The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.

Collector's World 0102

The Hockey News Collector's World 0102

I recently read about a collector who just opened up wax packs of some 1950s baseball cards. To his astonishment, he discovered the middle portion of the cards were eaten away by the acidity in the gum. Your price guide says old wax packs become extremely valuable. Considering what happened to this collector, why would anyone hold onto wax packs for several years?Bob LanteigneSt. Catharines, Ont.There are two reasons why this happened. First, the gum in the wax pack was not dry prior to compression. If it was, only a few stains would remain on the cards when opened. Second, the pack was probably improperly stored, causing the wax to deteriorate. If a wax pack is frozen, mildewed or subjected to high heat, it will be damaged. What happened to this collector is rare and should not deter you from collecting wax packs.I would like to know which is the best place to get an athlete&rsquo;s signature on a card and how much more can a card be worth?Eric LavalleeMontreal, Que.To many collectors, an autograph on a card is nothing more than an ink stain and thus devalues the card. So many people would say to never get your cards signed.However, a signed card may be more valuable to someone who is trying to collect as much memorabilia as possible of a certain player. In that case, it would be best to have the card signed on the front, away from the name at the bottom of the card.I have two questions: Since I am a fan of just one team, what is the best way for me to acquire the cards of my favorite team without getting cards I do not want? Also, while cards make up a large part of my collection, what about other collectibles? Are there going to be lists of other things in Collectors World!David I. YoungLiverpool, N.S.Now that collecting hockey cards has become so popular, most card shops carry subsets of cards for people who don&rsquo;t want to collect a complete set. These subsets usually include things such as all-star teams, top rookies and almost always team sets.As far as non-card price guides, Collectors World will feature listings for such things as hockey coins, stickers and inserts in the coming months. We are currently compiling prices for such items.Which will be considered the &ldquo;first&rdquo; and eventually most valuable card of Eric Lindros? Will it be the Ontario League series from the Oshawa Generals issued last season, or will it be the first NHL rookie card?John Lander, Erik Kelly and Kenny CenderFallsburg, N.Y.This may be the most commonly-asked question of the year. Now that Lindros&rsquo; first NHL card (Score, No. 440) is on the market, it appears as if that will be the most valuable. It definitely is considered to be his * &lsquo;rookie card&rdquo; since it&rsquo;s the first one to appear in an NHL set.The card is selling for as much as $15 at card shows. That&rsquo;s twice as high as his card from last season&rsquo;s OHL set. However, since there were fewer Lindros OHL cards, over time the price difference between the two cards may narrow.Why was there no price for Mario Lemieux&rsquo;s Topps and O-Pee-Chee cards from the &lsquo;88-89 and &lsquo;89-90 sets listed in your first edition of Collectors World!Jeff SmithLondon, Ont.Due to a computer glitch, the first card from each listing&mdash;Lemieux&rsquo;s in those sets&mdash;went missing. The problem was corrected after the first issue, so card No. 1 is back on the listings.Which will be more valuable, the American or the Canadian versions of Upper Deck and Score hockey cards?Mike WebbRedwater, Alta.Upper Deck is making an English-only and French-only card. The French-only cards are being produced in much lower quantities, so they will probably be more valuable. However, you may have trouble selling them in the future to some people who don&rsquo;t speak French. Some collectors say they&rsquo;ve encountered that problem with O-Pee-Chee cards in the U.S.We&rsquo;ll have to wait and see about the Score cards. Most dealers are selling the wax boxes for the same price. The key cards in the Canadian version are of the Memorial Cup winning Oshawa Generals and Edmonton&rsquo;s Martin Gelinas. In U.S. versions, there&rsquo;s a Kip Miller card.Are cards on the bottom of O-Pee-Chee wax boxes valuable and what is the best way to keep them&mdash;intact or cut out?Bob MoffattNepean, Ont.On the bottom of O-Pee-Chee wax boxes are four cards of NHL players, usually top stars. However, collectors have shown little interest in paying much for these cards. The best way to keep them is either to keep the whole box or cut out the sheet of the four cards. Do not cut out each individual card.In each issue of Collectors World, we&rsquo;ll answer your questions about hockey cards and memorabilia. We&rsquo;ll only be able to print responses for questions which appear in the magazine. Send all inquiries to:Collectors WorldAttention: Rand Simon85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 &#9632;

IN THIS ISSUE

BE CAREFUL OF UNOPENED WAX PACKS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0021-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011402/10274549-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011634/10274542-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="7499" height="4159"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011569/10274535-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg" title="f0024-01" width="7500" height="4171"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011585/10274528-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="7503" height="4135"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-011562/10274521-1-eng-US/f0028-012.jpg" title="f0028-01" width="3531" height="4093"></div> &#9632;

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PRICE GUIDE

<div class="byline">BY RICK SADOWSKI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0030-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-011571/10274649-1-eng-US/f0030-012.jpg"></div>His coach, Tom Webster, calls him the leading candidate to cart home the Calder Trophy as the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the year.Wayne Gretzky compares him to a young Ray Bourque and a young Paul Coffey.Two-time Norris Trophy winner Larry Robinson says he doesn&rsquo;t have a weakness.The object of this praise is the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; Rob Blake, a 20-year-old defenseman who can&rsquo;t figure out what all the fuss is about.If anything, he&rsquo;s embarrassed by such talk.&ldquo;I appreciate it more than I can tell you,&rdquo; Blake says. &ldquo;But Ray Bourque? Paul Coffey? It&rsquo;s unbelievable. No way should 1 be compared to those guys. When I hear stuff like that, I just try to tune it out.A fourth-round draft pick in 1988 from Bowling Green (Ohio) University, the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder was fast becoming a Forum favorite. And Blake&rsquo;s overall game was so solid neither he, nor Kings&rsquo; management, were at all concerned about a slump that saw him fail to register a point in eight straight games in one stretch or a goal in 20 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s struggling, pressing a little bit,&rdquo; general manager Rogie Vachon says of Blake, who had two goals and 14 points in his first dozen games. &ldquo;But the thing about Rob is that even his so-so games aren&rsquo;t bad at all. Defensively, he&rsquo;s solid and we know he&rsquo;ll pick up his offense.Blake was bom in Simcoe, Ont., a farming community of 13,000 on Lake Erie and a 90-minute drive from Toronto.Blake&rsquo;s parents, Robert and Sandra, own a 300-acre farm that produces cash crops such as com and soy beans. Rob has two brothers, Russ, 26, and Dave, 19, and one sister, Leah, 28.He spends part of his summers driving the big com trucks to the local co-op.Blake credits Leah with piquing his interest in hockey. He played some goal during street-hockey games as a youngster&mdash;&ldquo;The only way I&rsquo;d get to play was in nets because I was the youngest kid and nobody else ever wanted to be the goalie.&rdquo; he says&mdash;and participated in the Canadian network TV series called Showdown as a goaltender when he was nine.Leah entered his name in the competition and he finished second in the finals, which were held in Toronto.Blake returned to his position on defense when he played junior B hockey in Brantford and Stratford. He caught a break at Stratford, whose general manager, Denis Flanagan Sr., had a pretty reliable contact in his son, Denis Jr., an assistant coach at Bowling Green.&ldquo;That was the only Division I school that offered me a scholarship.&rdquo; Blake says. He took it, majored in sports management, and played three years at Bowling Green before signing a contract with the Kings in March, 1989.As a junior at Bowling Green, Blake had 23 goals and 59 points in 42 games and was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, which goes to the NCAA&rsquo;s top player.&ldquo;I was always tall and really skinny,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;My skating didn&rsquo;t really advance until I went to college. I worked on my agility there. I was just a rail when I got there. I got bounced around quite a bit.&rdquo;Blake was an immediate hit with the Kings. He played in Los Angeles&rsquo; final four regular-season games and in eight playoff games before spraining his right knee in Game 2 of the Smythe Division finals in Edmonton. After being held without a point in the regular season, he had a goal and three assists in the playoffs.&ldquo;We knew we had something special during the playoffs,&rdquo; Vachon says. &ldquo;He looked like a 10-year veteran to us. The second year seems to be touch and go with a lot of players, but Rob came to camp and picked it up right where he left off.&rdquo;Not only does Blake skate a regular shift, but he also plays the point on power plays and kills penalties. Aside from a booming shot and a talent for throwing hard bodychecks, Blake is an outstanding skater capable of leading the rush. But perhaps his biggest asset is his poise.&ldquo;He plays within himself. He doesn&rsquo;t try to play out of character,&rdquo; Webster says. &ldquo;He plays with a lot of confidence. He&rsquo;s strong physically and he&rsquo;s strong mentally. It&rsquo;s obvious that he has had some tremendous guidance along the way, from his family and from his previous coaches.&rdquo;Blake describes his personality as being &ldquo;fairly laid-back. I don&rsquo;t let too many things bother me, on the ice or off the ice.&rdquo;He shares a three-bedroom home in Manhattan Beach with defenseman Bob Halkidis, who missed the first two months of the season recovering from shoulder surgery.Blake says his social life is rather quiet. &ldquo;In a city this size, you&rsquo;re never at a loss for things to do,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m still only 20, so I can&rsquo;t even get into clubs.&rdquo;Blake still pinches himself from time to time, just to make sure his state in life isn&rsquo;t a dream. &ldquo;When I get my check, I think, &lsquo;You mean, we get paid for this, too?&rsquo; It&rsquo;s nice to get paid to play a game you love to play.&rdquo;He realizes hockey doesn&rsquo;t last forever, however, and is intent on completing the classwork he needs to get his degree by attending summer sessions at Bowling Green.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to be working on the farm when this is over,&rdquo; he says.Rookie defensemen usually get a lot less attention from card collectors than they do from Calder Trophy voters. But Rob Blake is grabbing attention from both.The Kings&rsquo; rearguard is trying to become the third defenseman in the last six years to win rookie-of-the year honors. Calgary&rsquo;s Gary Suter won the Calder in 1986 while New York Ranger Brian Leetch won it in 1989.But defensemen often get overshadowed by high-scoring forwards and stingy goaltenders by card collectors. However playing in L.A. has increased Blake&rsquo;s profile. After all, not every rookie defenseman gets nearly constant praise from Wayne Gretzky.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0030-021079/10274642-1-eng-US/f0030-022.jpg" title="f0030-02" width="567" height="786"></div>Blake has the added advantage of being known by fans who saw him perform in the 1989-90 playoffs.After going eight games without a point from Nov. 2 to Nov. 20, he broke out of his slump with four assists in three games and was easily leading rookie defensemen in scoring.Blake&rsquo;s Bowman and Score cards are hard to find for under $3. His Upper Deck card is just hitting the market and should go for a dollar or two more than that.The Blake Checklist: Bowman: No. 142; Score: No. 421; Upper Deck: No 45 &#9632;

