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Collector's World 0203

The Hockey News Collector's World 0203

&rsquo;T is the season to buy new I cards. Yes, every year for a period of about two months, the only cards that sell are the ones just off the press.Back in the days when we had only two hockey card companies (no, not the early &rsquo;60s with Parkhurst and Topps, but the late &rsquo;80s with O-Pee-Chee and Topps), those months were January and February. Now. hockey cards come out barely after the first puck is dropped.New card hysteria has peaked in November with Topps, Score English, Score bilingual. Pro Set I and O-Pee-Chee already out. Soon to follow: Bowman, Upper Deck, the Ultimate, -Star Pics, Arena Holograms, Classic. Pro Set Platinum and Score American. Then later in the season, there&rsquo;s O-Pee-Chee Premier. Topps Stadium Club, Upper Deck High Numbers, Pro Set II and Score Canadian Series II.Budgets and patience alike are strained acquiring the plethora of traditional and debut product this year. Add binders and sheets and who can afford anything else?One result of this annual money migration is that demand for pre-1992 products dies. There is no money and little interest in vintage material this time of year. Add the fact the average shop owner or dealer needs cash to fuel the new card juggernaut, the result is big deals on old cards.This is the time to fill those older sets. Dust off your mid-&rsquo;70s want list. Try negotiating for that &rsquo;69-70 Tony Esposito rookie or that last Orr card you need in &rsquo;72-73. Even last season&rsquo;s product is suddenly negotiable.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011574/10220504-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="630" height="784"><figcaption class="caption-body">Jeremy Roenick rocketed to eighth on the Power Play list.</figcaption></div>All you have to do is fight that urge to have everything right now. Sure some sets are going to go up, but all of them? It doesn&rsquo;t look like it. Regardless of how &ldquo;limited&rdquo; a print run or how scarce a promo card is, it is doubtful it is as limited or scarce as a &rsquo;50s, &rsquo;60s or &rsquo;70s issue. There surely won&rsquo;t be as many mint cards around from those decades as there are today.Remember that production was geared to a much, much small market prior to 1980. Of those cards produced many were destroyed or damaged. Many others have found their way into permanent homes in collections.Also remember what happened last hockey card season. After collectors bought all the new stuff they wanted, they turned to older material. Pre-1991 cards starting rising in value at a rapid rate last Januray. Now may be the time to buy before the prices start rising again.Vintage cards were considered good investments in 1989. Since then, prices have skyrocketed some 300 per cent. Vintage cards are still a good investment, especially right now when everyone else is looking at the new stuff.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2>1. WAYNE GRETZKY (1)2. JAROMIR JAGR (4)3. JEREMY ROENICK (8)4. THEOREN FLEURY (2)5. SERGEI FEDOROV (5)6. BRETT HULL (3)7. JARI KURRI (7)8. ERIC LINDROS (6)9. LUC ROBITAILLE (NR)10. OWEN NOLAN (NR)11. DRAFT PICK SETS (12)12. OPC PREMIER (10)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking.<h2>PENALTY BOX</h2>1. 1990-91 PRO SET (1)2. BERNIE NICHOLLS (10)3. JOHN CULLEN (5)4. RON HEXTALL (2)5. BILLY SMITH (3)6. BRAD PARK (7)7. GUY LAFLEUR (8)8. WENDEL CLARK (11)9. PAT LaFONTAINE (4)10. JIMMY CARSON (6)11. ED BELFOUR (NR)12. PRE-1992 ISSUES (12)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking. &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

DO YOU REALLY NEED TO BUY EVERYTHING NEW RIGHT NOW?

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0036-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011462/10220645-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">PAT LaFONTAINEBUFFALO SABRES</figcaption></div> &#9632;

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POSTER

<div class="byline">BY MATT NICHOLLS</div>For more than 12 NHL seasons, Wayne Gretzky has captivated fans with his artistry on the ice. And now, the Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; center is helping to create artisitic magic off it.Gretzky, The Sports Network hockey commentator Gary Green and Karhu Canada&rsquo;s Bob Leeder have joined forces to create Performance Art Inc., a Toronto-based company that plans to market 99 hand-painted Gretzky sticks to commemorate the 1991 Canada CupDeemed &ldquo;the ultimate collectible&rdquo; by company president Green, each stick will be painted in acrylic by Canadian artist Steve Houston.The sticks feature two images of Gretzky in his Canada Cup uniform: A celebratory portrait with his arms raised over his head; and a pensive portrait of the Great One keenly watching the action.Houston has created other collectibles using sports equipment. Earlier this year, he painted a base to celebrate Oakland A&rsquo;s star Rickey Henderson&rsquo;s 939th theft which broke Lou Brock&rsquo;s major league record of 938. He also painted an NBA basketball&mdash;with a collage of Chicago forward Michael Jordan&mdash;in celebration of the Bulls&rsquo; NBA championship.Given the limited distribution of the Gretzky stick, memorabilia hounds will pay dearly to get their hands on one. The sticks carried a pre-market price of $5,000 each, but Leeder said the actual shelf price will be closer to $7,000.The majority of the sticks have already been purchased by corporate buyers, but Toronto-based Legends of the Game bought 20 and will sell them when they&rsquo;re produced. It takes Houston approximately two days to complete one stick.To ensure authenticity, each stick will be signed twice by Gretzky in indelible black ink and stamped by the NHL and the NHL Players&rsquo; Association. All sticks will carry the Canada Cup logo.&ldquo;As stupid as that price sounds, it makes a lot of sense because they are a limited collectible,&rdquo; Leedersaid. &ldquo;In an era when you see cards and all types of paraphernalia going up in price&mdash;and who knows how many of those cards are limited edition&mdash;we&rsquo;ll make sure our products are limited edition. It&rsquo;s pretty hard to duplicate a hand-painted stick, plus a seal of approval, plus a signature.&rdquo;Gretzky became interested in the project in August when Leeder took a prototype model to a Canada Cup practice. An avid collector, Gretzky was taken by the idea of creating the ulitimate collectible&mdash;an item that would be the center-piece of a collector&rsquo;s personal shrine.&ldquo;I pulled out the stick and he wouldn&rsquo;t take his eyes off it,&rdquo; Leeder said. &ldquo;(Team Canada coach Mike) Keenan had sent Gretzky up in the stands to scout the team and here he was showing this thing to his Dad. He told Walter, &rsquo;Now this is really something.&rsquo;&rdquo;While the Gretzky project is the main focus for Performance Art Inc., the company plans to market similar commemorative sticks of Pittsburgh Penguin Mario Lemieux, St. Louis Blues&rsquo; sniper Brett Hull and Canadian Olympic team member Eric Lindros. Like the Gretzky model, the Lemieux, Hull and Lindros sticks will be limited edition models&mdash;66 of Lemieux (his jersey number), 88 of Lindros (his jersey number) and 86 of Hull (the number of goals he scored last year). Performance Art has approached each player and his agent, and a production schedule is in the works.If you can&rsquo;t get your hands on one of the sticks this time round, don&rsquo;t fret. Another Gretzky stick could be on the market next season, provided the Kings win the Stanley Cup; or&mdash;heaven forbid-&mdash;hockey&rsquo;s greatest Picasso retires. &#9632;

