Bowman Archives - Puck Junk

Puck Junk Podcast: 1990-91 Bowman Hockey Cards

Part 1 of the ’90-91 Retrospective Series
Episode #88: April 8, 2021

Thirty years ago was the “Hockey Card Explosion,” when hockey cards skyrocketed in popularity as several new companies entered the market. In this multipart podcast series, Sal Barry and Tim Parish will take a look back at a different set from the 1990-91 season. First up, it is the 1990-91 Bowman Hockey set, which was quite possibly the worst set released that year — from its dark and uninspired photos, to the questionable player selection, to the “fancy stats” on the back that no one asked for. It’s one hour of hockey nostalgia goodness!

Show Notes, Links and Images:
Write us a review at Apple Podcasts (link)
1990-91 Bowman Hockey Checklist (Trading Card DB)
1990-91 Bowman Hockey Wrapper & Factory Set Box Pics (Trading Card DB)
1990-91 Bowman Hockey Error Cards (Puck Junk)
Every 1990-91 Hockey Card Set Ranked (Puck Junk)
1990-91 Bowman Hockey card images:

1990-91 Bowman #143 – Wayne Gretzky

1990-91 Bowman #143 – Wayne Gretzky (back)

1990-91 Bowman #143 – Wayne Gretzky “Tiffany” Version

1990-91 Bowman #143 – Wayne Gretzky “Tiffany” Version (back)

1990-91 Bowman #7 – Ed Belfour (Rookie Card)

1990-91 Bowman #204 – Mario Lemieux

1990-91 Bowman #24 – Brett Hull

1990-91 Bowman #50 – Patrick Roy

1990-91 Bowman #1 – Jeremy Roenick (Rookie Card)

1990-91 Bowman #259 – Chris Govedaris (Rookie Card)

1990-91 Bowman #181 – Clark Donatelli (Rookie Card)
Donatelli captained the 1992 U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team

1990-91 Bowman #6 – Denis Savard
This card uses a photo that is from the 1988-89 season

1990-91 Bowman #55 – Jim Sandlak
This card uses a photo from the latter half of the 1988-89 season, as evidenced by the “BABE” patch the Canucks wore to honor
Cecil “Babe” Dye.

1990-91 Bowman #32 – Rejean Lemelin
Lemelin looks like Mr. Wilson from “Dennis the Menace,” doesn’t he?

1990-91 Bowman #197 – Petr Klima
He looks like a scaled-down version of Andre the Giant

1990-91 Bowman #168 – Tony McKegney
He looks like he is trying to skate off of his own card!

1990-91 Bowman #46 – Petr Svoboda Error (pictures Chris Chelios)

1990-91 Bowman #215 – Brian Leetch Error (missing “L” in last name)

1990-91 Bowman Hat Tricks Inserts #2 – Mario Lemieux

1990-91 Bowman Hat Tricks Inserts #2 – Mario Lemieux (back)

1990-91 Bowman Hat Tricks Inserts #5 – Steve Yzerman

1990-91 Bowman Hockey Wrapper

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast opening and closing music by Jim “Not the Goalie” Howard.

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group and subscribe to Puck Junk on YouTube.

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

Puck Junk Podcast: July 16, 2020

1992-93 Bowman Hockey Cards

It’s been a little over a week, but the Puck Junk Podcast is back and at least as good as the last time! In this episode, Sal Barry and Tim Parish talk about the upcoming restart of the NHL season, as well as the NHL Awards nominees. Then they take an in-depth look at the 1992-93 Bowman Hockey card set that is often overlooked because it was relatively underproduced. Plus, those gosh darn gold-foil single prints make it a pain to complete. This episode weighs in at 1 hour 40 minutes of hockey goodness.

