Hockey Cards - Part III

[Hippasus]

Each garnered over 5 digits but low 5 digits. AO over Crosby.

Wow, that's really high. Good for you.

They're nice-looking cards too. Someone must be really happy to have one of them if they spent that much.

 

[Rorschach]

Wow, that's really high. Good for you.

They're nice-looking cards too. Someone must be really happy to have one of them if they spent that much.

Probably...I can't hold on to them. I had a good Crosby collection but my Ovechkin collection was even better...scary thing is, except for my personal collection of LA Kings, it was all pack opened by me.

During those years of 2005-2007 I pulled a lot of great cards of those two including 5 Crosby YG and 8 Ovechkin YGs. I pulled the Ultimate AO RC auto and the Rookie Update AO/Kovy dual auto RC, the Crosby 05/06 UD S2 Rookie Ink /87, etc. I also pulled two of the 05/06 SPA dual auto Kolzig/Ovechkin.

For some reason, whoever is really good, I can pull easy. Whoever I PC, I can't pull at all, lol. I think my only PC pulls of significance were a 05/06 Beehive Remarkable Matted Materials Wayne Gretzky Kings jersey auto /50 and a Cup Foundations Mike Richards quad patch auto (forget the year) Kings.

 

[alko]

Each garnered over 5 digits but low 5 digits. AO over Crosby.

Just curious. How do you send such cards? Still per post? Or per DHL....?

 

[Rorschach]

Just curious. How do you send such cards? Still per post? Or per DHL....?

You're not going to like this answer because it's not useful to you but I send through a proxy. Being a dealer myself, both in comics and cards in the past, I had dealer friends who I could do that with but also people in the collecting scene in LA know, there is a crazy place called Frank And Sons warehouse and there was an official BGS grading booth I could submit to directly (now there is also a PSA booth there).

Frank And Sons warehouse is a trucking company where one of the "sons" started a gigantic collectors show...it's like several hundred dealers (of all sorts of nerdy collectibles), twice a week, free admission, free parking. And because there are so many dealers, I often pay just $5 over cost if I buy by the box or less if by the case. Sometimes those dealers are savvy enough to pick up decent product that there happens to be a glut of and other dealers/middlemen/distributors are dumping. I bought a lot of my Rookie Update for like $25 a box. That was the pre-breakers era. Nowadays I don't buy much hockey as I'm a bit jaded.

My advice is, find a really good brick and mortar store that has BGS and/or PSA account/s and after becoming a really good customer, submit through them. That's my advice in the US. In Canada you're kinda screwed...between the Canadian dollar, the distribution cabal, people on eBay not shipping to Canada, the Canadian Postal service and customs, you kinda just have to pay whatever their retail is, and hope they have a grading account to help you out.

 

[Rorschach]

Wow, that's really high. Good for you.

They're nice-looking cards too. Someone must be really happy to have one of them if they spent that much.

Nah, that was the going rate at that time. I held the cards for over 15 years and only when the crypto cashout hit and many people flush with money wanted to switch to paper collectibles, did I sell.

I still have insane cards in my PC and in my sellables I still have many double digit cards along with a couple leftover AO YGs left...they're packed up for COMC. I have a couple cards in my stash that may be six digit cards but who knows? I also have the best Drew Doughty RC collection out there.

 

[Rorschach]

Just curious. How do you send such cards? Still per post? Or per DHL....?

I think I might have misread your question...you're referring to sending after someone buys them and not sending in to grade?

For me, again, I used a dealer proxy to sell for me and I cut them a percentage. They are a dealer with 5 digits of feedback...same proxy helped me grade some of the same consignment to PSA and then sell some of the cards that came back graded.

In the past when I was younger (I'm over 50 now with a compromised immune system) I would ship myself but I mixed up more than one order and after that I didn't want to do that again.

