u/mdhzk3

Found it in a box of Steve Thomas memorabilia and it’s clearly not signed by him. Anybody recognises it?

I was 11 years old, living in Levenshulme, when the IRA bomb went off in Manchester.

It is probably the first major news event I can properly remember. I did not understand the politics of it, but I remember knowing something massive had happened. Manchester city centre was somewhere familiar, somewhere normal, and suddenly it had become part of history.

Looking back now, what stands out most is not just the damage, but how the city came back from it. Manchester rebuilt, changed, grew and carried on.

There have been other awful days since, and plenty of setbacks, but Manchester has always had something about it. People come together when it matters.

Thirty years on, I still think about that day. I think about everyone caught up in it, and how much of the Manchester we know now was shaped by the rebuilding that followed.

I know most of the hobby doesn’t really care about the Islanders… but I do.

I’m 30 years in with this team and I still love the thrill of the chase.

Landed the Barzal on release day, then spent the best part of a year tracking down the rest. Mail day finally brought the Palmieri in this week and finished the set.

Now I need display ideas, because I don’t want them buried in a box after all that. Has anyone done a shadow box, framed team set, or custom display for something like this?

What’s the general feeling on these slabs The Cup RPAs have been coming in recently? I understand the reasons from an authentication/tamper point of view, but I also feel like a lot of collectors probably still prefer raw cards that can be graded as and when required.
Are most people: leaving them sealed, cracking for grading or just cracking them straight into one-touches?
Curious where everybody stands on them now that they’ve been around a bit.

I’m really excited to rip a few 25/26 boxes.

Over the last couple of years I’ve reorganised my collection so sets stay together instead of being scattered across random boxes. Still loads left to sort through, but here’s a little snapshot of my Islanders OPC Platinum collection now all together in one case.

Hi guys.

This is my Islanders Young Guns Acetate collection. I’ve posted pictures of the full Young Guns collection before the series 2 release, but I’ve just added a Brock Nelson acetate in a BGS slab.

Now I’m debating whether to crack it because none of the others are slabbed and I like the collection matching visually.

I’ve got no intention of ever selling this collection. It’ll probably end up being my kids’ problem one day.

Should I crack it or leave it as it is?