Sets of Yesteryear - 1991-92 Parkhurst PHC

Well the past few weeks of exams and report cards sure took a lot out of me but I want to thank you patience while waiting for this post. Truth is I would have snuck in a post or two if I hadn't promised a big post this time around but alas I painted myself into that corner so it was my job to get myself out which only took a bit of time!

My regular readers will know I am a bit of a Parkhurst nut and honestly it was the 91-92 release that I first chased and subsequently was hooked on the brand for life. The 91-92 Parkhurst set is my second favourite set from the 90's right behind the amazing 90-91 Upper Deck set. In my opinion it was the best set Pro Set ever created, but I am slightly biased of course. In the set, there were a small batch of inserts including a Santa Claus Card and the PHC Insert set. PHC stands for Parkhurst Collectible and I for one ended up collecting a good number of these cards thanks to probably purchasing a case worth of this product as a kid. 

The design of the PHC cards was nearly identical to the base cards but on the front there was a badge in the upper right signifying the reason for the card and then the back side was numbered PHC 1 through 9. PHC 1-5 were found in series 1 packs and 6-9 were in series 2 packs.



PHC 1 Gordie Howe Front

 

The front side of this card has a nice old time colour photo of Gordie Howe and I love the simplicity of the shot and the fact the Mr Hockey is the only player in the shot. The colours look nice even today and I felt that this set has aged rather well in comparison to some of the drek to come out of the 90's (yes Score I'm looking in your direction). 

Backside

 

The backsides are clean and again very similar to the base set except it's all text here instead of a season by season break down and vital info. I do like how the Parkhurst watermark in the background works with the overall design of the back. You also get a second image of the player on front and in this case it's a B&W photo of Gordie. If I'm not mistaken, this looks like a cropped head shot of his Rookie Card photo and Bee Hive photo.

PHC 2 Alex Delvecchio Legend

Here's another one of the NHL great's and one of my main PC's Alex Delvecchio. I love that this photo features the white Red Wings jersey instead of the red which contrasts nice with these two cards in the binder. This features Alex later in his career after he has been made captain and the write up on the back features a nice summary of his career. 


PHC 3 Ken Hodge Rookie Leader

Oh Ken Hodge. I remember stocking up on your Young Gun rookies hoping you would be even better than your father Ken Hodge Sr. Well, you broke out of the gate hot scoring 30 goals in 70 games as a rookie but then sadly would only score 9 more goals over another 70+ games before taking your talents elsewhere. This card commemorates your amazing rookie season where you were the rookie leader in "Rookie Shooting Accuracy" which if you're wondering, he was 21% on the season.


PHC 4 Robert Kron Rookie Leader

Robert Kron is not a player I stocked up on in terms of rookies but perhaps I should have as Robert did put together a pretty solid NHL career spanning over 700 games. There aren't many horizontal cards in the set but this is the first of two in the PHC insert set and I like the look of this card. Robert Kron was the "Rookie Shorthanded Goals Leader".


PHC 5 Sergei Fedorov Rookie Leader

The final card you could pull from Series 1 packs was this gem. Love the wood Louisville TPS stick, no composite here kids! Fedorov would of course turn out the be the best of these three showcased rookies and this particular card is in honour of his season where he was "Rookie Shorthanded Goals Leader" as title he shared with Robert Kron.


PHC 6 Brett Hull Award Winner

One thing I love seeing is the All-Star uniforms from time to time and here is an example of such. In the case of this card, it is very fitting because Brett Hull was the MVP of the All-Star game.


PHC 7 Mario Lemieux Award Winner

Mario Lemieux makes an appearance in the PHC set as an award winner. In the case of Mario it is a season accomplishment and it recognizes his winning his third Art Ross Trophy.


PHC 8 New York Rangers Award Winner

Uh oh, Messier is touching the President's Trophy, maybe he shouldn't have and the Rangers would have won the Stanley Cup? Truth is the Penguins were stacked and there was no stopping them but it's fun to poke at the Rangers all the same!



PHC9 Terry Sawchuk Legend

Like series 1, series 2 PHC inserts include a former legend and yet another Red Wing, Terry Sawchuk. I like the B&W photo used here and clearly it is an in-game action shot. Maybe my favourite feature of this photo is his blocker which looks like an over-sized oven mitt.

