Hockey Cards

[blankall]

Your more likely to hit a nice card in a hobby box

Hobby is almost always worse value than retail with series 1. It totally costs $30+ more and you and up with a numbered or clear cut card that is worth $5-10. It's fun and comes out before retail, so I bust a few every year. However the odds of hitting a valuable card are very low.

 

[blankall]

Picked up one of those Walmart Mega Boxes, pretty good value for $25. In mine I got Pettersson, but it was Marcus. I wish Upper Deck didn't put "Preview" on the Parkhurst rookies.

I got destroyed in my 20 boxes. Not one Pettersson. Hit two Dahlins, 9 jerseys, and a Mittlestadt canvas yg though.... Can't win em all. Glad I got my Pettersson in my 4 hobby boxes though. Going to buy 2 more e pack boxes, and then I'm done.

 

[PavelBure10]

^I started off with UD 90-91, Bure, Fedorov, Jagr, Belfor, and so on rookie cards. When things got too expensive, I collected Canucks best rookie cards. Got sick of paying $100+ for Bieksa, Raymond, Schneider, and other bums top rookie. I have kids now so I just cant keep up.

 

[blankall]

You do realize that you dont need to buy ‘The Cup’ right? You can still pull the ‘big ones’ from regular Upper Deck Series 1 and 2. Sure they dont have cards valued at a few thousand and up, but honestly what sets did when you were collecting?

I agree. Can get some nice cards from series 1. I pulled a tavares yg that I had graded. It came back a bgs 10 and is worth about $1000. I got it from a $30 retail box of 24 that was on sale. I bought 10 of those. Pulled 3 tavares and 3 Karlssons. A karlsson, a E. Kane, and a Niemi all came back bgs 10 too.

 

[Zorro]

The cool thing about the hobby is that there’s something for everyone. From the low end (MVP/OPC) to super high (Cup/Splendor) and everything in between. In that respect, I like where the hobby is. That being said, there’s too much "repetition" out there. I don’t know how many different products UD has out but I think they could accomplish the same thing with half the releases. The problem with the 15+ releases per year is that it drives the value down and their lack of originality is more obvious.

As for me, like most 30-something guys, I used to collect as a kid in the 90s, and remember the OPC/Topps releases of the 80s. At the end of the day, this all boils down to collecting what YOU want. For me, the joy is in collecting rookie cards of HOFers, and more specifically graded ones (currently at 53% completion). This past year I decided to add 2 new projects. I am putting together the 1983 (birth year) OPC set, yup all 396 (currently at 14% completion)! It’s a daunting project but I’ve always wanted to build a set so this one will take a while but that’s ok. The 2nd project, which is more current, is with the 18/19 MVP release. They have a 100-card subset called "20th Anniversary", and I am putting together the goldscript version of that set which is numbered to 150 (currently at 64% completion).

Both my HOFer and 1983 OPC sets are PSA graded and as such have been entered into the PSA registry. See that’s another tool to make collecting (keeping track) fun. My MVP project is not graded so I just put them in a binder. As you can see I have 3 very distinct projects going on, and this makes collecting fun for me, because I can’t risk putting down $500 on a box and hope to get one of the flavours of the week.

If anyone is interested I’ve uploaded my collections on this site (shameless plug lol)

imageevent.com/vintagerulz

Happy collecting!!

 

[DrRad]

Even though they aren't the most expensive or rare cards, this has always been the favorite part of my collection.

 

[angler403]

My 8 yr old son is a huge islanders fan. I bought him a Mathew barzal young guns on ebay for Christmas. However this past weekend went to a local card shop and we bought 1 pack of 16-17 series 2. And what does he pull but a fricken barzal young guns. Never seen a kid freak out so bad!

 

[NewtJorden]

Even though they aren't the most expensive or rare cards, this has always been the favorite part of my collection.



View attachment 161085

I like the gold Hasek.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Zephyrepic has ud series 1 retail box for $68cad plus shipping, is this a good deal? I’m mainly looking to just crack a box for fun and maybe hit some sort of value

You might be better off buying two tins at 30 each. That's six Young Guns for 60 instead of six Young Guns for 68.

I could be wrong on this, but I think the retail boxes guarantee one jersey. So if that is still true, it comes down to whether you'd rather pay 60 for 6 YGs or 68 for 6 YGs+1 jersey. Some of the shorter print jersey cards are of decent value, but a lot of them won't be worth the 8 bucks.

Value wise? If you're mainly concerned with YGs, retail at Zephyr Epic is probably the cheapest way to buy series 1 now that Wal-Mart's Black Friday sale is over. So I'd say it's a good deal in that respect.

 

[valeriammm]

Whats your most valuable card? doesnt have to be money value but maybe sentimental.

