Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Does a Championship Increase Card Values for All-Time Greats?
Last week, a member of the Puck Junk Facebook Group asked me if a Connor McDavid printing plate card that he pulled on ePack would increase in value if the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup.
After thinking about it for a moment, Continue reading “Will a Stanley Cup Championship Boost Connor McDavid’s Card Prices?”
It is the 30th anniversary of the 1993-94 season – and that was my favorite year to collect hockey cards and memorabilia. That was the last year before collecting hockey got so darn complicated.
Continue reading “Why 1993-94 Was My Favorite Season to Collect Hockey”
Late last month, the Topps Trading Card Company announced that all redemption cards will now be valid for 10 years from the date of issue. This extends back to include redemption cards that were issued in 2021-22 products.
Normally, a redemption card – a little cardboard “I.O.U.” that promises the collector a premium card – would expire after two years or so. This would take the luster off of buying sealed products that were more than two years old. Sure, you might get a rookie card of a player that is now a superstar…or you might get an expired redemption card for an autograph of that same rookie that was now worthless.
What this move does for Topps is increase desirability in both old and new card products. We all dislike getting redemption cards – but it is nice to know that if we buy a product from 2021 in 2024 that the redemption card is still worth something.
Of course, Topps does not make hockey cards, but Upper Deck does. So, will Upper Deck keep up with its main rival and also extend the window of its own redemption cards?
Continue reading “Should Upper Deck Change Its Redemption Policy?”
Back in March, I wrote about how Connor Bedard’s Young Guns rookie card was trending downward in value. I also posted the link to my story on X/Twitter…and boy, did that rub some people the wrong way! Continue reading “The Hobby Bros Be Hatin’”
A few weeks back, I opined that checklist cards in this day and age are pretty much useless and should be discontinued. I put a poll out on X/Twitter asking collectors if they like checklist cards.
As you can see from the poll results above, 50.7% of respondents still like checklists, while 49.3% do not like checklists.
There are two takeaways here:
In a record-setting auction that ended Sunday, February 25, a full case of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards sold at Heritage Auctions for $3.72 MILLION DOLLARS.
The winning bid, which was placed Saturday night, was for $3.1 million. The “buyer’s premium” that gets tacked on to the winning bid price was $620,000, bringing the grand total to $3.72M.
What I want to know is, what would someone do with an entire case of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards?
Continue reading “What Would You Do With a Full Case of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards?”
It’s a mad, mad world we hockey card collectors are living in right now. Earlier this month, the hobby got turned on it’s head – again! – thanks, in large part, to the hype surrounding Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard.
Upper Deck released its 2023-24 O-Pee-Chee Hockey set on February 7. Traditionally, OPC is issued at the start of the season and does not include any of the “big name” rookies, who would normally get OPC cards later in the year as a part of an update set.
But this year, OPC was released mid-season. That means that Upper Deck could include Connor Bedard in the ’23-24 OPC set – and boy, did they ever!
Continue reading “Connor Bedard’s O-Pee-Chee Rookie Cards are Hot!”
After I launched the Puck Junk Newsletter last summer, a reader commented about the sheer number of hockey cards coming out over the next few months.
That got me wondering: are there too many hockey sets being released at once? In other words, is this too much of a good thing?
Once upon a time, it was possible to collect every hockey card released during the season – especially when there were only two major sets available. But nowadays, it is impossible to collect every hockey card out there, especially when you consider all the parallels, autographs, jersey cards, and one-of-one cards.
Since it is impossible to collect everything, many card collectors focus on player collecting – that is, collecting just the cards of their favorite players.
Like an à la carte menu at a restaurant, which lets you order smaller portions of certain foods without the side dishes, player collecting allows you to sample every, base, parallel and insert set out there.
Continue reading “Player Collecting: The à La Carte of Card Collecting”
When I went to the Sport Card Expo in Toronto back in November, one of the things I wanted to buy was an Auston Matthews Young Guns rookie card. In fact, there were a few different rookie cards of current stars that I was looking for.
The problem was, they were all more than I wanted to pay. Much of the new stuff was graded. And even ungraded copies of cards that I wanted were in the neighborhood of $500 or more.
That’s when I reminded myself of one of my long-standing card collecting strategies: know when to pivot your collecting focus, because you won’t know what you might find.