My main goal remains to finish a collection of baseball #5s, but Oh Boy, some other sports prove too interesting to ignore!
Bruins center/centre Milton Schmidt, whose #15 they since retired, sandwiched 17 NHL seasons around three years of Canadian military service for WWII. He won the Hart Memorial Trophy as NHL MVP a season after this particular wrapper came out and remained connected to the Boston organization for over 70 years, passing at age 98 in 2017.
While I’m sure many Schmidt autographs exist, signed Ice Stars wrappers must be few and far between. I spotted this scan on an auction site some years back and PSA’s autograph registry shows one certified signed #5, so this appears to be the sole example! It would be amazing indeed to add this type to my collection.
Value: It remains hard to value things seen in such small quantities. As a well-known Hall of Famer, scarce Milt Schmidt cards will command a high price. Lesser-known wrappers from this set could be more reasonable.
Fakes / reprints: I’m not sure if reprinting or faking a set so obscure would be worth the time and effort. Be sure to purchase something this rare from a dealer or collector you trust.