May 5, 2025 • 48 mins
Dave shares stories of NHL mischief at Madison Square Garden, corporate exploitation, and the long con that may have single handedly devalued an entire segment of the collectables world. Also Sinners, the promise of Ryan Coogler and a quick rundown of what Dave is currently reading, watching and listening to.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:12):
Welcome back to Direct Edition, a podcast about nothing and
everything. I'm your host, Dave.
Hello everybody. It's Tuesday, April 22nd, 2 days
after 4:20, and I haven't gottenhigh.
Guess I'm just getting too old for that shit.
To quote Danny Glover. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.
(00:33):
Maybe I just need a clear head. Good morning.
It's 3:00 in the afternoon and I'm saying good morning.
Big thanks to everybody that tuned into the episode about my
experience working as a mailman during COVID.
And also big thanks to Dinesh Shamdasani from Bad Idea for
sitting down with me for that great lengthy interview.
(00:53):
I hope you enjoyed that and I hope you're excited to pick up
Planet Death. I've read the Ashcan and it's
like it's awesome, the arts awesome, It's good set up.
Like you can't really ask for much more on a preview comic.
But I'm what I'm really excited about is way Shack's cul-de-sac,
which as of today, bad idea posted his cover for cul-de-sac.
(01:17):
So it's out there, it's coming and it's going to be great.
But I, I found Dinesh to be interesting on so many levels
and he's a friendly guy, but he's, he's actually passionate
about what he does and the medium of comics.
And I think at face value, if you're just kind of looking at
it in in a cynical way, which iswhat I do generally when it
(01:39):
comes to people who come in withbig marketing and kind of that
kind of mentality. Maybe you think that he's, he's
just a gimmick person that that wants to get noticed.
But I, he really does understandthat to promote something, you
actually have to stand out. And this third wave of bad idea
(02:00):
comics that is coming. I'm really excited to see how it
how it fold unfolds and how it'sreceived by the greater comics
community as well as comic stores.
And I think I think it's going to surprise some people also,
you know, just talking about original art and movies and
stuff like that. I anybody is, it's always going
(02:22):
to be a good time talking about those subjects.
Speaking of talking about movies, this past Friday I went
to go see the brand new movie Sinners.
You're going to see this almost two weeks after it came out, but
it's the new movie written and directed by Ryan Coogler,
starring Michael B Jordan as well as a couple others like
Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, etcetera.
(02:44):
But this is their fifth time working together and it's
Coogler's fifth movie. He did Fruitvale Station, Creed,
Black Panther, Wakanda forever and now sinners.
Creed 2 was not directed by Coogler but he was involved in
crafting the story as well as Michael Jordan starring.
But this was their 5th movie together and it was a sublime
(03:06):
experience. I, I can not just recommend you
going to see it, but try and find the best theater to see it
at and the way the formats and everything that it was released.
And I watched this 10 minute video on YouTube sponsored by
Kodak and it's Brian Coogler basically talking to you, the
(03:26):
viewer about the different methods used to film in general
and film in general and how he filmed everything and all of the
formats that they're releasing it in.
And that really sold me on wanting to go see it in IMAX.
I, I was, I was thinking about it slightly, but the Seattle
IMAX, the Pacific Science Center, it takes me like 45
(03:47):
minutes, maybe 50 minutes to getthere depending on traffic, cost
money to park. It's just a pain in the ass.
But it is my favorite movie theater on the West Coast here.
And I've always been, you can call me a cinephile, whatever,
that's I'll take that label. I have always kind of been like
that, trying to see the movies in the best formats that I can.
(04:07):
And it's been like that for at least 20 years.
Because I remember when Batman Begins came out, it was showing
at the IMAX at Lincoln Center inNew York City.
And we got tickets to the midnight show, me and my 2
roommates. And maybe it was one other
friend. And you know, we went into New
(04:28):
York City from Long Island and we got home at like 3:30 in the
morning and all that. But since those days, those
early days of of seeking out thebest IMAX in New York, I would
always try and find the best places to see movies wherever I
lived or wherever I was traveling.
So Sinners is an absolute blast of a movie.
I won't go into any spoilers, but what you think you know it's
(04:51):
about and you don't. You don't unless you've looked
at spoilers. Yes, it's a horror movie, but
the themes running through it are the the, the plot, the way
everything unravels and the way that Coogler presents things is
unlike anything I've ever reallyseen.
And it's interesting because theone thing I will compare it to
(05:12):
is a is a comic book that he is still trying to get made into a
movie. And that is Bitter Root, which
is Sanford Green's book. And I had Sanford on the program
a couple weeks ago. And if you like Bitterroot,
you'll love Sinners. If you love Sinners, you'll love
Bitterroot. So I'm once again, no spoilers.
I just tell you, it's not just ahorror movie.
(05:33):
It's very much about culture. It's about music, it's about
owning culture, Black culture specifically.
But there's there's so much moreto it.
I'm going to see it again tomorrow with my buddy John
because once ain't enough for a movie like that.
And since I generally talk aboutsomething that I like or
something that I've consumed recently at the beginning of
(05:55):
these podcasts, I just want to give, you know, like 2 notable
recommendations for a comic bookand for an album.
I just finally got a chance to sit down and read the first
issue of DC's Absolute Martian Manhunter by Dennis Camp and I
(06:16):
forget who the rest of the creative team is.
Those books unlike anything thatI think I've I've seen, at least
in modern comics, it's extremelypsychedelic.
It's extremely not something that you would think you would
see in ADC comic book. If you're not a fan of comics
and you're a fan of psychedelic art or you like just weird
(06:38):
trippy stuff, you'll really dig this comic.
If you're a fan of comics with an open mind, you'll absolutely
dig this comic book. And it's a couple weeks old, but
wasn't able to get my hands on acopy.
And then I finally did. I read it this morning and I
really loved it. You know, I'm not done with
Severance. I just started watching
Severance for the first time. I'm almost done with this most
(06:59):
recent season. I'm enjoying the hell out of
that. But to complete the trifecta is
talking about an album that I really love.
And I think I've mentioned this band on the program.
I know I did Deep Sea Divers newalbum, Billboard Heart,
absolutely fantastic. Great energy on that album,
great songwriting. Jessica Dobson's a hell of a
(07:23):
vocalist and a hell of a guitarist.
So you can find that wherever you get this podcast will most
likely be able to stream the album on that same platform.
Unless you're listening to this podcast on an AM radio that you
somehow rigged up to the Internet to only play this
podcast. You know, that's a great idea.
If somebody wants to do that, please send me one of those.
(07:50):
I do have something fun to talk about today or something
interesting a little bit of my more history of Dave.
But before I do that, I do, I dowant to make sure that everybody
knows that any participation from you, the listener in the
way of a like a review, a comment on Instagram, comment on
YouTube, all that stuff really helps.
So please help me get this podcast out to more people, get
(08:14):
more recognized, you know, maybehire like a big time producer or
something like that. And next thing you know what,
I'll be interviewing Godzilla. If you've been following along
of my podcast history since the beginning, I did a podcast
called the came from the newsstand.
It didn't last too long. It was a 20 episodes or
something like that that was more focused on collecting
(08:38):
collectibles, selling, you know,that the community, all that,
which is great, but it doesn't to talk about that, that that
aspect of everything doesn't hold my interest long term
because I live it. So it holds my interest in the
(08:58):
way of like, yeah, I love buyingmy comics.
I love buying collections. I love selling all that.
But to talk about it non-stop would be exhausting.
But my, you know, like a lot of people in this hobby or in a
hobby in general, if you collectrecords or you collect toys or
whatever, you collect, if you'rea collector, you know, your
tastes change or the things thatyou collect change throughout
(09:20):
time. That's what makes you a human
being. And you know, what keeps you, I
mean, I only can speak for myself, but it's what keeps me
interested in whatever I'm interested in is because I know
at any moment I might discover something that I'm like, oh, I
want to try and track these down.
It's kind of like how I travel. You know, I went to Scotland
(09:43):
four times and I like, I kept finding things that I wanted to
explore there and then I went toJapan this last year and now I'm
excited to go back to Japan thisyear and explore more.
I like to really dive into something and that's really, I
think the reason why anybody would enjoy listening to this
podcast is because I'm not just talking about the same thing
(10:06):
over and over. I don't dislike ideas or
podcasts like that. It's just not for me.
But I started my first love of collecting would be toys and
comics when I was a kid. But as I went into my teens,
probably around 14, I started toget really interested in hockey,
(10:30):
the sport, watching it. It started with, I mean, it
didn't start with, but I think it was strengthened by Genesis.
NHL 92939495, probably 939495. It was at Chicago Blackhawks
team, which is legend, thing of legend.
You know, you've got Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer, Michelle
(10:51):
Goulet, Chris Chelios, Steve Smith and Ed Belfour and Gold.
I grew up on Long Island and so I'm a Islander fan by birth.
Islanders, Mets, Jets, and the enemy was Yankee strangers,
Giants, the ones that always wonchampionships.
And and so. But but the cool thing was, and
(11:12):
I think, and I think I've talkedabout this a bit, you know, my
dad grew up in Brooklyn and he would like, he told me he would
cut school to go to Abbottsfield, not Ebottsfield.
Yeah, Abbottsfield. He would cut school to go to
Abbott's field. And like he, he said he would
get some Dodger autographs, but he wanted to see the game.
