Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Today was the first day of the first-ever (and hopefully annual) Chicago Blackhawks Convention. So far, I am having mixed feelings about this event. It has been a lot of fun, but overall it has been very disorganized.
Here is a recap of what I did on the first day of this event. Continue reading “Blackhawks Convention – Day One”
I have acquired another card from the almighty 1963-64 Parkhurst Hockey Set. This one is of Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Don Simmons.
This card is in significantly better condition than the Gordie Howe card I purchased to start my set. But this card is not without flaws: it has some light creases, as well as a “dinged” upper-right corner. But for $6, I’m not complaining.
What I find interesting about this card is the “old” Canadian flag–basically a British “Union Jack” with some extra red. Aesthetically, this works well as a backdrop, as the red on this flag offsets the abundance of blue of the Maple Leafs uniform.
Two down, 97 to go…
From the 1997 NHL Awards show, this satirical commercial was for a “chat line” where NHL refs could talk to each other if they game they were watching was boring.
Recently, I went to a card show and picked up a box of 1992-93 O-Pee-Chee Premier hockey cards for $8.
As much as I like old cards and opening packs, this set left me wishing I just bought a complete set online. The problem with that, though, is that many people want to charge you $8 to ship a 132-card set.
So, I thought that I’d buy this box and get a complete set.
I thought wrong. Even though a box would yield you 252 “regular” cards and 36 insert cards, I came surprisingly short of completing a set. Here’s the breakdown of what I got:
Regular cards
– 115 cards towards my set
– 94 doubles
– 42 triples
– 1 quadruple
Insert cards
– 32 “Star Performers” (22 plus 10 doubles)
– 5 “Top Rookies” (4 plus 1 double)
Overall, I now have 88% of a complete set, 100% of the 22-card “Star Performers insert set and 100% of the 4-card “Top Rookies” insert set. Even though it’s cool that I got all the inserts, I really didn’t need them, since I bought those a long time ago.
As you can see, I got a lot of doubles–and quite a few triples too. I even got a quadruple, of Tampa Bay Lightning player Joe Reekie.
Many of the packs had a “packaging flaw”, where you would get two cards of the same player in the same pack. One particular pack gave me three doubles in the same pack, as I pulled two cards of Glen Murray, two cards of Gordie Roberts and two cards of Guy Hebert.
But I ended up with one more insert card than I should have–37 instead of 36…so I guess it wasn’t all bad.
Another interesting tidbit: these cards seemed to “segregate” themselves. In every pack that I pulled a card of Reggie Savage, I also got a card of Darren Banks in the very same pack! I don’t know if the card-packing machines in London, Ontario really intended to put both black players in the same pack, though; it was probably coincidental. 
If anyone has doubles and can help me out, I still need 17 cards to complete my set–see my Wantlist here.
I also have numerous doubles to trade of both the base and insert cards, as well as complete insert sets for trade. Reply here, or Contact Me if interested.
Look for a review of this set once I complete it.
I’ve always wanted a complete set of 1963-64 Parkhurst hockey cards. Since a set is very expensive, I figured I’d try and build a set one card at a time. I decided to start at the top and work my way down…
Gordie Howe is the most expensive single in the set. This one is not in great shape. It is yellowed and there is a crease across Howe’s face. There is a pin hole right above his head which has since been filled in with blue ballpoint pen.
And yet, I don’t care. Since I don’t have $400 for an EXMT Howe card, I figured that $40 for this one–despite its poor condition–would be well worth it. Even if I get all 99 cards in comparable condition, I would be ecstatic.
One down, 98 to go…
From the 1997 NHL Awards this is a fake commercial for the “Brodeur-Hextall Table Hockey Game”. I actually found this one quite funny “back in the day”:
A few things I’d like to point out:
“Better pull your goalie! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!:”
The Onion–a satire newspaper published in the U.S.–is probably the only newspaper I read consistently. Sad but true. And oh so funny. Every now and then they lampoon hockey in their Sports section. Here are some of the more recent riffs–all Red Wings related, given their success:
Giant Squid Thrown On Ice To Celebrate Red Wings Hat Trick
Evil Red Wings Owner Wario Lemieux Steals Stanley Cup
Chris Osgood Gets To Third Base With Stanley Cup
This one is a full article, and a little off color.
Also,, there’s a good chance that people who aren’t video game player will get the “Wario Lemieux” reference. Mario Lemieux was nicknamed “Super Mario” in the 1990s after the popular video game character Mario from the Super Mario Bros. games. Wario, with his big nose and twisty mustache, is the evil version of Mario.
Vancouver Canucks defenseman Luc Bourdon died on Thursday when he crashed his motorcycle into a semi truck. The Hockey News article regarding this can bee seen here.
Coincidentally, I traded away two Luc Bourdon cards earlier in the week–a Young Guns, and a game used card.
Upon hearing the news of his death this morning (via The Hockey News email newsletter, I of course was both surprised and a bit sad. I never saw this guy play, but I’m always sad when stuff like this happens. I was bummed when Jon Kordic died in 1992, and when Gaetan Duchense died last year.
It’s even sadder when it is someone who never got a chance to realize their true potential.
A player’s death always has one negative, albeit short term, impact in the hobby. All of a sudden, a card that was selling for $1 becomes a $10 card. This has already begun on eBay–not even 24 hours after his death. I saw Bourdon’s OPC rookie card from last year, with an asking price of $20–that’s more than what Evgeny Malkin’s RC in that set is worth. Some of Bourdon’s autographed stuff is going for over $30 now. I’m sure most of it would have sold for only $5 two days before.
When a player plays well, we try and cash in. When a player makes it into the Hall of Fame, we also try to cash in. And, when a player passes away–sometimes tragically–some people try to cash in on that too. That is one trend in the hobby that I never enjoy.
From the 1997 NHL Awards, this is a spoof of the Nike Skate commercials starring Kelly Hrudey of the San Jose Sharks
From the 1997 NHL Awards show, this is a fake commercial for “The Wig Helmet”, as advertised by brothers Keith and Wayne Primeau.
Stay tuned for more of these humorous videos.