Hockey Cards

[jarebear182]

So I opened a bonus Parkhurst pack, and surprisingly pulled 2 McDavids, with one being a green and the other being a red. I know the green one isn't worth much, while the red, on the other hand, seems to be pretty rare. Any idea how much it goes for right now? Not looking to sell, but I'm just wondering.

 

[Stopsight]

So I opened a bonus Parkhurst pack, and surprisingly pulled 2 McDavids, with one being a green and the other being a red. I know the green one isn't worth much, while the red, on the other hand, seems to be pretty rare. Any idea how much it goes for right now? Not looking to sell, but I'm just wondering.

last ungraded one sold for $60

http://item.ebay.co.uk/272265942498...IN=1&LH_BO=1&_ipg=200&_pgn=1&rc=nt&rmvSB=true


Looks like if you can get a good grade (9.5+) on it it jumps up to $100-130ish

 

[jarebear182]

last ungraded one sold for $60

http://item.ebay.co.uk/272265942498...IN=1&LH_BO=1&_ipg=200&_pgn=1&rc=nt&rmvSB=true



Looks like if you can get a good grade (9.5+) on it it jumps up to $100-130ish

Thanks! I appreciate the info!

 

[Milos Krasic]

Are there any 9-pocket pages to hold thick cards like this? I can't find any, and I like to have my cards in albums.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

New to collecting and not familiar with the Champs set, are the random cards put into packs a thing they've always done? Never heard of that before

Champs is the hockey equivalent to Allen and Ginter which is a baseball product meant to replicate the look of the early 1900 Tobacco cards.

One of the hallmarks of Allen and Ginter that was brought over to Champs is oddball cards. Champs didn't go too crazy with it this year, but in past releases of Allen and Ginter they've had everything from animals, to national parks, to world leaders, to celebrities. At one point, you could even pull an Axl Rose auto out of Champs baseball.

Here's some Allen and Ginter cards...

Hockey fans have different tastes in cards than baseball fans, and Champs was around for a few years back around 2010 but it was eventually discontinued by Upper Deck, I don't think it catches on with hockey fans. On the secondary market, I find that older champs singles sell at low end prices despite the hobby boxes at the time of the release being over $100. For example, Karlsson's Champs rookie card can be had for 1-5 dollars, jersey cards sell for nothing, and even on card autographs of decent players sell for very little. In hockey, it seems like a niche product.

I really like the look of the Champs cards, but I wouldn't buy a hobby box. Like most product this year, it looks like a huge gamble, and you could easily take the $100+ CAD a box would cost and buy your ideal hits/inserts/the entire base set.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

On card autos are the best.

I think everybody hates sticker autos. The only place that sticker autos should be is in really low end stuff like Score or MVP where sticker autos are the only thing viable at that price point.

Card companies don't have a long term approach to anything. I remember there was an article in the Globe and Mail quoting someone from Upper Deck stating that with McDavid they wouldn't repeat the same mistake the made when Crosby came around which was making far too many rookie cards of him.....Upper Deck likely turned off a lot of new eyeballs from the hobby with people getting really excited about the prospect of getting in on the McDavid craze and then spending hundreds of dollars on boxes only to pull pennies on the dollar of worthless hits.

With sticker autos and manufactured/event worn patches, they are able to make so much of everything so efficiently that very few cards have any real value. People opening boxes promising 3 hits and a bunch of rookie cards walk away with $20 dollars on a $100 box.

There are so many cards, so many sets, and none of it is rewarding to actually buy. Unless you genuinely enjoy gambling and are looking at hockey cards like scratch tickets, there's almost no reason to buy boxes if you want cards. There's some older discounted product that can have a realistically high return (tins of 13-14 series 1 for $20 if you can find those at Wal-Mart still), but for the most part if you want to spend $100 on cards, you're better off just buying singles.

 

[Stopsight]

Are there any 9-pocket pages to hold thick cards like this? I can't find any, and I like to have my cards in albums.

