Hockey cards, collectibles and culture
Wayne Gretzky has endorsed numerous products, and thus has been in a lot of commercials during and after his NHL career. But many of the commercials were either footage of Gretzky playing hockey intercut with shots of products, or of him seriously explaining that whatever he was shilling was a good thing. Boring!
So, in honor of The Great One’s Birthday today, I came up with a list of the 10 funniest Wayne Gretzky commercials.
Ever since I started collecting hockey cards again in 2006, Upper Deck Series One and Series Two are the sets that I always look forward to. UD’s flagship hockey set, which as been around since 1990-91, has a great variety of veterans and rookies, is relatively affordable and always has excellent photography.
This year’s set is selling for about $73 USD online for a 24-pack hobby box. Each pack has eight cards. Upper Deck Series One was released in November 2017. I recently got a box, and finally got a time to post my break for your enjoyment.
Remember those little 10-cent off coupons that we got in packs of Pro Set Hockey cards during the 1991-92 season? That year, those discount cards advertised the “Rink Rat Fan Club.” Every pack of Pro Set Series One and Series Two had a special offer to “join the Rat Pack” for $3.95.
The full text reads as follows:
Join the Official NHL RINK RAT FAN CLUB
Join the Rat Pack today and be a part of terrific merchandise offers, Rink Rat club kit merchandise, and team updates. Rink Rats also have an opportunity to be a part of nationwide Rink Rat events and are eligible to win a trip to an opening night game! Sign up today!
The other side had the sign-up form.
I will admit that back in the day, I had no desire to join the Rink Rat Fan Club. It sounded like something for a little kid, and not at all interesting to a teenage boy — even one like me who collected hockey cards. Not for a second did I consider joining it.
Also, a few years prior I had joined the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Turtle Force Fan Club,” and still remembered how disappointing that was. It took over a year to get my TMNT fan club kit — and all it consisted of was a red bandanna and a cardboard membership card.
So, it would not be for another 25 years or so that I would even wonder what “Rat Pack” members got for their $3.95.
Fortunately, I was able to track down a complete Rink Rat Fan Club kit, which consisted of two separate mailings: one in the fall/winter of 1991 and the other around March of 1992. Note that these items got mixed up a bit between then and now, so I did my best here to put them in the order that fans received them, based on the copyright dates on the items, which version of the Pro Set logo the items use, and the enclosed letters from “Rink Rat.” I did make some assumptions based on that information, but if you know something I don’t, please chime in.
Looking at this now, if I knew what $3.95 would have gotten me, I would have joined that Rink Rat Fan Club in a heartbeat. Surprisingly, club members got some pretty nice collectible items for four bucks.
Eric Lindros will have his number 88 retired by the Philadelphia Flyers tonight in a pregame ceremony. He made the double-eight famous during his eight seasons with the Flyers. Lindros had a lot of hockey cards made during his career — many even before he even skated in an NHL game. I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of his more offbeat cards. So, here are 10 Eric Lindros hockey cards that are strange, odd or just downright ridiculous.
Over 40 years ago, the Los Angeles King mailed a little love to their fans. The team sent out this page of facsimile autographs during the 1973-74 season. The standard letter-sized page was neatly typed out, autographed by 21 players in marker, photocopied, folded into thirds and mailed in a business-size envelope. At the top, it reads” BEST WISHES FROM THE LOS ANGELES KINGS.”
The signatures on the page are as follows: Continue reading “1973-74 L.A. Kings Autograph Sheet”
What can I say? 2017 was a bit of a slow year for hockey collectibles, especially when compared to 2015 and 2016. It took me and three friends a while to brainstorm, but we finally came up with a list of the 10 most-significant hockey collectibles stories for 2017.
Continue reading “Top 10 Hockey Collectible Stories of 2017”
Happy 2018, party people! As is my annual ritual, here is a look back at the most popular Puck Junk articles from the previous year.
Well, almost. I gotta make a small confession here. The most popular article on this site during the 2017 calendar year was actually “Every 1990-91 Hockey Card Set Ranked,” which was published in 2016. It just goes to show how significant the 1990-91 season was for hockey collectibles if people are still reading about those cards more than 25 years after they were made.
Anyway, here are the top 10 most-read articles on Puck Junk that were actually published during 2017. Continue reading “Puck Junk’s Top Articles of 2017”
It took 13 years for goaltender Jeff Glass to finally play in an NHL game. Thirteen hours later, he had a rookie card.
Hockey lost another legend on Tuesday when Johnny Bower passed away at age 93. Bower was one of the greatest goalies during the NHL’s Original Six Era. He was also one of the greatest minor league netminders, too. Bower spent 12 years in the NHL and another 12 in the AHL, and didn’t retire until he was 45. Thus, he had accomplished careers in the best and second-best hockey leagues.
Here we take a look back at the career of the “China Wall,” illustrated with his hockey cards. from the 1950s and 1960s. Continue reading “Career in Cards: Johnny Bower”
Happy Holi-Chris-Kawan-Hana-whatever! I’m back to bring you hilarious joy as you decorate the domicile or as you just get around to throwing out the rotting Jack-o-lantern with some quality throw back “puck juck” from 1979!
These days, a lot of our hockey teams produce fun little videos celebrating the time of year and thanking the fans; it’s nice — and awkward as hell. The Boston Bruins put out a spectacular video in 2013, the San Jose Sharks owned 2014 with their ode to Holiday Sweaters, and the awkward nod to capitalism thanks to the Calgary Flames in 2015.
But, before we had the interwebs to entertain us with these holiday greetings, what cheer would we receive from our boys? Enter the 1979-80 New York Islanders! Continue reading “1979 N.Y. Islanders Christmas Album”