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.

It's Evolution Baby! Upper Deck Style

Once upon a time there were two species of human, once upon a time there were two card companies (OPC and  Topps). Once upon a time, Upper Deck had two rookie subsets. It started off as Young Guns and Star Rookies. The Star Rookies were a carry over from the baseball sets and Young Guns were new for hockey. For a few years Upper Deck kept both around in their flagship set and then something happened. Young Guns died off and became a part of the Collector's Choice product and Star Rookies got the prime-time focus in Upper Deck's flagship sets. Was that the end? Of course not, eventually Star Rookies would be dropped and Young Guns came back and have been going strong for over a decade. Question is, would you want to see Star Rookies make a come back and live in harmony with Young Guns? Well Upper Deck has reformed its monopoly so they can do whatever they want! Here are two fun old Star Rookies.

1992-93 Upper Deck Series 1 Bill Guerin Star Rookie

This is a legit rookie. Check out the nice photography.

Here is the back side of the rookie. Bill is one of my all-time favourite players and this is a pretty cool rookie.

1992-93 Upper Deck Series 1 Martin Brodeur Star Rookie

Unlike the Guerin, this is NOT a legit rookie. Score included him in their 90-91 set as a first round draft pick. Still, this was the first card after he played in the NHL so that is cool right? Ok, maybe not but the photo on this card is cool. Green pants, cool helmet and gallimaufry galore!

Here is the back of the card, as you can see he already has 2 NHL wins and Zero Shutouts. Hard to believe he would set NHL records in both those categories in a mere 20 seasons...

If you are just checking out this post because you like Pearl Jam then here:

Bill Guerin Game Used Stick

One of my first ever favourite players was Bill Guerin. As far as watching and cheer, I followed him around and wished him well at every stop. I really wished the Devils held on to him, but at the same time, Arnott was a big player in our 2000 cup win and certainly wouldn't trade that for anything in the world either. As far as collecting Bill, I have a few game used cards and autographs, but that is the extent of it. In fact, my autos aren't even "certified" so really I have NOTHING official other than some swatches of my boy Billy G.

That is all about to change as I landed a pretty cool game-used stick piece from the 2001-02 Private Stock release. These cards were limited to 200 non-numbered copies and the one I landed was pretty darn sweet. During that period of time he was using a Vic Graphite stick which came in both black and white. He used the white one at some points during his time with the Oilers and a black one which you see pictured. I wish they had the white on in the photo, but if you are interested, here is a shot of the stick in action. Now there is no way for sure to tell if that was the same product of stick, they seem to match in my opinion which I guess is all that matters...

What I love about this piece is that it is really 4 colours...White, black, blue and black-smudge...I haven't touched the smudge to see if it was stick tape or puck-mark, but either way I really like the character it has.

This was a great find and the price was more than right. I put in a bid that received very little competition and I brought it home for less that I would have been willing to pay. Also my pattern continues of more focused and purposeful collecting.

1992-93 Pro Set Box Break

Well I was in the city again and back at the gentleman's place who sold me my box of 90-91 Pro Set. He must have every box from the 90's and singles from 1910 up to 2000. I wish I could have spent more time because the 1910 cards and the Ice Kings from the 30's definitely needed more of my personal attention. In addition, there were plenty of different 51 Parkies in there but, they too will have to wait for another time.

I did look around and bought a couple little rookies and picked up a set which was my whole reason for the trip in and I will share with you at a later point. But there was one thing I caught out of the corner of my eye, it was a stack of wax boxes from 1992. Pro Set boxes to be precise. This is the only Pro Set that I never bought a box of and it is likely the shortest produced of the three Pro Set sets. I read online at nhlcollector.com that this production run was only 8000 cases which is a pretty short run for the time period. In fact, it would be a run shorter than some current UD and Panini products on the market. This would have been a good idea, but the vultures were already circling the Pro Set corpse and they were bankrupt before Series 2 could be produced. Really this was the signal of the end of the hockey card boom. It would be a few years before companies like Score/Pinnacle, Donruss and Fleer would make their exits but truly 1993 was the year the bubble burst.

So lets put on a little Informer by Snow or Whoomp! (There it is) by Tag Team and rip this box!

I had two goals, one was to get the complete set of 270 cards and the other was to get an extra Bill Guerin rookie. I owe all his RC's except this one so it would be nice to have an extra.

Each box contained 36 packs with 15 cards. Some packs contained inserts and there was a Kirk MacLean autographed card that was in one out of 8 cases. So I had a 1 in 160 chance of getting one of those too....

Here is the base cards.

