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.
Just a quick note, though: I do not count “English” and “French” versions as two separate sets, unless there is a major difference between the versions. Also, only large sets were ranked here, so sets like McDonald’s, Gillette, Kellogg’s or Pro Set Puck are omitted.
OK, onto the rankings.
#1 – Upper Deck
Number of Cards: 700 cards. 1-500 were the regular “low series” set, while 501-700 were only found in “High Number Series” packs.
Insert Cards: Ten Brett Hull “Hockey Heroes” cards were found randomly inserted in low-number series packs. 2,500 cards signed by Hull were randomly inserted in packs. Nine “Award Winner” Holograms were issued, with some found in low-series packs and some in high-series packs. 18 “Euro-Stars” were found one per jumbo pack. Finally, there were five different “box-bottom cards” that measured 5″ x 7″ and were blank on the back.
Original Cost: 89 cents for a 12-card pack. Packs released later in the season had a mix of low and high series cards. The entire “High Number Series” was also sold in a boxed set for around $15. Jumbo packs, containing 17 cards, were available too.
Language Variations: English-only and French-only versions.
Notable Rookie Cards: Teemu Selanne, Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek, Peter Forsberg, John LeClair, Tony Amonte and Doug Weight.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Ralph Barahona, Jason Cirone, Sylvain Couturier, Dan Currie, Mario Doyon, Don Gibson, Todd Hartje, Ron Hoover, Marcus Ketterer, Jamie Matthews, Brian McReynolds, Eric Murano, Jason Prosofsky, Ken Quinney, Brian Sakic, Joel Savage, Jiri Sejba, Andrew Verner and Mark Vermette. But hey, when a set has 173 rookie cards, a few are going to be clunkers.
Why Upper Deck is #1: Upper Deck was the best hockey card set during 1990-91, and repeated as the best a season later. Unlike their competitors who made several sets apiece, the Upper Deck company focused on making just one amazing set of hockey cards and it shows. Most cards had a stellar photograph on the front, and a second — sometimes better — photo on the back. Upper Deck also included cards of players from the Canada Cup and World Junior Championship tournaments as well as recent draft picks. That willingness to expand beyond just NHL players resulted in Upper Deck being the first company to make cards of Teemu Selanne and Peter Forsberg. Upper Deck also improved the artwork on their team checklists, and threw in a few more illustrated cards to commemorate milestones. It would still take a few more years before Upper Deck’s competitors would match the quality of what they had been doing all along.
Lasting Legacy: Twenty-five years later, Upper Deck is the only company still making NHL trading cards (and yes, I am aware of the Topps Skate digital trading card app). Today, arguably no hockey card set is as hotly anticipated as Upper Deck’s flagship “Upper Deck” Series One and Series Two sets. Any serious hockey card collection should make room for Upper Deck’s 1991-92 set.
#2 – Score Canadian
Number of Cards: 660 cards. Series One consisted of 330 cards, while Series Two added another 330 cards.
Random Inserts: A six-card Bobby Orr insert set was randomly found in the 15-card packs. Orr cards 1 and 2 were found in Canadian and American packs; cards 3 and 4 were found only in Canadian packs; and cards 5 and 6 were found only in American packs. There was also a chance at pulling one of 2,500 cards autographed by Orr. Meanwhile, 10 different “Hot Cards” of an NHL star were found one per blister pack.
Original Cost: 50 cents for a 15-card pack. Blister packs contained 100 cards, plus one “Hot Card” insert.
Language Variations: English-only and Bilingual (English/French) versions.
