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Collector's World 0206

The Hockey News Collector's World 0206

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0024-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0024-011555/10217475-1-eng-US/f0024-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0026-011571/10217468-1-eng-US/f0026-012.jpg" title="f0026-01" width="3490" height="4020"></div> &#9632;

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IN THIS ISSUE

PRICE GUIDE

<div class="byline">BY MIKE BEAMISH</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0027-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-011438/10217513-1-eng-US/f0027-012.jpg"></div>Given his choice of careers and the depressed state of dentistry in the Soviet Disunion, one of the most remarkable things about Pavel Bure is his set of teeth.He could be the first Soviet to reach the NHL without the need of extensive dental work.Combine those gleaming pearly whites with his fine features and you&rsquo;ve got a guy who wouldn&rsquo;t look alien among the pages of Gentleman&rsquo;s Quarterly.The Moscow-born right winger, who made his debut with the Vancouver Canucks Nov. 5, has been mobbed by autograph seekers since the day he arrived on Canada&rsquo;s west coast, and not just because he turns them on with his bold, autonomous dashes up the ice.Already Bure has realized the commercial value of his cherubic good looks and is cashing in on advertising and modeling assignments (including one for Western Life magazine), though he is still working hard to master the English language.Bure&rsquo;s ancestors were famous watchmakers in Switzerland several generations ago, and he maintains the family tradition of speed, precision and impeccable timing. His father, Vladimir, won Olympic medals for the Soviet Union in swimming.Bure, 20, was widely held to be the second-best unsigned prospect in the world after Eric Lindros and the Canucks were prepared to sign him to a four-year, $2.7 million contract, even if the big ticket upset some veterans for a time.Canucks&rsquo; vice-chairman Arthur Griffiths said he feared Vancouver might lose Bure when negotiations with agent Ron Salcer stalemated. The possibility existed Bure could end up as a free agent and sign with another club.Bure, his father and younger brother, Valeri, arrived on Salcer&rsquo;s doorstep in Manhattan Beach, Calif., unannounced in September, a few days after the start of the Canada Cup. Bure had refused to sign a three-year contract with Central Red Army, so he was left off the national team.After leaving Moscow, Pavel sent letters to Central Red Army and the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, explaining they had given him no choice but to leave.Once in North America, Pavel set about putting down roots. He married his American sweetheart, Jymi, whom he met at the 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle, and eagerly prepared to join the Canucks.It was then Bure discovered his homeland held no monopoly on red tape. The Canucks were reluctant to sign him, fearing legal and punitive repercussions if his contract, binding Bure to Red Army for one more year, was ruled valid. The Bures and Salcer contended the contract was signed under duress and had enough legal loopholes to drive a Lada through.While the Canucks moved cautiously, Bure grew increasingly edgy and impatient. He occupied his time by skating with his father and brother, running and lifting weights.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0027-021008/10217506-1-eng-US/f0027-022.jpg" title="f0027-02" width="575" height="825"></div>When an Upper Deck photographer asked Bure to wear a Canuck jersey, using the crashing surf of the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop, he refused.&ldquo;I won&rsquo;t put on the jersey until I&rsquo;m. in Vancouver,&rdquo; Bure said.When negotiations on a transfer fee between the Canucks and Soviets reached an impasse in late October, Bure kicked in $50,000 of his own money to secure the buyout.In Vancouver he instantly became a teen heartthrob and symbol of hope for long-suffering Canuck fans.If there was a quibble with Bure at first, it was his offensive production-just five goals in his first 23 games-which didn&rsquo;t begin to reflect his tremendous acceleration, artistry and dominance in the offensive zone.Bure started to get the bead on NHL goalies in January and was named the Canucks&rsquo; player of the month after scoring five goals and 13 points in 11 games.Vancouver has never had a 50-goal scorer, all-star or individual award winner in its 22-year history. Bure could be the player to change that.He has been called the Red Rocket, the Russian Rocket and the Rushin&rsquo; Magician because of his electrifying speed and brazen moves.His arrival kick-started Igor Larionov&rsquo;s career, which was languishing before he was paired with Bure.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s like going back and having Kruts (Vladimir Krutov) or (Sergei) Makarov on my wing,&rdquo; Larionov said. &ldquo;We each know where the other will be and what he will do.&rdquo;That&rsquo;s why Bure offers up such exciting possibilities. Larionov may have an idea, but most of the time the opposition doesn&rsquo;t have an inkling of what the Red Rocket will do next. &#9632;

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BURE

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POSTER

If everything was perfect in the hockey card hobby we would tell you. But since the hobby isn&rsquo;t in mint condition (actually, I&rsquo;d grade it at about excellent plus-mint) we&rsquo;ve done what any responsible newspaper would do and told you about some of the problems.Our last two cover stories focused on the increasingly competitive nature of the business and the oversaturation of product. Both stories contained information we believe you, as a collector, should know.A small, but vocal, group of Collectors World advertisers think you shouldn&rsquo;t know. In protest, some of them have decided not to advertise in these pages. As a managing editor responsible for the bottom line. I&rsquo;ll miss them. As a journalist responsible for serving the readers, I can only say we did the right thing by running the two stories.Speaking of running, that&rsquo;s exactly what Kevin Allen, the author of those two articles, did-all the way to France. He says he&rsquo;s in Europe covering the Winter Olympics. I say he&rsquo;s there because he fears what our revenge-minded advertising executives would do to him for all the lost revenue his stories have caused.Collectors World has always been, and will continue to be, dedicated to the serious collector. That&rsquo;s why we publish listings of cards, photo issues and inserts that you don&rsquo;t usually find in most monthly hobby publications.And that&rsquo;s why you&rsquo;ll find articles like the ones that were published the past two months.The criticism of the two stories was based on the fact that we were painting a negative view of the hobby and discouraging collectors from buying. As a responsible newspaper we feel we owe it to our readers to show them the whole picture of the rapidly expanding hobby.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-021874/10217137-1-eng-US/f0008-022.jpg" title="f0008-02" width="637" height="836"><figcaption class="caption-body">RAND SIMON</figcaption></div>That does not mean we are discouraging buying. In fact, there hasn&rsquo;t been a better time to buy in the past 18 months.As more and more products hit the market (see February&rsquo;s cover story) and as competition increases (see January&rsquo;s cover story) prices on many items have fallen. It&rsquo;s now actually possible to find many singles and sets below the prices you see in this and in other price guides.The hobby is in no danger of collapsing. People have been collecting cards for more than 100 years and will continue to do so for many more. As long as professional sports remain such an important part of North American culture, sports fans will want to collect cards.But there will be wholesalers and dealers who go out of business. And card companies will have to rethink the way they do business. Of course, if you&rsquo;ve read the last two cover stories, you know all that. As you should.Despite an inspiring performance in the Media All-Star Game, the only hockey writer to appear on a card this season is still being ignored by collectors.Al Morganti assisted on Team USA&rsquo;s only goal in a 6-1 loss to Team Canada during the Jan. 18 game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. He was also plus-1.But Morganti&rsquo;s Star Pics card continues to languish in dealers&rsquo; commons boxes.Cliff Dolgins of C & 1 Collectables in New Rochelle, N.Y., said he has found five of the 200 cards Morganti personally signed. Dolgins can&rsquo;t sell them.Most signed cards of the draft picks usually go for around $30 (more for players such as Pat Falloon and Scott Niedermayer) but Dolgins can&rsquo;t give Morganti&rsquo;s cards away.Perhaps Dolgins will have more luck now that Morganti has made his Collectors World debut. The senior writer from The Hockey News is responsible for this month&rsquo;s cover story (you didn&rsquo;t think we&rsquo;d let Allen do one again) on, ironically enough, the pressures on players to sign cards and other memorabilia.I can just see that Morganti Star Pics card rising in value already. &#9632;

