Hockey Cards - Part III

[The Kingslayer]

Sad to see this. Sad they didn't have bars on the door/windows, which I assume will probably now go up.

Wish they had better pictures of the cards to make people more aware if they are approached to buy one of these cards. I do think their instagram account had better pictures, but not a lot of people go on there. Luckily also the card shops in Edmonton look out for one another as the second article which is linked in the first one shows that this shop did help in the arrest of a guy that stole another rare Gretzky card from another shop.

Rare Gretzky, McDavid rookie cards stolen from shop in northwest Edmonton

Another collectible shop in the Edmonton area has been hit by thieves, prompting a buyer beware of hot deals on rare Wayne Gretzky and Connor McDavid rookie cards.

edmonton.ctvnews.ca

Ultra-rare Gretzky hockey card leads RCMP to arrest hobby shop thief, store owner says

An Edmonton man has been arrested after he tried to sell a limited-edition Wayne Gretzky hockey card roughly 40 kilometres away from where it was stolen, the card's owner says.

edmonton.ctvnews.ca

I go to Froggers all the time for Pokemon stuff lol

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Bill Russell rookie card sells for $660 grand.

from espn.com:

A 1957 Topps Bill Russell rookie card sold for $660,000 at auction Thursday, setting a record for a card of the Boston Celtics great who died last year.

The sale, conducted by PWCC Marketplace, makes the Russell card the third-most-expensive vintage (pre-1980) basketball card of all time, according to Card Ladder.

The only other pre-1980 basketball cards that sold for more were a 1948 Bowman George Mikan rookie card ($800,000 in March 2022) and a 1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain rookie card ($670,000 in June).

This Russell rookie card -- which was graded an 8.5, between mint and near-mint, by Professional Sports Authenticator -- previously held the record for most expensive card of his when it sold for $630,000 in March 2021. There are only three copies of the card graded higher, and they have never surfaced for public auction.

The Bill Russell rookie card that sold for $660,000
was graded between mint and near-mint condition.


For years Russell was an enigma in the sports memorabilia hobby, but in June 2021 he facilitated the auction of more than 700 items from his Hall of Fame career. The collection was brought to market from December 2021 to April 2022 with Hunt Auctions, netting nearly $9 million, including a jersey worn in Russell's final game, the clinching win of the 1969 NBA Finals, that sold for more than $1 million.

Typical of Russell, he made sure proceeds benefited charities, with funds going to Mentor, a Boston-based nonprofit he co-founded, and Boston Celtics United for Social Justice, which fights racial injustice and social inequities in the greater Boston area.

Russell, a civil rights icon who was the first Black coach in any major professional sport and the first to win an NBA title, died July 31 at the age of 88. In August, the NBA announced that Russell's No. 6 would be retired across the league -- a first -- with only players already using the number being allowed to keep it.

I'm assuming O-Pee-Chee didn't make basketball cards ? If it was like hockey, that card OPC and graded the same would sell for close to a mill

 

[CutOnDime97]

I'm assuming O-Pee-Chee didn't make basketball cards ? If it was like hockey, that card OPC and graded the same would sell for close to a mill

Correct, they never made basketball cards. They did make Baseball and Football though:

O-Pee-Chee - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not sure the values work like they do in hockey though. I just got into the hobby in 2020 but my guess is the OPC hockey cards command a premium because it's a Canadian company.

 

[MarkusKetterer]

Correct, they never made basketball cards. They did make Baseball and Football though:

O-Pee-Chee - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not sure the values work like they do in hockey though. I just got into the hobby in 2020 but my guess is the OPC hockey cards command a premium because it's a Canadian company.

That and OPC sets used to have more cards.

1984-85 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Checklist | Trading Card Database

1984-85 Topps Hockey - Trading Card Database

1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Hockey - Trading Card Database

1990-91 Topps Hockey - Trading Card Database

 

[Satan]

Stoked to pick this one up recently

 

[yada]

Got my crosby card authenticated and slabbed. Also got a jorge soler card done at the same time. Beckett slabs just look so good. I think these look better then the slabs with a grade.

 

[budaj guy]

Upper Deck Extended Series checklist is out. More cards for my Avs and Goalie card collections, yay!

Also snagged MacKinnon and Makar Young Guns for way under market in recent weeks. Life is good

 

[The Kingslayer]

View attachment 710318

Stoked to pick this one up recently

Gorgeous

Upper Deck Extended Series checklist is out. More cards for my Avs and Goalie card collections, yay!

Also snagged MacKinnon and Makar Young Guns for way under market in recent weeks. Life is good

The only positive from that checklist for me lol I guess Parsinnen too.

 

[budaj guy]

Gorgeous


The only positive from that checklist for me lol I guess Parsinnen too.