 

[Coado]

I’m new to the hobby but I decided to dive in because I spent way too much money on NHL 18 Hockey Ultimate Team. I also wanted to get back into hockey more so I thought this would be a fun way. I bought UD series 1 hobby and Artifacts hobby boxes and I’m loving what I pulled so far and the best being a John Tavares Autograph short printed card. So for those people saying you don’t get great cards out of hobby boxes you’re wrong!

 

[Muffin]

Definitely spent too much this year with Avs having a good rookie class. Looks like I won't have to spend much in 18-19.

 

[blankall]

I’m new to the hobby but I decided to dive in because I spent way too much money on NHL 18 Hockey Ultimate Team. I also wanted to get back into hockey more so I thought this would be a fun way. I bought UD series 1 hobby and Artifacts hobby boxes and I’m loving what I pulled so far and the best being a John Tavares Autograph short printed card. So for those people saying you don’t get great cards out of hobby boxes you’re wrong!

Don't think anyone has ever said you cannot get great cards from hobby boxes. The issue is whether the high cost of hobby boxes is justified by the odds of any single product giving you a good return.

That being said, I would not buy any non-hobby but Upper Deck S1/S2, where you get Young Guns.

It just seems to me like they've been consistently increasing the cost of hobby boxes, and leaving the quality the same or less for the past 5 years or so. For example, it now costs over $600 for a box of the Cup. That somewhat made sense when you could pull a Matthews or McDavid card worth a lot. But with last year's rookie crop, you'd be luck to get 1/3 of what you paid back in value.

 

[Habby4Life]

Don't think anyone has ever said you cannot get great cards from hobby boxes. The issue is whether the high cost of hobby boxes is justified by the odds of any single product giving you a good return.

That being said, I would not buy any non-hobby but Upper Deck S1/S2, where you get Young Guns.

It just seems to me like they've been consistently increasing the cost of hobby boxes, and leaving the quality the same or less for the past 5 years or so. For example, it now costs over $600 for a box of the Cup. That somewhat made sense when you could pull a Matthews or McDavid card worth a lot. But with last year's rookie crop, you'd be luck to get 1/3 of what you paid back in value.

Similar situation with Splendor, although the price is 230ish depending on where u buy. It's a gamble when getting one card. Its ok if you pull a gretz,cros, mcd but if you get a common there is nk way to recoup investment. You can find good value on ebay for splendor. Its a hobby, so its fun to collect what you like. Dont collect a lot of young guns but am looking to add price and stamkos.

 

[blankall]

Similar situation with Splendor, although the price is 230ish depending on where u buy. It's a gamble when getting one card. Its ok if you pull a gretz,cros, mcd but if you get a common there is nk way to recoup investment. You can find good value on ebay for splendor. Its a hobby, so its fun to collect what you like. Dont collect a lot of young guns but am looking to add price and stamkos.

I agree.

It is fun to bust wax, as it's gambling. I'd rather open a pack of cards than go to a casino.

I, more or less, exclusively collect YGs. They are considered the true "rookie card" right now, and have consistently gone up in value for me.

Stamkos was a funny one for me. I busted 20 retail boxes, and nothing, then caved and bought one off ebay, but then found 10 more retail boxes on sale, and got 3 more Stamkos YGs.

 

[Habby4Life]

Whats your most valuable card? doesnt have to be money value but maybe sentimental.

Two gretzky opc rookie 6.5 psa for sentiment
Jean beliveau auto the cup - sentiment

 

[Habby4Life]

I agree.

It is fun to bust wax, as it's gambling. I'd rather open a pack of cards than go to a casino.

I, more or less, exclusively collect YGs. They are considered the true "rookie card" right now, and have consistently gone up in value for me.

Stamkos was a funny one for me. I busted 20 retail boxes, and nothing, then caved and bought one off ebay, but then found 10 more retail boxes on sale, and got 3 more Stamkos YGs.

Mevtoo with regards to casino. Stamkos - sweet. I collect yg of main guys, ovie, mcdavid, etc but only one of each. I have not stepped up into the newer guys. I agree its fun and is for sure a gamble. I got some nice pulls but have had more than few times when i got spanked. You now, its fun and i enjoy it. Thankfully, the wife really doesnt care what i spend on them. I collect mostly autos of my fav players and superstars.

 

[thefutures]

Back in 08/09 i got my first 2 boxes ever. YG tavares and the next box at christmas was a YG Karlsson. Been on and off through the years but i have a YG heiskanan, Dubois, domi, provorov, K connor, and Werenski

 

[blankall]

Mevtoo with regards to casino. Stamkos - sweet. I collect yg of main guys, ovie, mcdavid, etc but only one of each. I have not stepped up into the newer guys. I agree its fun and is for sure a gamble. I got some nice pulls but have had more than few times when i got spanked. You now, its fun and i enjoy it. Thankfully, the wife really doesnt care what i spend on them. I collect mostly autos of my fav players and superstars.

