Vintage Hockey Card Collector New to the Board
HockeyCardGuru
Posts: 18
Hey y'all...I am a brand new poster to these boards and wanted to say hello as I begin my quest for a 1954 Topps PSA 8 or better hockey card set. I've been a card collector for some time, but just recently learned about the PSA set registry and would very much like to put together a beautiful set to rival those guys at the top of the list (although my budget is not unlimited, so this is bound to take a little time). Aside from Ebay, can anyone give me any ideas where to find high grade vintage hockey stuff? What are some of the good shows to attend? Any help would be appreciated and I'll look forward to talking with everyone in the weeks/months to come...Michael 
Working on a high grade 54 Topps hockey set and a 62 Mars Attacks set, so please drop me a line if you have any singles PSA 7 or better as I AM ALWAYS BUYING!
0
Comments
Welcome to the forum, and good luck with your set.
Carlos
There are some hockey registrants here so someone should be around to chat with you.
Ed
if you have any c56s, i'm your new best friend.
but I've never been wrong
it seldom turns out the way
it does in the song
once in a while
you get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right
You can always try Len Pottie (potts39 on ebay). He has a great number of high grade cards for sale. Also, you can try Harvey at AJ Cards (theiceking on ebay). They will have a lot as well.
Website: http://www.qualitycards.com
exactly the place I was going to mention.
The Expo by Toronto is by far the best Hockey Show in North American...and it just so happens to be coming up the weekend of November 15th and 16th.
Best of Luck!
Brian
1952 Topps Baseball PSA 6,7,8's
1933 Goudey PSA 5's
T202 Hassan Triple Folds
1962 Topps Football PSA 8's
I'm glad to see more hockey collectors getting on the board. We could use a lot more though. Wish there was more hockey threads posted.
Hey Albie, did you send anymore 88 OPC's??? Just wanted to make sure i get you paid soon for the last 5 or 6 you sent. Appreciate the help.
Steve. I've been holding off on buying that MacInnis PSA 9 you showed me on the Keppler website (I'm stubborn). Did buy two raw cards and came across a pretty nice looking one except for this mark on the back, next to the number. I attached a picture and wanted to see if i could get anyone's opinion on it. Whether i'd get a qualifier or a bad grade.
With my luck in the past I've been getting nothing but 8's. And i can't beleive this. I got a 7 NM back awhile back and put it up on Ebay last week and sold it for $31!!! In the past i was selling off my 8's for $15-$17. Weird stuff.
Ben
hahahaha...Oh well
first i would like to say your caines are and always be my whalers (thief)
jack
ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
Would rather have a PSA 9 though.
Think if i crossed that over it would come back trimmed from PSA.
The search still continues!
I am going to try and send quite a few cards to you next week.
Albie
Congratulations on starting a 1954-55 Topps set. Its one of my all time favorites. Do you have any cards as of now or are you starting fresh.
Yawie
That post for Kris's old website proved very beneficial to me. I was able to trace the origins of a PSA 9 1 of 1 60-61 topps George Hay card . I see it listed for sale at $59. , i bought it on buy it now on ebay in September for $135. and sold it 2 weeks ago for $250.00( i wish every deal worked out half this good). A PSA 10 of this card just was graded in the last week as well as a PSA 10 Cy Denenny.(the first 2 10's from this set)
I remember Kris sold all those PSA 8 54 Commons on ebay in December of 2000 for between $60-$90 . He has never had any PSA 8 54 hockey since.
Randy
Unfortunately, my schedule isn't going to allow a trip to Toronto on the 15th of November, but I see there's a spring show up there that I am already making plans to attend. Here's hoping my set will benefit from the trip!
I was at the Toronto show last May and found it very disappointing looking for PSA graded cards or Raw 1950's hockey. AJcards didnt even bring most of there PSA stock (saying it just doesnt sell well here) meaning they can get more on ebay etc. Gerry Chartrand had some good cards but alot were plucked from this website a few weeks before the show. Even Len Pottie's high grade card inventory ,who in the past has had some fantastic looking cards , seemed to be drying up (i only spent about $100 at his table). I see his son selling more and more graded on ebay and im wondering what his raw stock inventory will be like this time. A couple of other guys had a few PSA graded 62-63 Parkhurst hockey but were asking unreal prices ( the joke is they sold them for about half of that on ebay 3 weeks later). The 54 Topps were non existant as well, im hoping the recent surge in prices will flush some more out into the market.
Im hoping that this show will be much better.
bengineno9,
Im glad you really like the 88-89 OPC set. I returned to collecting after a 3 year break in early 1989 and bought 3 vending cases of those sets. I made about 80 sets from those vending cases and hand picked 3 perfect sets from the 80. I sold 2 of them on ebay a couple of years ago and im just left with the one set. The work involved going through those vending cases was unreal but im left with a beauty of a set. As for the other 77 sets i sold them for between ($10 to $70) after the Hull took off.
