Card of the Week

Dave Thomas, the founder of the Wendy’s chain of fast-food restaurants, had his own hockey card. If you are asking yourself why…well then, read on.  Continue reading “Wendy’s Founder Had a Hockey Card”

I acquired a personal grail of mine recently when I added this card to my collection: a 1999-2000 Upper Deck Century Legends Ken Dryden. It’s a card that technically does not exist, and yet I have one. Continue reading “Card of the Week: 1999-00 Upper Deck Century Legends #23 – Ken Dryden”

One thing I absolutely love about collecting is that you will find cards out there that you never knew existed. In the past, I’ve come across some pretty sweet cards unbeknownst to me, like this one about the 1934 Blackhawks and another one about Lester B. Pearson. My latest cool find is this 1951 card of Hall of Fame defenseman Jack Stewart, from a set called Hit Parade of Champions. Continue reading “Card of the Week: 1951 Hit Parade of Champions Jack Stewart”

For 25 years, I was positive that Bob Murray’s cards from 1980-81 and 1981-82 used the same photo. I was almost right. Continue reading “Deja Vu Tuesday: Bob Murray”

1980-81 Topps Don Murdoch
Don Murdoch’s late season trade from the Rangers to the Oilers resulted in his last hockey card looking awfully…awful. Apparently, Topps didn’t bother finding a photo of him with the Oilers. He did play 10 games for Edmonton at the end of the 1979-80 season, so a picture with his new team might have existed then.

No matter. Topps did what they always would do, and painted the photo. Out with the Rangers jersey, in with the Oilers jersey. Since they could do anything they wanted, you would think that Topps would have at least bothered to use the right logo.  Continue reading “Card of the Week: Oil Painting”

The name sounds familiar, but the card belies you. Before there was Alex Galchenyuk, first-round pick and promising young star for the Montreal Canadiens, there was his dad Alex Galchenyuk, a star from Belarus who spent six seasons in various North American minor leagues. Continue reading “The Alex Galchenyuk before THE Alex Galchenyuk”

When I opened a box of the 2013-14 Edmonton Oilers Collection last week, I knew I had seen this photo of Oilers forward Dave Lumely before. Longtime collectors might recall this pic being used on a card during Lumley’s seven-year career with the Oliers. Do you know what other card this photograph appeared on?

Continue reading “Deja Vu Tuesday: Dave Lumley”

Companies have been known to recycle photographs on trading cards in the past, but Upper Deck probably saved a ton in photographers’ fees during the 2002-03 season by reusing the same photo of Tony Amonte over and over. Amonte signed with the Phoenix Coyotes in July 2002, and when Upper Deck got their hands on a photo of Amonte with the ‘Yotes, they really got their money’s worth out of it.

Continue reading “Deja Vu Tuesday: Tony Amonte”

If I was a professional hockey player, I could not imagine having a better rookie card than the 2013-14 Panini Prizm card (#223) of Ryan Stanton. Sure, some of Stanton’s RCs have his autograph, while others picture him with his current team, the Vancouver Canucks. But this one takes the cake…er, takes the Cup. It shows the freshmen blueliner hoisting the Stanley Cup after the Blackhawks’ Game 6 win over the Boston Bruins in the 2013 Finals.

Stanton spent practically the entire 2012-13 season with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. He made his NHL debut on April 27, 2013 when Blackhawks Coach Joel Quenneville rested most of the team’s best players for the playoffs and gave several prospects a shot. During the playoffs, Stanton was one of the ‘Hawks “Black Aces” — a minor-league call up that most likely wouldn’t play in the postseason, but was on hand just in  case. Stanton did not appear in the playoffs, but suited up when the team was awarded hockey’s ultimate prize.

While Stanton did not qualify to get his named engraved on the Stanley Cup, he did get his day with the cup. He also got a Stanley Cup ring — and the best rookie card ever made.

It was summer of 1989. I just finished 8th grade and got my first pair of hockey skates as a graduation present. Every Friday that summer, my mom took me to ice skating lessons. Afterward, she’d take me to a local card shop. One day, I spotted something awesome in the display case: a 1981-82 Topps Hockey card of Tony Esposito.

Even though I had only been a hockey fan for a half a year at that point, I was no stranger to Esposito’s career accomplishments: Calder Trophy winner in 1970, record for most shutouts in one season, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and one of only four Blackhawks at the time to have his number retired.

And here, in this display case, sat a card of Tony-O, clad in red ‘Hawks sweater and his plain, workmanlike mask, glove hand outstretched as he goes to make one of the countless saves he made throughout his career. It was one of the coolest cards I had ever seen. But there was a catch: it was part of a stack of cards, wrapped in clear plastic and labeled “50 Topps Hockey Cards for $2.50.”

Well, I was too smart to fall for that game: obviously, the card on top is nice, while the other 49 are dogs. I didn’t want to spend a whole $2.50 for one card that I wanted and 49 I didn’t. Keep in mind that it was 1989, when 50 cents could get you a pack of new cards, and that I was only 14 and with no job. I decided to spend my money on five packs of newer cards that could help me finish off a set.

I regretted my decision as soon as I got home. The more I thought about that 1981-82 Topps Hockey card of Tony Esposito, the more I wish I had bought it. But my mom wouldn’t take me back to the shop; I would have to wait until next week after my ice skating lesson. (In all fairness to my mom, though, I probably spent all my money anyway.)

And so I thought about that card all week. I probably lost some sleep over it too, dreaming that some other kid would get that awesome Tony-O card and that I’d be left wishing for it.

Finally, the next Friday rolled around. After class, we stopped at the card shop. I remember hurrying through the store – the glass case with the hockey cards was all the way in the back – and being both excited and relieved that the stack of “50 Topps Cards for $2.50” was still available. I even remember removing the clear plastic wrap on the car ride home to look at the cards I just bought.

The cards under the Esposito were also from the 1981-82 Topps set – basically, the entire “National” set (1 to 66) minus Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri and a few others. Guy Lafleur was in the stack; I recall my mother, who was a huge fan of The Flower back in the 1970s, correcting my botched attempt at pronouncing his name. Marcel Dionne was in there too, though that card had a crease along the bottom.

But all that didn’t matter. I had the card that I wanted – that my 14-year old mind fixated on all week.

Like any good collecting story, things came full circle. Last year — more than 20 years since I purchased this card — I worked out a trade with a collector named Shane, who has a blog called Shoebox Legends.

He offered to trade me a very unique item that he purchased from the Topps Vault: the match print photo used for the 1981-82 Topps Tony Esposito card. It is bigger than the card, measuring 3.5″ by 5″. It is also uncropped, meaning that we see Tony-O’s full glove hand, and there are no borders or text interfering with the picture.

Of course, I really wanted this picture, given my obsession with this card two decades ago. But this time, there was no week-long wait on pins and needles. After hearing my tale, Shane was more than willing to trade the Esposito photo to me, telling me that it belonged in my collection.

One point of interest about the photo: it’s been touched up.

On the surface, someone sprayed a little black paint between the top of Esposito’s stick and his left shoulder. This was to cover up the face of a spectator. Topps did that sort of thing a lot in the 1970s and 1980s. You don’t really notice it on the card so much because the painted area looks dark green.

And now you know more about this card than you thought possible.