HAND-PAINTED STICK THE ’ULTIMATE’ COLLECTIBLE

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE HEPBURN</div>Now appears to be the time to pick up a vintage card or two. There seems to be a lull in the retail business for cards and some vendors will be willing to part with items at a reduced rate. It may be a temporary lull, so collectors may find it advantageous to shop now.Various factors could be the main reason for this mini-slump. The likely culprits are: the recession; a decline in collecting interest; the gap between the current baseball and hockey issues; or a glut of dealers, shows, stores and cards.Despite the phenomenal growth in the number of collectors, the number of dealers, shows and card manufacturers has exceeded the demand. It is likely that some of the newer dealers with low cash flow will be unable to keep up with the new product and will go out of business or be forced to sell items that don&rsquo;t sell quickly&mdash;such as vintage cards.The dealer whose speciality is vintage cards is likely a part-time dealer or someone who has enough cash flow that he doesn&rsquo;t need to sell his older cards to raise the cash for cases of the newest product. It&rsquo;s the new store or dealer wath a small inventory with some vintage cards that is the most likely candidate for a below-guide purchase.The market may correct itself with a decline in the number of shows, dealers and hopefully, the number of card issues. If this correction occurs, the opportunity for deals might not last long.Not content to spread apprehension in the newer card market, the issue of counterfeit cards has reared its ugly head in the vintage area.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m getting tired of hearing people ask if my cards are real,&rdquo; said Dwayne Broad of Legends Sports Cards in Kingston. Ont. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve got a mint star card, people ask if it&rsquo;s real.&rdquo;There&rsquo;s no reason to believe there&rsquo;s widespread counterfeiting of vintage cards and that man&rsquo;s suspicious nature combined with the news of the recent O-Pee-Chee Premier forgeries has led to paranoia on the part of some.There are a number of experts in the area of printing who say they can authenticate cards without damaging them. Among those are: the Canadian Conservation Institute, the RCMP Forensic Science Laboratory, the National Research Council and the conservation branch of the National Archives.All say this can be done but they are permitted to perform the procedures only on items in the public archives. In other words, a private collector doesn&rsquo;t have access to the proof the hobby needs to kill this counterfeit beast.Perhaps there&rsquo;s a role here for an entrepreneur or a sports card association. A service that would allow the collector to prove his or her cards are authentic is a business whose time has come.I recently purchased five mint VI29 (1933-34) cards and the first thing my friends asked me is if they were real. Give me a break. Am I not supposed to buy perfect cards? Help!Collectors World readers from across the U.S. and Canada have provided a number of reported sales through the survey published in the November issue (Vol. 2, No. 2). The following is a list of some of these sales. Information includes card, year and company, condition and price in Canadian funds.&#9733; Terry Sawchuk, 1951-52 Parkhurst, near mint, $800.&#9733; Commons, 1951-52 Parkhurst, mint, $25.&#9733; &ldquo;Boom Boom&rdquo; Geoffrion, 1951-52 Parkhurst, near mint, $450.&#9733; Tim Horton, 1954-55 Parkhurst, near mint-mint, $50.&#9733; Gordie Howe, 1954-55 Parkhurst, near mint-mint, $600.&#9733; Jacques Plante, 1955-56 Parkhurst, excellent plus, $275.&#9733; Maurice Richard, 1958-59 Parkhurst, very good. $40. &#9632;

SLOW MARKET MEANS TIME RIGHT TO BUY

Recently I discovered some hidden treasures of my childhood, including some Shirriff coins which were inserted in Jell-O dessert products. Some of the ones I have are of Gerry Cheevers, Phil Esposito, Larry Jeffrey, Skip Krake and Bill Flett. Do you have any information in regards to these coins?John D. SpriggsWindsor, Ont.Produced in 1968-69, the complete set of 175 coins was listed in the Summer issue (Vol. 1, No. 8) of Collectors World as being worth $4,000. Some of the coins were severely short-printed, including the ones of Carol Vadnais, Garry Jarrett and Howie Young which listed for $400 each. Two of the ones you have&mdash;Jeffrey and Krake&mdash;were also short printed. The Jeffrey coin listed at $200. the Krake at $40. Common coins were listed at $6 each.With four new non-NHL licensed companies entering the hockey card market this season, will their draft pick cards be considered rookie cards, even though the companies are unlicensed?Marshall YarmusRichmond Hill, Ont.Using our rookie card definition, a player&rsquo;s rookie card is his first card in an NHL set. Otherwise, virtually every player who breaks into the NHL would have a rookie card before he got to the NHL with all the minor league and junior hockey cards produced today. Generally cards from non-NHL sets are referred to as pre-rookie cards, some of which have become quite valuable over time. Some of the players in the sets made by Arena Holograms, Classic, Smokey&rsquo;s and Star Pics did have cards in the Upper Deck High Number Series last season which included members of the Canadian national junior team.Could you tell me why your Price Guide lists the 1987-88 Adam Oates&rsquo; rookie card as him being with the St. Louis Blues. Didn&rsquo;t he play for the Detroit Red Wings his first four seasons?Ray RutzOak Lawn, III.You are correct, Oates should be listed as being with the Red Wings since that is the uniform he&rsquo;s wearing on the 1987-88 card. The team beside the player&rsquo;s name in the Price Guide should indicate the team the player was on when the card was made.As a new collector, I am unclear on the exact meanings of the following terms: factory set, hand-collated set, wax box and foil box. Can you give me the definitions of those terms to help me in determining how to buy cards?John MuiseEast Boston, Mass.A factory set is the complete set of cards which is put together at the factory of the card manufacturer. It often comes in a decorative box and is usually sealed. A hand-collated set is a complete set which is put together by the dealer from packs or vending boxes. A wax box and foil box is the same thing; a box of packs of cards. The only difference is that some companies package their cards in wax packs, other in foil packs. There is usually 36 packs to a box.I recently purchased a pack of 1991-92 Pro Set hockey cards which contained a Kevin Hatcher card. On the back of his card is a picture of Derrick Thomas of the National Football League&rsquo;s Kansas City Chiefs. Is this a common error? If not, is it worth something or is it just another case of being worth whatever someone will pay for it?J. ByersAllen Park, Mich.While we haven&rsquo;t heard of any other cases of that particular card, Pro Set is infamous for wrong-backs and having other sports-cards appearing in foil packs of hockey cards. Wrong-backs usually sell for a few dollars, with regional factors often weighing heavily on oddball cards such as the one you own.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012441/10220180-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="645" height="881"><figcaption class="caption-body">Benoit Hogue was a lifetime Sabre until a trade to the Isles.</figcaption></div>I just bought a set of Pro Set hockey cards and saw that on the back of Benoit Hogue&rsquo;s, it says he played for the Winnipeg Jets. I thought he was always with Buffalo. What other errors are there in Pro Set Series I hockey?Gary AntinoreBergen, N.Y.First of all, you are right, Hogue had played his entire NHL career with Buffalo until his Oct. 25 trade to the New York Islanders. However, Pro Set didn&rsquo;t correct this error so the card has no extra value. As far as other mistakes go, we haven&rsquo;t heard any yet from our readers.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;

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CHILDHOOD TREASURES SOME SERIOUS COIN