Randy
Wish you still had some of those sets around. I could use some nice looking vending commons. Bought a few starter set lots off of Ebay and about half the cards look gradeable. Do you have any connections that might have some nice 88's for sale?
Are you the one with the Yzerman registry set on the website?
Can't wait for my Pronger set to get listed.
Did get results on my last submission today. Unfortunately i got two 7's on the 88's. But managed to get several 8's and was suprised to see a 9. Selling everything else when i get them back.
BEN
1 40108980 1967 PHILADELPHIA 106 FRAN TARKENTON N/A 8
2 40108981 1967 PHILADELPHIA 186 BOBBY MITCHELL N/A 8
3 40108982 1987 O-PEE-CHEE 53 WAYNE GRETZKY N/A 8
4 40108983 1970 TOPPS 22 FRANK MAHOVLICH N/A 8
5 40108984 1971 TOPPS 110 TONY ESPOSITO N/A 8
6 40108985 1973 O-PEE-CHEE 160 ED GIACOMIN N/A 8
7 40108986 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 4 TONY McKEGNEY N/A 8
8 40108987 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 5 STEPHANE RICHER N/A 7
9 40108988 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 70 DALE HUNTER N/A 8
10 40108989 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 81 BERNIE FEDERKO N/A 8
11 40108990 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 84 KIRK MULLER N/A 8
12 40108991 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 114 RAY FERRARO N/A 8
13 40108992 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 144 NEAL BROTEN N/A 8
14 40108993 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 149 GINO CAVALLINI N/A 8
15 40108994 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 152 MIKE BULLARD N/A 7
16 40108995 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 157 BRUCE DRIVER N/A 8
17 40108996 1988 O-PEE-CHEE 187 MARK HUNTER N/A 9
18 40108997 1972 TOPPS 173 NBA FG PCT. LEADERS N/A 7
19 40108998 1972 TOPPS 172 AVG.SCORE LEADERS N/A 6
20 40108999 1976 TOPPS 305 JOHN RIGGINS N/A 7
21 40109000 1978 TOPPS 331 PASSING LEADERS B.GRIESE/R.STAUBACH 8
22 40109001 1964 TOPPS 159 JOHN HADL N/A 8
23 40109002 1964 TOPPS 155 LANCE ALWORTH N/A 7
24 40109003 1972 TOPPS 220 JOHN BRODIE N/A 8
25 40109004 1964 PHILADELPHIA 91 MERLIN OLSEN N/A 8OC
Date Received: 10/02/2002
Date of Grades Posted: 10/23/2002
Date Shipped: 10/23/2002
Text
I have some extras (maybe 400 or so laying around somewhere) . Organization isnt my strong point when it comes to my cards so it may take me a couple of weeks to come across them. I just found a 800 count of 80-81 OPC that i didnt know i had . im guessing its commons but who knows .
Not my Yzerman set on the registry . Im a huge Yzerman fan but as of now i havent graded much past 1980. Im working on a few vintage sets .
Just starting a 56 Topps baseball set as well . I had planned on buying that 1910-11 Marty Walsh PSA 7 card from AJ's before Yawie99 stole it from me (just kidding nice card by the way.) I couldnt believe i watched that card for months and i emailed them to buy it and they said it was sold. Im glad someone working on that set got it . I had no plans to work on the set but a card that looked like that interested me
Great to talk some hockey
Randy
My guess would be that AJ Cards does not sell a lot of graded stuff at the show because they charge above SMR in US funds. By the time you convert to Canadian you are almost paying double book.
Martin Sportscards has great stuff (plenty of wax, you could probably buy a 88-89 box from him at a reasonable price) but they are also one of the main dealers that buys uncut sheets and then sends the cards to BGS for all of the 9's and 9.5's that you see being graded and that has helped to hurt the modern hockey card market.
You are bang on with Martin's being the king of BGS cut cards. Nice cards if you like that sort of thing. Its the Reason i will not touch a BGS card . However im pretty sure the 1988-89 OPC is new enough that there is no chance those sets are from uncut sheets.
WIth 74-75 OPC (yep they are all from uncut sheets) the Gretzky's he sells (likely a few of them as well
Living in this area (OPC country) . i know for a fact there is a ton of unopened material. A friend of mine who hasnt collected cards since the early 90's has wax cases from 80-81 to 90-91 ( hes mad because he missed the Gretzky rookie year). he also has vending cases from the late 80's (meaning 87-90). I offered to sell them for him on ebay but hes a pack rat who doesnt need or wants to sell
Randy
Thanks for the email address.
If you come across those cards sometime and want to sell them let me know.
Thanks for the help!
