My Favorite Hockey Card
December 4, 2008 by Tyler
Filed under Hockey Collectibles, Hockey Columns
I haven’t seriously collected hockey cards since 1991, but I will occasionally pick up a few when something catches my eye.
It is during these “dog days of summer” when I long for that elusive “hockey fix” that I find myself rummaging through the boxes under my stairs looking for a long-forgotten collectible.
I dug out my favorite hockey card today and, while admiring it for a while, I thought that I would share it with NHL Digest readers before I pack it away for another year or two.
I distinctly remember that August day when I received a box of old hockey cards from my cousin who was cleaning out his room at my aunt’s house before leaving for his first year of University.
Scott dropped off a big cardboard box full of old hockey cards from the early 1980’s and said “I thought you might like these, I’ve got no more use for them”. I couldn’t believe my luck. All of these old cards that he had haphazardly thrown in a box without any regard for their value…all for me. Indeed, I did like them and I still have every last one of them to this day.
I spent the remainder of my summer vacation sorting and logging each card in that box. There were days when I would spend hours in the basement with that box of cards, putting each one in particular order by year and card number.
I must have read that Beckett magazine a thousand times over to make sure that the most valuable cards received a protective plastic cover. I needed to defend my new found treasures from the evils of creases and moisture!
There were more than one thousand hockey cards in that box, but one in particular always stood out as my favorite.
It was O-Pee-Chee card #289 from the 1980-1981 season.
Mark Messier’s Rookie Card!
Man how I loved that card. The picture that graced the front of that card was forever etched in my mind…the now familiar stance of “The Moose” hunched over to take a face-off with his stick resting across his thighs.
If you would like your own Mark Messier Rookie Card, I found a couple for sale on ebay that really are not that expensive.
Gregsky on Sun, 12th Aug 2007 12:00 pm
I also enjoy going through my collections all summer long so i know the feeling well. My favorite set of cards is the Topps 1954. I wish I had a hyperbolic chamber to keep them in!! I have been collecting my whole life and acquired my father’s and grandfather’s collections as well. I have to admit though that my massive autograph collection is my most prized over my cards as it spans from the 1920’s to the present. It’s great reading stuff from other collectors. Keep it up.
Tyler on Sun, 12th Aug 2007 12:47 pm
Gregsky,
I wish that I had cards dating as far back as you! I do have some old Bee Hive photos that my father collected from teh 1960’s era. However, he pasted them all into a scrapbook!
I only have one Sidney Crosby autographed hockey news that a reader graciously got for me. Although, I do have one autograph from a game I went to as a kid. Probably a good subject for another “flashback story”. Thanks for the idea!
Gregsky on Sun, 12th Aug 2007 11:30 pm
My grandfather kept scrapbooks too. I recently found some in the cellar of my folks house that has newspaper clippings, box scores and pictures of the 1928 season. My favorite of those is the 1929-30 Bruins. For a small sample of my collection check out my blog on NHL.com – http://fans.nhl.com/gregsky/home/ – You might have to click on “see original” to see some of them well.
Michelle on Mon, 13th Aug 2007 1:00 pm
It’s funny, I have the exact same card and I treasure it as well, though I never was a big Moose fan. There’s something about that era of cards and collecting that seems so nostalgic now….
Some of the best memoribilia is the stuff that has a story behind it… just buying cards isn’t always the same (though I do like some of the jersey cards).
Tyler on Mon, 13th Aug 2007 10:36 pm
Gregsky, Wow! those are some nostalgic pieces. Do you plan on passing them down ro have you ever thought about selling anything? Personally, I never plan on selling any of my items.
Michelle, I agree about that era of cards. When I do buy cards these days, I only buy O-Pee-Chee and they are usually from the late 1970’s or early 1980’s. When there started to be a dozen different brands of cards I lost interest. I also have 4 Mike Gartner rookie cards which are not worth much, but it’s weird that I still have all 4. I should have traded a couple of them back in the day for some of the cards I was missing.
