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!

1996-97 Donruss Canadian Ice Mario Lemieux Auto /1200

Ages ago I made a small trade I regretted. In the trade I gave up two cards (one being my Lemieux autograph) I really liked so I could add a pile of cards that were OK and one decent card. I did it mostly to be nice but if I could do it all again I wouldn't. With that being said, I am sure some others have done similar trades with me so I guess it's the Universe balancing itself out or something like that. Anyway, Happy New Year all and what better way is there to start a new year than the see the Magnificent One?

1996-97 Donruss Canadian Ice Mario Lemieux Auto /1200

This golden foiled beauty is a very nice card in person, even if the scan disagrees with that statement. A nice on-card auto done with a (fine tipped felt pen?). You can actually see the impression of the signature in the card which I think is neat given today's day and age of sharpies and stickers. Thanks to a 90's release date and relatively high production run I was able to land this for a very affordable price and I definitely plan on keeping this one for a long time or until I do something stupid again! 

You will probably see this card again at a later date as it complete my Lemieux HOF trifecta and I hope to get back to those posts again because I have completed several over the past year. Thanks for stopping by and Happy New Year once again. I hope your year is filled with loads of cool additions to your person PCs and the best of health and happiness!

86-87 OPC Mario Lemieux

Lots of new cards in the last two months to share still thanks to eBay sales. Also, a real generous gift in the mail from a fellow blogger that I am going to share next post (just need time to do it properly). In the meanwhile, here is a Lemieux second year card to look at.

86-87 OPC Mario Lemieux #122

 Look at fresh faced Mario. Years of smoking and stress haven't ravaged his looks yet. I think that is Craig Simpson next to him making this a Craig Simpson Pre-RC!!! Spread the word, lets drive up the value of this card.

I have always been pretty indifferent about this set. I like it more than the 85-86 and 87-88 sets but it falls behind when you consider some of the other cool sets in the 80's. What are your thoughts? 86-87 one of the better ones from the 80's? One of the better ones all-time?

05-06 Victory Mario Lemieux Auto

I have been showing off my HOF auto pick ups from the past year and really have done so in no apparent order. But, I do plan on identifying my top 3 and this one comes in as my third favourite of the past year.

Some would argue (and may even win) the argument that Mario Lemieux is/was the greatest hockey player of all-time. I have lots of respect for Super Mario and I think he was an amazing player, greatest of all-time? Not in my books. But, he would be in my Top 5 of all-time that is for sure and what could have been if he wasn't a smoker, didn't get injured and didn't get frustrated and retire for a number of seasons, who knows. I do believe Wayne's major records would still have been safe, but he would be the NHL's number 2 all-time scorer. I just wish that the Devils tanked on purpose like the Penguins did in 1984 and won the Mario Sweepstakes. Kirk Muller was an OK runner up prize, but Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille would have been better number 2 choices.

Enough talk, here is the Magnificent One!

05-06 UD Victory Mario Lemieux 

This card is from Mario's last season in the NHL and it features an on-card auto in blue sharpie. I LOVE how this auto pops on this card. I did some thinking and I would take this card any day over a Mario auto with sticker technology. I may not be the biggest fan of the card choice, but the fact that it is a certified on-card auto was definitely cool to me.

Here is the back side, apparently the auto warranted a 9 out of 10 score which I don't entirely understand. The auto seems flawless to me, but maybe it would have been better if some of the ink didn't go over top some black portions of the photo. What is coolest about this card is the price. I paid what a person would dish out for a pack of SP Game Used (tax included) to land this card with shipping included. My favourite dealer had it on their page for a while and I asked if they would take a lower price and he told me he would lose money if he took that offer. However, he came back with his absolute bottom line and I wasn't going to argue. This is my first and only Mario auto, but for a first I think I couldn't ask for much more!

Imagine a team with these three on the backend?

Here is a card I came across the other day in my collection and I realized I forgot to post it up online. This little beauty was at my LCS begging to come home with me and as always I bundled it up and save a few more dollars off the already priced to move cost. What did I pay, I don't even remember! However, these are three guys I have LOTS of respect for and they knew how to act, how to lead and how to play the game.

09-10 OPC Premier Trios     Robinson-MacInnis-Bourque /50

I really liked the look of this card and the subjects on it are the finest D-men of my generation. Swatches are all different in colour too which is nice and they just look awesome on cardboard.

92-93 Bowman Mario Lemieux Conn Smythe Foil

Part of the same bundle was this card. I don't own any other 92-93 Bowman cards except this one. I honestly was a bit of a card snob back then and Bowman had a bit of a reputation from 90-92 if you know what I mean...But these cards came out hot and before I knew it prices were far higher than I would ever pay and I just never got myself a pack let alone a set. However, I am older, prices have cooled a bit and if the right price ever came along maybe I will snag one. I have since grown to appreciate the 90-91 Bowman set, maybe it won't be long before I have a 91-92 and a 92-93.