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ROB BLAKE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="C0004-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/c0004-01335/10274938-1-eng-US/c0004-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

C0004-01

<div class="byline">BY PAUL ABRAMOWITZ</div>Slowly, but surely, Ken Hodge Jr., is trying to make people in Boston forget about his last name.It&rsquo;s not easy, especially playing in the city where his father was part of one of the most famous lines in NHL history&mdash;Wayne Cashman, Phil Esposito and Ken Hodge.Fifteen years after Hodge&rsquo;s career with the Bruins ended with a trade to the New York Rangers, his son is starting a new career in the organization.It began last August, when Hodge was traded from the Minnesota North Stars to the Bruins for future considerations. It was a deal Hodge requested because after three years in the Minnesota organization, he had played only five NHL games.Being dealt to the Bruins was a bonus for him and his family, who live in nearby Lynnfield, Mass.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s carried the name all his life,&rdquo; says Hodge Sr., a print salesman in Chelmsford, Mass. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s always felt the pressure, but maybe it was a little more magnified coming to Boston.&ldquo;People think that every time he steps on the ice, he has to prove himself because of his name and I don&rsquo;t think that&rsquo;s fair.&rdquo;The pressure was a lot for Hodge to handle in the first few days of training camp. &ldquo;I wanted to try and live up to the billing,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t work out.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012434/10274255-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="591" height="837"></div>But then he settled down, played more effectively and made a good impression on head coach Mike Milbury and assistants Gordie Clark and Ted Sator.It still didn&rsquo;t save him a trip to the minors. Hodge started the season with the Maine Mariners, but his stay in the American League was brief.In eight games with Maine, Hodge had 17 points (seven goals, 10 assists) including four three-point games. On Oct. 27, he was recalled by the Bruins and played against the Blackhawks that night at Boston Garden. He had an assist in a 6-5 win.&ldquo;I always wanted to play in the NHL,&rdquo; Ken Jr., says. &ldquo;I always thought it&rsquo;d be nice to play in the black and gold like my dad.&rdquo;The next milestone in Ken Jr.&rsquo;s season came Nov. 5, when Milbury put him at center on the No. 1 line between left winger Bob Carpenter and right winger Cam Neely. Five nights later, he had three assists in a 3-3 tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins at Boston Garden.&ldquo;I was a little bit more relaxed after that game,&rdquo; Ken Jr., says.But his first goal as a Bruin was still missing. Then the lowly Quebec Nordiques came to Boston Nov. 15 and Hodge got his goal in a 6-0 win. Unfortunately, his dad was not at the game as he took 12-year-old son Brendon to hockey practice. Ken&rsquo;s mother and sister, however, were at the game.&ldquo;That was a big thing,&rdquo; says Ken Jr., whose only other NHL goal came during the 1988-89 season with Minnesota. &ldquo;It was a long time coming.&ldquo;It was great for it to come at Boston Garden in front of the people who supported my dad all those years.&rdquo;Especially for dad, who was watching at home.&ldquo;I was relieved that it finally came,&rdquo; Ken Sr. says. &ldquo;He had had a lot of golden opportunities. Hopefully, this will relieve some of the pressure.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021775/10274248-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="598" height="847"></div>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s very exciting all the things that have been happening to him. Sooner or later, that will wear off and the only thing that will count is his ability as a hockey player.&rdquo;Ken Sr., played nine season with the Bruins and scored 289 goals and 674 points in 652 games.Shortly after Ken Jr., established himself as a regular with the Bruins, he became an NHLer on cardboard. Score announced he would appear in its updated and traded set of rookies and other players not in its first set.Ken Sr., first appeared on a hockey card in the 1965-66 Topps set when he was with the Blackhawks. Card No. 65 is now worth $ 12 according to The Hockey News Collectors World price guide in the Dec. 7 issue of THN.The Ken Hodge Sr., Checklist: O-Pee-Chee: 1968-89 (No. 8), 1969-70 (No. 27), 1970-71 (No. 8), 1971-72 (No. 115, 254 AS), 1972-73 (No. 49), 1973-74 (No. 26), 1974-75 (No. 230, 128 AS), 1975-76 (No. 215), 1976-77 (No. 25), 1977-78 (No. 192); Topps: 1965-66 (No. 65), 1966-67 (No. 114), 1967-68 (No. 98), 1968-69 (No. 8), 1969-70 (No. 27), 1970-71 (No. 8), 1971-72 (No. 115), 1972-73 (No. 166), 1973-74 (No. 133), 1974-75 (No. 230), 1975-76 (No. 215), 1976-77 (No. 25), 1977-78 (No. 192).The Ken Hodge Jr., Checklist: Pro Cards: 1989-90 (No. 89); Score: 1990-91 (No. 85T). &#9632;

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HODGE TRIES TO MAKE NAME FOR HIMSELF

<div class="byline">BY BRIAN COSTELLO</div>Make no mistake, you wouldn&rsquo;t want to be serving spaghetti on these plates.Collector plates featuring images of Gordie Howe, Darryl Sittier, Vladislav Tretiak and others are the hottest dishes on the menu. Some are selling for up to $200 a serving.D.H. Ussher. Ltd., in North Vancouver, B.C., and Gartlan, USA, in Huntington Beach, Calif., are two companies producing and distributing the latest in hockey collectible items.The limited-edition plates are made from high-quality porcelain and are bordered with a 22-karat gold rim set in an NHL wood-stained frame. Action images of each subject are crafted on the face of the plate with a list of individual accomplishments on the back. The displays are meant to hang on walls.Three plate sizes&mdash;10&frac14;-inch, 8&frac12;-inch and 4&frac14;-inch are produced, but only the largest is personally signed by the subject and numbered. They&rsquo;re the most expensive, naturally.The Lanny McDonald plate sold out 1,500 pieces in 90 days, while the Howe, Sittier and Tretiak plates are going fast. A Dave (Tiger) Williams plate is next in line.&ldquo;The idea is to capture the legends of hockey,&rdquo; says Des Ussher. &ldquo;Well-known individuals who were colorful, but are no longer playing are most marketable.&rdquo;Ussher started producing collectible plates 18 months ago after the Calgary Flames won the Stanley Cup and McDonald became an obvious starting point. He markets the plates in Canada and distributes them in the United States through Bob Gartlan. At first, Gartlan, USA, was skeptical.&ldquo;We honestly didn&rsquo;t think hockey (plate collectibles) would sell,&rdquo; says Gartlan USA marketing director Bob Martin. &ldquo;Baseball was a natural for us. Basketball and football were next on the list. Hockey didn&rsquo;t make a lot of sense to us at the time.&rdquo;Gartlan got together with Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s agent, Michael Barnett, and started a line of ceramic hockey cards, plates and figurines. What Gartlan USA learned was priceless.&ldquo;I lost four weeks sleep worrying about how they would go over,&rdquo; Martin says. &ldquo;Even though the hockey market is not as big as baseball, basketball or football, the fervor of the hockey core collector eclipses all others. They want a constant update of what&rsquo;s on the market.&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve got six or seven guys calling me all the time and they all know each other. They&rsquo;re like a fraternity trying to outdo one another. That phenomenon never happens outside hockey.&rdquo;Both Ussher and Martin say their companies don&rsquo;t promote secondary values on the plates. But it&rsquo;s clear the items are investments as well as collectibles. Why else would the Gretzky plates be listed on the Bradford Exchange?Ussher&rsquo;s 10&frac14;-inch Howe plates&mdash;2,421 of them signifying total career games&mdash;retail for $150 apiece now, but will appreciate in value.The McDonald plate retailed for $125 last year, but is now trading for up to $200 in some places.In addition to the limited-edition numbered legend plates produced by Ussher, generic murals are also favorites. The &lsquo;Winning Goal&rsquo; from the 1987 Canada Cup, &lsquo;Faceoff&rsquo;, &lsquo;He Shoots, He Scores&rsquo; and &lsquo;Goalies&rsquo; are plates that reflect the beauty of hockey rather than simple investment potential.In the future, plate subjects might include: Maurice (Rocket) Richard, Bobby Orr, Bobby and Brett Hull, and Phil and Tony Esposito. &#9632;

