Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

Panini gets NHL trading card license

On Wednesday, it was announced that Italian card manufacturer Panini was granted a license to make NHL trading cards starting next season. Beckett had two different stories on the matter:

Panini adds NHL license

NHL Executive Dave McCarthy: ‘This Was a Difficult Decision’

For the better part of the past two decades, Panini has manufactured hockey sticker albums in the U.S., Canada and Europe. They also purchased the Donruss company, strengthening their position as a major player in the trading card market. Currently, they have exclusive rights to make trading cards for the National Basketball Association.

This is great news for hockey card collectors. For the past 5 years, we have lamented the fact that Upper Deck had a monopoly on both the NHL and NHLPA licenses. Whereas Upper Deck had to try to be competitive with the other major sports, they had pretty much cart blanche when it came to hockey. For example, a pack uf Upper Deck baseball cards costs $3 and have 18 cards so as to compete with Topps. On the other hand, Upper Deck hockey cards also cost $3, but only have 8 cards. And let’s not forget redemptions, sticker autographs, mismatched jersey swatches, and all the other things that fans have perennially complained about. Upper Deck had no real competition when it came to hockey, so why would they even try?

Panini getting a hockey license gives Upper Deck a reason to try. This fall, Score hockey cards will return for the first time in over a decade (Score is one of the brand names owned by Panini/Donruss). I never thought I’d look forward to buying Score hockey cards again.

Likewise, going up against an established hockey card manufacturer like Upper Deck gives Panini reason to do their best too? Who will have better looking cards?

Who will offer more cards per pack at a better price? Which brand will offer the best inserts? Autographs? Other incentives to collect?

Competition is a good thing, my friends.

However, there is some bad news in this. Thus far it has been implied that no other companies will be granted official hockey card licenses.

That is a shame, as In The Game is deserving of such a license. In the past 5 years, ITG has made hockey cards despite not having a license from the NHL or NHLPA, instead focusing on retro-themed sets, upcoming prospects or international competition. (Really, what else can you do if you can’t show current players or NHL logos?)  ITG seems to be the only company that really knows–that really cares–about hockey. Unfortunately, they don’t have the “up front” money to be taken seriously by the League.

In a perfect world, Panini, Upper Deck, In The Game and Topps (remember them?) would all be granted licenses to make official NHL trading cards, and collecting would return to the hockey card utopia that was the 1990s.

2009-10 Champ’s Hockey box break #1

Chris Chelios adorns the front of this year’s Champ’s Hockey set.
  • 20 packs per box
  • 5 cards per pack (3 standard-sized cards, 2 mini-sized cards)
  • 4 “hits” per box (jerseys and/or autographed cards)
  • Between $65-$70 per box

I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Champ’s Hockey set. Sure, some of the cards–of dinosaurs and passenger pigeons and such–were a bit odd. And the rookie card mini set was nearly impossible to put together. But the standard set itself had a classy, early 20th century look that I enjoyed.

This year’s Champ’s set looked just as cool–and boxes are around $70, instead of $100 like they were last year. So I decided to jump in with both feet and purchase two boxes.

This is what I got in the first box:

49 base cards

This year, the base cards have a muted blue border. In fact, none of the jersey or other colors are bright, either. If he subdued colors don’t bother you, then you’ll probably like this design. Personally, I like the muted hues because it adds to that old-timey feel. 100 of these make up the base set.

5 light blue parallel cards

Unfortunately, this year’s Champ’s set is heavy on the parallels. You get one light blue bordered parallel card in every four packs. But if that isn’t bad enough…

 2 orange parallel cards

 …then there’s also orange-bordered parallels, falling one in every ten packs. And yes, I did get the normal (blue), light blue and orange versions of Nikolai Khabibulin in this box…which would be great if I collected variants of Russian goalie cards, or something to that extent. 

1 yellow parallel card

 Does anyone else see the uselessness of these parallels. I’d rather be 8 cards closer to completing a base set than get 8 cards with variant border colors. These yellow variants come one in every 20 packs. I guess that matters if you have a fetish for yellow-bordered cards. 

18 mini cards

The mini cards are closer in size to the cigarette cards from a century ago.There are 192 of the mini “non rookie cards”, so it will take you some time to put together this set.

1 “blue back” mini card parallel – the only difference is that the ink on the back is printed in blue instead of black. A dumb variation that is not even worth scanning. 