UD should really not keep doing extended series, it starts to get really thin. Young Guns are mostly very long shots at a full time gig in the NHL, money making scheme by UD (and will continue if people like me keep buying)

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

Upper Deck Extended Series checklist is out. More cards for my Avs and Goalie card collections, yay!

Also snagged MacKinnon and Makar Young Guns for way under market in recent weeks. Life is good

That's a horrible checklist to say the least.

The good thing is that's alot of filler removed from next year's crop

 

[Rorschach]

Old OPC cards are worth more for many reasons:

1) Canadian fans know only OPC
2) Cards were tougher to get and sold fewer cards in packs, leading to many cards wax/gum stained
3) Larger sets, making it more difficult to get individual single cards of a certain player
4) Canada had a later upper culture of card collecting than the US where preserving cards was a widespread thing already in the US in the 80s
5) OPC made their cards way more cheaply

UD should really not keep doing extended series, it starts to get really thin. Young Guns are mostly very long shots at a full time gig in the NHL, money making scheme by UD (and will continue if people like me keep buying)

Yeah, just add them to S1 next year and move a couple decent RCs to S2 Young Guns to better balance it out.

 

[blankall]

UD should really not keep doing extended series, it starts to get really thin. Young Guns are mostly very long shots at a full time gig in the NHL, money making scheme by UD (and will continue if people like me keep buying)

Yeah. It was fun during that last boom, when cards were impossible to find and flying off the shelves.... Now, not so much. It's alright to buy at a major discount to get parallels and alternative rookies from S1/2, but the ygs in extended are generally not so hot.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

UD should really not keep doing extended series, it starts to get really thin. Young Guns are mostly very long shots at a full time gig in the NHL, money making scheme by UD (and will continue if people like me keep buying)

Fanatics website was selling extended boxes for 40 bucks. The hobby boxes to clear them out.

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

Old OPC cards are worth more for many reasons:

1) Canadian fans know only OPC
2) Cards were tougher to get and sold fewer cards in packs, leading to many cards wax/gum stained
3) Larger sets, making it more difficult to get individual single cards of a certain player
4) Canada had a later upper culture of card collecting than the US where preserving cards was a widespread thing already in the US in the 80s
5) OPC made their cards way more cheaply

Alot of this is speculation and has been around for decades.

There's certain sets where OPC was more widely available then topps and vice versa. OPC was just as easy to get in the states as topps. There were less cards per pack but more packs per box.

1988 topps with Hulls rookie and more importantly, the Gretzky card was printed into oblivion compared to opc. When they found out nobody cared about hockey cards they cut production to just pre orders the next year where as opc let the presses roll.

I used to have a data chart for the print runs somebody created that was dead on. Pretty much that the print runs were similar outside of a couple years in the 80's (84/88) and that sets from the 70's topps were more limited print runs compared to the opc version.

Topps hockey sets were the most limited of the four sports, your talking maybe one card for every four from a baseball set. If opc was just Canada exclusive, there might be a premium outside of people just wanting the opc version on account of the condition sensitivity of the cards.

Long story short- there's nothing limited about opc cards. There IS something limited about opc cards in high grade.

And here's something I just recently found out, Topps just made a chrome sticker nhl set and somebody I know has already almost completed an entire red set which is numbered to 5. He's only missing 13 cards.

I'm too shy to ask how much that sets going to put him back but I'd say probably around 25k unless he got deals.....

 

[Rorschach]

Alot of this is speculation and has been around for decades.

There's certain sets where OPC was more widely available then topps and vice versa. OPC was just as easy to get in the states as topps. There were less cards per pack but more packs per box.

1988 topps with Hulls rookie and more importantly, the Gretzky card was printed into oblivion compared to opc. When they found out nobody cared about hockey cards they cut production to just pre orders the next year where as opc let the presses roll.

I used to have a data chart for the print runs somebody created that was dead on. Pretty much that the print runs were similar outside of a couple years in the 80's (84/88) and that sets from the 70's topps were more limited print runs compared to the opc version.

Topps hockey sets were the most limited of the four sports, your talking maybe one card for every four from a baseball set. If opc was just Canada exclusive, there might be a premium outside of people just wanting the opc version on account of the condition sensitivity of the cards.

Long story short- there's nothing limited about opc cards. There IS something limited about opc cards in high grade.

And here's something I just recently found out, Topps just made a chrome sticker nhl set and somebody I know has already almost completed an entire red set which is numbered to 5. He's only missing 13 cards.

I'm too shy to ask how much that sets going to put him back but I'd say probably around 25k unless he got deals.....

Sometimes there being a greater print run of OPC to Topps is the exception, not the rule. 89-90 is such an exception, the Sakic, Fleury, Leetch, Janney year. This is due to demand as at that time, hockey card sales started to surge…several years later than 1986 when baseball exploded.

