Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction June 2018
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/19/2018
Wondrous wood Hespeler 5500 wielded by Wayne Gretzky during the first month of the 1997-98 season in New York. This example displays a large bold, black autograph and Wayne has dated the stick “1997” in his hand. The “Jack the Gripper” foam handle appears in place of knob tape and the blade is wrapped in Wayne’s favored baby-powdered bulldog tape. 110-115 Stiff flex markings are on the shaft along with the “553” batch code and the factory-stamped “Gretzky”. Wear is easy to spot with marks and scrapes low on the shaft and puck marks and some paint transfer at the blade. This stick has been specially customized with a code written on the butt end and a small hologram sticker added by our consignor.
This lot of sticks arrived with graphite lines running through the blade and photo evidence from early in the season is proof of their use, subsequent deliveries didn’t have these lines. This early batch of sticks was most likely used in October of the 1997-98 season. Wayne not only used the sticks, he owned the company!
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