Cheap skates

It’s no surprise to collectors that hounding athletes can be an expensive proposition. From trading cards to memorabilia, as well as the Sharpies, paint pens and transportation (even $55 parking tickets), the costs associated with our hobby certainly add up.

Though this isn’t exactly groundbreaking material, here’s a money-saving idea that I’ve started using – homemade autograph sheets.

By using downloaded team logos and the Microsoft Word program on my home computer, I’m able to create, in a matter of minutes, a team-specific sheet, like the one for the New York Islanders (above), for pennies.

In my case, I make them for my son, Colin, to use when I’m adding to my autographed puck collection. He does pretty well, too, considering that he’s just 4 years old, nabbing Gerry Cheevers, Joey Thornton and Alexei Yashin in recent trips.

Sure, it does take a little effort and design sense. But it could be as simple as typing the team’s name across the top of the page and placing a logo next to it. I like to add the date, though, to increase the collectability and, in the most liberal view, make it a 1/1 item.

Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of folks, mainly at American Hockey League games, have players sign logo sheets. That works, too, especially when these, ahem, collectors don’t have a clue whom they’re having sign the sheet.