I like the design of these. Definitely my favourite of the three Pro Set years.

Here is the backside

A short blurb with complete career stats. Nice layout, simple, clean and pleasant on the eyes.

Rookies

Here is the extra Guerin I pulled. Rookies were designed a little different, clean design on back with a larger write up about them. There were only 10 ACTUAL rookies in the set as players like Niedermayer, Lapointe, Lindros etc were all picked off as juniors in previous UD or Score sets.

CC Insert

Continuing the 1991 tradition, there are CC inserts which feature trophy winners of the previous season. These list for about a buck a piece. Roy is the largest valued at a BV of 10 bucks. I pulled Guy.

Rookie Scoring leaders

I pulled two of these from my box. Bure was the most valuable at a BV of 3 bucks.

Rookie Leader

Amonte was my second rookie leader. Only worth about a buck. Nice hit none the less.

Parkhurst Preview Card???

This hit was a huge surprise. This isn't listed in the standard beckett or is mentioned on the box. I am a HUGE Parkhurst so this was my favourite hit out of the box. It turns out there are 5 cards in the Parkhurst Preview set and looking at the back of the Fuhr card you can see he is 5 of 5. I would like to try and get the other 4 and have the set of them.

Here is the back side.

The cards use a different photo than the actual 92-93 issue which makes these cards even more desirable to me.

After all the packs were opened, I was able have a complete set and then some.

So for 20 bucks I got

1 set BV $15

1 CC card $1

2 Rookie Goal Leaders $4

1 Parkhurst Preview $??

and about 3 hours of fun ripping, sorting and putting them in pages.

This was a fun break. With this set, I now have all the Pro Set sets from 90-93 except for a couple missing singles from 90 Series 1 and the Series One set from 91-92 Pro Set Platinum. I will try and nail down the missing pieces over time but with there being so many on the market, I am in no rush.

In the end the cards are worth much more to me than a Beckett will ever say and if you have a chance to bust of box of these, give it a try, again you could spend 20 bucks in many worse ways than this!

Bill Guerin Retires

Well my favourite player from my childhood has decided that he is done playing professional hockey as has retired as a Pittsburgh Penguin. The retirement ceremony can be see here.

Bill Guerin had an excellent career, the former 5th overall pick of the Devils in 1989 scored 40+ goals twice and had a career high 85 points in 2000-01. His final totals were 429 goals and 856 points in 1263 games and 13 times finished with 20+ goals. In addition to those stats, he also won two Stanley Cups.

The one games I will always remember of Billy was game 4 of the 95 Finals when he scored 3 points to secure the first cup in Devils franchise history.

Bill was an excellent power forward who skated well and had a shot that rivaled some of the best in his prime. As I mentioned in a previous post, Bill was my first and only TTM. As you can see below, he used blue sharpie on his 92-93 Parkhurst RC. The other auto was signed with a black sharpie and was one I has bought a few years later from a sports store in the mall back in 98. I believe I paid 5 bucks and in my opinion it was money well spent. Both autos have his name and number 12. He would switch to #13 after he was traded for Jason Arnott and would keep that number for the rest of his career.

In addition, I also bought a game used lot off ebay a year or so ago and managed to get three g-u cards for 0.99 plus shipping. The blue swatch was from his brief time with the Blues and the other two are different greens both from his days with the Stars.

The Shooting Stars swatch is the nicest of the three in my opinion partly because the play on words and it is the largest of the three swatches.

I am sad to see that he has decided to call it a career, but he did leave relatively on top of his game. His final season he still managed to score 21 goals with the Penguins and though they didn't win the Cup that year and he likely will never make the Hall of Fame, he still left the game with two rings and many other accomplishments such as Olympic Silver Medalist, and World Cup of Hockey Champion.

TTM's

Well I have decided that I am going to give a few of these a try and see if I have any success. I have only ever tried once and it was back in 1994. I send a fan letter to Bill Guerin while he was with NJ and within two months I received my signed card back. At the time I didn't have any US stamps (as they are hard to come by back then because there was no online shopping) so I mailed a US dollar along with it for return postage. I was quite happy to receive the card back and unfortunately there was no written response other than the card but I was just as happy to have the card regardless.

I mailed my first one out on Sunday and it was sent to Stephane Richer. I sent him a fan letter along with three cards. I had a difficult time trying to settle on two, so I sent three hoping for the best. One was his RC and the other two were his 90-91 Score card and his 91-92 Parkhurst (he is in a Devils jersey by then). I will keep you posted on my successes and failures.

I will save the photo of the Guerin auto for my next post as it seems Billy has decided to call it a career today.