There aren't 9 pocket pages but you can get slightly bigger ones:
http://www.bcwsupplies.com/cat/trading-card/albums-pages/pro-8-pocket-page-20-ct-pack


For thick cards you are best off using one touches and just keeping them in box though.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I thought this was a nice break until I looked up that the pack is almost $300.

What does everyone think of Upper Deck Black? I like the base design and the super thick Lustrous rookie signatures. I'll probably pick up a few cards off Comc or eBay if some of the Senators hits are dirt cheap (as they usually are.......).

Looks like each pack comes with 1 base, 2 regular jersey cards, 1 Lustrous rookie, 1 misc auto, and another hit (patch/auto or both). Regular single colour jersey cards in a $300 pack seems criminal.

Another thought, terrible idea to call a product UD Black when they already have Black Diamond as a product name. Makes it hard to google for the cards. Confusing choice. I know they used to have a brand called "Black", but they might have been better off with a more unique name. Go with Noir or Dark or something.

 

[Divine]

Why did McDavid's rookie card drop? Is it because people were expecting a better season due to the hype? Was offered one for $150 (CAD)... they were released at $250 and were at $300 at one point I think.

Wonder what an Auston Matthews rookie is going to be going for, given it's the first Leafs 1OA in 30 years, and second in their 100 year history.

 

[McGhostbuster]

Why did McDavid's rookie card drop? Is it because people were expecting a better season due to the hype? Was offered one for $150 (CAD)... they were released at $250 and were at $300 at one point I think.

Wonder what an Auston Matthews rookie is going to be going for, given it's the first Leafs 1OA in 30 years, and second in their 100 year history.

Supply and demand. There was over 20000 McDavid YG's this year. Average year is maybe 1/2 that. With so many on the market, price goes down.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Why did McDavid's rookie card drop? Is it because people were expecting a better season due to the hype? Was offered one for $150 (CAD)... they were released at $250 and were at $300 at one point I think.

Wonder what an Auston Matthews rookie is going to be going for, given it's the first Leafs 1OA in 30 years, and second in their 100 year history.

They didn't really drop so much as they settled.

Most first overall picks/huge rookies peak in price when Series 1 first comes out.

It is hard to project their long term value because it is a unique situation. Crosby is the most recent comparable player and if you look at Beckett's population reports (available on their website) Crosby only has about 2200 graded Young Guns where as McDavid already has around 3300 and there is still probably a lot of series 1 product that has yet to be opened where as cases of 05-06 series 1 are more or less extinct.

Some perspective about other 1st overall centres in the population report, MacKinnon's Young Guns has about 850, Stamkos' has 1150, Tavares has 750. These are the amount of cards sent in to grade, so it isn't a perfect science, but maybe it means something about how many are out there in relation to each other.

Judging by eBay, a raw Crosby goes for around $300-$350 CAD plus shipping. Even if McDavid surpasses Crosby, 10+ years into his career, with the amount of Young Guns that might be out there, I don't think his cards gets that high. Maybe someone with more collecting experience can weigh in though. Anything low numbered from a popular set that hockey fans regard highly I think will go up long term (maybe), but there are so many Mcdavid "rookie year" cards already, I think a lot of it has probably already peaked.

If I wanted to gamble, I might buy some of his Fleer Precious Metal Gem cards. His /50 sold for only around $100 on eBay. I'd rather spend $100 on that than his Young Guns because in 10 years time, how many of those will be out there on the open market, and even if Fleer PMGs aren't as big of a hit with hockey fans as they are with other sports, there'll be a few McDavid completists. If you want to really gamble....buy a Young Guns high gloss and hold on to it for 10 years.

