hockey cards, lots and lots of 1990s hockey cards

I had a great day and a half in St. Louis to see the Blackhawks this past weekend, and scores of photos to sort through. lots of fun, but one of the most exciting things was stopping in an amazing antique mall (amazing for the photos I took there, not necessarily for the stuff for sale) on the way back, and I made my first purchase of (older) hockey cards.

my first purchase of hockey cards was just 3 days earlier, at a dollar store in Chicago, thanks to a tip from the Buckeyes are Deadly Nuts blog (some 2008-09 cards, nothing that great). above is 3 bags I got for $2 each (I also bought a 12-card mix for $1). it wasn't till I opened the bags that I realized they're all from 1993-94. I grabbed these in part because I saw they had Whalers, Jets, and Nordiques cards (unfortunately the North Stars were gone by then). it was worth it for that...I haven't sorted these at all but I can tell there are recent Hall of Famers, some players that are still active, some retired ones I know of, and a hell of a lot of names I don't know. I'm going to have fun with this...

(clockwise from top left the cards showing are: Mike Lenarduzzi, Adam Oates, Jeff Beukeboom, Dave Christian, Chris Simon. I don't seem to be able to click on the image to view it larger)

3 comments:

Aubrey said...

These are from such a great period for entertainment purposes!

For one thing, the card designs should be very different. Upper Deck had pictures on both sides, some of the sets still have quite a bit of text on the back (always interesting), and I think those Premier ones are the set that has the player's projected fantasy numbers.

Best of all, this is right in the middle of the weird and amazing hockey hairstyles era :D

Doug said...

Katherine,
I recently stumbled upon your blog through a link on flickr. After having looked through some of your vintage images and St. Louis Blues related material, I think I should give you a little credit for rekindling my interest in hockey. Back in the early 1990s I used to be REALLY into it, then lost interest after the lockout season and haven’t followed since. I was even inspired to dig out my old hockey card collection and have started scanning some of my favorites for posting to a flickr hockey card group. I’ve watched a few recent games and actually got to see the Blues beat Detroit, which is always nice. Although I am still not a big fan of the changes in officiating, shootouts, and teams wearing what I consider to be away jerseys at home; I guess that will take some time to get used to. Anyway, thanks for helping me to rediscover a long-dormant interest.

Doug in St. Louis

k of c said...

Aubrey: Oh yes, I've noticed the hairstyles. Would rather not see some of those guys without helmets! Some of the cards do have a lot of useful info on the back; it helps when they list all the teams they've played for.

Doug: Thanks so much! Yes, sounds like a lot of people lost interest around the time of the lockout. I'm in an interesting position because I wasn't following the sport then, so I can't really compare my experience of attending games to how it used to be. I hadn't even thought to look for hockey card groups on Flickr--I'll have to post stuff there, plus some occasional ones on the blog...