A CANE-DO ATTITUDE
LOOKING FOR A NEW FOCUS DURING THE PANDEMIC, TEXAN ANDREW ARFELE LANDED ON CAROLINA SUPERSTAR ANDREI SVECHNIKOV.
MEET ANDREW: “My name is Andrew Arfele. I’m 35 years old and live in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston. I have Cystic Fibrosis and live my life through sports card collecting when all else fails. My love for sports cards and the possibilities of new cards I may come across online or from a box break is what gets me up every day. I’m a four-sport fan who monitors hockey, baseball, basketball, and football. My passion for sports is self-taught since I didn’t play due to health, and my parents were not fans either.”
GETTING STARTED: “I started around the age of eight in 1993 with baseball and basketball cards. Kids at my elementary school loved sharing their new cards right out of their backpacks. We didn’t trade much because everyone valued their own cards a lot! I shifted to football and hockey a few years later. I started with packs from Wal-Mart and Target and the occasional card shop trip on birthdays and weekends with my grandparents.”
CATCHING THE HOCKEY BUG: “My interest in hockey is partially due to my cousin, who grew up in Dallas where he was a Stars fan. I watched some playoff games on TV and my
favorite player back in the ‘90s was Patrick Roy. I had a Sports Illustrated For Kids poster of Roy pinned on my wall. e Avalanche were my favorite team as well. I still think it’s the most exciting sport to watch. e skills needed to score, pass, and make saves are just amazing. Everything in hockey is blink-blink fast.”
WHY SVECHNIKOV?:
“I’ve been chasing Anze Kopitar cards for over a decade, but his career is slowly winding down. e number of new cards for him is thinning and I have most of the ones I want outside of a select few. I knew it was time to start a new PC. I thought at first about Elias Pettersson, but back when the pandemic set in I was browsing eBay and under my Pettersson search it recommended Svechnikov. He made sense. He’s a natural goal scorer who can also make highlight reel passes as well.
“I already owned a couple of his cards at that point and knew about his amazing lacrosse-style goals. I figured a new project might be the right thing with this scary health crisis and me being super high risk.
“He fits the sweet spot for me as a collector because he has notoriety as a top pick yet (his cards) will be more affordable because he is not Canadian or American. I’ve also read Svech is a good guy who works hard and the coach thinks the world of him. Seven months later, the collection is coming into focus and I’m excited for his career moving forward.”
THE COLLECTION:
“I currently have 68 cards, including six 1/1s, 38 autos, 23 patch cards, and nine true RCs. I pulled 10 of them myself.”
FAVORITE PIECES:
“at has to be the first card of Andrei I purchased, his 2018-19 Ultimate Collection Rookie NHL Shield Auto 1/1. I picked it up on eBay. A card like that is usually the holy grail for a modern hockey player collection, so I figured I could jump start the whole thing with his best card.”
“Honorable mention would go to the 2018-19 SP Authentic
Future Watch Limited Patch Auto Black. I’ve been told there is just one of these and I just happened to be talking to another collector online about these types of cards when it popped up on eBay. I couldn’t believe my luck! I’m very happy to have it in the fold. “
“I also love the 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee Season Highlights Red Border showcasing the supreme lacrosse-style goal he scored against Calgary early last season. It’s a really neat low-end card that emphasizes a big moment of his young career. e red border is sweet because it is also a team color.”
CHALLENGES: “is PC has been made possible through three outlets: eBay, COMC, and my own pack pulls. I’m confined to online shopping for my PC cards because I don’t travel much or visit my LCS too o en due to my health. “When starting this collection, I had to pick and choose what I could find. It’s easy to stock up the PC with lower-end base rookies and parallels, but I always prefer quality over quantity. Quantity will work out over time as new releases come out and I find the missing pieces from his rookie year. I plan to collect as long they make cards of him.
“I’ve also noticed a lot of new interest in his cards versus when I first started collecting him back in March. His hat trick in the playoffs raised some eyebrows and his card prices started ticking up. I definitely have to be more assertive to locate his best stuff now.”
WHITE WHALES:
“I’d love a game-worn jersey or game-used stick, but for the sake of storage space I focus on cards only. Some of my key wants are his 2018-19 e Cup Foundations Quad Patch Auto /5 and the Tag/Patch 1/1. Also, the Black Parallel 1/1 of his Ice RC would pique my interest, along with the 2018-19 SP Authentic Future Watch Auto Black SP.”
CONNECT WITH ANDREW:
“Email is drwarf@gmail.com if you have a Svechnikov card available for sale I may like. I’m also on Instagram @playerclector. I always post my new PC additions on my IG, so that’s the best place to watch the show.”