Hockey cards: Great for collecting as a kid; now to give away
Now that we’ve endured the first snow of the season (far too early and sticking around for far too long, mind you), I think it’s safe to say we are beyond summer and into the thick of full-on hockey season. What better time to discuss the hobby of hockey card collecting?
Did you know the first hockey cards came in cigarette packages? That was about a century ago. I had none from anywhere near that era. And as immortalized by the dearly departed Gord Downie in the Tragically Hip’s “Fifty Mission Cap,” I never did have the 1952 Bill Barilko card (“I stole this from a hockey card I keep tucked up under my Fifty Mission Cap”, he sang). Truthfully, if you’re a serious collector, you’d scoff at the few cards I have and their less-thanmint condition. You’d be horrified by the way I abused them as a kid and turn up your nostrils at my method of marking ownership (writing my initials in pen in the top right-hand corner).
I don’t really have many cards past the 1983-84 campaign. After that I grew my hair long and turned my sights to a failed attempt at learning guitar (tablature only, I couldn’t read music) to try to impress the girls. It was the style at the time. None of it really worked for me – I should’ve stuck to the Topps and O-Pee-Chee collectibles.
Before that though, pretty much all I cared about for a few years was hockey cards. I even made my own with rudimentary pen drawings portraying me and my friends as NHL stars (as I was 8, of course, I wanted to be older and drew us all with full bushy beards and moustaches.) We barely got two TV channels over rabbit ears so I was lucky if I saw one game a week; and it’d rarely (if ever) show my team (same as Gord Downie’s – the Boston Bruins). So I had a subscription to Hockey Digest and lots and lots and lots of hockey cards to help me pass the time.
I stumbled across a big score when I found a card locker full from 1970-73 at my grandparents’ house. California Golden Seals! Atlanta Flames! A Guy Lafleur rookie card! Well… I ruined that one by scribbling on it. I wasn’t a Habs fan.
In fact I likely scribbled away tens of thousands of dollars in collectible card value. But what did I know? I didn’t save them in pristine albums. I kept them in a stack with a rubber band. I also ruined them by playing hockey card games. This was way before NHL 18 or even NHL 94 video games. The imagination was all you had. So Peter McNab’s card went in on a breakaway on Cesar Maniago’s card and scored. Often. I always liked the cards with the action shot. The boring posed-face close-up of a guy holding his stick? Terrible. A Curt Ridley card with his old fiberglass Canucks mask stopping a shot? Cool.
Yes, I still have the famous Wayne Gretzky rookie card. I saved a few good ones like it. The Ray Bourque rookie. Cam Neely’s with the Canucks. Likely none of them in good enough shape to pay for a winter vacation or anything. But not tattered like the hockey card game survivors.
You want ‘em? Make me an offer. But they might have some 10-year-old-me scribbling on the back — next to the stats and the little cartoon.
Trapper John is program director and afternoon host Monday to Saturday on 105.3 ROCK and 1053rock.ca