The Complete Handbook of Hockey Autographed Paraphernalia

Chapter 1: Understanding Hockey Autographed Paraphernalia

A signed hockey puck sits on a dealer's table at a trade show. The sticker on the small plastic case reads "Wayne Gretzky autographed puck - $1,850." Across the aisle, another dealer has a similar puck, also with a Gretzky signature, priced at $400. Both sellers believe their item is real. At least one of them is wrong, and it is the buyer's problem to figure out which one. This is the everyday reality of the hockey autographed paraphernalia market, and it is the reason this handbook exists.

Hockey autographed paraphernalia is a category of collectible that covers any physical item associated with the sport of hockey that carries the signature of a player, coach, or other hockey figure. The category spans game-used and retail jerseys, standard and mini hockey sticks, pucks, photographs, trading cards, helmets, goalie masks, gloves, and skates. It also includes less common items like signed programs, tickets, napkins from post-game dinners, and the occasional surprising object such as a signed zamboni key or a puck signed during the 1980 Winter Olympics by the entire U.S. squad. What unifies all of these is a single characteristic: the presence of a signature that purports to be from a specific person, and the market's collective judgment on whether that signature is genuine.

Understanding this category requires understanding the difference between a hockey item with a signature and a piece of hockey equipment that happens to be signed. That difference is provenance, or the