If you have problems shipping yourself, you can use comc.com where you send them cards plus 50 cents US a card (half a dollar) fee. From there they will handle everything else. You cash out at 90%.
If you don't cash out, you can take the comc money and buy other cards and comics they have listed, you can use that money to take any card you sent them already and have them send it on your behalf to BGS to grade. You can even take your comc money and buy sealed product from Blowout cards I think? It's pretty great and people just run their own personal little card stores using comc.

 

[Dicky Dangles]

I’m a very casual card collector, but I plan on getting as many Michkov rookie cards as I can get. Can anyone with a good idea of different sets, and when they typically are released, give me a rundown of what I should be looking out for? I know a Michkov Young Guns will be a definite, but I’m assuming he won’t have one until Series 2, sometime in the spring I assume. I’d love to get one of those in a PSA 10, but we’ll see about that, haha. Thanks in advance!

 

[Satan]

Been putting together a Shane Wright PC- I am a fool

 

[zizbuka]

So, I guess my late 80s - mid 90s cards are still worthless? That was a fun time collecting cards, before it became all about values. I have some cool stuff; phone cards, McDonalds cards, etc.

I kinda miss the hobby, but have no interest in starting up now. Sad

 

[Craig Ludwig]

So, I guess my late 80s - mid 90s cards are still worthless? That was a fun time collecting cards, before it became all about values. I have some cool stuff; phone cards, McDonalds cards, etc.

I kinda miss the hobby, but have no interest in starting up now. Sad

Yeah, pretty well, was looking through all my Upper Deck Cards and I remember we all wanted the Bure, Federov, Modano, Forsberg, etc. rookies, but now they're not worth much at all, a few bucks each maybe. Man did I rip open a lot of those packs. If only we'd help on to the ones from the 50s/60s/70s....

 

[BallardEra]

I still have insane cards in my PC and in my sellables I still have many double digit cards along with a couple leftover AO YGs left...they're packed up for COMC. I have a couple cards in my stash that may be six digit cards but who knows? I also have the best Drew Doughty RC collection out there.

Wow. All hockey cards or other sports as well?

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Wow. All hockey cards or other sports as well?

Nah, that was the going rate at that time. I held the cards for over 15 years and only when the crypto cashout hit and many people flush with money wanted to switch to paper collectibles, did I sell.

I still have insane cards in my PC and in my sellables I still have many double digit cards along with a couple leftover AO YGs left...they're packed up for COMC. I have a couple cards in my stash that may be six digit cards but who knows? I also have the best Drew Doughty RC collection out there.

I don't know if there's any modern hockey cards that would fetch you six digits....Heck there are very few from any years that are six digits when it comes to hockey, unless you've got a Gretzky 9, Howe/Orr 9....

 

[Rorschach]

Wow. All hockey cards or other sports as well?

This shipment will be 90% hockey, 9% baseball, 1% other.

After that, I'll make a second shipment of probably 50%/50% hockey and non-sport/other.

I don't know if there's any modern hockey cards that would fetch you six digits....Heck there are very few from any years that are six digits when it comes to hockey, unless you've got a Gretzky 9, Howe/Orr 9....

No normal card would...but I have a unique card. In a way it's kind of cheating because it's a card that came out in the 2000s but all three players are long deceased and played in the 50s/60s.

 

[Rorschach]

So, I guess my late 80s - mid 90s cards are still worthless? That was a fun time collecting cards, before it became all about values. I have some cool stuff; phone cards, McDonalds cards, etc.

I kinda miss the hobby, but have no interest in starting up now. Sad

All of those cards have small value but any that get PSA 10 are worth something. Also a lot of cards that never were worth anything are now worth something in PSA 10.

This is because hockey stayed true to the original definition of what is a RC that was defined by Beckett, which at the time of definition, it was what hockey collectors already following. Beckett just wrote it down for new collectors.

But, in baseball, which has a much greater collector base, re-defined what is a RC and what is a XRC.