Show Notes, Links and Images:
Game Dated Moments for Week 40 (Upper Deck Blog)
President’s Choice “Journey” cards (President’s Choice Trading Cards)
Every 1992-93 Hockey Card Set Ranked (Puck Junk)
1993-94 Topps Stadium Club All-Star insert cards (Puck Junk)
1992-93 Bowman Hockey checklist (Trading Card DB)
1992-93 Bowman Hockey card images:

#74 – Patrick Roy
FYI, this set uses the same design as 1992 Bowman Baseball.

#74 – Patrick Roy (back)
Click the image to see the “potato sack texture.”

#329 – Vincent Damphousse

#329 – Vincent Damphousse (back)

#11 – Garry Galley.
With special guest Wayne Gretzky

#162 – P-Dork!!!!

#302 – Jaromir Jagr

#32 – Guy Hebert RC
Hands-down the best rookie card in the set.

#356 – Dan Lambert
Rockin’ the rec specs!

Not listed on your checklist: #442 – Eric Lindros

#207 – Wayne Gretzky All-Star (Gold Foil)

#207 – Wayne Gretzky All-Star (Gold Foil) (back)
Even the foil All-Star cards got the “potato sack” treatment.

#241 – Kevin Stevens All-Star (Gold Foil)

#440 – Mario Lemieux Conn Smythe Trophy (Gold Foil)

#440 – Mario Lemieux Conn Smythe Trophy (Gold Foil) (back)

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast music by Jim “Not the Goalie” Howard.

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group and subscribe to Puck Junk on YouTube.

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

Every 1992-93 Hockey Card Set Ranked

Trading card companies continued to raise the stakes during the 1992-93 season, as the hockey card market continued to boom. Fleer entered the marketplace with its premium “Ultra” set, while Score doubled down, making truly unique sets for the U.S. and Canadian markets. Coincidentally, for the first time in their 25-year partnership, Topps and O-Pee-Chee released hockey sets that were different in design from one another. Meanwhile, Upper Deck continued to thrive, while Pro Set barely limped to the finish line. A lot happened with hockey cards 25 years ago.

However, the biggest news in hockey collectibles at the time was that 19-year old rookie Eric Lindros was going to make his NHL debut. Up until that point, only Score could legally include Lindros in its sets, due to an endorsement deal he signed with Score in 1990. That deal expired once Lindros became an active NHL player. With his debut imminent, but no photo of Lindros in a Flyers uniform readily available, the card companies had to figure out how they were going to include “The Next One” in its hockey card sets.

Here are my rankings of all 13 major hockey card sets released during the 1992-93 season. I count Score Pinnacle “U.S.” and “Canadian” (or “English” and “Bilingual,” if you prefer) as separate sets for reasons I’ll explain later. Also, this list does not include Panini stickers, because most collectors don’t consider those as “cards.” Nor does this list include small sets like McDonald’s, or oddball stuff like Season’s Action Patches.

So, will Upper Deck be number one for three years in a row?

Continue reading “Every 1992-93 Hockey Card Set Ranked”

Every 1991-92 Hockey Card Set Ranked

While a lot of hockey cards were made during the 1990-91 season, the 1991-92 season was like a movie sequel: bigger and bolder, with more of everything.

More cards? Check.

Larger sets? That too.

Extra inserts? You bet!

The amount of sets made, and cards to collect, nearly doubled, with companies releasing two or three sets each in an attempt to cash in on the boom. Hockey card revenue from the 1991-92 season, generated from the brisk sales, spiked to $15 million and was even a major cause of the 1992 NHL Players’ Strike.

That’s funny if you think about it, because hockey cards in the 1991-92 season were worth $15 million to the players and owners – money worth fighting over — and yet hockey cards from that year are practically worthless today.

But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t open up your collection a little bit to some of these “neo-vintage” (don’t call ’em “junk wax”) sets. Maybe you have room in your collection for one, or a few, of these — assuming you don’t have them already. So here is my ranking of every 1991-92 hockey card set.

Continue reading “Every 1991-92 Hockey Card Set Ranked”