Notable Rookie Cards: Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek, John LeClair, Tony Amonte and Doug Weight. Score Canadian is also the only 1991-92 set to include a rookie card of longtime NHL enforcer Tony Twist.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Kevin Evans
Why Score Canadian #2: Those diagonal lines framing the picture, the gratuitous drop shadow that lovely gradient and those brightly-colored red and blue borders that punch you in the retinas. Pretty much every 1990s’ graphic design troupe is found on these cards, but it works. Upper Deck may have produced the biggest and best hockey card set from 1991-92, but Score Canadian is the nicest-looking. Props to Score for trying a few interesting ideas here, like “NHL Brothers” (which Upper Deck would copy with their “Bloodlines” subset), “Dream Team” illustrated cards and “The Franchise” horizontal cards, which cleverly riff on the 1956 Topps Baseball design.
Lasting Legacy: From 1990-91 to 1993-94, Score would issue separate hockey sets for the American and Canadian markets, but would release English-only hockey sets starting in 1994-95.
#3 – Pro Set Platinum
Number of Cards: 300 cards. Series One consisted of cards 1-150, while Series Two had cards 151-300.
Random Inserts: 20 “Platinum Collectibles” insert cards. The first 10 were found in Series One packs, and the latter 10 were found in Series Two packs.
Original Cost: $1 for a 12-card pack.
Language Variations: This set was produced only in English.
Notable Rookie Cards: Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, John LeClair and Tony Amonte.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: None. Pro Set Platinum focused on the NHL’s best players and most promising rookies.
Why Pro Set Platinum is #3: What Pro Set Platinum lacks in size, it made up for in quality – and for daring to be different. Hockey card sets were now routinely over 500 cards, but Pro Set’s Platinum set went in the opposite direction, making two small, 150-card sets that focused on the NHL’s top players and most promising rookies. Cards were printed full-bleed and were glossy, and two-thirds of the back was taken up by a different photograph. Instead of trying to cram in statistics, the card backs instead had a short paragraph explaining why the player was a “Platinum Performer” or “Platinum Prospect.” These cards exuded class and quality in the 1990s.
Fun Fact: 1991-92 was the NHL’s 75th Anniversary, and every team appointed a Celebrity Captain for that season. Pro Set Platinum made cards for 12 of those captains, including Fred “Mister” Rogers.
Lasting Legacy: Pro Set Platinum only lasted one season. The Pro Set corporation filed for bankruptcy in fall of 1992 and did not reprise the Platinum idea for 1992-93. But maybe the fact that the set was a one-hit wonder is what made it so cool?
Bonus: Here’s a full review of 1991-92 Pro Set Platinum.
#4 – Pro Set
Number of Cards: 345 cards in Series One and another 270 cards in Series Two for a total of 615 cards.
Random Inserts: Four different “CC” insert cards were found in Series One packs, while five more were found in Series Two packs. 500 cards signed by Kirk McLean were randomly found in English packs. 1,000 copies of Patrick Roy’s Series One card (#125) were autographed and found in French Series One packs. Another 1,000 copies of Patrick Roy’s Series Two card (#599) were found in French Series Two packs. Finally, 10,000 NHL 75th Anniversary holograms were randomly found in Series Two packs.
Original Cost: 50 cents for a pack containing 15 cards and one scratch-off game piece / discount card.
Language Variations: English-only and French-only versions.
Notable Rookie Cards: Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tony Amonte, John LeClair…and Bill Barilko?
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Martin Simard
Why Pro Set is #4: 1991-92 Pro Set Hockey was a great set of cards, but nowhere near as ambitious as it’s counterpart from 1990-91. Gone were cards of coaches and referees, replaced with cards of team captains and mid-season leader cards. Pro Set issued historical cards that looked back at the NHL’s 75 years and some of the league’s best players. Pro Set also gets props for making a card of every player in the 1991 NHL All-Star Game.
Fun Fact: The CC cards of Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer were pulled early during production, because Pro Set did not secure the necessary permission to include those two in the set. So, they’re kind of rare nowadays. Back in 1991, they were solid $20 cards; today, not so much.
Lasting Legacy: Pro Set cards from 1991-92 are about as worthless as Pro Set cards from 1990-91. You’ll spend more on nine-pocket pages to put the set in than on the set itself, but it still is nice to look at.