However, this card is pretty neat and simple, features Mario and he looks like he is about to announce his pending trip to Disney World and he is very thrilled....Actually it looks more like it has been several hours since his last smoke and he could use another. Either way, I figured the price was right and my collection could use at least one 92-93 Bowman card!

Sets of Yesteryear - 91-92 Score Hot Cards

Here is another installment of "Sets of Yesteryear", and since we went all the way back to 1991-92 last time we might as well pick up another grossly overproduced set from that year. Some liked the Euro-stars, some hated them. Lets see what you all think of the 91-92 Score Hot Cards.

A little background, these cards came as a special insert for anyone wanting to by a blister pack of 91-92 Score Hockey. The blister packs came with 99 base cards and one insert card (if memory serves me right). The bad thing is I believe that the 91-92 Score Hockey (thanks to Collectors Corner for a cool review) was one of the ugliest set of all-time, the good thing is the Hot Cards look nothing like them! Here is the set in its entirety.

Card #1 Eric Lindros

I think Score made nearly a dozen cards of Lindros before he even played an NHL game. In some respects I think they felt that he was their ticket to printing money and in some ways that was true. I remember I bought two of these Blister packs at my local Sears store and I ended up with a Gretzky and a Jagr. The BV of the Lindros back in 1995 was 10 bucks and it has since dropped to a paltry $2.00. I really like this card as it features Lindros in his Team Canada World Junior jersey.

Card # 2 Wayne Gretzky

Love this card too, the action shot of Wayne streaking down the ice and a goalie who is out of the photo likely wetting himself in fear of the Great One all in black. The design is pretty simple with a full red border and a yellow accent in the trim. 

The backside is a paragraph of stats and information. I like that there is a photo on the back and the photo does differ from the photo on the front. The back design again is pretty decent and 20 years later doesn't look as terrible as other releases from the time period.

Card #3 Brett Hull

 During the early 90's every set and insert set NEEDED Brett Hull. The best goal-scorer from the early 90's period and the last player to an official 50 in 50 and last to score more than 80 goals in a season. I think the hooking Scott Stevens is doing in the background might get called in today's game.


Card #4 Sergei Fedorov

Another staple of any early 90's set was the hot upcoming prospects like Sergei Fedorov. With only one full season under his belt when this came out, he had much to prove and accomplish still, but if you look back at his career now, he is a shoo-in for the HOF.

Card #5 Mario Lemieux

 At the time this card came out, Lemieux had already begun his battle with back injuries and was limited to just a little over a quarter of a season. Still managed 19 goals and 45 points and may have been the best player in the set at the time.


 Card #6 Adam Oates

 Glad to see Oatesy get some respect by his inclusion in the set. At the time he was the other half of the Hull and Oates combo and some say Hull made him a super-star. Fact is, Oates made himself and proved it when he scored 45 goals and 142 points with the Bruins in 1992-93. If you were wondering who were his wingers at the time...it was likely a combination of Steve Leach, Dmitri Kvartalnov, and Vladimir Ruzicka. Definitely no Brett Hull!

Card #7 Theo Fleury

A cool goal celebration card featuring a star who lit the lamp often early in his career. That is a great looking Woody in his hand, btw.


Card #8 Jaromir Jagr

Either this is a practice or a warm-up photo because there are lots of empty seats over there and at the time everyone wanted to see Mario Jr.

Card #9 Ed Belfour

This is my favourite card in the set. I wanted nothing more in life than to be Ed Belfour when it came to street hockey. I even had the Hawks jersey to go along with the dream. The only goalie in the set, Score picked a fine player with Belfour being the reigning Vezina, Calder, and First-Team All-Star goalie.


Card #10 Jeremy Roenick

 Even though NHL '93 was a year or two away, Score made him the last card in the set. At the time Roenick had his first 40 goal season and the best was still yet to come. I personally love seeing the old Easton Aluminum sticks.

In all, I think the set is still reasonably attractive and has aged rather well when compared to the 91-92 Score base cards. It offers much more star power than the Euro-Stars set did but at the same time, it is a smaller set and not as nice looking to me personally. The book value of the set these days is 15 bucks with the most expensive card being Gretzky which books for 8 dollars. I managed to pick up a complete set at my LCS for the change in my pocket at the time which I think was like 3 bucks.

So what are your thoughts on the set? A must have or a must avoid? I personally think it would be a fun addition to someone's collection and gives you a reason to avoid 91-92 Score! I give this set a 4/5. Decent design, nice player selection and a couple cool photos you can really appreciate!

85-86 Topps Master Set

A life long goal I have for collecting is to try and get one complete set from every year hockey cards were produced. This is of course a goal, and I am not sure if I will ever reach it, but it certainly will keep me busy and interested in collecting  year after year. 

Last summer I made a trade with Sal from Puckjunk.com for a pretty amazing Mario Lemieux Topps rookie. As far as cards go in my collection, this is in the top 10 and what makes it extra cool is the wax stain on the reverse.

