotten about 10 Leafs covers behind me, and today I was passing by the local used book store and had a brainstorm. Why not check there. While there were a few tempting choices, my 7$ budget only allowed me to pick up two titles. An old Scholastic book entitled "Hockey Superstars" with none other than Dougie himself on the cover, and the January 1984 issue of Hockey Illustrated, sporting Mike Palmateer. Pretty sweet...