Well there you have it a nice and simple insert set that I felt has aged rather well in the past 25 years. The player selection is nice and varied and while they could have showcased a few better rookies from the previous year, who honestly knew Ken Hodge would have been a big bust. The set fits nicely on a single 9 card page and is very affordable to any hockey fan out there. Book price is 15 dollars and can probably be found for less at your LCS.  I still check out this set from time to time in my collection and have even been fortunate enough to have the first two cards signed by Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. While the set isn't amazing or game changing I think its a timeless set and worthy of a 4.0 out of 5 rating.

My next couple posts are going to highlight some of the amazing people out there including one card company!

91-92 Parkhurst Bill Guerin Rookie (XRC)

There are some cards you covet and track down right away and there are other cards that take time to land. Both taste just as sweet in my books but this one card has a story. Back in the early 90's when every kid on my street collected cards, I was slightly different than most. Many were dumping loads of cash into Upper Deck and Pro Set (which I did my fair share too), I was also very interested in the older cards. Being the early 90's prices on older cards had skyrocketed too so many were beyond my price point but I bought up rookies like Bill Barber, Eric Vial and Dennis Hextall because they were reasonably priced and old. When Parkhurst came out, it was like a perfect product. Old time name, current players and a design that was very attractive. In my personal opinion, the best looking set in 91-92 and 92-93 were the Parkhurst cards. It was like Pro Set finally did something right. The inserts were even cool.

Here is what the cards looked like:

 Front side features a Parkhurst logo and a marbleized left margin. The cards are a nice thickness with a cool gloss that at the time made them seem very premium.

Here is the back, loaded with stats and information. I really like the backs of these cards and unlike most Pro Set products, these were well done and time and care went into them.

The set was well balanced with Vets and Rookies and the price wasn't too crazy (50 bucks a box is a number that rings a bell back then). My step-dad and I went so nuts that between the two of us we built like 8 base sets (yeah I still have them all). Pro Set even came out with a series two which featured more base and rookies and I bought a bunch of those too. I recently finished the whole PHC set (I have loads of the first 5 but because I didn't go as hardcore with series 2 I didn't have many from 6-10), and I will share soon as a sets of yesteryear. But what I didn't have was the Parkhurst Update set.

You see, there was a special promotion on the back of packs of Parkhurst which allowed you to mail in a cheque or money order to get a special Update Set. I remember being a 12 year old who didn't have a chequing account or access to money orders and debating on if I should do whatever I can to order one of these sets. In the end I decided to keep my paper route money and spend it on something else and I never did get one of those sets.

A little while later, the set started appearing in the Beckett Hockey Monthly and it was listing for a pretty high price which had me a little bummed out over a missed opportunity. But, actually what would sting even more about a year after my missed chance was the inclusion of card #453. Bill Guerin quickly became my favourite player in the NHL around 1993 and I found out that Bill was included in the Parkhurst Update set. It would be the only card issued for Guerin in the 1991-92 season and since it was a mail order set it was labelled an XRC. 92-93 would see 10 Bill Guerin rookies but 91-92 held the only one I wanted.

I even got Bill to sign a 92-93 Parkhurst rookie back in 1995 as my first TTM but still I wanted that 91-92 Parkhurst Update Rookie.

While I still don't have the Update Set (if you do and want to trade it please message me, I will make it worth your while!) I do have the Bill Guerin card at last.


I had never seen this card in person before until it arrived at my door.

91-92 Parkhurst Bill Guerin Rookie (XRC) #453

 In 1991-92, Bill Guerin played 5 regular season games and 6 playoff games. Since this set features updates from the 1992 playoffs, I think there is a good chance that is where this photo came from. Bill played very well for us in spite of the Devils bowing out in the first round. Bill had 3 goals in those 6 playoff games he played in. I wonder if he knew that in three short years he would be lifting Lord Stanley's Mug?

Here is the back, lots of cool background info. The photo on the back was taken from the regular season because the Devils met up with the Rangers in round 1 and clearly Bill is lining up against a Nordique player here.

It is worth pointing out that I almost won this card two years ago when someone had a graded version up for auction. It was only graded 8.5 but I didn't care too much about condition I just wanted the card. Sure enough I was winning the auction with about 16 hours to go and the seller pulls the auction. My bid at the time was like 4 bucks. I contact the seller and he didn't like the price it was at so he pulled it but informed me he was relisting it with a BIN. So I wait and sure enough it is posted. BIN $39.99USD

So for fun I kept watching him and sure enough it wouldn't sell time after time after time....I even saw it for 5 bucks one time and then he pulled the listing and relisted for 14.99. Needless to say I wouldn't have bought the card off him for a toonie with shipping. But, I did get enjoyment out of watching the fool not sell a card that I would have gladly took off his hands for a fair price.