Hockey Cards - Part II

[blankall]

Finally made it home and as promised, here's a pic of my Gretzky rookie (just a quick snap with a phone).

As I said, not saying it's better overall than the PSA 10 pictured earlier but on edges, I find them to be crisper (which is where I take issue with them calling that a 10). Top to bottom centering is off. Left right is pretty good. Anyway, long story short, there were cards with pretty good edges in the 80's. Many of my cards from back then have similar edging without a lot of the historical problems. Yes, some have it but contrary to belief, if you were discerning, they were out there.

That's really nice. I'd send it to PSA for grading right away.

The issues I see are:

1. The centering top to bottom is off.
2. The bottom corners both have slight rounding. The one of the left may even have a small ding.

 

[Kranix]

 

[TheTotalPackage]

The Franchise Trio set. Tim Horton Die Cut and pretty much anything McDavid. Clear Cuts are pretty rare.

First pack my son opens this year, he pulls a Cale Mark Clear Cut Phenoms card. I told him he had just pulled a pretty damn good card.

He opened up his second pack yesterday, and got the Flames' Franchise Trio card.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

That's really nice. I'd send it to PSA for grading right away.

The issues I see are:

1. The centering top to bottom is off.
2. The bottom corners both have slight rounding. The one of the left may even have a small ding.

Yeah like I said in my other comments, I was solely commenting on the edges (didn't have it in front of me to comment on the other aspects but knew the edges were very good). I find mine much more crisp than the 10, which is where I have problem with calling it a 10 as there are obviously versions out there that have quality edges despite the general issues with edging (so how can you call something a perfect 10 if one day one gets submitted that meets all the criteria?).

Agreed, my top bottom centering is off (though I actually find to the eye my left/right centering better than the 10).

 

[John Eichel da GOAT]

Byram would be the obvious holy crap potential to maybe sit on for a bit. I dont see him ever passing Makar and Im guessing COL fans arent the creme de la crop for collectors, but pure on ice potential could come quick with most of the world not knowing who he is yet.

 

[mojograde]

Finally got the Laffy Young Guns. Going to be interesting if Upper Deck releases an updated version

 

[ThreeOfAPerfectPair]

Anyone here use COMC? Wondering how their shipping works when they say you can ship your items at a later date, do you have to be a $50/month member for that feature?

 

[99GoHabsGo99]

Hey guys,

New to the hobby and excited to start collecting!

My goal is 100% to collect but im not gonna lie of course it would be nice to get some hits.. I dont plan on selling but I want some valuable cards almost like an investment in my collection..

Im not rich though so they would have to be from pulls, i fully expect to get nothing for quite awhile and im absolutely fine with that but my question is...

What packs/hobby boxes should i buy for the best value?? Im wanting a chance at a nice hit but it can be even less than 1%.. just knowing i have a chance is fun enough haha.

been doing alot of research this past week and will be doing more including reading here before I decide on my first "big" buy... bought a little fun 19.99 series 1 box at walmart and pulled a UD Canvas Josh norris that was cool..

Id love to pull a hard auto one day.

Right now im looking at these for my price range... cant buy them all just trying to decide and learn as much as i can before making my decision..

2019/20 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey 24-Pack Box

2019/20 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey Hobby Box

2020/21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey Hobby Box

2019/20 Upper Deck SP Authentic Hockey Hobby Box

Please let me know what u guys think, or if i should wait for some new boxes comin out soon or what...also some beginners tips that i should know.

Thanks so much

 

[Hoochi Papa]

Have you thought about participating in group breaks?

Although it lacks excitement completely, eBay is the cheapest way to build your collection, card by card. Compared to other sports, hockey boxes kinda suck. Products are about as expensive as NFL cards but there are fewer hits and most of the stuff is simply worth nothing, like cheap looking player worn jersey pieces.

I'd recommend zeeree gaming in YouTube, he opens like one box per day and soon you'll realize just how worthless most hockey products are. I know this sounds really dull but I can not recommend opening hockey card boxes, not with these prices. For the price of one SPX box you can actually buy Barkov, Suzuki and another pretty good rookie auto from same set. And there's a chance you can flip those later on for profit.