For example, people got confused about Martin Brodeur back in the day. Score put out a draft pick card of him in 90-91, a NHL release. He has no 91-92 NHL release cards, just minor league cards like 7th Inning Sketch. Then in 92-93, Brodeur got cards in his New Jersey uniform and Brodeur also caught casual collectors' eyes in 1993-ish. So people went back and got his "rookie card" in 92-93 Upper Deck Star Rookie, also Topps, etc. But those savvy in the hobby knew that his RCs were 90-91 Score bilingual and his Score English. There was also a 90-91 Pro Set S2 Brodeur card.

So a whole bunch of people who went out and bought his card got pissed because his real RC was a couple years older and worth way more. Both Score and Upper Deck did a lot of this with draft pick cards, junior tournament cards, Canada Cup cards, etc.

The hockey community considered these early, pre-rookie cards to be the RCs. But in baseball where they have a drafted but still in the minors prospects sets (Bowman) and they still had majors cards in sets like Topps, the MLB stepped in and said the cards that came out when the player played X games could have a major league card and this could included the official MLB RC symbol on the card and is thus the real RC. So in baseball they have 1st Bowman card as the first XRC, then they have RC card as the true rookie card in the MLB. In hockey, NHL and NHLPA fixed this issue buy saying only players who played X number of games could be included in a NHL set. Minor/junior league sets could not contain anything NHL.

A lot of the people buying PSA 10s of HOF players who came out in the 90s and had their first cards in pre-NHL form were considered RC but also the cards previously worthless like 92-93 Brodeurs are also considered desirable.

 

[Rorschach]

I’m a very casual card collector, but I plan on getting as many Michkov rookie cards as I can get. Can anyone with a good idea of different sets, and when they typically are released, give me a rundown of what I should be looking out for? I know a Michkov Young Guns will be a definite, but I’m assuming he won’t have one until Series 2, sometime in the spring I assume. I’d love to get one of those in a PSA 10, but we’ll see about that, haha. Thanks in advance!

I would start with The Cup, SP Authentic Future Watch auto /999 and Young Guns plus parallels.

Then any card that is his true RC and is hard-signed. Everything else, people won't care about.

Just FYI however, normally I don't like to spend a lot of money on PC collecting a hot rookie right off the bat. You'll pay a premium and if Michkov has any issue, your entire PC collection of him will tank. A lot of times a player will have a cooldown period, especially if they have just an OK rookie year or they are good but not insane, then there will be time to pick up the card cheaper as people give up on the guy for the next big thing. Even Crosby and Ovechkin had times where the cards were much softer.

Now if you have a decent bankroll, buying cases of product Michkov is in to try to hit him is usually better because you'll get a wide array of rookies so if your boy fails, you can also hit the Marchand, Draisaitl, Robertson or Kucherov of the set...a guy who had little or no hype up front but panned out bigtime.

 

[Dicky Dangles]

I would start with The Cup, SP Authentic Future Watch auto /999 and Young Guns plus parallels.

Then any card that is his true RC and is hard-signed. Everything else, people won't care about.

Just FYI however, normally I don't like to spend a lot of money on PC collecting a hot rookie right off the bat. You'll pay a premium and if Michkov has any issue, your entire PC collection of him will tank. A lot of times a player will have a cooldown period, especially if they have just an OK rookie year or they are good but not insane, then there will be time to pick up the card cheaper as people give up on the guy for the next big thing. Even Crosby and Ovechkin had times where the cards were much softer.

Now if you have a decent bankroll, buying cases of product Michkov is in to try to hit him is usually better because you'll get a wide array of rookies so if your boy fails, you can also hit the Marchand, Draisaitl, Robertson or Kucherov of the set...a guy who had little or no hype up front but panned out bigtime.

Thank you. I’m honestly not too worried about the overall value of the cards. I’m going to collect MM purely for the hobby of it, and following his (hopefully successful) career.

Now, cost of course is a bit of an issue, as I don’t have the biggest bankroll, but I think what I’m going to do is just get as many unique rookie cards of his as possible, and then just get one interesting card of his per year from that point on. Again, just a purely hobby thing I want to do.

With that said, of course I want his cards to end up as valuable as possible down the road (including that possible PSA 10 YG), because that means he’s had a great career, and ultimately that’s all I really care about.

