Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Today is Halloween, and I would like to point out an article that I wrote in October 2007–back when NO ONE was visiting this site. It is a review of a comic book story entitled The Hockey-Mask of Death.
So bad that it’s good? Or just plain bad? You decide.
As I mentioned last week, I am now trying to build a set of 1957-58 Topps Hockey. Here are 3 cards that bring me closer to completing the 66-card set:
#18 – Leo Boivin – Boston Bruins – Boivin played 18 seasons in the NHL, and was a member of the inaugural Pittsburgh Penguins team in 1967-68. The next season, he would play on the Minnesota North Stars with this guy…
#27 – Elmer “Moose” Vasko – Standing at 6’2″, Vasko was a large defenseman back in the day. He was a member of the Blackhawks team that won the Stanley Cup in 1961. Interestingly, he was once fined $100 by the North Stars for not playing aggressively enough.
#29 – Ron Murphy – Chicago Blackhawks – Murphy played in the NHL for 18 seasons, and was also a member of the ’61 Cup-winning ‘Hawks team.
Yesterday, I sold hockey cards at a sports card show. Or, more accurately, tried to sell hockey cards at a sports card show.
As good as this show has been in the past (at least, from a buyer’s perspective), a few things kept this show from being profitable for me.
Did I break even? Sort of. The table cost me $40. I sold $40 worth of stuff.
The show went from 9 AM to 2 PM. Here’s a quick rundown…
8:10 AM – Arrive at the show.
8:45 AM – All set up. If you build it, they will come…
9:10 AM – OK, maybe not. Perhaps this was too ambitious of an endeavour.
9:15 AM – Made my first sale. $20. A few other small sales follow.
10:00 AM – Still haven’t broken even.
10:30 AM – Haven’t sold a thing in 40 minutes.
11:10 AM – The room has gotten loud. More people. Maybe things will pick up.
11:50 AM – Finally broke even. Just over 2 hours left in the show.
12:05 PM – A hush falls across the room. One dealer has packed up and left.
12:30 PM – The Bears are playing? Really? I wish I thought of that before deciding to sell at this show.
12:50 PM – The only people looking at my table are other dealers. At this point, about half of the 50 or so vendors have either left or are packing up.
1:15 PM – I decide to call it quits, and pack up my table.
1:30 PM – Sal-vis has left the building.
So, what went wrong?
First, few people came. I’ve seen this show get crowded, but unfortunately not this time.
Second, the economy is still bad. Back in the day, most collectors would spend $5 on a card they wanted. Now, they either try to buy it for $3 or don’t buy it at all.
Third, the $%&* Bears were playing! Whatever small buzz the show had was pretty much killed once the Bears game started.
What really riles me, though, is that many of the people I saw were wearing Blackhawks apparel, and yet they didn’t want any of my sweet ‘Hawks stuff.
Anyway, here’s a few pictures of my set up:
Blackhawks cards from 1970 to 2010. .There’s also some old team calenders and a few other odds n’ ends.
Complete sets. Sure, a lot of it is “junk wax” era, but some of it was newer. I even had a few insert sets from the 1970s, and a complete 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee set for sale.
Non-Blackhawks hockey cards, including 2010-11 Victory Rookies, some 2009-10 Young Guns, and other decent cards from the late 1960s through the 1980s.
I had the most hockey cards and memorabilia at the show, my prices were great (seriously), but few people equals few sales.
The promoter–who is a very nice man–asked me if I wanted to do this show next month. I politely told him no, but said that I might be up for trying this again in a couple of months.
And the crazy thing is, I just might try again.
Or maybe that’s a stupid thing…
I have more thoughts on this, but those will be saved for a future blog post.
So, for the first time in 15 years, I plunked down some money to rent a table at a sports card show.
Yes, I’ll be at a card show…but to SELL, not to BUY. What a twist!
The show happens this Sunday, October 24.
Everyone near Chicago who reads this blog should come to the show and buy my hockey cards and memorabilia. Here are the details:
Sports Card & More ShowSunday, October 24, 20109 AM to 2 PMOrland Park Civic Center1 blk. W. of La Grange Rd at 147th St.Admission: $1
I’ll even provide this map to make your journey easier….
Still not sure? Well, you can follow this link to get driving directions from your place to the show.
So, why am I selling at card show? Although I am in this hobby for the enjoyment it gives me, I’ve got too much stuff and need to clear out some space. And hopefully make enough cash to buy some of the upcoming products like Certified and Score.
Plus, hockey is (relatively) huge in Chicago right now, so I can’t think of a better time to sell hockey cards and collectibles. At a garage sale in June, I sold quite a few Blackhawks items. And during an “Art & Collectibles Show” in September, I actually did quite well selling hockey cards. Thus, selling at a card show seems like a no-brainer.
Still, there are risks involved–time and money. Cost of the table, gas, food, hiring a dog walker…and cost of placating my girlfriend who will be helping me at the show.
Plus, I’ll probably feel like a fool if I don’t at least break even on my expenses.
I used to sell at card shows in the 1990s, when I was an ambitious teenager. Some days I made a killing, and others I did just OK. But I always had fun. Hopefully, I will have fun this Sunday.
If you read this blog and decide to go to this show, drop by my table and say “hi”.
