One of the greatest goalies of all time and the first member of Sault Ste. Marie's Walk of Fame that I've landed in the Signature Renditions. (Oh, and he's in the hockey first Hall of Fame, too.) The colors work together so well in this card, with the varying shades of browns and gold in the jersey, equipment and signature. And the mask has that slightly blurry, impressionist-painting look that has made me go so crazy for these cards. "Tony O" was one of the first goalies to employ the "butterfly" technique, which this card captures perfectly.
The card celebrates Esposito's rookie year, during which he won both the Vezina trophy as the league's top goaltender and the Calder trophy as the league's best rookie. He went 38-17 that season, with a 2.17 goals-against average and 15 shutouts. And is there any goalie who has been the subject of more amazing photos than him?
This is one of the best buys I've landed so far. The seller initially had it listed at $30 with free shipping and the option to make an offer. I bid $20 (which, at the time, was the maximum I was hoping to pay for any one of these cards). He countered at $25, which I declined. A few days later, he lowered the asking price to $25. And a few days after that, he dropped it to $22, at which point I jumped. I can't believe no one bought it before I did. I've only seen this card sell one other time on eBay for less than $30 (and that was at $29). One looks like it even sold for $150, although that was a crazy outlier. This one was one of the few times where slow-playing on eBay actually worked out.
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