Hockey Cards

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The Hanging Jowl

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Only saw this thread for the first time now. Two comments:

- When I was 10 or 11, I took my entire collection of about a thousand of hockey cards into a field and dumped them. Can't remember the reason but this was in about 1981/82. It's impossible there weren't numerous extremely valuable cards in that collection but I could never recall anything specific like a Gretzky rookie or anything.

- When the whole collectible sports card fad took off in the early 90s, like so many others, I collected the entire Upper Deck and OPeeChee sets in (I think) '91. The last I checked they were entirely worthless after all this time even though I still have every one of them in plastic sleeves/binders. I think someone told me the Red Army subset of the OPeeChee set was worth like 30 bucks or something. I'm tempted to go throw them all in a field.
 

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Tate MacRae follows me on Tiktok
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Today's grading agencies aren't catching trims and alterations. Run the risk of spending significant premium on high-grade cards that won't hold up in the near future.
I don't believe that for a second.

Just because scumbags like Bill Maestro bring a black eye onto the scene doesn't mean you don't have a set of eyes yourself.

Serious collectors can spot an altered card a mile away. There's one great forum on the net filled with guys who can look at a card and tell if it's been tampered with.

Plus, a altered 52 mantle isn't gonna drop too much in price in high grade, they will just put its defect on the grade sticker and It will still sell at a good price.

And no offense, most high grade key cards have probably been altered, I wouldn't doubt it one bit. Like I said, both top grading companies have legit scumbags working for them and, this is pure speculation and my opinion, I'm positive if you put in a huge order certain key cards get a better grade then they should. There's a reason why one of these companies, which I won't name, give certain members the option of "what they think the grade is" on the packing sheet.

If you want a vintage card, your always going to pay a premium.
 

Cubs2024WSChamps

Tate MacRae follows me on Tiktok
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Only saw this thread for the first time now. Two comments:

- When I was 90s10 or 11, I took my entire collection of about a thousand of hockey cards into a field and dumped them. Can't remember the reason but this was in about 1981/82. It's impossible there weren't numerous extremely valuable cards in that collection but I could never recall anything specific like a Gretzky rookie or anything.

- When the whole collectible sports card fad took off in the early 90s, like so many others, I collected the entire Upper Deck and OPeeChee sets in (I think) '91. The last I checked they were entirely worthless after all this time even though I still have every one of them in plastic sleeves/binders. I think someone told me the Red Army subset of the OPeeChee set was worth like 30 bucks or something. I'm tempted to go throw them all in a field.
90s cards are junk wax.

There were millions of each card made and not enough interest. I've thrown out cases of 90s sport cards personally. Throwing them in a field will only devalue the field.

Hockey cards, in general, don't have the value of the big three sports.
 
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HansonBro

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90s cards are junk wax.

There were millions of each card made and not enough interest. I've thrown out cases of 90s sport cards personally. Throwing them in a field will only devalue the field.

Hockey cards, in general, don't have the value of the big three sports.
They were junk. My 25 *insert name* rookie cards of each player says that. Doesnt take away from Saturday mornings and getting the $2 allowance to ride the bike to the store and buy a pack and a chocolate bar. Oooo the days :)

(Then chocolate bars/bags of chips and packs of hockey cards started creeping over a dollar and the whole Dad market crashed nation wide)
 

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They were junk. My 25 *insert name* rookie cards of each player says that. Doesnt take away from Saturday mornings and getting the $2 allowance to ride the bike to the store and buy a pack and a chocolate bar. Oooo the days :)

(Then chocolate bars/bags of chips and packs of hockey cards started creeping over a dollar and the whole Dad market crashed nation wide)
Well, as somebody around during the 90s card boom, Upper Deck is the company that completely ruined the market.

As much as they innovated, they also ruined. High quality plus mass production almost killed the hobby.

There's countless stories of what they did to the YuGiho (sp) brand, printing a whole bunch more cards once the market dried up, 89 baseball once thought to be limited turned out they were probably printing more in 1990, etc.

Anybody who thinks young gun rookies will be worth money down the line are in for a shock. Outside of Crosby, which didn't stabilise until after he recent success into a key card, there's millions of the young guns out there...millions.

I thank Connor McDavid and all the hype he had a few years ago for buying me a Lexus on the back of prospectors going for the new thing. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend the prices I was selling his young guns for and getting. Or pulling a redemption for his autograph, putting it on eBay for $500 and selling it in less then a minute while paying just 50 bucks for the box.

I was giving away Austin Matthews young guns to little kids because I had made well over double on a case of that years Upper Deck. Giving them away i tell you and I still think I have five or six of them collecting dust in a box somewhere.

Vintage. Stay with vintage
 
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Gaylord Q Tinkledink

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Well, as somebody around during the 90s card boom, Upper Deck is the company that completely ruined the market.

As much as they innovated, they also ruined. High quality plus mass production almost killed the hobby.

There's countless stories of what they did to the YuGiho (sp) brand, printing a whole bunch more cards once the market dried up, 89 baseball once thought to be limited turned out they were probably printing more in 1990, etc.

