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 0201

The Hockey News Collector's World 0201

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE HEPBURN</div>I find that my preferences for certain hockey card sets changes over time. After hearing what other collectors have to say I often find myself changing my opinion.So when my editor asked for a list of my favorite vintage sets, I had a lot of difficult decisions to make while taking a stroll through memory lane and compiling this Top 10 list. So here it is, one collector&rsquo;s all-time favorites. Why not write to us and share some of your thoughts on your favorite vintage sets.My enthusiasm for my first choice, 1954-55 Topps, is shared by many as I attested by its steady rise in value. The set is currently valued at $3,750 in near-mint condition. The set of 60 cards is the first set of hockey cards produced by the Topps Chewing Gum Company.This set stands out from all others due to the painted appearance of the cards. Many were copied from photos used for Beehives or other issues but these copies are different because of the extensive work done by the artist. These cards are true works of art. I have often thought of photographing certain cards and enlarging them for my office. I&rsquo;m sure some of you have done just that. The Gordie Howe card is one of the most sought after hockey cards. The first card, Dick Gamble, is extremely difficult to find in mint or near-mint shape. The players are in color, action poses, cropped against a white background. The players featured are from the four American-based teams of the day: Boston, Detroit, Chicago, and New York.Next on my list is a photo issue distributed in programs at the Montreal Forum during the 1934-35 season. That season the Forum was home to two NHL teams: the Maroons and the Canadiens. Sweet Caporal Cigarettes inserted photos in the programs of both teams. They are 6&frac12; X 1&frac12; inches in size and are unnumbered. A complete set includes 48 photos. They are framed top and bottom by thick, colored bars promoting Sweet Caporal Cigarettes. The players are still posed in full uniform with the full body showing. The background is sepia while the players have been painted in the rich colors of their uniform.Noteworthy players in this set include Howie Morenz in a Chicago Blackhawks&rsquo; uniform. King Clancy, Aurele Joliat, Eddie Shore, Charlie Conacher and Bill Cook. If you can find one, the entire set is valued at $3,000 in excellent condition.My No. 3 choice is really two sets, the 1933-34 O-Pee-Chee Series A and B. This is the first hockey set produced by O-Pee-Chee in the year that gum and cards were marketed together. The two sets contain 72 cards, none of which are repeated. The players are still posed in full uniform with the full body showing. The photos are black and white cropped against a background of six pointed stars. These stars are surrounded by colored backgrounds which are either blue, green, orange or red. Each player can be found in all of the four colored backgrounds. These sets contain an excellent selection of rookie stars of that era, including Eddie Shore, Nels Stewart, Dit Clapper, Ace Bailey, Charlie Conacher and Ching Johnson. Series A No. 1-48 is valued at $4,500 in excellent condition while series B No. 49-72 has a monetary worth of $2,000 in excellent condition.The 1951-52 Parkhurst set is fourth on the list. This set of 105 cards maintains its popularity mostly due to the fact it contains the rookie cards of many of the great stars of the 1950s and &rsquo;60s. This was the first set issued since the O-Pee-Chee series 2 of 1940-41. So any player who had broken into the big leagues since then and was still active had a rookie card that year.This set contains the single-most valuable card in the hobby, the Gordie Howe rookie which is valued at $2,500 in near-mint condition. Other rookies featured in the &rsquo;51-52 Parkies are: Maurice Richard, Doug Harvey, Boom Boom Geoffrion, Red Kelly, Ted Lindsay, Terry Sawchuck, Alex Delvecchio and Teeder Kennedy.Another interesting feature of the set is that it contains the first action hockey card, &ldquo;The Winning Goal", which depicts the famous Stanley Cup winning goal by Bill Barilko scored against Montreal&rsquo;s Gerry McNeil in 1951.The cards are much smaller than today&rsquo;s standards. Not all the cards in the set are rookies. Milt Schmidt, Sid Abel, Turk Broda, Max Bentley and Elmer Lach made their first appearance in the O-Pee-Chee issues of the late 1930s or early &rsquo;40s. The current value for a near-mint set is $6,500. Black and white photos have been painted so that the fully uniformed players are brilliantly colored. The only problem is seeing them. These cards are a bit small for my taste.No. 5 on my list is the 1910-11 C56, mostly because this is the first set of hockey cards ever produced.They were distributed in Canada in Imperial tobacco cigarettes. The set contains 36 cards all of which are rookie cards. Notable among them are Frank Patrick, Art Ross, Cyclone Taylor, Lester Patrick and Newsy Lalonde. These colored cards are pre-NHL and feature players from teams such as the Montreal Shamrocks, Renfrew, Haileybury and Cobalt. A card believed to be an error version of the No. 36 Newsv Lalonde, the No. 37 Newsy Lalonde, may well be the rarest hockey card of all. Only one card has been verified. The set in excellent condition has a value of $3,500.The 1955-56 Parkhurst set is my next choice. I like these cards for the great player action poses which are contrasted against a white background. The set contains 79 cards which includes Toronto and Montreal players of that year plus all-time greats from these teams. Cards of Maple Leaf Gardens and the Montreal Forum are unique features. The complete set in near-mint condition is worth $2,100.The No. 7 spot is occupied by the 1964-65 Topps set, the Tall Boys. As their nickname suggests, these cards are of an odd dimension (2&frac12; X 5&frac12; inches.) This alone makes them intriguing. I used to find the bright colors and large close-ups, many of which are bust shots, too glaring and garish but I have now decided to appreciate these characteristics as brilliant colors. 1 still think they are garish but ugly can be nice too. This set contains 11 cards which were single printed. A complete set of 110 is valued at $4,600 in near-mint condition.My eighth choice is also what I consider an unattractive set. The cards appear to be photos in some cases and paintings in others. The painted versions often feature poor proportion.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011418/10275724-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg" title="f0031-01" width="619" height="1121"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Tall Boys may be ugly, but they are unique.</figcaption></div>Despite this 1 do appreciate the 1952-53 Parkhurst issue due to the high number of second-card appearances of greats such as Howe, Richard and Sawchuck. It also features the rookie cards of Dickie Moore and Ti Horton. The set contains 105 can and is slightly bigger than the &rsquo;51-5 Parkies. The complete set has $4,750 price tag in near-mint condition.No. 9 is the 1957-58 Topps set of 66 cards. I appreciate these for the same reasons 1 liked the &rsquo;55-56 Parkies: The high number of cropped action poses against a solid background Whereas the &rsquo;55-56 Parkhurst set features a white backdrop, this set features a number of different colored backdrops. Players from Boston, the Rangers, Blackhawks and Red Wings are featured. The set is listed in the Price Guide at $1,750 in near-mint condition.My 10th favorite is the 1960-6 Topps. I especially like this one because of the colorful All-Time Gre; cards it features, including Lester Pa rick, Joe Malone and Howie Morem The high-profile card in this set is the Stan Mikita rookie card which is valued at $600 in near-mint Condition. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

THE GOLDEN OLDIES AT TOP OF HIT PARADE

<div class="byline">BY TIM BAINES</div>It seems like the last missiles in the Rocket war have been fired. Months of bickering between card companies fighting for the rights to Raghib (Rocket) Ismail are at a calm after the storm.You won&rsquo;t find Ismail, the Toronto Argos&rsquo; $26-million superstar, complaining.He bagged a reported $250,000 deal from AW Sports, which bought his exclusive Canadian Football League rights. With a percentage of sales included, Ismail could haul in $400,000. He also got a reported six-figure deal from The Scoreboard Inc., to appear in its Classic NFL draft picks set.So AW and Classic are happy, Ismail&rsquo;s ecstatic, why the war?Enter Jogo, an Ottawa-based company which has been producing CFL cards since 1981.Two unsettled $500,000 lawsuits (from AW and Rocket&rsquo;s agents) and a court case later, Jogo is Rocketless. But co-owner John Bradley seems content, almost relieved.&ldquo;This whole Rocket thing has been hard on our nerves,&rdquo; said Bradley, who maintains Jogo lost $3 million in sales with the loss of Ismail. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m not bitter to anyone. I really believe we&rsquo;ll still be successful.&rdquo;Pro Set got itself into hot water, issuing a 1990 Walter Camp player of the year Rocket card. No. 25, in its Series I NFL cards. Pro Set didn&rsquo;t back down, even with threats of a lawsuit. A settlement now seems imminent. with Ismail receiving some form of compensation from Pro Set.Meanwhile, Score did a juggling act with the former Notre Dame star before eventually scrapping plans for the Rocket in both Series 1 and 2. Upper Deck never made any public announcements about making a Rocket card.Included in AW&rsquo;s 110-card set will be an eight-card Rocket subset along with his rookie card. There will be 2,000 randomly packaged autographed Rocket cards, numbered 1400 in the French edition and 1-1,600 in English packs. AW, which made 700,000 sets, sold out its product to dealers. The breakdown is 8,000 cases of foil and 4,000 factory set cases.&ldquo;If Rocket had not been out there, we&rsquo;d still have been able to sell the cards, but it would be nowhere near the impact it has been,&rdquo; said AW chairman Harlan J. Werner. &ldquo;This is only the beginning. We want to be around as long as the CFL.&rdquo;Werner said the company is not trying to &ldquo;step on anyone&rsquo;s toes,&rdquo; but had to protect its investment when told Jogo also planned a Rocket card.In a courtroom Jogo insisted that a fax sent by Argos&rsquo; GM Mike McCarthy. adding the Rocket&rsquo;s name to a list of players to be included in this year&rsquo;s cards, was a binding contract. Jogo&rsquo;s argument fell on deaf ears.The problem is Rocket isn&rsquo;t a member of the CFL Players&rsquo; Association&mdash;he signed a personal services contract with Argos&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall. Any card company must deal directly with Ismail&rsquo;s agents.Classic quickly sold out its 365,000 sets, thanks at least in part to the presence of the Rocket.&ldquo;You could say he was the marquee player,&rdquo; said Classic director of special projects Steve Charendoff.Jogo will produce 3,000 cases of wax boxes and 1,700 cases of factory sets&mdash;a total of 60,000 foil boxes and 30,600 factory sets. There are 220 cards in the set, with an update set possible later.Bradley said if he loses money Jogo won&rsquo;t be back next year.&ldquo;Nobody wanted to do these cards for 10 years,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Now all of a sudden the Rocket comes along and it explodes. We could lose 70 per cent of our sales this year and still be successful in a small way.&rdquo;Before deciding on AW and Jogo, the CFL reportedly talked with eight or nine card companies, including Upper Deck, Pro Set and Topps/O-Pee-Chee.And as the CFL talks about expansion on the field, it could well add another card company next season. Arena Holograms of Orange County, Calif., has a CFL license and president Bill Watson said his company will be making a CFL card set which it hopes to begin shipping in May. &#9632;

