The Parkhurst Project

Ever since I have begun collecting cards, I always preferred the older cards over the newer one. Since I started collecting in 1990, it was a good thing as I didn't spend ALL my money on 1990 junk wax and spread what little money I had around a little bit. My collection does have 90's stuff don't get me wrong, I was young and poor and it was often all I could afford. But I do have some older cards in my collection from the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's. The set designs over the years are pretty darn cool and I definitely have my favourites much like everyone else does I am sure. My all-time favourite is 1951 parkhurst. There are other iconic sets out there like 67-68 topps, or 71-72 OPC or even 79-80 OPC. But it was the Parkhurst set that ushered in the modern card collecting era for hockey cards and the set was the largest ever produced at the time at 105 cards. My life goal in collecting will be to get this complete set. Like most people I can't just drop 15k on a completed set so I will build this set one card at a time. I hope to share my collecting of this historical set. Over the years I have really only ever seen a couple completed sets for sale so I know my goal is challenging but with auctions every day on ebay and thousands of these cards still available it is by no means difficult. The hardest part will just be saving and buying the cards for a price I think is reasonable. To help keep this project reasonable I plan on buying cards that may not be in the best condition especially in cases like Howe, Sawchuk and Richard rc's. But with that being said I do have SOME standards.

1. The card must be a complete card (Not pieces of it)
2. There can not be any handwriting on the card (I don't like it when they have been defaced)
3. The card is obvious (The card shouldn't look like it went through the wash in someones pocket and you can't make out what it says anymore)
4. I want to get a wrapper of the packs from 1951

So with those things in mind I hope to build the 105 card set before I meet my end. Maybe I should make provisions in my will in case I die that my estate finishes the purchases? I wonder if that has ever been done before?

Here is a picture of what the orginial 1951 Parkies came out of. Once in a while I see them on sale but they are much more rare than some of the cards themselves.

I found this picture online as well. It is a picture of 100 of the 105 cards from the set. Can you pick out which ones are missing?

So there you have it. I think it is do-able but of course with time just about anything is I suppose. In the coming weeks I will share with you as I make my attempt and if you wish to help out I am willing to make trades or barter to try and get more cards.