When Ron Cruikshank first found the valuable jersey, he could not believe his eyes.
Two years ago, Ron Cruikshank walked into a second hand sporting goods store in Whitehorse, Yukon and walked out with an unexpectedly valuable jersey - and it only cost him $26.
During Christmas of 2019, Cruikshank was searching a rack of jerseys at ChangingGear, a local sporting
goods store. That's when one particular jersey caught his eye, he held it up and it said "All Star" on it.
"I thought originally it was from like a Western Hockey or – like just for maybe 30 seconds – I thought it was someplace other than the NHL," said Cruikshank.
"Then I looked at the NHL logo … and then of course I was beginning to see the signatures on it."
He said his head started spinning "pretty quickly."
"You get pretty excited when you see something like that. You don't exactly know what to do, quite frankly," he said.
‘I felt a bit like I was stealing’
When he looked at the price tag, it said $26. That was when Ron knew he had to quickly grab the jersey and check out as quickly as possible.
"I felt a bit like I was stealing it. It had that, 'man, I got to get out of here with this thing.'"
Cruikshank is still unsure if the signatures are authentic, and he may never know. However, he believes the jersey is worth much more than what he had originally paid for it.
"I didn't know anything about autographs or memorabilia at that time. So I looked up to see whether it was real," Cruikshank said.
Cruikshank then took the jersey down to Ottawa to get it verified. Firstly he tried the Ottawa Senators team store, where the manager took a look at it and believed it was real. He then told Cruikshank to take it down to the Hockey Hall Of Fame in Toronto to get authenticity papers to go with it.
Cruikshank still hasn't done so, and is unsure if he ever plan's to do it.
From Atlanta to Whitehorse
The 2008 All-star game took place in Atlanta, Georgia. Which makes it quite a mystery how the jersey ended up at a second-hand store in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Today, he still considers it the most valuable thing in his home.
"This is like a TV show," he said, "where you find something valuable just on your day, walking around a store in Whitehorse."
