Card of the Week: The Card I Had to Have

It was summer of 1989. I just finished 8th grade and got my first pair of hockey skates as a graduation present. Every Friday that summer, my mom took me to ice skating lessons. Afterward, she’d take me to a local card shop. One day, I spotted something awesome in the display case: a 1981-82 Topps Hockey card of Tony Esposito.

Even though I had only been a hockey fan for a half a year at that point, I was no stranger to Esposito’s career accomplishments: Calder Trophy winner in 1970, record for most shutouts in one season, member of the Hockey Hall of Fame and one of only four Blackhawks at the time to have his number retired.

And here, in this display case, sat a card of Tony-O, clad in red ‘Hawks sweater and his plain, workmanlike mask, glove hand outstretched as he goes to make one of the countless saves he made throughout his career. It was one of the coolest cards I had ever seen. But there was a catch: it was part of a stack of cards, wrapped in clear plastic and labeled “50 Topps Hockey Cards for $2.50.”

Well, I was too smart to fall for that game: obviously, the card on top is nice, while the other 49 are dogs. I didn’t want to spend a whole $2.50 for one card that I wanted and 49 I didn’t. Keep in mind that it was 1989, when 50 cents could get you a pack of new cards, and that I was only 14 and with no job. I decided to spend my money on five packs of newer cards that could help me finish off a set.

I regretted my decision as soon as I got home. The more I thought about that 1981-82 Topps Hockey card of Tony Esposito, the more I wish I had bought it. But my mom wouldn’t take me back to the shop; I would have to wait until next week after my ice skating lesson. (In all fairness to my mom, though, I probably spent all my money anyway.)

And so I thought about that card all week. I probably lost some sleep over it too, dreaming that some other kid would get that awesome Tony-O card and that I’d be left wishing for it.

Finally, the next Friday rolled around. After class, we stopped at the card shop. I remember hurrying through the store – the glass case with the hockey cards was all the way in the back – and being both excited and relieved that the stack of “50 Topps Cards for $2.50” was still available. I even remember removing the clear plastic wrap on the car ride home to look at the cards I just bought.

The cards under the Esposito were also from the 1981-82 Topps set – basically, the entire “National” set (1 to 66) minus Wayne Gretzky, Jarri Kurri and a few others. Guy Lafleur was in the stack; I recall my mother, who was a huge fan of The Flower back in the 1970s, correcting my botched attempt at pronouncing his name. Marcel Dionne was in there too, though that card had a crease along the bottom.

topps_valut_tony_esposito — Match print photo used for Tony Espostio’s 1981-82 Topps (and O-Pee-Chee) cards.

But all that didn’t matter. I had the card that I wanted – that my 14-year old mind fixated on all week.

Like any good collecting story, things came full circle. Last year — more than 20 years since I purchased this card — I worked out a trade with a collector named Shane, who has a blog called Shoebox Legends.

He offered to trade me a very unique item that he purchased from the Topps Vault: the match print photo used for the 1981-82 Topps Tony Esposito card. It is bigger than the card, measuring 3.5″ by 5″. It is also uncropped, meaning that we see Tony-O’s full glove hand, and there are no borders or text interfering with the picture.

Of course, I really wanted this picture, given my obsession with this card two decades ago. But this time, there was no week-long wait on pins and needles. After hearing my tale, Shane was more than willing to trade the Esposito photo to me, telling me that it belonged in my collection.

One point of interest about the photo: it’s been touched up.

On the surface, someone sprayed a little black paint between the top of Esposito’s stick and his left shoulder. This was to cover up the face of a spectator. Topps did that sort of thing a lot in the 1970s and 1980s. You don’t really notice it on the card so much because the painted area looks dark green.

And now you know more about this card than you thought possible.

In The Game Decades The 90s Box Break

Do you remember wearing flannel shirts? Can you still sing all the words to Ice Ice Baby? Do you dream about the days when hockey cards were 50 cents a pack? Then Decades The 1990s — released today by In The Game — just might be the card set you crave.

If you are around my age, then you probably have fond memories of the hockey card explosion, playing NHL ’94 on your Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis and watching the “glow puck” on FOX (unless you are in Canada, where the pucks don’t glow). Ah yes, the nineties were a great decade for hockey, and worthy of their own set.

Like In The Game’s previous “era” releases — 1972 The Year in Hockey and Decades 1980s — Decades The 90s focuses on a specific time in the sport: 1990 to 1999. There are 14 cards in the box. Considering that a “box” is really a “pack,” 14 cards feels like the right amount, as many packs of the early 1990s contained 12 to 15 cards each.