Last, is there more than a few thousand people who care about stickers?

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I dont want to flex but look what I just got (mint)

 

[Cubs2024wildcard]

Sometimes there being a greater print run of OPC to Topps is the exception, not the rule. 89-90 is such an exception, the Sakic, Fleury, Leetch, Janney year. This is due to demand as at that time, hockey card sales started to surge…several years later than 1986 when baseball exploded.

Last, is there more than a few thousand people who care about stickers?

I really don't know about that.

There's more 86 opc with the Roy rookie out there then the Topps. There's more 82 topps then the opc. There's the two opc exclusive sets where they printed a boat load both years. The Bourque rookie year with that black crap over the names I would guess is more limited because of the cost of putting the black crap on the cards, but the opc set had Messier so it probably evens out.

The point is, there's nothing limited about opc compared to topps. This entire delusion was started in the beckett magazines and 90% of dealers in the states ran with it to make five extra bucks. There's still alot of both out there and 80's topps/opc isn't drying up any time soon. OPC boxes had 48 packs compared to 24 from topps. Everything evened out outside of the opc exclusive cards and if we're being honest, those cards should command a premium, even the commons, but don't.

High grade opc is obviously a different story compared to topps.

 

[Rorschach]

I really don't know about that.

There's more 86 opc with the Roy rookie out there then the Topps. There's more 82 topps then the opc. There's the two opc exclusive sets where they printed a boat load both years. The Bourque rookie year with that black crap over the names I would guess is more limited because of the cost of putting the black crap on the cards, but the opc set had Messier so it probably evens out.

The point is, there's nothing limited about opc compared to topps. This entire delusion was started in the beckett magazines and 90% of dealers in the states ran with it to make five extra bucks. There's still alot of both out there and 80's topps/opc isn't drying up any time soon. OPC boxes had 48 packs compared to 24 from topps. Everything evened out outside of the opc exclusive cards and if we're being honest, those cards should command a premium, even the commons, but don't.

High grade opc is obviously a different story compared to topps.

It’s not about high grade. It’s about collectible grade. Many 80s OPC cards were beat up by the collectors. And I already stated that there are some years OPC was printed more than Topps and even gave an example. So at this point I wonder about your reading comprehension that you don’t understand what you read and are being argumentative at the same time, thus the confusion in what you’re saying.

 

[miscs75]

For the epacks people, 21-22 Ultra drops tomorrow with some sought after autos:

2021-22 Fleer Ultra Hockey Cards Checklist and Odds

2021-22 Fleer Ultra Hockey reboots the nostalgic '90s brand as an ePack exclusive release. Chase limited NHL inserts and autographs.

www.cardboardconnection.com

 

[DaGreatOne]

I really don't know about that.

There's more 86 opc with the Roy rookie out there then the Topps. There's more 82 topps then the opc. There's the two opc exclusive sets where they printed a boat load both years. The Bourque rookie year with that black crap over the names I would guess is more limited because of the cost of putting the black crap on the cards, but the opc set had Messier so it probably evens out.

The point is, there's nothing limited about opc compared to topps. This entire delusion was started in the beckett magazines and 90% of dealers in the states ran with it to make five extra bucks. There's still alot of both out there and 80's topps/opc isn't drying up any time soon. OPC boxes had 48 packs compared to 24 from topps. Everything evened out outside of the opc exclusive cards and if we're being honest, those cards should command a premium, even the commons, but don't.

High grade opc is obviously a different story compared to topps.

For me living in the states in the 80's-90's, OPC was the choice.
Here is why.... for me
1. OPC is Canadian. Hockey = Canada. Thus wanting a Canadian product.
2. OPC was printed on WHITE card stock. Cards looked far better.

Only negative was that most OPC was rough cut.

 

[Jabba11]

What's you guys prediction on Connor Bedard's Young Gun going for? 200$ USD?

 

[BostonBob]

I dont want to flex but look what I just got (mint)

A look into the year 2050......

little boy: Grandpa - exactly how did you make your first million dollars ????
You: Well Billy - I sold a rare Buddy Robinson rookie card.

 

[Gubbhornet]

Are these things worth anything? I'm pretty sure that I have a signed Forsberg rookie card lying around at my parents house.

 

[Dicky113]

What's you guys prediction on Connor Bedard's Young Gun going for? 200$ USD?

Crosbys was 400 pretty quickly. That was 20 years ago. I’d guess 500 really soon. Boxes will be pricey

 

[budaj guy]

What's you guys prediction on Connor Bedard's Young Gun going for? 200$ USD?

I’m guessing it’s coming out of the box at no less than $400