Nothing can beat the feeling of opening a personal box but soon you'll wonder what you're going to do with all those worthless basic cards.

 

[sprongshowhky]

Anyone here use COMC? Wondering how their shipping works when they say you can ship your items at a later date, do you have to be a $50/month member for that feature?

Hey there, I usually buy my cards, click ship later and recently had about 50 or so shipped to me for about maybe 10-15? definitely dont need to be a $50/month member

 

[Mr. Met]

Yeah like I said in my other comments, I was solely commenting on the edges (didn't have it in front of me to comment on the other aspects but knew the edges were very good). I find mine much more crisp than the 10, which is where I have problem with calling it a 10 as there are obviously versions out there that have quality edges despite the general issues with edging (so how can you call something a perfect 10 if one day one gets submitted that meets all the criteria?).

Agreed, my top bottom centering is off (though I actually find to the eye my left/right centering better than the 10).

These cards were wire cut back in the day so when the wires lost their touch then edges of cards got chipped a bit. This is widely seen as fine with these 1979 Gretzky cards, whereas cards with sharp edges like yours are often less desirable because the likelihood of them being sheet cut post-1979 are very high and not from the original manufacturer.

Many older get rejected from grading services when the edges are too sharp and will be labelled as altered. Have a quick read up on the card trimming scandal that has been ongoing for years.

 

[Rants Mulliniks]

These cards were wire cut back in the day so when the wires lost their touch then edges of cards got chipped a bit. This is widely seen as fine with these 1979 Gretzky cards, whereas cards with sharp edges like yours are often less desirable because the likelihood of them being sheet cut post-1979 are very high and not from the original manufacturer.

Many older get rejected from grading services when the edges are too sharp and will be labelled as altered. Have a quick read up on the card trimming scandal that has been ongoing for years.

I know all about it. Been a collector for almost 50 years and a dealer for a brief period. The point was that there are cards of that era with good edges and that picture is an example of it and why I take exception to assigning a 10 grade to a card with obvious defect when I know there are good edges out there. You'd probably be surprised how many of my cards from that era have pretty good edges. We purposefully picked through to get the best ones. We had a harder time with centering than edging, by and large. Don't get me wrong, edges were an issue but you could find them. All of them are straight from packs back in 80, opened by us. I certainly understand the worry about "trimming" but at the same time, as someone who knows first hand there were decent edged cards out there (straight from pack), I would have a hard time giving a ten to a known defect knowing there were decent ones out there. Again, if one with edges like mine comes along that has the other facets too (centering, corners, etc.), how does it carry the same value as one with known flaw? I mean, I would hope the discerning buyer would note the radical difference and it would reflect in the price. Unfortunately mine doesn't meet all the criteria, of course.

 

[Gatorbait19]

I may or may not have purchased a McDavid YG 9.5 last night while in an inebriated state, without boss lady approval. So if anyone’s interested, another McDavid YG 9.5 will probably be available soon lol.

 

[Muffin]

Byram would be the obvious holy crap potential to maybe sit on for a bit. I dont see him ever passing Makar and Im guessing COL fans arent the creme de la crop for collectors, but pure on ice potential could come quick with most of the world not knowing who he is yet.

Not sure he has much hobby upside. He'll never get the offensive minutes over Makar and a defenseman needs to really put up points to have any value in the hobby.
Players in Colorado don't get much hobby love, took MacKinnon a long time to get to what he is now.

 

[blankall]

Opened 4 hobby boxes of 2020/21 Series 1 last night. Pretty disappointed. The only hobby hits I got were the French cards (which were 1 per box). Not a single numbered card. That means, they produced a lot of this stuff. More so than even the McDavid year.

I would recommend avoiding the hobby stuff, as it's not worth the premium price. Wait for retail products on sale to chase that Laf.

 

[Canadian Game]

Anyone here use COMC? Wondering how their shipping works when they say you can ship your items at a later date, do you have to be a $50/month member for that feature?

I love using COMC. The $50/month feature is really only useful for people who have so many cards for sale that the fee would reduce costs for them. I have about 700 cards listed and my fees are shy of $5/month. It’s not going to affect shipping (from what I recall). You only pay monthly fees on the cards you have listed for sale. If it’s not listed, or for cards listed at $0.75 or less, it’s free.