‘HOT’ PLATES BECOME POPULAR WITH COLLECTORS

<div class="byline">BY SHERRY ROSS</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0013-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012066/10274317-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg"></div>Timing has never been Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s forte. While he appears to be a master of precision on the ice&mdash;always in the right place at the right time with his quickness and anticipation&mdash;his career has been dogged by a series of missed connections.First, LaFontaine joined the United States Olympic team in 1984 to play for the club which had the unenviable task of following the Miracle On Ice at Lake Placid in 1980.Then he turned pro in March 1984, just in time to see the end of the New York Islanders&rsquo; streak of four consecutive Stanley Cups.To top off his string of bad timing, he signed a four-year contract in 1987 which keeps his salary at a relatively low amount while lesser players are benefitting from the escalating pay structure.He can do nothing about the disappointing Olympics, but he may yet lead the Islanders out of the Patrick Division wilderness. And he is trying to do something about his paycheck. He and agent Don Meehan of Toronto are renegotiating to bring his salary to superstar status.LaFontaine has emerged as the Islanders&rsquo; quiet leader and because of his commitment to coach Al Arbour and teammates, he shocked the Islanders when he missed the end of training camp in a bid to force renegotiation of his contract. He won&rsquo;t call it a walkout, saying he asked for a few days off to discuss some matters with his family. But he sent a clear message that he is serious about his financial future.The gap between what LaFontaine wants and what the team is offering, however, is a large one to say the least. LaFontaine, who has a year and an option left on a contract that pays him an estimated $450,000 (U.S.) annually, is seeking a five-year deal worth roughly $1.5 million per season&mdash;similar to what Detroit&rsquo;s Steve Yzerman earns. The Isles have countered with a six-year. $500,000-percampaign offer.While he says he will honor his contract, LaFontaine is bothered by the lagging negotiations and it&rsquo;s possible he will request a trade or play out his option.That wouldn&rsquo;t bode well for the Islanders. Statistically, few teams in the NHL rely on one player as much as the Islanders do on LaFontaine. (He was in on 105 of the team&rsquo;s 281 goals last year.) Islander general manager Bill Torrey admitted as much when LaFontaine took his leave of absence at the season&rsquo;s start.&ldquo;If he&rsquo;s going to stay away,&rdquo; quipped Torrey at the time, &ldquo;tell him not to do it for half the year&mdash;but for the whole year&mdash;so we can get Eric Lindros.&rdquo;Part of LaFontaine&rsquo;s firmness in contract matters may be due to his new status as a father. On Nov. 10, his wife Marybeth gave birth to a daughter, Sarah Elizabeth, and the proud daddy promptly went out and celebrated by scoring a pair of goals in a 5-1 win over Calgary.The fans&rsquo; affection for LaFontaine goes beyond his considerable talent In an era where most stars often respond to requests by asking, &ldquo;What&rsquo;s in it for me?,&rdquo; LaFontaine is refreshingly different. Unfailingly polite and warm to his fans, the 25-year-old recalls it wasn&rsquo;t all that long ago that he was trailing around after hockey stars.&ldquo;I think athletes should be role models,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I was six years old, I went to (former New York Ranger) Walt Tkaczuk&rsquo;s hockey school. I remember standing in line to get some Red Wings&rsquo; autographs and I just missed. They turned and went into the dressing room. I try not to forget what that feeling was like. It&rsquo;s great to see little kids enthusiastic about sports.As much as he&rsquo;s admired by fans, LaFontaine is even more appreciated by his teammates. Last season he scored 50 goals for the first time and almost single-handedly took the Islanders into the playoffs.By mid-season a year ago he was a leading contender for the Hart Trophy as the league&rsquo;s most valuable player. A late-season bone chip in his left hand limited him to 74 games and dropped him to fifth in the Hart voting. His quick start this season has him again being mentioned as an MVP candidate.LaFontaine has long merited special attention from the opposition. He was a phenom in youth hockey, took the Quebec League by storm with 234 points in 70 games, scored 56 goals in 58 pre-Olympic games with the U.S. national team and broke through in the NHL with 47 goals in 1987-88.When the Islanders were upset by the New Jersey Devils in the 1988 playoffs, it was largely because New Jersey keyed on LaFontaine. New Jersey defenseman Bruce Driver still draws the task of being on the ice whenever the clever LaFontaine is during their frequent Patrick Division meetings.&ldquo;When we have the puck and I&rsquo;m not involved in the rush, I&rsquo;m always looking around to see where he is,&rdquo; Driver says. &ldquo;Rather than waiting for the turnover and trying to find him&mdash;when it&rsquo;s too late&mdash;we want to take as much of his game away as possible. He&rsquo;s getting more recognition these days, but he&rsquo;s still underrated. He&rsquo;s a game-breaker.&rdquo;&mdash;With a file from Mark Herrmann.The back of Pat LaFontaine&rsquo;s 1990-91 Score hockey card says it all about what his team-mates think of him. &ldquo;If he&rsquo;s not in Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s class, I don&rsquo;t know who is,&rdquo; goaltender Mark Fitzpatrick is quoted as saying. &ldquo;;He can break open a game at any time.&rdquo;The good news for card collectors is that while LaFontaine may approach Gretzky&rsquo;s skill on the ice, you can get his rookie card for about $18, which is nearly $600 less than Gretzky&rsquo;s first card.But card collectors are very aware of the St. Louis native, who of course, is featured in all six sets this season.But until LaFontaine plays on a better team, the value of his card will likely not skyrocket. He just missed playing on the great Islander teams of the early '80s and now is with a team in transition. His lack of exposure during playoff time hurts his value with card collectors.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021434/10274310-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="567" height="803"></div>But as long as LaFontaine continues to be one of the most exciting and productive players in the NHL. you won&rsquo;t find his cards in the hobby&rsquo;s bargain basement.The LaFontaine Checklist: Bowman: 1990-91 (No. 123); O-Pee-Chee: 1984-85 (No. 129), 1985-86 (No. 137), 1986-87 (No. 2), 1987-88 (No. 173), 1988-89 (No. 123), 1989-90 (No. 60), 1990-91 (No. 184); Pro Set: 1990-91 (No. 186, 372 All-Star); Score: 1990-91 (No. 250); Topps: 1984-85 (No. 96), 1985-86 (No. 137), 1986-87 (No. 2), 1987-88 (No. 173), 1988-89 (No. 123), 1989-90 (No. 60), 1990-91 (No. 184); Upper Deck: 1990-91 (No. 246, 306 Team Card). &#9632;