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RANDOM THOUGHTS

I have a set from 1987 called &ldquo;The Hall of Fame Set&rdquo; of 261 painted cards. They were made by McDi-armid/Cartophilium. Please tell me more about the set and its value. Benjie EppLeamington, Ont.The set is listed in the Sport Americana Hockey Card Price Guide as having a value of $30. Canadian dealers would probably sell the set for about $40. The set was issued from 1985-87, depicting all the members of the Hall. McDiarmid is Carlton McDiarmid, the artist who did the set drawings. Cartophilium is a collectibles store in Sherbrooke, Que.Could you please explain why Pelle Lindbergh has a card in 198384 and 1985-86, but not in 1984-85? Were there any other cards made of him?Chris BergWinthrop, Mass.The 1983-84 card is his rookie and the 1985-86 issue is a memorial card. The mystery is why O-Pee-Chee and Topps left him out of the 1984-85 set. Although he lost the No. 1 goaltending job to Bob Froese in 1983-84, he did play 36 games, certainly enough to warrant inclusion in the 396-card O-Pee-Chee set. Lindbergh had no other cards, but he did appear on the following stickers: 1983-84, O-Pee-Chee, 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee and 1985-86 Topps.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-012439/10217106-1-eng-US/f0008-012.jpg" title="f0008-01" width="598" height="762"><figcaption class="caption-body">Scott Garland&rsquo;s only 1976-77 card was in the O-Pee-Chee set.</figcaption></div>I am inquiring about a card from the 1976-77 Topps set. 1 have card No. 243 as Mickey Redmond, but the February issue of Collectors World lists No. 243 as Scott Garland. Please tell me which is correct, so 1 can figure out the value of the three Redmonds.Richard BrownHouston, Tex.Card No. 243 in the 1976-77 Topps set is indeed Mickey Redmond. Garland is No. 243 in the O-Pee-Chee set from that year. It is the only that year of cards with identical numbers not depicting the same player. Redmond retired after the 1975-76 season, so O-Pee-Chee didn&rsquo;t make another card of him. Topps, which released its cards earlier than O-Pee-Chee, probably didn&rsquo;t know about his retirement. The Redmond card is listed this month as being worth 35 cents.I recently bought five boxes of Pro Set Platinum hockey cards and found that one box had many damaged cards. About 200 of them had small squares imprinted on them and many were miscut. Is there anything I can do about it?Damon RadisonYorkton, Sask.Like most companies. Pro Set is very good about replacing damaged cards. You can write Pro Set at 17250 Dallas Parkway, Dallas, Tex., 752481160, or phone the company at (214) 407-2800.I noticed a few differences on cards in the Arena and Classic sets. In 1989-90, did Scott Lachance have 66 points (Classic) or 68 (Arena)?; Was Philippe Boucher born March 24, 1973 (Classic) or March 23, 1973 (Arena)?; Was Markus Naslund born July 30, 1973 (Classic) or March 30, 1973 (Arena)?; Was Jim Campbell born April 3, 1973 (Classic) or February 3, 1973 (Arena)?; Was Jason Dawe born March 29, 1973 (Classic) or May 29, 1973 (Arena)? Is it Alex Stojanov (Classic) or Alek (Arena)? What is the value of these sets? Michael Grenier Morden, Man.In all cases, except the spelling of Stojanov&rsquo;s name, the Classic cards are correct. The sets usually sell in the $12-15 range.Why are cards of Ken Baumgartner and Kris King in the 199091 sets considered rookie cards? They&rsquo;ve both been in the NHL since the 1987-88 season.Colin BoychukRegina, Sask.A rookie card is the first card of a player regardless of how long the player has been in the NHL. Neither Baumgartner nor King had a card until last season.Can you please give me some information about the 1963 Toronto Star hockey photos?Barrie BellDawson Creek, B.C.The Star photos were catalogued in the Summer, 1991 issue of Collectors World. There are 42 photos in the set which listed at $200.In each issue of Collectors World, we&rsquo;ll answer your questions about hockey cards and memorabilia. We&rsquo;ll only be able to respond to 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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HERE’S THE LOWDOWN ON 1987 HALL OF FAME SET

A year ago, in the March, 1991 issue of Collectors World, we told you about a $4 card that was sure to go up in value. Two months later, Adam Oates&rsquo; rookie card was listing for $35.Now we&rsquo;re going to tell you about another $4 card you should be aware of-the 1989-90 Brian Leetch rookie.Both Topps and O-Pee-Chee made cards of the New York Ranger defenseman that season. The Topps issue actually lists for $5 because there were fewer Topps cards produced that season that O-Pee-Chee cards. Both cards appear to be a great investment.Leetch has everything card collectors look for-he&rsquo;s young (24 on March 3), produces a lot of points, plays in a large media center and plays for a Stanley Cup contender.The fact his rookie card is still very affordable is quite surprising considering Leetch&rsquo;s stature as one of the game&rsquo;s best defensemen. He won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1989. finished fourth in voting for the Norris Trophy as best defenseman last season and is a candidate for the award in 1991-92.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0008-031335/10217168-1-eng-US/f0008-032.jpg" title="f0008-03" width="663" height="846"><figcaption class="caption-body">BRIAN LEETCH</figcaption></div>Although it usually takes defenseman longer than forwards to adapt to the NHL, Leetch has averaged more than a point-per-game in his career.As of Feb. 4, he had 293 points in 290 games. Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; defenseman Paul Coffey had 295 points in his first 290 games and now has a rookie card (1981-82) worth $75. Calgary Flames&rsquo; defenseman Al Maclnnis recorded 259 points in his first 290 games and now has a rookie card (1985-86) worth $35.Leetch&rsquo;s card value may not reach Coffey&rsquo;s or Maclnnis&rsquo;-after all, his card is newer-but his early-career success bodes well for his future. And for those who invest in his card.Two other players have rookie cards in 1989-90 sets more valuable than Leetch&rsquo;s-Joe Sakic and Theoren Fleury-even though neither have them have much of a chance of winning a major award or a Stanley Cup in the near future. If Leetch does either, you can be sure his card will be worth more than $4. &#9632;