Okay, I admit it. I&rsquo;m a hockey card geek.In fact I&rsquo;m quite proud to say I spend some of my free time going to card shows, sorting through my cards and trading. I haven&rsquo;t always been a hockey card geek, mind you. It has really only been in the past year that I find myself spending so much time on the hobby.When you&rsquo;re a hockey card geek and when hockey cards play such a big part of your life, it&rsquo;s only natural to have things you like and things you dislike about the hobby. I have a list that could fill this page, but I&rsquo;ll keep it down to about 500 words.So here it is, some of my likes and dislikes about the hockey card hobby.Like: Opening a 1989-90 Topps wax pack and getting rookie cards of Brian Leetch and John Cullen and a second-year card of Brett Hull.Dislike: Opening an older wax pack and having the gum stick permanently to the first card.Like: The best-looking set of all-time, 1954-55 Topps.Dislike: The worst-looking set of all-time, 1973-74 O-Pee-Chee.Like: Seeing the expression on a young person&rsquo;s face when he gets an autograph from his hero at a card show.Dislike: Seeing the expression on a young person&rsquo;s face when he is told that gold-bordered card of Eric Lindros he paid $20 for is a worthless, unlicensed reproduction.Like: Uncut card sheets.Dislike: The cost of framing uncut card sheets.Like: Flipping through my badly damaged cards from the mid-&rsquo;70s and remembering all the great marble hockey games I played with them as a kid.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021876/10220211-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="646" height="963"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAND SIMON</figcaption></div>Dislike: Seeing my 1977-78 Bobby Orr card, which is near mint except for one small problem&mdash;I crossed out his name and wrote Doug Wilson&rsquo;s under it.Like: Pinpointing Adam Oates as Tip of the Month when his card was worth $4.50. It now lists for $50.Dislike: Pinpointing Mark Pederson as Tip of the Month when his card was worth 10 cents. (It still is.)Like: That O-Pee-Chee stepped into the modern era last season with its Premier series.Dislike: Counterfeit cards of Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr and Jeremy Roenick from that Premier series. There is unconfirmed speculation more fakes exist. It&rsquo;s possible the enitire 132-card sheet was illegally reproduced.Like: Subsets which include non-NHL players such as those from the World Junior Championships and the Canada Cup.Dislike: Subsets which do little more than give us yet another card of Wayne Gretzky or Brett Hull.Like: Player bios on card backs.Dislike: Card backs which are nothing but statistics.Like: Bilingual cards because I can usually understand the rather simple French on them.Dislike: When companies make French cards for no reason other than to make more money.Like: Sets that go up in value because the players in the set are playing well.Dislike: Sets that go up in value only because of their relative scarcity.Like: Autographed cards.Dislike: Hearing people say an autograph on a card devalues it.Like: The fact the players are finally cashing in on the big business of hockey cards.Dislike: The big business of hockey cards kept many first-round draft picks out of the NHL-licensed sets.Like: When sets come out before the season starts.Dislike: When sets come out months into the season and so many cards become out-of-date thanks to trades.Like: Getting that last card to complete the set.Dislike: Getting five Garth Butcher cards before getting that last card. That&rsquo;s what happened last season when all I needed to complete my Score set was Nelson Emerson and couldn&rsquo;t find him anywhere. &#9632;

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

<div class="byline">PETER BONDRA</div>Unlike most Europeans who make their way to the National Hockey League, Peter Bondra never starred for his national team. That&rsquo;s because the Sovietbom Bondra grew up in Czechoslovakia and was not a citizen of that country and could not play for the national team.So when Bondra arrived last August to play for the Washington Capitals, he was a virtual unknown to hockey fans. He was a total unknown to the card companies, all of which excluded him in their first sets of 1990-91. But by the time the companies made their second sets, they all knew who he was.Bondra was drafted in the eighth round of the 1990 entry draft from the Kosice team in Czechoslovakia. A left-hand shot, he split last season between center and right wing and has played most of 1991-92 on the right wing.He had a great start last season, scoring nine times and adding 11 assists in 26 games. But then he slumped terribly, recording just four points in his next 20 games&mdash;none of them goals. In fact, he went from Dec. 7 to Feb. 24 without scoring. He finished with 12-16-28 totals in 54 games. He appeared in just four of the Capitals&rsquo; 11 playoff games, recording one assist.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031337/10220242-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="647" height="881"></div>The 23-year-old Bondra enjoyed success right from the start of this season. He scored twice opening night in a 5-2 win over Philadelphia and finished October with a team-leading nine goals. His 16 points in 13 games were one fewer than Dale Hunter&rsquo;s total.Bondra&rsquo;s cards, while not the hottest in the hobby, are getting a lot of collector interest. The listed value of his cards ranges from 50 cents (Pro Set) to $2 (O-Pee-Chee Premier).The Bondra Checklist: 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier: No. 7: Pro Set: No. 645; Score: No. 7 IT; Upper Deck: No. 536; 1991-92 Bowman: No. 299; O-Pee-Chee: No. 362; Score: No. 216; Upper Deck: No. 131. &#9632;

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TIP OF THE MONTH

<div class="byline">BY CW STAFF</div>Bowman hockey is back for its second year and with it marks the return of playoff cards.For the first time since O-Pee-Chee made playoff cards in 1980-81, the post-season will be recaptured on cardboard.Bowman is making a card for each round of the playoffs leading up to the Stanley Cup finals and a card for each game of the final. In all there are 21 playoff cards, including one marking Mario Lemieux as the winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy.The Bowman set in 1991-92 is 429 cards, up from 264 last season. A subset of cards honoring the 12 players who recorded more than one hat trick last season is included as part of the regular set.Other than the playoff and hat trick cards there are no special cards in the set. With three checklists, that leaves a set with 393 player cards.Like last season, the backs include statistics on how each player performed against each team in the league. Unlike last season, the card backs are full color.<h2>EASY VOTING</h2>Upper Deck is making it easier for card collectors to vote for the NHL All-Star Game by including ballots in its foil packs of hockey cards. Upper Deck, the official sponsor of the All Star Game fan balloting has also created a phone number fans can call to vote for the players. The number is 1-900-370-6NHL, with proceeds from the phone call charge going to NHL alumni and USA Hockey. Voters will be eligible for sweepstakes prizes including the grand prize of an all-expense paid trip for two to the All-Star Game and festivities in Philadelphia Jan. 17 to 19&hellip;The company is continuing its sponsorship of the NHL&rsquo;s all-rookie team and the NHL&rsquo;s rookie of the month. The first rookie of the month was New York Rangers&rsquo; right winger Tony Amonte.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-012421/10220280-1-eng-US/f0010-012.jpg" title="f0010-01" width="603" height="800"><figcaption class="caption-body">Bowman hockey cards again feature their unique statistics.</figcaption></div><h2>CLASSIC IDEA</h2>Classic is including a special bonus card of Toronto Argonaut wide receiver/kick returner Rocket Ismail in its 50-card hockey draft pick set. Thanks to a licensing agreement with the Canadian Hockey League, Classic cards show players in junior hockey uniforms. Classic has also announced the creation of a 240-card set available in foil packs composed of the top draft picks in hockey, baseball, basketball and football. All four No. I picks&mdash; Eric Lindros. Brien Taylor (baseball), Larry Johnson (basketball) and Russell Maryland (football)&mdash;will be featured on a special card. More than 50,000 randomly inserted autographed cards of players such as Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer will also be included in the 240-card set. Classic will make both English and bilingual versions. The bilingual version will be 20 per cent of the English production.<h2>CARD MANAGER</h2>A simple, yet effective way to catalogue hockey card collections has been developed by Double Header Communications of Oshawa, Ont. &ldquo;The Manager&rdquo; checklist system enables collectors to organize and price their card purchases as they buy them. With each new hockey card set comes a new checklist with room for collectors to check off the number of each card they have and its value. A special checklist called the completer kit makes it easy for collectors to catalogue all their wax, set and rookie and star card purchases. Each checklist fits easily into a binder and is a good way of doing inventory for insurance purposes. Double Header&rsquo;s Darrell Townson said checklists for older sets and a computerized version are in the works.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0010-021771/10220273-1-eng-US/f0010-022.jpg" title="f0010-02" width="581" height="783"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat Falloon&rsquo;s autographed card is inserted in Classic packs,</figcaption></div><h2>AUCTION NEWS</h2>One of the highlights from the Superior Galleries auction in Beverly Hills, Calif., Oct. 14 was the sale of the C55 hockey card set. Produced in 19H-12 by the Imperial Tobacco Co., the set sold for $5,250 (US). It was listed in the April issue of Collectors World for $4,000 (Cdn.) in excellent condition. Coincidentally, Cyclone Taylor, who is one of the key cards in the set was paid $5,250 in 1911, making him the highest-paid athlete in the world. The 45-card set includes 22 players who have been inducted in the Hockey Hall of Fame&hellip;A Glen Ellyn, Ill., company has announced the release of its first hockey collectible, a silver medallion mounted in a regulation hockey puck with a relief of Stan Mikita on the coin. Each SilverPuck is signed by Mikita in silver ink and contains one troy ounce of .999 fine silver. Suggested retail price is $64.95 (US). SilverPuck is currently contracting with a number of former hockey stars to produce an on-going series of collectibles. &#9632;

