Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
National Hockey Card Day is just around the corner–February 9 in Canada and February 16 in the United States. Recently, I spoke with Chris Carlin, Sports Marketing and Social Media Manager for Upper Deck. Chris answered some questions about NHCD for 2013, including autographs and collation improvements. Continue reading “Interview: Upper Deck’s Chris Carlin talks about National Hockey Card Day”
I’m a bit behind in doing the “start of the year stuff,” like posting 2012 retrospectives or goals for 2013. I was sick for the first few weeks of the new year, then got caught up in teaching the new semester. But I finally got around to checking out my site stats for 2012. Here are the top 5 articles on Puck Junk for 2012:
1. Review: Check Out My Cards Purchase
I ordered some hockey cards from Check Out My Cards back in November 2012, and wrote a review of the ordering process–from using the redesigned COMC website, to the shipping and handling of the cards.
2. Lost Cards: 1999-00 Upper Deck Century Legends Ken Dryden
In June, I ran a 5-part series called “The Lost Cards,” ending about a Ken Dryden card that was planned but never produced. The article features the “card” that was made in its place–a few of them leaking out and sold on eBay. It also speculates why Dryden was not in the set featuring the best-ever NHL players.
3. Review: 1988-89 ProCards AHL/IHL
In 1988, an expansive minor league hockey card set was released, featuring both AHL and IHL teams. Many future NHLers would appear in this set, like Ed Belfour, Tony Twist, Mark Recchi and Jeff Hackett.
4. Lost Cards: 1990-91 Pro Set Kari Takko
A card of Minnesota North Stars goaltender Kari Takko was featured in ads and on packaging for 1990-91 Pro Set Series Two, but was mysteriously absent when the set came out. This was my first entry in the “Lost Cards” series.
5. 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Case Break
Well, I guess it it isn’t every day that someone opens a whole case of cards. That probably explains why it was the 5th-most popular article of 2012, despite it being written towards the end of the year.
Honorable Mention – Movie Review: Goon
I loved the movie Goon (“It is beach ball…”), and I am pretty proud of the write-up I did about it. If it had only 6 more views, my review of this awesome hockey film would have surpassed the (relatively boring) case break article mentioned above.
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OK, enough about 2012. Time to start focusing on 2013.
Upper Deck co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Richard P. McWilliam died unexpectedly in his home in Rancho Santa Fe, CA on Saturday, January 5. He was 59 years old, and leaves behind one of the largest trading card companies.
McWilliam was the subject of the book Card Sharks (1995), and was a polarizing figure in the trading card industry.
Upper Deck became a leader in the trading card industry almost overnight because of their quality production values. McWilliam was integral in securing the financing to produce their inaugural set of baseball cards. Under his leadership, Upper Deck also grew the market for autographed memorabilia with their “Authenticated” line of signed merchandise.
On the other hand, McWilliam was at the helm for some of Upper Deck’s biggest controversies. The company was sued by Major League Baseball for trademark infringement, and by Konami for reprinting/counterfeiting their own Yu-Gi-Oh! trading cards.
Regardless, McWilliam helped the trading card industry grow into the mufti-million dollar industry it is today.
Happy Holidays to those of you who read the blog–or just look at the pictures–and to those of you who have traded cards with me and helped my collection grow.
Earlier today, Upper Deck announced on their blog that National Hockey Card Day will be back in 2013. NHCD–as the cool kids call it–will take place on February 9 in Canada and on February 16 in the United States.
Five-card packs of special cards will be given out at participating retailers. Like last year, each country will have its own exclusive set of cards–15 different cards found in the packs, and a 16th card that can only be obtained if you make a purchase at the card shop.
Autographed cards will be randomly inserted in NHCD packs, and Upper Deck promises improved collation. The collation was particularly bad in the U.S. for their 2012 NHCD promotion–ten 5-card packs did not yield me even one complete 15-card set–so it is great to hear that Upper Deck is doing something about it.
The Canadian set will feature 15 cards of players suiting up for Team Canada. The bonus card will show Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky playing at the 1987 Canada Cup tournament.
The U.S. set will consist of 15 cards of the best American-born players.The bonus card will feature Kings goalie and 2012 Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Quick hoisting the Stanley Cup. This is a nice parallel to the 2012 US NHCD set; the bonus card was American-born, Conn Smythe winner Tim Thomas with the Cup. (Hopefully, a US-born goalie will win the Conn Smythe Trophy next year to continue this trend).
