In our society you need a license to catch a fish, but not to have a baby. / I'm just here to look around

One of the many reasons I'm madly in love with my wife.


This weekend, the Peoria Rivermen had their annual equipment sale. I’d never been to it before so I decided to check it out.

The Rivermen are an AHL team so they are one step below the NHL and use the very best gear available.

I got there about 10 min early and they had already opened up shop. I saw basically all the guys I know from the rink browsing around.

At first I was only going to buy a couple pairs of hockey socks for $10, but then I saw they had brand new, never used Pro Stock CCM pants for $50. I hate my current pants, CCM 852’s, because they don’t lace up in the front crotch area, and only have one belt. They were constantly falling down so I had to buy suspenders for them, which chafe all game long. I tried on the Pro Stock pants and they fit nice. These would retail for just under $300 so I figured I’d be a fool not to buy them.

Then I saw my buddy Phil, who is a hockey stick connoisseur (whore, and I mean that in the nicest way). He told me they were selling RBK 7V’s but they only had left handed shots. He was sad since he was a rightey. I went over and took a look. It was a nice stick, and it was only $50 too. Phil said even if I didn’t like it, I could sell it on ebay for $100. So I figured, why not.

I went and paid, and got the two pair of socks for free since the equipment manager told me he just wanted to get rid of them. I ended up getting about $500 worth of gear for $100.

There was an open hockey right after so I gave all my new stuff a try. It was sweet. The pants fit great, and the stick is pretty awesome. I’m not going to sell it, but I should have bought all 7 or so of the sticks and sold them on Ebay. A brand new RBK 7V stick is going for $140 right now. I could have turned an $80-$100 profit on each stick. Oh well, there’s always next year.