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TIP OF THE MONTH

I recently purchased a box of 199192 Score bilingual cards from a card store in the hopes I&rsquo;d be able to complete a set. 1 was extremely disappointed that I didn&rsquo;t get either of the two Eric Lindros cards and that I only had six cards total in the 300-330 range-which include all the trophy winners and other good subsets.I was surprised the boxes aren&rsquo;t sealed and that the transparent packaging allows for card inspection. I mentioned this to a co-worker who is a collector and he said he got three Lindros cards in his box, which he purchased at a grocery chain store. He also said the Lindros card was the first card in each package. At a card show, some dealers told me the same thing-that Lindros is always the first card.Then, I remembered Christmas shopping at Woolco and seeing about 100 open Score boxes with packs strewn all over the place. Later, I saw a similar situation at a Shopper&rsquo;s Drug Mart.At that time, I thought there must be an explanation for this, but didn&rsquo;t have the answers. Things started to click after getting shutout with my box. The dealer I bought from just happens to have a stack of Lindros cards and numerous others in the high-card range. These cards have white edges as opposed to the com-mons which have red borders. All my packs had commons on the outside. A view from the side may tell how many high number cards there are. Is this good fortune or tampering?From another dealer, I purchased two packs of Upper Deck cards. I was about to open them when I noticed a series of marks down the sides that appeared to made with calipers. They can be used to measure the thickness of the packs as a way of finding holograms.Some dealers have told me the difference in thickness is easy to feel. They pull these packs from their boxes because they can sell the holograms for $2-3.One dealer had about 20 open, mostly full boxes for individual pack sales. There is no doubt in my mind the collector is being cheated. Otherwise, why wouldn&rsquo;t a dealer open a new box as the packs from one box are sold out?These fraudulent acts make me apprehensive about buying anything from any dealers.Has anyone else noticed this kind of practice? 1 am now extremely careful as to what I am buying and from whom 1 am buying.Gary DippelCalgary. Alta.<h2>What&rsquo;s the error?</h2>I recently bought a hockey magazine that has a picture of Ed Belfour which shows him with the same stick, helmet, pads, gloves and number as on his 1990-91 Upper Deck card. Yet the Beckett Hockey Magazine calls the card an uncorrected error. 1 think this picture proves the card is not an error.Ryan GibbonsAurora, Ont.(Editor&rsquo;s Note: Many collectors believe the photo on Belfour&rsquo;s card is of another goalie. However, the picture does show Belfour and is from the 1988-89 season. The reason why Beckett calls the card an uncorrected error is because the back says he turned pro with the Saginaw Gears. Saginaw&rsquo;s correct nickname was the Generals.)<h2>Hologram recount</h2>I am writing in regards to your response in the February (Vol. 2, No. 5) issue of Collectors World about the number of holograms in the 1990-91 Upper Deck series.You stated there are eight, when in fact there are nine. There are three of Wayne Gretzky, and one each of Brett Hull, Mark Messier, Steve Yzerman, Messier/Hull, Messier/Yzerman and Yzerman/Hull.The last one is the one I think you referred to as the possible Yzerman variation. If you look very closely, especially down at the legs, you will see Hull to the right of Yzerman. It is almost impossible to see him and I just recently noticed it myself.Luckily, the quality of this year&rsquo;s holograms (once again there are nine) is so much better you can tell who&rsquo;s on them.Susan BurkSeattle, Wash.<h2>Insert info</h2>The November, 1991 issue of Collectors World (Vol. 2, No. 2) was the first reference I&rsquo;ve ever purchased for sportscards.I used it to sort a childhood collection and estimate fair market value. I was so impressed with the estimated prices many of the cards have been transferred to a safety deposit box at the bank.Quite often as I recall, card packs came with inserted extras. The 196869 O-Pee-Chee set included 21 puck-shaped stickers of select players, including Bobby Orr, on regular card stock.The pucks were die-cut. Sticker No. 22 was a full-color picture of Gordie Howe&rsquo;s 700th goal Dec. 4, 1968.Can you tell me what these are worth?Ronald JackHinton. Alta.(Editor&rsquo;s Note: In the April, 1991 issue of Collectors World, there was a special Price Guide for inserts. We listed the 1968-69 O-Pee-Chee Puck Stickers as having a value of $240 in near-mint condition. The Howe sticker is listed at $100 and the Orr at $45. Common stickers are listed at $5.) &#9632;

