On This Day 28 Years Ago....

The greatest player ever to play hockey was traded and eventually one of the most iconic non-rookie cards from the 80's was born.

For those who aren't in the know, Wayne Gretzky who was smashing just about every NHL offensive record was traded to the LA Kings for a number of players and draft picks and $25 million dollars. The key piece other than the money was Jimmy Carson who in all fairness was a fledgling superstar. Jimmy was the second overall pick in the 1986 and already had a 55 goal season in just his second year in the NHL. Alas poor Jimmy made the mistake of demanding a trade out of Edmonton after putting up great numbers in his first year with the club and his career was never the same after that.

Wayne on the other hand excelled in LA and made stars into superstars.

The above card is often known as the Gretzky sweater card in the 88-89 Topps set. What is most interesting about this card to me is it's place in history and it's place among collectors. Once upon a time, the 88-89 OPC and Topps sets were heavily coveted during the collecting explosion of the early 90's, I remember the Hull Topps rookie trading for about 50 dollars and the OPC pushing 150 dollars. However, thanks to the bubble bursting and the internet, many prices of 80's cards have dropped steadily over the past 20 years instead of increasing in value like so many envisioned and hoped for. What I find very cool is the value of this particular card hasn't changed and is actually the highest listed card in the 88-89 Topps set ($20 dollars). It's more valuable than a Brett Hull rookie, Brendan Shanahan rookie or even a Joe Nieuwendyk rookie. Wayne Gretzky's 9th year card is more valuable than each of those three Hall of Famer's rookie cards.

Here is the back side of the card.

What is also impressive is the Gretzky Sweater card is considered even more valuable than it's OPC counterpart.

 See anything missing on this card? Compare the two and look by the push pin!

OPC decided to run with a different photo than the Topps card and went with a posed photo of Wayne wearing his Kings jersey and forever changed the 88-89 release. Collectors appreciate Wayne in uniform but it seems that the Topps card from the news conference trumps this one and it's pretty much the only case in the 80's where a Topps card is more valuable than it's OPC counterpart (with the exception of the 89-90 sets where OPC was over produced). While I like the above card, the Topps card just seems so much more interesting and magical. It is almost a better representation of the most shocking trade I have ever experienced in my life.

 Here is the backside of the OPC card.

So where were you when the trade happened? Did you collect or try to collect these cards? Personally I remember the trade well and I grew to really like the Oilers during the 87-88 season because after the Devils got bounced I cheered for the Oilers to bounce the Bruins which they were able to do and while they would win again in 1990, the Dynasty was over and things were never the same again.

I have owned the Topps card pictured here since the early/mid 90's when I bought the whole set for 60 dollars which seems silly since they can be had for much less now but the years of enjoyment have been worth it! The OPC version is apart of my OPC set which I bought a couple years ago because I have a pretty big sentimental attachment to the set as a whole which I will hopefully share some day in another post.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and here's hoping we never see a trade like this again.....ever!

How to spot a real Hull OPC rookie

This post is to help people out who may be in the market for an OPC Brett Hull rookie card. As I mentioned in my previous post there is a tell on the front of the card and it is a "dot" in the push pin. This is likely going to be the best way to tell if it is real or not because not all Hull rookies which are fake will say reprint on the back.

Here is a shot of a Hull rookie I stole from Checkoutmycards.com. I currently don't own an OPC version (just Topps), this will have to do!

 Click on the picture and you will see it enlarged and look at the push pin. That isn't a flaw in the picture, it is a flaw in the card's print production. It appears as a little dot and is present in ALL Hull OPC rookies.

Here is a zoomed in shot. I am not sure if it helps some people or not, but here are my two cents!

Someone is going to be disappointed they won this auction! (or how bidding with an Ebay App can really suck)

I think I can officially list one of my hobbies as creeping on eBay auctions. I am always watching like 20-30 at a time just to see what the final sale price is. Sometimes I bid, but I think the watch to bid ratio is like 30:1. Anyway, I was bidding on a Hull rookie last night, and lost (Went for like 12 bucks plus shipping) when I noticed one other one I was watching sold for much higher.

I never bid on this one because in my iPod app the photo didn't look right. I felt it could have been a counterfeit Hull and when I popped onto my desktop I noticed indeed it was.

Funny thing is, if I didn't look at the web version, I wouldn't have seen the super obvious mark on the back....IT SAYS REPRINT!!!!

However, someone may have not noticed that when they paid 18 bucks plus shipping for a worthless card.
How could they have been duped? Here is the ad for the card and pictures below:

"Beautiful and all original 1988-89 Brett Hull O-Pee-Chee NHL Hockey Rookie Card #66. Condition is excellent. This item would be a welcome addition in any NHL Hockey memorabilia collection. Feel free to e-mail me back if you have any questions."

 Look at the front, please notice the perfect "push pin" which can only be found on fake Hull rookies. That is what tipped me off.... But look at the back and there is a true give-away!

Reprint....Doesn't sound "all original" to me.

So is this ebay seller a scammer, or is it buyer beware? The seller has a 99.3% rating on nearly 15k transactions.

Fun with Photoshop

Definitely something I would love to do if I had more time is make my own cards. I used a template for the 88-89 OPC set and I found this nice photo of Crosby online and blammo, he is now a retro card! I always find the hardest part about making your own cards is getting the right font. If you are going to copy a style already in existance you have to make the fonts match in my opinion which can always be tough. I missed the boat a little bit with this card, but I like it anyway.

Some day I would like to try and design my own card from scratch like some of you other bloggers out there...but that I think is something for another day.