FOOTBALL CARD WARS RAGE OVER ROCKET

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011551/10275755-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

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POSTER

Just a short note to correct your reply to a letter in the summer edition of Collectors World. Dale McCourt was awarded to the Los Angeles Kings as compensation for Detroit signing Rogie Vachon, not Marcel Dionne. It proved to be a great windfall for the Kings since they wound up with three first-round draft picks.I have just started collecting hockey cards and just wanted to say how invaluable CW has been during my searches for old hockey cards and memorabilia.Bill MartinCulver City, Calif.MUCH BETTERI recently purchased a wax box of 1991-92 Pro Set Series I, and what a dramatic improvement over last year. With just one box, I completed the entire 345-card set.But I also found a few problems. After having 16 cards for each team in last year&rsquo;s Series 1, the number dropped to 13, which is far too few. Having only one goalie on each team means having to wait for players like John Vanbiesbrouck in Series II.Also, Pro Set only gave us 11 players that weren&rsquo;t in last season&rsquo;s 705-card set.As far as errors go, thankfully I&rsquo;m having a hard time finding any.Jeff MichaelsLas Vegas, Nev.ENOUGH STATSI&rsquo;ve heard many complaints about the new card companies not providing career NHL statistics on the backs of the cards. I wish to commend Score for the best card backs of 1990-91. Sure, they only provided the previous season&rsquo;s stats, but they left room for something I appreciate more than numbers&mdash;a write-up on the player.I can get the career statistics from the Official Guide and Record Book. The bios on the players are more interesting than a bunch of numbers, especially when they include a description of the player&rsquo;s playing style.Jon ErbstLos Angeles CalifBUYER BEWAREI began collecting cards in November, just shortly after my first son was born. I thought it would be nice when he gets older to have sets of cards dating back to the year he was born. At that time I had no idea sportscard collecting was such a booming business.I&rsquo;ve learned quite a lot about investing and collecting by reading magazine articles and watching news segments on television. But the only thing I haven&rsquo;t seen is an in-depth look at the fraud that is involved in this hobbyI think collectors need someone to tell them how to recognize if a Brett Hull card is a fake or if an older wax pack has been opened. 1 think it would be great to open up a CW and not only find the best articles and best Price Guide, but also a section dedicated to informing the people of the fraud that goes on as well.My thanks to all the staff at CW for making it the most interesting and informative magazine on the market.Les DeanKamloops, B.C.(Editor&rsquo;s note: To find out more about the Hull and other fake cards, please see the stories on the subject in Collectors World Vol. 1, No. 3.)BACK TO SCHOOLFirst let me thank you for your editorial feature, &ldquo;Random Thoughts.&rdquo; Being a high school teacher, it&rsquo;s easy for me to identify with and appreciate your system of hockey card grading (CW, Vol. 1, No. 4).Secondly, I am sending three dimensional copies of the Marcel Dionne Colgate Hockey Bust. This bust was missing from the list in Vol. 1, No. 8. I believe the Dionne bust should be second only to the Orr bust in value since he is the third-leading score of all-time.Richard MaurerBeauval. Sask.BUSTING OUTIn your summer issue, you asked for information regarding the Colgate Hockey Busts. On page CW20, you listed nine busts. I have 12 in my collection including three you didn&rsquo;t list&mdash;Frank Mahovlich, Rick Martin and Derek Sanderson.I would also like to say that I hope O-Pee-Chee does not eliminate its career statistics from the back of its cards this season. I wish all the companies would put them on the backs, unless they provide a second photo like Upper Deck does.Gerry SairVancouver, B.C. &#9632;

MCCOURT COMPENSATION WAS FOR VACHON, NOT DIONNE

After a brief summer hiatus, The Hockey News Collectors World Power Play/Penalty Box list is back. It is no coincidence that the top three Power Play performers were also the heart of this year&rsquo;s Team Canada at the Canada Cup. Theoren Fleury (No. 2) and Wayne Gretzky (No. 3) seemed to be in midseason form and Eric Lindros (No. 1) was right at home with the best in the world.Number in parenthesis is last season&rsquo;s final ranking.The Power Play&rsquo;s No. 5 entry, Brett Hull, was a key member of the American team at the Cup as was Jaromir Jagr (No. 4) for Czechoslovakia. Hull&rsquo;s decision to play for the Americans rather than the Canadians was not a popular one in Canada, but it hasn&rsquo;t hurt his status with card collectors.Jeremy Roenick joined Hull on the U.S. team and the Power Play list at No. 9. Roenick&rsquo;s teammate and rookie of the year, Ed Belfour, holds down the sixth spot. Belfour enjoyed an honor filled summer and a Team Canada roster spot, but now faces the dreaded sophomore season. After all, what could he possibly do to top last year&rsquo;s performance?Sergei Fedorov (No. 7) was also at the Cup for the USSR, or was it Russia? His team&rsquo;s dismal performance hasn&rsquo;t hurt his popularity. Meanwhile, Team Finland&rsquo;s Jari Kurri (No. IO) surely benefitted from the tough tournament after his European vacation. He&rsquo;ll have to be flying to keep up with Gretzky and Tomas Sandstrom.Although Phil Esposito (No. 11) spent most of last year in the Box he is hotter than a pistol now. This is Trader Phil&rsquo;s first time on anybody&rsquo;s power play since he redefined the power play during his playing days in Beantown.Two card issues made it to the list this month, O-Pee-Chee Premier (No. 8) and Pro Set&rsquo;s Collectible Cards (No. 12). Premier has more staying power than most insiders suspected. A good but not great player selection combined with a small print run obviously is what collectors want. That is probably the reason Pro Set&rsquo;s randomly issued limited print run &ldquo;CC&rdquo; cards are so hot. The four-card set featuring draft day, Patrick Roy&rsquo;s mask, Pat Falloon and Scott Nieder-mayer is almost impossible to acquire.From high to low; that seems to be the way with Pro Set. From the success of their &ldquo;CC&rdquo; cards to the dismal failure of last year&rsquo;s edition. 1990-91 Pro Set&rsquo;s problems just won&rsquo;t go away. Add to a plethora of mistakes a glut of Pro Set nobody wants.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012435/10275400-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="634" height="818"><figcaption class="caption-body">Theoren Fleury has rocketed to the No. 2 Power Play spot.</figcaption></div>Following at a safe distance is Bernie Nicholls. It&rsquo;s not that he&rsquo;s playing bad, it&rsquo;s just that his numbers were so good when he was playing in Los Angeles that collectors hold such high expectations.The same cannot be said for Nos. 3, 4 and 7. One sub-par season (because of injury, trade or whatever) is bad, but two consecutive seasons? Ron Hextall, Jimmy Carson and Wendel Clark all have to kick some serious butt this year to get out of the Penalty Box.Four other players&mdash;Billy Smith (No. 5), Larry Robinson (No. 6), Brad Park (No. IO) and Guy Lafleur (No. 12)&mdash;also have some things in common. Smith and Park retired several years ago and Robinson and Lafleur should have. One of the ironies of sports is that a fan&rsquo;s memory is short. It seems that few sports card collectors remember Smith&rsquo;s near single-handed victory over the Oilers or Larry Robinson&rsquo;s NHL dominance for a full decade.Park and Lafleur were finesse players. In their prime their fluid skating, intelligent play and exhilarating rushes captivated a generation of hockey fans. As memories fade so does it seem, these cards&rsquo; appeal.John Cullen (No. 8). Mark Messier (No. 9) and Pat LaFontaine (No. 11 &rsquo; also have something in common&mdash;uncertainty. Can Cullen enjoy the same success in Hartford as he did in Pittsburgh? Will Messier and Lafontaine find new homes and continue to be dominant players? Are their careers on the rise or in decline? The answers will be reflected in hobby stores and in card shows across North America.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2>1. ERIC UNDROS (4)2. THEOREN FLEURY (5)3. WAYNE GRETZKY (6)4. JAROMIR JAGR (NR)5. BRETT HULL (3)6. ED BELFOUR (NR)7. SERGEI FEDOROV (10)8. OPC PREMIER (1)9. JEREMY ROENICK (8)10. JARI KURRI (NR)11. PHIL ESPOSITO (NR)12. PRO SET CC (NR)<h2>PENALTY BOX</h2>1. 1990-91 PRO SET (11)2. BERNIE NICHOLLS (9)3. RON HEXTALL (2)4. JIMMY CARSON (6)5. BILLY SMITH (NR)6. LARRY ROBINSON (10)7. WENDEL CLARK (NR)8. JOHN CULLEN (7)9. MARK MESSIER (8)10. BRAD PARK (NR)11. PAT LaFONTAINE (NR)12. GUY LAFLEUR (NR)Number in parenthesis is last season&rsquo;s final ranking. &#9632;

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CANADA CUP THEME TO SEASON’S FIRST LIST

