Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
I wonder why O-Pee-Chee even bothered including a card of Dave Farrish in their 1981-82 set if this was the best photo they had. Sure, the defenseman played 74 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs during the previous season…but he barely appears on his own card. You only catch a glimpse of his visage as he slightly leans over the boards of the penalty box, wistfully gazing upwards at the O-Pee-Chee logo floating above. Continue reading “Face Time”
What’s wrong with this picture?
Obviously, this card has been painted over, to change the player’s uniform to that of the St. Louis Blues, mid-1970s. Whenever Topps (or O-Pee-Chee) spent time retouching a player photo, the final result ended up looking like a painting with a superimposed floating head.
The problem here is the floating head belongs to Ted Harris and not Ted Irvine. Continue reading “A Tale of Two Teds”
Back during the “boom years” of hockey cards – that warm, fuzzy era from 1990 to about 1997 or so – many players appeared in NHL sets, but did not play in an NHL game. Sometimes, all you had to do was get drafted.
Former NHL prospect Jamie Matthews is one such player. Continue reading “Two, One, Zero”
I went to a card shop on Sunday, and purchased–among other things–a box of 2006-07 Power Play hockey cards. In retrospect, I paid more than I should have for the box–I now see that they don’t sell for much on eBay…damn. But at the time, the price that I paid seemed like a good deal–the card shop owner marked down the price, since it was last year’s product.
I love opening packs, and I figured a full box would make me a complete base set, plus maybe give me a chance to pick up a few special cards. Besides, there’s “one jersey card per box, on average”.
Without further ado, here’s what these 24 packs yielded:
– 131 base cards
– 6 Prospects (Yan Stastny, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Steve Reiger, Cole Jarrett, Matt Carle & Jeremy Williams)
– 2 Goal Robbers (Manny Fernandez & Marty Turco)
– 3 In Action (Sidney Crosby, Henrik Zetterberg & Matts Sundin)
– 1 Last Man Standing (Chris Simon)
– 1 “Specialist” jersey swatch card (Brad Richards)
I’ve got mixed feelings about these cards.
The set, overall, is just OK. One hundred base cards, and the design is not all that great. I did get a complete base set though, which is always nice.
The Brad Richards card isn’t really worth all that much–I see two currently *not* selling on eBay for 99 cents each, and one that did not sell about two weeks back. It’s the risk you take. Sometimes you get a well-sought after jersey or autograph card, but most times you don’t. No big deal. Richards is a good player, so I don’t mind having this card around if I can’t trade it to someone.
The 30 rookie cards in this set–of which I got six of–are nothing special, either. No Malkin, Staal or Paul Stastny (though his brother Yan is in this set). Why go through the trouble of making the rookie cards six per box if they are going to be of mostly ho-hum players?
I guess that’s why these cards don’t sell for all that much. But then again, I am forgetting *why* I collect. Sure, value is a part of it–I’d be lying if I said that was not a part of it. But what is, and always will be, the most important is the fun factor.
And what was fun, though, is opening the packs, and building a set (yes, even if it’s just a 100-card base set).
Beckett Hockey Magazine suggested that if you want your girlfriend to like, or at least understand, your hobby, then you should ask her to open some packs of cards with you. Well, it worked for me.
After going to the card shop, my girlfriend Shellie and I got dinner and opened some of the packs before dinner, and the rest over desert. She seemed to enjoy opening these packs even more than I did. Whereas I would open the pack, glance at the names, and see if I got any special cards, she would look at each and every card, and notice certain things about many of them. She mentioned that Todd Bertuzzi looked intense and creepy (“You have no idea!” I told her), and the fact that the Ducks are no longer “Mighty”.
So, OK, I overpaid a bit for these “unpopular” cards. But I did get a complete base set, a Sidney Crosby “In Action” card, a lackluster jersey card (white swatch, oh yeah!), some doubles to trade…and the enjoyment of opening some packs. I guess that’s not so bad.
Sooner or later, I will post a review about this set.
Any Canadian over 40 years of age no doubt remembers the 1972 Summit Series, which pitted Canada’s best players against the best players from the Soviet Union. It was a grueling, eight game series – the Canadian Team barely coming out ahead, winning one more game than their opponents. One big reason that the series was so close was because of the amazing play of the Soviet goaltender, Vladislav Tretiak. Continue reading “Super Soviet Sticker”
The 1988-1989 Panini hockey sticker set was a great series, and possibly the best one a new hockey fan from that era could hope for. Way back in early ’89, I “discovered” hockey when I, at 14 years of age, accidentally put on the wrong channel (I was flipping between SCTV reruns and a biopic on Martin Luther King Jr.). I ended up catching the last five minutes of a Chicago Blackhawks game. Tuning into a game of theirs a few days later, I was hooked–and I needed to start collecting hockey cards.
But hockey cards were hard to find in Chicago in 1989. The only place you could find them was at baseball card stores. However, my local grocery store happened to sell Panini hockey stickers. I decided to start collecting them. Why not?–a pack of six stickers was 25 cents, and the album was only 69 cents.
Little did I know how useful this set would be to help me understand the great game of hockey. Continue reading “Review: 1988-89 Panini Hockey Stickers”
Spring is in the air. While we hockey fans in the U.S. of A start thinking about “Stanley Cup Playoffs” when the snow starts melting, the rest of the country thinks of another sport: baseball. Continue reading “Line-Drive Lindros”
Here is proof that not all hockey cards from the 1970s had boring photography. While the 1973-74 Topps set was rife with static portraits and blurry game-action photos, this card is one of those rare, wonderful exceptions. Continue reading “Card of the Week: Under Unger”
My last tin of 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee. That is, unless I decide to buy more. Here’s what this last batch of 13 packs got me:
– 66 base cards
– 7 Marquee Rookies
– 1 Base Parallels
– 1 Stat Leaders
– 2 Team Checklists
– 1 OPC Buyback (1989-90 Pierre Turgeon)
Sweet! More team checklists. I think I have over half of them now (I did get some duplicates). In addition to all 500 base cards and all 100 Marquee Rookies, I am trying to get all 30 Team Checklists. The other insert cards I can take or leave.
Speaking of take or leave, I got another card from the infamous ’89-90 OPC set–a card of former sniper Pierre Turgeon. Sigh…another quarter card. 
After opening three blaster boxes, five wax boxes and five collectors tins, I still need 14 base cards and eight Marquee Rookies. I also need nine Team Checklists, as well as other insert cards…should I decide to pursue those insert sets.
Of course, now I have tons of cards to trade. So, if any of you out there are trying to build this 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee set, drop me a line at sjb44@hotmail.com
Jason Herter had one NHL trading card, but technically was not supposed to. Continue reading “Ever Heard of Herter?”