Hockey Cards - Part III

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Yea I'm afraid it's inevitable the market will crash. Like what is this resurgence of 90s hockey cards? They used to be worth as much as the cardboard they were printed on, everyone has piles of them in their garage.

Grading.

The Gretzky sell helped, but the pandemic put alot of generation Y stuck at home looking for the cards of players they grew up watching.

Those cards were always going to blow up. UD, the Pronger rookie year and back, were great sets.

I see more growth in those sets grades then in current YG's.

Think about it- a Bure YG, one of the best players of his generation, sells for less then some borderline NHL'er YG from this year. That was gonna change sooner or later and the print runs of UD ain't exactly limited.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Yea I'm afraid it's inevitable the market will crash. Like what is this resurgence of 90s hockey cards? They used to be worth as much as the cardboard they were printed on, everyone has piles of them in their garage.

I been selling a ton of late 90s early 2000 cards. All my late 80's cards were also sold quick. The shitty thing is I threw so many away before ebay gave me 100K free listings every month haha.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Are the Topps Tiffany hockey cards worth anything ?

Yes.

Graded, alot.

Hidden gems

 

[The Kingslayer]

Grading.

The Gretzky sell helped, but the pandemic put alot of generation Y stuck at home looking for the cards of players they grew up watching.

Those cards were always going to blow up. UD, the Pronger rookie year and back, were great sets.

I see more growth in those sets grades then in current YG's.

Think about it- a Bure YG, one of the best players of his generation, sells for less then some borderline NHL'er YG from this year. That was gonna change sooner or later and the print runs of UD ain't exactly limited.

I bought up a bunch of Jagr RC because I didn't have any and why not its freaking Jagr.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Off topic- baseball

Any advice on Derek Jeter UD SP Foil? Time to sell?

You should have sold that a long time ago.

 

[leetch99]

I've been getting cards graded for over a decade now and I have never had any issues. Not with swapping, never worried about Beckett going bankrupt, never worried about the market drying up. You would think a global pandemic would slow the market down or crash it but its been the complete opposite. Im not sure how insurance works on mail outs but I can tell you I have always had my cards returned. I was a little paranoid in the beginning when I sent my cards out so I made sure to take plenty of pics of the cards to make sure they were indeed my cards when they were returned. Always got my exact cards back.

I likely will never send any and probably just pass them on to a Nephew . They have been sitting in the dark cabinet for 30 years and once the pandemic ends I will likely just pass them on . Continued good luck in your ventures ! LOL....I remember a friend sending away a Gretzky Ranger card to be autographed for me....and that took 2-3 years to finally come back .

 

[The Kingslayer]

I likely will never send any and probably just pass them on to a Nephew . They have been sitting in the dark cabinet for 30 years and once the pandemic ends I will likely just pass them on . Continued good luck in your ventures ! LOL....I remember a friend sending away a Gretzky Ranger card to be autographed for me....and that took 2-3 years to finally come back .

Most of my cards are likely going to go to my nephew aswell.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

I bought up a bunch of Jagr RC because I didn't have any and why not its freaking Jagr.

Yeah the opc premier went thru the roof.

I bought 20 complete sets for a hundo around five years ago and not one of them is worth grading.

 

[leetch99]

Yea I'm afraid it's inevitable the market will crash. Like what is this resurgence of 90s hockey cards? They used to be worth as much as the cardboard they were printed on, everyone has piles of them in their garage.

I will give you one example...my friend and I once ordered 32,000.00 Rheal Cormier Bowman Baseball RC's .....LOL....I still have 7000.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

As for PSA, not happy.

I shipped out a huge order with a couple holy grail basketball cards and have yet to get any sort of contact from them or even a confirmation.

A Bowman Chrome LeBron rookie refractor and a Curry Topps Chrome rookie refractor.

If they were YG's, I really wouldn't give a shit....

 

[leetch99]

Yes.

Graded, alot.

Hidden gems

Pretty sure I have the 89-90 Leetch RC in Tiffany..I actually have the whole Ranger team set from that year .

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Pretty sure I have the 89-90 Leetch RC in Tiffany..I actually have the whole Ranger team set from that year .

That's a key card.

That's actually a great card.

When psa stops being idiots you need to get that graded

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

View attachment 418514

That card will be worth three times that in two years

 

[leetch99]

That's a key card.

That's actually a great card.

When psa stops being idiots you need to get that graded

We bought a Tiffany set and had it busted and a friend also has the Sakic RC . I think it was slim pickings after that for RC's .

 

[kovacro]

Think the one 90's set that has value and people are chasing is 1990-91 OPC Premier, it's the Jagr rookie card and a bunch of other decent ones. That has skyrocketed. Unopened boxes are being listed for around $500 USD.

Don't think much else in the early/mid 90's is worth much, they called it the junk wax era for a reason.

I still have my OPC Hockey sets from the late 70's and early 80's I like to look through now and then.