<div class="byline">BY CW STAFF</div>A Boynton Beach, Fla., card dealer said he sold a mint-condition Bobby Orr rookie card for $10,000. Rick Kohl, president of Strike Zone Co., sold the1966-67 Topps card to Ft. Lauderdale-based collector Jacob Harding. It&rsquo;s believed no hockey card has ever been sold for more. The Collectors World Price Guide lists the Orr rookie card at being worth $1,500 in near-mint condition. Kohl recently sold a Mickey Mantle 1952 Topps card for a record $58,000.<h2>TOUR STOPS</h2>Pro Set&rsquo;s NHL Tour called &rsquo;&rsquo;A Celebration of Hockey&rdquo; will stop in New York Nov. 9-10 and in Los Angeles Dec. 14-15. The New York show will be held at The Show Piers in Manhattan at 48th St. and 12th Ave. The Los Angeles show will be held at Anaheim Stadium, home of baseball&rsquo;s California Angels. Tour director Bob Cycon of Tower Show Productions said each person attending a show will receive a limited-edition Tour commemorative card from Pro Set. This is the second year of the Tour, which had shows this past spring in St. Louis and Detroit&hellip;Pro Set also announced a series of projects to help the NHL celebrate its 75th Anniversary. Pro Set, the official card of the 75th Anniversary, will give away sample packs of cards at each team&rsquo;s opening game.<h2>SCORE 10</h2>Score is making special cards of IO of the NHL&rsquo;s best players and including them in their 100-card blister packs. The 10 &ldquo;Hot Cards&rdquo; will feature different designs, photographs and text compared to Score&rsquo;s regular hockey cards. The players featured are Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Brett Hull, Eric Lindros, Adam Oates, Theoren Fleury, Jaromir Jagr, Sergei Fedorov. Jeremy Roenick and Ed Belfour Only one card will be included in each blister pack, which will contain 100 regularly-issued Score cards. Shipping of the blister packs begins next month.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011997/10275431-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg" title="f0018-01" width="633" height="717"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull is one of 10 stars featured in a special Score set.</figcaption></div><h2>CHICAGO PICKED</h2>The hobby&rsquo;s biggest event has been awarded to Chicago for 1993. The decision to hold the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago was made last month after voting done by qualified members of the NSCC. St. Louis was the other city under consideration to host the event which will be held in McCormick Place July 22-25. The 1992 National will be held July 8-12 in Atlanta at the World Congress Center.<h2>CUP COIN</h2>An Illinois-based company which minted coins for NHL division, conference and final winners, is producing a limited number of Canada Cup coins. Chicagoland Processing Corp., minted 24,000 coins, each one showing the Canada Cup logo on one side and the respective country&rsquo;s logo on the other. A total of 10,000 coins were made for both Canada and the United States. One thousand coins were minted for each of the other four countries. The Canada Cup coins sell for $39.95 each. Also available are 250 numbered, six-piece coin sets featuring each of the participating countries. These sets sell for $300. &#9632;

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RECORD PRICE PAID FOR ORR ROOK IE CARD

<div class="byline">RAND SIMON</div>It&rsquo;s going to be one interesting&mdash;and confusing&mdash;winter for hockey card collectors. Not to mention expensive.After last season&rsquo;s record numbers, the major card manufacturers are continuing their bigger-is-better philosophy with their 1991-92 cards. In addition, four non-NHL licensed companies are producing draft pick/prospect sets for release early in the season, (For more on the draft pick controversy and the four new companies&mdash;Arena Holograms, Classic, Smokey&rsquo;s and Star Pics&mdash;please see pages 20-22.)Once again Pro Set is the first company to hit the market with its product. But unlike last season, this was no rush job as errors were virtually negligible. Pro Set was the one company to actually decrease the size of its set. The Dallas-based company made 345 cards in its Series 1 after producing 405 last season. Four Collectible Cards, numbered CC1 to CC4 were randomly inserted in foil boxes. The cards show the 1991 draft, Patrick Roy&rsquo;s mask, Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer. In addition, Canadian boxes of Pro Set may contain one of 1,000 signed Patrick Roy cards. (For more on Pro Set Series I, please see the review on page 26.)But that doesn&rsquo;t mean Pro Set&rsquo;s total card count will be down. On the contrary, because Pro Set is making two more sets this season. Following the lead of Upper Deck a year ago, Pro Set is making an entirely French edition due out by the start of the season. Last year, Pro Set had some bilingual information on its card backs, but this season, the regular Pro Set version is English only. French Pro Set will be produced in much smaller numbers than the English edition.But Pro Set didn&rsquo;t stop there. Again, following the trend toward the production of more expensive cards, Pro Set is making a Platinum series for hockey. It will be along the lines of Pro Set&rsquo;s Platinum football series with better quality photos and lower production numbers.No company believes in the bigger is better philosophy more than Score. Maybe that&rsquo;s why they were so determined a year ago to sign up 6-foot-5, 225-pound Eric Lindros.After stunning the hobby with a 900-card baseball set (plus 110-card update series), Score&rsquo;s hockey department had quite a challenge to meet. And they did. But Score&rsquo;s various versions make things so confusing, you may need a mathematics degree from an Ivy League school to make sure you don&rsquo;t miss out on any cards.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-011739/10275476-1-eng-US/f0019-012.jpg" title="f0019-01" width="627" height="852"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-021290/10275469-1-eng-US/f0019-022.jpg" title="f0019-02" width="619" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Different photos of 100 players highlights Score&rsquo;s two versions.</figcaption></div>For starters, there&rsquo;s a 400-card American and 330-card Canadian version. Both versions come in poly-packs and there&rsquo;s a factory set for the American issue.As we&rsquo;ve come to expect from Score, the set is full of subsets, including top prospects, franchise players, brothers, the 1,000-point club and a six-player dream team.As an added bonus&mdash;and a marketing technique to entice collectors to buy both versions&mdash;Score used different photos for what it determined to be the game&rsquo;s top 100 players.A second Canadian series of 330 cards will come out during the season. It will serve to include players missed in the first series, traded players and rookies. For the American version, 110 of those cards will be released as a boxed update set.To make matters more confusing, is making two versions of its Canadian issue. One is English only, the other is bilingual.A couple of unexpected setbacks threw a wrench into Upper Deck&rsquo;s plans but don&rsquo;t expect that to cause the most popular hockey card company any major problems.Deals with both Don Meehan (representing top picks from the 1991 entry draft) and the United States Olympic Team fell through at the last minute forcing Upper Deck to find an additional 30 or so cards for its 500-card Low Number Series.What Upper Deck will have which no one else will is cards from the Canada Cup. It certainly didn&rsquo;t hurt Upper Deck that Canada and the United States made it to the tournament final.Upper Deck has also improved what were its two weakest points last season&mdash;the team checklist cards and the hologram cards. A new artist who is more in tune with hockey will do the 22 team checklist cards and the holograms are vastly improved over last season&rsquo;s models which were nearly impossible to make out. The hologram series is a nine-card award winner set.Once again Upper Deck is making English and French editions of both the Low and High Number Series.O-Pee-Chee and Topps haven&rsquo;t released any details yet on what they&rsquo;re doing this season.What is known is that both companies will again make additional sets. O-Pee-Chee will produce a Premier series while Topps will try again making a Bowman set. Topps will also enter the high-class card market with a 300-card Topps Stadium Club Series.While it&rsquo;s not official yet, look for both companies to make roughly the same number of cards they did last year&mdash;528 for O-Pee-Chee and 396 for Topps. O-Pee-Chee is also expected to continue its somewhat popular Soviet series by making cards for three more teams.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0019-03876/10275462-1-eng-US/f0019-032.jpg" title="f0019-03" width="3427" height="2019"></div> &#9632;

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THIS YEAR’S THEME: BIGGER IS BETTER