You can request to ship later. Everyone is different but personally I don’t mind having cards sit there to ship later. COMC has had some shipping delays due to Covid but they’re getting through it and improving. For that reason I’ll probably request my next shipment in the spring.

 

[MetalheadPenguinsFan]

I may or may not have purchased a McDavid YG 9.5 last night while in an inebriated state, without boss lady approval. So if anyone’s interested, another McDavid YG 9.5 will probably be available soon lol.

Wife selling it to cover your funeral expenses??

 

[The Kingslayer]

Not sure he has much hobby upside. He'll never get the offensive minutes over Makar and a defenseman needs to really put up points to have any value in the hobby.
Players in Colorado don't get much hobby love, took MacKinnon a long time to get to what he is now.

More for me.

 

[blankall]

Not sure he has much hobby upside. He'll never get the offensive minutes over Makar and a defenseman needs to really put up points to have any value in the hobby.
Players in Colorado don't get much hobby love, took MacKinnon a long time to get to what he is now.

Don't agree. At least not right now. Colorado is one of the hottest teams right now. MacKinnon was also very hot out of the gate. He faded as he didn't quite live up to expectations. Now his stuff is on fire, despite never having accomplished anything or winning an NHL scoring title of some kind.

Makar was also very hot last year.

Rantanen is even heating up, which takes a lot, because he was in the McDavid year. In that year everyone was busting so much of the stuff to find McDavid that they produced far more product and there are far more of those young guns.

 

[99GoHabsGo99]

Is there a website i can use to tell me what boxes to buy for best chance at certain players? Sorry if dumb question

 

[Gatorbait19]

What are some good sites/groups to buy and sell cards? I dislike using Facebook and would prefer an alternative.

 

[Hoochi Papa]

Try Blowoutcards forum.

 

[blankall]

What are some good sites/groups to buy and sell cards? I dislike using Facebook and would prefer an alternative.

Hobbyinsider
Sportscardforum
Ebay

 

[Rorschach]

Is there a website i can use to tell me what boxes to buy for best chance at certain players? Sorry if dumb question

Best thing is to just invest. 10 bucks and buy a Beckett Hockey magazine. You might even be able to get a copy for just a couple bucks if you’re willing to by a slightly older copy.

 

[Dave Karp]

Hey guys,

Right now im looking at these for my price range... cant buy them all just trying to decide and learn as much as i can before making my decision..

2019/20 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey 24-Pack Box

2019/20 Upper Deck Series 2 Hockey Hobby Box

2020/21 Upper Deck Series 1 Hockey Hobby Box

2019/20 Upper Deck SP Authentic Hockey Hobby Box

Please let me know what u guys think, or if i should wait for some new boxes comin out soon or what...also some beginners tips that i should know.

Thanks so much

First off, tips:

1. Realize this is a HOBBY. This is not a “get-rich-quick” scheme. You seem to have the right outlook thus far but remind yourself of this when you’re going to drop $$ on cards.

2. Always try to have supplies handy. Toploaders. Penny sleeves. What’s the point of getting a nice card just to have it ruined?

3. Try to have an idea of what you’re looking for. Do you want the hottest rookies? A cool card design? Just collect your favourite team or player? Autographs? Once you figure out what you want — at least to start out — it helps in deciding what to buy.

I’m not sure what your tastes are like so I don’t know where to steer you for hobby boxes. If you’re chasing YGs, look at the checklist (cardboardconnection is great for checklists and odds) and decide from there.
I would probably avoid Hobby if you’re simply looking for YGs. Just grab some retail or even a blaster.

My favourite set is SP Authentic but the quality control for this years SP was pretty bad. I pulled some great stuff from it this year but at the price point it’s at, at least at my LCS, it’s not worth it.

I also agree with watching break videos, (though, I can’t stand Zeeree Gaming) but it will give you an idea of what things look like and what you can expect to get.

Personally I’m at the stage of my collecting where I bust some loose packs now and again and get some SPA boxes every year. All my main collecting for my PC is off eBay. It’s a lot cheaper than busting boxes trying to pull the one card I want. Surely not as fun but that’s why I try to dip my toes in all the different areas.

Hope this helps.