OK, enough reminiscing. Onto the break (after the break): Continue reading “In The Game Decades The 90s Box Break”

2005-06 Beehive Hockey Box Break

The 2005-06 Beehive Hockey set is one that I’ve long wanted to build. So when I found a sealed box at the National earlier this month for $50, I snapped it up. The set contains 180 standard-sized cards and 70 oversized cards — the latter resembling the old “Beehive Photos” kids collected during the Original Six Era. Each pack has four regular cards and one large card, and the box has 15 packs. Here’s what I got: Continue reading “2005-06 Beehive Hockey Box Break”

Review: 2013 Upper Deck Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Box Set

To the victors go the trading cards

When Bryan Bickell and Dave Bolland scored 17 seconds apart in Game 6 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Finals, the Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup. That victory also earned them a special boxed set of hockey cards from Upper Deck, commemorating the team’s second Stanley Cup in four seasons. Released at the end of July, the set contains 31 cards that no die-hard ‘Hawks fan should be without. Continue reading “Review: 2013 Upper Deck Chicago Blackhawks Stanley Cup Box Set”

Cards I purchased at the 2013 National

Truth be told, I did not enjoy the 2013 National as much as I enjoyed the 2011 National.This was because I had less money to spend this time around. However, there was far less hockey this time around too. So, I had less to spend — and less to spend it on. I couldn’t be impulsive and had to carefully weight anybig purchases, but I dug around and still found a few treasures for bargain prices. Continue reading “Cards I purchased at the 2013 National”

Autographs I got at the 2013 National

Two weeks later, and I am still wading through the stack of cards and other assorted goodies that I got at the 2013 National Sports Collectors Convention. I’ve busted boxes, found many cool singles and acquired a lot of new autographs for my collection.

When I went to the National, I paid for a VIP ticket, which included 12 autographs from the “VIP Signers”–basically, the ex-athletes who were signing autographs for around $15 to $25. You get a sheet of tickets that have the athlete’s name printed on it. What I did on the first day of the show was trade tickets. If someone was wearing a Cubs jersey, I asked them if they would trade me their Ed Olcyzk or Murray Bannerman ticket for, say, a Jerome Walton ticket. Most people were willing to trade, and some even gave me their tickets for the ex-Hawks without wanting anything in return.

Here’s a rundown of the autographs I got at the 2013 National:

Do not adjust your monitor. This is indeed a football card.

On Wednesday, former Chicago Bears running back Neal Anderson was signing autographs for free. You did not need an autograph ticket, and since I got into the show early I was able to get in and out of his line rather quickly.

I decided to get Anderson’s rookie card autographed. Not much of a decision, as it is one of the few football cards I’ve kept from my childhood, for sentimental reasons.

When it was my turn to get Anderson’s autograph, I said “I’ve had this card since I got it in a pack of cards from 1988, and I’m excited to finally get it autographed.”

“Well,” he cheerfully replied, “I’m excited to sign it for you.” He seemed to mean it too. Anderson appeared to be having a good time talking with fans and shaking hands.

I thanked him for the autograph, and for coming to the show. I can’t say I was the only one who got a football card signed, but most others were either getting Anderson’s autograph on a photo or a mini football helmet.

Thursday was the first full day of the show. Former ‘Hawks player and current TV color commentator Ed Olczyk was signing autographs. Through trades and a few “gifts” from fellow attendees, I ended up getting eight items autographed by Olczyk. You can see the rest of the items here on my autograph blog.

On Saturday, former Blackhawks goaltender Murray Bannerman was signing autographs. In all, I ended up with 11 tickets for Bannerman’s ‘graph, which was way more than I needed. I gave three tickets away and got eight items signed, including this 5″x7″ photo of Bannerman as a member of the Vancouver Canucks. He played one game — only 20 minutes — with the Canucks in 1978 before he was traded to the Blackhawks. You can also see the rest of the items here on my autograph blog.

On Sunday, I pulled this card of baseball legend Ken Griffey Jr. from an Upper Deck redemption pack and promptly traded it to another collector for this autographed card of Jonathan Toews. (You can read more about the redemption programs at the show here).

One of the dealers — all the way at the back of the room — had this 1983 Cartophilium Hall of Fame card signed by Ken Reardon, who passed away in 2008. I love this set, and could not pass up the opportunity to get this card. Plus, the price was very reasonable.

Finally, I purchased a few cheap autographed cards over the weekend. The autographed cards of Benoit Cote and Greg Andrusak were 25 cents each.The Stephen Weiss signed mini card was $4. The 2010-11 Panini Certified autographs of Bobby Butler, Justin Mercier and Brandon Yip were $1 each.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some of my cool non-autographed finds from the show.

1963-64 Parkhurst #97 – Dave Balon

Wow, has it really been eight months since I last purchased a card from the 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey set? Yes, yes it has. I did not find any Parkies from that year back at the card show in March, and I haven’t done much eBay shopping lately.