#5 – Parkhurst
Number of Cards: 475. Cards 1-225 were released as Series One, while cards 226-450 made up Series Two. A “Final Update Set” contained the last 25 cards and was available for purchase via mail order.
Random Inserts: Nine different “Parkhurst Collectibles” (PHC) inserts, with cards 1-5 found in Series One packs and cards 6-9 found in Series Two packs. A card of Santa Claus was randomly found in Series One packs. Really.
Original Cost: Around $1 for a 12-card pack.
Language Variations: English-only and French-only versions of Series One and Series Two. The Final Update Set was produced only in English.
Notable Rookie Cards: Keith Tkachuk, Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Tony Amonte, Doug Weight, John LeClair and Bill Guerin. Ironically, the Guerin card will cost you more than the other six cards combined, since it was found only in English in the Final Update Set.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Ray LeBlanc.
Why Parkhurst is #5: When I wrote a review of the 1991-92 Parkhurst set back in 2007, I was harsh; perhaps a bit too harsh. Ten years later, I appreciate this set for what it is. No, it isn’t perfect, but Pro Set bringing back the Parkhurst name was a smart move. The name gave it instant credibility with collectors who remembered the old “Parkies” from the 1950s and 1960s. The 1991-92 Parkhurt set has a quality feel to it, with full-bleed photography, gold ink and high gloss on both sides. The set used a lot of photos from the 1991-92 season, including many of players on Original Six teams wearing throwback sweaters. The Final Update Set, which came out after the season ended, included a recap of that season’s playoffs. Overall, Parkhurst may be the set from 1991-92 that best focuses on the 1991-92 season.
Fun Fact: Reportedly, less than 15,000 Final Update Sets were produced. With the exception of autographed inserts, that makes these last 25 Parkhurst cards the rarest cards from the 1991-92 season. That’s no small feat, considering how grossly overproduced hockey cards were that year.
Lasting Legacy: The name “Parkhurst” was synonymous with hockey cards for fans who collected in the 1950s and 1960s. Reviving the name in 1991 did that for a new generation of hockey fans, albeit to a lesser extent. The Parkhurst name has since been an active brand of hockey cards for the past quarter-century.
Bonus: Here’s a full review of 1991-92 Parkhurst Hockey.
#6 – O-Pee-Chee
Number of Cards: 528 cards sold in one series. Also available as a factory set.
Insert Cards: 66 insert cards – usually referred to as the “Sharks and Russians” set – feature nine players who were selected by the San Jose Sharks in the 1991 NHL Expansion Draft, 55 players from Soviet teams that toured the NHL in 1990-91 and two checklists.
Original Cost: 50 cents for a pack containing seven cards, one insert card and one stick of gum.
Language Variations: Bilingual (English/French) only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Tony Amonte, John LeClair, Valeri Kamensky, Sergei Zubov.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Jeff Madill and Dean Kolstad.
Why It Is #6: Had O-Pee-Chee been sold in two series – with the second series focusing on new rookies, draft picks and traded players – like sets #1 through #5 on this list, it would be ranked higher than #6. Photos are a nice mix of the usual warmup shots that O-Pee-Chee (and Topps, for that matter) relied on, along with some closeups or otherwise candid photos you wouldn’t see in any of the other sets. O-Pee-Chee even uses some studio portraits of players who were claimed by the Sharks in that summer’s expansion draft. But since O-Pee-Chee doesn’t have any cards of players who were traded over the summer in their new uniforms, or cards of draft picks or of players who debuted in 1991-92, the whole set seemed out of date by the time it was released. O-Pee-Chee gets some credibility for, well, being O-Pee-Chee, as well as being one of two sets made in 1991-92 to list the players’ entire career stats on the back.