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN ALLEN</div>Major card companies entered a high-stakes competition to sign draft choices only to discover that agent Don Meehan held all the cards.The Toronto-based Meehan and his partner, Patrick Morris, brokered one of the more innovative deals in collecting history when he brought together most top draft picks&mdash;with Eric Lindros as the most important exception&mdash;and sold them as one package to card companies.The deal had mixed consequences for card collectors who concentrate on rookies.* The good news is four nonlicensed companies&mdash;Smokey&rsquo;s of Las Vegas, Arena Holograms from Orange, Calif., Michigan-based Star Pics and Classic Cards of Cherry Hill, N.J.&mdash;will print what is expected to be high-quality rookie sets.* The bad news is collectors can expect few rookies in the their wax (and poly and foil) packs from licensed companies&mdash;Bowman, O-Pee-Chee, Pro Set, Score, Topps and Upper Deck.Meehan actually completed a deal to allow Upper Deck exclusive rights to his flock of draft picks for licensed sets. But Upper Deck agreed to do it only if it had the blessing of the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. Both objected.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011751/10275528-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="636" height="882"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bob Goodenow said no to Upper Deck&rsquo;s exclusive deal.</figcaption></div>Licensed companies have to pay for players who aren&rsquo;t union members. They belong to the NHLPA as soon as they sign a contract and appear in a regular-season or playoff game. Under the terms of licensing, Bowman, O-Pee-Chee, Pro Set, Score, Topps and Upper Deck have only the rights to print NHLPA members. Individual deals must be worked out to include non-NHLPA players in licensed sets.The objections raised by the league and NHLPA center on the idea that exclusivity flies in the face of cooperative spirit of licensing.Upper Deck declined comment on the situation.&ldquo;There was potential for tremendous disruption of our system,&rdquo; said Bob Goodenow, executive director of the NHLPA. &ldquo;Other card companies could come to us and say what are you doing sanctioning exclusivity all of the sudden?&rdquo;Meehan, initially unhappy with the NHLPA stand, said he understands its position.&ldquo;I think Bob has some legitimate concerns,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;I understand that if they allow one company to have draft choices it would be to the detriment of the other companies.&rdquo;Goodenow said the card collecting boom realistically is in its infancy and the position of the NHLPA and the league will probably have to be more clearly defined.&ldquo;The business isn&rsquo;t mature enough yet to make any determination of what will happen,&rdquo; Goodenow said.Lindros&rsquo; deal with Score already put exclusivity in the industry. NHL sources say Lindros was allowed to be included with NHLPA players last season because the league hadn&rsquo;t yet started to realize the significance of exclusivity. His appearance in this year&rsquo;s Score set is now considered allowable under what could be called a &ldquo;grandfather clause.&rdquo;There are no complaints from the non-licensed companies particularly Smokey&rsquo;s and Arena&mdash;each taking its first giant step in card production.&ldquo;The whole thing went great,&rdquo; said Bill Watson, president of Arena Holgorams. &ldquo;If I could lock in right now for next season I would do it.&rdquo;The real winners in Meehan&rsquo;s deals are the draft choices, who shared the approximate $800,000 total package Meehan and Morris negotiated from the four non-licensed companies.The highest draft picks received the most money, with San Jose Sharks&rsquo; right winger Pat Falloon, the No. 2 pick in the draft, pocketing about $50,000 (US). Players on the lower end got about $3,000.Meehan rejected three other companies who wanted to make draft pick sets. &ldquo;We didn&rsquo;t want to saturate the market,&rdquo; he said. The previous year&rsquo;s draft picks received a token amount of about $100 from Score.&ldquo;We were surprised how the negotiations went,&rdquo; said Classic spokesman Steve Charendoff. &ldquo;Mostly because there has never been a deal done like this before.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021245/10275521-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="1316" height="1258"><figcaption class="caption-body">Four new hockey card companies paid Pat Falloon close to $50,000.</figcaption></div>Classic had previously done draft card sets in baseball, basketball and football and Charendoff said this was by far the costliest in terms of acquiring rights to players.&ldquo;In no other sport has there ever been a central body that controlled all the players,&rdquo; Charendoff said. &ldquo;It was more expensive, but in one respect it was easier because it was one-stop shopping.&rdquo;Classic went two steps further to improve its draft pick set: The company made a deal with Score and Lindros to include him in its set. Classic also got a license from the Canadian Hockey League, allowing the draft picks to be pictured in their junior uniforms.Smokey Scheinman, 25, president of Smokey&rsquo;s Sportscards, said he didn&rsquo;t mind paying top dollar to get players.&ldquo;I think players have been ripped off all these years,&rdquo; Scheinman said. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mind paying, even if I have paid more than anyone has in the last 30 years. If I&rsquo;m making money and I&rsquo;m making a quality product, the manufacturer is happy and the end consumer is happy why shouldn&rsquo;t players and agents be happy?&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-011403/10275514-1-eng-US/f0021-012.jpg" title="f0021-01" width="1383" height="1413"><figcaption class="caption-body">Classic is the winner in the Eric Lindros sweepstakes.</figcaption></div>Classic isn&rsquo;t revealing what price it paid for Lindros&rsquo; rights. Scheinman said he was offered Lindros&mdash;at a price of $225,000&mdash;but declined because Score already has printed his rookie card. Arena&rsquo;s offer of $150,000 for Lindros was rejected.Meehan represented 10 first-round draft picks, including Falloon, Scott Niedermayer and Scott Lachance, who were picked second, third and fourth, respectively.&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t get along with Don Meehan, you&rsquo;ve lost 10 guys right off the top,&rdquo; Watson joked. &ldquo;Actually, the price was high, but when you consider what it would have cost us in having to chase down 33 players for pictures, it was still a good deal.&rdquo;The effect on the new card market isn&rsquo;t expected to be disastrous because the rise in set value that normally results from rookie escalation could come from increased value of second-year cards this season. The second-year cards of stars such as Ed Belfour, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr, Jeremy Roenick and others will still make the sets attractive.The licensed companies are not in a panic over the situation. &ldquo;We are still the only licensed company with Eric Lindros in our sets,&rdquo; said Score&rsquo;s director of hockey Jon Kramer.The non-licensed sets are expected to be in demand this fall. Smokey&rsquo;s sold out in 24 hours and Arena soldout before production began, too. Classic also expects little trouble selling out.&ldquo;Hockey is showing the fastest growth of any of the four major sports,&rdquo; said Don Hutson, Smokey&rsquo;s vice president of marketing.Meehan said another reason Upper Deck gave for not signing his draft picks was that Pro Set printed cards of Falloon and Niedermayer without authorization.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0021-02910/10275507-1-eng-US/f0021-022.jpg" title="f0021-02" width="645" height="1463"><figcaption class="caption-body">Don Meehan masterminded the greatest deal in collecting history.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;They felt that hurt the value of their set, so we are seeking legal action against Pro Set,&rdquo; Meehan said.Is this a precedent-setting deal that paves the way for draft choices uniting every year to sell themselves as a group to card companies?&ldquo;We hope so,&rdquo; Meehan said. &ldquo;But we don&rsquo;t know what could intervene before next season. The rules may change.&rdquo;There has been widespread speculation the NHLPA and the league may forbid all non-NHLPA players from appearing in sets which include union members. However, Goode-now said he hasn&rsquo;t considered that.But that would make things simpler for the card companies. Upper Deck had to scramble to fill several spots in its set when it didn&rsquo;t get the draft pick rights. Score also originally expected to have more than a dozen draft pick cards and had to make last-minute changes to its series.Look for the NHLPA to push for some changes. After all, how happy can it be that non-NHLPA members like Falloon are making $50,000 while NHLPA members receive nowhere near that much? &#9632;

f0020-01

LICENSED COMPANIES LOSE OUT ON DRAFT PICKS

<div class="byline">&#x2014;Kevin Allen</div>Here&rsquo;s a look at the four nonlicensed companies offering draft pick hockey sets this fall. For each of them it is their first year of producing hockey cards. Since the companies aren&rsquo;t licensed, NHL team logos and nicknames can&rsquo;t appear on the cards.<h2>ARENA HOLOGRAMS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011635/10275566-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg" title="f0022-01" width="623" height="839"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Falloon is all dressed up with somewhere to go in Arena&rsquo;s se.t</figcaption></div>Company resume: Family business out of Orange County, Calif., run by Bill Watson, 23.Main course: Thirty-three card set, including first and second-round players, with one player (Yanic Perreault) from the third round. Arena is printing 198,000 sets in its American version and 99,000 French sets. (These sets are not bilingual, they are French only.)Garnish: Ail players are dressed in tuxedos. &ldquo;Our idea is that collectors should be able to recognize the player off the ice,&rsquo;&rsquo; Watson said.Extras: One card featuring Pat Falloon and Scott Lachance together.Dessert: One Falloon Hologram card with every set. Each player has autographed 1,000 cards, which will be randomly inserted. The average is about one per every seven sets.Previous experience: Arena has finished production of a five-card superstar hologram set that includes Detroit Lions&rsquo; Barry Sanders, San Francisco 49ers&rsquo; Joe Montana, Chicago White Sox&rsquo; Frank Thomas, Seattle Mariners&rsquo; Ken Griffey Jr., and San Antonio Spurs&rsquo; David Robinson.<h2>CLASSIC</h2>Company resume: Classic is a subsidiary of The Scoreboard, Inc., a successful retail and wholesale outfit from Cherry Hill, N.J.Main course: The 50-card draft set has Eric Lindros as its headliner. Classic hasn&rsquo;t finalized final set count, but previous football issue had 365,000 sets all numbered. The basketball set had 330.000 all numbered. There is some consideration being given to issuing some wax packs. The company is also changing the borders from previous sets to improve photo quality. "Garnish: Classic obtained a license from the Canadian Hockey League so it can have action photos with players in their junior uniforms. It is the only one of the four companies to obtain a license from any league.Dessert: No need for dessert with Lindros on menu, but set also includes Alexei Kovalev, Zigmund Palffy, Sandis Ozolnich and other Europeans not in most other sets. Classic is considering random insertion of autographed cards and is also contemplating a bonus card of some sort.Previous experience: Classic did draft choice sets in football and basketball and is doing baseball. Signing Lindros fits Classic&rsquo;s pattern&mdash;it signed Rocket Ismail for its football set.<h2>SMOKEY&rsquo;S</h2>Company resume: Smokey Scheinman, 25, who formed his own company when he was 11, moved to Las Vegas to start Smokey&rsquo;s in 1988.Main course: The Ultimate Series is a 90-card set featuring players all the way to the fifth round. There are 120,000 sets available in the American version and 15,000 in the French version. Smokey&rsquo;s is also producing 1,500 cases of foil packs. Each pack will contain six cards. All sets and cases are numbered. In early August, Smokey&rsquo;s sold out product in less than 24 hours.Garnish: All players dressed in Smokey&rsquo;s red and white uniforms. Their uniform number will correspond with their draft position.Extras: State-of-the-art anti-counterfeit measures include special paper stock that when shown under black light reveal dots verifying card&rsquo;s authenticity. The U.S. government has been reviewing this method to thwart money counterfeiting.Dessert: There will be two sweepstakes cards randomly inserted entitling holder to a Falloon jersey autographed by every player in the set. There will be 15 autographed cards of every player randomly inserted.Previous experience: In May, Smokey&rsquo;s issued a promo card of No. 1 National Basketball Association draft pick Larry Johnson, a former Nevada-Las Vegas basketball star. It was a very popular item at the National Sports Collectors Convention in<h2>STAR PICS</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-021180/10275559-1-eng-US/f0022-022.jpg" title="f0022-02" width="623" height="858"><figcaption class="caption-body">Star Pics cards will show players in uniforms without logos.</figcaption></div>Company resume: A collectible sports and entertainment card manufacturer based in West Bloomfield, Mich.Main course: The company&rsquo;s first hockey card venture will be a 72-card series featuring mainly players chosen in the first three rounds of the 1991 draft. Star Pics is making 225,000 sets and shooting for a release date of Nov. 8.Garnish: Players will be dressed in full uniforms. Some will be wearing practice uniforms, while European players will be in the uniforms of their country. Some uniform logos may have to be airbrushed out. All photos will be in action.Extras: Two special six-card subsets called Flashbacks and Hall of Famers. The Hall of Fame subset will be written by former player Gary Bergman. The Flashbacks subset features six current NHL stars&mdash;Ed Bel-four, Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr, Adam Oates, Mike Ricci and Mats Sundin&mdash;and gives a brief career history of each player.Dessert: A limited number of fully autographed sets are expected to be included among the production run.Previous experience: In addition to producing draft pick and prospect sets for basketball and football. Star Pics has also done non-sports cards such as ones for the cult television show Twin Peaks. &#9632;