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BOWMAN CARDS HIGHLIGHT 1990-91 PLAYOFFS

I have an answer for Shawn Budnick of Sturgis, Sask., who wrote in Vol. 2, No. 2 of Collectors World about the number on the back of a Brett Hull 1990-91 Score card.The card is not an error. It is a part of a special edition set from Score which included Patrick Roy, Wayne Gretzky. Mark Messier, Mario Lemieux and other NHL stars. The cards from this set, 100 in all, are exactly the same as the regular issue of American Score except for the numbers on the back. That&rsquo;s why Hull is No. 100 in that series and No. 300 in the regular set. The set of cards also came with a booklet named, &ldquo;1990-91 Hockey&rsquo;s 100 Hottest and Rising Stars.&rdquo;Michael P. LebrunVictoria, B.C.<h2>HOLY HOLOGRAMS!</h2>You&rsquo;ll never believe what we found inside a pack of Pro Set hockey cards. We discovered two of the Stanley Cup holograms inside the same pack.I had bought a wax box on sale but didn&rsquo;t bother to open it for about three months. One Saturday morning, my 9-year-old son. Dale, opened the box.The holograms were the top two cards in the first pack he opened. Several dealers we called said the cards were worth about $300 each and that the chances of getting two in one pack were incredibly small since Pro Set only made 5,000 of these cards.After 1 faxed the company&rsquo;s headquarters in Dallas, its president, Lud Denny, phoned to say the holograms were inserted by human hands and two of them must have stuck together.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-012012/10220311-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="572" height="761"><figcaption class="caption-body">Can Alexander Mogilny live up to his Tip of the Month billing?</figcaption></div>He knew of no other instance of this happening.So I think my son and I are the only owners of two consecutively numbered Stanley Cup Holograms. I am considering selling them but I don&rsquo;t want to split them up to do so. Any collector interested can reach me in Ottawa at 15 Burndale Rd., K1B 3Y4.Wayne BrownOttawa, Ont.<h2>THANK YOU</h2>I really like Collectors World. It&rsquo;s a great price guide and the articles are very interesting. I especially like the tip of the month and the Power Play and Penalty Box lists.Your magazine is even better now that you list the 1990-91 Score Young Superstars set. Thank you for the list so I can see what the set and singles are really worth.Ryan PaddanWinnipeg, Man.<h2>WELCOME BACK</h2>Welcome back Collectors World. An increase to 10 issues is super, you were missed during the summer. Your rookie season was great, here&rsquo;s hoping for an even better sophomore year.Your first edition tip last year of Fedorov&rsquo;s card&hellip;well, we know the results. I have several Alexander Mogilny rookie cards and your first edition tip this year makes me quite pleased again.Best of luck.Aubrey Canning, Jr.Thunder Bay, Ont.<h2>MORE BUST INFO</h2>I missed your summer issue but happened to read in your October issue an item regarding the Colgate Hockey Models issued in the early 1970s.I was product manager on Colgate Dental Cream at that time and I managed to keep quite a few samples of all models as well as a sample of the actual package where the busts were inserted.There were a total of 16 busts issued and the side panel lists all 16 players represented. The promotion lasted approximately five months in the winter of 1972 or 1973. The busts were issued in series of four in the various sizes of the product.Jean LaverdureScarborough, Ont. &#9632;

