Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
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.
41 – Marcel Pronovost
44 – Marty Pavelich
85 – Dave Creighton
88 – John Pierson
97 – 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.
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”
I 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.
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.
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.
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”
An advertisement, published in Fall 1992 and promoting the forthcoming 1992-93 Pro Set Hockey set, showed seven different Pittsburgh Penguins hockey cards–including a card of defenseman Gordie Roberts. But when the set was released, Roberts was nowhere to be found. Continue reading “Lost Cards: 1992-93 Pro Set Gordie Roberts”
This card hints at what Chris Chelios’ 1990-91 Upper Deck Update card could have looked like. You might recall that Chelios’ card in the regular set (#174) pictures him with the Montreal Canadiens. The card in the Update set (#422) shows Chelios in a white Blackhawks jersey. So, where did this card come from? Continue reading “Lost Cards: 1990-91 Upper Deck Update Chris Chelios in red Blackhawks jersey”
Esa Tikkanen may have won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers in 1994, but he missed out on having a card in the Official NHL ’94 Trading Card Set. You might want to blame a video game programmer as for the reason why. Continue reading “Lost Cards: 1993-94 EA Sports Esa Tikkanen”
For my first installment of “The Lost Cards,” we will look at a card that was featured heavily in promotional materials, as well as on packaging, but never made it into anyone’s collection. Former NHL goalie Kari Takko almost had a card in 1990-91 Pro Set Series 2. Continue reading “Lost Cards: 1990-91 Pro Set Kari Takko”
Here are some quick news and notes in the world of hockey cards.
On Monday, June 25, I will start a 5-part series on Puck Junk called The Lost Cards.
Each day this week, I will profile a “mythical” hockey card–that is, a card that was supposed to be released, but was not for reasons many times left unexplained.
Like a cryptozoologist drawn to the Loch Ness Monster, I hope to shed some light on some famous and some obscure hockey cards that never saw the light of day.
The first part of The Lost Cards will go live soon after midnight tonight.
The current issue of The Want List will be its last printed edition. Published since 2009, THW is going to an online-only format for news and stories, but will continue to publish a print edition of its annual Vintage Hockey Collectors Almanac.
Personally, I am bummed out to see another hobby magazine meet its end–especially one that was solely dedicated to hockey. A great read, I always looked forward to the next issue. This fall, let’s all make The Want List part of our weekly reading. You can visit their website at TheWantList.ca
For those of you have started reading this blog in the past year, I am sometimes on an XM Radio Show called “The War Room,” in a collectibles segment called “Got ‘Em! Need ‘Em!” I was usually on the show once a week, but due to scheduling conflicts I’ve only been on 4 times this season. This week, I will be on The War Room twice (not sure of the days yet). The show is on XM Radio channel 92 / Sirrus channel 207 at 10 am CST.
The “Sports Spectacular” collectibles convention will be held in Rosemont on June 29 to July 1. The show will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention center, and have over 100 dealers, as well as autograph guests.
For those who take mass transit in Chicago, the show is a 2-block walk from the CTA Blue Line Rosemont train stop. It is also near several expressways, for those who live within reasonable driving distance to Chicago. Admission is $10 per day.
Show Hours
Friday, June 29: 4:30pm to 9:00pm
Saturday, June 30: 9:30am to 5:00pm
Sunday, July 1: 10:00am to 4:00pm
Visit the show website for more details.
I will be there probably all 3 days–definitely Saturday, and either Friday, Sunday or both. If you plan on going to this show, let me know and we can meet up and trade cards. Fellow blogger Justin G. and Puck Junk reader Nick B. will be there too.
Not to be confused with the magazine, I’ve updated my Want List. I am now looking for base cards from 2011-12 Enforcers, and still trying very hard to get all of the 2011-12 OPC Retro Parallels.
I’ve also “restored” more of my Singles, RCs and Inserts trade list, which now goes back to 2008-09. I hope to keep adding to it a little bit more each week with new (and old) stuff.
When I moved Puck Junk from my custom-built website to solely using WordPress, not all of my content made the transition. I’ve been slowly restoring old reviews to this site as time allows. I’ve recently added these articles to the archives:
They might be from a while ago – but as the saying goes, if you haven’t seen them yet then they’re new to you.
And be sure to check back tomorrow for the first installment of The Lost Cards.