Gregsky on Tue, 14th Aug 2007 10:39 pm
I’m not sure I could even begin to put a price on the stuff I have. It is truly so big it’s swallowing up my home (much to my wife’s distress!) My son just turned 14 and is a hockey nut as well (like he had a choice!) So I will most likely pass it down to him. I think what my grandfather had in mind when he started it was to keep passing it down until someone had a child that took no interest in the sport, so far it hasn’t happened. The only problem is that there is no end in sight and it just keeps growing year by year, I have 5 long bookcases full of 3-ring binders of just autographed pictures and index cards and a couple of boxes full of ones that haven’t yet been put into books. I won’t even get into how many cards, pucks, books, old programs, hockey news, magazines etc. I have that span the last 80 years. Now that I think of it I’m not sure I could actually find a buyer even if I could put a price on it, it’s almost museum material at this point.
Tyler on Wed, 15th Aug 2007 8:35 am
Gregsky,
That is an awesome amount of colletibles. I would certianly say that you are at museum material now!
Keep it going!
My Favorite Hockey Autograph | National Hockey League Digest on Thu, 16th Aug 2007 3:57 am
[...] few days ago I wrote the story of my favorite hockey card. I thought it only fitting to follow that up with the story of how I received my first and favorite [...]
chris on Mon, 20th Aug 2007 5:05 pm
I have a 1914 torontoblue shirts team hockey card. It is the centennial colector series( high liner)
Sandi Lincoln on Fri, 5th Dec 2008 1:28 am
I LOVE Mark Messier! Thanks for your great story!!
SandiHockeyMom
Kyle on Thu, 8th Jan 2009 4:15 pm
It’s amazing how much your column exactly mirrors the way I feel about my card collection now, and how I approach buying cards today (i.e. I don’t except for that odd time during the summer when I want to drop a few bucks).
I don’t really know if I have a favorite card. I have some that come to mind:
- mid-50’s Jean Beliveau (Can’t remember the exact year)
- Bob Gainey rookie card
- Kirk Muller rookie card (a gift from a friend in ‘91 who knew how badly I wanted it)
-Saku Koivu rookie card
Not surprisingly, those are my 4 favorite all-time Habs.
Some of my favorite cards are not hockey cards, but in fact baseball cards:
- 1987 Topps Roberto Clemente “Turn Back the Clock” card. It’s virtually worthless, but there’s sentimental attachment to that card.
- Tony Gwynn rookie card, 1983 O-Pee-Chee (yeah, not even Topps!)
One of my biggest regrets in life was letting Sergio Momesso’s nephew steal my cards from me on a school bus when I was 8 (he was a 6th grader and therefore I could do nothing).
He took a whole shoebox of 84-85 and 85-86 cards from me. I had damn near every card in both sets. Take a look at the Beckett guides now and you’ll know how hard I kick myself to this day. I specifically remember 3 of my favorites from that box:
- 84-85 Mario Lemieux – I thought it was neat that his name was “The Best”
- 84-85 Steve Yzerman – Couldn’t wrap my 8 year old brain around his weird name
- 85-86 Patrick Roy – he was the Habs hot new goalie. Such a nice card.
I hope that jerk enjoyed that.
Another regret is coming home from vacation in 1990 and finding our basement flooded. Most of my toys and the whatever cards I had left were water damaged and promptly thrown out. At the time I didn’t care. I was on the cusp of becoming a teenager and didn’t need them anymore. Oops! Ever see the prices of Transformers toys and Star Wars figures? Oops is right! Most of the cards were baseball cards from 86-88 and don’t have much value today. I just miss them because of the connection to my youth they have.
So I guess I just spewed out most, if not all of my favorite cards, and mentioned some toys as well!
Stefano on Mon, 2nd Nov 2009 10:43 pm
i have the same love for my Mark Messier rookie card as well as my Wayne Gretzky Rookie card. I’m 30 and still get teary eyed everytime I pull them out…lol