Thanks for the Memories

IN RECENT YEARS, THE MARKET FOR SPORTS COLLECTIBLES HAS EXPLODED AND IS NOW WORTH AN ESTIMATED $15 BILLION. IS THERE A COST TO TRADING IN OUR SENTIMENTAL SOUVENIRS?

- Sheena Rossiter

Shawn Chaulk can't leave Wayne Gretzky alone.

The semi-retired home builder, now 55, has owned everything from the Great One's used hockey gloves to his old car. Chaulk even inked an image of Gretzky, in his Oilers uniform, on his right arm and shoulder.

The obsession began more than 40 years ago, after Chaulk's family moved from rural Newfoundland to Fort McMurray, Alberta. The young teenager, suddenly stuck in a strange place, was intrigued by nearby Edmonton's hockey team. The Oilers had joined the NHL just one year earlier. Chaulk had always been a Boston Bruins fan, but he figured it was time for a change.

"We were making a big shift in our lives as a family, and I thought, 'Well, if we're starting over, then I'm starting over," he says.

That Oilers team also had a star player like no other: Wayne Gretzky. At just 19, Gretzky was small and agile and could glide past anyone. Chaulk found himself glued to the television, watching games nearly every other day. And with the Oilers' arena only a few hours south, he had a chance to occasionally watch his new hero in person, too.

Chaulk's passion for sports memorabilia began a decade later, in the early 1990s, with autographs. He was amazed to discover that he could write to an athlete and they would send him their signature. His first was from golf legend Arnold Palmer. He eventually piled up some 50,000 autographs.

The focus of his collecting shifted after a chance encounter in an Edmonton pawn shop. He noticed some old hockey sticks resting against a wall and, after speaking with the pawnbroker, learned they were game-used NHL gear. He paid $25 for a stick belonging to Wayne Presley, then a player for Chicago. "I discovered that there was a whole market for game-used memorabilia," Chaulk says.

As his disposable income grew, so did his collection. By 2005, he had decided to return to his roots: Wayne Gretzky.