So when I was younger and my brother, we would get taken to
(11:36):
Islander games and sometimes Devil games, and we'd stay, you
know, my parents would allow us to like, hang out after and try
and get autographs. So as I grew into loving hockey
with some friends of mine in in middle school and then high
school, I started exploring the possibility of collecting hockey
autographs at Nassau Coliseum. Now I know I've talked to this,
(11:56):
I've talked about this aspect, but can talk about something
that's even deeper. It it's, it's there's an aspect
of of all I look, I can't generally speak for you, the
listener, but I think as a humanbeing, as kids, as young adults,
teens, whatever, we all do stuffthat would be regarded as
(12:19):
moronic or stupid or idiotic that that we wouldn't do as
adults. And if you are doing these types
of things as an adult, you should probably reflect on that.
I can say that I never landed injail.
I never got arrested. I managed to escape.
(12:41):
That could be the combination ofmy skin color and also the fact
that I'm I'm pretty charming. Let's face that fact.
But I have done some stuff that I in hindsight regret and what
I'm going to talk about today. I would not recommend anybody
(13:03):
else do. I would not, I would not.
I'm not happy that I, I shouldn't say that I wouldn't do
it. I wouldn't do it now.
It's not a reflection of who I am certain things.
Now some of this is totally a reflection of who I am.
And and so let's start with the Madison Square Garden because
(13:24):
growing up on Long Island, we have access to three hockey
teams, 3 baseball teams, 2 football, 2 basketball, 2
baseball, etcetera. You know, you got for hockey,
you got the Devils, the Islanders, Rangers.
I started collecting autographs in around 95.
I had an older friend named Derek who not the sharpest knife
(13:45):
in in in the cutlery draw, but he wasn't a bad dude completely
and he wasn't a stupid dude completely was he's kind of
street smart. But anyway, he was older, he was
bigger. He was like 6 foot 34 big chess,
you know, look like he looked like he could have been an
athlete. And so Derek used to test that.
(14:08):
He used to test that real well. And what he would do is he, he
tried once or twice of walking into Nassau Coliseum as if he
was on the opposing team playingthat day.
So the way that the NHL used to work, I don't, I haven't
collected hockey autographs in 1520 years, maybe even more.
But it used to work like this morning skate.
(14:31):
It would be like 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM.
The opposing team has the ice. And so on Long Island, you had
the Long Island Marriott here and the Nassau Coliseum here,
and they just walk across the parking lot and go in.
So one day Derek just comes out the hotel, even though he wasn't
staying there, in a suit. A bunch of us go up to him,
(14:54):
pretend to get his autograph, and he walks in to Nassau
Coliseum. And I think what his objective
was just to chill there and, youknow, get autographs and
whatnot. And it worked.
It worked and it worked multipletimes.
Every once in a while I'd befriend a player, player would
bring me into this gate, I'd be in there with a pass and all
(15:14):
that stuff. But Derek wanted to try
something else. And he gives me.
He's like, yo, and he had this really baritone voice, yo, let's
go into New York for, for the Edmonton Oilers, yo.
And I'm going to try and get us into the skate.
(15:38):
I was like, dude, whatever, I'llcut school, I'll go with you.
He had a car. I didn't have to worry.
My parents were weird. My parents are weird.
But no, I, they let me go a lot and then or a bunch and then
sometimes I just straight up fucking cut school.
Once again, kids stay in school until you get out of high school
and do whatever the fuck you want.
(16:01):
So we going to New York City. I don't remember what year this
is. I'll guess somewhere around 9899
somewhere like that and he's gothis suit on and the way the mess
this is pre 911. So the way that Madison Square
Garden was you can just like walk up to the walk up to the
players entrance around the side.
(16:21):
I guess it was on 30. Oh man, 35th St.
No, no, it's going down. So it's probably 33rd and he
walks in and I had gone into Madison Square Garden a bunch of
times in a different way. And I'll tell you about that
(16:41):
shortly. But long short of it, it worked.
The guy working the gate, it's like, and then Derek's like, oh,
I left my my wallet back at the hotel and the guy was like, so
understanding. And he's like, oh, this is my
little brother. He's in town visiting.
And I'm pretty sure it was the Edmonton Oilers.
So we got into the skate and we sat right where the players come
(17:02):
off the ice and got a bunch of autographs.
I might even gotten a game. You stick that day.
And it worked. It it fucking worked.
Subsequently we did that two more times and like the second
time the guy or the third time the guy who worked, I can't
remember his name. I remember kind of what he looks
(17:23):
like. Older gentleman that worked at
the thing. I guess he thought Derek was
media. And every time we tried it for
like a year to a year and a half, he didn't even say
anything. He just wrote us passes and went
in. And Derek did it a bunch of
times. When I was in there, we went a
(17:44):
bunch of times. I think he went one or two times
with our friend Kenny. And it worked.
And it worked up until a point where we got in once for the
Penguins and it was when Mario Lemieux was back on the team.
I think it was after he'd beatencancer and Lemieux saw us and
like saw us getting autographs. And I think that's when he was
GM. I, I pretty sure that's when he
(18:05):
was GM too. And he boot us.
He had us boot out, booted out of Madison Square Garden.
And we never, we never tried after that.
Because once you get the boot, it's like they know who you are.
What was interesting is one day we were doing that.
I can't remember what team it was for.
And this is this is for the hockey nerds, but also for the
(18:27):
sports nerds. The Rangers had actually were
were skating at the Garden, which they rarely do because
they had their own practice facility.
And we were we had passes and they were coming off the ice and
we were in the locker room area or like where you walk into the
locker room and Messier was coming off the ice.
(18:48):
Mark Messier. And your boy got a, your boy got
a photo with Messier in his practice uniform, which look at
that 200 and 6070 LB Dave, don'tlook like that anymore.
That was, that was one of those days where I was like, all
right, that was pretty fucking cool.
But before we were able to trickMadison Square Garden security
(19:13):
into, into letting us in legally, we developed this
technique. And I can't remember who it was.
It might have been Derek, it might have been one of our other
friends that told us that there was a way to sneak into Madison
Square Garden and make your way down to the ice for the skate.
Now The thing is, is you sneak in there, you're scared shitless
because it's New York City. It's the most famous arena in
(19:35):
the world. And at any moment they could
catch you and basically say you're trespassing, you're
trespassing. And we never did this in a post
911 world. And because after that,
everything changed, literally, you know, and physically at the
Garden, everything changed. They had police there all the
time and all that. But in the old days, and if
you've been to Madison Square Garden, especially like before
(19:59):
the renovation, you'll be able to picture this.
If I can find pictures, I will accompany them with this story.
But you walk into the main box office and if you're looking at
the ticket windows, you look to the left and there is a, at the
time, it was a Fleet Bank ATM, which eventually became a Bank
of America ATM and then Chase. I know my bank history in New
(20:23):
York and so. If you walk to the left like
you're going to use the ATM and this is would be like the middle
of the day. So the box office would have
like maybe one open window, maybe not.
And or it would be in in the morning.
And right next to that ATM, maybe like 6 feet away to the
(20:46):
left is a little security office.
So I mean, it's like, OK, and then you would walk, if you were
going to a game, you would walk past all that and go up to the
escalators. So what we used to do, so we
used to go, pretend to go to usethe ATM, kind of peek around and
see if anybody is in the security office.
(21:07):
Typically there wasn't. They were probably patrolling or
walking around once again earlier in the day, pre 911
people just doing their regular normal jobs.
And as soon as we saw that therewas nobody in there, we just
quickly like ran, walk. You don't run because you want
to make too much noise. You run, walk maybe 100 feet,
(21:30):
150 feet and there's an elevator.
You get into the elevator. And what we used to do, I think
we used to go up to like floor 6or 7.
And that would bring you not like not all the way to the top,
but to the top of the seats before you get to the the luxury
(21:50):
box floor. And what what we used to do is
we used to see, OK, get up there, plant our ass and like
the last row of the seats can't see shit.
The lights aren't on. You can see.
But I'm saying like if somebody's on the ice, they
really have a hard time seeing that there were people up there.
Sometimes you'd see cleaning crews around the seats prepping
(22:11):
for for the day, sometimes not. And we wait until we see like,
kind of practice winding down, walk down and and get autographs
as they were coming off the ice.Most players are like, what the
hell. Like they were confused, but
they weren't mean. And it it wasn't until the Mario
(22:32):
Lemieux thing that we got kickedout.
But we used to do that all the time at Madison Square Garden.
One time we actually, we actually hid or just like, kind
of stored ourselves away and moved around enough and stayed
until the game started. I can't remember what game it
was. And then, you know, we just
walked around the whole time because if we sat somewhere, we
(22:54):
were inevitably going to get kicked out.
But we spent the whole day in Madison Square Garden.
It was hilarious. So that's something that I used
to do. Yeah.
With Nassau Coliseum, we used todo even weirder shit.
Like this is in the old days, Like they're back.
Like, not emergency exit, but one of their exits for the
(23:17):
Convention Center that was belowthe Nassau Coliseum.
Like in the basement, you could access those doors and we would
sometimes test them to see if any of them were unlocked.
And every once in a while we getlucky and one of them would be
unlocked and we'd sneak in. They got real smart to us.
But there was a door. There was a door around the back
(23:39):
of the Coliseum that I guess maybe like they, the locks
didn't work or something. So they chained them and they
chained them. They were the, the push bar
doors, so 2 push bar doors and they chained the 2 push bars
together. But if you pulled it open and
you were small enough, you couldfit right in the gap.