Anybody who thinks young gun rookies will be worth money down the line are in for a shock. Outside of Crosby, which didn't stabilise until after he recent success into a key card, there's millions of the young guns out there...millions.

I thank Connor McDavid and all the hype he had a few years ago for buying me a Lexus on the back of prospectors going for the new thing. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend the prices I was selling his young guns for and getting. Or pulling a redemption for his autograph, putting it on eBay for $500 and selling it in less then a minute while paying just 50 bucks for the box.

I was giving away Austin Matthews young guns to little kids because I had made well over double on a case of that years Upper Deck. Giving them away i tell you and I still think I have five or six of them collecting dust in a box somewhere.

Vintage. Stay with vintage

I'll take a Matthew's rookie.
 

blankall

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Jul 4, 2007
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Well, as somebody around during the 90s card boom, Upper Deck is the company that completely ruined the market.

As much as they innovated, they also ruined. High quality plus mass production almost killed the hobby.

There's countless stories of what they did to the YuGiho (sp) brand, printing a whole bunch more cards once the market dried up, 89 baseball once thought to be limited turned out they were probably printing more in 1990, etc.

Anybody who thinks young gun rookies will be worth money down the line are in for a shock. Outside of Crosby, which didn't stabilise until after he recent success into a key card, there's millions of the young guns out there...millions.

I thank Connor McDavid and all the hype he had a few years ago for buying me a Lexus on the back of prospectors going for the new thing. I cannot, for the life of me, comprehend the prices I was selling his young guns for and getting. Or pulling a redemption for his autograph, putting it on eBay for $500 and selling it in less then a minute while paying just 50 bucks for the box.

I was giving away Austin Matthews young guns to little kids because I had made well over double on a case of that years Upper Deck. Giving them away i tell you and I still think I have five or six of them collecting dust in a box somewhere.

Vintage. Stay with vintage
UD stuff was less over produced in the 90s than the other cheaper brands like Pro-Set, Score, OPC, etc..

Young guns exist in the tens of thousands, not millions. What makes them so collectible is that there are enough of them that the average person can build a set.

You just gave away $2-300 cards? Very generous of you.
 
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Cubs2024WSChamps

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UD stuff was less over produced in the 90s than the other cheaper brands like Pro-Set, Score, OPC, etc..

Young guns exist in the tens of thousands, not millions. What makes them so collectible is that there are enough of them that the average person can build a set.

You just gave away $2-300 cards? Very generous of you.
I disagree with this.

Anything that you can get in lots of 100, like a young gun rookie, there's too many out there to over saturate the market.

There's millions, not 1000s. I've been in this niche too long to think differently and nothing is going to change my mind.

As for Matthews rookies, a card is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. If collectors want to pay hundreds for one that's on them. I cannot sell an AM YG for more then 75 bucks where I am and the last show I did I gave them away to kids.

It's just a piece of cardboard to me.
 

ThreeOfAPerfectPair

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I disagree with this.

Anything that you can get in lots of 100, like a young gun rookie, there's too many out there to over saturate the market.

There's millions, not 1000s. I've been in this niche too long to think differently and nothing is going to change my mind.

As for Matthews rookies, a card is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. If collectors want to pay hundreds for one that's on them. I cannot sell an AM YG for more then 75 bucks where I am and the last show I did I gave them away to kids.

It's just a piece of cardboard to me.

What's your vintage collection consist of?
 

loudi94

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Jul 8, 2003
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Out of all the cards I collected as a kid, these are the only one that might be worth anything.
 

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blankall

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Jul 4, 2007
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I disagree with this.

Anything that you can get in lots of 100, like a young gun rookie, there's too many out there to over saturate the market.

There's millions, not 1000s. I've been in this niche too long to think differently and nothing is going to change my mind.

As for Matthews rookies, a card is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. If collectors want to pay hundreds for one that's on them. I cannot sell an AM YG for more then 75 bucks where I am and the last show I did I gave them away to kids.

It's just a piece of cardboard to me.
Show me a lot of 100 McDavid young guns. The only way to buy lots of ygs that big are of players no one wants. Even then it'd take quite a bit of effort to put that many together. Each young guns falls 1.44 per hobby case. You'd have to open 70 cases to get 100 young guns of any single player.

The problem with vintage is that no one wants it unless it's either in very good condition or the highest end of players. There's no demand for even high end hall of fame players in hockey. For example you can buy a Trottier or a Dionne rookie for cheap, and neither have value unless very high graded.

Key Gretzky, Orr, Howe, etc cards will gain value, and I agree those are great investments, but not cheap to start with.
 
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JianYang

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I never really see hockey cards anymore. Every kid seemed to have them when I was younger.

I remember there was this jagr rookie card from "pro set" that it seems like every kid had.

There must have been a ton of those in circulation.
 