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LaFONTAlNE

<div class="byline">BY TOM McMILLAN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012354/10274348-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"></div>Mark Recchi&rsquo;s junior coach knew he&rsquo;d make it big in the NHL, and not just because of his skill, or his speed, or his grit.It was because of his family.&ldquo;There&rsquo;s a competitive instinct there, a burning desire, and if you&rsquo;ve ever met the Recchis you&rsquo;ll know what I mean,&rdquo; says Ken Hitchcock, now an assistant coach with the Philadelphia Flyers. &ldquo;His brothers, his dad, his mom&hellip;it&rsquo;s the same with all of them. Recchi tradition is that you come to play.Mark&rsquo;s father, Mel, confirms Hitchcock&rsquo;s assessment of the Recchi clan. All four Recchi boys&mdash;Mike, 25; Mark, 22; Marty, 21; and Matt, 18&mdash;have a competitive fire that drives them to succeed. All have excelled in competitive sports ranging from softball to football.&ldquo;I guess that&rsquo;s what I&rsquo;ve tried to in still in Mark and all my boys,&rdquo; says the 50-year-old newspaper advertising representative, who lives in Kamloops, B.C., with wife Ruth. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always had a hard-working, give-it-all-you&rsquo;ve-got attitude. You work hard, you play hard. It&rsquo;s something that runs right through the family. They&rsquo;ve all got the same fire.&rdquo;Throw in soft hands and quick feet and you&rsquo;ll understand why Recchi, a 22-year-old right winger for the Pittsburgh Penguins, is a burgeoning NHL all-star. He plays pinball hockey at 5-foot-10, 185 pounds, zipping up the wing, crashing into the comers, charging the net, banging bodies. Somehow, through the first 20 games this season, he also found time to score 31 points and rank fifth in the NHL scoring race. He was well on his way to a 100-point year.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s the one thing about him that&rsquo;s suprised me&hellip;that he&rsquo;s been able to be an offensive force up here so quickly,&rdquo; says Hitchcock, who coached Recchi for two seasons with the Kamloops Blazers of the Western League. &ldquo;Based on his heart and desire and work ethic, I knew he&rsquo;d be an NHL player. That was automatic. I just didn&rsquo;t know if he&rsquo;d be able to do these things offensively.&rdquo;But there&rsquo;s another Recchi tradition: He&rsquo;s been fooling people since he first strapped on skates as a toddler back home in Kamloops.He&rsquo;s always been too small for scouts, who rely solely on numbers and tape measures. He&rsquo;s always had to convince the doubters.No NHL team even took a gamble on him in his first two draft years. Recchi had turned 20 by the time the Penguins plucked him in the fourth round, 67th overall, in the 1988 draft.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s really kind of amazing he wasn&rsquo;t picked when he was one of the top junior players in Canada,&rdquo; Mel says. &ldquo;I know scouts are busy, but I don&rsquo;t think they spend enough time looking at what kind of player a kid is or what type of person he is. I think scouts miss a lot of players like Mark.&rdquo;Recchi admits he was upset about the fourth-round selection.&ldquo;I was a little down about it, sure,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;My second year I was having a great year until I broke my ankle, and that seemed to turn everybody off. But I knew I could play up here. So I just kept working.&rdquo;That last season at Kamloops was revealing; spurned twice by NHL scouts. Recchi demanded their attention by scoring 61 goals and 154 points in 62 games and leading the Blazers to a WHL West Division title Mid-way through the year, representing Canada at the World Junior Championships, he showed his versatility by keying a checking line that helped win a gold medal for his country&mdash;in Moscow, no less.Among Recchi&rsquo;s feats: Shutting down the Soviets&rsquo; top guns, Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Mogilny.Still, it wasn&rsquo;t until Pittsburg picked him in the fourth round that Recchi had an NHL future. And he had to spend a year on the farm wit Muskegon of the International League to earn his shot at the big time.Recchi scored 50 goals in 63 game at Muskegon in 1988-89. Not coincidentally, the Lumberjacks won the Turner Cup as IHL champs.Former Penguin coach Gene Ubriaco remained one of the skeptics and shipped him back to Muskego early in 1989, but after Recchi rang up seven goals and 11 points in his first four games, he got the call.And once Craig Patrick replace, Ubriaco in December of last season Recchi began to blossom. He made late bid for rookie-of-the-year honor and finished with 30 goals and 6&rsquo; points in 74 games. He had 44 point in the second half of the season.Patrick hired Bob Johnson as his coach this season and Recchi has continued to flourish in Johnson&rsquo;s sys tern, which involves speed, puck movement and a quick transition game.Though Johnson started him at center in an attempt to balance his attack he noticed an intriguing chemistry when Recchi worked at right wing with center John Cullen and left win ger Kevin Stevens.Johnson put them together on a full time basis Oct. 25 against Quebec and The Option Line&mdash;so named because all three players are playing out their options&mdash;had seven points in: 6-3 win. The line exploded for 51 points in the next 10 games.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so important to our line because he&rsquo;s fast and he&rsquo;s got good hands,&rdquo; Cullen says. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got one of the quickest snap shots I&rsquo;ve even seen. When he gets a good chance, he usually scores.&rdquo;Recchi, however, still thinks of himself as a mucker, a guy who produces goals through sweat and hard work.&ldquo;I like to think I score a lot of working goals,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not going to get a lot of finesse goals, so I have to create my chances. Of course, it helps playing with Johnny and Kevin. I get chances just by being there.&rdquo;This will be his first full NHL season, but Recchi has already been promoted to the power-play and penalty-killing units, as well as taking a regular shift on the team&rsquo;s top line. He&rsquo;s battled the odds to stand on the edge of pro stardom.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s worked so hard for this, and it&rsquo;s good to see it paying off for him,&rdquo; Hitchcock says. &ldquo;But he won&rsquo;t stop now, he&rsquo;ll keep working. That&rsquo;s just the way Mark Recchi is.&rdquo;Don&rsquo;t be confused by the backs of Mark Recchi&rsquo;s Bowman, O-Pec-Chee and Topps cards, he was bom nowhere near Cornwall, Ont., despite what those cards say.&ldquo;Cornwain&rdquo; says Mark&rsquo;s surprised mother, Ruth. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve never heard that one before. One time I saw his hometown as Kamloops, Alberta, but never Cornwall. No, Mark&rsquo;s dad was born and raised here in Kam-loops, B.C., and so was Mark.&rdquo;With Recchi showing no signs of the sophomore jinx, card collectors are becoming more aware of Recchi&rsquo;s cardboard value. His Pro Set card has more than tripled in price in one month.Probably the only thing keeping Recchi off the Collectors World Power Play is caution among collectors who fear Recchi&rsquo;s ice time and productivity will decrease if Mario Lemieux makes his scheduled return in a month.But for now Recchi is one of the hottest scores in the NHL. In early December, he moved into a second-place tie with teammate John Cullen in the scoring race.Recchi may not be able to keep up that pace all season but in two seasons he's proven to be an offensive force to be reckoned with.The Recchi Checklist: Bowman: No. 206: O-Pee-Chee: No. 280; Pro Set: No. 239; Score: No. 186; Topps: No. 280; Upper Deck: 178. &#9632;

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MARK RECCHI

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0015-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-012034/10274414-1-eng-US/f0015-012.jpg"></div>Eric Lindros may never have a card approaching the $1,500 Bobby Orr rookie card. But he does have something neither Orr, nor any other NHL player has ever had&mdash;a card in a Major League Baseball set.Card No. 100T in Score&rsquo;s 1990 baseball update and traded set is none other than Toronto Blue Jays&rsquo; third baseman Eric Lindros. Of course Lindros isn&rsquo;t really a Toronto Blue Jay but that didn&rsquo;t stop Score from letting the facts get in the way of a good card.The card shows Lindros taking batting practice at the SkyDome in Toronto. What was originally an opportunity for Lindros to have some fun taking a few swings and fielding some grounders turned into a media event. It also led to the baseball card.On the back of the card is a glowing report of the &ldquo;baseball prospect,&rdquo; comparing him to such two-sport athletes as Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders. You won&rsquo;t find Blue Jay manager Cito Gaston&rsquo;s evaluation&mdash;that Lindros stick to hockey&mdash;on the card.Of course that&rsquo;s Lindros&rsquo; only intention. And if he does become the dominant NHLer of the &lsquo;90s as many are predicting, his rookie hockey card may approach that of the legendary Orr.As an 18-year-old crew-cut kid fresh from the Oshawa Generals, Orr made his first appearance on card-board in the 1966-67 Topps set.His card back reads: &ldquo;He is the most publicized junior in many years and certainly will become one of the future stars in the NHL.&rdquo; That was followed by what we now know is a major understatement: &ldquo;A rushing defenseman who can set up goals as well as score them.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-021439/10274407-1-eng-US/f0015-022.jpg" title="f0015-02" width="729" height="1000"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-031000/10274400-1-eng-US/f0015-032.jpg" title="f0015-03" width="714" height="997"></div>Orr went on to score 270 goals, 645 assists and 915 points&mdash;all records&mdash;during a brilliant career. While those marks have all been surpassed, the record value of Orr&rsquo;s card remains unsurpassed by any card from the post-World War II era.A generation after Orr graduated from the Generals to NHL stardom, Lindros is poised to do the same.Comparisons to Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux and Bobby Clarke began last season when Lindros took the Ontario League by storm as a 16-year-old and led the Generals to the Memorial Cup.Lindros is the first major junior player ever to have his card in an NHL set. His Score card (No. 440) is the most valuable of all the new issues, selling for between $7 and $12 most places. In New Jersey, where Devils&rsquo; fans are excited by the prospect of obtaining Lindros with the first pick in the June entry draft, some dealers are getting $20 for the card at collectible shows.While card collectors look forward to getting rich from Lindros&rsquo; card, they will come far short of what Lindros earned for being part of Score&rsquo;s first hockey card set. He received between $25-30,000 (U.S.) from Score.For that fee Score has the exclusive rights to include Lindros in its hockey card set. In addition to card No. 440, five other Lindros cards&mdash;Nos. 441-445&mdash;will be available in Score&rsquo;s factory sets. Only Los Angeles superstar Wayne Gretzky, with eight, has more cards in the Score set.Lindros is far from matching Orr&rsquo;s feats on the ice, but he has already carved himself a place in hockey card history.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012119/10274393-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="3954" height="5472"><figcaption class="caption-body">BOBBY ORR ERIC LINDROS</figcaption><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0015-04745/10274386-1-eng-US/f0015-042.jpg" title="f0015-04" width="3357" height="655"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021604/10274379-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="3944" height="759"></div> &#9632;

