Another White Whale Captured - A Piece of Pelle

Pelle Lindbergh was a special player and one who I always had a fascination with. I would wonder, what could he have done had he not made a poor choice one night? He had some much promise and ever since him, the Flyers seem to have been cursed when it comes to goaltenders. I moved around a lot especially in my early adult years especially at University. One thing I always had with me was this little display:

This is a little to big to fit on my scanner so I took a photo with my phone. These are all the cards the were released in North America from his playing days. He should have been in the 84/85 OPC set in my opinion but was only mentioned on the back of one card. I completed this little PC back when I was 13 years old and all 4 cards have pretty much been in that case ever since. It's a little scratched up now and I suspect some day I will need to upgrade it at some point but for now it still is within reach in my hockey card closet and I display it regularly. 

Now I know that I probably will never have a Pelle Lindbergh auto because they are just well beyond my budget and what I would be willing to pay for a single autograph but instead I was able to land this card which is equally awesome to me.  

2015 Leaf/ITG In The Game Used 2 Vintage Memorabilia Lindbergh/Parent /30

It's hard to see the pieces but the Pelle piece is a piece of nylon that looks nice and crusty. It's probably off a glove or blocker I am guessing and the Bernie piece is a nice chunk of leather which I would guess is off his pads or glove. This card is numbered to just 30 and looks magnificent in person.

Here is the back side and as you can see ITG is now a Leaf product but unlike some of their pieces I believe this one was very well done. While Pelle is not going to ever make the Hall of Fame, I felt my collection really needed one more piece of Pelle just to make this PC complete and I believe this card really does it for me. There are lots of memorabilia pieces out there now and I may find another one or two before my collecting days are over but any additions will be merely by happenstance and not anything I am going to actively track down. It's nice to sometimes close out a PC and I believe I am pretty much there with this one! A nice finish if you ask me. Does anyone out there have a PC they have been able to "finish"?

Value Vintage Sets # 2 - 78-79 Topps

Well it has been a while since I have had time to do a vintage post, so here we go. The number value vintage set of all-time is the 78-79 Topps set. I love the look of this set, maybe not as much as the 81-82 set but this set is classic.


Redeeming Qualities:
The design one front is pleasing to the eye and cool back sides
A decent sized set at 264 cards
(I noticed centering is better on Topps than OPC....can't verify if this is true though)
A number of good veteran players (Dryden, Mikita, Esposito etc)
The set is over 33 years old
28 rookies in the set
MIKE BOSSY ROOKIE
Mint sets can be found on ebay for under 50 bucks


Card Design:
The front side
Here is Bernie going out for a skate without his glove (warm up maybe?). Lots of the cards feature some decent action shots which I always preferred over studio shots.

The back side

Love the backs. The Special Autograph Series aspect of it is pretty cool. It is a shame that Howe and Hull were in the WHA and Orr was not part of the Topps set! Nevertheless, the backs are simple with stats and a write up on some players cards.

Key Cards AND Rookies

Mike Bossy Rookie

Without a doubt, the big card in this set is THIS ONE! I didn't have a Bossy rookie which is one reason why I wanted this set. Second reason is I have sorta always wished I owned this set and it was certainly high on my to-do list. When one popped up on ebay claiming to be NrMt-Mt I was a little skeptical. The set is 33 years old, sometimes things happen. I took a chance and I am ever glad I did. This Bossy is one of the niceset cards in the set and is really and honestly NrMt. I think it might even grade around a 9. The ONLY thing wrong is the centering. 4 sharp corners and a beautiful surface. This card books for 50 bucks and if you can land the set for that price you are essetially getting the other 263 cards for free!

Bernie Federko Rookie

The other 27 rookies in the set are pretty decent. Ranging from talents like Bernie Federko who made the Hall of Fame in 2002 to Pierre Mondou who had some pretty good years with the Habs to Jim Bedard who has had more success as a goalie coach than he did as a player. Lots of decent rookies are in this set. One downer, is Dave Taylor and a few others who have rookies in the OPC set aren't found in the Topps release.

Doug Wilson
Another quality rookie in the set is Doug Wilson. A really good d-man who hasn't made it into the Hall yet, and maybe never will, but there is a facebook group trying to accomplish that. One neat fact about Doug, is in 81-82 he scored 39 goals as a defenseman. That is still the 4th highest total ever by a defenseman.

Other notable cards:

Larry Robinson

Here is one of the cool action shots I was talking about. To make up for a small set, Topps put All-Star team status under the players names if it applied rather than make a second card. This is neat because the OPC version of Larry Robinson's card looks different than the Topps.

Phil Esposito

Here is Phil in the twilight of his career with the Rangers. Rod Gilbert had number 7 so Phil had to wear 77.


Ken Dryden
2nd last Dryden card from his playing days.

SO there you have it. I like this set very much and having only paid 44.99 (56.99 with shipping) I am way ahead on that deal. Keep an eye out if you are looking to pick one up yourself. The good quality sets are out there and they can be had for a pretty decent price. The OPC version is larger and more complete when you think there are 51 rookies and Orr's last card in that set. But cost-wise and bang for your buck, there really aren't many more sets that offer you value than the 78-79 Topps set!

Recap so far

#2 - 78/79 Topps

#3 - 81/82 Topps

#4 - 84/85 Topps

#5 - 89/90 OPC

I hope to get the #1 set up in the next week or so.