I'm usually in net, but I can't help but pick up player sticks if I spot them at a good price. Since I started playing around 2002, I'm definitely partial to my Easton sticks/shafts from when I first started.
Mike Green is using a stick that hasn’t been manufactured for nearly a decade - TheHockeyNews
Awhile back, Mike Green was trying to find all of his discontinued Easton Stealth CNT sticks since he didn't like the feel of the newer models. I had that stick and posted a pic of it on an old thread on this board and somebody randomly reached out to me and asked if I'd be open to selling it.
I bought a couple cheap Easton Cyclone senior 70 flex shafts but gave them to friends. I wish I had kept one since I loved the feel of the rounded corners.
My buddy's cousin used to work for Easton, so he'd get some test sticks periodically. He ended up giving me the original Easton Stealth for free, but somebody swiped it at the rink a few years later. Back then, Easton used have a somewhat arbitrary ratings for Performance and Durability on their sticks/shafts. Presumably the scale was 1-10, but the Stealth comically was listed at 11 (my Synergy SL is 10.5). Naturally that reminded of This is Spinal Tap. I wish I still had that stick if only I could say "this stick goes to eleven."
And then a random story about that Synergy SL. A hockey teammate also must have had a connection with Easton as he showed up to the rink one day with like ten of them sealed in plastic. He was selling them for half off retail, so I bought one even though 100 flex was too stiff for me. Back then I checked an equipment message board called ModSquadHockey frequently and they had a classified section to buy/sell/trade gear.
One day I worked out a trade to send out the SL to some guy in Buffalo who was supposed to send me a new pair of Bauer XXX gloves. I sent out the stick, but the gloves never showed up. I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt, but he kept giving me the runaround. Some other posters also said they'd been stiffed by that guy. I gave up hope and was venting to a buddy about it. Buddy then went the extra mile and tracked the guy down. Ended up being some teenager, his dad said he had concocted a story about the Sabres gifting him free equipment. My buddy threatened to bring it to litigation and the kid eventually mailed my stick back. Sadly that friend passed away a year later due to a boating accident, so I've kept that stick as a momento to him.
I loved my Mission M-1 stick from back in the day. My local store had the intermediate mismarked as a junior stick, so I got it for more than 50% off. Recently picked up a Mission L-2 tapered shaft from the same era for $20. At some point, I think Mission started working with Callaway golf near San Diego. An employee posted some wacky test shafts for super cheap and I picked them up. I wish I remember what I did with them (probably just sold them at cost to friends). Just wacky things like a senior shaft that was 45 flex.
In recent years, I've managed to curtail my stick buying habit to a degree. I picked up a Patrik Elias pro return CCM RBZ Stage 2 stick which I keep as a souvenir. I have one friend who has a connection with Warrior hockey and they do manufacturing across the border in Tijuana. So maybe once a year, that friend gets a bunch of test sticks to distribute. Last year he gave me an Taylor Hall Easton Synergy HTX stick; Easton's more or less kaput, so those players wanted the various companies to clone the sticks they had been using. And speaking of Easton, the last time I splurged on a player stick was the Easton GX which might be the last model that they ever released.
Last year my car got stolen and I had a handful of goalie sticks in there plus a couple player sticks and a pair of Adam Henrique pro return Warrior gloves. Was almost more upset about the equipment than the car (which was recovered a few months later). In particular I was annoyed since I had retired this rare-ish Reebok composite goalie stick but brought it back for my last playoff game in my beer league. It had been sitting in my garage for years, but I had decided on a whim to break it out.
And then I file this one under "God, you're stupid." I started playing goal in 2002 and I had zero idea what I was doing. The first thing I splurged on was a replica Brodeur mask. Another goalie saw that I was a Devils fan and he gave me a pro return Brodeur Heaton 10 stick. I didn't grasp that I should keep this as a souvenir rather that use it. I think the other guy had played with it, so it wasn't in the greatest shape so it became my backup stick. One day, my friend says he's going to play in a tournament out of town and that his cousin needs to borrow a goalie stick. So I give him the Brodeur stick. The following week I'm expecting my friend to give back the stick and he's like "Oh crap, I think my cousin left it at the rink." So that stick was lost forever.
One did pop up on eBay a few years back and I paid more than I should have for it. I also used to have the senior model of the Heaton 10 leg pads + glove/blocker, but I sold those to a friend which I regretted years later. I bought a lightly used glove years after.
A couple years ago, a set of pro return Heaton 10 Brodeur pads were on eBay and I decided to splurge. I was always fond of those pads since that model was what Brodeur used for the 2002 Olympics and 2003 Stanley Cup.