Fleer Archives - Puck Junk

Puck Junk Podcast: 2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game Hockey

Episode #69: September 15, 2020

In this episode of the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast, Sal Barry and Tim Parish talk about the 2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game Hockey card set, which has an impressive lineup of Hall of Famers and hometown heroes. They also talk about the latest hockey collectibles from Upper Deck and Topps. This episode is 90 minutes of pure hockey goodness.

Show Notes, Links and Images:
Topps Now Hockey Stickers archive with print run info (Topps)
Upper Deck Game Dated Moments for Week 49 (Upper Deck Blog)
Fake “New Kids on the Ice” hockey card (Puck Junk)
Wayne Gretzky Fake Indianapolis Racers hockey card (Puck Junk)
2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game Checklist (Trading Card DB)

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game card images:

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #1 – Gordie Howe…er, I mean Mr. Hockey

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #1 – Mr. Hockey (back)

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #87 – Rick Kehoe

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #87 – Rick Kehoe (back)

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #72 – Mike Bossy

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #81 – Mario Lemieux

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #19 – Tony Esposito

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #64 – Chico Resch

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #59 – Michel Goulet

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #26 – Ulf Nilsson

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #88 – Gump Worsley

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #20 – Guy Lapointe
Allegedly, Lapointe will not autograph this card.

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #34 – Wendel Cark

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game #70 – Rick Middleton

2001-02 Fleer Greats of the Game Sealed Hobby Box

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast music by Jim “Not the Goalie” Howard.

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group and subscribe to Puck Junk on YouTube.

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

Puck Junk Podcast: 1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay Hockey Setrospective

Episode #57: May 13, 2020

In this episode of the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast, Sal Barry and Tim Parish reminisce about 1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay Hockey, which was a modern day “tall boys” card set that didn’t go over with collectors too well. They also talk about the American Hockey League cancelling the rest of its season, and Brendan Leipsic getting waived by the Capitals after making misogynistic comments on Instagram. It’s 92 minutes of hockey goodness!

Show Notes and Links:
The Guy Lafleur Disco Album (Puck Junk)
AHL cancels the rest of its season (AHL website)
Article about the NHL’s potential plans to restart the season (ESPN)
Capitals waive Leipsic after misogynistic comments made public (CBC)
National Sports Collectors Convention rescheduled (website)
Upper Deck Game Dated Moments cards for Week 31 (website)
Upper Deck E-Pack (website)
Every 1993-94 Hockey Card Set Ranked (Puck Junk)
We also reflected on collecting hockey in 1993-94 in Podcast #41

Some images of 1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay cards

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #116 – Wayne Gretzky

Card backs had a large picture and up to 10 years of stats.

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #54 – Jeremy Roenick
JR was the spokesman for Fleer Trading Cards.

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #1 – Stu Grimson
Yep, Stu was card #1 in this set.

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #88 – Doug Barrault
Barrault actually played for the Chicago Wolves from 1995-96 to 1997-98.
(I erroneously said that he played with the team in 1994-95.)

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #50 – Dirk Graham
I *love* the photo on this card!

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #426 – Jocelyn Thibault

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #416 – Bryan Trottier

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #147 – Ron Hextall (and yes, the team name is there, right above his name. I couldn’t see it until I scanned the card.)

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #459 – Neil Eisenhut (Rookie Card)
This was his only NHL card.

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #354 – Chris Pronger

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay #508 – Peter Laviolette (Rookie Card)

1993-94 Fleer PowerPlay Series 1 wrapper

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.
Follow Tim Parish on Twitter @TheRealDFG.
Podcast music: “Power Play” from the album Lafleur!

Subscribe to the Puck Junk Hockey Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Podchaser, PocketCasts, Castbox , Castro,
Overcast, TuneIn and SoundCloud.

Love hockey? Join the new Puck Junk Facebook Group

Support this podcast and buy a shirt from the Puck Junk Online Shop. ■

Every 1993-94 Hockey Card Set Ranked

The 1993-94 season was my favorite year to collect hockey cards. Everything about that season was just so right for me. I was living with my Grandmother and going to a local junior college, so my cost of living was low. I was working full-time at a card and comic book shop, so I could buy new cards at a deep discount. I had just gotten my drivers licence, so I could drive around Chicago to other card shops or local shows to find the last few inserts I needed for a given set. Plus, I was still promoting a monthly neighborhood show, so a lot of times people would bring me cards that I needed. My situation in life made collecting easy for me that year.

As for the cards themselves, the 1993-94 season was the last year before hockey card collecting got out of hand. Packs were still affordable, with most between $1 and $3. (The 1994 NHL Lockout would change that, but that’s a story for another time.) There were really no short prints, other than the odd insert, so sets were fairly easy to complete. There were some great insert sets, but not so many different insert sets like it is today, where you can buy a box of cards and get 40 different inserts across 10 different insert sets. There were five different card companies competing with each other, so they had to try hard to do better than one another.

For example, Topps finally got with the program and printed its flagship set on quality card stock, with gloss coating and full-color backs. The company also issued the set in two series, so it could include rookies and traded players in their new uniforms later on that season.

Unfortunately, there were some casualties. Pro Set had gone bankrupt in 1992-93, and while it tried to issue a set for the 1993-94 season, its license was revoked by the NHL. The NHL also mandated that companies could only issue two sets per season, so Topps had to jettison its unpopular Bowman Hockey set, while O-Pee-Chee stopped making its own smaller, premium “Premier” set, as the “Premier” name would be used by both Topps and O-Pee-Chee that year for their large, two-series card sets.

One addition to this year’s ranking is how each company included Alexander Daigle in their sets. Daigle was selected first-overall by the Ottawa Senators in the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. Pinnacle Brands — which made the Score and Pinnacle hockey card sets — had worked out a deal with Daigle, so that only they could picture him in a Senators uniform until he played in an NHL game. The other companies could not use a “Draft Day” photo, nor could they use photo manipulation to put his head on a different Senators player’s body. Thus, they had to get a little creative in how to picture that season’s hottest rookie in their hockey card sets that year.

As I have done with the 1990-91, 1991-92 and 1992-93 sets, here is my retrospective and ranking of every hockey card set issued in 1993-94.

Continue reading “Every 1993-94 Hockey Card Set Ranked”