f0011-01

EXTRA SCORE SET CAUSES CONFUSION IN NUMBERS

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>Holy subsets Batman!Once again Score hockey brings collectors a set with some of the most imaginative and well-executed subsets of all-time. There&rsquo;s even one called the &ldquo;Crunch Crew&rdquo; for comic book superhero fans.Featuring some of the league&rsquo;s hardest bodycheckers&mdash;Cam Neely, Rick Tocchet, Scott Stevens, Ulf Samuelsson and Jeremy Roenick&mdash;the cards show intense action shots with words like, &ldquo;bam!", &ldquo;slam!&rdquo; and &ldquo;boom!&rdquo; emblazoned across the front of the card. Score likes their Crunch Crew idea so much they have trademarked the name.But once you get past all the subsets. what you discover is a set of hockey cards that contains the best action photography ever. There isn&rsquo;t a great variety in the shots, but the quality is excellent. The only cards which don&rsquo;t have strong photos are some of the top prospect cards.Just like last season. Score relied heavily on photos which show the whole player, his stick and where possible the puck. Of the 260 player cards in Score Canadian Series I, 137 of them show the puck.In addition to the Crunch Crew, other subsets are, the 1,000th point club, NHL brothers, top prospects, season leaders, 1990-91 highlights, the franchise and trophy winners. Special cards saluting Guy Lafleur. Brett Hull and the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins are also a part of Score Canadian Series I.The top prospect subset in Series I is made up of 20 players including Calder Trophy candidates Tony Amonte and Doug Weight of the Rangers and New Jersey&rsquo;s Kevin Todd. All three are true rookie cards as none of them have had a card before in an NHL-licensed set. Several of the other top prospects&mdash;such as Calgary&rsquo;s Trevor Kidd and Buffalo&rsquo;s Donald Audette&mdash;have had other cards before. A further 20 prospects including Toronto&rsquo;s Rob Pearson and St. Louis&rsquo; Pat Jablonski are coming in Series II. All 40 prospects are included in the 440-card American version.One problem with all the subsets is that it leads to having several cards of some star players. For example, Wayne Gretzky has a regular card, a highlight card, two season-leader cards, two trophy-winner cards and a franchise card. Ed Belfour appears on six cards and Brett Hull on five, with two more to come in Series II.The most informative subset is the 1,000th point club which honors Paul Coffey, Dale Hawerchuk, Michel Goulet, Mark Messier and Dave Taylor for reaching the 1,000-point mark last season. All card fronts show photos from the game in which the player scored his 1,000th point. The back has a head and shoulders shot and a write-up and game summary detailing how the historic point was scored.Speaking of the card backs, they just may be more attractive than the fronts in a lot of cases. This season&rsquo;s card backs are horizontal, providing for a larger head shot of the player.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012342/10220366-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg" title="f0014-01" width="600" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">The Crunch Crew: The subset that packs a punch.</figcaption></div>Some collectors don&rsquo;t like Score&rsquo;s statistics philosophy&mdash;just one year of stats plus career totals&mdash;but it allows for an interesting bio on the player not found in most other card sets.Player selection is once again excellent. The only thing missing from Series I are the top draft picks but that&rsquo;s because a deal couldn&rsquo;t be worked out between Score and the players. However, some of the 1991 first rounders including Pat Falloon, Scott Niedermayer and Martin Lapointe will be in Series II because they are now members of the NHL Players&rsquo; Association after having played at least one game this season.Of course the one first-round pick you knew would be in the Score set is Quebec Nordique draft choice Eric Lindros. As long as Lindros stays out of the NHL, no other NHL licensed company can make a card of him. Score has two Lindros cards in Series I, with two more coming in Series II. The American version contains three of the four cards.In Series I, one card shows Lindros with the trophies and awards he won last season with the Oshawa Generals and the Canadian national junior team. The other card shows Lindros in full uniform, but with no sweater, while a row of NHL jerseys hangs behind him. In this time of uncertainty over where Lindros will play in the NHL, the card is a classic.Collectors of Score hockey will get more chances to enjoy the set&rsquo;s outstanding photography. The cards of the top 100 players, as chosen by Score, will have different photos in the U.S. and Canadian editions.Following the success of its seven-card Mickey Mantle series, Score made a six-card Bobby Orr set for random insertion into its polypacks. Orr autographed 2,500 of the cards, with 1,238 being inserted into each of the Canadian and American editions and 24 being offered through a mail-in sweepstakes.Two of the cards, &ldquo;The Stanley Cup Hero&rdquo; and &ldquo;Hall of Famer&rdquo; are available in both the Canadian and American versions. The other two cards in the Canadian edition are, &ldquo;Junior Star&rdquo; and &ldquo;Scoring Leader". The other two American cards are, &ldquo;The Rookie&rdquo; and &ldquo;Award Winner".There&rsquo;s little to criticize in Score&rsquo;s second year of making hockey cards. If there is one problem, it&rsquo;s the generally poor collation of the unopened boxes. With 540 cards per box, collectors should come close to getting a complete 330-card set. However, often two boxes (1,080 cards) isn&rsquo;t enough to make a set.If you want to avoid those collation problems, factory sets of the American and Canadian bilingual editions will be out later this season. However, the only way to collect the Canadian English edition is to buy the poly-packs. It may take a while to complete a set, but in this case it&rsquo;s worth it. &#9632;

f0014-01

GET THE PICTURE ON ONE BAM, SLAM, BOOM OF A SET

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN ALLEN</div>As soon as the dust settled, card shop owners realized how the introduction of premium baseball sets had changed the market place.&ldquo;I just pulled my Topps baseball off the shelf,&rdquo; said Buffalo card shop owner Dave Cacciatore, &ldquo;and it was covered in dust.&rdquo;The traditional sets of Topps, Fleer and Donruss are dormant on shelves in Canada and the U. S., losing a battle to new-wave sets that have fewer cards, better quality and a higher price.Nothing illustrates collector interest in premium sets better than price guides; star cards less than a year old are outperforming older star cards. An example: Stadium Club&rsquo;s Frank Thomas rookie card sells for about $20&mdash;a higher price than can be fetched for the rookie cards of Ruben Sierra, Barry Bonds and Bo Jackson in the popular &rsquo;87 Fleer set.&ldquo;For years quality was very poor and companies got away with it&mdash;especially Topps,&rdquo; said Smokey Scheinman, president of Smokey&rsquo;s of Las Vegas. &ldquo;Collectors wanted better quality and have accepted paying more for it.&rdquo;They accepted paying $4 to $5 a pack when Series 1 Topps Stadium Club debuted last summer; O-Pee-Chee Premier baseball started at $2.50 to $3 per pack; &rsquo;91 Leaf base-ball cards and Fleer Ultra were also in that price range&mdash;though Fleer cards dropped in price during the summer. The premium cards also had an affect on Upper Deck&mdash;the company credited with starting the trend. Sales of Upper Deck baseball slowed considerably when the other premium issues hit the market.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-012106/10220404-1-eng-US/f0016-012.jpg" title="f0016-01" width="581" height="806"><figcaption class="caption-body">Premier baseball wasn&rsquo;t as popular as Premier hockey.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;You never know how a product will do,&rdquo; said Topps spokesman Timm Boyle. &ldquo;We thought our Stadium Club was a sharp card and that it would do well. But it even did better than we expected.&rdquo;Premium cards&rsquo; investment potential may be a bigger lure than the quality for collection. Leaf &rsquo;90 is selling for $10 a pack in some stores.&ldquo;You can open up a pack and double, triple or quadruple your money,&rdquo; said collector Steve Smith of Wayne, Mich. &ldquo;I just don&rsquo;t buy regular packs any more.&rdquo;Cacciatore agreed collectors are smitten with the lottery aspect of premium cards. &ldquo;It used to be you pay five cents for a card and hope someday it would be a $10 card,&rdquo; Cacciatore said. &ldquo;Now you can open a pack and get a $10 card.&rdquo;The flight to premium cards also is considered a rebellion against the overproduction of large, regular issue sets.&ldquo;Kids are smart,&rdquo; Cacciatore said. &ldquo;They take care of their cards now. Everyone knows so many cards have been produced that it will be difficult to retain their value.&rdquo;The only negative of premium baseball cards. Smith said, is &ldquo;kids are being taken right out of the market place.&rdquo; He predicts that in the next few years the regular issue cards and premium cards will be designated as &ldquo;kids sets&rdquo; and &ldquo;adult sets,&rdquo; respectively.Some believe Topps and Score will be the only companies next season offering baseball card packs retailing for under $ I.&ldquo;Premium cards are totally destroying the (traditional card sets),&rdquo; Cacciatore said. &ldquo;I cancelled my Topps direct order because it&rsquo;s just not worth me tying up $2,000 to $3,000 to have the cards sit. I can&rsquo;t keep most cards in stock&hellip;but Topps, Donruss and the others just aren&rsquo;t cutting it.&rdquo;<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-021599/10220397-1-eng-US/f0016-022.jpg" title="f0016-02" width="574" height="797"><figcaption class="caption-body">Stadium Club is the most expensive of the &rsquo;91 premium cards.</figcaption></div>Boyle said his company has no plans to abandon its regular issue set.&ldquo;Our regular issue cards will still be our bread and butter as they have been since 1951,&rsquo;&rsquo;Boyle said. &ldquo;Even though we&rsquo;ve always done offshoots along the way, it has always remained our No. 1 seller.&rdquo;He said Topps is concerned about the entry level price of cards.&ldquo;There is definitely a market for the upscale, premium type of card,&rdquo; Boyle said. &ldquo;I think you will see Stadium Club at a much more reasonable price next year. We got a late start and didn&rsquo;t start shipping until late April early May.&rdquo;Score spokesman Dean Golembes-ki said his company is considering producing a premium baseball set. But Score&rsquo;s current plan is to continue with its regular issue, which received good reviews from most consumer rating services. The demand of Series II was aided by the popularity of Mickey Mantle card inserts. Score is following that up next season with Joe Dimaggio inserts.Scheinman predicts that even the premium card market&mdash;only in its second year&mdash;is ripe for some evolutionary changes.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not good enough to have a quality product any more,&rdquo; Scheinman said. &ldquo;You need a quality product that is limited. And it&rsquo;s not good enough to just say you are limited. You may need to let people know how limited by numbering everything.&rdquo; &#9632;

f0016-01

PREMIUM CARDS RULE; REGULAR CARDS BITE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0018-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0018-011984/10220435-1-eng-US/f0018-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0018-01