Was able to hang onto some unopened wax packs, boxes and rack packs from the same era and those have gone through the roof.

Here's a portion of my 1983/84 OPC Hockey wax packs/box. Not a great year aside from the Scott Stevens, Bernie Nicholls and Pelle Lindbergh RC's but it does have quite a few Gretzky's, including his highlight card pictured with Mark Messier.

Edit: Added a photo from my 83/84 collection, sorry about the photo size..

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Set Checklist, Info, Key Cards, Rookies

 

[leetch99]

I had always hoped to find a horde of OPC Baseball cards with a bunch of Nolan Ryan RC's in them....alas....it never happened LOL.....

 

[illpucks]

If they're graded and deemed authentic I'd buy any pack that year at that price.

I'd sell them, but I'd buy them

non graded non authenticated,i'm talking about stuff like below. Keep in mind already that price with 4 days left. Price will double at least

RARE 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Unopened Hockey Pack EX Shape Gretzky RC?? | eBay

 

[blankall]

As for PSA, not happy.

I shipped out a huge order with a couple holy grail basketball cards and have yet to get any sort of contact from them or even a confirmation.

A Bowman Chrome LeBron rookie refractor and a Curry Topps Chrome rookie refractor.

If they were YG's, I really wouldn't give a shit....

PSA is taking about 2 months to process orders. Not entirely their fault. The number of orders has vastly increased. They've done the honest thing and stopped taking orders (and money) while they sort out the backlog.

When the price of graded cards goes up 3-4 times, this is the inevitable result.

 

[Rorschach]

Are the Topps Tiffany hockey cards worth anything ?

Yes, I'm not sure what years were made for hockey but I can tell you this:
In the past as you know, we hockey collectors looked down on Topps hockey cards...they're crappy and are the red-headed stepchild of OPC, then they were even worse when the nicer cards like Pro Set and then Upper Deck and OPCP came out.

But the new investors coming in to hockey and buying PSA cards, many have a lot of experience in baseball investing, where Topps is king. 70's and vintage Topps is the only brand...Early-mid 80's Topps is the King over Fleer and Donruss most years...all Topps Tiffany is King in the entire 80s...last 20 years all Topps is great, including the hottest card in all of baseball, 2011 Topps base Update Mike Trout.

So now, high grade Topps and I'm sure Topps Tiffany of any HOF and HOVG player's RC in the late 80s and early 90s have value. 88-89 Topps Brett Hull RC, PSA 10, has been selling up to $3000. 89-90 Topps Joe Sakic RC PSA 9-10 sell great. But the big news is base Topps cards like 90-91 Topps Mike Richter or Jeremy Roenick, or 91-92 Topps John Leclair-type cards are worth something now. The investors consider Topps RCs and Topps rookies as investable/desirable.

 

[Rorschach]

PSA is taking about 2 months to process orders. Not entirely their fault. The number of orders has vastly increased. They've done the honest thing and stopped taking orders (and money) while they sort out the backlog.

When the price of graded cards goes up 3-4 times, this is the inevitable result.

Yes, the prices are going up and the number of gradable cards, both newly made cards and people going back and finding late 80s and 90s cards to buy and thus grade.

 

[Rorschach]

I been selling a ton of late 90s early 2000 cards. All my late 80's cards were also sold quick. The shitty thing is I threw so many away before ebay gave me 100K free listings every month haha.

I'm lucky, the last 15 years I've been putting stuff into 3200 and 5000 count boxes and throwing them into custom-made cabinets in the garage. In the past, I pursued and then liquidated so many PCs of various collectables, especially trading cards...if I had all those cards back and then sold them in today's market, I'd probably have $5 mil.

 

[Rorschach]

Grading.

The Gretzky sell helped, but the pandemic put alot of generation Y stuck at home looking for the cards of players they grew up watching.

Those cards were always going to blow up. UD, the Pronger rookie year and back, were great sets.

I see more growth in those sets grades then in current YG's.

Think about it- a Bure YG, one of the best players of his generation, sells for less then some borderline NHL'er YG from this year. That was gonna change sooner or later and the print runs of UD ain't exactly limited.

Dude, preach on brother.

If a guy like Henrik Lundqvist, a great goaltender of this generation but minus rings/post-season hardware, can have a PSA 10 YG of $500, shouldn't someone, legends, like Hasek or Brodeur who were every bit as good, even better arguably as top 50 players and have post season hardware to boot, how can their PSA 10s only be worth $200 to $400? Lundqvist has fewer YGs than Brodeur's Score and Hasek's UDs, but Lundqvists YGs are way easier to get 9s and 10s out of than the 90s guys cards so in my mind they are equivalent, pop-wise, for high grade.

So these legends's cards, currently spiking to $200 to $400 a card, are actually very underpriced, maybe by as much as half...the real prices should be more than double, maybe more than triple for the RCs of these great players. There's no way in my mind a guy like Cale Makar should be worth as much as he is currently when you can get Scott Niedermayer, a guy with all of the personal hardware and post season hardware, and is everything you hope Makar can become, should be worth a fraction of Makar...especially in high grade.