Since E-Pack came out, I'm at the point now, where I collect the entire YG set and try to get multiples of the super stars. I probably spend about $2,500/year, but sell off about $1000/year in excess cards.

It's actually been a pretty solid investment for me, and my total collection is probably worth about $40k, which is considerably more than I put in.

 

[nuxnuxnux]

You might be better off buying two tins at 30 each. That's six Young Guns for 60 instead of six Young Guns for 68.

I could be wrong on this, but I think the retail boxes guarantee one jersey. So if that is still true, it comes down to whether you'd rather pay 60 for 6 YGs or 68 for 6 YGs+1 jersey. Some of the shorter print jersey cards are of decent value, but a lot of them won't be worth the 8 bucks.

Value wise? If you're mainly concerned with YGs, retail at Zephyr Epic is probably the cheapest way to buy series 1 now that Wal-Mart's Black Friday sale is over. So I'd say it's a good deal in that respect.

Awesome, thanks. Makes me feel better cause I kind of regretted ordering a retail instead of hobby. Gonna wait til Black Friday and get some more.

 

[danielpalfredsson]

Awesome, thanks. Makes me feel better cause I kind of regretted ordering a retail instead of hobby. Gonna wait til Black Friday and get some more.

Do you mean boxing day? Black Friday already passed.

Here's the deal with Series 1/2 hobby vs retail. A 6 YG Hobby Box is 30 bucks more than two tins. What you're paying 30 bucks for is an opportunity to pull a major hit. You can pull cards worth 100's-1000's from Series 1/2 hobby. So that's why it's 30 bucks more expensive. The odds of actually pulling one of those big cards are incredibly slim, and a majority of the time the value derived from ripping Series 1/2 whether it be hobby or retail is almost entirely from what YGs you pull. So with respect to that, retail is a better value.

I almost never rip packs or boxes, and just buy the cards I want - So with that in mind, if I were to spend money on a sealed 18-19 Series 1 product, I'd go with hobby despite it being the worse value. For me, the reason is if I buy a box of 18-19 hobby, at least there's that incredibly slim chance I could pull a card I'd never put myself in a position to purchase, like a really hot YG Clear Cut or High Gloss. I'd have a harder time justifying buying retail because it's just so easy and cheap (relatively speaking) to buy the entire YG set on COMC after Series 1/2 drop on ePack. So with the upside being so low, I think it takes some of the fun out of ripping, since ripping is basically just gambling.

 

[KingsHockey24]

I find it hard to justify spending money on hobby boxes hoping to get a certain card or player. Nowadays I just go on eBay and pick up the exact card I want.

Though I do like to buy cheap blaster boxes or products like OPC just to have the opening pack sensation.

 

[Habby4Life]

I find it hard to justify spending money on hobby boxes hoping to get a certain card or player. Nowadays I just go on eBay and pick up the exact card I want.

Though I do like to buy cheap blaster boxes or products like OPC just to have the opening pack sensation.

I'm the same way. I'll just buy the card I want. I find in the long run I spend less money. If you look when Splendor came out there was a flood of card for as little as 1/4 of the box price.

 

[Daximus]

I used to love collecting hockey cards. There was no better feeling than opening a pack, sifting through and pulling your favorite players rookie card. Those days are over for me. It got way too expensive. UD has ruined the hobby for me. Making like 20 different Upper Deck subsets that are made for rich collectors "The Cup", and the poor "MVP". It's not what it used to be, where any Joe blow could open up Gretzky's rookie card. Only very few can afford The Cup packs, which were selling for $450.00 a pack before I quit collecting. It taken the fun out for me. Although beautiful cards, the Cup ruined the joy of collecting. I miss the days where anyone had a chance to pull the big one. Now only the rich can pull a McDavid or Crosby Cup rookie, it blows.

I think there's a bit for everyone these days personally. I think the state of the hobby is the best it's ever been. You having something for those who love collecting huge sets (OPC and Parkhurst) something for people who like getting rookie and memorabilia (UD Series 1/2), a cheap set (MVP), then you have the mid tier stuff like OPC Platinum, Artifacts. Higher mid tier like Black Diamond and then upper tier like The Cup. Plus you have retail vs. hobby where you can get some more interesting stuff.

Plus there is box breaks and razzes that make pulling good cards achievable for anyone with some luck. Though I'd advise against that if people have gambling issues as it can be addicting.

 

[Daximus]

I find it hard to justify spending money on hobby boxes hoping to get a certain card or player. Nowadays I just go on eBay and pick up the exact card I want.

Though I do like to buy cheap blaster boxes or products like OPC just to have the opening pack sensation.

Honestly it's the best way to get cards. Join facebook groups and forums that do trades. You can find anything. I just traded a shadow box I had lying around for a 9.5 BGS Laine Young Gun the other day.