f0022-01

FOUR NEW ENTRANTS TO HOCKEY CARD MARKET

Dimension Design and Promotions Group are pleased to announce that they will be staging &ldquo;Hockey Expo &rsquo;91&rdquo; from Nov. 1 to 3, 1991 at the Metro East Trade Centre conveniently located just minutes east of Metro Toronto at Highway 401 and Brock Rd., in Pickering.Featuring free parking, the three-day extravaganza promises to be a hockey feast for attending fans, players and parents who will meet to celebrate all aspects of the world&rsquo;s fastest game. There will be more than 150 corporate and card dealer exhibitors participating in this year&rsquo;s show.Hockey Expo &rsquo;91 show features include free skate sharpening courtesy of Cag-One with each admission. Simply leave your skates with the sharpening attendant and pick them up when you leave the show. Your daily pass will also entitle you to numerous features, including:* Free Pro Set hockey card giveaways.* Free show programs/On-Ice Magazine.* Free autographs from hockey legends.* Free goaltending clinics with Ian Young and Boni Goalie-Trainers.* Free entry for draw in Marlin Travel&rsquo;s trip for two to the NHL All-Star Game.* Free off-ice training and fitness centre.* Free seminars and clinics.* Free sports injuries centre.* Free Dinamo Sports Shooting Range.* Free sports reacting testing.* And much, much more!This year&rsquo;s show will be hosted by veteran broadcaster and author, Brian McFarlane, who will oversee each day&rsquo;s festivities that revolve around daily show themes.Friday, Nov. 1 is &ldquo;A Tribute to Minor Hockey Day&rdquo; featuring &ldquo;Mr. Hockey,&rdquo; Gordie Howe and the ever-popular Don Cherry, who will appear courtesy of Quality Video. Don will be signing copies of his new video, Rock&rsquo;em Sock&rsquo;em Hockey III.Saturday, Nov. 2 will be &ldquo;Hall of Fame Day&rdquo; featuring four Hall of Fame superstars of hockey&mdash;Bobby Hull, Jean Beliveau, Gordie Howe and Darryl Sittler.Sunday, Nov. 3 will feature &ldquo;Stars of the 1960s.&rdquo;Call the Hockey Expo &rsquo;91 recorded information line as the show approaches for a complete list of celebrities including the 1960s stars of hockey who will be attending.Each day at the show, you can visit the Hockey Hall of Fame Exhibits and have your picture taken with the Stanley Cup. See the latest hockey products, watch hockey demonstrations, view hockey film classics and attend hockey seminars. You can test your shot at the Dinamo Sports Shooting Range. See the latest in licensed products, hockey services and test your skills in numerous contests including a trip to the 1992 All-Star Game in Philadelphia, courtesy of Marlin Travel.Each day there will also be off-rink demonstrations courtesy of NHL goaltender consultant Ian Young and Boni Goalie Trainers, who will demonstrate the recently leased &ldquo;Pro Screen&rdquo; along with re Boni Puck Shooting Machines, or memorabilia collectors, there will be &ldquo;The Hockey News Collects World,&rdquo; featuring 80 tables of top collectors from around the country. There will also be daily memorabilia auctions for your participation.Plan now to attend this year&rsquo;s special hockey event&hellip;Hockey Expo &rsquo;91 at the Metro East Trade Centre (Brock Rd., just north of the 401) from Nov. 1-3, 1991.For further information regarding the Expo itself, call the recorded information hotline at (416) 427-7021.Show dates and times: Friday Nov. 1 (12 noon to 10 p.m.); Saturday Nov. 2 (10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and Sunday Nov. 3 (9 a.m. to 6 p.m.).If you wish to inquire about exhibitor space remaining, you can contact Bill Main at (416) 4271957. Card dealers can contact Rob Buckley at (416) 447-2549 for space in Collectors World. &#9632;

SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE AT HOCKEY EXPO ’91

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>Long-term interest in any hockey card set is usually determined by the success of the rookies within the set. Furthermore, sets are often referred to by the key rookie in the set. For example, there&rsquo;s the &ldquo;Wayne Gretzky&rdquo; set of 1979-80 and the &ldquo;Brett Hull&rdquo; set of 1988-89.Which brings us to 1991-92 Pro Set, the first of this season&rsquo;s cards to hit the hobby. And what will collectors be calling this set in the future? Probably not much since the only three rookie cards in the entire 345-card issue are of Bill Berg. Alexei Gusarov and Jeff Lazaro. It&rsquo;s the fewest number of rookies in any NHL set since the 1961-62 Parkhurst issue which had two, including Dave Keon. Part of the problem is that all companies are issuing second sets during the hockey season which covers off most of the rookies. But Pro Set should take a cue from the other card companies and include prospect cards.After a mistake-filled rookie season, Pro Set left lots of room for improvement. While Series I of Pro Set&rsquo;s second edition isn&rsquo;t overly exciting&mdash;or rookie-laden&mdash;it is an enormous improvement over last season&rsquo;s effort.The set includes 13 player cards from last season&rsquo;s 21 teams, 44 all-star cards, two Stanley Cup cards, seven trophy cards, five San Jose Sharks&rsquo; cards, 13 historic cards, one educational card of the Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; Guy Carbonneau and four limited-edition special collectible.It&rsquo;s those special collectible cards, numbered CCI to CC4, which have attracted the most interest among col-lectors. The randomly-inserted cards elude unauthorized ones of 1991 first-round draft picks Pat Falloon of is Sharks and Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils. Agent Don Meehan, who represents the two players, said legal action has been taken against Pro Set for making cards of the two players.However, since both Falloon and Niedermayer appeared in last seal&rsquo;s Upper Deck High Number series, the cards aren&rsquo;t even rookie cards.Last season&rsquo;s Series I issue brought the Dallas-based card company much embarrassment when it was discovered more than one-quarter of the cards contained an error of some sort. Several cards showed wrong player photos while others had wrong statistics and biographical information. This season&rsquo;s edition kept errors down to the bare minimum. An initial examination of the cards revealed no wrong player photos.Pro Set&rsquo;s biggest mistake comes in the design of the card fronts. A large black bar about half-an-inch from the bottom of the card and extending across nearly the entire width of the card is very obtrusive. The bar covers players&rsquo; sticks and skates and often the puck. Otherwise, the no-border card fronts are an attractive idea which provides a much larger photo image..There are several differences from last season&rsquo;s issue. The card fronts no longer include the player&rsquo;s position and sweater number. This change prevented any duplication of one of last season&rsquo;s biggest mistakes by Pre Set&mdash;-listing one position on the from and another on the back.But the biggest changes come or the card backs which are much easier to read and provide better information. Like last season&rsquo;s cards, statistics are provided for the last four sea sons, but they include career totals not just the totals for those four sea sons. Another welcome change is that someone at Pro Set figured out how to compute goaltenders&rsquo; career goals against averages.The most intriguing card is can No. 345, which has a message from Carbonneau on the back telling col lectors to play smart by not drinking and driving. Carbonneau details how he lost his license after being charge, with driving under the influence of alcohol. Pro Set is to be commended, for using the popularity of sportscards to educate.But when rating the set, it&rsquo;s hard to ignore the fact Alexei Gusarov is the best rookie. That is the biggest fault of Pro Set Series I. For all the cosmetic improvements in the cards, the company failed to increase the collectibility of them by making more rooki cards. &#9632;

NICE SET, BUT WHERE ARE THE ROOKIES?

