80-81 Topps Hockey

Another Christmas post! One thing I wanted to do was try and get myself a significant set which I might not have normally bought with my hockey card budget. In addition, I am also trying to acquire one set from each year hockey cards were produced so when I saw an auction for a 80-81 Topps set on Boxing Day I decided to set my limit and try and win it.

The set was advertised as being an unscratched 80-81 Topps set. That was all, no other information. With about 3 hours left in the auction I based my bid on the set likely not being completely mint. There were low res-scans of Wayne and Ray but that was about it.

When the auction ended, I won the set for about a dollar less than my max. Then came the waiting game. Luckliy the set arrived about 4 days after paying which was pretty sweet.

In the binder, here is page 1.

The first page features a few Record Breaker cards most notably was Gretzky's record for being the youngest player to ever score 50 goals. The Bourque RB is for setting a record for most points by a rookie defenseman. Both cards were in nr-mt shape.

Page 4

I already had a Liut rookie in OPC form, here it is in the Topps form unmolested. One of my top 25 favourite cards of all time.....Hmmm....Seems like a post idea.

Page 10

Gretzky All-Star Card....about a mint as they get...Love it.



Page 21

Gretzky team leader card is pretty cool, but I also like the Bob Murray card next to it.



Page 23

Gartner rookie! It is also in great near-mint shape and it is my first Gartner rookie too.


Page 28

Gretzky 2nd year. I did a switch-a-roo here because the one that came with the set was actually better than the one I bought about 6 months ago! The one that came with the set is Near-Mint-Mint where the one that I bought a while back was less than Near-Mint when I finally took it out of the top-loader.

Spare Gretzky

Here is the one that arrived in the set. Nicer puck and better centering. Best part, 4 sharp corners and a perfect surface. The one that came a while back has a indentation on the surface.


Did I forget anything?

Oh yeah, Ray Bourque

This card isn't mint. Which I had to figure something was going to be wrong with this set. The card is in pretty good shape though and for what I paid, I believe I got an AMAZING deal. If I were to grade the Ray Bourque rookie, I would think EX condition likely. There are no creases or dents, but the corners are fuzzy.

So another set ticked off the checklist and a steal of a deal if you ask me. This set would have qualified for my Value Vintage list if it wasn't for the shipping. But having a few spare 2nd year Gretzky cards are nice, especially as trade bait!

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.

#3 - Value Vintage Sets - 81-82 Topps

I LOVE the 81-82 design. Topps and OPC versions look down-right cool. From 1980-present day I don't think there is a set design I like as much as this one. With that being said, there is some substance to what I think is the 3rd best value vintage set.

Redeeming Qualities:

Did I mention the design?

17 rookies, 5 of them in the HOF

Gretzky 3rd year card

Unique East/West distribution

Set is 30 years old

2nd year card of players like Bourque and Gartner

Neat Super Action cards

Lists for 17.5% of the price of the OPC set (now that is value)

Card design:

The front side

The cards have an "industrial" look to me with the stamped team name on the front of the card. A good sized action shot on also on the front with name, position and emblem. Gotta love the old Rockies uniforms!

The back side
They cram LOTS on the back but it all flows nicely. Top side gives the card number (east or west if applicable), then vitals, stats and a season summary in text. Then at the bottom, a little additional blurb about the player which pertains to some other point in their hockey career.

Key Card:

Due to the large production numbers, there isn't really any really expensive cards in this set, but in my opinion the key card from the set is the Wayne 3rd year card.

Wayne is so baby-faced in this photo and looks like he is ready for the face-off. I used to have that Titan hockey stick as a kid. Couldn't do what Wayne did with it though!

The rookies:

Like I mentioned, there are only 17 rookies in the Topps version compared to nearly 60 in the OPC version. In addition, Topps missed some good rookies like Coffey, Anderson, Lowe, Moog, and Hunter but many were included worth mentioning. In the Topps version you can find: Savard, Stastny, Ciccarelli, Murphy and Kurri who are all HOF'ers.

Denis Savard Rookie

Dino Ciccarelli Rookie

Some other notable cards:

Like I mentioned above, there are lots of other cool cards and significant cards in the set. Unfortunately there is only one other Gretzky card which is the team leader card.

Ray Bourque Super Action
Here is a cool action shot of little Ray against Dennis Maruk.

Mike Liut Super Action

Here is another example of the cool Super Action cards. I love this one, cool mask and Northland goalie stick!

This 198 card set lists in the Beckett for 35-70 dollars but like most things can be had for pretty cheap on eBay. I bought this set last month for 25 bucks on eBay (for the 66 national cards, the 66 East and 66 West cards). A steal if you ask me considering all the cards are NrMT, and even if you include the outrageous 16 bucks I had to pay for shipping, I still got the set for 41 bucks total. Sure you can buy lots of different things for 41 bucks, but owning this set was a must for me and at 41 bucks including shipping this SCREAMS value to me. I am not sure what a set like this might cost at your local card shop or card show but I imagine you can't go wrong with any price around 50 bucks. Thanks to the countless venting sets out there, there is no reason why you can't get one in mint shape too!