5 mini Champ’s Rookies

This year’s Champ’s set skips out on the regular sized Champ’s Rookies, and instead only offers the mini-sized rookie cards. The slightly shiny gold border of these mini rookie cards somewhat betrays the early 20th century design. Also, only 5 rookie cards per box is kind of depressing if you think about it.

5 Natural History

For some inexplicable reason, I like these cards. Yeah, they are kind of pointless in a hockey set. Maybe that’s why I enjoy them.

4 Historical Figures

Presidents and Prime Ministers? Apparently, Lester B. Pearson was a Canadian Prime Minister, and not just a trophy name. I learn something new every day.

1 Wonders of the World

Why? Seriously–why? Oh, and at one per box, you know some idiots will be trying to get $10-$20 for one of these on eBay.

Mini Jersey – Chris Osgood

Osgood has played a long time, and red-colored Red Wings jersey swatches are quite plentiful. So, it’s not like this card is super rare or anything. Nonetheless, Osgood has had a mighty fine NHL career.

Mini Jersey – Daniel Alfredsson

Rockin’! And it’s a black swatch too–which looks a lot nicer than a white swatch against the tan card background.

So that’s two decent-looking jersey cards of two stellar NHL players. Onto the autographs, then…

Mini Autograph – Oscar Moller

Uh oh….you know you’re in trouble when you pull a signed card of a guy you’ve never heard of. Of course, people in Los Angeles know who this guy is, but until now I didn’t. Maybe I’ll get an autograph of a “known player”…

Mini Autograph – Andrew Ebbetts

Andrew Ebbett? Come on! Yeah, I know this guy…he played 10 games for Chicago this season–a season where he started in Anaheim, went to Chicago and is now currently with Minnesota. Sorry if I can’t get too excited about pulling this signature (FYI, I wrote to Ebbett a few months back, and he is very fan friendly with TTM autographs).

Balancing out the two decent jersey cards are two mediocre autograph cards. You’d expect ‘graphs of these guys in lower-end sets, but in Champ’s? Of course, at the $65-$70 range, Champ’s is more of a “mid-range” product now; a step above Upper Deck proper, and a few steps below Black Diamond or Artifacts.

Later this week, I’ll post what I got in my other box of Champ’s, as well as some other goodies I scored at the card show this past Saturday.

Rookie Card Haul

I picked up a TON of rookie cards at the card show on Saturday. OK, sure–a ton is a bit of an exaggeration. It was 55 to be exact. Some of them are pretty good too. Here’ s what I got:

Two (2) 2002-03 Upper Deck Young Guns for $2.25. The Curtis Sanford card cost me $2; the other one (Chris Bala) was only a quarter. 

Six (6) 2003-04 Upper Deck Young Guns. Jordin Tootoo, Antoine Vermette, Joni Pitkanen, Matthew Lombardi, Anti Miettinen and one scrub. Total spent on these 6 cards: $11. 

One (1) 2005-06 Upper Deck Young Guns. Eventually, I will pick away at these–cheaply–until all I need is Ovechkin and Crosby. In the meantime, this Valtteri Filppula card brings me a step closer. Cost: $5

Five (5) 2005-06 Fleer Ultra Rookies: Brent Lebda, Jussi Jokinen, Andrew Alberts, Patrick Eaves and one scrub–all for $4.

Eight (8) 2007-08 Upper Deck Young Guns. Drew Miller and 7 others for $18. Only 17 more YGs, and I’ll have the complete ’07-08 Upper Deck set.

Fifteen (15) 2008-09 Upper Deck Young Guns for $29. No one super-notable, though I did pick up former Chicago Wolves (and current Atlanta Thrasher) Boris Valabik.

Twelve (12) 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Marquee Rookies for $18, including Kyle Okposo. 

Six (6) 2008-09 Champ’s Rookies for $22, including Luke Schenn, Robbie Earl and Shawn Matthias

Unfortunately, I did not complete any of the above sets–though I am 17 away from having all 100 Champ’s Rookies, and just 6 cards away from finishing the 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Set (the high number set is a different story).

This week, I’ll post a few of the other cool things I picked up.

A few random things…

A few odds and ends that I want to mention…

War Room: This week, I will be on “The War Room” on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Since Wednesday is the trade deadline, “Got ‘Em! Need ‘Em!” is being bumped to Tuesday. But just for this week. For those of you who have XM Radio, the show is on Channel 204 at 10 AM CST. And if you don’t, I have an archive of my radio appearances here.

New Members: Thanks to David Jameson, Mariner1 and Wax Wombat for becoming the newest “Puck Junkies.” This blog now has 34 members.

