It was as grass roots as grass roots could be.
Hockey card collectors of all ages, shapes and sizes flocked to Tim Hortons Quick Service Restaurants across Canada Thursday night for the first Tim Hortons Hockey Card Trade Night. The event was held in more than 300 stores from coast to coast.
The next one is planned for Thurs., Nov. 9 from 6-8 PM.
In the days before there were online actions, an internet, and even Beckett magazines and other price guides, there was a rallying phrase that every caught the attention of every hockey card collector.
“Got’em, got’em, need’em, got’em…”
Those words resonated in Tim Hortons restaurants throughout the event.
“I never thought I would hear my grandson say ‘Got’em, Got’em, Need’em,” said Tom Holmes of Ottawa. “I collected cards growing up, and then my son and I collected together in the 1990s. Now we are three generations of hockey card collectors and we are having a great time tonight.”
Collectors flocked with their binders and stacks of cards to their local Tims. The promotion was held on the one-month mark of the Tim Hortons Upper deck launch date. The annual Tim Hortons Upper Deck hockey card promotion began Mon., Oct. 2. Guests can get a pack of three cards for $1 with a purchase of any hot beverage excluding espresso shots, or for $1.99 without a beverage.
“When I got my son into collecting in the 1990s, the hobby was a lot different,” Holmes said. “It was different than it is now, too. In the 1990s, there were so many card sets and companies making them, you couldn’t keep track of it. There was Pro Set and O-Pee-Chee and Upper Deck and Pinnacle and Score and Fleer and Stadium Club and Fleer Ultra and Donruss and Leaf and later Pacific. I think we bought some packs of everything. You couldn’t open packs without having a copy of Beckett with you because the thrill was about how much the insert card or rookie card you pulled was worth.”
Holmes said the Tim Hortons night is good because everyone there was collecting the same thing.
“When I was a kid, we all collected O-Pee-Chee hockey cards,” he said. “That was it. It was the only set. We kept our cards in a stack with an elastic band, and we brought our list of cards we needed and our doubles to trade. We all wanted to complete our sets, but there were certain players we tried to stockpile. Everyone wanted Bobby Orr, so you would have to give up three or four good cards for him. Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull were popular too. I was a big Montreal Canadiens fan so I was always looking out for Jean Beliveau cards. There were no price guides or anything like that. We just spent recess trading cards and we all wanted to finish our set.”
Holmes collects the Tim Hortons set with his grandson every year. Now that his grandson is playing TimBits minor hockey, sponsored by Tim Hortons – TimBits is the brand name for donut holes at Tim Hortons – a trip to the drive thru is part of the routine.
“We go thru the drive through on the way to hockey and we will get coffee to drink in the arena watching and then on the way home, he knows he gets TimBits and a couple packs of hockey cards.”
Holmes also said he likes this year’s set compared to other years.
“It’s easier for us this year,” he said. “We try to complete the set but it was too difficult with the red parallels. With the parallels gone and an insert card in every pack, it’s a lot better for us.”
Upper Deck Tim Hortons spokesmen Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins and Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche are featured in the television commercials which are running nationally across Canada. Crosby and MacKinnon are good friends, and they both grew up in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, a suburban community near Halifax. This year’s commercial features Crosby and MacKinnon sitting at a table in a Tim Hortons location, opening packs of hockey cards. Crosby spots a boy in the restaurant, wearing a Penguins Crosby jersey and putting his cards in a binder. Crosby walks over to the awestruck boy and gives him his cards.
The commercials have been running for the past month and will continue until the promotion ends.
“Tims is synonymous with hockey and we’re always excited to kick off a new NHL season with our Tim Hortons NHL Trading Cards and our Tim Hortons NHL Hockey Challenge,” said Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer at Tim Hortons.
“We’re also thrilled to have over 300 restaurants across Canada hosting Tims Hockey Card Trade Nights this year where collectors can get together to trade cards and share their love for their hobby.”
The Tim Hortons hockey card promotion continues to be the largest of its kind in the sports card world. Not only are millions of packs sold to hockey fans, collectors, families and young players, but the accompanying national radio and television campaigns that accompany the program give hockey card collecting mainstream exposure from coast to coast.
“The Tim Hortons trading cards set is a key program for Upper Deck as we continue to connect Canadians nationwide with NHL hockey and collecting, with exciting new inserts each year,” said Upper Deck marketing lead, McKenzie Young.
However successful some of the trading card nights are, some did not embrace the Got’ems and Need’ems.
In one Ottawa Tim Hortons, we went in and asked the manager what time the hockey card trading night was supposed to begin. The manager knew nothing about the promotion despite the advertising campaign and the sign in front of the store promoting it.
Twenty minutes away in the small town of Richmond, Ontario, collectors showed up in droves. Richmond is a typical rural small town of about 5,000 people. As the birthplace of the annual Silver Stick Tournament, it is a hockey town through and through from its strong Junior B team and local high school program to its youth hockey programs from TimBits all the way up to U18.
“People will sit in here and trade cards on their own,” said one employee of Tim Hortons. “The trading night brings more people out for that one reason, but we always see people opening packs and then seeing other people opening packs, and they will go over and look at each others’ cards.”
With a large crowd in the restaurant, he added to his point.
“There are a lot of Leafs fans here wearing their jerseys, and Sens fans wearing their jerseys,” he noted. “This is the type of night where they can sit down with each other and have fun trading cards without arguing and chirping each other!”
Holmes said he and his son and grandson will be at the next Tim Hortons trade night.
“We will be opening a few packs by next week, and we will be at the next trade night,” he said. “And then a few days later we will be heading to Toronto to go to the Expo and hopefully pick up some of the inserts we still need.”
Trade Nights across Canada bring collectors out to trade Tim Hortons hockey cards the old fashioned way.
Related Stories:
Tim Hortons Hockey Cards Arrive for Another Season
Tim Hortons Greatest Duos Hockey Card Promotion Packs ‘Em In
Puck Drops on 2019-20 Tim Hortons Hockey Cards Promotion
2020-21 Tim Hortons Hockey Card Promotion Returns Thursday
Avid Collector and Canadiens Fan Wins Trip to Game 4
Upper Deck Tim Hortons Cards Strong On The Floor At Toronto Expo
Tourney Scrapped, But There Will Be Tim Hortons World Juniors Hockey Cards
Tim Hortons Upper Deck Hockey Is Back