Fun Facts: A faux-leather binder, with a gold-ink embossed design on the front, was available via mail order to hold your complete O-Pee-Chee set. It’s a classy-looking album worthy of an O-Pee-Chee set. Also, Alex Galchenyuk’s dad, also named Alex Galchenyuk, appears in the insert set.
Lasting Legacy: Whereas Parkhurst may have been synonymous with hockey cards in the 1950s and 1960s, O-Pee-Chee was synonymous with hockey cards in the 1970s and 1980s. But by the 1990s, the O-Pee-Chee Hockey set struggled to maintain relevance in a marketplace that was moving faster than it could keep up with. Still, if you are going to collect all of the O-Pee-Chee sets ever made, you will need this one.
# 7 – O-Pee-Chee Premier
Random Inserts: None.
Original Cost: If I remember correctly, around 69 cents for an eight-card pack. These were only available in Canada. Premier was also sold as a boxed set.
Language Variations: Bilingual (English/French) only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Tony Amonte, Nicklas Lidstrom, Doug Weight, John LeClair and Vladimir Konstantinov.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: Yanic Dupre
Why O-Pee-Chee Premier is #7: O-Pee-Chee Premier is a much nicer-looking set than O-Pee-Chee, but it has too eclectic of a checklist to rate any higher. Really, it’s all over the map. There are great players like Brett Hull and Wayne Gretzky, star players who recently changed teams like Brendan Shanahan and Grant Fuhr, journeymen types who were also traded like Barry Pederson and Rollie Melanson, and bottom-feeders who were thrown to the expansion San Jose Sharks. If you consider Premier as an “update” set for O-Pee-Chee, then it works pretty well. But just imagine how awesome it would have been if O-Pee-Chee used the Premier design for its standard set instead of copying what Topps did.
Fun Facts: 36 cards highlight records for the Original Six Teams. The front of Paul Coffey’s card notes that he broke the record for most goals by a defenseman.
Lasting Legacy: While the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier set was ridiculously hyped, the 1991-92 set didn’t even come close. Sure, it’s a nice looking set, and no one really disliked it, but it doesn’t have the aura that the original still has after two-plus decades.
#8 – Topps Stadium Club
Number of Cards: 400 cards sold in one series.
Insert Cards: None, but every pack had this special offer card to purchase a subscription to The Sporting News at a discounted price, so that you could enjoy its two whole pages of hockey coverage in each weekly issue. The offer card shows a linesman saving Keith Brown from getting his ass kicked by Rick Tocchet.
Original Cost: Gosh, I don’t remember. I think it was around $2 per pack for “12 Premium Hockey Cards.” I do recall spending $2.50 a pack on 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club Hockey, so $2 in 1991-92 sounds about right.
Language Variations: English only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Uh… Corey Millen and Bryan Marchment? There are only 12 rookie cards found in this set, and those two are about the best.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: None. Any scrub player in the 1991-92 Stadium Club set can be found in at least one other set from 1991-92.
Why It Is #8: Stadium Club had so much potential. The cards had high-gloss, ultraviolet coating, full-bleed “Kodak Photography,” full-color backs and gold foil-embossed logos and accents. But that Kodak photography was mainly used for pictures of players during warm-ups or stoppages of play. The back only lists one year of stats and shows the players “rookie card.” That was a neat idea for baseball, where Topps practically made a rookie card for every MLB player since 1952. But the “rookie cards” — yes, with deprecating quotes — shown on the backs of the Stadium Club Hockey cards leave much to be desired. For example, Stadium Club lists Mark Messier’s rookie card as 1986-87 Topps, even though Topps’ “sister company,” O-Pee-Chee, made Messier’s RC in its 1980-81 set. Stadium Club also claims that Jaromir Jagr’s rookie card is from the 1991-92 Topps set (which ironically uses the same photograph as Jagr’s rookie card from the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier set). Perhaps most hilarious is that Ed Belfour’s card claims that Eddie the Eagle’s RC is from 1991-92 Topps, totally ignoring his 1990-91 Bowman card THAT WAS MADE BY TOPPS!