 

[Rorschach]

Thank you. I’m honestly not too worried about the overall value of the cards. I’m going to collect MM purely for the hobby of it, and following his (hopefully successful) career.

Now, cost of course is a bit of an issue, as I don’t have the biggest bankroll, but I think what I’m going to do is just get as many unique rookie cards of his as possible, and then just get one interesting card of his per year from that point on. Again, just a purely hobby thing I want to do.

With that said, of course I want his cards to end up as valuable as possible down the road (including that possible PSA 10 YG), because that means he’s had a great career, and ultimately that’s all I really care about.

As a Kings fan, I collected Drew Doughty, especially rookie cards. I prayed the cards stayed cheap but they kept going up and up. Luckily I did have a decent bankroll so whenever there wasn't a good Upper Deck product out, I'd let the money pile up and try to snipe the cards I sought.

The main card of DD I collect, I collected it so hard, it went up 1000% lol. The 08-09 Rookie class, the most valuable rookie is Steven Stamkos. Typically Stamkos is about 4x that of Doughty in the same set and rarity. But the RC I collect, Doughty is worth more than Stamkos, lol.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

This shipment will be 90% hockey, 9% baseball, 1% other.

After that, I'll make a second shipment of probably 50%/50% hockey and non-sport/other.


No normal card would...but I have a unique card. In a way it's kind of cheating because it's a card that came out in the 2000s but all three players are long deceased and played in the 50s/60s.

It doesn't matter how unique it is, no way you're fetching 6 figures from a hockey card that came out in the 2000s. No offence but you're absolutely dreaming, would love for you to post a picture or at least divulge what this fantasy card may be.

 

[Rorschach]

It doesn't matter how unique it is, no way you're fetching 6 figures from a hockey card that came out in the 2000s. No offence but you're absolutely dreaming, would love for you to post a picture or at least divulge what this fantasy card may be.

Nah, I have a plan for it. I’ll introduce the card via Heritage most likely, if I decide to sell it. It’ll either be an auction or I’ll just keep it. It may be the single most card in the history of Upper Deck base brand…or not, depending on perspective. Who knows, maybe you’re correct.

 

[Rebels57]

It doesn't matter how unique it is, no way you're fetching 6 figures from a hockey card that came out in the 2000s. No offence but you're absolutely dreaming, would love for you to post a picture or at least divulge what this fantasy card may be.

It's not impossible

https://getcardbase.com/blog/the-top-20-most-valuable-hockey-cards-ever-sold

 

[TheTotalPackage]

My son is starting to become heavily interested in card collecting. He likes opening the generic packs and getting what are mostly common cards. But would it be suggested these days that if you truly want top calibre cards in your collection, that they should be graded?

 

[Satan]

It's not impossible

https://getcardbase.com/blog/the-top-20-most-valuable-hockey-cards-ever-sold

I pulled #6 on that list

 

[Rorschach]

It's not impossible

https://getcardbase.com/blog/the-top-20-most-valuable-hockey-cards-ever-sold

Yes and for special, unique cards where there are multiple big player collectors, they will develop rivalry with each other and really enjoy stepping on each other in bidding.

I pulled #6 on that list

Sick. Now that’s why I’m talking about!

 

[Rorschach]

My son is starting to become heavily interested in card collecting. He likes opening the generic packs and getting what are mostly common cards. But would it be suggested these days that if you truly want top calibre cards in your collection, that they should be graded?

First, how old is your son and what do you consider “top caliber”?

 

[TheTotalPackage]

First, how old is your son and what do you consider “top caliber”?

He's 12. But he's quite knowledgeable when it comes to sourcing and pricing cards online and those between a graded and non-graded card.

Top calibre meaning high rated players' Young Guns or Rookie Cards (ie. Jack Hughes). Cards that are at least a few hundred dollars each.

Just thinking to back in the late 80s and early 90s, you put your card in a hard sleeve or one of those screw-on cases for your better cards. Nowadays it seems the value lies more if the card is graded than just pulled and put in a hard sleeve.