What is Vladislav Tretiak's true rookie card?

EagleEyeKid

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VitoCo1972

PSA says 1979 Panini but he has some early 70's Swedish cards. Not sure if one is considered a true rookie.

miwlvrn

The reason it says that is that the 1979 card is the first one that was spelled Tretiak, but they ignored the more usual translation, Tretjak. Considering the 1979 card a rookie is just plain ridiculous. There were lots of cards issued with the Tretjak spelling that were printed prior to 1979. I was the first one to submit almost all the Tretjak/Tretiak cards for grading and set up the master set composition based on the cards I had graded. A few months ago I sold the entire master set I had built because the price was right, and have since begun putting it together again. I have added a couple new items to the set since then as well, and one of those is a super super rare 1973 RUSSIAN NATIONAL TEAM POSTCARDS VLADISLAV TRETIAK card that they labeled as Tretiak instead of Tretjak, though the card only has cyrillic on it so it could have gone with either spelling. I also have an incredibly rare 1971 RUSSIAN NATIONAL TEAM POSTCARDS - SOVIET STARS Vladislav Tretjak subbed that should pop soon too, which I favor over his 1970 issues.

Tret has 8 cards issued in 1970, 4 more traditional ones plus a puzzle made up of 4 cards. None confirmed for 1969 though it is theoretically possible there was some obscure Russian one out there. My analysis of the 1970 ones is as follows:

The toughest one is the 1970 FINNISH JAAKIEKKO 18 VLADIMIR TRETJAK, but this is misspelled Vladimir instead of Vladislav.

1970 SWEDISH MASTERSERIEN 131 DAVIDOV/JAKUSJEV/MALTSEV/MICHAILOV/PALADJEV/SOVJET/TRETJAK is cool but it is a group shot of a post-game handshake and not what you specialize in for your collection to my understanding

1970-1971 SWEDISH HOCKEY 230 VLADISLAV TRETJAK is the easier of the bunch of them to come up with; it is an in-action card as compared to the next one from the same set.

1970-1971 SWEDISH HOCKEY 314 VLADISLAV TRETJAK is a more traditional portrait and probably the one you'll end up preferring

There are also the 1970-1971 SWEDISH HOCKEY card nos. 157, 158, 160, 161 that make up the 4-piece puzzle, but again, not in line with the focus of your collection.

So, the one you most likely want is the no. 314 card.

Here is a link to the

Tretjak master set composition

Let me know if you have any other questions. I scanned all my Tretjak cards a while back on the hockey card thread when I sold the set.

miwlvrn

I should add that PSA's labeling does not match up with some standard nomenclature for many of the Euro sets. For example, what they call 1970 Swedish Hockey should more accurately be labeled 1970 Williams-Forlags Swedish Hockey.

tsalems1

I had a feeling miwlvrn would know the answer to the question

EagleEyeKid

Thanks guys. I'm a gonna fergit about her.

charrigan

Greg, how do you know that the reason PSA considers the 79 the Tretiak rookie is because of spelling? Could it be for another reason, like the broader release / more mainstream nature of Panini relative to the Williams, etc? Genuinely curious. Thanks.

charrigan

...

miwlvrn

<< <i>Greg, how do you know that the reason PSA considers the 79 the Tretiak rookie is because of spelling? Could it be for another reason, like the broader release / more mainstream nature of Panini relative to the Williams, etc? Genuinely curious. Thanks. >>



Fair enough, that could very well play into it too. But I would consider Williams to be a mainstream release, relatively speaking.

miwlvrn

<< <i>Greg, how do you know that the reason PSA considers the 79 the Tretiak rookie is because of spelling? Could it be for another reason, like the broader release / more mainstream nature of Panini relative to the Williams, etc? Genuinely curious. Thanks. >>



By the way, in that era, Williams Forlags and Panini were part of the same company, so the 1970 cards may as well be Panini issue. Here is an example, see back of card in this image:



edit to fix link

aro13

Back in I believe 2004 when we first put the HOF Hockey RC set together, and I think Tom Papa was instrumental in getting it on the registry, PSA had yet to grade any Swedish cards of Tretiak or Kharlamov (not certain how many collectors were aware of the true RC's). The 1979 Panini cards had been graded and it was determined they would be the RC's. At the same time PSA did not grade the 1939 or 1940 OPC cards so players like Frank Brimsek, Bill Cowley, Babe Pratt etc. had their RC's listed as 1983-85 HOF cards. Once PSA started grading the 39 OPC cards they added them as acceptable RC's but also allowed the 83-85 cards to be considered RC's. However, when it was pointed out that Kharlamov and Tretiak had early Swedish issues they were not added. I cannot remember the reasoning. Perhaps, it was because players like Borje Salming, Peter Statsny, Igor Larionov, Ken Dryden etc. had earlier Swedish cards and they would have to add them too. I am not certain.