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FIVE-STAR GENERALS

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011738/10274466-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="571" height="797"></div><h2>VETERANS DELIVER SOLID SETS</h2>Competition may not have brought out the best in Topps and O-Pee-Chee, but it did lead to an improved product.The American-based Topps and its Canadian subsidiary, O-Pee-Chee, lost their monopoly on the hockey card market this season when they were joined by newcomers Pro Set, Score and Upper Deck.The veterans responded with special subsets and an improved design which features the easiest-to-read card fronts in the hobby. Topps made a 396-card set while O-Pee-Chee produced the largest hockey card set ever, 528 cards.All cards numbered 1-396 feature the same players in both sets. O-Pee-Chee estimates they updated about 10 per cent of the cards because they are released later than the Topps issues.The other cards are only available in O-Pee-Chee, which also features a 22-card insert set of the Central Red Army team. The insert cards are available only in wax packs and includes the only rookie card of Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; center Sergei Fedorov.&ldquo;Our timing couldn&rsquo;t have been better with our 22-card insert set,&rdquo; says O-Pee-Chee vice-president of sales and marketing, Malcolm Bull. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s created as much interest as the 528-card set.&rdquo;The two subsets from the regular set which are attracting the most attention from collectors are the three-card Wayne Gretzky tribute and the 21-card top prospects&rsquo; list.The Gretzky cards (Nos. 1-3) show the center in each of the three uniforms he has worn in his professional career&mdash;the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings. The background of each card is a mockup of a newspaper announcing Gretzky&rsquo;s 1,851st point, which lifted him past Gordie Howe as the NHL&rsquo;s all-time leading scorer.Each NHL team has one player in the prospect subset. While some of the choices were good&mdash;goaltenders Curtis Joseph of St. Louis and Jim Hrivnak of Washington are having good seasons&mdash;11 of the 21 players weren&rsquo;t even in the NHL in late November. Of those players still in the NHL, the leading goal-scorer was Paul Ysebaert, with four. Ysebaert (from New Jersey to Detroit) and Vladimir Ruzicka (from Edmonton to Boston) are the two prospects who have been traded.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021289/10274459-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="2131" height="1892"></div>The other six skaters from the prospect set still in the NHL had combined for seven goals and sixteen assists for 23 points in 94 games, hardly the statistics to make card collectors excited.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-04665/10274452-1-eng-US/f0019-042.jpg" title="f0019-04" width="577" height="794"><figcaption class="caption-body">JARRI KURRI</figcaption></div>In fact, Topps and O-Pee-Chee may have jinxed the prospects. Five of them&mdash;Boston&rsquo;s Bob Beers, Hartford&rsquo;s Kay Whitmore, Buffalo&rsquo;s Darrin Shannon, Vancouver&rsquo;s Rob Murphy and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Stephane Beauregard&mdash;began the season in the NHL but have since been demoted to the minors.Of course, it will be several years before the ultimate fate of the prospect players is known, but the short-term prognosis is not good.Topps and O-Pee-Chee did their usual solid jobs in keeping errors to a minimum. Most of the mistakes, including some incorrect spelling of names (Carey Wilson as Cary) and some wrong positions (left winger Sergio Momesso as a defenseman) were minor and can easily be forgiven in light of mistakes by the other companies.However, one glaring error, which should be corrected but won&rsquo;t, is on Gretzky&rsquo;s regular card. The NHL&rsquo;s all-time assist leader is credited with having 13,102 assists, instead of the correct figure, 1,302.It is not Topps&rsquo; nor O-Pee-Chee&rsquo;s policy to correct their errors. While it&rsquo;s commendable that the companies don&rsquo;t believe error cards should have any extra value, mistakes such as the one on Gretzky&rsquo;s card should be fixed.For card collectors who have been buying Topps and O-Pee-Chee for years, the 1990-91 sets should keep them happy. Stronger card stock, much better centering and an overall improved appearance help make these solid sets. As always, there&rsquo;s complete season-by-season statistics and the usual array of pre-game photos showing the players without their helmets.In an effort to keep up with the competitors, O-Pee-Chee recently announced it will issue a 132-card premier set, which will feature rookies, traded players and stars from the first half of the season. Pro Set, Score and Upper Deck are all issuing some sort of update and traded set later this season. O-Pee-Chee will release its set in mid-January.<h2>FIRST BOWMAN A LITTLE DIFFERENT</h2>All things considered, it&rsquo;s not a bad first attempt.Topps reintroduced its special Bowman set to the card market through baseball in 1989 and has followed suit with a Bowman hockey set in 1990.Bowman was popular with baseball card collectors in the 1950s. Topps felt the time was right to introduce the name to hockey card collectors. While hockey fans have been slow to embrace Bowman, it&rsquo;s a passable effort.The hockey card issue is a curious, little set of 264 cards, featuring no all-star cards, team cards, prospect cards or any other special cards. What you get are 262 player cards and two checklists.The cards are very plain and simple. Some collectors consider the set boring and unnecessary, but others feel it could be the &ldquo;sleeper&rdquo; set of the year.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03875/10274445-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="571" height="803"></div>Original sales of Bowman are quite low, so if there&rsquo;s not much product out there, the scarcity of the set will lead to an increase in value.The most bizarre aspect of the cards are the backs. In place of the traditional card back stats and write-ups is a statistical breakdown of how the player did last season against each NHL. team.Nearly as odd as the card backs is the player selection. Why is St. Louis Blue farmhand Dave Thomlinson in the set? When you only have about 13 cards per team, the set should include NHL players, not International Leaguers. Thomlinson, who is amongst the IHL&rsquo;s scoring leaders this season, played just 19 games with St. Louis last season, 59 with Peoria.Detroit&rsquo;s Randy McKay (33 games), Quebec&rsquo;s Scott Gordon (10 games) and New York Ranger Paul Broten (32 games) are some of the other players who appear only in the Bowman set. Toronto&rsquo;s Tom Kurvers(7l games), Boston&rsquo;s Glen Wesley (78 games) and Edmonton&rsquo;s Conn Smythe Trophy winner Bill Ranford (56 games) are some of the players who appear in every set but Bowman&rsquo;s.As with every set this year, there are some glaring errors. The two biggest ones: a photo of Chris Chelios on Petr Svoboda&rsquo;s card and a photo of Duane Sutter on Al Secord&rsquo;s card.Included in wax packs is a card from the hat tricks subset. Bowman honored the 14 players who had more than one hat trick during the regular season and the eight players who had a hat trick in the playoffs with a 22-card glossy subset. It&rsquo;s an attractive, though rather strange concept. A little like the entire set. &#9632;

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REVIEW

This month&rsquo;s Power Play list of the most sought-after hockey cards features the debut of three exciting young Norris Division stars.Chicago&rsquo;s Jeremy Roenick and Ed Belfour and Detroit&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov are going to be mainstays in the NHL and on the Collectors World Power Play if their strong early-season performances continue.Their cards are hot among collectors, perhaps in part because two of the three are hard to find. Fedorov is only in the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee wax products while Belfour is available in the Bowman and Upper Deck sets. Both players will no doubt be prominent in Score, Pro Set, Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee update and traded sets.The four hottest players remain the same as in our premier issue. Their positions have changed, however. The Great Gretzky tops the list with Eric Lindros a close second. Brett Hull and John Cullen both slipped two notches but not because of sub-par performances. All four are neck and neck and neck and neck.Ranger Darren Turcotte jumped six places and is showing no signs of a sophomore jinx. He and Brian Leetch are leading the Rangers into Stanley Cup contention.Firmly entrenched in first and second on the Penalty Box list of cold cards are Pro Set&rsquo;s error-filled first set and Edmonton&rsquo;s Grant Fuhr. Card collectors are quick to forget good performances but elephant-like when it comes to bad ones.Two Pittsburgh Penguins&mdash;Marie Lemieux and Rob Brown&mdash;are frostbitten as well. Lack of ice time for two very different reasons is the cause.Entries five through nine prove absence does not make a collector&rsquo;s head grow fonder. All either retired or have missed extended periods of time with injuries.Larry Robinson&rsquo;s improved play this season with Los Angeles should make his tenure in the Box short. The same could be said for the &lsquo;89-90 O-Pee-Chee set whose overabundance seems finally to have been absorbed by collectors.If you would like to submit your Power Play/Penalty Box list, please write to THN Collectors World or use the survey in this issue on page eight.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2>1. WAYNE GRETZKY (3)2. ERIC LINDROS (4)3. BRETT HULL (1)4. JOHN CULLEN (2)5. DARREN TURCOTTE (11)6. JOE SAKIC (5)7. BRIAN LEETCH (8)8. JEREMY ROENICK (NL)9. BOBBY HULL (6)10. GORDIE HOWE (9)11. SERGEI FEDOROV (NL)12. ED BELFOUR (NL)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking.<h2>PENALTY BOX</h2>1. PRO SET ERRORS (1)2. GRANT FUHR (2)3. MARIO LEMIEUX (4)4. ROB BROWN (7)5. JARI KURRI (3)6. RON HEXTALL (5)7. MATS NASLUND (8)8. GARY LEEMAN (10)9. PHIL ESPOSITO (9)10. LARRY ROBINSON (NL)11. &lsquo;89-90 O-PEE-CHEE (6)12. JIMMY CARSON (NL)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking. &#9632;

