The 2005-06 Beehive Hockey set is one that I’ve long wanted to build. So when I found a sealed box at the National earlier this month for $50, I snapped it up. The set contains 180 standard-sized cards and 70 oversized cards — the latter resembling the old “Beehive Photos” kids collected during the Original Six Era. Each pack has four regular cards and one large card, and the box has 15 packs. Here’s what I got:
36 Base Cards – The base cards in the 2005-06 Beehive Hockey set come in a multitude of border colors, including blue, teal, maroon, red and green. This is confusing, since the variant cards also come in different colors. What really disappointed me, though, is that 13 of the 36 cards were duplicates. Not good, since there are 90 different base cards to collect.
4 Beehive Rookies – Only the yellow-bordered cards that say “Beehive Rookies” actually “count” as rookie cards in this set. The four I got were Lee Stempniak, Steve Bernier, Christoph Schubert and Brad Winchester.
14 Jumbo 5″x7″ cards – Fortunately, one of the Jumbo cards I got was Sidney Crosby. It is not considered a rookie card, though, since the five jumbo rookie cards are numbered R1 – R5, whereas the rest of the Jumbos are numbered 181 – 250.
11 Red Border Parallels – These parallel cards use a close-up instead of an action shot, and are my favorite cards in the set. Unfortunately, not every card in this set has a Red Border parallel. Only 50 of the base cards (skip numbered) and 50 of the rookie cards (101 to 150) have Red Border parallels. I’m definitely going to try and collect all 100 of these parallel cards, as I think that the portrait shots surrounded by the faux frame look really good.
3 Blue Border Parallels – The ones I pulled were Steve Yzerman, Keith Primeau and Mats Sundin.
1 Beige Border Parallel Card – Sigh. Whatever.
2 Matted Materials game used jersey cards – Sorry if I sound unenthused, but the Nikolai Khabibulin card (top) uses a swatch from a Tampa Bay Lighting jersey, but pictures him with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Pavel Datsyuk card (bottom) is cool, but has a bit of a “ding” in the bottom center.
1 Beehive Signature Scrapbook card – One of the two autographs I got in this box was of Ryan Whitney, here pictured as a rookie with the Pittsburgh Penguins. The signature is on-card and in blue Sharpie marker.
1 Jumbo Autograph Card – What are the odds that I would get Eric Staal? Not to sound like I’m complaining (though I am), but I own exactly one other Jumbo Autograph card from this set. Care to guess which one it is? (FYI, this card is avaialbe for trade if you want it — I really don’t need two of this card in my collection).
Overall, this was a fun break for $50. I got a few autographs, and had the chance to get rookie cards of Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin. Though I did not pull an Ovie card, the Jumbo “not-an-RC” card of Crosby was a nice pull. Getting two autographs in a box (even if I already had one of them) is also nice. I doubt that I will find another box of these for such a good price, so if you have any cards from this set to trade, let me know.
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Hey Sal, thanks for sharing! I have never broke this before but I did manage to get a couple game used cards in some repacks before but they aren’t anything anyone would ever want.
I am interested in the Eric Staal. I already have a Mark and Jordan auto so it only makes sense the I get the Thunder Bay Trifecteta.
OK, Dave. You got dibs on the Staal. I’ll set it aside for you.
Thanks Sal, and I blame my lack of sleep last night on the misspelling of “Marc” ‘s name.
To bring this article back from the past… there is also a yellow parallel similar to the zoomed in red parallels, but describe the history of Beehive on the back
Red Back (1:2 Packs);
Blue Back (1:5 Packs);
Beige Back (1:15 Packs);
Beehive Back (1:480 Packs)
There was also a yellow matted version #/25