85/86 Topps #9 Mario Lemieux Rookie

Here is the front of the card....iconic.

Here is the back side, and you can see some wax stainage by the Mario and vitals.

After I got the card, I went on the hunt for the rest of the set. After a few months I found an auction that was almost ending and I landed the set minus Lemieux for 41 bucks including shipping. That might seem a little steep to some, but to me it was the right price for the quality. Every card was near-mint to mint.

Now that I had the "complete set", I wanted to try and go after the master set. In 85/86, each pack of Topps hockey included a sticker. I actually already had the Lindbergh sticker as part of my PC but I wanted to try and get the complete set. After doing some research, the set books for about 20 bucks and they can easily be had for about 12 bucks shipped online. I tried to do better and this week one my "Father's Day" gifts came in and it cost $8.15 shipped.

So here are the 33 stickers that make up the All-Star insert set.  The first 6 represent the first all-star team for the season, and the second 6 represent the second all-star team. The last 21 are stickers for each NHL club that participated in the 84-85 NHL season.

 Card 1 John Ogrodnick. I sometimes forget he was an all-star. John had three 40 goal seasons and one 50 goal season to his credit. This card represents his finest season where he had 55 goals and 105 points.

Card 2 Wayne Gretzky. An 80's set without Wayne is incomplete. This was Wayne at his finest, 73 goals, 208 points and an NHL record 47 points in the playoffs. 

Card 3 Jari Kurri. You could actually have the entire first all-star team be comprised of all Oilers, but then again that wouldn't be fair for other fans. However, Jari's season was great and that is why he was included on the first all-star team. 71 goals good enough for second in the league and 135 points also good enough for second, hence a first team all-star. BTW, Jari also had an NHL record 19 goals that post-season as well.

Card 4 Paul Coffey. Paul finished with 121 points and finished 5th in league scoring. He would only play 2 more seasons with the Oilers.

Card 5 Ray Bourque. Ray posted solid offensive numbers to go along with a better defensive game than Pual Coffey.

Card 6 Pelle Lindbergh. Pelle was the Vezina trophy winner from the 84-85 season, thanks in part to 40 wins and a stellar 3.02 GAA. Pelle had seven wins more than the second highest goalie.

Card 7 John Tonelli. The season was the only one where Tonelli would top 100 points and he would also post a career high in goals with 42.

Card 8 Dale Hawerchuk. Like Tonelli, Hawerchuk posted career highs of 53 goals and 130 points during the 84/85 season.

Card 9 Mike Bossy. A perennial all-star, Mike was demoted to second all-star this season despite scoring 58 goals and 117 points.  

Card 10 Rod Langway. Rod a two-time Norris Trophy winner made his  third and final all-star  team appearance.

Card 11 Doug Wilson. 84/85 was a pretty decent year for Mr. Wilson. Doug had 22 goals and 76 points during that season and chipped in another13 points in 12 playoff games.

 

Card 12 Tom Barrasso. Tom came out of the gates hot into his NHL career and then finished rather quietly. I almost don't even remember him leaving the NHL to be honest. 84/85 was a pretty solid year for Tom, he lead the league in GAA and Shutouts.

In case you were wondering, here is what the sticker backs look like. Stats from that year's All Star Game as well as career totals.

The rest of the stickers are team logos with numbers and pucks.

 Finally, here is what the backs of the stickers look like.

There you have it, a pretty cool insert set to go along with a solid and iconic base set. If it wasn't for the Lemieux rookie card this set might be very forgettable. However, if you combine the Lemieux rookie with rookies from Kevin Dineen, Thomas Sandstrom, Kirk Muller, Kelly Hrudy, and a solid collection of star cards, this set is a solid offering from the mid 80's.

ITG Decades Box Break - Part 2 of 3

Hope you don't mind camera shots again! Here are hits 4-6.

The pack gets more interesting as we get our first memorabilia hit.

Hit 4

I am definitely a fan of Nifty Middleton. This card is numbered to 130 which isn't too bad for the highest numbered memorabilia insert.

Wayne Gretzky once played on a line with Middleton and Perreault and he marveled at how skilled Middleton was. There appeared to be a little piece of wood or something stuck in the jersey. I left it there....

Hit 5!!!!!

Wow! This may be one of the funnest cards I have ever pulled! These four guys are amazing and this is the Silver Version which is numbered to 30. Love the swatches, love the players, this made the box. According to the back of the card, all swatches are from their NHL clubs except Mario which is from a Team Canada Jersey. That part is what I think makes this the coolest card I own.

Hit 6

This one was a bit of a surprise. I came down from the high of the last card and missed something key on first inspection of this card. I was happy to see Leetch, he is an amazing defensemen. He is in the Hall of Fame and Messier called him the greatest Ranger of all-time. What I missed at first glance is this is a Silver Version which is also numbered to 30. This box is shaping up to be a winner!