Ultimately, hockey cards are no different than any other collectors based hobby that involve speculating. The moment something is hyped as a future "collectors" item from the get go, but isn't truly limited, odds are it won't be worth as much asp eople are expecting. Only extremely limited stuff or players who no one was looking to collect but broke out of (relatively speaking) nowhere (Say Mark Stone, Ghost this year) are the cards that go up. If you had the foresight to buy 100 Ghost Young Guns in 14-15 and sold them this year, you'd have made a tidy prfoit.

 

[blankall]

Where are you getting McDavid population figures from? That's dependent on the amount of retail produced. Upper Deck doesn't release figures on that.

 

[Divine]

They didn't really drop so much as they settled.

Most first overall picks/huge rookies peak in price when Series 1 first comes out.

It is hard to project their long term value because it is a unique situation. Crosby is the most recent comparable player and if you look at Beckett's population reports (available on their website) Crosby only has about 2200 graded Young Guns where as McDavid already has around 3300 and there is still probably a lot of series 1 product that has yet to be opened where as cases of 05-06 series 1 are more or less extinct.

Some perspective about other 1st overall centres in the population report, MacKinnon's Young Guns has about 850, Stamkos' has 1150, Tavares has 750. These are the amount of cards sent in to grade, so it isn't a perfect science, but maybe it means something about how many are out there in relation to each other.

Judging by eBay, a raw Crosby goes for around $300-$350 CAD plus shipping. Even if McDavid surpasses Crosby, 10+ years into his career, with the amount of Young Guns that might be out there, I don't think his cards gets that high. Maybe someone with more collecting experience can weigh in though. Anything low numbered from a popular set that hockey fans regard highly I think will go up long term (maybe), but there are so many Mcdavid "rookie year" cards already, I think a lot of it has probably already peaked.

That's because of cost. It costs money to get a card graded, so people will usually only grade cards that are worth a lot. Which is why, the more popular a card, the more graded it will be. That's the reason there's more graded McDavid's than first overall picks. If you use graded reports as a way to determine population, then base cards are the rarest cards of them all because very few people want to pay $10 to grade them.

Also, I don't think there's that many more McDavid's than Crosby's. People always assume when something comes out that it's significantly more because they're living it. People were doing the exact same thing for Crosby rookie cards. You would have thought Crosby rookie cards were 10X the general population of first overall picks. Even with possibly more McDavid cards in circulation, it wouldn't be as hard for them to pass Crosby due to the increased cost of packs. People were spending $1000+ to get a McDavid, and they were going for $250-300 from the early days. Unless all these people are willing to dump them at pennies on the dollar, if McDavid puts together a good career, the value of the card could surpass Crosby simply because the cost of obtaining one out of the gate was also more than Crosby.

 

[Jackets Woodchuck]

I'm a set builder (try to build base sets plus all non-auto/relic/ultra short print inserts of low-end products and base only for mid-end sets) and I have trouble completing hockey sets (especially since Upper Deck has taken over the exclusive license - they seem to take a mid-end approach to short printing even on their cheapest sets, not to mention inserting low-end update cards in higher-end products). Does anyone have any advice for a non-investor hockey fan looking to complete a few sets a season for the heck of it?

 

[blankall]

I'm a set builder (try to build base sets plus all non-auto/relic/ultra short print inserts of low-end products and base only for mid-end sets) and I have trouble completing hockey sets (especially since Upper Deck has taken over the exclusive license - they seem to take a mid-end approach to short printing even on their cheapest sets, not to mention inserting low-end update cards in higher-end products). Does anyone have any advice for a non-investor hockey fan looking to complete a few sets a season for the heck of it?

Depends on your definition of a set. Getting every single subset of any product will be next to impossible and expensive. Better to focus on base plus a few subsets in series 1/2.

The updates from other sets aren't officially part of the set or do they meet the definition of rookie cards.

 

[Jackets Woodchuck]

Depends on your definition of a set. Getting every single subset of any product will be next to impossible and expensive. Better to focus on base plus a few subsets in series 1/2.

The updates from other sets aren't officially part of the set or do they meet the definition of rookie cards.

