2020-21 Upper Deck Extended Series Hobby Box Break

I was excited when I learned that 2020-21 Upper Deck Extended Series — a.k.a. “Series 3” — was coming out this summer. The Upper Deck flagship set has been my favorite hockey card set to collect over the past 30 years, and I think that expanding the set from its usual 500 cards to 730 cards makes a great thing even better.

Upper Deck Extended Series consists of 200 base cards and 30 Young Guns rookie cards — instead of the usual 50 Young Guns per series like there are in Series One and Series Two. A lot of the cards in the 200-card base set picture players from the 2020 NHL All-Star Game, which took place about six weeks before the league shut down in March 2020 due to COVID-19. Like Series One and Series Two, there are eight cards in a foil pack and 24 packs in a box.

Making Extended Series really appealing to myself and other old school hockey collectors is the inclusion of numerous insert sets based on popular sets from the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as HoloGr-FX and Ultimate Victory.

I recently purchased a hobby box of 2020-21 Upper Deck Extended Series. Here is what I got.

Continue reading “2020-21 Upper Deck Extended Series Hobby Box Break”

1988-89 Topps Hockey Cards Set Checklist, Details & Review

Neon and pushpins make this set stick around

The 1988-89 Topps Hockey Card set has a fun-looking design, some notable rookie cards, and a historically significant card, too. This was the third year in a row that Topps released a hockey set with 198 cards. In addition to the 198 cards, there are 33 insert stickers and 16 “box bottom” cards that were found in four-card panels on the bottom of display boxes.

This set features bright colors and a quirky design elements. Notable rookie cards include Brett Hull, Brendan Shanahan, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Bob Probert. The Wayne Gretzky card is significant because it is the first hockey card to use a press conference photo, as Gretzky was traded from the Oilers to the Kings that summer, and a photo of Gretzky suited up with the Kings was not yet available.

Continue reading “1988-89 Topps Hockey Cards Set Checklist, Details & Review”

2020-21 Upper Deck NHL Star Rookies Box Set Checklist & Review

While at my local Target store the other day, I decided to take a look at the trading card aisle, knowing full well that Target was currently not selling sports cards. But maybe I’d get lucky and find some top loaders or penny sleeves or — hey now, what’s this?

Yes! My local Target had a few of the 2020-21 Upper Deck NHL Star Rookies Box Sets in stock for $20 each. The set contains “one 25-card rookie set per box,” plus one in every 20 sets has an autographed card.

Autograph or not. I was pretty happy to find this because I haven’t seen any sports cards at Target since May, and $20 for 25 cards seems like a bargain nowadays. And I’ve always been a sucker for boxed sets that focus on a particular subject — in this case, hockey rookies — and that I could just buy and be done with.

So, let’s take a look and see what goodness $20 will bring me.

Continue reading “2020-21 Upper Deck NHL Star Rookies Box Set Checklist & Review”

The 35 Best Hockey Cards from 1990-91

Hockey cards exploded in popularity during the 1990-91 season. Baseball, football and basketball cards had steadily gained momentum during the 1980s. In 1990, it was hockey’s turn. Upper Deck, Score and Pro Set joined incumbents Topps and O-Pee-Chee to release hockey card sets that season. This resulted in an arms race between the five companies, who tried to outdo each other and make cards of the best prospects and hottest rookies before their competitors did.

As a result, a slew of great rookie cards were issued that year. The 1990-91 NHL season had arguably the best rookie class of any year for hockey card collectors. The NHL rookie of the year winners from 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1994 all had rookie cards made during the 1990-91 season. And over a dozen future Hall of Fame players had rookie cards in ’90-91.

The downside was that most hockey cards from 1990-91 were produced in such vast amounts that it is considered the start of the “Junk Wax Era” for hockey cards.

Yet not all hockey cards issued during the 1990-91 season are worthless. In addition to some great rookie cards, there are also some hidden gems and a legendary chase card. Plus, any card on this list with a high PSA or BGS grade can fetch a premium on the secondary market.

But graded or ungraded, these are the 35 best hockey cards from 1990-91 that every hockey card collector should own.

