Chris Chelios is my all-time favorite hockey player. I try to collect all of his cards. But I may have gone too far with this one. Continue reading “And Why Did I Buy This Hockey Card?”
Category: News & Views
In The Cards is now online too
In The Cards is a short, hockey card-related article that I write for The Hockey News each issue. Starting this month, THN will publish In The Cards on their Post-to-Post blog as well as in the pages of their magazine.
You can read my latest In The Cards article, which is about a nice deal that Topps offered hockey fans way back in 1975, here.
Hockey logos inspired by Shark Week!
My girlfriend has been watching Shark Week on The Discovery Channel pretty much nonstop the past week. That, of course, gets me thinking about the San Jose Sharks, and what a cool logo they have.Then I started thinking about some of the other teams that use a shark as their logo. Here’s a look at five of the coolest logos inspired by everyone’s favorite underwater predator. Continue reading “Hockey logos inspired by Shark Week!”
My attempt at hockey artistry, circa 1992
I was cleaning out my filing cabinet and found some old drawings I did in high school. Art was always my favorite subject, and I took it all four years. I would try to draw or create hockey images whenever possible. During my junior year — right around the time of the 1992 Winter Olympics — we had to make a few blended colored pencil drawings for an assignment. I made three, using hockey as my inspiration. Continue reading “My attempt at hockey artistry, circa 1992”
Eight New 1965-66 Topps Hockey Cards
Feel the vintage! I picked up eight cards from the 1965-66 Topps Hockey set. I need a ton of cards from this set, so eight really doesn’t bring me that much closer to completion. Still, vintage is vintage, and these are in pretty decent shape. Anyway, enjoy the images.
Claude Provost (…and that’s a square jaw if I ever saw one.)
Topps rips off their own hockey design
Topps released its 2014 Baseball Archives set this week, and usually I don’t pay attention to baseball cards. But Topps did something with this set that really annoyed me: they used a classic hockey card design in the new Archives baseball set — specifically, this design:
Yes, that is the classic 1971-72 Topps and O-Pee-Chee design, re-purposed for a 20-card insert set of baseball cards — cheapening it in the process.
Everyone who reads this blog knows how much I love the 1971-72 design. It is the best hockey card design from the 1970s. (If you don’t believe me, read this first and then we’ll talk.)
Using this design for a baseball set would be like putting Sidney Crosby on a 1952 Topps Baseball card, or Alex Ovechkin on a 1989-90 Hoops Basketball card.
Inconceivable!
Five years ago, In The Game created a set of trading cards called 1972: The Year In Hockey which was reminiscent of the 1971-72 Topps/OPC design. I don’t know the full story, but I understand that In The Game got into a legal entanglement with Topps for making cards that also used ovals, bright colors and puffy letters. As if Topps invented — or outright owns — any of those design elements.
The 1972 set by In The Game was a hit with old school collectors who either bought cards in 1971-72 (that was before I was born), or collected that set later on. Making a new hockey set look like an old hockey set makes sense — especially when done right.
Anyway, would the type of collector who buys Topps Archives Baseball cards really give a damn about baseball cards that look like old hockey cards? I think they’d be more excited about new baseball cards that look like old baseball cards. Or the insert cards based on the Major League movie. I’m not even a baseball fan and I want those cards!
But these cards…irritate me.
Frankly, I”m tired of card companies re-using old designs because they don’t even do it right anymore.Think about Upper Deck’s half-hearted release of Fleer Retro last year. Some of the “retro” cards were great, but many of the inserts were dumb because they weren’t even based on hockey designs, like Intimidation Nation (based on a football set) and the God-awful Noyz Boyz (based on basketball cards).
Yes, Topps made hockey cards in 1971-72, and can use that design all they want. They can use it on baseball cards or FIFA World Cup cards or Spongebob Squarepants cards or whatever the heck they make these days.
But just because they CAN doesn’t mean they SHOULD.
Card ‘Toons: Surprised?!
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Card ‘Toons: Buffaloed
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Card ‘Toons: Playoff Time!
Steve Galvao is a good old Canadian kid who grew up loving hockey and collecting hockey cards. To see more of Steve’s work, visit his website, the Shoebox Collection. You can see his earlier blog posts here.
Two Niemi XRCs, One Low Price
I’ve wanted an Antti Niemi “XRC” for some time now. Even though Niemi had numerous cards during the 2009-10 season — recognized by Beckett as his true rookie cards — he did have a few cards released the prior season, like these two from the 2008-09 Be A Player Hockey set. There’s also a version without the jersey swatch.
Beckett recognizes Niemi’s 2009-10 cards as his true rookie cards. Why these count as XRCs, I don’t know. XRC is a designation for a rookie card that was released in some hard-to-get manner, such as a traded set, a mail-away or a redemption. I believe these cards were actually mailed out to redemption winners in 2010 — meaning that Niemi’s 2009-10 cards came out before these 2008-09 cards; though I am not 100% sure.
Usually, I’m not too fond of jersey cards, but these are of one of the heroes of the 2010 Stanley Cup Champions. In the opinion of many fans, it was Niemi and not Jonathan Toews who should have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the 2010 playoff MVP. I agree.
This card is serial-numbered 82 of 99 and has a red swatch from an, ahem, event-used sweater.
And the other Niemi not-a-real-RC-card is numbered 97 of 99 and has a white event-used jersey swatch, with just a touch of black at the top. I wonder if both of these swatches are from the same sweater…or from the same event.
The back of the card states that the “memorabilia” was worn in a rookie photo shoot. I’m guessing that Upper Deck had the players scrimmage, since all of Niemi’s early hockey cards show him wearing a helmet, as if he was in a game or at least a scrimmage.
OK, so the swatches aren’t game-used and they only show Niemi from the waist up. But I finally have Niemi’s “first” NHL card. After seeing this card offered between $15 and $30, I managed to snag these two in the same eBay auction for an absolute steal: $6.66 — and that included shipping. Once again, my patience has paid off.