A dozen 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards

Last weekend, I found some more 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards that I needed for my set build. Many of them were commons, but 12 of them were pretty awesome and worth scanning. So, for your enjoyment, here are a dozen cards from the ’72-73 OPC set:

272 – Goals Leaders

283 – Assist Leaders

280 – Scoring Leaders

127 – Hart Memorial Trophy

111 – Phil Esposito

226 – Tony Esposito (1st Team All-Star)

136 – Gilbert Perreault

197 – Tim Horton

145 – Ken Dryden…unfortunately, I think this card was trimmed, and I did not realize it until I got home. It measures about 2 3/8″ x 3 3/8″.

185 – Serge Savard

190 – 2nd Series Checklist (unmarked)

334 – 3rd Series Checklist (unmarked)

I now need only 108 cards to complete this set.

 

Six ’63-64 Parkies

I took 3 small steps — followed by 3 big steps — forward in completing my 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set.

First up, the 3 “commons” I bought:

15 – John MacMillan

61 – Allan Stanley

87 – Jean Gautier

And here are the 3 “big cards” I purchased:

23 – Henri Richard

69 – Eddie Shack

77 – Frank Mahovolich

Now I am down to needing just 34 cards in this set.

Parkhurst Percent Counter: 65%

 

Card of the Week: New Kids on the Ice

Unlicensed Hockey Card, circa 1991

If there was ever a hockey card that made me both laugh and vomit at the same time, this would be the one. Entitled “New Kids on the Ice,” this bootleg card pictures Eric Lindros, Sergei Fedorov and Ed Belfour on the front.

Those players remind me of hockey in the early 1990s, which in turn makes me smile. But the title at the top is an obvious reference to the popular boy band of the time, New Kids on the Block. And that makes me nauseous. Hence the dual feelings elicited by this fake card.

Continue reading “Card of the Week: New Kids on the Ice”

Five ’53-54 Parkies

My main focus when it comes to old Parkies is the 1963-64 set, but the 1953-54 set is a close second. Last weekend, I bought 5 cards from the 1953-54 Parkhurst set.

1953-54 Parkhurst #41 - Marcel Pronovost41 – Marcel Pronovost

1953-54 Parkhurst #44 - Marty Pavelich44 – Marty Pavelich

1953-54 Parkhurst #85 - Dave Creighton85 – Dave Creighton

1953-54 Parkhurst #88 - John Pierson88 – John Pierson

1953-54 Parkhurst #97 - William Frank Martin97 – William Frank Martin

These 5 put me at 37 out of 100 cards in the set. Once I finish up my 1963-64 set, this one will become a bigger focus.

It Came from the Quarter Box

At the card show last weekend, I spent a lot of time sifting through quarter boxes — more so than I usually do. What unknown treasures might they hold???

Truth be told, I would never, ever beat the 2 Topps C55 Marc-Andre Fleury Rookies I found for 10 cents each a few years ago. Or so I thought.

Dun,  dun, dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

When the three days were over, I picked up almost an embarrasing amount of decent cards – all for a quarter each!

Here are the best cards I found in the darkest depths of the quarter box: Continue reading “It Came from the Quarter Box”

1957-58 Topps “Mr. Goalie” Rookie Card

1957-58 Topps #20 - Glenn HallI took one gigantic leap forward in building my 1957-58 Topps set on Friday, when I picked up a rookie card of Hall of Fame goaltender Glenn Hall.

If anyone earned the right to be called “Mr. Goalie” it is him. Among other things, Hall played in 502 consecutive games, won the Calder Trophy, the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Stanley Cup 3 times, the Vezina Trophy 3 times and invented the butterfly style. See Wikipedia for the full list of accomplishments, which were nothing short of remarkable.

And rookie cards of remarkable players tend to be expensive–especially when from an older set. A near mint-copy of this card has a high book value of $400.

For me, buying vintage cards is always a delicate balance of lowering my standards far enough that the card is “in my range,” but not so low that I will regret the purchase later.

This card is far from perfect, but it is not horrible. The corners all have some “rounding” to them, and there’s a “dimple” above Hall’s outstretched arm.

1957-58 Topps #20 - Glenn Hall (back)The centering is not perfect, but that just adds to the “character,” right? And there is a tiny bit of paper loss towards the bottom (I did not notice that until I scanned the card).

I ended up paying $85 for this Glenn Hall rookie card. If this is the only copy of this card that I ever own, I’ll still be happy with it.

Set completion as of 7-2-2012
20 out of 66 cards = 31.8%

 

Sports Spectacular? It was OK

I went to a 3-day card show this weekend called The Sports Spectacular.

It was less-than-spectacular.

Normally, the shows in Rosemont (near Chicago) are great in March and November. But I guess this one was too close to The National. Many of my favorite dealers were absent this time. So, I found far less cool stuff for my collection than I did in March.

I guess that is OK. If you find too much stuff that you want, then you spend all your money, right? Still, I did pretty good. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the stuff I bought:

I hope to have scans up of some of my cool new cards later in the week.

Lost Cards: 1999-2000 Upper Deck Century Legends #23 – Ken Dryden

Upper Deck released a set called Century Legends during the 1999-2000 season. The first 50 cards of the 89-card set featured the top 50 NHL players of all time, as selected by The Sporting News. Absent from the set was number 23 on that list – Ken Dryden. Not only was Dryden omitted from the set, but the set skips card number 23, going from 22 to 24. Dryden’s card was never made. Or was it? Continue reading “Lost Cards: 1999-2000 Upper Deck Century Legends #23 – Ken Dryden”