And I think it was Chuck, this kid, Chuck Munser, he, he was
(24:04):
like a short, he was like a small kid.
He wasn't like tall, he wasn't fat.
He was just kind of like short, but, you know, small and he used
to be able to get in and then hewould find a door and open it
for all of us. We were just like wreaking havoc
on that place. It was a war.
It was a war between US, the autographed collectors, the
(24:25):
Nassau Coliseum and the the LongIsland Marriott.
The Long Island Marriott fuckinghated us.
And if you've heard, if you listen to all these podcast
episodes, you know, the Long Island Marriott was the the
location for the big show, big show, the wrestler, that story
where he knocked out some dude. I have a lot of ties to this
(24:47):
place because I spent misspent my youth at that, you know,
going to hockey games, going to wrestling games, collecting
autographs, you know, seven years straight doing all this
stuff at the Nassau Coliseum. And then like we, we only were
able to sneak into the Continental Airlines Arena back.
(25:10):
It might have even been called the Brendan Byrne Arena back
then. It might have been Continental.
We snuck in there a couple times.
Because if you, if you'd ever been to that to go see the
Double S game, it's kind of likea hexagonal arena.
So there's these like banks of 50 doors and then there's
there's six sides of them, I think or five, can't remember.
(25:31):
But the cleaning crews were there during the day and every
once in a while they would just leave the doors open and we walk
right in and never got kicked out of the that arena during the
the morning skate. Now, obviously like this was
this was kind of like an era, the late the mid 90s to the
early 2000s was this era of discovery for a lot of people.
(25:53):
The Internet really didn't have any community of autographs on
there. There was no social media, so
like nobody had really much to share.
There wasn't a way to share thisinformation.
And I definitely, I'm not, I'm not doing this to be
egotistical, but I was part of this crew that definitely
(26:16):
started a huge piece of the autograph craze, but also the
game used equipment craze. You know, for those who are not
into sports, sports memorabilia or any of that shit, which I
don't care about sports anymore,but this is my life and I lived
it, you know, for, for, for baseball or for hockey, really.
(26:43):
Like if you're a collector, thenwe can put it into terms of
comics. Like instead of collecting
comics, you're going for original art.
That's like the next level for hockey and baseball.
It's to get a game used stick orbat.
Basketball's tough. There's nothing, you know,
sneakers are not rarely, they'renot giving out a lot of
(27:03):
football. There's really no equipment that
they're going to give out. Like you rarely see players
giving out game used helmets andjerseys and stuff like that.
But hockey sticks are there's tons of them because you know,
players can go through multiple sticks in a game.
Same with bats. They can go through bats a lot.
(27:24):
And this is pre this this what I'm talking about this era is
before teams started to sell thegame, use equipment in auctions
or in raffles or on in the team store.
It's not a stretch for me to saythat me and my friends caused
(27:44):
that to happen because teams sawwhat they weren't making money
on. And just like every big business
or business in general, if you have a way to make money that
somebody else is doing and you're not doing it, you're
going to do it, especially if it's coming from your product.
But I started collecting game news sticks like when it was 14
(28:05):
or 15. I would cleverly, I was kind of
taught this by Derek and Chuck and Chris, my friends that I
kind of made when I first started doing this.
Like try and put together a binder or a small book of cards
of the player, give it to them and ask them for a stick.
Because most players don't get comps of their cards.
And a lot of the players would always say the same thing to me.
(28:28):
It was almost like I knew what Iwas doing.
I can't wait to give these to mymom or I can't wait to give
these to my, my, my dad and my parents, my, my kid, but
whatever, because they don't gettheir own cards.
And I was a collector, so I would RIP boxes and just
accumulate tons of cards of all different players.
So I started doing that. And for those of you that are
(28:51):
super hockey nerds or just hockey nerds in general, this
was in the late 90s, early 2000s.
So none of the players that are playing now I have ever met
except for Crosby and Ovechkin. But I had sticks from Hall of
Farmers. Martin Brodeur, Joe Sakic, Steve
Eiserman, Sergey Federoff had a messier stick.
(29:11):
Jeremy Roenick, Keith Kachuk, Theo Flurry, Ed Belfour, Dominic
Cassic, you know, everybody. Pat La Fontaine.
That's not what this is about. This is about the stupid thing
that I used to do. So I had all of these sticks.
I mean, at one point when I was still, I was still living with
(29:31):
my parents. I didn't move out until I was in
my early 20s and then when I moved out, I still had all the
stuff. I sold it eventually because I
wanted to move. But that's not that's either
here or there. I have pictures that you'll see
as I'm talking about this, the, the basement was lined up with
sticks. It looked like a locker room.
And I started collecting even more and deeper into game, used
(29:54):
jerseys, gloves, helmets, skates, all that stuff.
I was I, I was referred to as the stick God because there
would be a team that's coming from out of town and Dave would
get at least one stick from thatteam, maybe 2.
You know, you know, you know it at a game like I, I wasn't
(30:14):
greedy. I never tried to get the same
stick over and over and over. But what I was was smart.
And so IMS is huge collection ofsticks and I started to like
reach out to teams and try and buy stuff for directly from
them. I'd e-mail trainers.
I would, you know, just try and get sticks any way, shape or
(30:36):
form because I could see how this trend that had started was
becoming huge and all this stuffwas worth a lot of money.
I mean, I'm, you know, I could say probably from getting all
this hockey equipment game you stuff.
I mean, if I kept it till now I'd, you know, I'd have probably
150 to $200,000 collection or something crazy like that.
(30:58):
But I when I cashed out, I made some good money, but I don't
remember how it happened. I think it was when I called
actually I do. I called the Edmonton Oilers to
see if they sold any of their game used equipment because I
had heard that they do and they're like, oh, we don't as a
team. But there is this store, I
(31:19):
forget the name of it, somethingOutfitters maybe.
They get all of our stuff. We'd kind of send it to them and
I think it was like a donation. I don't remember.
But they sold their game used equipment.
So I started going online. I think at the time, I think it
was late 90s, maybe they had a website, maybe they had a
(31:41):
catalog or something like a newsletter.
And I start to buy, you know, like just, it was like no big
players at the time or anything.But I bought some goalie
equipment. I bought some of this.
And then I found out that this place would also get the model
sticks that the companies would make for certain players.
(32:04):
So for instance, let's say let'stake Dominic Haschak, gold
medal, Stanley Cup winning goaltender, one of the greatest
goalies of all time. Played for the Buffalo Sabres
for most of his career. He played for the Blackhawks
too. Feel like I'm missing one team
as well. Oh the Red Wings and they sold
(32:27):
his exact model stick. So Coho, I think it was a Coho
stick. Coho would make this goalie
stick to the specifications thathe wanted.
It would have his name stamped on it and they would sell these
model sticks in the store and you could buy it for whatever 75
bucks and you could use that stick if you were a goalie.
(32:51):
And so at that same time, like Iwas selling some sticks on eBay,
probably just some stuff I didn't want anymore or double S
that I had or whatever. And one of I I sold one and then
I get a message and I don't remember how it unfolded, but be
a player upper deck, be a player.
(33:11):
Was this a card set that was thefirst set to feature every pack
having an autograph? And then what they would do is
they would do these, which is the common practice now, but
they would do game used memorabilia cards where they
would take a jersey, cut it up into swatches, swats, swatches,
(33:32):
put the piece of that jersey on the card number it whatever
player it was from a real bad practice that I didn't like
because you're taking a piece ofhockey history and you're
cutting it up. You're you're destroying it
forever just to make money on a card in a pack, exploiting
collectors, all that stuff. It's the same reason why I don't
(33:53):
like the thing that the comic space has, the comic cuts.
Even though there is an unlimited amount of certain
comics or a huge number amount of comics, I still don't like
people cutting comics up like that are of huge importance.
No, that's not what it's meant for.
It's not meant to be fucking. It's meant to be viewed as a
piece of art, not these little cutouts.
(34:16):
And then when you're taking gameused equipment, jerseys that
Gretzky wore, whatever. I don't like that.
And they bought a stick for me and they contacted me and I, I
can't remember his name, but he's like, yeah, I'm just
looking to buy more sticks. If you have anything that we can
use for cards. And I'm like, and I think I
(34:37):
might have taken something that I, it was a broken stick that I
had gotten from somebody and they offered me some like stupid
amount. It was like $150.00 stick, maybe
it was worth $150.00. And they pay me 300.
And I'm like, yeah, well, I don't really like this company.
(35:00):
I don't really like what they'redoing.
OK, so now remember just getting, once again, give this a
warning of don't do this. Actually, you can exploit
whatever company you want to anycorporation you can exploit.
But this is not who I am anymore.
(35:20):
So this is not a reflection of how I do business in any way
shape or form these days. I was a little 18 year old shit,
you know, or however old I was 19 years old.
Anyway, let's go back to the Edmonton place that sells the
model sticks. Bought a Dominic Hashic stick,
bought a bunch of hockey tape. I put the stick right next to
(35:42):
the real one that Hashic had given me that was signed and it
was mine. And all I did was replicate the
tape job. So all of a sudden now I have
two sticks, both that look exactly the same, both with the
stamp of Hashic. The one that I made wasn't
signed clearly, but it also looked too clean while I'm in my
(36:04):
basement. So what do I do?