Ben
email address: Bengineno9@aol.com
seriously, welcome, randy.
Just got an email from Martins.
Can't afford the $325 box. But thinking about getting a few $8 packs.
Have you bought any packs from this guy?
Talked to Jason. Seems like a nice guy.
Just worried about buying some searched packs.
Ben
I have never bought packs from Jason Martin. I have only purchased single cards from him and from my experience he has always been fair and polite to deal with. The only bad thing (and i guess its only a bad thing if you dont like it) is what Albie pointed out he sells alot of BGS graded cards cut from sheets. With the year you are speaking of i dont think that applies.
With that year rather than buying a box you could buy more than 3 complete sets from him (all from vending) . At $8.00 a pack thats like a $1 a card
Yawie
thanks for the welcome , and if its any consolation i had to fly with the the St Louis Blues fan club from Detroit to Chicago back in March of 94 (boy was that fun) . Back in 94 that was about right in the middle of the frustration of being a wings fan and thinking they were never going to win. I did get the see the blues beat Chicago in OT on a Peter Stastny goal
Randy
Randy-Are you positive that Martin's sets will be from vending?
I had one wax pack experience with Jason that I was not happy with. I was looking at some 80-81 Topps Basketball Wax and was ready to buy a few packs when it was discovered that the Bird-Magic card was on the bottom of one of the packs. The price changed from $30 to $300. Although I cannot remember who noticed it first, or if he knew beforehand (I was dealing with one of his helpers at the table), I did not end up buying the pack.
Was there a pattern to 88-89 OPC that you can tell from the bottom card? I do not recall if there was but I have not bought that wax in 14 years.
I have no way of knowing if Martin's set came from vending for sure. I am making the assumption that they were. Im using the following for my assumption. It would make no sense to crack 88-89 opc wax to make sets because hes selling the boxes from $250 ? which would not make a full set and he selling 3 sets for $200.00.
I only opened one pack of 88-89 OPC . I had all that vending so i didnt open much of it.
Your 80-81 Basketball story sounds disappointing . Personally if that happened to me he would lose a customer for life. On the good side at least we know he didnt search the packs before hand.
Add Dickie Moore , Doug Harvey , Guy Lapointe as a few more Hall of Famers to have short stops in St Louis
anway, i'm with you, randy, when it comes to jason martin. nice guy from whom i've a bought a couple of good psa cards, but those who traffic in sheet-cut bgs stuff have had a terrible impact on the '80s hockey market.
Welcome to the board!!! All the best of luck, searching, and completing!!!
KING KELLOGG
email....emards4457@msn.com
CHEERS!!
Angels in game 5! Mark my words! ...Michael
Under the topic of 54's . PSA 9's are only a dream . 30 Exist and none have been graded in the last 2 years . As anyone knows PSA has gotten tougher on grading so im not expecting many to show up soon. There are 30 9's count the ones already listed in the registry(threre are no 9's in the hidden sets), and i know the whearabouts of one more
True story someone who is building that set opened up 3 >> 1 cent packs of 54-55 Topps in March . Sent the 3 cards in to be graded 2 7's and an 8.
Yawie
I must admit i laughed when Scott Stevens was awarded to New Jersey. I actually told Scott that at a signing he did. I told him no offense but im glad your no longer in the Norris Division , I said one more year there and you would of killed Fedorov. Scott's only year in St. Louis was Fedorov's rookie year . He had it out bad for Sergei.
Im a huge fan of Scott Stevens.
Randy
getting back to stevens, i must say that his hit on lindros in the 2000 playoffs is one of my all-time favorite hockey moments.
ARO13
You are right Keenan hated Shanahan and for that matter so did Scotty Bowman. The only thing that saved Shanahan from being traded from Detroit was Yzerman asking Ken Holland not to. And that came right from Jimmy D . Shanny can be a frustrating player to watch. When he plays like he did in this years playoffs he's a pleasure but when hes in sleeping giant mode its frustrating (Im hoping Dave Lewis can push the right buttoms to keep him motivated).
The trade of Shanahan for Pronger was very much the same as Keenan's trade of Denis Savard for Chris Chelios.
Mike Keenan is no dummy and when he takes over a team he picks one player usually very popular and runs him hard to show that hes in control of the team. Ask Steve Thomas what he did to Denis Savard and he will tell you Denis never had a chance no matter what he did or how hard he worked. In St. Louis he picked Shanahan . Shanahan and Hull are both strong personalities , he picked Shanny. Start messing with all your star players and you wont be coaching very long.
As for Brett Hull ,he is a much different player now than he was in St. Louis, much more well rounded (thanks to his stop in Dallas). He was relatively quiet last year (for Brett Hull that is ) in that Detroit locker room which was filled with leadership. If you have noticed he is much more vocal this year under Dave Lewis