My Collection Quest

23 cards from 1960-61 Topps Hockey

On a whim, I decided to start building the 1960-61 Topps Hockey set. This was at a card show last month. While I’ve been prioritizing other sets, like 1963-64 Parkhurst, I came across a dealer who had 21 cards in decent shape–most priced at $5 to $6 each. Another dealer had 2 more cards from the set at $3.75 each. Take a look at what I got:

4 – Ernie Johnson (All-Time Greats)

6 – Bill Hay

9 – Jimmy Morrison

12 – Murray Balfour

13 – Leo Labine

18 – George Sullivan

24 – Charlie Burns – Note that he’s wearing a helmet. 
Quite an oddity for 1960.

30 – Jack Evans

31 – Guy Gendron

33 – Ab McDonald

37 – Dean Prentice

40 – Don McKenny

41 – Ron Murphy

42 – Andy Hebenton

43 – Don Simmons

49 – Harry Howell

51 – Tod Sloan

53 – Camille Henry

56 – Bob Armstrong

57 – Ferny Flaman

61 – Lou Fontinato – This one has writing on it,
but was only $3 so I couldn’t pass it up.

62 – Leo Boivin

66 – Vic Stasiuk – Always nice to get the last card in the set.
This haul brings my count to 25 cards–or roughly 37% of the set. Of course, I need the biggest two cards: Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita, the latter being his rookie card.  Otherwise, the majority of the set seems pretty attainable.

6% of a 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Set

Last month I purchased 25 cards–roughly 6%–from the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey set. This brings me up to 177 out of 396 cards.

Of course, when you still require the Wayne Gretzky rookie card for your set, you can have 395 cards and still feel like you are about a thousand cards short.

Nonetheless, I now have the second and third-best cards in this set:
 

#175 – Gordie Howe

#185 – Bobby Hull

I got a few other key cards, including…

#161 – Mike Bossy (Record Breakers)

#100 – Bryan Trottier

#215 – Bernie Federko

#145 – John Tonelli (RC)

#164 – Brad Park (Record Breakers)

#225 – Jean Ratelle

#1 – Goal Leaders (Bossy/Dionne/Lafleur)

Another 218 cards–plus a Gretzky RC–to complete this landmark set. In the meantime, I’ll continue to chip away at it, a few cards here and there.

QUESTION: At what point do you “page” your sets? That is, when do you put a near-complete set into pages? Do you get a certain percentage, like at least half? Or do you wait until you have every single card? Or, do you not use pages at all…?

19 years later, this card is finally mine!

Nope, your eyes do not deceive you–I have been seeking this Mark Fitzpatrick card for nearly two decades. It is from the 1992-93 Fleer Ultra set–the height of the “Junk Wax Era,” though I prefer to call those years “Neo-Vintage.” Specifically, this was from the Awards Winners insert set, back when inserts were actually cool and made sense (All-Stars, Award Winners….uh, Russians….)

It is true that I could have had this card ten times over if I bought it online. It just seemed that whenever I bought a bunch of cards from an eBay or Beckett Online seller, they didn’t have this one. And we all hate the idea of paying $2 to ship one card if that one card is only “worth” a quarter.

There is also something rewarding about finding a card like this in the wild. I found this at a recent show in a quarter box from a dealer named Big Jon, who is an avid Red Wings fan. Upon finding out that it was the last card I needed to complete my set, he told me that the card had been accidentally put in the quarter box, and was actually a ten-dollar card. Ah, that joke is about as old as the trading card industry itself, and yet it still makes me smile a little bit.

Hell, I’m in such a great mood I’ll even scan and share the back of the card….

One thing I’ve learned about collecting is that it is a waiting game. Sooner or later, we all tend to find what we are looking for, no matter how way there out or insignificant.

Fifteen ’53-54 Parkies

Every so often, I’d find a 1953-54 Parkhurst card at a show for $5 or $10 and buy it. Then one day, I realized that I had 17 cards from the set–enough that I figured that I’d start pursuing this set as one I’d like to complete.