Anyway, this “common card” of Dave Balon was $12. A little steep for a common, until I noticed how perfect the corners on this card are. The only real flaw is that bit of discoloration (dirt?) along the bottom left edge. Even the borders and back are a little less aged than usual.

And thus, I’ve taken another small step towards completing this set.

Parkhurst Percent Counter: 69%

Wrapper Redemption Review at the 2013 National Sports Collectors Convention

From July 31 to August 4, Chicago was host of the 34th National Sports Collectors Convention. I attended the show and participated in the redemption programs held by Panini and Upper Deck.

For those who have never done a redemption program at a card show before, it basically goes like this: You buy packs or boxes of cards at the show and open them up at a company’s booth. In turn, you get special packs that contains cards you can only get at the show.

Here is my rundown of the Panini and Upper Deck redemption programs at the 2013 National.

Panini
To participate in Panini’s redemption program, you had to buy an entire box of cards. You would get a specific amount of redemption packs based on what box of cards you purchased.

For example, I bought a box of 2013-14 Score Hockey jumbo packs, which merited me four redemption packs. Thus, a redemption pack of Panini cards would cost you about $25, and only had two cards.

Here are the highlights from my four Panini redemption packs.

The set was made up of athletes from all sports, and was a tougher set to put together, since you’d only get two cards and the redemption set was around 30 cards or so.

Panini’s redemption also had a greater variety of hits — including autographed cards, exchange cards for an over-sized autographed card, jersey cards and jersey/autograph combo cards. I pulled one jersey card from my four redemption packs:

I never heard of Harrison Barnes, but he must be popular because there’s like ten of this card on eBay right now.

I only participated in Panini’s program once, earning four packs. For me, it was too expensive of a program to participate in further. But it was well-received by many other collectors, as evidenced by the high amount of foot traffic in Panini’s booth during the convention.

Upper Deck
Upper Deck’s redemption program was a little more streamlined. Their 20-card redemption set was a bit easier to assemble. On Thursday, you could get cards 1-5. On Friday, cards 6-10. Saturday’s redemption packs had cards 11-15 and Sunday’s packs had cards 16-20. So, if you went every day and got one redemption pack each day, you’d get all of the cards needed for the set. Of course, you had to then participate every day.

Upper Deck’s redemption program was also a bit cheaper to buy into. For the cost of two packs of Fleer Retro Hockey ($12), you could get an Upper Deck redemption pack. However, you were limited to four packs per day.

Here is what the set looks like:

There were athletes from other sports in the 20-card set, but 5 of the cards were of hockey players, so no complaints here.

As for “hits,” Upper Deck kept it simple, offering only autographed cards as an incentive. Their lineup was pretty good, though, and I was lucky enough to get two autographed cards:

As you can see, I got one autograph from a damn good hockey player, and a damn good basketball player.

My rate of success with the Upper Deck redemption packs was better because I participated in their program every day, getting four packs each time. I liked their program better because it was easier to assemble the redemption set and the “hits” were bigger. And if you got a hit, it was in addition to the five “regular” cards already in the pack.

Did anyone else participate in either redemption program at the National this year? If so, how did you do?

Five great effects of the Gretzky trade

Twenty-five years ago today, Wayne Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. As an American hockey fan, I feel like I owe a lot to Wayne Gretzky. His presence on a U.S.-based team helped grow the sport here in the states tremendously. The effects of his trade are still felt in this country today.

Here are five effects of the “Gretzky Trade” that made hockey better, especially in the U.S.:

snl_1 — How many other hockey players have hosted Saturday Night Live?

1. Gretzky gave hockey a “go-to” reference in the United States.
If you asked a random person on the street in a U.S. city to name a hockey player back in 1987, they probably would have answered you with a blank stare. Sure, a hockey fan would have been able to rattle off an entire roster, but not a lot of people outside of hockey circles knew much about the sport, let alone who the greatest player was.

Gretzy’s trade to the Kings gave the second-largest market in the U.S. the best hockey player ever. People took note, and Gretzky became that “go-to” hockey reference that the U.S. so sorely needed.

Gretzky hosted Saturday Night Live in 1989; the first and only hockey player to do so
Gretzky was the “hockey character” in the God-awful Saturday morning cartoon ProStars, which also featured animated versions of Michael Jordan and Bo Jackson.
In the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, one of the turtles makes a remarks, “Who the heck is that, Wayne Gretzky?” when meeting goalie-masked vigilante Casey Jones. A generation of kids watching that film who had no idea who Wayne Gretzky even was would soon find out.

The list goes on. The mainstream population in the U.S. may not have ever watched a hockey game, but at least they could now name the game’s best player.