SURVEY

<div class="byline">BY TOM McMILLAN</div>Mario Lemieux, something of an authority on hockey greatness, was holding forth on the topic one day at Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Civic Arena.He pointed in the direction of Jaromir Jagr and nodded. &ldquo;He&rsquo;s going to be a great one,&rdquo; Lemieux said.That&rsquo;s no faint praise. Lemieux, a two-time NHL scoring champion, winner of the Conn Smythe Trophy as last year&rsquo;s playoff MVP. knows talent when he sees it. and he spots a lot in the Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; young, rambunctious right winger from Kladno, Czechoslavkia. He is not alone.Jagr, who rang up 27 goals and 57 points in 80 games last season as an 18-year-old rookie, should be even better&mdash;and more productive&mdash;this time around. Equipped now with a working knowledge of the English language and a stronger understanding of what it takes to be a success in North American hockey, he stands on the edge of NHL stardom. In Pittsburgh, they&rsquo;re even drawing comparisons to (gasp) Lemieux.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-011736/10220473-1-eng-US/f0020-012.jpg" title="f0020-01" width="571" height="772"></div>&ldquo;Any time a player can beat somebody one-on-one&mdash;which he does often&mdash;it&rsquo;s fun to watch,&rdquo; Lemieux said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s fun for the fans. It&rsquo;s fun for his teammates.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s so strong and he skates so well and he handles the puck and makes great plays. Guys who are 18 or 19 years old, they don&rsquo;t dominate the game the way he does now. You can see he&rsquo;s coming on strong.&rdquo;Jagr, at age 19, averaged a point a game during the Penguins&rsquo; first 12 games this season, but raw numbers don&rsquo;t tell his whole story. Having adjusted quickly to the grind of smaller NHL rinks, he is already one of the best Europeans ever at working along the boards, holding off checkers with one arm, swooping suddenly in front of the net. At 6-foot-2 and 208 pounds, he dazzles defensemen with his one-on-one moves. He makes the puck dance.&ldquo;He loves hockey and he has full intentions of being a great player,&rdquo; said Craig Patrick, the general manager who drafted Jagr fifth overall in 1990.&ldquo;Great&rdquo; was a word many scouts used to describe Jagr on draft day, 1990. Problem was, some of them shied away because they weren&rsquo;t sure if Jagr would immediately commit to the NHL. But Patrick did his homework.He studied Jagr at the world tournament, talked to some contacts in Europe, conducted extensive interviews in the days before the draft. Convinced of Jagr&rsquo;s desire to play here&mdash;soon&mdash;he gambled with the fifth pick, choosing the young Czech without hesitation. Good move.Jagr was living in Pittsburgh barely a month later. On the weekend before the Czech national team was scheduled to leave for the Goodwill Games, Jagr and his mother, Ana, took advantage of the new freedom in their country to drive across the border into West Germany and hop a commercial flight to the Greater Pittsburgh International Airport.Soon, a city fell in love with him.Young ladies adored Jagr&rsquo;s flowing black hair and boyish good looks. Hockey fans of both genders were mesmerized by his skating balance, his passing wizardry, his puck-handling skill. Jagr enhanced his reputation by excelling in the playoffs, including a dramatic overtime goal in a 5-4 win over New Jersey in Game 2 of the Patrick Division semifinals. And he set a record for most assists by a rookie in a Stanley Cup final series with five.Jagr returned bigger, stronger and&mdash;if possible&mdash;more enthusiastic after a summer in his homeland. And he&rsquo;s driving a sleek new Camaro now that he has passed his driver&rsquo;s exam.The star still lingers after practice to refine his shooting technique, one of the weakest facets of his game. Jagr knows he must work to blend into a team concept on offense, rather than always relying on his 1-on-l skills. But Lemieux&mdash;who should know&mdash;sees nothing but a glowing future.<div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0020-021238/10220466-1-eng-US/f0020-022.jpg" title="f0020-02" width="1825" height="3311"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scoring a dramatic overtime goal in the playoffs was a sign of things to come for Pittsburgh&rsquo;s Jaromir Jagr. His rookie card was a big mover in the off-season.</figcaption></div> &#9632;