Fun Fact: Those who joined the Topps’ “Stadium Club” for $29.95 received in the mail two different, 50-card, multi-sports sets, called “Charter Member” and “Members Only.” “Charter Member” had nine hockey cards, while “Members Only” had 13 hockey cards. The card fronts have similar designs to the standard Stadium Club cards, making these a sort of addendum to Stadium Club Hockey.
Lasting Legacy: Stadium Club did get better over the years, but the 1991-92 set wasn’t a good start.
#9 – Pinnacle
Number of Cards: 420, released in one series.
Random Inserts: 12 “Team Pinnacle” insets, also referred to as “Pinnacle B” since the cards are numbered B-1 to B-12 on the back.
Original Cost: Around 99 cents for a 12-card pack.
Language Variations: English-only and French-only versions.
Notable Rookie Cards: Tony Amonte, Doug Weight, John LeClair, Nicklas Lidstrom, Geoff Sanderson and Vladimir Konstantinov.
Scrub Players Found Only In This Set: None. Any scrub player in the 1991-92 Pinnacle set can be found in at least one other set from 1991-92.
Why It Is #9?: With a name like “Pinnacle,” you would think this set would be the best of the bunch. Clearly, that must have been what Score was thinking when they released its Pinnacle Hockey card set for the first time in 1991-92. But at #9, this set is closer to the base of the mountain than the top. My biggest problem with Pinnacle is the design. Just look at it for a moment:
So…much…black! The card fronts use two photos, but bad graphic design results in too much wasted space on something where space is at a premium. The back also has a lot of black because the player’s photo is cut out, for some reason. If you are going to cut out a player, at least superimpose him on something cool, not in front of just more black.
Pinnacle also has some dumb subsets like “Sidelines,” that talk about players’ off-ice interests, and “Good Guys,” which use paintings of players dressed in a tuxedo — they’re all wearing the same tuxedo, pink bow tie and all! — while the card back touts those players’ charitable activities.
Fun Fact: A few retired greats like Tony Esposito, Marcel Dionne and Bobby Clarke, appear in the “Idols” subset, which picture a current NHL player and their hero from childhood.
Lasting Legacy: Score liked the Pinnacle name so much that the company eventually changed its name to Pinnacle Brands.
#10 – Score American
Number of Cards: 440 cards, plus a 110-card “Rookie & Traded” set for a total of 550 cards.
Random Inserts: A six-card Bobby Orr insert set was randomly found in the 15-card packs. Orr cards 1 and 2 were found in Canadian and American packs; cards 3 and 4 were found only in Canadian packs; and cards 5 and 6 were found only in American packs. There was also a chance at pulling one of 2,500 cards autographed by Orr. Meanwhile, 10 different “Hot Cards” of an NHL star were found one per blister pack.
Original Cost: 50 cents for a 15-card pack. Blister packs contained 100 cards, plus one “Hot Card” insert. The complete 440 set was also sold as a factory set. The “Rookie & Traded” set was sold only as a complete set for around $10.
Language Variations: English-only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Nicklas Lidstrom, Dominik Hasek, John LeClair, Tony Amonte and Doug Weight.
Scrub Players Found Only In This Set: David Emma
Why Score American is #10: In 1990-91, both the Score American and Score Canadian sets were nearly-identical, save for a handful of cards featuring different players, the Canadian cards having bilingual backs, the English cards having longer player biographies (since they did not have to appear in two languages) and other nominal differences. In 1991-92, Score decided to make the American and Canadian sets really different, so I counted them as different sets here. The Canadian 1991-92 Score Hockey is bigger and nicer-looking than its American counterpart, making the American set redundant. The American set does use different photographs for the best 100 players, so you could probably justify owning both sets. At least, that’s how I justified it to myself.
Fun Fact: Next season, Score’s American and Canadian sets would both have 550 cards each, but use different designs and different photographs.