Considering that we are in the third month of the NHL lockout, this is great news for hockey card collectors. The lockout has resulted in a weak rookie class. less sets overall and lukewarm Ebay sales. Hopefully, this will give hockey card collecting some spark in a season that is all but cancelled.
For more information, check out Upper Deck’s blog and their NHCD Facebook page.
So, who can I count on to get me a Canadian set for 2013? 🙂
All images courtesy of Upper Deck.
October 5, 2007 was the day I officially launched PuckJunk.com.
That doesn’t seem too long ago. But I feel like I got a lot accomplished in 5 years, including a Masters Degree, a successful career change and maintaining this website (and that other hockey website I also do). So I guess 5 years was a while ago.
Five years! None of my previous “hobby websites” have lasted that long. My fansite about The Matrix movies lasted about 4 years, though I didn’t update it in the last year. My G.I. Joe fansite only lasted maybe around 2 years. My Transformers website never got off the ground. But my hockey card and collectibles site–FIVE YEARS AND COUNTING.
And counting! That’s the great part. I still enjoy collecting hockey cards and I still enjoy writing about them.
Why? Because of the rest of the blogosphere. My other fansites were islands unto themselves, while Puck Junk is part of a community that enjoys hockey cards. Thanks to everyone who has traded cards with me, and thanks to everyone who’s listened to me prattle on about old cards, new cards, good cards, bad cards, rookie cards and lost cards.
Here’s to the next half-decade.
FIVE YEAR ANNIVERSARY GIVEAWAY CONTEST
To celebrate Puck Junk’s 5th Anniversary, I am giving away a sealed deck of Hockey Hall of Fame playing cards, which uses photos of some of the greatest all-time players.
If you would like to be entered in the drawing, just post a reply saying so by Sunday afternoon.. I will do a random drawing on Sunday night.
ALSO…
Happy Birthday to these guys!
Jeremy Roenick, one of my favorite former Blackhawks’ players, had a small guest role on the new TV show “Go On” this past Tuesday. The sitcom is about a smug sports radio show host named Ryan King, played by Matthew Perry. However, King lost his wife and is attending group therapy sessions to cope. (Yes, this is a comedy.)
In this week’s episode, King is invited to play in Jeremy Roenick’s weekly pickup hockey game. I won’t tell you anything else about the episode because you might want to watch it online. However, I will spoil the best line:
“Yo, Roenick! Get back on ‘D,’ princess!”
As a longtime hockey fan, it is awesome to see a hockey player–one of my heroes, no less–appear on a TV show. Whenever an athlete guest stars on a show in the U.S., it is always a baseball, football or basketball player. Nice that hockey is finally starting to get its due here south of the border.
If you want to see the episode, you can watch it at NBC’s website.
Did anyone else see this week’s episode of “Go On?” What did you think of it and/or Roenick’s acting?
Here are some quick news and notes in the world of hockey cards.
On Monday, June 25, I will start a 5-part series on Puck Junk called The Lost Cards.
Each day this week, I will profile a “mythical” hockey card–that is, a card that was supposed to be released, but was not for reasons many times left unexplained.
Like a cryptozoologist drawn to the Loch Ness Monster, I hope to shed some light on some famous and some obscure hockey cards that never saw the light of day.
The first part of The Lost Cards will go live soon after midnight tonight.
The current issue of The Want List will be its last printed edition. Published since 2009, THW is going to an online-only format for news and stories, but will continue to publish a print edition of its annual Vintage Hockey Collectors Almanac.
Personally, I am bummed out to see another hobby magazine meet its end–especially one that was solely dedicated to hockey. A great read, I always looked forward to the next issue. This fall, let’s all make The Want List part of our weekly reading. You can visit their website at TheWantList.ca
For those of you have started reading this blog in the past year, I am sometimes on an XM Radio Show called “The War Room,” in a collectibles segment called “Got ‘Em! Need ‘Em!” I was usually on the show once a week, but due to scheduling conflicts I’ve only been on 4 times this season. This week, I will be on The War Room twice (not sure of the days yet). The show is on XM Radio channel 92 / Sirrus channel 207 at 10 am CST.