ROENICK. BELFOUR TURN UP THE POWER

<div class="byline">BY KEITH GAVE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0029-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-011364/10274587-1-eng-US/f0029-012.jpg"></div>Seems like every goaltender has a good story about how he wound up being a human target. Ed Belfour, the terror from Carman, Man., and a sensational rookie goaltender for the Chicago Blackhawks, is no different.&ldquo;I was actually a forward when I was younger,&rdquo; Belfour recalls. &ldquo;I played goalie just a little bit. Me and another guy played goal. I was one of the better players on our team. But when he played out (as a forward) once in a while, I&rsquo;d play goal. Then when we got older, he decided he didn&rsquo;t want to play goal anymore.&rdquo; &lsquo;So Belfour took the job permanently, though at the time his coach had an ulterior motive. Putting Belfour in goal was supposed to keep him out of trouble.&ldquo;It was a good move for me,&rdquo; he admits. &ldquo;I was the type of player who was in trouble a lot. I was pretty aggressive and my coach thought it would be a good way to keep me out of trouble, so I ended up playing goal.&rdquo;His temper still flared up from time to time. As it does today.&ldquo;In one game, I was about 12 or 13 I guess, I broke three goalie sticks,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The coach sent out a forward&rsquo;s stick and made me finish the game with that.&rdquo;The mean streak, along with consistent&mdash;and at times spectacular&mdash;goaltending, has helped Belfour emerge from a pack of qualified contenders in Chicago. It includes veterans Jacques Cloutier, the regular backup; never-used Greg Millen; Czech import Dominik Hasek; and 1987 No. 1 pick Jimmy Waite.&ldquo;When we came to camp, they basically said everyone was equal,&rdquo; Belfour says. &ldquo;Whoever wanted it and showed what they can do would win the job. I just came to camp and worked hard. I guess they decided I deserved a chance. I&rsquo;m just happy they gave me an opportunity to prove myself.&rdquo;&ldquo;He won the job in training camp,&rdquo; says Hawks&rsquo; GM-coach Mike Keenan. &ldquo;It was a five-man race to start with. I think he saw himself all summer as a No. 1 goalie in the National Hockey League.What Belfour, a triathlete competitor in the summer, has proven so far is the race for the Calder Trophy is not a one-man affair.Writers who vote on the aware were immediately enamored with Detroit center Sergei Fedorov, who appeared to be running away with the scoring title among first-year players But then they became enchanted with Belfour&rsquo;s performance in goal over the first two months of the season: a record of 15-5-1, 2.02 goals-against average and a .921 save percentageBut wait a minute, you say: It seems like Belfour has been around forever. How can he be a rookie?Indeed, his rather impressive resume shows he played 23 games for Chicago 1988-89 with a 4-12-3 record and 3.87 GAA. Then, after a season with the Canadian National team, he was recalled by the Hawks for the playoffs, in which he compiled a 4-2 record with a 2.49 GAA in nine games last spring.To be eligible for the Calder, a player cannot have played in more than 25 games in a single preceding season, nor in six or more (regular season) games in each of any two preceding seasons. Belfour even meets the new age standards for the award. He doesn&rsquo;t turn 26 until April 21. A player who reached his 26th birthday by Sept. 15 of his rookie season is not eligible.The son of a laborer for the city of Carman, population about 3,500, Belfour has a competitive spirit that Keenan adores.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like guys bumping into me and hacking me, and it&rsquo;s happening too much all around the league,&rdquo; Belfour says. &ldquo;No goalie likes that, and I&rsquo;m no different. If they&rsquo;re in the crease, they&rsquo;re going to get a crack-&hellip;I&rsquo;m a competitor. &ldquo;Scouts have known that since watching Belfour lead North Dakota to the NCAA title in 1987, after which the Hawks signed him as a free agent. He spent the next season with Saginaw, where he shared International League rookie-of-the-year honors with Flint&rsquo;s John Cullen.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s certainly developed quicker than I thought he would,&rdquo; says Detroit&rsquo;s goaltending consultant Phil Myre. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s got such a low crouch, you don&rsquo;t see that much any more. 1 thought maybe he&rsquo;d have a tough time in the NHL because players here can hit that top comer. But he&rsquo;s quick.&rdquo;<h2>PRESSURE NO ISSUE FOR HOT GOALIE</h2>Ed Belfour hasn&rsquo;t won the Calder Trophy yet, but he has become the first goal-tender to make it on the Collectors World Power Play.Quite an impressive feat for a player featured in just two of the six hockey card sets this season. Belfour is only currently available in Bowman and Upper Deck sets and wax. But his two cards are very different.The Upper Deck photo was from the &lsquo;88-89 season, when Belfour wore No. 31 and a white helmet and cage. The Bowman photo is from last season, when he wore No. 30 and had a cage combination mask with a colorful eagle painted on it.But both cards are very hot right now. While the Bowman card had the advantage of being out earlier, the Upper Deck card will also attract lots of interest as it&rsquo;s part of the company&rsquo;s 21-card star rookie subset.If there&rsquo;s a negative for card collectors, it&rsquo;s his age (25) and position. Goalies tend to be very inconsistent from one year to the next (unless your name is Patrick Roy), which understandably scares away some collectors.Another concern for collectors is Chicago coach Mike Keenan&rsquo;s reputation as the Captain Hook of NHL coaches. Blackhawk goalies have been known to suffer from emotional whiplash under Keenan. What&rsquo;s Belfour&rsquo;s secret to keeping Keenan happy? Understanding the method of the coach&rsquo;s madness.&ldquo;Ever since he came here. I&rsquo;ve known what his philosophy is,&rdquo; Belfour says. &ldquo;If a goalie doesn&rsquo;t do the job, or if the team isn&rsquo;t playing that well, he is going to try to shake the team up.&ldquo;I understand that. You can&rsquo;t take it personally.&rdquo;But for now Belfour is hot&mdash;and secure&mdash;both in the Hawks&rsquo; goal and with card collectors.The Belfour Checklist: Bowmman: No.7 Upper Deck: No. 55.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0029-02936/10274580-1-eng-US/f0029-022.jpg" title="f0029-02" width="572" height="766"></div> &#9632;

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ED BELFOUR

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011417/10274687-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div>Collectors World is proud to present a once in a lifetime opportunity to own the most important hockey print in collectibles history. Bobby Orr, the man who shaped today&rsquo;s game, and Eric Lindros, the man destined to rule the ice in years to come, will personally sign and number this limited edition run of only 100 prints. You have an opportunity to own one of the 25 prints being made available to the public. Don&rsquo;t miss this chance to own the item destined to be the most sought after collectible in the hockey world.This is your opportunity to submit a sealed bid to acquire one of these rare, unique collector prints. Minimum bid is $250. Remember you&rsquo;ll be up against many others vying for one of these 25 limited edition prints. It is wise to be aggressive with your bid and please remember all the money is going to a charity chosen by Mr. Orr and Mr. Lindros. To insure its collectibility the film and negatives for this print will be personally destroyed by the publisher of THE HOCKEY NEWS/COLLECTORS WORLD. As well, all sealed bids will be opened and judged by the law firm of Beard, Winter and Associates. Please see below for bidding information.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-02958/10274680-1-eng-US/f0031-022.jpg" title="f0031-02" width="1788" height="778"></div><h2>AUCTION CONDITIONS</h2>&bull; Payment must be made in the form of a money order, certified cheque, bank draft. Visa, Mastercard or American Express.&bull; Deadline for sealed bids is midnight (E.S.T.) on February 28, 1991.&bull; Offer is limited to one bid/print per household&bull; Offer not valid in states and provinces where prohibited by law.&bull; THN/COLLECTORS WORLD reserves the right to adjudicate any and all disputes that may arise as a result of this auction. These decisions will be final. &#9632;

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CHARITY AUCTION

This is a warning to card collectors: Don&rsquo;t be foolish like I was by getting valuable cards autographed. There aren&rsquo;t many people who will buy autographed cards.Some people say the autographs aren&rsquo;t authentic and you&rsquo;ll have no way of proving they are. I know now autographed cards are difficult to sell, but I learned the hard way.A friend of mine got a Mark Messier rookie card signed and he has been unable to sell that. That&rsquo;s a terrible waste of a Messier rookie, which is worth about $75. I&rsquo;m not saying don&rsquo;t get your cards signed, I&rsquo;m just warning you that you will be keeping them for yourself rather than selling them for a profit.If you want a superstar&rsquo;s autograph on a card, it&rsquo;s better to get one on the most recent card of the player.Mike WebbRedwater, Alta.<h2>GRETZKY FACTOR</h2>I once had four Wayne Gretzky rookie cards, but now I only have one. I sold three of them for $5 each&mdash;in1984. At the time, I actually thought got a good price for them. I don&rsquo; think that any more.Theo BudayTillsonburg, Ont.I used to collect hockey cards whet I was a teenager, but I lost interest&mdash;until now. 1 recently realized I had a Wayne Gretzky rookie card in mini condition.That brought back all of my child hood memories and drove me to collect again. Boy, am I glad I did. think Collectors World is an fabulous idea.Seth A. GuindineWhitehall, Penn.The card market is definitely on the rise, but I feel the Wayne Gretzkj rookie is vastly overpriced. The supply appears to be greater than the demand at this time.Scott WoodFredericton, N.B.<h2>JUST FOR FUN</h2>You have an excellent idea with your new magazine and I think it will go over well.However, you state in the Nov. 2 THN that a Wayne Gretzky rookie card sells for $800. You also say a Brett Hull rookie sells for $50. The last show I was at they were selling for $375 and $35 respectively in mint condition. This kind of reporting jus, drives up prices. It also makes anyone with a shoe box full of mangled cards think they are worth a fortune.I would like THN Collectors Work to heavily stress the fellowship aspect of collecting. When I started collecting, other collectors gave me cards, binders and lots of help. That&rsquo;s what this hobby is all about&mdash;collectors helping each other. There are still some collectors who aren&rsquo;t just interested in making money.1 think there is lots of room in the hobby for buying and selling cards but let&rsquo;s not take all the fun out of it.Lee StoreyDavidson, Sask.<h2>LOVE OF CARDS</h2>I&rsquo;m very aware of who&rsquo;s hot and who&rsquo;s not, but basically I just love collecting cards. To me, a Brett Hull is no more important than a Stan Smyl. (Of course, for investment purposes, I&rsquo;ll take Hull).Fifteen years ago, people were always kidding me about buying cards. Now, I&rsquo;m the one doing the laughing.I enjoyed the first issue of Collectors World. But I&rsquo;d like to see it a little more personal. Maybe you could feature articles about different collectors.Jack HarringtonMilltown, Nfld.Whether you have an opinion or a question you&rsquo;d like answered, we want to hear from you. Please send your comments and/or questions to:THN Collectors WorldAttention: Rand Simon85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 &#9632;