READER QUESTIONS DEALERS’ HONESTY REGARDING WAX PACKS

<div class="byline">BY CW STAFF</div>Paul Cavallini is an investment broker with a St. Louis company. Rod Buskas owns and pilots his own plane. Pat Flatley owns a bagel shop in Chicago.Those are just three of the players and their hobbies that collectors of Score Pinnacle will learn about in its sidelines subset.Score will enter the premium hockey card market next month with the release of the 420-card Pinnacle set. The cards feature two photos on the front (one&rsquo;s a head shot) and one action picture on the back.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-012010/10217230-1-eng-US/f0011-012.jpg" title="f0011-01" width="630" height="870"></div>Six subsets-rookies, game winners, good guys, technicians, idols-which shows players with their hockey heroes- and sidelines&mdash;highlight the set.Score is making an English and a French version of Pinnacle. It will be available in 12-card foil packs. Score does not plan to make factory sets of Pinnacle.<h2>Olympic cards</h2>Burris Niemann Associates, the same company which makes hockey cards for Kraft food products, has released a 200-card set of Canadian Olympic team hopefuls.Included are 18 members of the hockey team. Eric Lindros, who wanted to honor his exclusive contract with Score, does not appear in the set. The set includes the first card appearances of players such as center Joe Juneau, a Boston Bruins&rsquo; prospect and defenseman Jason Wooley, a Washington Capitals&rsquo; prospect.The print run was 35,000 sets and 5,000 press sheets. The sets have a suggested sale price of $29.24; the sheets $60.<h2>Court change</h2>Upper Deck&rsquo;s lawsuit against Topps has been moved to federal district court, a move an Upper Deck lawyer said is the first step in Topps&rsquo; plans to countersue.The lawsuit centers around the inclusion of Alexander Semak, Vladimir Malakhov, Dimitri Filimonov, Viacheslav Kozlov and Alexei Zhamnov in the Upper Deck low number series.Topps said it has a contract with the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation granting it exclusive rights to include those players in its sets. Upper Deck said it has individual agreements with the players and knew nothing about Topps&rsquo; contract.Upper Deck is suing for declaratory relief, meaning no money would change hands, but Upper Deck would get legal assurances it had the right to make cards of the players.Upper Deck lawyer Steve Poludniak said Topps requested the court change from the Superior Court of California because Upper Deck failed to mention Times-Warner as a defendant in the suit. Times-Warner was the licensing agent which granted Topps and Upper Deck an NHL license.&ldquo;We feel there is no merit to that,&rdquo; Poludniak said. &ldquo;They did this because they want to file their own suit in New York.&rdquo;<h2>Signed treasure</h2>The first of five complete autographed Star Pics hockey draft pick sets was found by a Pittsburgh collector.Willis Garman bought the set largely because his son. Matt, is a big fan of Pittsburgh Penguins&rsquo; right winger Jaromir Jagr, who appears in the set in the Flashback subset.Garman opened the set and discovered the cards were all autographed, except for the Terry Chitaroni, Pavel Bure and Alexei Kovalev cards. Bure and Kovalev will be signing the cards at a later date, but Chitaroni was upset about the biography on his card and refused to sign. (For more on Chitaroni&rsquo;s dispute with Star Pics, see page 23.).As this was the first such set discovered, it&rsquo;s difficult to place a value on it. A good guess would be in the $2,000 range.<h2>Glavine scores</h2>Atlanta Braves&rsquo; lefthanded starting pitcher Tom Glavine took to the ice to be photographed for a Score baseball card.Glavine is featured as a member of Score&rsquo;s baseball dream team in Series 2, released in late February.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0011-021457/10217223-1-eng-US/f0011-022.jpg" title="f0011-02" width="632" height="872"></div>The black and white photo shows Glavine taking a slapshot while dressed in his Braves&rsquo; uniform. He was a fourth-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 1984 but opted for baseball.Curiously, the card fails to mention Glavine&rsquo;s tie to hockey. Baseball fans who are unaware Glavine was once a top hockey prospect will probably be a little confused by the card.<h2>Golden coin</h2>One of hockey&rsquo;s most famous father-son combinations is being honored by Chicagoland Processing with a commemorative silver medallion.Mintage of the Bobby (Golden Jet)-Brett (Golden Brett) Hull medallion has been limited to 15,000 coins.The big question is, who&rsquo;s on the front of the coin? Chicagoland, which usually prints serial numbers on the front of their coins, put the numbers on the rim for the Hull coin.&ldquo;Yes, there still is, technically, a front and back,&rdquo; said Chicagoland president John Obie. &ldquo;But I&rsquo;m the only one who knows, and I&rsquo;m not telling.&rdquo;<h2>Reported sales</h2>Here&rsquo;s our monthly look at reported sales for vintage cards:Red Homer, 1937-38 Series E (Ex.) $75; Gordie Howe, 1951-52 Parkhurst, (NM) $3000; Howe, 1951-I 52 Parkhurst (Ex+) $3000; Johnny Bower, 1953-54 Parkhurst (NM) $135; Dick Gamble, 1954-55 Topps (NM) $75; Alex Delvecchio, 1954-55 Topps (NM) $75; Terry Sawchuk, 1954-55 Parkhurst (Ex+) $110; Glenn Hall, 1957-58 Topps (NM) $150; Howe, 1963-64 Parkhurst (NM) $325; Jacques Plante, 1964-65 Topps I (NM) $80; Marcel Paille, 1964-65 Topps (VG) $200; Pierre Pilote 1964-65 Topps (NM) $100; Bobby Hull 1965-66 Topps (NM-M) $150. &#9632;

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SCORE ENTERS PREMIUM MARKET WITH PINNACLE

<div class="byline">SHANE KENNY</div>What&rsquo;s hot? Pick a company, not a player card. With the exception of 10 to 15 players, not much is hot in cards lately.In each sport other than hockey there&rsquo;s one hot company. In baseball there&rsquo;s Topps Archives, in football there&rsquo;s Wildcard and in basketball there&rsquo;s Upper Deck.In hockey there are three hot companies. Upper Deck is still number one but two others are gaining ground.A mainstay of Canada&rsquo;s hockey card history, Parkhurst is now a card line produced by Pro Set. Although Parkhurst missed a couple of players in its Series 1 (namely Pavel Bure and Sergei Nemchinov) their UV coated cards are attractive.The secret to Parkhurst&rsquo; success is a ridiculously small print run. The company says it made 12,500 cases of English and 2,500 cases of French product.Premier hockey by O-Pee-Chee also features a pleasant looking card with few surprises. Again. &ldquo;The print run is the thing to catch the conscience of the collector,&rdquo; (with apologies to Will Shakespeare).Coupled with that is a fairly restrictive distribution policy. O-Pee-Chee&rsquo;s policies are sometimes hard to understand, but in the case of premier their five-case limit to all dealers certainly favors the small dealer.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-021852/10217275-1-eng-US/f0012-022.jpg" title="f0012-02" width="652" height="848"><figcaption class="caption-body">Pat LaFontaine makes his debut on the Power Play.</figcaption></div>It appears that the premium trend that started in 1990 with O-Pee-Chee Premier has escalated (which curiously means print runs have decreased). All companies needing at least one super-limited, exclusive, signed and numbered, foil wrapped, UV-coated, counterfeit proof, scent impregnated, cholesterol free set now to stay competitive.Why doesn&rsquo;t one of the hockey card companies just cut to the chase and produce a limited print run of one case and sell it for $8.3 million to Los Angeles Kings&rsquo; owner Bruce McNall and get it over with?Dusted with the fall-out over this print run implosion are companies such as Score, which seem dedicated primarily to their regular, universally distributed card issue.This season&rsquo;s Score hockey is arguably better than last season&rsquo;s excellent issue. Yet, the 1991-92 product, with the exception of the Canadian English version, is not selling well.The economy and the card industry micro-economy are obvious factors but the perception that, &ldquo;if it&rsquo;s not limited it&rsquo;s second rate,&rdquo; is obviously a contributing factor.In a way it&rsquo;s a shame Score has now bowed to the &ldquo;limited&rdquo; pressure. It will soon be issuing Pinnacle hockey (the company recently released Pinnacle football) which will no doubt be well done, but that does not matter. It will sell because of its perceived scarcity.<h2>PENALTY BOX</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-012360/10217268-1-eng-US/f0012-012.jpg" title="f0012-01" width="597" height="869"><figcaption class="caption-body">Ron Francis</figcaption></div>1. &rsquo;90-91 PRO SET (1)2. RON HEXTALL (2)3. BILL SMITH (3)4. RON FRANCIS (10)5. BERNIE NICHOLLS (12)6. ERIC LINDROS (8)7. SERGEI MAKAROV (11)8. PETR NEDVED (NR)9. ED BELFOUR (9)10. &rsquo;90-91 PREMIER (7)11. ROB BROWN (NR)12. JOHN CULLEN (4)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking.<h2>POWER PLAY</h2><div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0012-031204/10217261-1-eng-US/f0012-032.jpg" title="f0012-03" width="594" height="871"><figcaption class="caption-body">Nicklas Lidstrom</figcaption></div>1. &rsquo;91-92 UPPER DECKfl)2. BRETT HULL (7)3. KEVIN STEVENS (11)4. WAYNE GRETZKY (2)5. SERGEI FEDOROV (3)6. NICKLAS LIDSTROM (NR)7. PATRICK ROY (6)8. JAROMIR JAGR (4)9. &rsquo;91-92 PARKHURST (NR)10. PAT LAFONTAINE (NR)11. PAVEL BURE (NR)12. &rsquo;91-92 PREMIER (NR)Number in parenthesis is last month&rsquo;s ranking. &#9632;