Welcome to the Blogroll: I’ve added a few hockey blogs to my reading list. The Real DFG, maintained by Tim, is a blog about hockey cards and the Pittsburgh Penguins. A Little Chippy, maintained by Katherine, is a blog that focuses on the Chicago Blackhawks, but also touches on cards and collectibles.

New Blogs: The hockey card blogging niche just got a little bigger, with Open Ice Hits and Drop the Gloves! adding their two cents on the hobby. I’ve also linked to them from my blogroll.

Free Hockey cards March 2: The Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins will all give away free hockey cards at their respective home games on Tuesday, March 2. The first 10,000 fans at each game will be given a pack of Upper Deck hockey cards that contains 5 exclusive cards of that particular team. Anyone who finds themselves with an extra set they’d like to trade, please contact me.

Art Show: On an unrelated note, those of you in Chicago may be interested to know that I am curating an art show called Art of Play, which is about video games, traditional games and toys. Want to know more? Check out the show’s website.

And finally…due to the art show I’m curating, as well as final projects in my two grad classes, I may be a bit scant on posts over the next two weeks. Once I get this show, a final paper, a final presentation, a final photography project and a final website behind me, I’ll be back to doting over this site like I normally do.

Career in Cards: Mark Johnson

Before changing our focus from the Olympics and back to the NHL, I thought it would be fitting to do one final Olympics-themed article about Mark Johnson.

Johnson played on the “Miracle on Ice” U.S. Olympic team in 1980, and was the coach of the silver-medal winning U.S. Women’s team in 2010. He also had a fine career in the NHL too, playing 11 seasons with the Penguins, North Stars, Whalers, Blues and Devils. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Mark Johnson”

Canada wins Gold! Best Olympics ever!!!

Congratulations to Canada’s Olympic Hockey Team–and their fans–for winning the gold medal on Sunday.

Yes, I wanted USA to win. And they came close. Very close. But in the Olympics, close gets you the silver…

Nonetheless, it was a great game. It was a great tournament. Many close games. Many upsets. Many competitive teams. Borrowing from my Star Trek metaphor, if the 2002 tournament was “Wrath of Khan,” then this was “First Contact” all the way.

Career in Cards: Tony McKegney

In honor of Black History Month, today we will take a look at the career of Tony McKegney. He was not the first black hockey player–or second, or third–to play in the NHL. Rather, McKegney was the first black hockey player to make an impact in the NHL. Here are some of his trading cards issued during his 13-year NHL career. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Tony McKegney”

Thanks, Mike

Today, I’d like to give a special thanks to Mike G. of Taunton, MA for hooking me up with a bunch of hockey cards from my want list, including…

 
…the last card that I needed from the 1994-95 Upper Deck SP set…
 
…the last 3 cards that I needed for my 1998-99 Pacific set…

…2 shiny cards from the 2002-03 Topps “Own the Game” insert set…

 

…and a bunch of Upper Deck cards from last year and this year.

And some MVP cards too!

Mike, thanks for helping me out in my collection quest.

2002 Olympic Hockey Photos

(Steve Yzerman, Chris Chelios, Brett Hull and Brendan Shannahan at the 2002 Olympics)

Ever since the NHL decided to let it’s best players fully participate in the Winter Olympics, there seemed to be a sort of even / odd “Star Trek” paradigm going on here.

You see, the 1998 Olympics was very much like the first “Star Trek” film–highly-anticipated, but failing to live up to the hype. Of course, I say this from a North American perspective, because I’m sure hockey fans in the Czech Republic thought the ’98 games were just fine.

And like “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” the 2002 Olympics was all it was supposed to be and more, culminating in a final showdown between the United States and Canada. Expectations were met, and then some.

The 2006 Olympics? Totally “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Yawn.

That makes 2010 the “Star Trek IV” of Olympic Ice Hockey. In other words, good. Or so we can hope. I’m crossing my fingers, ‘cuz I’ll be dammed if I have to sit through “Search for Spock” twice.

With the Men’s Ice Hockey tournament starting today, I thought it would be fun to look back at some pictures from the 2002 games.

Here we have Mario Lemieux and Joe Sakic celebrating their gold medal win.
 
Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, Paul Kariya and Joe Sakic. How’s that for a power play unit?
The U.S. bench: Chris Drury, Adam Deadmarsh, Doug Weight, Mike York and Jeremy Roenick.

Photo of Team Canada after winning the gold. Click on the photo to enlarge, and see the enviable and unmatched level of talent.

Let’s hope that the 2010 games are as good as they were in 2002.