Lasting Legacy: From 1990-91 to 1997-98, Score was a major player in the hockey card market. The brand enjoyed a mediocre revival from 2010-11 to 2013-14 under Panini America.
#11 – Bowman
Number of Cards: 429 cards…which is a really unusual number of cards for a set if you think about it.
Insert Cards: None. As in N-O-N-E. The “Hat Tricks” cards, which were inserts in the 1990-91 Bowman set, were a part of the regular Bowman set in 1991-92.
Original Cost: 50 cents for a 14-card pack.
Language Variations: English-only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Of the 15 rookie cards found in this set, John LeClair is the only notable one.
Scrub Players Found Only in This Set: None. Any scrub player in the 1991-92 Bowman set can be found in at least one other set from 1991-92.
Why It Is Second-to-Last: Bowman isn’t a terrible set, and is actually a lot better than the Bowman set from 1990-91. Had it been released in 1981, and not 1991, it would have been light years ahead of the competition with its full-color backs, use of embossed gold foil and some action photography. But by 1991, Bowman was so behind the times. The pictures, for the most part, aren’t all that great, though a few cool shots can be found here and there. Over the summer of 1991, the San Jose Sharks drafted players from other teams for their inaugural roster, yet Bowman doesn’t bother to show any of these players with the Sharks. If the set had used airbrushed cards for all the players who were “now with Sharks,” that would have moved this set up four spots. The stats breakdown on the backs of the cards, which show how a player did against each team, is interesting, but not as useful as complete career statistics.
Fun Fact: A total of 33 cards use shiny gold foil on the front. 12 “Hat Tricks” cards have three little gold pucks in the upper-right corner, while 21 “Stanley Cup Playoff” cards have a gold trophy – either the Clarence Campbell Bowl, the Prince of Wales Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy or the Stanley Cup – in the upper-right corner. And that is why this set had 429 cards – 396 “normal” cards and another 33 cards that needed to be specialty-printed due to the gold foil.
Lasting Legacy: Bowman was a set that was largely ignored by collectors during the 1991-92 season. Thus, in 1992-93, dealers ordered Bowman hockey cards in much smaller quantities, making the 1992-93 Bowman set somewhat difficult to find. In other words, the suckitude of 1991-92 Bowman hockey cards led to the scarcity of 1992-93 Bowman hockey cards.
#12 – Topps
Number of Cards: 528 cards, released as one series.
Random Inserts: 21 “Team Scoring Leaders” glossy cards, found one per pack.
Original Cost: 50 cents for 14 cards and 1 glossy insert. A jumbo pack had 40 cards (39 regular and 1 glossy) and cost $1.69. A factory set was available later in the season.
Language Variations: English-only.
Notable Rookie Cards: Tony Amonte, John LeClair and Valeri Kamensky.
Scrub Players Found in This Set: One-game wonder Bill Armstrong appears in this set and in 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee. Both sets are virtually the same set, though.
Why It Is Dead Last?: You might be wondering why I’m counting O-Pee-Chee and Topps as two separate sets. They look the same and have the same cards. So why is O-Pee-Chee ranked #6 while Topps is dead last?
The major difference comes down to the inserts, which technically makes O-Pee-Chee the bigger set with more variety. (It’s got Sharks…and Russians!)
Also, Topps really could have put more effort into this set. Had Topps made its 1991-92 Hockey set way better — such as a better rookie selection or issuing it in two series — than the O-Pee-Chee set would have been better, too. Topps was holding O-Pee-Chee back. I put the blame for both sets’ lameness squarely on Topps’ shoulders.
Fun Fact: Making this set even more lame “back in the day” is that this was the first Topps hockey set to not include gum, or have cards printed on the box bottoms. What a buzzkill! Topps also moved away from wrapping its cards in wax paper, opting for more tamper-resistant cellophane. And it’s a good thing too; that way, we know if we buy a sealed pack of 1991-92 Topps Hockey cards, it wasn’t searched. Hey — there might be an Ed Belfour “rookie card” in there.