Take a puck, take one of my game, use sticks, prop up the
hash stick and proceed to shoot the puck at the stick.
So yes, maybe you could call it the F word.
I'm not going to use it because I'm not going to put myself in
that position. Statue of limitations, though,
(36:25):
this was 25 years ago. Maybe, yeah, probably 25.
But yeah, I created a second game, used Dominic Akashic
stick, and then I sold it to them for $600.00 and they would
send me a check in the mail and I packed the stick up and I'd
send it right off to be a player.
What they did with those sticks,I actually have no fucking clue.
(36:46):
They didn't tell me what I thinkthey did with those sticks.
Well, they cut them up and put them onto a card and then they
told everybody they were a game.You stick.
This didn't just end with one stick.
No, no, no, no, no. I took be a player for a lot of
money. I mean a lot of money for me at
that time. And you know, 2000 or whatever.
Yeah, I only did wood sticks andthis is still before everybody
(37:10):
kind of switched to the one piece, aluminum, graphite, all
that stuff. A lot of goalies, because the
goalies were the easiest, because goalies have typically
have simple tape jobs. There are a lot of players that
do. They're not a lot of players,
but a lot of players. Some players would do
complicated tape jobs, like they'd roll up the tape and make
(37:31):
it like a string, wrap that around and then do a regular
tape job over it. But I got pretty good at this.
It's not like art, you know, I don't have to paint the Mona
Lisa and then try and pass it off as, you know, a 300 or 405
hundred, however old that painting is, year old painting
with DNA test and all that shit.This is just a hockey stick that
(37:51):
is literally getting obliteratedby a card company so that they
can make more money. I felt no, I still feel no guilt
whatsoever because it wasn't like a person.
It was a company. It wasn't like a collector.
I wasn't doing this to a collector probably did it for T
Mussolani stick. I'm just trying to think of like
(38:12):
who I had sticks of Ray Borg, Brodor Curtis Joseph.
Yeah, a bunch of these goalies too probably did a Balfour also,
but it I don't even remember howit ended, how I stopped doing
it. There was no, nothing bad
happened or, you know, nobody ever said anything to me.
But it's just one of those things that I think about how if
(38:35):
I was doing it as a young, you know, a, a, a young adult, a
teen technically, but you know, in the eyes of the law, I was
probably 17/18/19. But you got to wonder how many
people were doing shit like this.
Like how This is why I always tell people with that the kind
of like the idea of getting something signed or buying a
(38:57):
piece of memorabilia, like if you don't see it in person, it
like, why are you buying it? You know, I, it's the same thing
with autographs. Like I, I think I've sent away
for one signing in my entire life and that was the Todd
McFarlane CGC signing. Everything else, it's got to be
in person. It's got to be because I knew
(39:19):
people that do, did shady shit beyond what I did and I was
never doing business with them. I mean, I, I, I'd found out one
of the minor league hockey teams, I think it was the Barry
Colts. Yeah, it was the Barry Colts.
And they've always had a good junior, their junior hockey team
in Barrie, ON, but they've always had one or two great
(39:41):
players come through there like every five years.
And I used to call these junior teams in, in Canada, these under
18 junior teams and try and buy game used jerseys from them
because A, you couldn't even geta replica of those jerseys and
B, it was like, why not, you know, spend a couple 100 bucks,
(40:02):
take a chance that this player is going to be something and get
a really cool jersey. I found out that they were just
forging jerseys. They were doing what I did to be
a player, but they were doing itto people because like after a
while I started to hear and I can't remember what, I can't
remember what player it was, butI heard that like 4 different
people had bought jerseys, game used jerseys from the very cults
(40:23):
of this player when they only used 2.
So what was Barry? What were the Barry Colts doing?
They were just making jerseys up.
Maybe they were using for one game.
Maybe they weren't even using them all.
I had also heard stuff like thatthey were taking jerseys from
players that left re lettering and numbering them to be the
player that the hot player and then selling those as game use.
(40:45):
Like the sports memorabilia business has been fucking dirty
far longer than I've been alive.Forgeries on autographs.
You, you know, Ali and Jordan isthe most forged autograph of all
time. It's a dirty business.
It always has been. And I, you know, I contributed
to that. I'm not like I said, I'm not
happy about it, but I was kind of funny that I was able to do
(41:08):
that and that be a player was trusting a kid in that in in one
aspect. But I did really enjoy
collecting sport sports memorabilia.
I made a lot of friends through it.
IA lot of players were friendly with me that were always cool to
me that, you know, whenever theysaw me, they'd come over and,
(41:28):
you know, sign and talk to me. And we used to go to get coffee
with Keith Primo before the game.
Whenever you play on Long Islandand like Theo Flurry, I still
have a couple of sticks. They're not here.
They're my friend is kind of being the steward of those in
New York. But Theo Flurry played for the
(41:50):
Flames, played for the Avalancheand the Rangers, won a gold
medal with Canada, won a cup with Calgary.
He gave me one of his sticks that he used in the 2000.
And no, maybe it was the 2000 Olympics, 2002 Olympics, 2002
Olympics, and he signed it. Theo Flurry gold medal.
Yeah. I had like such a crazy
(42:10):
experience. This book up here right above my
head, the day in the life of theNHL, I'm in that book.
My face isn't in it, but my back, like I'm getting
somebody's autograph in that book.
And you know, I just, I wouldn'tchange that hobby that I had as
a kid for the world. And it, you know, ultimately
brought me to a place where I could tell these stories and do
(42:34):
a lot of different things that brought me eventually to the job
that I had in 2008 through pretty much the pandemic with
working in the events industry, doing live and silent auctions,
mostly in sports. I, I got, I mean, like cool
things like taking a picture with Derek Jeter on the court
(42:55):
in, in Brooklyn at, at the Barclays Center.
You know, it's just tons of stories, tons of experiences
that I wouldn't trade for the world.
But you know, I've been around alot of scumbag people since
then, but I don't really consider what I did a scumbag
thing. It's more like a damn Dave like
that was pretty clever. And once again, nobody got
(43:17):
nobody actually got hurt. I exploited a company that's
still exploiting people today. If you look at upper deck and
what they were doing and all thejust the card garbage that they
created that people spend tons and tons of money on.
But anyway, there's so much moreto these stories.
I I just thought this was a fun one to tell with a little Side
(43:39):
Story and and, and that and so many good things, like I said,
have come out of this. So it's not the last you'll be
hearing about this and not the last pictures I'll be flashing
of me with random hockey playersor sports people.
But it's a it it, it makes me think.
And I don't know anybody's, you know, we can't.
I don't look to you, the listener, each individual, one
(44:03):
of you. I don't know what it's like to
have lived your life, just like you don't know what it's like to
have lived mine. We don't know what it's like to
live somebody else's life. And I often feel about myself
that I've lived and not in a spiritual way, like I've lived
different lives all in this one,Dave.
(44:25):
And it started at that age when I started collecting autographs
and the different paths that it took me on and the different
experiences it brought me. And I, I, it's hard for me to
step outside myself and be like,oh, you, you created this weird
path. But I can't sometimes just say
that and feel like it's something special.
(44:45):
And I hope that maybe this inspires you to write some
stories down or think about experiences you've had, because
I harp on this often to to people in person and to the
podcast, Our experiences and that human connection through
them is really the only thing that we have, you know, like
(45:06):
that we can share with strangersand connect further.
You've got your family, you've got your friends, but they're
built in, in some way, shape or form, whereas I don't know you,
my listener, you, you know me through what I tell you, But I,
I feel like we share these experiences or, or I'm sharing
them with you and I hope that you enjoy them.
That's all. And yeah, I, I, I want to say
(45:30):
thank you again for, for being part of this community that I,
that I didn't know that I would ever create.
But there's, like I said, tons of stories and maybe one day
when I have enough YouTube, whatever it is, I I passed the
thing to to go live, or maybe I should just go live.
I can do a flip through of one of my photo albums and tell some
(45:52):
of the stories about all these people I've met and the stupid
circumstances that I put myself in all that stuff like I was an
autograph hound. But I was always respectful and
I tried to, I tried to have conversation or have a reason to
want to get somebody's autograph, not just for profit,
because I didn't originally do any of this to start making
money. It's just like you got to fund
(46:12):
your hobby and you can't just work at Subway all your life.
Because I thought that would actually happen at one point.
But I smoked too much weed and Igot fired.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
Before we get going, I just wantto give a shout out to all the
(46:36):
subscribers, the new ones. A lot of people have come in
recently from some of the interviews and from the post
office episode. Stick around please.
This, this podcast is just getting started.
I'm starting to learn what growsa podcast and how to treat a
podcast as it grows. So maybe maybe not a Patreon or
maybe a Discord or maybe a sub stack, but something, something
(47:01):
that we could stay connected andwe can share stories.
Please hit the like button if you're watching on YouTube, it
really helps. It really helps if you rate the
podcast on Spotify or Apple. You can write a review on Apple.
You can leave a comment on Spotify.
You can share this with a friend.
You can share this on Reddit. Anything to help this podcast
grow. Pick an episode, pick one of the
(47:21):
guests, post in the subreddit something cool.
It, it helps me and gives me a little bit more of that juice to
keep going. And and that's really it.
And we're closing in on 60 episodes.
I'm going to be taking my seasonending break when we hit 60
episodes and then come back fullforce.