Continue reading “The 35 Best Hockey Cards from 1990-91”

The Wyatt Russell Hockey Rookie Card

Did you know that Wyatt Russell has a hockey card? Yes, the actor who plays John Walker — a.k.a. the new Captain America — in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier used to be a pro hockey player. His hockey card is from a set of movie trading cards made to promote the film Goon: Last of the Enforcers. Russell’s life — going from hockey player, to actor playing hockey player, to actor playing Captain America — took an interesting and unconventional road.

Continue reading “The Wyatt Russell Hockey Rookie Card”

2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hobby Box Break

So much hype surrounded the release of 2020-21 Upper Deck Series One Hockey. The season hadn’t started yet, but that didn’t stop hockey card collectors (as well as speculators) from wanting to buy the latest release from Upper Deck — mainly in the hopes of finding a Young Guns rookie card of first-overall pick Alexis Lafreniere. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping to get a Lafreniere rookie card — or three — as I opened numerous retail packs from blasters and “mega boxes” that I purchased at my local Target.

Unsuccessful with retail packs, I decided to try my luck with hobby boxes. While the odds of getting a Young Guns card are the same (1 in every 4 packs), there are more inserts in hobby packs, better odds at getting jersey cards and the chance of finding an autographed card. The price of a hobby box is higher, but the trade off is you get more inserts and a jersey card.

A hobby box of 2020-21 Upper Deck Series One Hockey has 24 packs. Each pack has 8 cards. Here are the results of my first hobby box break of this set.

Oh, and I must apologize in advance for the sheer amount of Rangers in this box break; it seems like practically every insert card I got was of a Rangers’ player.

Continue reading “2020-21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hobby Box Break”

Rookie Cards of Every NHL Head Coach for the 2020-21 Season

Although head coaches are an important part of an NHL team, they are usually not included in most hockey card sets. So while Upper Deck may never make a card of John Tortorella — snarling at a referee from behind the bench — that doesn’t mean he wasn’t on a hockey card once upon a time. All of the 31 men who are NHL head coaches played hockey at one time or another in their lives — so that usually means they’ve appeared on at least one hockey card.

For the past four years, I’ve managed to track down a rookie card for each and every NHL coach who had one. For you non-collectors out there, a “rookie card” is usually understood as that player’s first card in a mainstream set, like Topps, O-Pee-Chee or Upper Deck.

However, because many NHL head coaches never actually played in the NHL — or if they did, it wasn’t very long — they never got an official rookie card. In those cases, I show off that coach’s first-ever trading card, be it from their minor or junior league playing days, or from a little-known team-issued set.

As a bonus, I’ve also indicated the value (in US $) and how rare each card is, on a scale of ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ to ★ ★ ★ ★ ★. Some of these cards are ridiculously-easy to find — I’m looking at you, Rod Brind’Amour — while others are tough.

So, kick back and enjoy this trip down memory lane, when these bench bosses weighed less and got paid less, but had more hair.

Continue reading “Rookie Cards of Every NHL Head Coach for the 2020-21 Season”

The Puck Junk Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame: Class of 2020

The COVID-19 Pandemic has delayed everything, from “pausing” the 2019-20 NHL season, to postponing the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. It has even delayed the induction of new members into the Puck Junk Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame. But the wait is finally over.

A Wayne Gretzky rookie card recently sold at auction for $1.29 million dollars. Meanwhile, the 10 cards on this list would only cost you $5 combined. Yet, they are all priceless in each of their own, awful ways.

So here they are, the Puck Junk Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame: Class of 2020.

Continue reading “The Puck Junk Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame: Class of 2020”

2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #4

After opening my first three boxes of 2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers, I wondered if I made a mistake — either buying too many or too few boxes. At the rate I was going, it didn’t seem like four boxes was going to get me 400 unique stickers towards the 666-sticker set. On the other hand, maybe I was just wasting my money, and should have stuck with three boxes like I did the previous year.

But what’s done is done. I bought four boxes, so of course I’m going to open all four boxes. Hopefully, my luck would change with the final box.

Continue reading “2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #4”

2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #3

Another day, another box break of 2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers. Before opening my third box, I had 263 stickers (198 regular stickers and 65 foil stickers) out of 666 total stickers needed to complete the set. Hopefully, this box helps more than the measly 24 stickers that the last box provided me. Continue reading “2020-21 Topps Hockey Stickers Box Break #3”