f0012-02

UPPER DECK FACES PREMIER, PARKHURST CHALLENGES

<div class="byline">BY RAND SIMON</div>No matter what you think about the 1991-92 Upper Deck Low Number Series, you&rsquo;ll have to agree it&rsquo;s one Hull-uva set.There&rsquo;s Brett Hull in a St. Louis Blues&rsquo; uniform, Brett Hull in a Team USA uniform, Brett Hull shaking hands with Eric Lindros, a Brett Hull portrait with the other members of the 50-goals-in-50-games club and Brett Hull on a nine-card subset chronicling his achievements from his days with Penticton of the British Columbia Junior League to his days of superstardom with the Blues.And, as if that wasn&rsquo;t enough, you&rsquo;ll also find the Golden Brett pictured on cards of teammates Scott Stevens, Gino Cavallini, Adam Oates and opponents Brent Sutter, Steve Thomas and Frantisek Kucera.Obviously Upper Deck knows a good thing when it sees one.That is also evident in the rest of the set-the 490 cards that do not show the game&rsquo;s best goal-scorer.It&rsquo;s hard not to like Upper Deck&rsquo;s second-year effort in hockey cards, although the company does do a couple of things collectors will find annoying.First, there&rsquo;s the weak card stock. An Upper Deck spokesperson said the stock is the same as the one used last season. But any collector worth his weight in plastic sheets will tell you otherwise. The cards are flimsier and bend quite easily.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-012055/10217313-1-eng-US/f0013-012.jpg" title="f0013-01" width="790" height="537"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull is everywhere in the 1991-92 Upper Deck series.</figcaption></div>Then there&rsquo;s the infamous Upper Deck collation. Since there are no Low Number factory sets, collectors must make a set from opening foil packs or buying a dealer, hand-collated set.Collectors who choose the pack-opening route will be disappointed to discover they will be missing large blocks of cards. That can be frustrating when those cards are from 1-30 (all the highly sought-after Russian and Canada Cup cards) or from 440470, which include the Star Rookie cards.If Upper Deck is incapable of improving its poor collation, the company owes it to collectors to either make a factory set or to change its numbering order. Popular subsets, such as the Star Rookies, should be numbered randomly and spread throughout the series.The 1991-92 Upper Deck edition will mainly be remembered for the Russian and Canada Cup cards.The six-card Russian subset includes two of the best players not in the NHL-centers Alexei Zhamnov, a Winnipeg draft pick, and Viacheslav Kozlov, a Detroit draft pick. Upper Deck did not reach an agreement with the Soviet Ice Hockey Federation, so the CCCP logos had to be airbrushed over.The Canada Cup subset of 31 cards features cards of Lindros and Calder Trophy candidate Nicklas Lidstrom of Sweden. Other popular cards are of Finnish right winger Teemu Selanne and Czechoslovakian left winger Martin Rucinsky.Another popular subset is the Star Rookie group of 23 cards, which contains 11 true rookie cards and three first Upper Deck appearances. Key players in this subset are Kozlova Detroit Red Wing draft pick New York Ranger right winger Tony Amonte and St. Louis Blue right winger Nelson Emerson.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0013-021430/10217306-1-eng-US/f0013-022.jpg" title="f0013-02" width="579" height="816"><figcaption class="caption-body">Upper Deck captured Stu Crimson in all his glory.</figcaption></div>Overall, the player selection is the best of any set released so far. It is the only place where you can find Pavel Bure, Sergei Nemchinov and Josef Beranek in the same set. The only good rookies not included are Donald Audette and Pat Falloon.A major improvement in this sea son&rsquo;s set are the drawings on the Team Checklist cards. A new artist, Steve Cusano, has done a great job of profiling some of the game&rsquo;s best players. Upper Deck decided not to portrait anyone who was on a checklist card last season. That&rsquo;s unfortunate since Jeremy Roenick deserves some retribution after being so horribly misdrawn as a Freddy Krueger look-a-like last season.Another big improvement over last season is with the holograms. The 1990-91 holograms were difficult to make out, but the ones this season are outstanding. The nine holograms honor the 1991 NHL award winners. Again, collation is a problem. It&rsquo;s not uncommon to open a foil box, get nine holograms and have six of them the same.The trademark of the Upper Deck series is its photography. No card company uses such great variety in its photo selection.The company also does a great job picking photos which exemplify the player. The back of Stu Grimson&rsquo;s card is the best example of that-he&rsquo;s shown being restrained by linesman Mike Cvik. There&rsquo;s no way Upper Deck could have known Grimson would receive a 10-game suspension for abusing an official this season, is there? &#9632;