(47:42):
So thanks for listening to this podcast about nothing and
everything Direct edition. I'm Dave and I'll see you next
time.
Welcome back to Direct Edition, a podcast about nothing and
everything. I'm your host, Dave.
Hello everybody. It's Tuesday, April 22nd, 2 days
after 4:20, and I haven't gottenhigh.
Guess I'm just getting too old for that shit.
To quote Danny Glover. Maybe I am, maybe I'm not.
(00:33):
Maybe I just need a clear head. Good morning.
It's 3:00 in the afternoon and I'm saying good morning.
Big thanks to everybody that tuned into the episode about my
experience working as a mailman during COVID.
And also big thanks to Dinesh Shamdasani from Bad Idea for
sitting down with me for that great lengthy interview.
(00:53):
I hope you enjoyed that and I hope you're excited to pick up
Planet Death. I've read the Ashcan and it's
like it's awesome, the arts awesome, It's good set up.
Like you can't really ask for much more on a preview comic.
But I'm what I'm really excited about is way Shack's cul-de-sac,
which as of today, bad idea posted his cover for cul-de-sac.
(01:17):
So it's out there, it's coming and it's going to be great.
But I, I found Dinesh to be interesting on so many levels
and he's a friendly guy, but he's, he's actually passionate
about what he does and the medium of comics.
And I think at face value, if you're just kind of looking at
it in in a cynical way, which iswhat I do generally when it
(01:39):
comes to people who come in withbig marketing and kind of that
kind of mentality. Maybe you think that he's, he's
just a gimmick person that that wants to get noticed.
But I, he really does understandthat to promote something, you
actually have to stand out. And this third wave of bad idea
(02:00):
comics that is coming. I'm really excited to see how it
how it fold unfolds and how it'sreceived by the greater comics
community as well as comic stores.
And I think I think it's going to surprise some people also,
you know, just talking about original art and movies and
stuff like that. I anybody is, it's always going
(02:22):
to be a good time talking about those subjects.
Speaking of talking about movies, this past Friday I went
to go see the brand new movie Sinners.
You're going to see this almost two weeks after it came out, but
it's the new movie written and directed by Ryan Coogler,
starring Michael B Jordan as well as a couple others like
Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, etcetera.
(02:44):
But this is their fifth time working together and it's
Coogler's fifth movie. He did Fruitvale Station, Creed,
Black Panther, Wakanda forever and now sinners.
Creed 2 was not directed by Coogler but he was involved in
crafting the story as well as Michael Jordan starring.
But this was their 5th movie together and it was a sublime
(03:06):
experience. I, I can not just recommend you
going to see it, but try and find the best theater to see it
at and the way the formats and everything that it was released.
And I watched this 10 minute video on YouTube sponsored by
Kodak and it's Brian Coogler basically talking to you, the
(03:26):
viewer about the different methods used to film in general
and film in general and how he filmed everything and all of the
formats that they're releasing it in.
And that really sold me on wanting to go see it in IMAX.
I, I was, I was thinking about it slightly, but the Seattle
IMAX, the Pacific Science Center, it takes me like 45
(03:47):
minutes, maybe 50 minutes to getthere depending on traffic, cost
money to park. It's just a pain in the ass.
But it is my favorite movie theater on the West Coast here.
And I've always been, you can call me a cinephile, whatever,
that's I'll take that label. I have always kind of been like
that, trying to see the movies in the best formats that I can.
(04:07):
And it's been like that for at least 20 years.
Because I remember when Batman Begins came out, it was showing
at the IMAX at Lincoln Center inNew York City.
And we got tickets to the midnight show, me and my 2
roommates. And maybe it was one other
friend. And you know, we went into New
(04:28):
York City from Long Island and we got home at like 3:30 in the
morning and all that. But since those days, those
early days of of seeking out thebest IMAX in New York, I would
always try and find the best places to see movies wherever I
lived or wherever I was traveling.
So Sinners is an absolute blast of a movie.
I won't go into any spoilers, but what you think you know it's
(04:51):
about and you don't. You don't unless you've looked
at spoilers. Yes, it's a horror movie, but
the themes running through it are the the, the plot, the way
everything unravels and the way that Coogler presents things is
unlike anything I've ever reallyseen.
And it's interesting because theone thing I will compare it to
(05:12):
is a is a comic book that he is still trying to get made into a
movie. And that is Bitter Root, which
is Sanford Green's book. And I had Sanford on the program
a couple weeks ago. And if you like Bitterroot,
you'll love Sinners. If you love Sinners, you'll love
Bitterroot. So I'm once again, no spoilers.
I just tell you, it's not just ahorror movie.
(05:33):
It's very much about culture. It's about music, it's about
owning culture, Black culture specifically.
But there's there's so much moreto it.
I'm going to see it again tomorrow with my buddy John
because once ain't enough for a movie like that.
And since I generally talk aboutsomething that I like or
something that I've consumed recently at the beginning of
(05:55):
these podcasts, I just want to give, you know, like 2 notable
recommendations for a comic bookand for an album.
I just finally got a chance to sit down and read the first
issue of DC's Absolute Martian Manhunter by Dennis Camp and I
(06:16):
forget who the rest of the creative team is.
Those books unlike anything thatI think I've I've seen, at least
in modern comics, it's extremelypsychedelic.
It's extremely not something that you would think you would
see in ADC comic book. If you're not a fan of comics
and you're a fan of psychedelic art or you like just weird
(06:38):
trippy stuff, you'll really dig this comic.
If you're a fan of comics with an open mind, you'll absolutely
dig this comic book. And it's a couple weeks old, but
wasn't able to get my hands on acopy.
And then I finally did. I read it this morning and I
really loved it. You know, I'm not done with
Severance. I just started watching
Severance for the first time. I'm almost done with this most
(06:59):
recent season. I'm enjoying the hell out of
that. But to complete the trifecta is
talking about an album that I really love.
And I think I've mentioned this band on the program.
I know I did Deep Sea Divers newalbum, Billboard Heart,
absolutely fantastic. Great energy on that album,
great songwriting. Jessica Dobson's a hell of a
(07:23):
vocalist and a hell of a guitarist.
So you can find that wherever you get this podcast will most
likely be able to stream the album on that same platform.
Unless you're listening to this podcast on an AM radio that you
somehow rigged up to the Internet to only play this
podcast. You know, that's a great idea.
If somebody wants to do that, please send me one of those.
(07:50):
I do have something fun to talk about today or something
interesting a little bit of my more history of Dave.
But before I do that, I do, I dowant to make sure that everybody
knows that any participation from you, the listener in the
way of a like a review, a comment on Instagram, comment on
YouTube, all that stuff really helps.
So please help me get this podcast out to more people, get
(08:14):
more recognized, you know, maybehire like a big time producer or
something like that. And next thing you know what,
I'll be interviewing Godzilla. If you've been following along
of my podcast history since the beginning, I did a podcast
called the came from the newsstand.
It didn't last too long. It was a 20 episodes or
something like that that was more focused on collecting
(08:38):
collectibles, selling, you know,that the community, all that,
which is great, but it doesn't to talk about that, that that
aspect of everything doesn't hold my interest long term
because I live it. So it holds my interest in the
(08:58):
way of like, yeah, I love buyingmy comics.
I love buying collections. I love selling all that.
But to talk about it non-stop would be exhausting.
But my, you know, like a lot of people in this hobby or in a
hobby in general, if you collectrecords or you collect toys or
whatever, you collect, if you'rea collector, you know, your
tastes change or the things thatyou collect change throughout
(09:20):
time. That's what makes you a human
being. And you know, what keeps you, I
mean, I only can speak for myself, but it's what keeps me
interested in whatever I'm interested in is because I know
at any moment I might discover something that I'm like, oh, I
want to try and track these down.
It's kind of like how I travel. You know, I went to Scotland
(09:43):
four times and I like, I kept finding things that I wanted to
explore there and then I went toJapan this last year and now I'm
excited to go back to Japan thisyear and explore more.
I like to really dive into something and that's really, I
think the reason why anybody would enjoy listening to this
podcast is because I'm not just talking about the same thing
(10:06):
over and over. I don't dislike ideas or
podcasts like that. It's just not for me.
But I started my first love of collecting would be toys and
comics when I was a kid. But as I went into my teens,
probably around 14, I started toget really interested in hockey,
(10:30):
the sport, watching it. It started with, I mean, it
didn't start with, but I think it was strengthened by Genesis.
NHL 92939495, probably 939495. It was at Chicago Blackhawks
team, which is legend, thing of legend.
You know, you've got Jeremy Roenick, Steve Larmer, Michelle
(10:51):
Goulet, Chris Chelios, Steve Smith and Ed Belfour and Gold.
I grew up on Long Island and so I'm a Islander fan by birth.
Islanders, Mets, Jets, and the enemy was Yankee strangers,
Giants, the ones that always wonchampionships.
And and so. But but the cool thing was, and
(11:12):
I think, and I think I've talkedabout this a bit, you know, my
dad grew up in Brooklyn and he would like, he told me he would
cut school to go to Abbottsfield, not Ebottsfield.
Yeah, Abbottsfield. He would cut school to go to
Abbott's field. And like he, he said he would
get some Dodger autographs, but he wanted to see the game.