<div class="byline">BY HERB ZURKOWSKY</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011451/10275669-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"></div>What else would you expect from a guy who talks to his goalposts?If Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; goaltender Patrick Roy is somewhat bizarre as an adult, you should have seen him as a child. If nothing else, he had a fertile and vivid imagination.Like every kid, Roy collected hockey cards. It&rsquo;s what Roy did with those cards that set him apart. He taped those cards to the figures on his table hockey game. Once he finished, the game began&mdash;complete with play-by-play commentary.Today, nearly 20 years later, cards still set Roy apart.Roy is part of a growing list of NHL players who collect them. But unlike players such as Minnesota&rsquo;s Brian Bellows, Toronto&rsquo;s Dave Reid, Detroit&rsquo;s Allan Bester, New York&rsquo;s Darren Turcotte and Winnipeg&rsquo;s Pat Elynuik, who collect as a business, Roy does it strictly for pleasure.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t do this to make money,&rdquo; said Roy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll probably never sell. I&rsquo;ll give my cards to my son (Jonathan) when I die. I&rsquo;ll do it until I&rsquo;m tired of it. It brings me back to younger times.&rdquo;Roy estimated there are 75,000 cards in his collection, which he figured is worth approximately $50,000.Just as Roy will pass his collection onto his son, so too did Roy&rsquo;s father, Michel, instill the bug that would become a life-long passion onto the future NHL superstar.Roy remembers his father presenting him at age 14 with his first set of hockey cards: the 1951-52 Parkhurst set&ldquo;I always loved cards,&rdquo; said Roy. &ldquo;1 started collecting before that, but he gave me a little push. I was really surprised that he had that set. When you&rsquo;re 14 you don&rsquo;t get as impressed as right now, but I nonetheless was still happy. I put the cards in a safe place so I wouldn&rsquo;t lose or break them&rdquo;Roy couldn&rsquo;t name a favorite card Hit of the set.&ldquo;I really liked the (Gordie) Howecard because he and Maurice Richard were Mr. Hockey,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;The same for Jean Beliveau.&rdquo;That might have been the end of the story. But early in the 1986-87 season, Roy&rsquo;s second in the NHL, he purchased an O-Pee-Chee set, compete with his rookie card.&ldquo;I was in Winnipeg and everybody wanted to see my card,&rdquo; he remembered. &ldquo;I was excited.&rdquo;That card is worth about $40 today. &rsquo;But I don&rsquo;t make comparisons,&rdquo; Roy said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just happy to have a card.&rdquo;And that card started something that became as habitual to Roy as stopping pucks.What followed was a frenetic five-year buying spree.Roy has complete NHL sets of cards for every season since 1986-87. But that wasn&rsquo;t enough. He branched out into baseball and even golf. Roy has complete sets of major league baseball cards dating back to 1975.Although he generally purchases in sets, Roy occasionally will buy an individual card he covets.His favorite is Ty Cobb&rsquo;s 1914 Hassan card. Roy paid $1,000 for it and it&rsquo;s his most valuable with an estimated worth of between $1,500 and $2,000.Roy has Mickey Mantle&rsquo;s 1966 Topps card, which he received for free. He estimates it&rsquo;s worth $200. And he has a Jose Canseco rookie card, which he purchased for $50 but he said is listed on the market now at between $125 and $150.Only recently, because of his passion for golf, has Roy sought out stores which sell that sport&rsquo;s cards.He collects all companies&rsquo; cards, but said Pro Set and Upper Deck are his favorites because of the picture clarity. Coincidentally, Roy has a promotional deal with Pro Set&rsquo;s Canadian distributor. Victory Productions, which saw him autograph 1,000 cards this season for boxes of Pro Set cards distributed in Canada.Roy can also take credit for turning several of his Montreal teammates onto card collecting, most notably Mike McPhee, who started last year because of Roy.&ldquo;I started going to card shops and it became addictive,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always collected something, from matchbooks to beer bottle caps, and 1 enjoyed looking at cards. It&rsquo;s amazing that a small piece of cardboard can be worth so much.&rdquo;For now, McPhee said he collects cards for fun and as a hobby. However, he also sees it as an investment for his children&rsquo;s future.McPhee collected all five different companies&rsquo; complete sets of NHL cards last year and is attempting to collect sets dating back to 1983-84, the season he turned pro.He also stocked up on individual rookie cards of hot prospects Eric Lindros, Sergei Fedorov and Jaromir Jagr.McPhee bought seven Lindros Score cards, at $5 apiece, which are now valued at between $17 and $20, and as many as 15 of Fedorov from the Upper Deck and O-Pee-Chee Premier series, which were purchased for $2. Fedorov&rsquo;s Premier card is now worth about $30.As for McPhee&rsquo;s own O-Pee-Chee rookie card from the 1985-86 set, it&rsquo;s listed at just 30 cents. But in Halifax, not far from McPhee&rsquo;s home in Sydney, dealers are demanding anywhere from $7 to $10.&ldquo;1 enjoy collecting,&rdquo; said McPhee. &ldquo;My wife makes fun of me and she thinks it&rsquo;s boring. But it&rsquo;s a nice sidekick, going into stores and looking at the prices when you know what they should be. Of course, when you&rsquo;re a player, you can get a better deal.&rdquo;Another Canadien, Stephan Lebeau, is into his third year of collecting. He started in 1988-89, when he played his first NHL game. He estimates his collection&rsquo;s worth at $10,000.&ldquo;I wanted to collect something,&rdquo;he said. &ldquo; One day I bought two packs of cards. An hour later I returned to the store and bought the whole set. I started from there. It was fun and Pat rick introduced me to stores on the I road.&ldquo;Maybe I&rsquo;ll pass my collection to my children, or maybe I&rsquo;ll sell it. For now, it&rsquo;s fun to collect cards. For me hockey is my sport. It has been my life since I was young.&rdquo;Lebeau has purchased each company&rsquo;s complete sets the last two years and is in the process of buying I yearly sets dating back to the 1970s. However, realizing there&rsquo;s money to be had, he has been stockpiling a collection of Gretzky cards.Lebeau estimated he has more than, 300 Gretzky cards alone, including five rookie cards worth between $500 and $1,000 apiece.That pales in comparison to-Lebeau&rsquo;s Upper Deck rookie card, which is worth about 50 cents. However, in his native Sherbrooke, the card commands triple the price.But for Roy, McPhee and Lebeau it&rsquo;s the love of the game more than the love of money which fuels their passion for collecting hockey cards. &#9632;

f0027-01

PATRICK ROY

<div class="byline">RAND SIMON</div>One look at this month&rsquo;s Price Guide beginning on page 37 will tell you it was a volatile summer for the hockey card hobby. Since we last published in June, it seems nearly everything has gone up in price. That&rsquo;s surprising since summer is traditionally a slow time for the hobby. Here are some highlights from this month&rsquo;s Price Guide:* Bobby Hull&rsquo;s rookie card has passed Bobby Orr&rsquo;s as the second most valuable of all-time. Hull&rsquo;s 1958-59 Topps card has risen $350 to $1,750 in under four months. Since it&rsquo;s the last card in the 66-card set, it is especially tough to find in near-mint condition as it was the last card in many collector&rsquo;s boxes and took a lot of wear and tear. Orr&rsquo;s 1966-67 Topps card held steady at $ 1,500.* A lot of Hull&rsquo;s popularity has to do with the attention his son, Brett, is receiving. Brett Hull&rsquo;s 1988-89 rookie card is up to $ 125 from $ 110 in June. The first THN Collectors World, published last November, had Hull&rsquo;s card valued at $38.50 and the set listed at $100. Now the set is listed at $225.* Like Bobby Hull, another former Chicago Blackhawk is popular with collectors these days. Stan Mikita&rsquo;s rookie card is up $100 to $600 in this month&rsquo;s listing. The set, 1960-61 Topps, has risen from $1,300 to $1,450.* The set to experience the biggest increase in price was the 1954-55 Topps issue. The first Topps set went up $450 to $3,750. Although it only contains one rookie card (Doug Mohns), it has the second-most valuable card in the hobby&mdash;a $1,950 Gordie Howe card. All but two of the 60 cards in the set went up in value.* Last season&rsquo;s hottest issue, O-Pee-Chee Premier, continues its meteoric rise. The set value nearly double in the summer, going from $95 to $185. Foil boxes did even better, improving from $150 to $325. Only five of the 132 cards in the set failed to gain in price. Sergei Fedorov&rsquo;s card continues to lead the way and is up $15 to $35. But no one&rsquo;s card increased more than Jaromir Jagr&rsquo;s which went from $7.50 to $22.50. &#9632;

IT WAS ONE HOT SUMMER FOR THESE CARDS

<div class="byline">BY DAN WOOD</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0035-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-011438/10275793-1-eng-US/f0035-012.jpg"></div>On Sept. 6, the day the Soviet Union&rsquo;s new government officially recognized independence of the three Baltic republics, Latvian goaltender Artur Irbe skated in his first NHL practice with the San Jose Sharks.That the culmination of a five-decade struggle by Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania for freedom from Soviet control coincided with Irbe&rsquo;s arrival in the NHL was a double dream come true for him.The 24-year-old native of Latvia&rsquo;s capital city, Riga, had been very outspoken in support of Latvia&rsquo;s independence drive. He took part in antiSoviet demonstrations during the January invasion of Latvia by Kremlin-run forces, after which he refused to rejoin the Soviet national team.Had the August coup attempt been successful, Irbe&rsquo;s dream of an NHL career might very well have been stilled.&ldquo;You have to recognize that this is not just an athlete, but a person of extremely sound conviction of character,&rdquo; said Michael Barnett of the International Management Group, which represents Irbe. &ldquo;In spite of being offered the starting position for last year&rsquo;s World Championships, he chose not to participate purely because of his political beliefs when he knew full well that playing in that tournament would have immensely helped his negotiating position with his NHL team.&rdquo;Irbe already had a resume plenty impressive for the Sharks. After selecting Irbe&rsquo;s NHL rights from the Minnesota North Stars&mdash;who had drafted him in the 10th round of the 1989 entry draft&mdash;in the May 30 dispersal draft, San Jose general manager Jack Ferreira dispatched assistant general manager Dean Lombardi and director of player personnel Chuck Grillo to Riga.&ldquo;Jack told us not to come back until we get him,&rdquo; Grillo said the day of the draft.Little did the Sharks know how much difficulty Irbe would have leaving the Soviet Union. After lengthy and sometimes frustrating discussions, Barnett and Lombardi had ironed out nearly every detail of a contract and Irbe was set to come to the United States when Communist hard-liners attempted to overthrow Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev Aug. 18.Irbe woke up to find tanks in the streets of Riga, the airport closed and his hockey future, if not his personal one as well, in limbo. Even after order was restored a few tense days later, Irbe and IMG representative Paul Theofanous had to go through mountains of red tape to obtain travel visas for Irbe&rsquo;s wife, Ilze, and the couple&rsquo;s 14-month-old daughter, Anita.It could have been much worse, however.&ldquo;If the coup had been successful,&rdquo; Irbe said through an interpreter at a Sept. 3 news conference upon his arrival in California, &ldquo;I&rsquo;d probably be on a train to a gulag encampment somewhere rather than coming here to play hockey.&ldquo;If I hadn&rsquo;t gotten a visa to come to the United States, I probably would have had two options. 1 could have given up hockey, or (the Soviet hockey federation) would have wanted me to publicly denounce my political ideals. I don&rsquo;t know what I would have done. Hockey is my life. I might have been working in a factory.&rdquo;His Dynamo Riga coaches, Irbe said, had already gotten word that should their club have reached the Soviet national championships, &ldquo;no way should my name be on that roster.&rdquo;Despite being just 5-foot-7 and 180 pounds, there is no question about Irbe&rsquo;s abilities, at least in the international arena. In five seasons with Dynamo Riga, Irbe&rsquo;s goals-against average was below 3.00 each season, with a best of 2.42 in 1989-90. The year before he was named the Soviet league&rsquo;s top rookie. He was named the top goaltender in the tournament when he led the Soviets to the gold medal in the 1990 World Championships..Still, there is doubt whether Irbe can make the adjustment to the NHL, where goalies must become comfortable on smaller ice surfaces and often venture from the net to cut down shooting angles.&ldquo;I remember only one European goaltender who played here&mdash;Pelle Lindbergh,&rdquo; Irbe said.The Sharks believe there are a number of reasons why Irbe won&rsquo;t join the forgettable list of other foreign goalies who have been NHL failures.&ldquo;First of all, he&rsquo;s young,&rdquo; said San Jose coach George Kingston. &ldquo;Secondly, he had the opportunity of playing for the Soviet national team in international competition. He has seen the Canadian and American players and seen the style of play that we normally have here. Then the other factor is he has played against the NHL in North American rinks. That accelerates the learning curve.&rdquo;Irbe, who faces competition from nine-year veteran Brian Hayward and talented prospects Jeff Hackett and Jarmo Myllys in the Sharks&rsquo; camp, was 6-5-0 against NHL competition in USSR-NHL Super Series play from 1988-90.The most important thing working in Irbe&rsquo;s favor, however, might be inside him.&ldquo;He has had an intense desire to join the National Hockey League,&rdquo; Kingston said. &ldquo;It seems like he&rsquo;s really happy to be here.&rdquo;No wonder, it sure beats working in a factory.Long before anyone was thinking about who would be playing goal for the San Jose Sharks this season, Artur Irbe made his hockey card debut in an NHL set.In fact, Irbe was the only non-NHL player to appear twice in the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee issue. Irbe was not only a part of the special 22-card Central Red Army insert set, he also appeared on a card as a member of the Dynamo Riga club.Irbe will become the third player&mdash;after Sergei Fedorov and Dimitri Khristich&mdash;from the Red Army set to appear in the NHL. But he won&rsquo;t be the last. Eleven of the 17 players in the insert set have been drafted by NHL clubs, including Valeri Kamensky who would be with the Quebec Nordiques now if it wasn&rsquo;t for a broken leg suffered in a Canada Cup pre-tournament game.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0035-021025/10275786-1-eng-US/f0035-022.jpg" title="f0035-02" width="665" height="848"></div>Irbe&rsquo;s card has yet to get much attention from collectors. But playing on the expansion Sharks will give Irbe a lot of exposure and the opportunity to draw collector interest. If Irbe has any success at all in San Jose, you can be sure his card won&rsquo;t be listed in the Price Guide for 35 cents much longer.The Irbe Checklist: 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee: No. 501, 7R. &#9632;

