Category: Hockey Cards

Review: 2005-06 Upper Deck Ice

Fantastic design, great photography make for a worthwhile base set

2005-06 Upper Deck Ice #9 - Patrice BergeronThis day and age of short-printed rookie cards has led to a plethora of “base sets” that can be purchased “on the cheap”. Base sets have become a byproduct – almost an epidemic – in the hockey card collecting world.

Since collectors will buy multiple boxes in an attempt to get either all the short prints – or a lot of inserts – they usually end up with numerous base sets. Look on eBay, and you will see many people trying to sell you a “base set” with “no SPs” or “no RCs”. Many times, you can get these base sets for a bargain.

2005-06 Upper Deck Ice was a set that a lot of people went crazy over, because of ultra-limited rookie cards of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovehckin. Cards 101-268 were all short prints, many of them selling now for hundreds of dollars…or thousands, if it’s Crosby’s RC. Some RCs were limited to 2,999 copies, while others – such as Crosby – were limited to just 99 copies, making them among the hardest to find, and therefore most expensive, rookie cards in existence.

The first 100 cards, on the other hand, are not so desirable, since they were printed in much higher numbers. Cards 1-100 – known in price guides as the “base set” – is what is reviewed here. Continue reading “Review: 2005-06 Upper Deck Ice”

Review: 1986-87 Chicago Blackhawks team set

Nice portrait photographs make this set a winner

1986-87 Chicago Blackhawks - Denis SavardReleased during the 1986-87 season, this Chicago Blackhawks team-issued set was sponsored by Coca-Cola. Twenty-four close-up portraits comprise the set, making these cards ideal for both identifying players or for getting autographed. Continue reading “Review: 1986-87 Chicago Blackhawks team set”

Card of the Week: Hockey Antihero

Collector’s Sportslook Promo Card: Spawn

Spawn Hockey CardCollector’s Sportslook was a sports collectibles magazine published in the mid-1990s by Wizard Entertainment. Wizard Entertainment is better known for their more successful magazines – ToyFare, InQuest Gamer and of course Wizard, from which they derive their namesake. Continue reading “Card of the Week: Hockey Antihero”

Review: 1998-99 Panini Photocards

Bad photography makes this one forgettable set

1998-99 Panini Photocards - Patrick RoyThe 1998-99 Photocards set was an odd release for Panini. While the company usually focused on making sticker albums, this season they also made this set of “photo cards,” which were similar in size to postcards. Panini also issued a small hardcover album to store the photocards.

You would think that a larger-sized format set of cards would excel, but this one unfortunately does not. This set falters because of mediocre photography, bad cropping and color problems.  Continue reading “Review: 1998-99 Panini Photocards”

2007-2008 Victory Box Breakdown

Earlier this month, I wrote a review of the 2007-2008 Victory Hockey Set.

This is a bit late, but I thought I’d post the box breakdown for the two boxes of Victory that I purchased.

Box 1

  • 177 base cards
  • 18 MVP Rookies
  • 9 Game Breakers inserts
  • 9 Stars On Ice inserts
  • 3 EA Sports Face-Off inserts

Box 2

  • 176 base cards
  • 18 MVP Rookies
  • 9 Game Breakers inserts
  • 9 Stars On Ice inserts
  • 4 EA Sports Face-Off inserts

The collation of cards was very good. Between two boxes, I got an entire base set. Of the 36 rookie cards (18 per box), none of them were doubles. I was able to track down the last 9 rookie cards on eBay.

The insert cards were another story. I got duplicates of several of them, which is frustrating, because there are so many of them. But I’m not sure if I really want them; I mean, will I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I get all 50 “Game Breakers”, or all 50 “Stars on Ice”?

2007-2008 MVP Box Breakdown

Yesterday, in a weak moment, I bought a box of 2007-2008 Upper Deck MVP hockey cards. I knew that if I bought a box, that I’d have to get at least one more to complete a base set. But I’ve always enjoyed opening packs, so I gave in to the Dark Side.

I won’t post a review of this year’s MVP until I get at least a complete base set.

In the meantime, here’s my breakdown of what I got in the 24-pack box.

Base set & Rookies:

  • 165 Base cards
  • 12 MVP Rookies (1:2 packs)
  • Rookie Redemption card (good for 3 RCs)

Insert cards

  • 1 One-on-One Jersey (dual swatch card featuring J.S. Giguere and Dan Cloutier…the Giguere swatch was 2-color)
  • 1 Gold Scripts parallel /100 (Chris Drury 34/100)
  • 1 Super Scripts parallel /25 (Roman Hamrlik 9/25)
  • 2 Game Faces (Forsberg, Jagr)
  • 2 Hart Candidates (Heatly, Kiprusoff)
  • 4 New World Order (Kopitar, Mikko Koivu, Ovechkin, Parise)
  • 4 Monumental Moments (Crosby, Recchi, Scott Niedermayer, Briere)
Not a bad assortment for one box. But insert cards these days–other than jersey cards–always look so 1990s. While I like cards from that decade, the inserts these days aren’t anything to get too excited about. The New World Order cards look like something Fleer Ultra did ten years ago.

Review: 1968-1969 Post Marbles

Pre-expansion collectible is a must for serious collectors

1968-69 Post Marbles

At a glance:
– 1968-1969 Post Marbles
– 30 marbles  (3/4″diameter)
– 1 game board (30″ x 18″)
– Download Checklist

We all played with Marbles when we were kids. Recess was the best time. Heel a small hole in the hard packed school yard and delicately roll your beauties towards it. Now there were several types of games and depending on how good you were could also decide on what size “Crown Royal” bag you would be carrying. Crown Royal has a status all to its own and to marble collectors it meant a great looking tote bag. Kids love to collect things, although I suspect kids today may not know what a marble or alley is. Continue reading “Review: 1968-1969 Post Marbles”