f0013-01

UPPER DECK KNOWS A GOOD THING WHEN IT SEES IT

<div class="byline">BY AL MORGANTI</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0014-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0014-012339/10217344-1-eng-US/f0014-012.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Brett Hull uses the two-pen approach to help him deal with all the autograph requests he receives. Hull wonders about the motives of some autograph seeks. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/BBS)</figcaption></div>It was all star weekend in Philadelphia, and in addition to the gathering of the NHL&rsquo;s biggest names of the past and present, it was also a mecca for collectors and autograph seekers from up and down the East coast.There were wide-eyed kids just hoping to get a snapshot with an all star, or maybe an autograph, along with the usual collection of &ldquo;professionals&rsquo; who were on the scene only to make money.Just as an example, the plans by Upper Deck to give every fan who attended the proceedings a limited edition collectible sheet of either several legends or the starting lineup to one of the All Star teams was ruined when some of the cartons were missing according to a Spectrum security guard.Somebody got their hands on the merchandise, and these days everything is valuable (the commemorative sheets Upper Deck gave out at the draft showing the members of the all-rookie team are now worth about $50).It seems as though everybody has their hands out for an autograph on a card, a picture, a shirt, or even a body part.And from the eyes of a player, each time they turned around there were hands everywhere. To borrow a phrase from the Beatles, it was an octopuses garden of delight for a collector.The real problem-at least from the players&rsquo; point of view is that these octopuses are everywhere. It&rsquo;s not just the All-Star Game, and not just the big hockey towns like Toronto and Montreal anymore.Now it&rsquo;s every stop from San Jose to Quebec City, and soon to include Tampa Bay to Ottawa. It&rsquo;s hotel lobbies and even hotel corridors. It&rsquo;s waiting for the bus to take off, and waiting for the flight to depart.It&rsquo;s a never-ending autograph line, and some of the players are starting to get tired of it.Mind you, it&rsquo;s nothing malicious, but if you listen to some players you can tell it&rsquo;s starting to wear on them, and they are searching for ways to serve the public without sounding like prima donnas.&ldquo;The baseball players have kind of perfected a way to ignore people,&rdquo; said Rick Tocchet, the Philadelphia Flyers&rsquo; right winger who had been in three consecutive NHL All-Star Games.&ldquo;I think some of us, we sort of bring on ourselves. As a group, we are just very uncomfortable saying &rsquo;No.&rsquo; Even after a bad game, with the bus waiting, we feel an obligation, and 1 think that&rsquo;s good.&rdquo;Hockey players have the best reputation among professional athletes when it comes to accomodating the whims and desires of fans. In recent years, the demand has escalated to the extent it&rsquo;s becoming an issue.&ldquo;The problem is that it&rsquo;s getting to be too much,&rdquo; Tocchet said. &ldquo;Just from the time I&rsquo;ve been in the league (eight years), there is an incredible difference. Even after Wayne got there, a couple of years ago you could go into L.A., and figure you wouldn&rsquo;t get bothered in the hotel lobby, or by the pool.&ldquo;Not anymore. Now it&rsquo;s everywhere. There isn&rsquo;t a city in the league left where you don&rsquo;t have to wade through the kids and people who want autographs.&ldquo;You feel bad for trying to avoid it. But you&rsquo;ve got to wonder-are these really kids looking for your autograph, or kids trying to make some money from you. And you tell me isn&rsquo;t there something wrong with an eight year old kid in the lobby of a hotel at 2:30 in the morning, after a game, with a stackful of cards looking for autographs?&ldquo;Is he a hockey fan, or is some guy paying the kid to get these things for him?&rdquo;It&rsquo;s a refrain heard very often, and less than a week before the All-Star Game Wayne Gretzky and the Kings were visiting Philadelphia when The Great One even suggested the growing list of obligations were getting wearisome.&ldquo;All the off-ice stuff,&rdquo; said Gretzky, looking very haggard. &ldquo;I can understand you guys (media) doing your job. That&rsquo;s one thing. But you travel around, it&rsquo;s getting to be so much signing this and that. It really does start to wear.&rdquo;Of course, Gretzky has his personal rules about which cards he will and will not sign. But for the most part, Gretzky will shake hands and try to accommodate as many people as possible.But even with Gretzky&rsquo;s natural sunny disposition, a gaggle of autograph seekers can have him inconspicuously turning a comer to find another exit.&ldquo;Somebody once asked me if having grown up as Bobby Hull&rsquo;s son helped prepare me for this,&rdquo; said St. Louis Blue winger Brett Hull, &ldquo;but 1 saw what it was like with my dad It was nothing like this.&rdquo;Being a member of the NHL&rsquo;s Big Three with Gretzky and Mario Lemieux, Hull is swamped with requests from city to city. In order live through the ordeal, Hull has recent skull session with his best friend and (at least temporarily) linemate, Adam Oates, now with Boston Bruins.&ldquo;When my dad was playing maybe got asked to sign a single ca a scrap of paper, or the top of envelopem,&rdquo; said Hull. &ldquo;There weren&rsquo;t seven thousand different types of hockey cards, with 20 or different cards in each set, and eight magazines, and sticks and pennants. That&rsquo;s the big difference.&ldquo;Well, that and the fact that you don&rsquo;t know if the kids are doing because they really want your auto-graph, or they want to sell your autograph.&ldquo;It puts you in a pretty bad spot. I mean, the team bus is waiting for you, and you&rsquo;ve got a kid with a handfull of cards. You have to start to wonder, does this kid really want my auto-graph, or am 1 putting him through college.&ldquo;Look, a lot of these kids work for collectors who sell the things. I know it. Adam and I have people that we know in St. Louis, and they&rsquo;d told us how it works. They tell us that the pay the kids to stand outside the arenas and wait for the players to come out.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s ridiculous.&ldquo;Like I said, you start wondering if they are using you to pay their way through college, so Adam and I came up with a few rules:&ldquo;First, I won&rsquo;t sign eight by li glossy photographs; I&rsquo;ll only sign the cover of magazines. I won&rsquo;t sign trophy cards. I won&rsquo;t sign holographs, won&rsquo;t sign if somebody draws a picture of me. There is just too much you&rsquo;ve got to draw the line some where.&rdquo;Recently, Hull found out that one of these collectors helped him to play a game wearing his familiar number 16. During a recent game at the Spectrum in Philadelphia, Hull&rsquo;s jersey was stolen.In an effort to locate an authentic Blues&rsquo; jersey, the Flyers&rsquo; trainers contacted a Philadelphia area collector who just happened to have a game quality white Hull jersey (NHL teams wore white on the road after the all-star break).The jersey had been autographed by Hull earlier in the season, so the autograph had to be bleached out for the game, and he cut off the fighting strap.After the game, Hull saw the man who provided the jersey and agreed to autograph it again.&ldquo;I guess it would be worth an awful lot of money,&rdquo; said the collector, &ldquo;but I&rsquo;m the kind of collector who gets something like this and keeps it-I won&rsquo;t sell it.&rdquo;In others words, he&rsquo;s one of the shrinking breed of collectors the players don&rsquo;t mind taking the time to sign and talk to-a real collector and not a mercenary. &#9632;