GETTING YOUR CARDS AUTOGRAPHED? STOP

For a few moments he was 16 again.The greatest defenseman ever was moving around the Oshawa Generals&rsquo; dressing room telling stories of his former coach and playing major junior hockey for $10 a week.&ldquo;It hasn&rsquo;t gone up much since then,&rdquo; came the words from across the room.Not that the best major junior player in North America needs the money. He&rsquo;ll be a millionaire by this time next year.So there they were&mdash;Bobby Orr and Eric Lindros. The two most famous Oshawa Generals together in the dressing room at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium for a photo session arranged by THN Collectors World.On was animated as he went back and forth from the coach&rsquo;s office&mdash;where Wren Blair used to sequester himself&mdash;to his old locker stall. His sweater&mdash;No. 2&mdash;has been retired, but not his place in the dressing room. Goalie David Dorosh occupies his old spot.Lindros, who arrived at the arena more than an hour early to get in some skating and shooting, was in full equipment across the room at his locker.Only three major junior players have ever commanded the media attention afforded Lindros&mdash;Orr, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Now all that&rsquo;s left for Lindros is to meet the standards of excellence established by this trio of hockey superstars.He has certainly done that in junior hockey, helping the Generals to the Memorial Cup last season and leading the Ontario League in scoring this season. Along the way he has done nothing to hurt his status as the favorite to be selected first in the 1991 entry draft. Both the Ontario League and NHL have made rule changes because of Lindros.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-021585/10274766-1-eng-US/f0005-022.jpg" title="f0005-02" width="597" height="862"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAND SIMON</figcaption></div>Orr and Lindros left the dressing room for the ice surface where we were taking the picture. All that remained was for Toronto photographer Don Dixon to get the image on film.Dixon recently completed a 17-day excursion to the Nepal/China border to photograph rhinoceros. He would have had more success stopping a charging rhinoceros than Bobby On-in his prime.&ldquo;When I was a kid,&rdquo; Dixon said later, &ldquo;I used to watch Bobby On-play. I was really surprised at how youthful he looks now. He looked like he could still play today.&ldquo;The thing that impressed, me about him was his consideration. I shoot a lot of celebrities and people who think they&rsquo;re pretty important. A lot aren&rsquo;t as considerate as he was.&rdquo;When the shoot began there were just a few of us in the arena. That changed. Clutches of fans and workers stopped by to get a glimpse of a former great and future great paired in a special bridging of hockey&rsquo;s generation gap.Those on hand included the one person who was a link between Orr and Lindros, player-agent Rick Curran. The Toronto-based Curran represents Lindros and has known Orr since working at his hockey camp in 1969.The photo session was the first time Orr and Lindros have met, but their fathers&mdash;Doug Orr and Carl Lindros&mdash;have talked occassionally about what it&rsquo;s like for a young player to embark on a professional hockey career.But we didn&rsquo;t get On and Lindros together only for this issue of Collectors World. We also did it for charitable purposes. If you turn to page 31, you&rsquo;ll see that 100 signed and numbered poster-size prints are being produced. Twenty-five will be available to the public through a silent auction.By making a minimum bid of $250, collectors will be in the running for what is sure to be one of the most highly sought-after collectible prints ever. All the money will be donated to charities chosen by Orr and Lindros. Orr has been involved with the Easter Seals program for years while Lindros has appeared at a number of charitable functions. Look for a number of charities to benefit from the auction.Of course if you don&rsquo;t get one of those posters, there is the poster in this issue. Not a bad consolation prize. &#9632;

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

Many any people were predicting great things for Martin Gelinas this season. So far, they&rsquo;ve been disappointed.But a curious decision by Score and the belief Gelinas will one day fulfill his massive potential make his Score hockey card a great investment.When Score decided to make American and Canadian versions of its cards, the company put some players in only one set and not the other. While most of those players&mdash;New York Islander Alan Kerr and Quebec Nordique Joe Cirella, for example&mdash;have low marketability for card collectors, Gelinas&rsquo; rookie card may one day be highly sought after. Gelinas&rsquo; rookie card is the one card among the variations which should have been in both versions.Since Gelinas&rsquo; only Score appearance is in the Canadian version, his Score rookie card will be relatively scarce compared to his cards in the other sets.Gelinas was drafted seventh overall by Los Angeles in the 1988 NHL entry draft before being part of the trade which made Wayne Gretzky a King.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0005-012179/10274797-1-eng-US/f0005-012.jpg" title="f0005-01" width="596" height="837"><figcaption class="caption-body">MARTIN GELINAS</figcaption></div>With Edmonton, Gelinas played a key role in the Oilers&rsquo; Stanley Cup victory last spring. He teamed with fellow youngsters Adam Graves and Joe Murphy to form the &lsquo;Kid Line.&rsquo; In 20 playoff games, Gelinas had only two goals and three assists but played a strong all-around game.Gelinas entered this season with 18 goals and 10 assists for 28 points in 52 NHL games. The solid left winger put up impressive totals with Hull of the Quebec League before joining the Oilers: 101 goals and 107 assists for 208 points in 106 games.His slow start this season resulted in him being benched for a few games and seeing little action in others. Even when he has played well, the points have been slow to come. He scored just two points in the Oilers&rsquo; first 14 games before getting six points in his next nine games.If Gelinas continues to show improvement&mdash;a good bet, he&rsquo;s only 20&mdash;his relatively scarce Score rookie card will one day be a hot item. &#9632;

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TIP OF THE MONTH

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0006-04" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-04677/10274828-1-eng-US/f0006-042.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Angelo Savelli shows off a small part of his hockey memorabilia collection in his Hamilton, Ont., basement.</figcaption></div>Even if the phone rings. I&rsquo;m just going to let it go,&rdquo; Angelo Savelli says to his guest. &lsquo;&lsquo;Because that means I&rsquo;ll have to go upstairs to answer it and you&rsquo;ll be left alone with my cards. I don&rsquo;t trust anybody with my cards. I don&rsquo;t trust you. I don&rsquo;t trust anybody.&rdquo;Nice to meet you, too.Savelli figures he has reason to be concerned.First, he values his collection at more than $1 million. Second, he was recently stung to the tune of $2,000 at a recent collectibles show when some of his cards were stolen.The investigative work Savelli did to catch up with the culprit would have made Dick Tracy look like a bumbling idiot.&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t get the cards back but I know who did it,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I saw him. I grabbed him by the shirt and said, &lsquo;I&rsquo;ve been collecting for more than 40 years and I have to put up with punks like you?&rsquo; &ldquo;By this time, he has his hands up to his guest&rsquo;s face and his teeth are grinding with rage. &ldquo;I told him, &lsquo;Someday, someone&rsquo;s going to get you and it might be me. I don&rsquo;t give a damn about the law.&rsquo; &ldquo;Extreme, yes. But you&rsquo;ll forgive Angelo Savelli if he&rsquo;s occasionally given to extremes when it comes to his sports collectibles. When he talks about his passion, Savelli is loud. He is proud. But most of all. he is passionate.With good reason. Savelli, a native of Hamilton, Ont., may be the most successful sports archivist in the world. His collection, most of which he keeps in his cramped basement, is a monument to sports. He has a particular interest in hockey, his favorite sport.&ldquo;From what I&rsquo;ve seen at shows, there&rsquo;s nobody anywhere near like me,&rdquo; says Savelli, 53. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m the biggest collector in Canada and somewhere it was written that I&rsquo;m in the top three in the world.&ldquo;People that used to collect with me used to laugh at the money I would spend to get stuff. Now I&rsquo;m the one who&rsquo;s laughing.&rdquo;But not all the way to the bank. Savelli is a collector in the true sense of the word. He looks beyond the dollar signs when he makes a purchase. His goal is to acquire everything he can in the best condition possible. He only sells an item if he has a duplicate. In fact, he has only sold one original item&mdash;a cumbersome baseball card display which was too big to store properly.Savelli does not have a king&rsquo;s ransom at his disposal. The former steelworker has risen to the top of his craft because of steely determination.Savelli will only say his collection is worth well over a million dollars&mdash;not bad for someone who never earned more than $20,000 a year&mdash;but it is not for sale. He calls his basement shrine The Hot Stove Lounge&mdash;complete with a hot stove.Among them are every hockey rookie card ever issued, a stick used by Howie Morenz in 1936, full hockey card sets dating back to 1910 and sticks used by NHL stars such as Jean Beliveau, Bernie Geoffrion, Dave Keon and Frank Mahovlich. Among his baseball artifacts are a bat used by Babe Ruth, the Chicago Cubs&rsquo; uniform worn by legendary shortstop Johnny Evers and the T-206 Honus Wagner baseball card, believed to be the most valuable card in the world at $175,000.&ldquo;The Howie Morenz stick is very special because he was the greatest player in the world at the time,&rdquo; says Savelli. &ldquo;And I even have a card that they didn&rsquo;t list in any of the guides for years; a guy by the name of Harry Oliver.&rdquo;For Savelli, collecting has been much more than a hobby, it has been his life&rsquo;s work.&ldquo;My older brothers used to send away for the Beehive Corn Syrup pictures,&rdquo; says Savelli. &ldquo;They used to go down to the dump and take the labels off the cans and send away for these pictures. I remember seeing those pictures when I was three or four years old and right from the first time, I was hooked. From then on, it was just something that got into the blood.&rdquo;He has taken some considerable financial risks to build his collection. In 1970, Savelli traded a 1961 Impala convertible for a box of hockey and baseball cards. And many times the money he owed to the bank was more than he had in it.&ldquo;Whenever a collection came up, I would go down to the Credit Union and tell them, &lsquo;I need a car,&rsquo; or, &lsquo;I need to do renovations to my house,&rsquo; says Savelli. &ldquo;If I had told them that I was buying cards, I would have never got the money. At that time, cards were junk and they would have thought I was crazy. Sometimes it got into the thousands of dollars but I paid them back and now I don&rsquo;t owe the Credit Union a penny.&rdquo;The people at the Credit Union weren&rsquo;t the only ones oblivious to Savelli&rsquo;s financial wizardry.&ldquo;When I was borrowing money from the Credit Union, I&rsquo;d never say anything to the wife (Ann),&rdquo; says Savelli. &ldquo;If I had said anything to her, there&rsquo;s no way I&rsquo;d have what I have now.&rdquo;Opening his own business was never a temptation for Savelli because he&rsquo;s too occupied with acquiring to take the time to sell. For Savelli. the intrinsic value is much higher than the monetary value.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t stop,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Anything that I don&rsquo;t have. I gotta have it. It even gets worse later because you think you have almost everything and when you find something that you haven&rsquo;t got, you want it even more.&ldquo;I&rsquo;d rather just get something I want and keep it. If I was in the business of selling, I wouldn&rsquo;t have most of the stuff I have now.&rdquo;Savelli&rsquo;s dream is to open a sports hall of fame in Hamilton with his collectibles as the main attraction. Unfortunately, he figures he&rsquo;ll have to sell off part of his existing collection to finance the endeavor.&ldquo;This is my thing until I die; I&rsquo;ve always felt that way,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;1 have so much in one place that I&rsquo;d hate to see it go here and there. I&rsquo;d love to have it all in one building of nostalgia.&rdquo; &#9632;