Nothing will trump the 1951-52 Parkhurst set in the mind of collectors for its significance as being the first, ahem, “modern” set and it’s plethora of rookie cards (Howe? Richard? Never heard of ’em).

But I feel that the 1953-54 set is when Parkhurst really started to hit their stride. The cards are bigger and the backs are more informative. The smaller Parkies feel more like toss-ins from a bag of tobacco (I know, they were gum cards), whereas these feel like hockey cards.

Last month, I purchased 15 more cards from the 1953-54 Parkhurst set, bringing me up to 34 out of 100 cards. Enjoy the scans:

18 – Dick Gamble

20 – Eddie “Sipder” Mazur

21 – Paul Meger

29 – Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion

54 – Jack Evans

59 – Claude “Chuck” Rayner

72 – Lidio “Lee” Fogolin

75 – August “Gus” Bodnar

78 – Al Dewsbury

83 – George Gee

86 – Samuel “Sugar Jim” Henry

87 – Hal Laycoe

89 – Real Chevrefils

90 – Edward “Sandy” Sandford

91 – Fleming Mackell

Vintage Pickups: Two 1963-64 Topps Cards

Although I’m not really chasing after the 1963-64 Topps Hockey set, I couldn’t pass up these two cards. I paid $8 for the pair. Not bad for almost-50-year-old cardboard.

Here are scans of the back. These cards were in damn good shape for their age. No stains or creasing, just some soft corners.

More vintage goodness to come.

1957-58 Topps #6 – Larry Regan

I bought a lot of vintage hockey cards at the show last weekend. It’s been almost a full year since I last added a card to my 1957-58 Topps set. Larry Regan is my 14th card, bringing me one step closer to completing this 66-card set.

The front has a light crease and the corners are soft.

But the price? A whopping three-and-a-half bucks.

Set completion as of 11-25-2011:
14 out of 66 cards = 21.2%

Another RC for the PC

Michael Frolik hasn’t exactly been “tearing it up” this season with the Chicago Blackhawks–he’s scored 7 points in 16 games–but he seems to be fitting in on the Blackhawks. I guess I like Frolik enough that when I saw this card at a local card shop, I had to have it.

If you are going to get a rookie card, it might as well be an autographed one, right? That is unless, of course, it is a card of someone like Crosby or Ovechkin that will cost you thousands of dollars.

Anyway, next weekend, I will be going to the Sun-Times Sports Card Show in Rosemont, IL (November 18-20). Is anyone else going?

1960-61 Parkie & Topps Pickups

In addition to all those great 1963-64 Parkhurst cards I got at The National, I also picked up a few 1960-61 cards.

I figured that if I was going to start collecting 1960-61 Parkies, I should get one of someone significant, like Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion.

This Parkie card of Sid Abel looks great, and only cost me $8.

A line card of Don Marshall, Henri Richard and Dickie Moore. I guess line cards are a thing of the past, given that players change teams so frequently now that no trio really stays together for long.

This Nels Stewart card is from the 1960-61 Topps set. Twenty-seven of the 66 cards are of All-Time Greats–players from the early 20th century. I have always liked the look of these cards; a 1920s design sensibility, but done up in bright colors indicative of the 1960s.

1963-64 Parkhurst #42 – Alex Faulkner

This was the last 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey card I bought at The National, and by far the most expensive to date. I have never heard of Alex Faulkner, and had no idea why this card–his rookie card–was selling for upwards of $100. That didn’t make sense to me. He’s not the most famous Red Wing, and certainly not the most famous Red Wing to wear number 19.

This is a good example of why it is important to do your research and know exactly what you are looking for. Thanks to Wikipedia and a friendly dealer from Detroit, I found out that Faulkner was the first person from Newfoundland to play in the National Hockey League. And despite only playing 2 seasons and 101 games in the NHL, he still has “rock star” status and this card–his only card–sells for a premium.

The Beckett high value of this card is $120. I picked this one up for $42. I think I did OK here.

Oh, and this brings me one (somewhat bigger) step closer to finishing my set. I now have 46 of the 99 cards. When I go to the Sun-Times card show in November, I’ll try to pick up 4 more to make it to 50.

Parkhurst Percent Counter: 46% Complete