So when I was younger and my brother, we would get taken to
(11:36):
Islander games and sometimes Devil games, and we'd stay, you
know, my parents would allow us to like, hang out after and try
and get autographs. So as I grew into loving hockey
with some friends of mine in in middle school and then high
school, I started exploring the possibility of collecting hockey
autographs at Nassau Coliseum. Now I know I've talked to this,
(11:56):
I've talked about this aspect, but can talk about something
that's even deeper. It it's, it's there's an aspect
of of all I look, I can't generally speak for you, the
listener, but I think as a humanbeing, as kids, as young adults,
teens, whatever, we all do stuffthat would be regarded as
(12:19):
moronic or stupid or idiotic that that we wouldn't do as
adults. And if you are doing these types
of things as an adult, you should probably reflect on that.
I can say that I never landed injail.
I never got arrested. I managed to escape.
(12:41):
That could be the combination ofmy skin color and also the fact
that I'm I'm pretty charming. Let's face that fact.
But I have done some stuff that I in hindsight regret and what
I'm going to talk about today. I would not recommend anybody
(13:03):
else do. I would not, I would not.
I'm not happy that I, I shouldn't say that I wouldn't do
it. I wouldn't do it now.
It's not a reflection of who I am certain things.
Now some of this is totally a reflection of who I am.
And and so let's start with the Madison Square Garden because
(13:24):
growing up on Long Island, we have access to three hockey
teams, 3 baseball teams, 2 football, 2 basketball, 2
baseball, etcetera. You know, you got for hockey,
you got the Devils, the Islanders, Rangers.
I started collecting autographs in around 95.
I had an older friend named Derek who not the sharpest knife
(13:45):
in in in the cutlery draw, but he wasn't a bad dude completely
and he wasn't a stupid dude completely was he's kind of
street smart. But anyway, he was older, he was
bigger. He was like 6 foot 34 big chess,
you know, look like he looked like he could have been an
athlete. And so Derek used to test that.
(14:08):
He used to test that real well. And what he would do is he, he
tried once or twice of walking into Nassau Coliseum as if he
was on the opposing team playingthat day.
So the way that the NHL used to work, I don't, I haven't
collected hockey autographs in 1520 years, maybe even more.
But it used to work like this morning skate.
(14:31):
It would be like 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM.
The opposing team has the ice. And so on Long Island, you had
the Long Island Marriott here and the Nassau Coliseum here,
and they just walk across the parking lot and go in.
So one day Derek just comes out the hotel, even though he wasn't
staying there, in a suit. A bunch of us go up to him,
(14:54):
pretend to get his autograph, and he walks in to Nassau
Coliseum. And I think what his objective
was just to chill there and, youknow, get autographs and
whatnot. And it worked.
It worked and it worked multipletimes.
Every once in a while I'd befriend a player, player would
bring me into this gate, I'd be in there with a pass and all
(15:14):
that stuff. But Derek wanted to try
something else. And he gives me.
He's like, yo, and he had this really baritone voice, yo, let's
go into New York for, for the Edmonton Oilers, yo.
And I'm going to try and get us into the skate.
(15:38):
I was like, dude, whatever, I'llcut school, I'll go with you.
He had a car. I didn't have to worry.
My parents were weird. My parents are weird.
But no, I, they let me go a lot and then or a bunch and then
sometimes I just straight up fucking cut school.
Once again, kids stay in school until you get out of high school
and do whatever the fuck you want.
(16:01):
So we going to New York City. I don't remember what year this
is. I'll guess somewhere around 9899
somewhere like that and he's gothis suit on and the way the mess
this is pre 911. So the way that Madison Square
Garden was you can just like walk up to the walk up to the
players entrance around the side.
(16:21):
I guess it was on 30. Oh man, 35th St.
No, no, it's going down. So it's probably 33rd and he
walks in and I had gone into Madison Square Garden a bunch of
times in a different way. And I'll tell you about that
(16:41):
shortly. But long short of it, it worked.
The guy working the gate, it's like, and then Derek's like, oh,
I left my my wallet back at the hotel and the guy was like, so
understanding. And he's like, oh, this is my
little brother. He's in town visiting.
And I'm pretty sure it was the Edmonton Oilers.
So we got into the skate and we sat right where the players come
(17:02):
off the ice and got a bunch of autographs.
I might even gotten a game. You stick that day.
And it worked. It it fucking worked.
Subsequently we did that two more times and like the second
time the guy or the third time the guy who worked, I can't
remember his name. I remember kind of what he looks
(17:23):
like. Older gentleman that worked at
the thing. I guess he thought Derek was
media. And every time we tried it for
like a year to a year and a half, he didn't even say
anything. He just wrote us passes and went
in. And Derek did it a bunch of
times. When I was in there, we went a
(17:44):
bunch of times. I think he went one or two times
with our friend Kenny. And it worked.
And it worked up until a point where we got in once for the
Penguins and it was when Mario Lemieux was back on the team.
I think it was after he'd beatencancer and Lemieux saw us and
like saw us getting autographs. And I think that's when he was
GM. I, I pretty sure that's when he
(18:05):
was GM too. And he boot us.
He had us boot out, booted out of Madison Square Garden.
And we never, we never tried after that.
Because once you get the boot, it's like they know who you are.
What was interesting is one day we were doing that.
I can't remember what team it was for.
And this is this is for the hockey nerds, but also for the
(18:27):
sports nerds. The Rangers had actually were
were skating at the Garden, which they rarely do because
they had their own practice facility.
And we were we had passes and they were coming off the ice and
we were in the locker room area or like where you walk into the
locker room and Messier was coming off the ice.
(18:48):
Mark Messier. And your boy got a, your boy got
a photo with Messier in his practice uniform, which look at
that 200 and 6070 LB Dave, don'tlook like that anymore.
That was, that was one of those days where I was like, all
right, that was pretty fucking cool.
But before we were able to trickMadison Square Garden security
(19:13):
into, into letting us in legally, we developed this
technique. And I can't remember who it was.
It might have been Derek, it might have been one of our other
friends that told us that there was a way to sneak into Madison
Square Garden and make your way down to the ice for the skate.
Now The thing is, is you sneak in there, you're scared shitless
because it's New York City. It's the most famous arena in
(19:35):
the world. And at any moment they could
catch you and basically say you're trespassing, you're
trespassing. And we never did this in a post
911 world. And because after that,
everything changed, literally, you know, and physically at the
Garden, everything changed. They had police there all the
time and all that. But in the old days, and if
you've been to Madison Square Garden, especially like before
(19:59):
the renovation, you'll be able to picture this.
If I can find pictures, I will accompany them with this story.
But you walk into the main box office and if you're looking at
the ticket windows, you look to the left and there is a, at the
time, it was a Fleet Bank ATM, which eventually became a Bank
of America ATM and then Chase. I know my bank history in New
(20:23):
York and so. If you walk to the left like
you're going to use the ATM and this is would be like the middle
of the day. So the box office would have
like maybe one open window, maybe not.
And or it would be in in the morning.
And right next to that ATM, maybe like 6 feet away to the
(20:46):
left is a little security office.
So I mean, it's like, OK, and then you would walk, if you were
going to a game, you would walk past all that and go up to the
escalators. So what we used to do, so we
used to go, pretend to go to usethe ATM, kind of peek around and
see if anybody is in the security office.
(21:07):
Typically there wasn't. They were probably patrolling or
walking around once again earlier in the day, pre 911
people just doing their regular normal jobs.
And as soon as we saw that therewas nobody in there, we just
quickly like ran, walk. You don't run because you want
to make too much noise. You run, walk maybe 100 feet,
(21:30):
150 feet and there's an elevator.
You get into the elevator. And what we used to do, I think
we used to go up to like floor 6or 7.
And that would bring you not like not all the way to the top,
but to the top of the seats before you get to the the luxury
(21:50):
box floor. And what what we used to do is
we used to see, OK, get up there, plant our ass and like
the last row of the seats can't see shit.
The lights aren't on. You can see.
But I'm saying like if somebody's on the ice, they
really have a hard time seeing that there were people up there.
Sometimes you'd see cleaning crews around the seats prepping
(22:11):
for for the day, sometimes not. And we wait until we see like,
kind of practice winding down, walk down and and get autographs
as they were coming off the ice.Most players are like, what the
hell. Like they were confused, but
they weren't mean. And it it wasn't until the Mario
(22:32):
Lemieux thing that we got kickedout.
But we used to do that all the time at Madison Square Garden.
One time we actually, we actually hid or just like, kind
of stored ourselves away and moved around enough and stayed
until the game started. I can't remember what game it
was. And then, you know, we just
walked around the whole time because if we sat somewhere, we
(22:54):
were inevitably going to get kicked out.
But we spent the whole day in Madison Square Garden.
It was hilarious. So that's something that I used
to do. Yeah.
With Nassau Coliseum, we used todo even weirder shit.
Like this is in the old days, Like they're back.
Like, not emergency exit, but one of their exits for the
(23:17):
Convention Center that was belowthe Nassau Coliseum.
Like in the basement, you could access those doors and we would
sometimes test them to see if any of them were unlocked.
And every once in a while we getlucky and one of them would be
unlocked and we'd sneak in. They got real smart to us.
But there was a door. There was a door around the back
(23:39):
of the Coliseum that I guess maybe like they, the locks
didn't work or something. So they chained them and they
chained them. They were the, the push bar
doors, so 2 push bar doors and they chained the 2 push bars
together. But if you pulled it open and
you were small enough, you couldfit right in the gap.