f0014-01

DRAWING THE LINE

<div class="byline">BY KEVIN ALLEN</div><div class="image-hero"><img title="f0016-03" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0016-031156/10217382-1-eng-US/f0016-032.jpg"><figcaption class="caption-body">Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; tough guy Bob Probert was upset with the way he was shown on an Upper Deck card.</figcaption></div>When the evolution of the card collecting business is complete, what you get might be what professional athletes want you to have.Pro Set&rsquo;s recent decision to scrap its Flopps parody baseball card set is an example of the players&rsquo; continually increasing influence in the collecting world.In a written statement, Pro Set president Lud Denny said the set was abandoned because of &ldquo;some players&rdquo; negative reactions.&ldquo;After learning from consumers how funny they thought the cards were, the Major League Baseball Players&rsquo; Association&rsquo;s negative reaction to the card was quite surprising to us,&rdquo; Denny said.Over the last few years, players&rsquo; associations have started to demand more input into card companies&rsquo; sets. As the granter of the license, a players&rsquo; association has certain rights to control that product. But before discouraging the Pro Set Flopps edition, Major League Baseball was considered to be among the easiest of the player unions to appease.Card companies&rsquo; managers say getting football sets approved can be an arduous process. The NHL Players&rsquo; Association, which began reviewing cards in October, is also developing a reputation for a thorough-sometimes picky-screening process.NHLPA&rsquo;s lan Pulver, who reviews the cards, said the union&rsquo;s involvement is a response to players wanting an advocate for their interests in the billion-dollar industry.In the past, players have complained about the way they were presented on cards. Detroit Red Wings&rsquo; Bob Probert was upset because his 1990-91 Upper Deck card featured him with a cut under his eye. He didn&rsquo;t think the picture was in good taste-particularly since children are still a prime consumer in the hobby.Under the NHLPA&rsquo;s new review system, the Probert card would have never been approved.The NHLPA vetoes any photo showing facial injury, fighting, or any photo ambiguous in its presentation. Pulver nixed one photo of a goal-tender inserting eye drops into his mask because he believed a collector might not be able to identify that the foreign substance was eye drops.Pulver also regrets allowing Troy Mallette to appear barechested in an Upper Deck card. &ldquo;You probably wouldn&rsquo;t see that next year,&rdquo; he said.Pulver, who has a card collection and a good knowledge of the industry, does a painstaking review of the biographies on the card backs. What doesn&rsquo;t he allow?&ldquo;If a player has an illness, or a dependency, or he has a tragedy in his life,&rdquo; Pulver said. &ldquo;Basically, we don&rsquo;t want to see anything negative about the player.&rdquo;Though there is some grousing from companies about the added scrutiny, they have adjusted to the new rules.&ldquo;I think we have a good relationship with (the NHLPA),&rdquo; said Ed Fick, president of Score. &ldquo;There is some give-and-take on both sides.&rdquo;Companies can, and do, appeal Pulver&rsquo;s calls. &ldquo;We listen to them as much as they listen to us,&rdquo; Pulver said.&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have an adversarial relationship. They know we want to maximize the salability of the product. But we want the product to be right.&rdquo;David Upton, president of the Sports Card Association of Canada, is happy to see the NHLPA monitor card companies&rsquo; presentation.&ldquo;What people want is a quality card,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;They want to see the players presented in a positive way. People see enough negative in the world, they don&rsquo;t have to see it on a card.&rdquo;But others see the NHLPA as a censor operating in a public domain.&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a central authority trying to regulate a public interest,&rdquo; said attorney Greg Graessley, a Ypsilanti, Mich., resident who collects cards. &ldquo;This is public entertainment. It&rsquo;s not the NHLPA&rsquo;s game. It&rsquo;s the public&rsquo;s game. Without the public support of the game, they don&rsquo;t exist.&ldquo;They are telling us how they want their players portrayed. I don&rsquo;t like someone telling me only what they think I should know. Let the companies put the product out and let the consumer decide whether he thinks it&rsquo;s in poor taste. He will tell you by whether or not he buys it. If the player is worried about how he will be depicted, he can leave the game.&rdquo;Upton doesn&rsquo;t view heavily edited cards as censorship because the information is available through the media.&ldquo;If Grant Fuhr had drug problems, not everyone has to see that on his hockey card,&rdquo; Upton said. &ldquo;None of us would like to see our personal problems on display.&rdquo;Toronto Maple Leafs&rsquo; draft pick Terry Chitaroni, currently playing for the Ontario League&rsquo;s Sudbury Wolves, is among those who support the NHLPA&rsquo;s decision to review cards. He is currently battling Star Pics over his depiction in an unlicensed set. He was angered because his bio stated, &ldquo;Not blessed with great natural ability. Does not have great hands. Not a natural playmaker.&rdquo;&ldquo;It says I&rsquo;m horrible,&rdquo; said Chitaroni, fifth on Sudbury&rsquo;s all-time scoring list. &ldquo;What if Toronto looks at that bio and takes that into account during contract negotiations?&rdquo;Chitaroni received about $1,000 to appear on the cards. He has refused to fulfill his contractual obligation of signing 200 cards for Star Pics in protest of the biography. He asked Star Pics to remake the card.<div class="figure-block image-block"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0017-011798/10217375-1-eng-US/f0017-012.jpg" title="f0017-01" width="613" height="852"><figcaption class="caption-body">Star Pics says Terry Chitaroni doesn&rsquo;t have great hands.</figcaption></div>&ldquo;Smokey&rsquo;s card was fine,&rdquo; Chitaroni said. &ldquo;It was pointed out I was a physical player, who still can score. They have to be careful because those kinds of things can stick to you.&rdquo;But Star Pics spokesman Julie Yolles said there&rsquo;s nothing unusually negative about Chitaroni&rsquo;s card. Star Pics, which also makes basketball and football draft pick sets, always includes players&rsquo; strengths and weaknesses.&ldquo;We want to present a balanced report to the collector,&rdquo; Yolles said. &ldquo;We would not go back and print a special card just to show his strengths. It&rsquo;s unfortunate the collectors won&rsquo;t have an opportunity to get his autograph.&rdquo;Star Pics also produced five sets signed by all the players in the set. Every player signed his card except for Chitaroni.According to the licensing agreement, card companies can issue one card of every NHL player. After that, they must provide rationale for each card. &ldquo;If they are going to produce multiple cards of one player we want to know why,&rdquo; Pulver said.Pulver pays special attention to the subsets. This season, the NHLPA frowned upon commingling of non-NHLPA members in sets-which meant that Pulver wouldn&rsquo;t permit Score to use rodeo star Coleman Robinson and golfer Jack Nicklaus on hero cards with Clint Malarchuk and Brett Hull respectively.&ldquo;We thought Score&rsquo;s (edition) had a uniqueness without commingling with other sports,&rdquo; Pulver said. &ldquo;But we may allow that in the future.&rdquo;The NHLPA did allow Malarchuk&rsquo;s interest in rodeo to be depicted in another Score subset.Pulver said the NHLPA has no permanent card review policy in place. Like the business it is monitoring, the NHLPA guidelines are evolving in the process. He said there is a strong commitment to treating all companies equally and respecting the confidentiality of the business.&ldquo;We have no favored nation treatment here,&rdquo; Pulver said.One area the NHLPA is reviewing is the companies&rsquo; use of stars on their display boxes. The NHLPA asks its members whether it would object to appearing on the box of a certain company. That prevents Wayne Gretzky, who has a contract with Upper Deck, from appearing on a Pro Set box.The NHLPA is also reviewing the whole idea of a rookie card. Though nothing is finalized, Pulver said the NHLPA is &ldquo;moving toward&rdquo; not allowing any player to be included in the set until he has played his first NHL game.That would eliminate draft pick sets, prospect sets and things such as Upper Deck&rsquo;s Canada Cup subset. That means each company will be hard pressed to come up with players the other companies don&rsquo;t have. &#9632;