f0035-01

IRBE

<div class="byline">BY RICK CARPINIELLO</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011477/10275831-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"></div>The kid with the slightly spiked hair leaned against a concrete wall in the basement of the Glens Falls Civic Center and talked as if he&rsquo;s just another rookie trying to make the team.Yeah, right.Tony Amonte is that way. He said he hasn&rsquo;t spoken with New York Rangers&rsquo; coach Roger Neilson. He said he&rsquo;ll play anywhere to make it to the NHL.But Rangers&rsquo; GM Neil Smith, you can be sure, didn&rsquo;t open his wallet and lure Amonte from an Olympic dream last spring to have the talented left/right winger not make his team. Amonte, at the age of 21, is in the Rangers&rsquo; immediate plans. And we don&rsquo;t mean Binghamton&rsquo;s.Over the early parts of the summer, in fact, Neilson speculated that one interesting line might be Amonte, Bernie Nicholls and Mike Gartner. Amonte, a left-handed shot who played right wing in a stellar two-year career at Boston University, would have to move to the left side to alleviate a glut on the Rangers&rsquo; right wing, and strengthen a weakness on the left.&ldquo;It doesn&rsquo;t matter at all,&rdquo; he said about the switch. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been playing both sides and I&rsquo;m fairly comfortable on either side. I&rsquo;ll take a spot on either side if I can play in the NHL.&rdquo;Then his eyes crinkle into a smile when he&rsquo;s told about the Amonte-Nicholls-Gartner line.&ldquo;I wouldn&rsquo;t mind that,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It would be great to play with a center like that.&rdquo;The right-handed Nicholls, too, might benefit from having a speedy, jump-into-the-holes left winger with good hands and great moves. That was something Nicholls didn&rsquo;t have last year.The line, obviously, could make things happen. That would be nothing new to Amonte. In high school, at the Thayer Academy in Braintree, Mass., Amonte played right wing with a kid named Jeremy Roenick.&ldquo;Really?,&rdquo; Neilson asked. &ldquo;In hioh school? Who was the left winger? No matter who it was, it must have been a pretty good team.&rdquo;It was a kid named Dan Green, who went on to play Division II college hockey. The scouts came to see Roenick and couldn&rsquo;t help but see Amonte.The question Amonte always has to answer is about comparisons between the two.&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t compare to him,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;That&rsquo;s the answer to that question. Jeremy&rsquo;s a great player; he&rsquo;s unbelievable. He&rsquo;ll stick his nose in anywhere, and he doesn&rsquo;t care who is there. He plays the game at full speed all the time.&rdquo;Amonte plays it at a pretty good tempo, as well, with a certain zest for the physical part and the involvement where scorers don&rsquo;t normally dare go. So here comes another question&mdash;who&rsquo;s faster?&ldquo;He&rsquo;s faster than me,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to play like him.&rdquo;Neilson said, &ldquo;he reminds me more of a guy like Mark Recchi. But Amonte&rsquo;s a pretty intense guy. You know Roenick is, and I think Amonte is of the same ilk.&rdquo;Amonte took off, scouts say, after playing in the Goodwill Games last summer. His stats at Boston U. (30 goals and 36 assists for 66 points in 38 games) were only up slightly from his freshman year (25-33-58 in 41 games), but those who saw him say he became a dominant player as a sophomore.&ldquo;Before last year,&rdquo; Amonte said, &ldquo;I started gaining some weight and I was feeling a bit better, so I had a really positive attitude.&rdquo;Indeed, his hat trick against Clarkson in the NCAA Final Four put the Terriers into the championship game. The title game against Northern Michigan turned into a shootout, and with the score dead even at 7-7 and two seconds left, Amonte found himself alone with the puck on a break. He fired.&ldquo;If I keep it on the ice, we win the game,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;I put it only five inches off the ice, and he reaches down and gloves it. I&rsquo;d love to have that one back.&rdquo;Goalie Billy Pye&rsquo;s glove sent the game into overtime, and eventually Northern Michigan won the crown in triple overtime.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t even really think about it,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;But it would have been great to win it like that.&rdquo;Soon after, Amonte, drafted in the fourth round of the 1988 entry draft, was signing with the Rangers in time for the playoffs. He had two assists in two playoff games against Washington, including one on a power-play goal just a few shifts into his NHL debut.&ldquo;That takes a little pressure off, because I know a little bit about what to expect now,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m still fighting for a spot on the roster, but the adjustments aren&rsquo;t too, too bad. The guys are bigger and faster, and the game is faster, too. But I like a fast game myself. It helps a bit when you&rsquo;re going full speed the whole time.&rdquo;When you do, collisions happen.&rsquo;&rsquo;That&rsquo;s okay,&rdquo; Amonte said. &ldquo;That comes with the game. If you give some hits, you&rsquo;re going to get some hits.&rdquo;And some attention. Roenick got it that way. Recchi got it that way. It is now Amonte&rsquo;s tum.Tony Amonte is one of three highly-touted rookies trying to make an impact this season with the New York Rangers. Whether it&rsquo;s Amonte, Doug Weight and/or Steven Rice who emerges this season, they have a recent tradition of Ranger rookie success to carry on.The last three seasons have seen Brian Leetch, Darren Turcotte and Mike Richter contend for the Calder Trophy. Leetch won the award in 1988-89 while Turcotte and Richter both had excellent rookie campaigns. Amonte appears to have the best chance to carry on the tradition.The Rangers are deep on the right side&mdash;Rice&rsquo;s position&mdash;and at center&mdash;where Weight plays. But left wing, where Amonte will likely play, is the weakest position on the team.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-021002/10275824-1-eng-US/f0036-022.jpg" title="f0036-02" width="599" height="816"></div>The card companies are well aware of Amonte&rsquo;s potential impact. Both Score and Upper Deck are including the speedy, 6-foot, 180-pound Amonte in their top rookie subsets. If Amonte contributes the way the Rangers are hoping, he&rsquo;ll also make cardboard appearances in second sets with the other companies.The Amonte Checklist: Score American; No. 398; Score Canadian: No. 288; Upper Deck: No. &#9632;

f0036-01

AMONTE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0037-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0037-011296/10275981-1-eng-US/f0037-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011431/10275974-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="1908" height="1036"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-011029/10275967-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="1911" height="1032"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01957/10275960-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="1923" height="1069"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01839/10275953-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="1906" height="1035"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01751/10275946-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="1929" height="1047"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0049-01523/10275939-1-eng-US/f0049-012.jpg" title="f0049-01" width="1716" height="1860"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01526/10275932-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="1633" height="1850"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0051-01393/10275925-1-eng-US/f0051-012.jpg" title="f0051-01" width="1746" height="1890"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01407/10275918-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="1606" height="1829"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01372/10275911-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="1736" height="1890"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01393/10275904-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="1626" height="1870"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0055-01345/10275897-1-eng-US/f0055-012.jpg" title="f0055-01" width="1706" height="1850"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0056-01323/10275890-1-eng-US/f0056-012.jpg" title="f0056-01" width="1586" height="1850"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01301/10275883-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="1706" height="1880"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01326/10275876-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="1656" height="1870"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0059-01258/10275869-1-eng-US/f0059-012.jpg" title="f0059-01" width="1706" height="1860"></div><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-01276/10275862-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="671" height="1180"></div> &#9632;