And I think it was Chuck, this kid, Chuck Munser, he, he was
(24:04):
like a short, he was like a small kid.
He wasn't like tall, he wasn't fat.
He was just kind of like short, but, you know, small and he used
to be able to get in and then hewould find a door and open it
for all of us. We were just like wreaking havoc
on that place. It was a war.
It was a war between US, the autographed collectors, the
(24:25):
Nassau Coliseum and the the LongIsland Marriott.
The Long Island Marriott fuckinghated us.
And if you've heard, if you listen to all these podcast
episodes, you know, the Long Island Marriott was the the
location for the big show, big show, the wrestler, that story
where he knocked out some dude. I have a lot of ties to this
(24:47):
place because I spent misspent my youth at that, you know,
going to hockey games, going to wrestling games, collecting
autographs, you know, seven years straight doing all this
stuff at the Nassau Coliseum. And then like we, we only were
able to sneak into the Continental Airlines Arena back.
(25:10):
It might have even been called the Brendan Byrne Arena back
then. It might have been Continental.
We snuck in there a couple times.
Because if you, if you'd ever been to that to go see the
Double S game, it's kind of likea hexagonal arena.
So there's these like banks of 50 doors and then there's
there's six sides of them, I think or five, can't remember.
(25:31):
But the cleaning crews were there during the day and every
once in a while they would just leave the doors open and we walk
right in and never got kicked out of the that arena during the
the morning skate. Now, obviously like this was
this was kind of like an era, the late the mid 90s to the
early 2000s was this era of discovery for a lot of people.
(25:53):
The Internet really didn't have any community of autographs on
there. There was no social media, so
like nobody had really much to share.
There wasn't a way to share thisinformation.
And I definitely, I'm not, I'm not doing this to be
egotistical, but I was part of this crew that definitely
(26:16):
started a huge piece of the autograph craze, but also the
game used equipment craze. You know, for those who are not
into sports, sports memorabilia or any of that shit, which I
don't care about sports anymore,but this is my life and I lived
it, you know, for, for, for baseball or for hockey, really.
(26:43):
Like if you're a collector, thenwe can put it into terms of
comics. Like instead of collecting
comics, you're going for original art.
That's like the next level for hockey and baseball.
It's to get a game used stick orbat.
Basketball's tough. There's nothing, you know,
sneakers are not rarely, they'renot giving out a lot of
(27:03):
football. There's really no equipment that
they're going to give out. Like you rarely see players
giving out game used helmets andjerseys and stuff like that.
But hockey sticks are there's tons of them because you know,
players can go through multiple sticks in a game.
Same with bats. They can go through bats a lot.
(27:24):
And this is pre this this what I'm talking about this era is
before teams started to sell thegame, use equipment in auctions
or in raffles or on in the team store.
It's not a stretch for me to saythat me and my friends caused
(27:44):
that to happen because teams sawwhat they weren't making money
on. And just like every big business
or business in general, if you have a way to make money that
somebody else is doing and you're not doing it, you're
going to do it, especially if it's coming from your product.
But I started collecting game news sticks like when it was 14
(28:05):
or 15. I would cleverly, I was kind of
taught this by Derek and Chuck and Chris, my friends that I
kind of made when I first started doing this.
Like try and put together a binder or a small book of cards
of the player, give it to them and ask them for a stick.
Because most players don't get comps of their cards.
And a lot of the players would always say the same thing to me.
(28:28):
It was almost like I knew what Iwas doing.
I can't wait to give these to mymom or I can't wait to give
these to my, my, my dad and my parents, my, my kid, but
whatever, because they don't gettheir own cards.
And I was a collector, so I would RIP boxes and just
accumulate tons of cards of all different players.
So I started doing that. And for those of you that are
(28:51):
super hockey nerds or just hockey nerds in general, this
was in the late 90s, early 2000s.
So none of the players that are playing now I have ever met
except for Crosby and Ovechkin. But I had sticks from Hall of
Farmers. Martin Brodeur, Joe Sakic, Steve
Eiserman, Sergey Federoff had a messier stick.
(29:11):
Jeremy Roenick, Keith Kachuk, Theo Flurry, Ed Belfour, Dominic
Cassic, you know, everybody. Pat La Fontaine.
That's not what this is about. This is about the stupid thing
that I used to do. So I had all of these sticks.
I mean, at one point when I was still, I was still living with
(29:31):
my parents. I didn't move out until I was in
my early 20s and then when I moved out, I still had all the
stuff. I sold it eventually because I
wanted to move. But that's not that's either
here or there. I have pictures that you'll see
as I'm talking about this, the, the basement was lined up with
sticks. It looked like a locker room.
And I started collecting even more and deeper into game, used
(29:54):
jerseys, gloves, helmets, skates, all that stuff.
I was I, I was referred to as the stick God because there
would be a team that's coming from out of town and Dave would
get at least one stick from thatteam, maybe 2.
You know, you know, you know it at a game like I, I wasn't
(30:14):
greedy. I never tried to get the same
stick over and over and over. But what I was was smart.
And so IMS is huge collection ofsticks and I started to like
reach out to teams and try and buy stuff for directly from
them. I'd e-mail trainers.
I would, you know, just try and get sticks any way, shape or
(30:36):
form because I could see how this trend that had started was
becoming huge and all this stuffwas worth a lot of money.
I mean, I'm, you know, I could say probably from getting all
this hockey equipment game you stuff.
I mean, if I kept it till now I'd, you know, I'd have probably
150 to $200,000 collection or something crazy like that.
(30:58):
But I when I cashed out, I made some good money, but I don't
remember how it happened. I think it was when I called
actually I do. I called the Edmonton Oilers to
see if they sold any of their game used equipment because I
had heard that they do and they're like, oh, we don't as a
team. But there is this store, I
(31:19):
forget the name of it, somethingOutfitters maybe.
They get all of our stuff. We'd kind of send it to them and
I think it was like a donation. I don't remember.
But they sold their game used equipment.
So I started going online. I think at the time, I think it
was late 90s, maybe they had a website, maybe they had a
(31:41):
catalog or something like a newsletter.
And I start to buy, you know, like just, it was like no big
players at the time or anything.But I bought some goalie
equipment. I bought some of this.
And then I found out that this place would also get the model
sticks that the companies would make for certain players.
(32:04):
So for instance, let's say let'stake Dominic Haschak, gold
medal, Stanley Cup winning goaltender, one of the greatest
goalies of all time. Played for the Buffalo Sabres
for most of his career. He played for the Blackhawks
too. Feel like I'm missing one team
as well. Oh the Red Wings and they sold
(32:27):
his exact model stick. So Coho, I think it was a Coho
stick. Coho would make this goalie
stick to the specifications thathe wanted.
It would have his name stamped on it and they would sell these
model sticks in the store and you could buy it for whatever 75
bucks and you could use that stick if you were a goalie.
(32:51):
And so at that same time, like Iwas selling some sticks on eBay,
probably just some stuff I didn't want anymore or double S
that I had or whatever. And one of I I sold one and then
I get a message and I don't remember how it unfolded, but be
a player upper deck, be a player.
(33:11):
Was this a card set that was thefirst set to feature every pack
having an autograph? And then what they would do is
they would do these, which is the common practice now, but
they would do game used memorabilia cards where they
would take a jersey, cut it up into swatches, swats, swatches,
(33:32):
put the piece of that jersey on the card number it whatever
player it was from a real bad practice that I didn't like
because you're taking a piece ofhockey history and you're
cutting it up. You're you're destroying it
forever just to make money on a card in a pack, exploiting
collectors, all that stuff. It's the same reason why I don't
(33:53):
like the thing that the comic space has, the comic cuts.
Even though there is an unlimited amount of certain
comics or a huge number amount of comics, I still don't like
people cutting comics up like that are of huge importance.
No, that's not what it's meant for.
It's not meant to be fucking. It's meant to be viewed as a
piece of art, not these little cutouts.
(34:16):
And then when you're taking gameused equipment, jerseys that
Gretzky wore, whatever. I don't like that.
And they bought a stick for me and they contacted me and I, I
can't remember his name, but he's like, yeah, I'm just
looking to buy more sticks. If you have anything that we can
use for cards. And I'm like, and I think I
(34:37):
might have taken something that I, it was a broken stick that I
had gotten from somebody and they offered me some like stupid
amount. It was like $150.00 stick, maybe
it was worth $150.00. And they pay me 300.
And I'm like, yeah, well, I don't really like this company.
(35:00):
I don't really like what they'redoing.
OK, so now remember just getting, once again, give this a
warning of don't do this. Actually, you can exploit
whatever company you want to anycorporation you can exploit.
But this is not who I am anymore.
(35:20):
So this is not a reflection of how I do business in any way
shape or form these days. I was a little 18 year old shit,
you know, or however old I was 19 years old.
Anyway, let's go back to the Edmonton place that sells the
model sticks. Bought a Dominic Hashic stick,
bought a bunch of hockey tape. I put the stick right next to
(35:42):
the real one that Hashic had given me that was signed and it
was mine. And all I did was replicate the
tape job. So all of a sudden now I have
two sticks, both that look exactly the same, both with the
stamp of Hashic. The one that I made wasn't
signed clearly, but it also looked too clean while I'm in my
(36:04):
basement. So what do I do?
Take a puck, take one of my game, use sticks, prop up the
hash stick and proceed to shoot the puck at the stick.