1988-89 Topps #120 - Wayne Gretzky — The trade that changed trading cards.

2. Gretzky’s trade changed trading cards.
Gretzky’s trade changed hockey cards in two ways. First, up until the late 1980s, Topps and O-Pee-Chee would “doctor” a photo if a player was traded in the offseason, so as to make the player “appear” that he was with his new team. They’d either do a “head swap,” or paint a new uniform over the old one.

But you don’t do that to the Great One.

Instead of painting a Kings uniform over a game-action shot of Gretzky — or worse, transplanting his head on another player’s body — the Topps card company used a photo of Gretzky from a press conference on their 1988-89 trading card.

Other companies would follow suit. Hoops used a similar photo for their 1989-90 card of David Robinson. The using of press conference photos became an accepted practice in the trading card industry when a game-action photo could not be secured on time.

But another big change to the hockey card industry was the increased demand for hockey cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Two years after Gretzky’s trade to L.A., three more companies got the license to make hockey cards. Hockey card collecting was no longer a two-horse race, with Upper Deck, Score and Pro Set joining Topps and O-Pee-Chee.

Here in the U.S., hockey cards went from being sold only in card shops to being sold everywhere: grocery stores, toy stores, sporting goods stores, comic book stores, gas stations, you name it. This would never had happened if Gretzky was still in Edmonton.

shoes — Be like Mike? Some of us wanted to be like Wayne.

3. Gretzky’s new endorsement deals raised hockey’s profile in the U.S.
Yes, Wayne Gretzky was endorsing products long before his trade to Los Angeles — including this hilariously-bad 7-Up commercial from Canada — but now he was endorsing products in the U.S., too.

Having a recognizable name and face to promote hockey-related products raised hockey’s profile significantly. Grocery stores carried Upper Deck trading cards, endorsed by Gretzky. Toy stores had the Wayne Gretzky Overtime Hockey table hockey game and the Wayne Gretzky Hockey video game for Nintendo. Shoe stores sold Gretzky-endorsed Ultra Wheels in-line skates and L.A. Gear street hockey shoes.

Street hockey shoes? Tell me about it. Do you think any company would have tried selling street hockey shoes if Gretzky wasn’t with the Kings?

si_cover — Suddenly, Los Angeles noticed that it had a hockey team.

4. Gretzky helped expansion in traditional non-hockey markets
The L.A. Kings — along with the now-defunct Oakland Seals — became NHL teams in 1967 because the television networks wanted the NHL to have a west coast presence. The NHL also did this to thwart their biggest rival at the time, the “old” Western Hockey League. Hockey languished in California in the 1970s and 1980s until Gretzky came along.

Five years later, California had two more teams. Former Kings owner Bruce McNall may have had a lot to do with that. In his book Fun While it Lasted, he discusses pushing for expansion in California so that he’d get a large chunk of the expansion fee money paid by the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Mighty Ducks, since they were encroaching on the Kings’ TV market.

Face it: no one in Anaheim or San Jose would even be interested in hockey if it wasn’t for Gretzky being on the Kings in the first place. During the 1990s, Gretzky’s presence in the U.S. would help grow the sport in other “non-traditional” markets like Florida and Texas.

hockey_kids — Photo by battlecreekcvb via Flickr / Creative Commons.

5. Gretzky inspired the next generation of American players
More kids wanted to play hockey in the United States after Gretzky was traded to the Kings. The numbered of registered hockey players in California grew from 4,830 players in 1990-91 (the earliest year that USA Hockey has data for) to 22,305 players in 2010-11 (source). California is the seventh-largest region for hockey players in the United States.

Gretzky’s presense in L.A. was felt throughout the rest of the country, too. According to USA Hockey, the number of registered hockey players in the U.S. grew from 195,125 players in 1990-91 to 421,399 players in 1998-99 — Gretzky’s last year in the NHL. Since then, it has climbed to 510,279 registered players in the U.S.

This has also impacted the number of Americans drafted by NHL teams. From 2000 to 2012, 743 U.S.-born players were drafted by NHL teams. In the 2013 draft, 53 U.S.-born players were drafted, accounting for just over one-fourth of all players picked. How many of these young men were inspired by watching Gretzky play?

***
On August 9, 1988, Canada lost their greatest athlete, but hockey in the United States gained just what it needed to help the sport grow. Twenty five years later, the growth hasn’t stopped.

Review: 2012-13 Rockford IceHogs team set

The 2012-13 Rockford IceHogs team set might just be the greatest minor league team set ever made. Consider the cool, retro design that pays homage to old time cards and the plethora of NHL talent included, and you’d be hard pressed to find a more worthwhile team set of minor league players. Continue reading “Review: 2012-13 Rockford IceHogs team set”