question for the hockey guys

thehallmark

One of my nephews has fallen in love with hockey and begun to sort of randomly purchase hockey card packs on outings to the store (Target, Toys R Us, etc). Lately he is really getting into it - sorting and resorting and reading the backs over and over. This is so great and I want to nurture the instinct as much as possible.

Alas, I know very little about hockey and even less about hockey cards. Is there any kind of catalogue out there (physical or online) that has a comprehensive listing of all hockey card sets since the beginning (minus oddballs) and gives a visual example of each? This exists for baseball and football and it's exactly the kind of thing the nephew would be interested in seeing at the moment.

I figure once we have that catalogue, we can see everything that's out there and then make a more informed decision on how to focus the collection.

georgebailey2

Vintage Hockey Forum

One of the members there, Bobby Burrell, wrote a very nice, glossy, color guide called the "VHC" or Vintage Hockey Collector. It goes through 1989.

There was a guide called Charlton that probably included the 90's and 2000's but I believe it stopped a few years ago. Copies may still be available on ebay or amazon.

The last few years, my middle and youngest (12 and 9, respectively) sound like your nephew.

The O Pee Chee is what i had recommended and has stayed as their focus with some base Upper Deck thrown in. The O Pee Chee has a better basic design and is more classic as it is on cardboard. The Upper Deck has better rookies and inserts, particularly the Canvas. However, set building sucks and is prohibitively expensive. They just try to build all-star teams or country teams.

To get "Young Guns", your best bet is to buy them individually on ebay. It is really quite sad.

Others may have better information and ideas, but I hope this helps.

PM770

The Beckett Hockey Card Price Guide is always worth the $30 investment if for nothing else that it is a good reference point and checklist.

Also look at sites like Cardboard Connection and the Trading Card Database for the newer stuff. These sites have good color pictures that Beckett won't.

JoeBanzai

Look on ebay. Always a photo and you will see exactly what the cards are selling for. Catalogs are only guides and often VERY inaccurate as far as actual card value. As checklists they are fine.

Have fun! You can get some great cards at good prices compared to the other sports when collecting hockey.

FirstBeard

Congrats - that is awesome that they are naturally getting into the hobby. I think the way you are doing now it is perfect. Let them go to the store on occasion and go through the ritual of making the tough choice on what to buy and picking their own lucky packs. My nephews got into hockey cards as well a few years ago and were organizing teams and games on the floor and memorizing all of the stats on the backs. I made the mistake of going a little overkill and buying boxes. It led to such a saturation in their collection and gluttonous ripping that the aforementioned behaviors waned a little bit. I think there has to be a balance to keep it a special treat. Hope this helps.

As for sets, OPC is king IMO. Upper Deck has a base set that is still $.99 a pack (I think). Beyond that, UD did a masterpieces set a few years ago (maybe 08-09?) on the canvas type card that had all of the old timers and HOFERS. You can probably pick up a box to tuck away for under $100, but I may be out of touch. Could be a good special occasion pack to teach them about the history of the league.

jackstraw

Originally posted by: thehallmark
One of my nephews has fallen in love with hockey and begun to sort of randomly purchase hockey card packs on outings to the store (Target, Toys R Us, etc). Lately he is really getting into it - sorting and resorting and reading the backs over and over. This is so great and I want to nurture the instinct as much as possible.

Alas, I know very little about hockey and even less about hockey cards. Is there any kind of catalogue out there (physical or online) that has a comprehensive listing of all hockey card sets since the beginning (minus oddballs) and gives a visual example of each? This exists for baseball and football and it's exactly the kind of thing the nephew would be interested in seeing at the moment.

I figure once we have that catalogue, we can see everything that's out there and then make a more informed decision on how to focus the collection.

If you live within an hour of Hartford CT I can and will hook your nephews up with all kinds of stuff..

thehallmark

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Wish I had travel plans near Hartford but alas - I'm stuck in Chicagoland for the foreseeable future.

From what I've observed so far, modern hockey cards are an utter disaster as medium/long term investment. This is actually fine, as the nephew still opens a pack and looks for stars instead of rookies or SPs. Very pure.

That's kind of the reason I'm looking more for a catalogue than a price guide. I want him to love/hate players and teams and gravitate towards set designs he likes without being tainted by the financials. Right now he's got two binders and a shoebox full of different cards but he can't even tell me what set a card is from!! He and I both have absolutely no sense of company/year/set/subset.

Anyways - thanks again. This will be a good start for sure.

JoeBanzai

Don't buy modern hockey as an investment.

Back in the 1989 or 1990, I got excited about Mike Modano being drafted by the North Stars. I bought packs and singles (grading wasn't big then) and now I see his rookie cards are not worth much unless they are 10's. I'll bet none of mine grade a 10 even though they all went right into card savers. I still like my Modano collection even though it isn't worth much!