Upper Deck kicked off what will be one of the biggest weeks of the year for hockey card collectors on Saturday.
Hobby shops in Canada and the United States were giving out special packs of cards from Upper Deck that were produced specifically for National Hockey Card Day. After that comes the launch of a second Tim Hortons Upper Deck hockey card program Monday, and next weekend’s Sport Card and Memorabilia Expo in Toronto.
2023 marked the 15th edition of National Hockey Card Day, which was founded by Upper Deck with help from its trading card partner at the National Hockey League. It’s especially popular north of the border, with shops creating additional promotions that lure customers both new and old.
“There is no better trading card promotion in our industry than National Hockey Card Day,” stated Wayne Wagner of Wayne’s Sports Cards & Collectibles in Edmonton. “For the past 12 plus years this program has continued to bring success not only to our shop but the overall experience it provides to collectors.”
Upper Deck calls it “an annual day of celebration of both the sport of hockey and hockey card collecting.” Participating retailers offered free Upper Deck NHL trading cards to collectors and hockey fans worldwide just for stopping by a hobby shop.
The event is an opportunity for new collectors to connect with experienced hobbyists and share the hobby. This year, Upper Deck offered a universal set, available to collectors around the world, without different packs between USA and Canada.
In Ottawa, Gamebreakers was a busy place throughout the day. Not only were they giving away packs of hockey cards for National Hockey Card Day, but they also had a full house in the store for a Magic: The Gathering Tournament.
“National Hockey Card Day is always a good day for us because it introduces a lot of new collectors to the hobby,” Tan said. “This is a day when we see a lot of fathers who collect or maybe did collect bring their kids in to our store for the first time, and the kids are excited because they get packs of cards. Dads love to turn collecting into a father-son thing, and this is a great day for that.”
“Retailers often say that NHCD is their single biggest sales day of the year, as well as the day where they see the most new faces come through the door,” Upper Deck’s Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing Mike Phillips remarked. “And that is the cornerstone of NHCD; introducing new collectors to this great hobby, and hopefully turning them into collectors for life.”
Gamebreakers has been open in Ottawa since 1991, and Tan has seen many highs, lows, ups and downs in the hobby in his more than 30 years as a hobby shop owner. He has also seen a number of trends come and go in the hobby. But through it all, there is nothing like seeing the excitement of a kid opening up his or her first pack of cards.
“That’s what National Hockey Card Day is all about,” he said. “We will help some kids add to their set or help them complete it. It’s exciting for them, and the parents love seeing how excited they get when they open their packs.”
While National Hockey Card Day brings in a lot of new and casual collectors, it is not a day circled on the calendar for the hardcore collectors that Tan sees in Gamebreakers on a regular basis.
“We don’t see a lot of our big customers on this day,” he said. “We have some heavy hitters that come in here and the things they want are very specific, and they are after the high-end limited hockey cards. They spend a lot of money every month and every year, and I think that’s the same for hobby shops in every city. The set that Upper Deck makes for National Hockey card Day doesn’t really fit into what they are looking for. But it helps us get some new customers in here for the first time to get introduced to collecting hockey cards.”
Each pack of Upper Deck’s National Hockey Card Day set contained five player cards plus a checklist card. There are 31 cards in the set, and the subsets are divided into Superstars, Rookies and Legends on Ice subsets. Included in the Legends on Ice subset are Wayne Gretzky, Patrick Roy and Mario Lemieux, who remain three of the most highly-collected players in the hobby a generation after their retirement.
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