Hockey's original gum card era began in a memorable fashion during the Great Depression as Canadian kids were looking to escape from the grim reality of the world around them. With the sport gaining national momentum thanks to radio broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada, the thought of getting a picture of your favorite stars and a stick of gum was a tempting way to spend your … [Read more...]
Mistaken Identity: 1937-38 V356 World Wide Gum Hockey Cards
The largest single-issue hockey card set issued before World War II, the relatively plain 1937-38 V356 World Wide Gum release has never had a sparkling reputation in the hobby. However, it is a collection which still deserves the respect of modern fans since it is a perfect snapshot of the NHL as it edged toward the Original Six era and holds a few secrets that took decades to … [Read more...]
1954-55 Parkhurst: Preparing For Battle
The hockey card world was turned upside down in the mid-1950s. Canadian kids had a difficult choice to make as they could check out the new competition from Topps or stick with what they already liked with the 1954-55 Parkhurst collection. 1954-55 Parkhurst was the last set to feature all of the Original Six together in one offering. Topps made deals with the teams … [Read more...]
1978-79 O-Pee-Chee: Goodbye Bobby, Hello Mike
With the NHL and WHA in the final stages of their seven-year battle, hockey card collectors were surprised to see that there would only be cards from one of the leagues and welcomed the 1978-79 O-Pee-Chee set with open arms. For the fifth straight season, O-Pee-Chee's set was made up of 396 cards. The set is a major source of frustration for those wanting to put a high-grade … [Read more...]
Hockey’s 10 Most Underrated Rookie Cards Of The 1980s
For the generation that grew up watching hockey in the 1980s, there are plenty of heroes from that era which are still heavily praised. The exploits of players like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Mike Bossy and many others are well-remembered, but there are also those that were stars at the time which have been forgotten or are in danger of fading into the ether of hockey … [Read more...]
10 Important Old School St. Louis Blues Cards
The St. Louis Blues are challenging for the first Stanley Cup in franchise history and it conjures up memories of some of the players that helped pave the way along with their best O-Pee-Chee (and in some cases, Topps) hockey cards. As part of the NHL's great expansion of 1967, the team was an early success with three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final thanks to a … [Read more...]
Fred Sasakamoose: One-Card Wonder
In the days before the hobby boomed, there were plenty of hockey players who made it into just a single card set. More often than not, their names are often lost to history and modern collectors simply grab their vintage cardboard in order to fill a set without considering how they ended up with their pictures wrapped up in wax paper along with a slab of gum. Fred Sasakamoose … [Read more...]
1973-74 Topps Hockey Set Loaded With Hall Of Famers
The 1973-74 hockey season marked a changing of the guard in the NHL. The Philadelphia Flyers became the first team from the 1967 expansion class to win the Stanley Cup, stopping Boston in six games. Topps was also undergoing some changes in its hockey product, most notably expanding its set by 22 to an all-time high of 198 cards. That’s a good thing. Not only did a larger … [Read more...]
1962-63 Topps Hockey Tough To Find In High Grade
Hockey was a quirky product for Topps, ever since it debuted its first set for the 1954-55 season. But by the time the 1962-63 set was released, a pattern had emerged. Topps only had rights to produce teams from the United States, since Parkhurst held rights for the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs. For the 1960-61 set, Topps lost the Detroit Red Wings to … [Read more...]
1989-90 O-Pee-Chee: Prelude to the Boom
For hockey card collectors, the 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee release was the end of the innocence as it marked the end of a 25-year stranglehold on the market. Less than a year later, there would be three more manufacturers entering the fray and the hobby boomed to a level previously unheard of. After four straight years of sets consisting of 264 cards, O-Pee-Chee decided to balloon … [Read more...]