Hyack57

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I dug through my boxes of early 90s stuff and pulled out my favourites. Collected all my Kirk Mclean cards and Pavel Bure Cards. Put them in sleeves and top loaders. Not because they are worth much, but because I want to make sure I can always look at them. The rest just rot in a box doing nothing for me. Heck even the Elias Pettersson Artifacts Rookie Redemption #799 is doing nothing for me but sitting in a one touch in a display shelf. If I sell it for $50-$60; big deal. That money disappears in one trip to Safeway and some steaks and such for dinner on a friday night. So I keep it.... it will sit there.
 

danielpalfredsson

youtube dot com /watch?v=CdqMZ_s7Y6k
Aug 14, 2013
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Any of you collect vintage? Low-grade cards seem to be pretty affordable.

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They are really cool. I was always really fascinated with the vintage cards as a kid when I'd read Beckett. Of course, my collection at the time was mostly low-end retail packs.

If I was pouring cash into the hobby, the two things I would collect would be vintage stuff like you linked to above, and low numbered flashy inserts of stars that haven't really caught on as much in the hockey world. (Fleer for example).
 

danielpalfredsson

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Aug 14, 2013
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I never really see hockey cards anymore. Every kid seemed to have them when I was younger.

I remember there was this jagr rookie card from "pro set" that it seems like every kid had.

There must have been a ton of those in circulation.

Look up "junk wax" era. Sports cards were hugely overproduced in the 90's. You can buy sealed Pro Set boxes for 5-10 dollars still. Even at that price, people cannot give them away. That's how over produced they were.

It's both a good and a bad thing. If you like to collect for the fun and the aesthetics of the cards, there are a lot of key rookie cards from that era that can be had for nothing. It's a bad thing for people who enjoy cards being more limited.

I don't think hockey cards are that popular with kids. There was probably a bit of a boom over the last few years because of the hype around McDavid, and then the hype around Matthews being a Maple Leaf. It seems like collectors are a lot older, which doesn't paint a good picture for the long term health of the hobby. There are digital only cards which might be more popular with younger people, but I don't know a lot about them.
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
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Look up "junk wax" era. Sports cards were hugely overproduced in the 90's. You can buy sealed Pro Set boxes for 5-10 dollars still. Even at that price, people cannot give them away. That's how over produced they were.

It's both a good and a bad thing. If you like to collect for the fun and the aesthetics of the cards, there are a lot of key rookie cards from that era that can be had for nothing. It's a bad thing for people who enjoy cards being more limited.

I don't think hockey cards are that popular with kids. There was probably a bit of a boom over the last few years because of the hype around McDavid, and then the hype around Matthews being a Maple Leaf. It seems like collectors are a lot older, which doesn't paint a good picture for the long term health of the hobby. There are digital only cards which might be more popular with younger people, but I don't know a lot about them.

Yeah, for me, it was just cool to compare my collection with my friends, and make some trades. I knew certain cards were valuable, but I didn't really think of them as investments back then.

I also remember a friend of mine, who claims that he used a roy rookie card as a thing to make noise on his bicycle spokes.
 

hotcarle

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Jul 10, 2009
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vd, qc, ca
Look up "junk wax" era. Sports cards were hugely overproduced in the 90's. You can buy sealed Pro Set boxes for 5-10 dollars still. Even at that price, people cannot give them away. That's how over produced they were.

It's both a good and a bad thing. If you like to collect for the fun and the aesthetics of the cards, there are a lot of key rookie cards from that era that can be had for nothing. It's a bad thing for people who enjoy cards being more limited.

I don't think hockey cards are that popular with kids. There was probably a bit of a boom over the last few years because of the hype around McDavid, and then the hype around Matthews being a Maple Leaf. It seems like collectors are a lot older, which doesn't paint a good picture for the long term health of the hobby. There are digital only cards which might be more popular with younger people, but I don't know a lot about them.
It's hard for kids to get into hockey cards these days.
"Dad, can I get a box of upper deck hobby"
"Sure son, how much is that, like 15$?"
"No, like 100$"

It's just too expensive for kids. Only adults with disposable income can collect.

When I was 6, I bought packs of o-pee-chee for 25 cents. I could buy 4 packs with a dollar. 4 packs of upper deck costs you 20$ now. That's a very generous allowance for a 6 year old.
 
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Super Hans

Stats Evangelist
Oct 9, 2016
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I used to look forward to SP Authentic every year and twice went with a full case of it ('08-09 and '13-14). I always seemed to get my value out of it and the set looked great. I bought two boxes this year and I feel Upper Deck completely ruined it. I think the only card worth more than $15 was a Carter Hart FW AU. 2 boxes and 2 FW AU (I don't even remember what the other one was). You used to get 3 FW AU a box.

Some of Panini's product was gaudy, but it kept UD on its game. I loved the hobby through childhood and into adulthood, but I don't think I can justify breaking boxes and storing them away in boxes in my closet anymore.
 

LokiDog

Get pucks deep. Get pucks to the net. And, uh…
Sep 13, 2018
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I have a tin of jersey and autograph cards, Kane’s rookie card, along with about 50+ Forsberg cards and some random other stuff that I’m looking to get rid of as I’m cleaning out my house to PCS later this week. If anyone’s interested I’ll take some pics of everything in there and send em to you and I’d let it go for a pretty inconsequential amount. They’re all in protectors so they should be in good condition. Gas money for my move.
 
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