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MEET ANGELO SAVELLI, THE ULTIMATE COLLECTOR

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE HEPBURN</div>Investment, nostalgia, education and challenge. Those are four good reasons to collect vintage hockey memorabilia.And with an increase in the number of people purchasing newer issues of hockey cards, the demand for older material is on the horizon.What starts many collectors on vintage cards is nostalgia, being drawn to cards they recognize from their childhood. Baby Boomers and Yuppies are big on the 1950s and &lsquo;60s cards.Vintage cards tend to be a safe long-term investment. The values of players from the earlier eras are stable because the careers of the players are over. Their importance in history seldom fluctuates. Remember, Bobby Orr is money in the bank; Eric Lindros might be.Perhaps the most important investment reason for collecting older cards is the law of supply and demand.&ldquo;Vintage cards are a much better investment because there are fewer of them,&rdquo; says Gary Lane, an avid collector from Georgetown, Ont. &ldquo;Prices are beginning to reflect the scarcity of these items.&rdquo;According to Ron Villeneuve, the operator of Collection de Sport AZ in Montreal, the volume of cards drops pre-1972, then drops greatly pre-1968, then again pre-1964 and yet again pre-World War II. He says some of the best buys are cards of pre-World War II stars Howie Morenz, King Clancy and Eddie Shore.Another key investment factor is that pre-World War II cards and Parkhurst cards were produced for the Canadian market only. With more interest in hockey cards coming from the United States, these cards are becoming more valuable.Another factor influencing the increased demand is the recent influx of collectors, many of whom are concentrating on cards from the 1980s and &lsquo;90s. The conventional wisdom is that once these new collectors have completed their newer sets, they&rsquo;ll move on to older cards.While newer cards are usually found in mint condition, cards from the &lsquo;50s and &lsquo;60s command a premium when found in mint condition.&ldquo;Now people are treating cards like they are gold,&rdquo; says collector Angelo Savelli of Hamilton, Ont. &ldquo;Back then, kids used to play games and throw them against the wall.&rdquo;Collecting from an era before one&rsquo;s birth is an enlightening experience. Memorabilia such as cards, programs, sticks and photos are a treasure trove from an educational perspective. The uniforms, styles of the day, phraseology, impressions of an era and the role of hockey in the history of North America can be gleaned from these items.For many collectors of vintage cards, the rationale for their pursuit is summed up by Lane: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a challenge to put together a near mint set from the early &lsquo;50s, one card at a time.&rdquo;To collect any of the currently-produced material, all you need is money. To collect the older items, a patient investment of time is required.The best place to find older material is probably at a sports card show.It can take a long time to complete a vintage set, but it is extremely satisfying to finish off your 1952-53 Parkhurst, 1964-65 Topps or maybe even your 1923-24 VI45-1, including the Morenz, Clancy and Aurel Joliat rookie cards. &#9632;

WHY YOU SHOULD BE COLLECTING OLDER CARDS

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>With the number of NHL cards expanding to six sets and more than 2,200 cards, it only makes sense the Canadian Hockey League would follow suit. 7th Inning Sketch of Windsor, Ont., is producing three sets featuring more than 1,000 players this year.Each of the three CHL leagues has its own set. There are 400 cards for the Ontario League, 350 for the Western League and 300 for the Quebec League. The OHL and WHL cards should be in stores by Christmas, the QMJHL cards early in 1991.Release of the cards has not been without delay and controversy. At the root of the problems is Eric Lindros&rsquo; status. Lindros signed a deal worth $25-30,000 (U.S.) to appear in the 1990-91 Score NHL set. Originally there was every intention on Lindros&rsquo; part to appear in the OHL set. But when 7th Inning Sketch used Lindros&rsquo; image in advertising in the U.S., it violated an agreeement between the two parties.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021883/10274883-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="616" height="863"></div>But as far as 7th Inning Sketch president Doug Trudell is concerned, even if Lindros isn&rsquo;t in the set, it will be popular with collectors and a good investment.&ldquo;Eric&rsquo;s a fine player, but he&rsquo;s not the only one,&rdquo; says Trudell. &ldquo;Eric won&rsquo;t be there next year but somebody else will be there and be the next star to come out. Let&rsquo;s face it, the OHL produced three of the four top draft choices last year. I would expect the league to continue every year to have a great year.&rdquo;This year, 7th Inning Sketch has added color action shots on the front and back of its cards. All the other usual biographical information&mdash;height, weight, birthplace, etc.&mdash;is also included. &#9632;

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CARD EXPLOSION REACHES MAJOR JUNIOR HOCKEY

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>Paul and Shane Kenny have quickly lived up to their reputations as men capable of finding good deals on hockey cards.Within weeks of being advanced $5,000 each by The Hockey News, the brothers spent more than $ 1,000 at card shows.For those of you who missed Vol. 1, No. 1 of THN Collectors World, we advanced Paul and Shane the money to see how they would invest it in cards. Before 12 months are out, each will have to sell the cards they bought. Whoever has the most money at the end is the &ldquo;winner.&rdquo; All profits made by Paul and Shane will be given to minor hockey.There are some guidelines which Paul and Shane must follow. Although both are dealers, they must buy everything as if they were collectors. In other words, no wholesale purchases or any other insider buying. The purpose of having Paul and Shane buy and sell cards is to show collectors two different ways of investment card collecting.Generally, Shane believes in buying newer issues while Paul prefers to go for older cards. There was one exception as Paul purchased 100 John Cullen rookie cards at $2 each. Just after he bought them, another collector bought 50 of them for $2.50 each.Shane also went after the &lsquo;89-90 O-Pee-Chee Cullen card. He didn&rsquo;t buy as many, just 10, but Shane only paid 85 cents each. Shane also pursued Brett Hull cards heavily. He bought five &lsquo;85-86 University of Minnesota-Duluth cards for $75, five &lsquo;8889 Topps cards (his rookie year) for $120 and five &lsquo;90-91 Pro Set promo cards for $40.The other individual cards for Shane: a &lsquo;71-72 O-Pee-Chee Lafleur rookie for $100; 10 &lsquo;90-91 Score Eric Lindros rookie cards for $ 100; and 20 &lsquo;89-90 O-Pee-Chee Joe Sakic rookie cards for $80.The rest of Shane&rsquo;s purchases were either sets or wax boxes. His costliest investment was an &lsquo;80-81 O-Pee-Chee set for $300. He also bought the &lsquo;90-91 O-Pee-Chee Central Red Army subset, purchasing 10 of them for $50. In total, Shane spent $1,248.50. He has yet to sell anything.Paul bought fewer items but spent more, thanks largely to his purchase of a near-mint &lsquo;70-71 O-Pee-Chee set for $530 and a near-mint to mint &lsquo;7980 O-Pee-Chee set for $500. That&rsquo;s the set that includes Wayne Gretzky&rsquo;s rookie card.He also bought a Neilson&rsquo;s Gretzky set for $75. It&rsquo;s a limited-edition 50-card set which shows Gretzky at different stages of his hockey career. Paul bought the set in Montreal where he says Gretzky cards are 30-40 per-cent cheaper than anywhere else.The 100 Cullen cards wrapped up Paul&rsquo;s card purchases. He also bought 10 issues each of the first four THN newspapers which contained the Collectors World price guides. He figures there will be a demand for back issues. Hope you&rsquo;re right on that one, Paul.In all, Paul spent $1,375 and sold $125 worth of cards.We&rsquo;ll check in next month with the brothers to see how they&rsquo;ve spent the rest of the money. &#9632;

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Collector's World 0102

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ROB BLAKE