As a somewhat side note, using the Topps and baseball definition of rookies, I believe a player like Scott Niedermayer should not only have 90-91 UD Hi, WJC Team Canada RCs in English and French, but also all of his 91-92 cards that show him for the first time in his NJ uniform on NHL ice are all considered significant RCs, such as his Topps and OPC/OPCP, all of his Pro Set cards, his Score and Pinnacle cards, and his 2nd UD cards should be triple digits in PSA 9/10. (And they are going for that much)

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Think the one 90's set that has value and people are chasing is 1990-91 OPC Premier, it's the Jagr rookie card and a bunch of other decent ones. That has skyrocketed. Unopened boxes are being listed for around $500 USD.

Don't think much else in the early/mid 90's is worth much, they called it the junk wax era for a reason.

I still have my OPC Hockey sets from the late 70's and early 80's I like to look through now and then.

Was able to hang onto some unopened wax packs, boxes and rack packs from the same era and those have gone through the roof.

Here's a portion of my 1983/84 OPC Hockey wax packs/box. Not a great year aside from the Scott Stevens, Bernie Nicholls and Pelle Lindbergh RC's but it does have quite a few Gretzky's, including his highlight card pictured with Mark Messier.

Edit: Added a photo from my 83/84 collection, sorry about the photo size..

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Set Checklist, Info, Key Cards, Rookies

View attachment 419111

Yeah but....

It was junk wax 20 years ago. Most of that stuff is in landfills.

Those early UD sets are great buys for the price. The people buying are the ones who were kids back then.

Just watch, early UD boxes and cases will skyrocket in the next two years.

 

[Cubs2024WSChamps]

Dude, preach on brother.

If a guy like Henrik Lundqvist, a great goaltender of this generation but minus rings/post-season hardware, can have a PSA 10 YG of $500, shouldn't someone, legends, like Hasek or Brodeur who were every bit as good, even better arguably as top 50 players and have post season hardware to boot, how can their PSA 10s only be worth $200 to $400? Lundqvist has fewer YGs than Brodeur's Score and Hasek's UDs, but Lundqvists YGs are way easier to get 9s and 10s out of than the 90s guys cards so in my mind they are equivalent, pop-wise, for high grade.

So these legends's cards, currently spiking to $200 to $400 a card, are actually very underpriced, maybe by as much as half...the real prices should be more than double, maybe more than triple for the RCs of these great players. There's no way in my mind a guy like Cale Makar should be worth as much as he is currently when you can get Scott Niedermayer, a guy with all of the personal hardware and post season hardware, and is everything you hope Makar can become, should be worth a fraction of Makar...especially in high grade.

As a somewhat side note, using the Topps and baseball definition of rookies, I believe a player like Scott Niedermayer should not only have 90-91 UD Hi, WJC Team Canada RCs in English and French, but also all of his 91-92 cards that show him for the first time in his NJ uniform on NHL ice are all considered significant RCs, such as his Topps and OPC/OPCP, all of his Pro Set cards, his Score and Pinnacle cards, and his 2nd UD cards should be triple digits in PSA 9/10. (And they are going for that much)

Eh, you gotta watch the ebb and flow.

I wanna say 2012 score select football is blazing hot right now or 2015 I don't keep track.

Those early pinnacle sets will blow up. They're great looking sets(with the exception of the first one) and will appreciate. Especially numbered cards.

I would get any early numbered card of any HOF'er right now from the 90's

 

[Rorschach]

Yeah but....

It was junk wax 20 years ago. Most of that stuff is in landfills.

Those early UD sets are great buys for the price. The people buying are the ones who were kids back then.

Just watch, early UD boxes and cases will skyrocket in the next two years.

OPCP boxes are heading to $400 a box (I just bought and cracked two of them last night)

Boxes of UD are already doubling and the French boxes are going even higher...I've been buying them up and breaking them. 91-92 UD is selling as well, both hi number and lo number, but especially French and especially Jumbos. The jumbos have a Euro Star card, one per jumbo pack, and there's both a 91-92 Jagr and a 91-92 Hasek RC, much tougher than the normal Hasek UD RC. The Hasek UD RC and the Hasek ES UD RC have almost the exact same border but the UD RC is a normal vertical photo card and the ES UD RC is a horizontal photo card, and both come in English and French.

Pro Set brands, including Pro Set S1 and S2, Pro Set Platinum S1 and S2, and Parkhurst S1 and S2/English and French, are all desirable for PSA high grade examples.

Pinnacle is very undervalued for 91-92 and although it's missing some of the key players in the 91-92 rookie class like Hasek, it makes up for it with first player cards of players like Bure (Vancouver), Niedermayer (NJ), etc. in their NHL uniforms and are technically rookie year cards.