Wait A Minute! These Things Come Signed?

Justin Faulk 2010 Panini Rookie Private Signings

                     Shades of gray wherever I go the more I find out the less that I know."
-Billy Joel

    I will freely admit before my return to the hobby in 2016 I was ignorant as to how much it had evolved. As a child of the junk wax I was not aware as to how broad the hobby had become. Gone were the days of enormous single base sets with cool inserts to chase, and in were subsets, relics , parallels, serial numbered chase cards, and autographed cards. The last one on the aforementioned list blew my mind. "Autographed cards?". Many a spring training afternoon was spent at Joker Marchant Stadium trying to get autographs of Detroit Tigers players, so the fact I could get a signed card with minimal effort was mind-blowing.

    With this newly acquired knowledge I decided to make it my mention to acquire a Justin Faulk autographed card. Seeing this was a newly obtained endeavor I decided I would make this purchase in person in order to make sure I found the "perfect card". I ventured to a local card-show with the purpose of finding the ideal first Justin Faulk autograph of my collection. 

    The 2016 hobby landscape was significantly different from the one we see in 2022. Breaking had just became commonplace, flippers were still ostracized and nobody was lining up in front of Target at 3 am in order to clear the racks of retail blasters in order to drive up the price on E-Bay. Some (me included) would say it was a far better time to collect in. 

    Considering the fact the card show was taking place a  few miles from the PNC Arena in a time where the Carolina Hurricanes were not a team filled with hobby darlings such as Sebastian Aho, and Andrei Svechnikov I knew that I would have plenty of choices and minimal competition top obtain the card of my choice. After searching every table carefully I settled on the 2010 Justin Faulk Panini Rookie Private Signings (pictured above). 

I liked the clean auto which seems to be a staple of Faulk Cards and what caught my eye was that it was inscribed with number 28 instead of his more familiar number 2. Allowing me the opportunity to research and learn that Faulk actually wore 28 when first breaking in with the Canes. I believe this card was purchased for $20 which is a small price to pay for a card that till this day remains a favorite card in my collection. Thanks for reading and Redvolution!


The Caniac Collector



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