f0016-03

WHEN PLAYERS’ ASSOCIATIONS SPEAK, CARD COMPANIES LISTEN

<div class="byline">BY WAYNE HEPBURN</div>If you consider yourself to be a hockey card collector, you probably know Gordie Howe&rsquo;s 1951-52 Parkhurst is the most valuable regular issued card. But did you know Howe ranks second to Howie Morenz in terms of average card value?We compared vintage cards of players in terms of average values. Since the Golden Era players (19511972) usually had more cards than the pre-World War 11 players (1910-1941), we just took the average value of the player&rsquo;s first 11 cards. That&rsquo;s the number of cards Morenz, the dominant player of his era, had.Bear in mind pre-World War 11 cards are listed in the Price Guide in excellent condition with a 50 per cent premium for near mint and golden era cards are listed in near mint with a 50 per cent premium for mint.1. Howie Morenz. Since Collectors World published an exhaustive listing of pre-World War 11 cards last May (Vol. 1, No. 6), the values have risen approximately 50 per cent. This spurt of interest in the era has put Morenz on top. Recognized as the premier player of the &rsquo;20s and &rsquo;30s his 11 cards average around $1,000. His rookie from the 1923-24 V145 set can run from $ 1,000-$ 1,400 depending on the variation and condition.Best card: the 1934-35 Sweet Caporal photo issue, showing Morenz as a Chicago Blackhawk.2. Gordie Howe. His first 11 cards average around $850.00. His rookie from the 1951-52 Parkhurst set is the number one card in the hobby at $2,600. There is rising pressure on this card as a number of reported sales at the $3,000 level have taken place recently. Howe&rsquo;s second year 195253 Parkhurst lists at $1,500 while his first Topps card from 1954-55 has a value of $1,850.Best card: 1954-55 Parkhurst with the big red star in the background.3. George Vezina. Even though Vezina had only six cards, the average price is about $650. Some of the hottest cards in the hobby are the C55, C56, and C57 cigarette cards. Their value has nearly doubled in the last six months. The Vezina rookie now stands near $ 1,000.Best card: The 1911-12 C55. The painted artwork is brilliant.4. King Clancy. He appears on 10 cards with an approximate average value of $500. His rookie appearance is in the 1923-24 VI45-1 set. That card runs around the $900 mark.Best card: Nothing captures the essence of the jovial King like his rookie card.5. Eddie Shore. He had five cards between 1933 and 1940. He has a rookie card in both OPC Series A and in the rare VI29. The O-Pee-Chee card runs around $500 while the V129 is about $750. Shore&rsquo;s cards average about $450.Best card: O-Pee-Chee Series A. I&rsquo;m a sucker for a background of stars and this set has lots.6. Aurel Joliat. Along with Morenz and Clancy, Joliat completes the troika of big rookies from the VI45-1. The ever popular Joliat had 11 cards. His rookie card has an approximate value of $750. The average of his other cards is around $450.Best card: The Sweet Caporal photo issue. The rich red Canadiens&rsquo; uniform is mesmerizing.7. (Tie) Cyclone Taylor (three) and Art Ross (five) have an average card value of approximately $400. They were contemporaries and both had their rookie card appearance in the Imperial Tobacco C56 set of 1910-11. The approximate value of the three rookies (Ross has two) is $500.Best cards: The C56 for both. Taylor has the confident, perhaps arrogant, pose that betrays his style.Others: Maurice Richard, Bobby Hull, Charlie Conacher, Lester Patrick, Newsy Lalonde and Bobby Orr, all of whom have an average card value of around $350. &#9632;

ON AVERAGE, MORENZ AND HOWE ARE CARD KINGS

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0022-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0022-011616/10217437-1-eng-US/f0022-012.jpg"></div><h2>SECOND ANNUAL READER POLL</h2>Welcome to our second Reader Poll. Including this issue, the Poll will run in four investment, we&rsquo;ve limited it to editions of Collectors World, The results will be published cards this season. So there&rsquo;s in the Summer issue (Vol. 2, no Pavel Bure. Pat Falloon or No. 10).We&rsquo;ve made a few changes to our popular feature. Gone is the category of worst card and added is one or and added is one for best non-best non-NHL licensed set.For best set, we show the first regular card in each issue. Although Pinnacle hasn&rsquo;t been released yet, it will before the end of the season- and before all poll votes annual Collectors World are counted.In the category of best investment, we&rsquo;ve limited it to players who have rookie cards this season. So there&rsquo;s no Pavel Bure, Pat Falloon or Donald Audette. If you choose to vote for player other than those listed, choose one who has a rookie card this season.Simply check the box for your selection and mail or fax the page or a photocopy to:Collectors World Reader Poll,85 Scarsdale Rd., Suite 100,Don Mills, Ont.,M3B 2R2 &#9632;

f0022-01

HAVE YOUR SAY

<div class="image-hero"><img title="f0031-01" src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0031-011405/10217659-1-eng-US/f0031-012.jpg"></div><div class="figure-block image-bleed"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0032-011534/10217652-1-eng-US/f0032-012.jpg" title="f0032-01" width="6900" height="4020"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0034-011558/10217645-1-eng-US/f0034-012.jpg" title="f0034-01" width="7060" height="4000"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0036-011459/10217638-1-eng-US/f0036-012.jpg" title="f0036-01" width="7020" height="3930"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0038-011414/10217631-1-eng-US/f0038-012.jpg" title="f0038-01" width="6880" height="3970"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0040-011012/10217624-1-eng-US/f0040-012.jpg" title="f0040-01" width="7030" height="3920"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0042-01942/10217617-1-eng-US/f0042-012.jpg" title="f0042-01" width="6980" height="3950"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0044-01822/10217610-1-eng-US/f0044-012.jpg" title="f0044-01" width="7040" height="3990"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0046-01735/10217603-1-eng-US/f0046-012.jpg" title="f0046-01" width="7090" height="3970"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0048-01523/10217596-1-eng-US/f0048-012.jpg" title="f0048-01" width="6920" height="3950"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0050-01510/10217589-1-eng-US/f0050-012.jpg" title="f0050-01" width="6920" height="3970"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0053-01362/10217582-1-eng-US/f0053-012.jpg" title="f0053-01" width="3430" height="4020"><img src="/var/site_2854/storage/images/media2/images/f0054-01379/10217575-1-eng-US/f0054-012.jpg" title="f0054-01" width="6960" height="3960"></div> &#9632;

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