..but every now and then I’ll pick up the odd game used jersey, stick or relic card.
This pair here–from the 2001-02 Topps Archives Hockey set–cost me a whopping $3. That’s about all I really want to spend on game used or relic cards.The top card uses a piece of a seat from the old Pittsburgh Civic Arena, while the bottom card uses a piece of a jersey worn by former Minnesota North Stars player Bobby Smith.
Confession time: Back in 2002, I thought the jersey cards were a pretty neat idea. I had never seen them before, as I took a break from hockey card collecting from 1998 to 2002. So even though the idea had been around, it was new to me. It was the 2002 Winter Olympics that got me re-interested in collecting hockey cards, and I attempted to collect every jersey, stick and relic card from the Archives set.
But over the past 8 years, I’ve been slow in this collecting endeavor. I have only 5 of 28 Arena Seat Relics cards, 1 of 3 game used stick cards and 5 of 12 game used jersey cards.
So while I will still continue to hate on jersey cards, I’ll make a minor exception whenever I see one of these…especially when they’re only a dollar or two each.