f0020-01

JAGR

<div class="byline">BY KEN CAMPBELL</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0028-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0028-03801/10220535-1-eng-US/f0028-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Despite cracking the NHL&rsquo;s all-time Top 100 scorers list, Mike Foligno has earned little respect from collectors.</figcaption></div>Somebody&rsquo;s going to have to give me a hand on this one. My interest in hockey cards and collectibles is a casual one. 1 don&rsquo;t buy cards, I would never be caught dead at a card show and I have no interest in finding out how many Eric Lindros cards are in this year&rsquo;s Score set. A little more than a year ago, I didn&rsquo;t have a clue what the heck people were talking about when they discussed wax packs, factory sets or uncut sheets.For that reason, I&rsquo;m having a tough time trying to understand why Mike Foligno&rsquo;s rookie card from 1980-81 is worth only $1. Here&rsquo;s a guy who just recently played his 900th NHL game, entered this season ranked 93rd on the all-time points list and has enjoyed a distinguished&mdash;if unspectacular&mdash;career.Meanwhile, I take a look at the price guide contained in the pages of this fine publication and I find that Detroit rookie Martin Lapointe&rsquo;s card in the 1990-91 Upper Deck High Numbers series (whatever that is) fetches four times that amount. Here&rsquo;s a kid who played a grand total of one NHL game before breaking his wrist early in the season. This guy may turn out to be a star, but right now he looks like he&rsquo;s not-even old enough to shave every day.If having a rookie card so inexpensive bothers Foligno, he certainly doesn&rsquo;t show it. Of course, when I asked him if he knew how much it was worth, his response was seven or eight bucks too high. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe that,&rdquo; Foligno said. &ldquo;Well, as far as my mother is concerned, it&rsquo;s worth a couple of thousand dollars.&rdquo;For your own good, stay out of the hockey-card business, Mrs. Foligno.Actually, I can venture a pretty good guess as to why Lapointe&rsquo;s card fetches four times Foligno&rsquo;s. It basically has to do with what has become a trendy catch phrase in hockey&mdash;up-side potential. We can&rsquo;t be certain that Lapointe will ever make an impact in the NHL but the possibility exists that he could become an NHL star five years from now. As far as Foligno is concerned, what you see is what you get. Unless the NHL expands to about 40 teams, you can be pretty sure there are no more 40-goal seasons left in Foligno. He isn&rsquo;t exactly playing out the string, but he&rsquo;s a 32-year-old winger on a team that isn&rsquo;t being touted as a Stanley Cup contender.&ldquo;He&rsquo;s lucky he does that little jump after he scores a goal,&rdquo; joked Alan Hirsch, owner of the Ondex Company in Mount Holly, NJ. &ldquo;If he didn&rsquo;t do that, his card would probably be only worth a quarter.&rdquo;Obviously, the boom in the collectibles industry has most to do with what makes a card worthy to collectors and investors. Foligno scored 36 goals in his rookie season with the Red Wings in 1978-79. By comparison, Ken Hodge Jr., of the Boston Bruins parlayed a 30-goal effort last season into a $6 card in the Upper Deck High Numbers series.And while Lapointe&rsquo;s card is fetching top dollar right now, the hobby definitely has a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately attitude when it comes to card values. Ted Jinks, owner of The Collector&rsquo;s Edge in Toronto said Lapointe&rsquo;s performance will control the destiny of his card. &ldquo;This kid has two lousy seasons,&rdquo; Jinks said, &ldquo;and that card will be worth 50 cents tops. &rsquo;&rsquo; Another determining factor in the value of a card has to do with the subject&rsquo;s charisma and appeal to fans. The rookie card of late Philadelphia Flyer Pelle Lindbergh is worth $12.50 and fetches as much as $18 in Philadelphia, where Lindbergh was immensely popular.Even Bob Probert of the Red Wings, who scores far more punches with his fists than goals with his stick, has a rookie card worth $4. &ldquo;His card shouldn&rsquo;t be worth diddly,&rdquo; Jinks said. &ldquo;But it is worth far more than what it should be because he&rsquo;s a tough guy and that appeals to fans. &ldquo;Hobbyists themselves have driven up the price of the cards that belong to young phenoms. Serious investors, and there are a lot of them out there, are hoarding rookie cards of the players they think are going to be big stars. And it stands to reason why. If you have money to invest in the stock market, you&rsquo;re not going to buy one share in IBM, you&rsquo;re going to buy hundreds.For example, why would you buy one Nelson Emerson card for 35 cents, when you could invest only 35 dollars and get 100 of them? If the kid is a bust, you&rsquo;ve lost a little bit of money and had fun speculating. If the kid becomes the next John Cullen, you&rsquo;ve hit paydirt. Because people are waiting to see what these young players will do, they are guarding their cards with the same vigilance as they would their first-born and consequently, the demand exceeds the supply. Anyone who has taken Economics 101 knows that&rsquo;s the best way to keep the price up. Heck, I didn&rsquo;t even take that course and I know that.So chin up, Mike Foligno. It&rsquo;s not that bad. You could be Brian Lawton. Last time I checked his card was fetching a whole quarter. &#9632;

f0028-03

HOW CAN FOLIGNO’S ROOKIE CARD BE WORTH ONLY $1?

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>Last season&rsquo;s O-Pee-Chee series gave collectors cards of several players they had never heard of when the company put Soviet league players on cardboard.But many of those players are starting to make a name for themselves in the National Hockey League. Several others who have yet to play in the NHL are among the top prospects in the game. As those players join the NHL, collectors will turn to the 1990-91 O-Pee-Chee set to find their rookie cards. None of the Soviets in last season&rsquo;s set ever appeared on a North American hockey card before.The first of the Soviet players to make an impact in the NHL was Detroit Red Wing center Sergei Fedorov. Card No. 19R quickly became one of the most sought-after in the hobby when it came out last November. That card is now worth $9.50 and although it was surpassed in value by Fedorov&rsquo;s Upper Deck and Premier cards, it remains the first card of Fedorov.In addition to Fedorov, five other Soviets from the O-Pee-Chee set have made their way into the NHL. One of those, goaltender Sergei Mylnikov didn&rsquo;t cut it and has returned to Europe. Here&rsquo;s a look at the top 10 Soviets in the O-Pee-Chee set in terms of their investment potential. Players are listed in order of investment potential along with their position, card number and the NHL team which has their rights.A word of caution. Aside from Fedorov, most Soviet players have failed to live up to expectations. Igor Larionov, Viacheslav Fetisov and Sergei Makarov have all disappointed collectors with their performances. But the following group is generally made up of younger players who should have solid NHL careers.1. Valeri Kamensky, LW, 4R, Quebec Nordiques. Was expected to be leading contender for Calder until injuring knee in Canada Cup exhibition game. Will be in Nordiques&rsquo; lineup in new year&mdash;2. Dimitri Khristich. C, 16R, Washington Capitals. Skilled center showing rapid development. Just 22, he was averaging more than a point per game after season&rsquo;s first month.3. Andrei Lomakin. LW. 472, Philadelphia Flyers. On No. 1 line with Pelle Eklund and Rick Tocchet. Too old (27) to be eligible for Calder Trophy.4. Sergei Nemchinov, C, 493, New York Rangers. Defense is his specialty but goals are coming, too. Like Lomakin, also 27 and inelgible for rookie-of-the-year honors.5. Arturs Irbe. G, 501, 7R, San Jose Sharks. Best goalie in the International Hockey League is ready for NHL. How long can San Jose keep him in Kansas City?6. Vladimir Konstantinov, Di 21R, Detroit Red Wings. Swiftskating rearguard arrived in Detroit two years ahead of schedule but hasn&rsquo;t looked out of place. Point totals should improve over time.7. Anatoli Semenov, RW, 468, Edmonton Oilers. Has yet to break in to the Oilers&rsquo; lineup on a regular basis due to depth on right wing. Will produce points if given opportunity.8. Vladimir Malakhov, D, 2R, New York Islanders. The Isles&rsquo; best prospect may join team after Olympics. Effective at both ends of rink.9. Dimitri Frolov, D. 523, Calgary Flames. Big, physical defenseman will likely be in Flames&rsquo; lineup one day. Looks like pro-typical North American defenseman.10. Dimitri Mironov, D, 514, Toronto Maple Leafs. More highly regarded than current Soviet Leaf defenseman Alexander Godynyuk. Better show up soon, he&rsquo;s already 26 years old. &#9632;

TIME TO TAKE SECOND LOOK AT ’90-91 O-PEE-CHEE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0032-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011537/10220590-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg"></div> &#9632;

f0032-01

PRICE GUIDE

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0039-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0039-011289/10220774-1-eng-US/f0039-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-011015/10220767-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01945/10220760-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01825/10220753-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01738/10220746-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01525/10220739-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01512/10220732-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0052-01392/10220725-1-eng-US/f0052-012.jpg" title="f0052-01" width="3529" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0057-01288/10220718-1-eng-US/f0057-012.jpg" title="f0057-01" width="3529" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0058-01313/10220711-1-eng-US/f0058-012.jpg" title="f0058-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0060-01262/10220704-1-eng-US/f0060-012.jpg" title="f0060-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0062-01255/10220697-1-eng-US/f0062-012.jpg" title="f0062-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0064-01211/10220690-1-eng-US/f0064-012.jpg" title="f0064-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0066-01216/10220683-1-eng-US/f0066-012.jpg" title="f0066-01" width="7058" height="4050"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0068-01166/10220676-1-eng-US/f0068-012.jpg" title="f0068-01" width="7058" height="4050"></div> &#9632;