Would collecting Series 1/2 base + young guns and OPC w/SPs, but not SSPs (i.e. 1-600) be a realistic goal? If I decided to buy one via lots/sets on ebay and the other via packs, is there a better one to buy in packs (keep in mind I usually buy retail to maximize number of base set cards for the buck)?

Also, I know Series 2 has OPC update. Is there an UD flagship update in any product?

 

[blankall]

Would collecting Series 1/2 base + young guns and OPC w/SPs, but not SSPs (i.e. 1-600) be a realistic goal? If I decided to buy one via lots/sets on ebay and the other via packs, is there a better one to buy in packs (keep in mind I usually buy retail to maximize number of base set cards for the buck)?

Also, I know Series 2 has OPC update. Is there an UD flagship update in any product?

That's definitely realistic. Expensive to do from cracking packs though.

And yes they put series 1 updates in other products. This year SPA had them. Like I said, those aren't officially part of the set though. If you feel you need them though, buying singles or from comc is the way to go. Generally if you're set building, I'd try comc.com to save on shipping.

 

[Jackets Woodchuck]

Thanks for the heads up re: COMC. Looks like a great option.

 

[ElysiumAB]

Bought a box of the UD Champs for the hell of it, looked like a fun set. Aside from trying and eventually getting, an UD YG McDavid, I haven't bought hockey cards since I was a kid.

Anyhow, from the Champs box pulled a mini-relic jersey Larkin, used jersey Ryan Nugent-Hatescats, and signed Riley Sheahan. Being from Michigan and also a fan of the Oilers I was really happy with that.

 

[blankall]

Thanks for the heads up re: COMC. Looks like a great option.

Yup. Lots of cheap lower end inserts on there. Plus you can ship as many as you want at once. Definitely the way to go.

Also, anyone notice that the demand/price of rookie and relatively old Gretzky cards has gone way up since that PSA 10 Gretzky card sold for close to $500k.

 

[Nalens Oga]

Would anyone be able to help me out? What are the best looking base cards since 2013 (I'm out of the loop). From what I see atm, it's the Champ's set with its nice vintage look, Upper Deck Ice as per usual, SPX as per usual, Dominion which is now out of print, and Upper Deck The Cup. I'd love to get some of the base cards just for the better players.

Also to the guy above looking to buy singles, use Sportlots it's cheaper in general for bases than COMC and if you're looking to buy an entire set then I usually get Series 1 + 2 on eBay for like $25-35 shipped with 400 cards.

 

[blankall]

Would anyone be able to help me out? What are the best looking base cards since 2013 (I'm out of the loop). From what I see atm, it's the Champ's set with its nice vintage look, Upper Deck Ice as per usual, SPX as per usual, Dominion which is now out of print, and Upper Deck The Cup. I'd love to get some of the base cards just for the better players.

Also to the guy above looking to buy singles, use Sportlots it's cheaper in general for bases than COMC and if you're looking to buy an entire set then I usually get Series 1 + 2 on eBay for like $25-35 shipped with 400 cards.

That's a pretty subjective question. Many people find Champ's to be ugly and cheap looking. You should be able to google the cards pretty easily.

I'd try Cardboardsconnection.com. They do a pretty good job of providing summaries of all the sets including checklists.

IMO, overall, the quality of the set designs has taken a huge dive since UD got the exclusive license. Seems like they are recycling a lot of pictures and using cheapo graphic designs on bordering. I'd prefer a system with at least 3 licensed companies and each company confined to 4-6 sets max.

 

[Blowfish]

Where is safest place to value hockey cards? How did great one go for half million? Unreal

 

[blankall]

Where is safest place to value hockey cards? How did great one go for half million? Unreal

That PSA graded 10 is the only perfect 10 in existence. It's the most iconic rookie card in hockey.

As for price, ebay. The card's worth whatever someone is willing to pay.

 

[vannzee]

When do 20016-17 cards start coming out?