#4 - Value Vintage Sets - 84/85 Topps

I think from now to number one the list will be a little more interesting because I felt that #2-4 could all be rearranged and with the right argument I could certainly buy into a person's opinion on the matter. But really, like most people's blogs they are just opinion pieces anyway so here is why I think 84-85 Topps is the 4th best value vintage set out there.

Here are the redeeming qualities to me:

The set is from the mid-80's which was the height of fire-wagon hockey!

Tonnes of star players in the set as well as a crop of new up-coming stars

It was the first Topps set produced since 81-82 so there are a few "First Topps Cards"

It was harder to build by packs because of 66 single printed cards in the set

17 Rookie cards in a set of just 165 Cards

Steve Yzerman rookie!!!

Card Design:

I really like the design of this year. On the front you get an action shot and a head shot. Also you see the name, team and position the player was playing. Really just a nice classic design certainly has the mid-80's feel to it.

The back side
The back is equally nice featuring vital information, stats and a small write-up back the player. Here Wayne averaged more than a goal a game for the second time in his career and won the Stanley Cup.

Key Card:

Without a doubt the key card in the set is the Steve Yzerman rookie. This card wasn't double printed so it holds its value rather well. The book price on this one is 15 - 40 dollars which is a pretty decent price to own an Yzerman rookie!

Steve front side

Steve back side
Like the Sakic rookie on my #5 set, Stevie Y's card value makes up a large percentage of the set price, in this case, 80% to be exact.

The rookies:

Even though there are only 17 rookies in the set, some of them are pretty good ones. Rookies include Dave Andreychuk, Tom Barrasso, Pat Verbeek, and Pat Lafontaine.

Pat Lafontaine Rookie

Other notable cards:

In addition to the rookies, there are some other cool cards like a Oilers era Gretzky which you have already seen, and cards from stars like Bossy, Coffey, Bourque, Savard and other typical mid-80's stars.

Wayne Gretzky All Star front side

All-Star back side

As you can see this is a pretty cool set. What makes it an especially good value is that you can own a set that is over 25 years old for very little. This set lists for 25-50 dollars in the Beckett but I have seen them go on eBay for less than 25! Definitely worth the price of a typical blaster box!

I bought my set which is in amazing shape in the early 90's for 45 bucks. Certainly haven't made any money off that purchase but my enjoyment of flipping through this set every now and again is worth paying a little more for it a long time ago and certainly a set I am going to continue to enjoy going forward.

It is worth noting, if you have the money...the 84/85 OPC is phenomenal as well. Addition rookies of Chelios, Neely and Gilmour make it a more attractive set but at 5 times the price a collector has to ask themselves is it worth it? Or should you own the Topps set and buy the missing rookies as singles? Lucky for me, I was given the 84/85 OPC set as a gift in the mid 90's so I have both plus a few singles of Gilmour and Chelios (no extra Neelys though).

#5 - Value Vintage Sets - 89/90 OPC

When I was shopping online last month, I wanted to make my funds stretch as far as they could. Certainly my card collection is far from complete and there were a few holes I wanted to start filling. Most collectors in my age and financial demographic probably have the early 90's nailed down to the extreme and then some sets here and there depending on interests etc.

Well I decided that I needed more vintage sets and I went and got myself a couple for under a 100 bucks total. I based my choices on the best value and substance in the sets. Then I thought it would make a good serial on my blog so I am going to share what I think are the top 5 Value sets from 1970-1989.

Number 5 on my list is the 89-90 OPC Set.

Why you ask? Here are some of the redeeming qualities:

330 Cards

Sets can be had for under the BV of 20 bucks

Great Hall of Fame players and rookies in the set

Design is simple and attractive

You can afford to build the set from packs if you wish (boxes of 36 packs under $40)

The OPC set also has some rookies that can't be found in the Topps version (Fleury, Corson, Tugnett etc.)

Card design:

Here is what the front of the cards look like.

The front looks clean with blue trim on the top and bottom (which is prone to chipping) and a "marble-ized" sides which tend to be a little off centre (my scans ended up all looking off-centre as I used a camera).

Backside of the cards

The back shows both season and playoff stats along with player vitals. Again like the front, the cards look clean and simple.

Key card:

Without a doubt is the Joe Sakic RC.

Joe front side
Joe backside

The BV for the set is 10-20 dollars with the Sakic rookie listing at 5-12 dollars which is a significant percentage of the set.

Other notable cards:

There are plenty of other cool cards in the set including early career cards of Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy, Brendan Shanahan, Adam Oates, Brett Hull etc.

Hull 2nd year card.

The rookies:

The set contains a fair number of Hall of Fame and star rookies (59 Rookie Cards in total). The rookies include Theo Fleury, Brian Leetch, Joe Sakic, Craig Janney, Derek King, Tony Granato, Ron Tugnutt just to name a few.

Linden RC

Fleury RC

This set is no where near the greatest ever created but there are many intangibles which make this set a great value. The rookies, the stars, the design of the cards and the fact that they can all be yours for much less than a box of 11-12 Victory Hockey all suggest it is jam-packed with value.

I added this set to my collection in the early 90's. I probably bought 2 boxes with of 89-90 OPC and have two complete sets as a result. Certainly the smart way would be to pick up a set at a show or card shop to avoid those pesky shipping charges. Either way, it certainly can be had on the cheap and I think is a must for any hockey card collector.

Do you agree it is a good value? Let me know!