The “Sports Spectacular” collectibles convention will be held in Rosemont on June 29 to July 1. The show will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention center, and have over 100 dealers, as well as autograph guests.
For those who take mass transit in Chicago, the show is a 2-block walk from the CTA Blue Line Rosemont train stop. It is also near several expressways, for those who live within reasonable driving distance to Chicago. Admission is $10 per day.
Show Hours
Friday, June 29: 4:30pm to 9:00pm
Saturday, June 30: 9:30am to 5:00pm
Sunday, July 1: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Visit the show website for more details.
I will be there probably all 3 days–definitely Saturday, and either Friday, Sunday or both. If you plan on going to this show, let me know and we can meet up and trade cards. Fellow blogger Justin G. and Puck Junk reader Nick B. will be there too.
Not to be confused with the magazine, I’ve updated my Want List. I am now looking for base cards from 2011-12 Enforcers, and still trying very hard to get all of the 2011-12 OPC Retro Parallels.
I’ve also “restored” more of my Singles, RCs and Inserts trade list, which now goes back to 2008-09. I hope to keep adding to it a little bit more each week with new (and old) stuff.
When I moved Puck Junk from my custom-built website to solely using WordPress, not all of my content made the transition. I’ve been slowly restoring old reviews to this site as time allows. I’ve recently added these articles to the archives:
They might be from a while ago – but as the saying goes, if you haven’t seen them yet then they’re new to you.
And be sure to check back tomorrow for the first installment of The Lost Cards.
I know these have been around for around a month now, but I recently saw images of the new 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee hockey set.
It took Upper Deck seven tries, but they finally made an O-Pee-Chee design that I actually like.
OK, that’s not entirely true. I loved the 2009-10 design. But my biggest complaint has always been the gi-normous O-Pee-Chee logo that has dominated the design every year since 2006-07–when Upper Deck started making OPC-brand cards. Upper Deck always felt the need to hit us over the head with an OPC logo that was unnecessarily large.
But not this year. Instead, more important details–like the player’s name and team–take precedence over the brand logo. The design isn’t too shabby either–it looks modern enough, but feels kind of old school.
The inserts really have me excited about this set, though.
The Retro Parallel cards will be seeded 1-per pack, and have a 1950s vibe to them. I am currently building the 2011-12 OPC Retro Parallel set (want list here), and might actually go after these too.
STICKERS?!?! How freaking cool is this? As an American, I fondly remember getting a sticker in almost every Topps card set I bought back in the day, be it Hockey or a movie set like Star Wars. You’ll get one sticker in every 3 packs of the upcoming OPC set.This sticker’s design feels like a 1970s baseball card–simple, but colorful. Frankly, I’d rather get a sticker than a retro rainbow black die cut parallel.
And don’t worry–there will be 8 rainbow parallels per box, too. And harder-to-find black rainbow parallels. This is Upper Deck we’re talking about.
You’ll also get 2 pop-ups per box. While I’m not exactly a fan of the idea, I do like the fact that we are getting some variety in this year’s OPC product. Plus, I’m kind of tired of inserts like Trophy Winners and Team Checklists.
One idea I really like are these manufactured Team Logo Patch cards.
I guess these are going to feature different incarnations of team logos, or a team’s supporting logo, like the Red Wings’ cartoon octopus. Unfortunately, these will be hard to get–1 in every 96 packs–so I won’t hold my breath. I like the idea of collecting team logos, past and present. That would have made a cool insert set itself, even without patches. Oh well.
The 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set will be released August 14. I’m definitely going to collect it. Now my only debate is, do I buy a complete set (like I did this year) or do I buy some boxes. One way is more effective, but the other way is more fun–and expensive.
Is anyone else planning on collecting the 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set/
This Saturday (tomorrow!) is National Hockey Card Day. And as all of you know by now, this year it will be held in both Canada and the U.S.
Participating stores will be giving away 5-card packs of Upper Deck Hockey cards containing an exclusive “National Hockey Card Day” set. Each country will get its own distinct set:
While the giveaway packs are free, a special 16th card (Sidney Crosby in Canada; Tim Thomas in America) will only be available if you make a purchase.
Canadian collectors who visit London Drugs or Toys R Us will get an oversized “blow up” card when they purchase an Upper Deck product.
I’m excited, and am going to visit a few stores and try to build a few sets to trade to my fellow collectors north of the border.