Last week on a whim, I decided to pick up some cards from the 1957-58 Topps Hockey Set. I purchased 7 fair grade cards, only paying about $2 or $3 per card…
Getting these cards makes me want to try and complete the 1957-58 Topps Set. Sure, some of the cards are really expensive, like Gordie Howe, Johnny Bucyk (RC), Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall (RC).
But there are only 66 cards in the set, so while some cards are in the $100-$300 range, most of them are not.
The cards you see here don’t look the greatest–some have rounded corners and small creases. They do look a lot better once put in a card page. (Except for the back of that Dean Prentice card–whoa!).
I’ve lowered my standards a bit when it comes to really old cards and condition. Sure, we all want a near-mint card that is 50 years old…but then you have to pay the price. For most of these old cards, I’ll settle for lesser quality if it means picking them up on the cheap.
Remember that old commercial where the boy asks Mr. Owl “how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?”
Well, getting my new issue of Beckett Hockey Magazine, I wondered how many minutes it would take me to read this magazine.
In the past, I’ve complained that Beckett is 80% price guide, 8% advertisements and only 12% content that you actually read–and yet I subscribed to it because I got it for $3 an issue.
Is it worth it? I guess that depends on how long it entertains me.
Thus, I decided to time myself reading the new issue of Beckett Hockey. I read all the articles and even the advertisements–those are of interest to hockey card collectors. And though I flipped through the price guide, I didn’t read that part page-by-page–that’s pretty unrealistic, as no one would read the price guide page-by-page, line-by line like they would a book or mag.
So, how long does it take to get to the end of a Beckett Hockey Magazine?
For me, 22 minutes, 34 seconds…and 57 one-hundredths of a second (if you want to get all “Olympic Time Trials” about it). I made sure not to just skim the pages, but actually read them.
I guess 22-plus minutes isn’t a bad read. However, it was the content itself that was lacking:
Twenty-two minutes well spent? I’m not so sure. I wish there was just more interesting stuff to read besides box breakdowns, previews of products we already know about and being told why I should collect a player that everyone is going to collect. Talk about a set from 30 years ago, or some obscure small release we might have missed from 2000. Anything is better than “What We Got in a Box of Premier.”
Twenty years ago was the 1990-91 season–a season in hockey that I will never forget. My Aunt Gayle had season tickets to the Chicago Blackhawks, and I went to a lot of games that year. The ‘Hawks were the best team during the regular season. The All-Star Game was in Chicago. And let us not forget that the hockey card scene EXPLODED in 1990-91…but that’s another story.
Being 15 years old at the time and into everything hockey, I saved a lot of stuff from that year. Not just the cards, but anything I could get my hands on. Here is a roster sheet from the annual 1990 Blackhawks Red Vs. White Scrimmage–or the “Red-White Game” as us ‘Hawks fans called it. Continue reading “1990 Blackhawks Red-White Scrimmage Roster”
Here is a video I put together about the first set of the 2010-11 season, Upper Deck Victory.
Today is this website’s 3rd Birthday...or Anniversary…or whatever websites celebrate.
Though I wanted to launch Puck Junk much sooner–I got the idea in fall 2006 and started designing it in spring of 2007–I didn’t actually get around to launch it until October 5, 2007.
I like hockey cards, writing and making websites. This site seemed like a good combination of the three. And I’m glad I followed through with it.
I won’t beat myself up on how I wish I was writing more. We bloggers do the best we can, given that this is a hobby and not a full-time job.
But I am proud to say that I’ve written more during the past year than in either of the previous 2.
In 3 relatively short years, I went from a site that got maybe a dozen visits a month to a site that gets around 2,000. Not quite Amazon.com-level traffic, but I appreciate that anyone would want to read what I write.
And I’ve become “online friends” with other bloggers who also share my passion of collecting and reminiscing.
Some readers have sent me cards to help out my collection–not because they want anything in exchange, but because they enjoy this site.
A few people have told me how they’ve dug out their “old” cards from the 1990s, and have started collecting again. One guy mentioned that he was going try and finish his 1990-91 Pro Set hockey set with his 6-year old son.
So this site has done more than just help me blab about my collection. In some small way, I’ve been able to contribute to the hobby.
But enough about me…and this site. October 5 is an important day for 2 very good reasons…
Both Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy were born on October 5, 1965.
For those bad at math, that makes them 45 years old. A crazy coincidence that two of the greatest hockey players ever would be born in Quebec on the exact same date.
Why hasn’t Quebec made October 5 a holiday? If not for Puck Junk, then for Mario and Patrick.
I got a package in the mail on Friday, but I wasn’t expecting anything. No recent trades, no eBay purchases. What could this be? Waitaminute….
..the postmark reads Nov. 05, ’09. This was sent out almost a year ago.
Quickly opening the package, I found this:
A 1990-91 Boston Bruins team-issue set. That’s strange…I already have one.
And then I remembered. I bought this on eBay a year ago. A month after paying for it, I still hadn’t received it so the seller sent me a second set, which I did receive. I guess the eBay seller’s first attempt finally made it through, 11 months later.
Gotta love the post office.
Anyway, I reviewed this set last year. If anyone is interested in trading for this one, it is available.