Lasting Legacy: If you are someone who wants to collect every Topps Hockey set ever made, then you’ll need this one. Otherwise, I can recommend 11 other hockey sets from 1991-92 that you might want instead.
***
The 1991-92 season was another great year for hockey cards. With so many choices, and so much to collect, fans always had something new to look forward to. Companies pushed the envelope with premium sets that cost $1 or more per pack.
But maybe there was too much of a good thing in 1991-92. Not only were the cards overproduced like they were in 1990-91, but there were more sets of cards to overproduce. Look through any random box of hockey cards at a show, or purchase one of those hockey repack boxes, and chances are it will be stuffed with 1991-92 cards.
On the upside, other than a handful of inserts or the Parkhurst Final Update Set, most sets on this list can be found in the $5 to $10 range. Today, the 1990s are a fun era to collect because you get a lot without spending a lot.
So, what do you think of this ranking? What was your favorite — or least favorite — hockey card set from the 1991-92 season? (Admit it: it was Bowman! My feelings won’t be hurt.) Leave a comment and let me know.
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Wow. My list would be totally opposite.
Number one for me would be Topps. They used white card stock for first time. It has a great front design with a 3-d effect. love the huge team logo on the front. The back was the best and most colorful by Topps ever for any sport up to this time. The swish on the skate is cool. A Great looking set
I would keep Upper Deck up there but my bottom 3 are easy. Pro Set Platinum (a poor mans stadium club with very dark and blurry photo’s) Parkhurst (what is that almost 1/4 banner on the front of the card) Pinnacle (too much black on odd parts of the front of card and the 2 photos do not work).
I would put Bowman number 3 and Score’s sets in the middle of the pack. The rest are average.
However, the number one card and I dont think I have ever seen it before is the Score’s Bobby Orr card. That is an amazing card. That is also would be a very good design for a card set, though I don’t know what you would write in the yellow box at the bottom of the card for each player.
You said Joel Savage is only available in the Upper Duck set. I’m certain there’s a card of him in the Blue Score set
Nevermind I was thinking of Reggie Savage
Also Ray Leblanc was also in an Upper Deck set and 92-93 Score
Correct, but he only has one card in 1991-92 🙂
Mark me as a score Canadian guy. Mostly because I did the set with my grandfather and still have it hidden away in a binder under the bed of my guest bedroom/office. Second would be the Pro Set because that was another set we did and probably the easiest to find up here in Canada. So much so that I knew of several Walmarts in the Ottawa area which sold sealed boxes as recently as 2015 which made it as easy to make up the set as it looks crisp and clean.
How much were sealed boxes of 1991-92 Pro Set selling for in 2015? Hopefully, not more than $5 or so.
in Sweden you have too pay 195 sek for a box of 91-92 Pro Set. Thats 22,94 usd… I love collecting hockey cards but it is pretty expensive with all taxes and shipping costs. And if you dont buy a lott it won’t get cheaper from eBay
You should mention how frustrating it was to realize the only difference between Score Canadian English and bilingual was one had a purple bar outlining the phot, while the other had green. I spent half the winter collecting a set, only to find out I had 50% English and 50%billingual. I was so mad!
I would have…except that I didn’t know about that until you mentioned it just now 🙂
Score Canadian (#2) was the set that started it all for me. : ). I remember carrying them around everywhere (it was probably only half the set, and they got damaged, but I was 8)
I have a set of 1985 (per Chee?) hockey cards that were gifted to me 20+ years ago. However, they were already mounted in a photo album and have “stuck fast” to the sticky backed page. Has this rendered them useless?
I have a complete set of 1991-1992 hockey cards including rookie cards and much more in mint condition in albums and well protected what price range can I get for them
$ A BUCK 64