By Al Muir
It started off as a dare.
It'll end up as a very nice donation to a very worthy cause.
Steve Angel, better known as Quincy on the Beckett message boards, was offered a pink baseball cap with the word Angel printed on the brow to wear behind his table at the recent Toronto Sportscard Expo. Angel, better known for his wit than his sartorial elegance, accepted the challenge...with a catch.
Every person who ribbed him about it at the show had to throw $5 in the kitty, with the proceeds going to support autism research in Canada through the Windsor-Essex chapter of Autism Ontario.
Not surprisingly, the hat generated significant attention, and nearly $800 was raised for the fight. Inspired by the success of the plan, Angel, along with Frank Staine (scooby1970), Steve Beke (no, no, the other Steve) and Ryan Rajmoolie (Big Brother Buff)decided to auction the hat on eBay to entice further donations. The auction, which can be found here started to build steam mid-week as bids quickly, amazingly, topped $100.
And that's when the Beckett message board community really stepped up.
Donations of cards began pouring in, including a 2005-06 SP Authentic Alexander Ovechkin RC, a 2006-07 Upper Deck Evgeni Malkin RC and a 2005-06 The Cup Dion Phaneuf RC, to augment the value of the cap. And with those additional items, the auction took flight.
As of Friday afternoon, the bidding had topped $1,100 and the auction received more than 1,300 page views. The auction ends Sunday, May 13, at 7:46 Pacific time.
