Opinions

Random Thoughts on the 2026 National

It was the best of shows – but not without its flaws

Last month, I set up to sell at the 2026 National Sports Collectors Convention. I previously set up at this show from 2021 to 2024. For the 2025 National, I could not get a table, so it was nice to be back this year as a seller of hockey cards and hockey memorabilia.

I already spent a lot of time talking about the 2026 NSCC on our most-recent podcast, but I wanted to use this editorial to share some random thoughts about the convention.  Continue reading “Random Thoughts on the 2026 National”

Conquering the Card Closet

The Closet of Chaos is Now the Closet of Calm

Back in December, I wrote about how I did not have a good way to store my extra card supplies. I had half-full boxes of card pages, in all different sizes, that were just stuffed on a shelf in a closet. Other supplies like toploaders and soft sleeves were stashed wherever I could find room. It made locating and retrieving supplies difficult.

Heck, sometimes I even bought supplies that I already had enough of because I could not find them in the first place. 

Well, little by little, I kept figuring out what to do with my “Card Closet of Chaos.” Continue reading “Conquering the Card Closet”

The 9th Annual Puck Junk Awards

This year, the NHL skipped its annual awards show, instead announcing its annual trophy winners throughout the end of the season. That’s a bit of a letdown, as the NHL Awards Show – as cringy as it is sometimes – is a nice way to bookend the season. 

Show or no show, players still got their awards for being the best goalie, the best defenseman, the league MVP, and such. 

But sadly, there are no awards for the player with the most punchable face, the goalie least likely to play in an NHL game who got to play in an NHL game, or the guy who changed teams the most during the season. 

That is something I rectified in 2018 when I launched the Puck Junk Awards, for the true unsung heroes of hockey. 

So, let’s take a look at the Puck Junk Award Winners for 2026. 

Continue reading “The 9th Annual Puck Junk Awards”

Digital, Fractional, or Physical?

It’s Crazy That These are Now Hobby Terms

“Let’s get physical! Physic – I mean, digital! Digital!”

In the latest episode of the Puck Junk Podcast, we talked at length about the 2025-26 Fleer Ultra Hockey card set, and how it is the first time in a long time that Fleer Ultra is back as a “physical card product.”

A physical card product. That just sounds WEIRD, doesn’t it? Like, what else would trading cards be…right? 

We now live in the day and age of where we have to sometimes state specifically if the cards we are talking about are PHYSICAL or DIGITAL.

Continue reading “Digital, Fractional, or Physical?”

Olympic Ice Hockey is Like Star Trek Movies

It’s the Whole Even-Odd Thing,
If You Know What I Mean

I am excited about the 2026 Winter Olympics so far. We will see USA and Canada battle it out for the gold medal in the Women’s tournament. And for the first time in a long time, we may see a USA-Canada showdown in the men’s tournament, too. 

This is the first time in 12 years that the NHL shut down two weeks to allow its players to participate in the Olympics. This is the first Olympics that headlined Auston Matthews for Team USA and Connor McDavid for Team Canada.  

But as awesome as having Olympic rosters stuffed with top-level NHL talent, the men’s ice hockey tournament at the Olympics isn’t always great…for North American fans, anyway. 

In fact, men’s Olympic ice hockey reminds me of the old Star Trek movies from the 1980s and 1990s, where the odd-numbered films were bad, while the even-numbered films were great. The same pattern applies to men’s Olympic ice hockey since 1998. 

Continue reading “Olympic Ice Hockey is Like Star Trek Movies”

Is 2026 the Year I Finally Get Organized?

Not a New Year’s Resolution But a New Collecting Mindset

The past two years, I boldly gave my Collecting Resolutions as editorials for this newsletter. In 2024, I said I was going to organize my hockey action figure collection. And for 2025, I claimed that I was going to try to finish as many sets as possible.

So, how did I do on those resolutions? Continue reading “Is 2026 the Year I Finally Get Organized?”

Taming the Card Closet of Chaos

Getting a Grip on My Memorabilia Supplies 

Last week, I wrote about how vintage cards usually look better in 9-pocket pages because pages tend to hide some of the flaws that would otherwise be visible. But this also brought back to light something that has always bothered me: how should I store my unused card pages? 

I know this sounds like a silly question, but for over 20 years, I never knew what to do with the pages I wasn’t using. Like, you buy a box of 100 pages and only use 50 of them, you could stash the rest almost anywhere because they won’t take up much space. And a normal collector could do just that. 

But what if you are a freak like me who has ALL the different sizes of card pages?

In addition to several hundred 9-pocket pages, I also have: Continue reading “Taming the Card Closet of Chaos”

Does Condition Really Matter for Old Hockey Cards?

Especially When You Put Them in Pages? 

Last November, I purchased a complete 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee hockey card set at the Fall 2024 Sport Card Expo in Toronto. I then proceeded to ignore this set for over a year. 

Why?

Because it was another “project” that was going to take time. Many of the cards in this complete set had flaws, and I already had about 80 or so cards from the 1970-71 OPC set.

So, I would need to compare the cards that I already had with the cards in the complete set, keep the better cards, and note any cards that I felt needed upgrading.

And many – many! – of the cards need upgrading.

Or do they? 

Continue reading “Does Condition Really Matter for Old Hockey Cards?”

Completing Your Sets is a Lot of Work!

Time is Money…and Money is Money. 

Earlier this month, I was writing an article about goalie-themed hockey card sets and mentioned the Between the Pipes sets that came out in the 2000s and 2010s. I went into my closet and found my 2013-14 Between the Pipes set so I could scan a few of its cards. 

Or, rather, I should say I found my near-complete set of 2013-14 Between the Pipes, as it is missing 14 cards. That means that, in over 10 years, I’ve never bothered to finish the set. I opened one box, put the cards in order, then promptly forgot about it for a decade.

I was then reminded that I made a Collecting Resolution for 2025 that I was going to try and complete as many sets as possible this year. Heck, I even wrote about it back in January, thinking that by making this proclamation public, I would follow through on it. 

Do you care to guess how many sets I’ve finished in 2025 so far? Continue reading “Completing Your Sets is a Lot of Work!”