So yes, maybe you could call it the F word.
I'm not going to use it because I'm not going to put myself in
that position. Statue of limitations, though,
(36:25):
this was 25 years ago. Maybe, yeah, probably 25.
But yeah, I created a second game, used Dominic Akashic
stick, and then I sold it to them for $600.00 and they would
send me a check in the mail and I packed the stick up and I'd
send it right off to be a player.
What they did with those sticks,I actually have no fucking clue.
(36:46):
They didn't tell me what I thinkthey did with those sticks.
Well, they cut them up and put them onto a card and then they
told everybody they were a game.You stick.
This didn't just end with one stick.
No, no, no, no, no. I took be a player for a lot of
money. I mean a lot of money for me at
that time. And you know, 2000 or whatever.
Yeah, I only did wood sticks andthis is still before everybody
(37:10):
kind of switched to the one piece, aluminum, graphite, all
that stuff. A lot of goalies, because the
goalies were the easiest, because goalies have typically
have simple tape jobs. There are a lot of players that
do. They're not a lot of players,
but a lot of players. Some players would do
complicated tape jobs, like they'd roll up the tape and make
(37:31):
it like a string, wrap that around and then do a regular
tape job over it. But I got pretty good at this.
It's not like art, you know, I don't have to paint the Mona
Lisa and then try and pass it off as, you know, a 300 or 405
hundred, however old that painting is, year old painting
with DNA test and all that shit.This is just a hockey stick that
(37:51):
is literally getting obliteratedby a card company so that they
can make more money. I felt no, I still feel no guilt
whatsoever because it wasn't like a person.
It was a company. It wasn't like a collector.
I wasn't doing this to a collector probably did it for T
Mussolani stick. I'm just trying to think of like
(38:12):
who I had sticks of Ray Borg, Brodor Curtis Joseph.
Yeah, a bunch of these goalies too probably did a Balfour also,
but it I don't even remember howit ended, how I stopped doing
it. There was no, nothing bad
happened or, you know, nobody ever said anything to me.
But it's just one of those things that I think about how if
(38:35):
I was doing it as a young, you know, a, a, a young adult, a
teen technically, but you know, in the eyes of the law, I was
probably 17/18/19. But you got to wonder how many
people were doing shit like this.
Like how This is why I always tell people with that the kind
of like the idea of getting something signed or buying a
(38:57):
piece of memorabilia, like if you don't see it in person, it
like, why are you buying it? You know, I, it's the same thing
with autographs. Like I, I think I've sent away
for one signing in my entire life and that was the Todd
McFarlane CGC signing. Everything else, it's got to be
in person. It's got to be because I knew
(39:19):
people that do, did shady shit beyond what I did and I was
never doing business with them. I mean, I, I, I'd found out one
of the minor league hockey teams, I think it was the Barry
Colts. Yeah, it was the Barry Colts.
And they've always had a good junior, their junior hockey team
in Barrie, ON, but they've always had one or two great
(39:41):
players come through there like every five years.
And I used to call these junior teams in, in Canada, these under
18 junior teams and try and buy game used jerseys from them
because A, you couldn't even geta replica of those jerseys and
B, it was like, why not, you know, spend a couple 100 bucks,
(40:02):
take a chance that this player is going to be something and get
a really cool jersey. I found out that they were just
forging jerseys. They were doing what I did to be
a player, but they were doing itto people because like after a
while I started to hear and I can't remember what, I can't
remember what player it was, butI heard that like 4 different
people had bought jerseys, game used jerseys from the very cults
(40:23):
of this player when they only used 2.
So what was Barry? What were the Barry Colts doing?
They were just making jerseys up.
Maybe they were using for one game.
Maybe they weren't even using them all.
I had also heard stuff like thatthey were taking jerseys from
players that left re lettering and numbering them to be the
player that the hot player and then selling those as game use.
(40:45):
Like the sports memorabilia business has been fucking dirty
far longer than I've been alive.Forgeries on autographs.
You, you know, Ali and Jordan isthe most forged autograph of all
time. It's a dirty business.
It always has been. And I, you know, I contributed
to that. I'm not like I said, I'm not
happy about it, but I was kind of funny that I was able to do
(41:08):
that and that be a player was trusting a kid in that in in one
aspect. But I did really enjoy
collecting sport sports memorabilia.
I made a lot of friends through it.
IA lot of players were friendly with me that were always cool to
me that, you know, whenever theysaw me, they'd come over and,
(41:28):
you know, sign and talk to me. And we used to go to get coffee
with Keith Primo before the game.
Whenever you play on Long Islandand like Theo Flurry, I still
have a couple of sticks. They're not here.
They're my friend is kind of being the steward of those in
New York. But Theo Flurry played for the
(41:50):
Flames, played for the Avalancheand the Rangers, won a gold
medal with Canada, won a cup with Calgary.
He gave me one of his sticks that he used in the 2000.
And no, maybe it was the 2000 Olympics, 2002 Olympics, 2002
Olympics, and he signed it. Theo Flurry gold medal.
Yeah. I had like such a crazy
(42:10):
experience. This book up here right above my
head, the day in the life of theNHL, I'm in that book.
My face isn't in it, but my back, like I'm getting
somebody's autograph in that book.
And you know, I just, I wouldn'tchange that hobby that I had as
a kid for the world. And it, you know, ultimately
brought me to a place where I could tell these stories and do
(42:34):
a lot of different things that brought me eventually to the job
that I had in 2008 through pretty much the pandemic with
working in the events industry, doing live and silent auctions,
mostly in sports. I, I got, I mean, like cool
things like taking a picture with Derek Jeter on the court
(42:55):
in, in Brooklyn at, at the Barclays Center.
You know, it's just tons of stories, tons of experiences
that I wouldn't trade for the world.
But you know, I've been around alot of scumbag people since
then, but I don't really consider what I did a scumbag
thing. It's more like a damn Dave like
that was pretty clever. And once again, nobody got
(43:17):
nobody actually got hurt. I exploited a company that's
still exploiting people today. If you look at upper deck and
what they were doing and all thejust the card garbage that they
created that people spend tons and tons of money on.
But anyway, there's so much moreto these stories.
I I just thought this was a fun one to tell with a little Side
(43:39):
Story and and, and that and so many good things, like I said,
have come out of this. So it's not the last you'll be
hearing about this and not the last pictures I'll be flashing
of me with random hockey playersor sports people.
But it's a it it, it makes me think.
And I don't know anybody's, you know, we can't.
I don't look to you, the listener, each individual, one
(44:03):
of you. I don't know what it's like to
have lived your life, just like you don't know what it's like to
have lived mine. We don't know what it's like to
live somebody else's life. And I often feel about myself
that I've lived and not in a spiritual way, like I've lived
different lives all in this one,Dave.
(44:25):
And it started at that age when I started collecting autographs
and the different paths that it took me on and the different
experiences it brought me. And I, I, it's hard for me to
step outside myself and be like,oh, you, you created this weird
path. But I can't sometimes just say
that and feel like it's something special.
(44:45):
And I hope that maybe this inspires you to write some
stories down or think about experiences you've had, because
I harp on this often to to people in person and to the
podcast, Our experiences and that human connection through
them is really the only thing that we have, you know, like
(45:06):
that we can share with strangersand connect further.
You've got your family, you've got your friends, but they're
built in, in some way, shape or form, whereas I don't know you,
my listener, you, you know me through what I tell you, But I,
I feel like we share these experiences or, or I'm sharing
them with you and I hope that you enjoy them.
That's all. And yeah, I, I, I want to say
(45:30):
thank you again for, for being part of this community that I,
that I didn't know that I would ever create.
But there's, like I said, tons of stories and maybe one day
when I have enough YouTube, whatever it is, I I passed the
thing to to go live, or maybe I should just go live.
I can do a flip through of one of my photo albums and tell some
(45:52):
of the stories about all these people I've met and the stupid
circumstances that I put myself in all that stuff like I was an
autograph hound. But I was always respectful and
I tried to, I tried to have conversation or have a reason to
want to get somebody's autograph, not just for profit,
because I didn't originally do any of this to start making
money. It's just like you got to fund
(46:12):
your hobby and you can't just work at Subway all your life.
Because I thought that would actually happen at one point.
But I smoked too much weed and Igot fired.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
Before we get going, I just wantto give a shout out to all the
(46:36):
subscribers, the new ones. A lot of people have come in
recently from some of the interviews and from the post
office episode. Stick around please.
This, this podcast is just getting started.
I'm starting to learn what growsa podcast and how to treat a
podcast as it grows. So maybe maybe not a Patreon or
maybe a Discord or maybe a sub stack, but something, something
(47:01):
that we could stay connected andwe can share stories.
Please hit the like button if you're watching on YouTube, it
really helps. It really helps if you rate the
podcast on Spotify or Apple. You can write a review on Apple.
You can leave a comment on Spotify.
You can share this with a friend.
You can share this on Reddit. Anything to help this podcast
grow. Pick an episode, pick one of the
(47:21):
guests, post in the subreddit something cool.
It, it helps me and gives me a little bit more of that juice to
keep going. And and that's really it.
And we're closing in on 60 episodes.
I'm going to be taking my seasonending break when we hit 60
episodes and then come back fullforce.
(47:42):
So thanks for listening to this podcast about nothing and
everything Direct edition. I'm Dave and I'll see you next
time.
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