[irbefan4life]

That is right, Christmas has now come and gone, and unwrapping the gifts received was a true treat for all of my senses. I would love to do a lengthy pre-amble describing my joy at these obtained items, but I feel that the pictures are worth a thousand words.

This first batch is a nice collection of three goalie 8X10 photographs, autographed of course: Kelly Hrudey, Antti Niemi, and Thomas Greiss. A good start to the thread, a warm-up for the awesomness that is to be:

Hrudey



Greiss



Niemi



Now, the Irbe additions for the holiday season. Yes, normally I get cards, but because my wantlist is really small now, I received many oddballs to further pad my collection:

Media Guides from 1996-97, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2001-02, and 2002-03 respectively:

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Some autographed pucks creating a good retrospective of Irbe's career:







The biography of Arturs Irbe...in Latvian:



Some oddballs including a Hardee's Restaurant promo thing, an autographed 8x10, and a master photo with all accompanying copyrights included with it:

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Now my #2 hit of the holidays...wait for it...another Irbe game-used and autographed stick, because one is not enough and two is better. This is also from 2002-03 based on the tape pattern and shattered on the blade after taking a slapshot in game action:









And here is the new stick (front) with the old one from last year (back):



But Bruce, what could beat something for your Irbe collection? When Class Auctions announced their Fall Auction, I was excited that a Mark Fitzpatrick jersey was listed. When the auction went because I was unable to register on the site, I was a little upset. Christmas was a surprise when out of the second last box I opened was the same game-used jersey that passed me by. This was worn by Fitzpatrick while with the Hurricanes. He faced all 68 shots of his season in this jersey. He never actually faced a shot in the red home jersey, only this one so this is a 1/1! So here you go, my new prized piece of my collection, the authentic game-worn jersey of Mark Fitzpatrick:

Front:



Back:



Puck Mark on Jersey:



Comments are always welcome...especially after so many hours are spent scanning everything into the computer

[pens fan addict]

Congrats on receiving such great pc additions and a gamer no less! I bet you overwhelmed with excitement when you opened your gifts.

Merry Christmas!

[alstott9adams]

Sweet x-mas stuff congrats

[snobles]

Wow, now that is what I call a Christmas!

Nice additions Bruce.

[oljey]

Great gifts - Thanks for the photos.

Happy Holidays from England - Bob.

[irbefan4life]

Thanks a lot for all of the comments everyone. The only challenge for me now is to find a place to store everything!

[ricebondsmntna2young]

Sounds like this Christmas, The Arturs Irbe Collection Phase 2 has begun in earnest with some serious oddball and mem pickups...congrats!

Just one thing: who's Mark Fitzpatrick?

[rayeates]

Those are some awesome addition, Bruce! Congrats on the fantastic Christmas, and thank you for sharing it with us!

Randi

[irbefan4life]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone, the Irbe PC continues to grow at an exponential rate

Also, PM sent Alan

[bonnev659]

wow just wow congrats