f0039-01

<div class="byline">BY TIM SASSONE</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0070-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-01147/10220812-1-eng-US/f0070-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Winning the IHL MVP award in 1989-90 wasn&rsquo;t a ticket to the NHL for Jimmy Waite. But Waite started this season as Chicago&rsquo;s No. 1 goalie until the return of Ed Belfour.</figcaption></div>When the Chicago Black-hawks drafted Jimmy Waite in 1987 with the eighth pick in the first round, he was quickly labeled by management as the organization&rsquo;s goaltender of the future.The way Waite sees it, his future is now.&ldquo;I think I&rsquo;ve proven that I&rsquo;m ready and that I can play in the NHL,&rdquo; Waite said. &ldquo;I guess I&rsquo;d rather be traded than go back to the minors. I&rsquo;ve done my time in the minors. There&rsquo;s nothing left for me to prove there. Going back would be the worst thing that could happen to me.&rdquo;Waite made those comments Oct. 29, the day the Hawks re-signed hold-out goaltender Ed Belfour to a two-year contract.For the first three weeks of the 1991-92 season, Waite had been the Hawks&rsquo; No. 1 goalie while Belfour sat. He posted a 3-4-3 record with a 3.33 goals-against average, but played better than those numbers indicate. The Hawks weren&rsquo;t very good defensively in front of him and Waite was left to fend for himself on too many occasions.&ldquo;I feel good about myself and the way I&rsquo;ve played,&rdquo; Waite said. &ldquo;I can look in the mirror and feel I played all right.&rdquo;It wasn&rsquo;t easy for Waite to play well during Belfour&rsquo;s holdout, especially in Chicago Stadium where the fans would unfairly chant Belfour&rsquo;s name every time Waite allowed a goal.&ldquo;They&rsquo;re a tough crowd,&rdquo; Waite said.&ldquo;I felt bad for Jimmy,&rdquo; Belfour said upon his return. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s tough enough to play goal in this league without that happening. You can lose your confidence pretty quick.&rdquo;Hawks&rsquo; general manager-head coach Mike Keenan had no complaints about Waite&rsquo;s early-season performance. In fact. Keenan liked the way the 22-year-old native of Sherbrooke, Que., has progressed so far in his career.&ldquo;He has won wherever he has played,&rdquo; Keenan said.There was a ton of pressure on Waite following the &rsquo;87 draft. In the last 11 years of the NHL draft, only one goaltender has been picked higher than Waite&mdash;Tom Barrasso. Who was taken fifth by Buffalo in 1983. Grant Fuhr was selected eighth overall by Edmonton in 1981Waite lived up to his billing by leading Canada to the World Junior Championship in 1987. The next year he found himself facing the New York Rangers for the Hawks on opening night in Chicago Stadium.Waite,&rsquo;then 18, was unspectacular in 11 games with the Hawks before suffering a broken collarbone that ended his season. He obviously wasn&rsquo;t ready for the NHL, although his 0-7-1 record and 5.22 goals-against average were more a reflection of the poor defensive club he had in front of him.Playing at Indianapolis in the International Hockey League in 1989-90, Waite was brilliant. He won 43 games while leading the Ice to the IHL&rsquo;s TumerCup and was named Minor Pro Player of the Year by The Hocker News.He won 26 more games for Indiana polis last season while splitting time with Dominik Hasek, whom he beat out for the No. 1 job in Chicago this season while Belfour held out.While the signing of Belfour gave the Hawks three goaltenders. Keena said he planned to keep only two!&rsquo; There was little doubt Waite would be the goalie kept to play behind Belfour? Hasek was assigned to Indiana-polish Nov. 1.&ldquo;Jimmy has proven he can play under pressure and is a winner,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; associate coach Darry Sutter, who won the IHL title at Indianatpolis two years ago with Waite as his goaltender. &ldquo;I think he&rsquo;s an elite goaltender and is capable of being a top goalie in the league.&rdquo;Keenan, while impressed with Waite, still sees some improvement! to be made.&ldquo;Jimmy&rsquo;s probably not mature enough yet,&rdquo; Keenan said. &ldquo;It usually takes goaltenders longer to matured to know the game and its subtleties! He needs to know the shooters better and read the rush of the play. But alp that will come in time. We like what we&rsquo;ve seen from Jimmy.&rdquo;Waite claims he&rsquo;d be perfectly he&rsquo;d be perfectly happy to play behind Belfour this season as long as he gets his fair share of starts. Last year Keenan started Bel-four in 70 of 80 games.&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think Eddie can play that much again,&rdquo; Waite said. &ldquo;I think you need two goalies now to be sueccessful. I&rsquo;m just going to work as hard as I can to get my starts. If Mike see I&rsquo;m working hard, I think I&rsquo;ll get my chance.&rdquo;Waite wasn&rsquo;t bothered when Bel four eventually signed since he knew the day would come sooner or later.&ldquo;They had to sign Eddie for the good of the team,&rdquo; said Waite. &ldquo;I would be happy to play 25 or 30 games behind Eddie. He has the No. I job and has earned it. I just want the chance to prove myself on a consistent basis.&rdquo;Waite is currently in the option year of his contract which pays him $ 110.000 this season and has made no secret of his plans to test the free agent waters next summer if he thinks his career isn&rsquo;t progressing in Chicago Only one goaltender&mdash;Winnipeg&rsquo;: Stephane Beauregard is paid less than Waite according to figures in the Nov 15 issue of The Hockey News.&ldquo;If I go back to the minors. I&rsquo;m in my option year and I won&rsquo;t be back for sure,&rdquo; Waite said during training camp. &ldquo;Nothing against Chicago, but they&rsquo;re not going to play me I won&rsquo; sign.&rdquo;A Belfour-Waite tandem the remainder of this season could give the Hawks one of the best 1-2 punches the league.&ldquo;We all have confidence in Jimmy Waite,&rdquo; said Hawks&rsquo; center Jeremy Roenick. &ldquo;He has the capabilities of doing what Eddie did last year.&rdquo;That should serve as a word warning to the rest of the NHL.Goaltenders aren&rsquo;t usually good investments for card collectors. One season's netminding sensation can often be the next season&rsquo;s bust.So it&rsquo;s not surprising collectors have been cautious in purchasing Jimmy Waite&rsquo;s rookie cards. From the first 1990-91 Score listing in the Collectors World Price Guide in December (Vol. I, No. 2) to the Price Guide in this issue, Waite&rsquo;s card value has remained constant at 50 cents.Much of the reason for that was the fact he spent most of last season in the IHL. Now that NHL fans have had a chance to see Waite in action, interest in his card is rising.While Waite won&rsquo;t get much playing time in Chicago with Ed Belfour around, he does have a bright future. At age 22, he&rsquo;s four years younger than Belfour and as of Nov. 3, he was the second-youngest goalie in the NHL. Only Quebec&rsquo;s Stephane Fiset is younger.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0070-0286/10220805-1-eng-US/f0070-022.jpg" title="f0070-02" width="527" height="720"></div>Since it takes longer for goaltenders than position players to develop in the NHL, it may take some time for Waite to reach his potential. When it comes to Waite, collectors who are patient, will be rewarded.The Waite Checklist: 1990-91 OPee-Chee: No. 214; Score: No. 407; 1991-92 Bowman: No. 396; O-Pee-Chee: No. 127; Score Canadian: No. 632; Upper Deck: No. 443. &#9632;

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