Puck Junk

Believe it or not, I am still sorting through and putting away cards that I purchased at that card show last month.

Since mid-November, I’ve started a second teaching job, have been promoting a blogging class that I’m teaching in January, and am now promoting and organizing an art show based on video games and toys. So, my hobbies have taken a backseat to more academic pursuits.

I’m finally getting around to posting some more “common” 1970s O-PeeChee cards that I got last month.

Sorry about the group scans. Just want to show these off and put them away before bedtime.

Some 1969-70 and 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee cards

More 1970-71 O-Pee-Chee cards…look at the pretty, pretty colors!

Six cards from the 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee set, including Hall of Fame defenseman Harry Howell (lower right).

Finally, some unmarked checklist cards from the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey set.

There you have it…28 cards from various 1970s OPC sets. One day, all of these sets will be complete. In the meantime, I will continue to chip away at them a few cards at a time.

Saturday, I visited a store I don’t go to too often. It is not a card shop; rather, it is a store that sells a bit of everything. I never find sports cards there. That changed when I found a bunch of good hockey cards–for a mere 20 cents each!

Sifting through several thousand mixed cards–mostly Pokemon CCGs, baseball and non-sport–I unearthed 140 or so hockey cards. Many of them were rookies and inserts. Take a look at what I found:

11 2007-08 Upper Deck Young Guns – Two Bobby Ryan RCs, as well as Young Guns of Milan Lucic, Tobias Enstrom, Erik Johnson, Peter Mueller, Mayson Raymond, Rob Schremp and Villie Koistonen. Plus Jaroslav Hlinka and Tom Gilbert. All for 20 cents each.

21 2007-08 OPC Marquee Rookies – Mostly scrubs, but some good ones too, including Erik Johnson, Jaroslav Halak, Andrew Cogliano, David Clarkson, Mayson Raymond, Nick Foligno and Martin Hanzal. Also pictured above are two cards of Brett Sterling (regular and foil versions). Sterling is well-known to fans of the AHL’s Chicago Wolves.

6 2007-08 OPC Inserts – Two team checklists, a Season Highlights card of Evgeni Malkin, an In Action card of Roberto Luongo and two Stat Leaders cards. Fortunately, the two Stat Leaders cards were ones I needed for my set.

9 random rookie cards – Yes–the card in the upper left is a 2005-06 MVP Dion Phaneuf rookie card. The card next to it is a David Moss Ice Premiers RC numbered 287/999. The rest aren’t anything special, but will hopefully one day get traded to a fellow collector who is trying to complete some sets.

Some Stars and Inserts – Base and insert cards of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Vincent Lecavalier and Paul Stastny.

More Stars and Inserts – An Alex Tanguay Black Diamond Double Diamond and some various inserts from the 2007-08 Upper Deck set.

There were other cards I purchased too, but nothing special–Artifacts base cards, Black Diamond base cards and some “junk wax era” Classic Cards from the mid-1990s.

I guess there are two lessons here:

1. Sometimes you find things you like for a steal.
2. Sometimes you find things you like in the least likely of places.

Last month, I went to a card show and learned a lesson–a $20 lesson, to be specific. One of the first tables I perused at the show had some 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee cards for sale.

There is something alluring–almost seductive—about the ’72-73 OPC set. It features cards of players from the World Hockey Association. It uses many different photos than its Topps counterparts. Plus those bright background colors…the bad 1970s haircuts….

And at 340 cards–many in the $10-and-up range–it’s going to be quite the challenge to complete.

So, whenever I see cards from this set, I almost always stop in my tracks to take a closer look. That was my first mistake, because I try to check out all of the tables at a show before I spend any money.

After sifting through a short stack of the OPCs, I held up cards of Stan Mikita and Phil Esposito, and asked the dealer how much?

“Let me check,” he answered, as he procured an issue of Beckett Hockey.

Whenever a dealer whips out the Beckett, I know I am not going to get a good deal. I should have said “no thanks” and just left, but I did not. That was my second mistake. 

But it was too late, as I was seduced by the siren song of the ’72 set.

After looking up the prices, he told me that I could have the Mikita for $10 and the Esposito for $8. Now, this one is my fault. When inquiring about cards, you should know what they are “worth,” or what you are willing to pay for them. I did not. That was my third mistake.

But here’s the kicker. I held up a 1990s “junk wax era” insert card and again asked how much.

“That…uh, you can have it for five dollars,” the dealer said.

At that point, I should have turned around and ran–as fast as I could–to the next table. A red flag should have gone up; a siren should have gone off. Something to indicate that this was not the deal of a lifetime. If this guy wants $5 for a junky insert–I don’t care if it is Mario Lemieux!!!–then I should have known that I was not getting a good deal on the two ’72-73 OPC cards.

“I don’t think that card is worth more than a buck,” I stated. So, the dealer agreed to give me all three cards for $20, which I accepted.

Later on, I checked the price guide to find out that the 2 OPC cards have a combined “high value” of $18–which is exactly what I paid for them. Add $2 for the insert and thus we have the $20 lesson. Don’t ask “how much” unless you know what you want to pay.

..but every now and then I’ll pick up the odd game used jersey, stick or relic card.

This pair here–from the 2001-02 Topps Archives Hockey set–cost me a whopping $3. That’s about all I really want to spend on game used or relic cards.The top card uses a piece of a seat from the old Pittsburgh Civic Arena, while the bottom card uses a piece of a jersey worn by former Minnesota North Stars player Bobby Smith.

Confession time: Back in 2002, I thought the jersey cards were a pretty neat idea. I had never seen them before, as I took a break from hockey card collecting from 1998 to 2002. So even though the idea had been around, it was new to me. It was the 2002 Winter Olympics that got me re-interested in collecting hockey cards, and I attempted to collect every jersey, stick and relic card from the Archives set.

But over the past 8 years, I’ve been slow in this collecting endeavor. I have only 5 of 28 Arena Seat Relics cards, 1 of 3 game used stick cards and 5 of 12 game used jersey cards.

So while I will still continue to hate on jersey cards, I’ll make a minor exception whenever I see one of these…especially when they’re only a dollar or two each.