Silver signatures and identity theft

I decided to start working on finishing some of these old sets up again on the weekend.  I hit the Sportlots website and spent just under a weeks worth of my budget on a bunch of singles towards a few different sets.  The first envelope arrived yesterday, and carried with it some hockey goodness. 

The one set that I nearly completed is the 99/00 MVP silver signature set.  It's just a simple parallel set that I started collecting oh so many years ago, and now I'm finally down to less than 10 (my want list says 11 now, but I have a couple of more on the way.)

I would have loved for any of these three guys to play for the Leafs around this time, a little more size and grit would have helped in the playoffs.

Roenick's signature is actually a nice one!

Here's another group of 3 for ya...including a very under rated 500 goal man, Peter Bondra.

Felix Potvin was really loved in Toronto, and it seemed like he played in the NHL a lot longer than he did, he was actually out of the league at age 32.  I also had thought that Manny Legace was out of hockey a lot longer; Manny actually played in the minors last year for the Springfield Falcons in the AHL.  Manny currently holds a position in the front office of the Columbus Blue Jackets (which may be a ruse, just in case they need another goaltender....)

Maybe part of the allure of this parallel set for me is the attractiveness of a lot of the signatures.  A few of the players signatures even have their sweater number as well (see Bondra above).  I never really bothered to find out why, but a few of the players don't have any kind of signature on their cards, their names are just printed in silver, such as Darcy Tucker's card below.

Wonder if the players who didn't have their signatures featured back then were worried about identity theft.  There's nothing worse than when you're making 7 figures a year and somebody steals your identity and starts some lavish spending sprees on your dime...

Maybe Darcy could see down the road, and knew that he would be worried about somebody forging his name on a trade agreement, thus nixing his opportunity to become one of the Muskoka Five. 

Yes...these past two paragraphs were meant to be humorous, and no I don't take the crime of stealing identities lightly.  

Don't tell anyone...but this is post #600 for me....thanks to all who read my drivvel on a regular basis.   Without you, there is no I in 600.

thank you for reading, Robert