f0037-01

PRICE GUIDE

In a little boy&rsquo;s secret hiding place, in a 75-year-old house we bought in North Bay, Ont., we found a hockey card of Normie Himes. Do you know anything about this card or what it might be worth?I. MillerSudbury, Ont.Normie Himes had several cards in pre-World War II sets. His most valuable card is No. 21 in the VI29 set of 1933-34 and is listed at $80 in Vol. 1. No. 6 of Collectors World. He also had cards in the following sets: 193334 Ice Kings (No. 44, $50); 1933-34 Canadian Chewing Gum (no number. $50); 1933-34 O-Pee-Chee Series A (No. 29, $50); and 1936-37 World Wide Gum (No. 92, $60).Can you please tell me who appears on the Bowman Hat Trick No. 3 card? After opening one box of Bowman hockey, I had a complete set except for Hat Trick card No. 3.1 have visited every card shop in the city and can&rsquo;t find the card anywhere. Was it short printed like some of the cards in the 1964-65 Topps set?Doug Yovanovich Richmond, B.C.Richmond, B.C.As far as we know, the card wasn&rsquo;t short printed. Card No. 3 is of Rob Brown and is a common worth no more than a nickle.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-012571/10276036-1-eng-US/f0006-012.jpg" title="f0006-01" width="626" height="839"><figcaption class="caption-body">One reader just can&rsquo;t find Rob Brown&rsquo;s Hat Trick card.</figcaption></div>My question concerns Mark Messier and his 1981-82 O-Pee-Chee card & It lists him as shooting right. To the best of my knowledge, he shoots left and has done so his entire career. Does this constitute an uncorrected error card or did Messier in fact change from a right-hand to a left-hand shot and in the process increase his goal output by 27?Karsten PetersenPrince George, B.C.Factors other than switching hands must have contributed to Messier&rsquo;s sudden burst from 23 goals in 1980-81 to 50 in 1981-82 as he never shot righthanded. All Messier cards from that year list him shooting the wrong way and are worth $30.Could you please tell me what a complete set of 1970-71 Dad&rsquo;s Cookies hockey cards is worth?Louis W. CheffyColumbus, OhioThe complete set of Dad&rsquo;s cards is worth approximately $200, although very wide price variances have been reported on this set. At the National card show in Anaheim, Calif., some dealers were selling the set for as low as $70. While the cards are usually found as a set, the most valuable individual cards are of Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull.I found in my set of Bowman hockey cards that on Montreal Canadiens&rsquo; defenseman Petr Svoboda&rsquo;s card is a photo of his former teammate, Chris Chelios. Are the stats on the back Svoboda&rsquo;s or Chelios&rsquo;?Pat RossRedvers, Sask.Although the photo is of Chelios, the statistics on the back are Svoboda&rsquo;s. The error went uncorrected by Bowman so the card is worth the common price of a nickle. Bowman made one other photo flop when it put Chicago Blackhawk Duane Sutter on Al Secord&rsquo;s card&mdash;Sutter didn&rsquo;t have a card. It also went uncorrected and is worth no more than a nickle.I have nine cards from a 1977 O-Pee-Chee set of 22 that have pictures of the players as well as autographs. They include Guy Lafleur, Jean Ratelle and Gerry Cheevers. What would the value of these be?Susan HuttonBrookside, N.J.In near-mint condition, the complete set is worth only $8. The most valuable card is one of Ken Dryden, which is worth $1.50. There are two variations of these cards, as some have rounded corners while others don&rsquo;t. There is no difference in the value of the variations.Given that Terry Sawchuk is card No. 31 in both the Parkhurst sets of 1960-61 and 1961-62, how can I tell which of these series my card comes from? I have enclosed a photocopy for your perusal.Harry G. MurrayLondon, Ont.Your card is from the 1960-61 set. The easiest way to tell is that series of cards has no design in the background on the front. Cards from 1961-62 have team logos in the background behind the player&rsquo;s photo. Otherwise, the cards from the two years look very similar.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 100 Don Mills, Ont. M3B 2R2 &#9632;

f0006-01

SECRET HIDING PLACE REVEALS VALUABLE CARD

The last thing I want to do in the first issue of the new hockey card season is to be the bearer of bad news, but there are some serious concerns as the hobby continues to grow.As the economy is failing to turn around as quickly as many predicted, we find ourselves with less disposable income than ever before. For the baseball card business, this past summer was a dismal one. The main reason is that there is much too much product on the market. The same problem is threatening the hockey card industry.Collectors simply don&rsquo;t have enough money to buy everything that&rsquo;s out there. The result in baseball was that collectors ignored many of the regular baseball card issues and spent their money on the high-end cards. The same thing could very well happen in hockey where O-Pee-Chee, Pro Set and Topps are all making more expensive cards to go along with their regular issues. Score is also reported to be considering a new line of cards.Add to that the four non-licensed companies producing draft pick sets and collectors will have more than a dozen sets of NHL players to collect. That number grows close to 20 if you add in the French versions produced by Pro Set, Score and Upper Deck and the update series of cards made by these three companies.Where is this all going to end? A worst-case scenario would see some of the companies getting out of the hobby, sending collectors back to the Dark Ages of collecting that we knew so well only two seasons ago.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-021756/10276067-1-eng-US/f0006-022.jpg" title="f0006-02" width="633" height="869"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAND SIMON</figcaption></div>A more likely consequence could be the card companies choosing to cease production of their regular cards and only making the more expensive ones. That would drive many people out of the hobby leaving only the investors to buy the cards. As soon as collecting becomes too expensive for kids, the hobby could well take a serious fall.To blame the card companies wouldn&rsquo;t be entirely accurate. They don&rsquo;t sell the cards to dealers at a high price, it&rsquo;s the dealers who are responsible for the high markup. Of course, you can&rsquo;t blame a dealer&mdash;or anyone else&mdash;for selling something for what the public is willing to pay for it. Besides, often dealers can&rsquo;t get product directly from the card company or distributor and must pay a higher price themselves.The main reason why a certain issue of cards becomes more expensive has to do with production numbers. If a company produces a limited amount&mdash;such as the reported 650 cases of Upper Deck French High Number hockey&mdash;the price will skyrocket even before it hits the market. The only way to prevent such rapid inflation would be to print more cards, but that doesn&rsquo;t make sense because if there&rsquo;s too many&mdash;like last season&rsquo;s Pro Set Series I&mdash;they sit unsold on store shelves.So, what is the answer? Well, as much as the card companies don&rsquo;t want to hear this, the solution may lie in them making their production numbers public. Currently, the public has no idea how much product has been made by each company. By the time it becomes apparent that a product may be scarce, it may be too late for the average collector to afford it.Meanwhile, well-connected dealers and investors with inside information are busy hoarding product in warehouses to create an artificial scarcity. Many reliable sources believe that is what happened with O-Pee-Chee Premier. If we knew how much was made, that situation would not have been possible and packs of cards with a suggested price of 50 cents would not be selling for $12.I&rsquo;m not sure what the licensed companies are afraid of. After all, each of the four non-licensed hockey card companies entering the market this season are making their numbers public. Each of them has potentially more to lose as the companies are making similar products in a very competitive market. But each company believes its product will sell based on quality, not quantity of production. The licensed companies should have the same confidence so that everyone can afford to buy their cards. &#9632;

f0006-02

RANDOM THOUGHTS

Quick now, name the Soviet player with a rookie card last season who scored the most non-power play points in 1990-91. If you think it&rsquo;s Sergei Fedorov, guess again. The answer is Buffalo Sabres&rsquo; right winger Alexander Mogilny.The 22-year-old Mogilny scored 64 points in his sophomore season, with just eight coming on the power play. Fedorov, who scored 79 points, recorded 27 with the man advantage. Furthermore, Fedorov played 15 more games than Mogilny, who missed time with a pulled groin and a separated shoulder. With Sabres&rsquo; power-play specialist Rick Vaive turning 32 last May, look for Mogilny to get more time on the power play and rack up some impressive numbers.The good news for card collectors is that Mogilny&rsquo;s cards have yet to shoot up in value the way Fedorov&rsquo;s have. While Fedorov&rsquo;s cards are in the $6-to $35-range, Mogilny&rsquo;s are a bargain at 50 cents to $3. In fact, Mogilny&rsquo;s rookie cards are only the 11th most valuable in last season&rsquo;s Upper Deck set.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0006-031049/10276098-1-eng-US/f0006-032.jpg" title="f0006-03" width="624" height="804"><figcaption class="caption-body">ALEX MOGILNY</figcaption></div>None of this is to suggest that Mogilny is a better player than Fedorov, but he looks like the better investment. With the Sabres relatively weak on the wings. Mogilny appears to be a shoo-in for work on the No. 1 line and power-play units this season.Still not convinced about Mogilny, who has yet to put it all together in his two-season career? Consider this: His second-half scoring pace of last season would&rsquo;ve netted him 52 goals over an 80-game season. Mogilny accomplished that by scoring 19 times in his final 29 games. A remarkable feat, especially considering he only scored two of those goals with the man advantage.There are more numbers which indicate Mogilny is ready for a breakthrough season. As he enters his third season, Mogilny should be more mature and better prepared to produce on the road as well as he has at home. In 30 road games last season. Mogilny scored just seven times; he scored 23 goals in 32 home games&mdash;that&rsquo;s 58 goals over an 80-game season. &#9632;

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Collector's World 0201

THE GOLDEN OLDIES AT TOP OF HIT PARADE

FOOTBALL CARD WARS RAGE OVER ROCKET

POSTER

MCCOURT COMPENSATION WAS FOR VACHON, NOT DIONNE