Topps Surprises Hockey Fans With Brett Hull Signed Stickers

Topps left the NHL licensed card business in 2004.  In 2017 they jumped back in with their Topps NHL SKATE digital trading card app.  In 2019 Topps took things a step further acquiring a license to produce NHL stickers.

Leading up to the 2020 NHL All-Star Game in St. Louis, hockey fans enjoyed the events at the NHL Fan Fair.  One of the biggest moments took place at the Topps booth when St. Louis Blues legend, and 2009 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Brett Hull arrived.  Topps printed stickers which resemble Brett Hull’s 1988-89 Topps #66 rookie card.  Fans were quite eager to snatch the stickers up, and have him sign them.

They might not be “cards”, but these stickers look darn good.  Topps is as close as possible to making NHL licensed cards as they can get.  Upper Deck currently has an exclusive NHL license to make cards.

How To Spot A Fake Brett Hull 1988-89 O-Pee-Chee RC #66

Thousands of counterfeit Brett Hull 1988-89 O-Pee-Chee #66 rookie cards entered the market during the early 1990’s.  Many are still floating around deceiving collectors today.

Counterfeit examples exhibit the following characteristics:

• The absence of a small yellow dot found on the push-pin next to Hull’s name on the front.
• The dots around Hull’s nameplate on the front are lighter in color, especially the ones which are on his photo.
• Ragged and broken type on the back.
• Filling in of the center of the upper case “A” in the type next to the NHL logo on the card’s back.
• The text on the card’s back is fatter, thicker, and tends to blend together.  Very noticeable on the O-Pee-Chee logo.

Authentic front

Authentic back

Counterfeit front

Counterfeit back

Card of the Day: George Brett 2001 Topps Finest – Finest Moments Auto

How To Spot A Fake Brett Favre 1991 Score #611 Rookie Card

When you think about Brett Favre rookie cards, his #611 card from the 1991 Score Football set certainly isn’t the first one that pops in your head.  Most collectors immediately think about his 1991 Topps Stadium Club #94 RC.  Although his Stadium Club card is his most notable rookie, Upper Deck, Classic, Pro Set, and Score each issued less-popular versions of their own.

Why in the world would someone want to counterfeit a Score card from the junk-wax era?  Perhaps that’s exactly what these counterfeiters were thinking when they were printing these fakes up.  I like to believe they were hoping to catch collectors off guard.

For under $5 this card can easily be added to your collection.  But please be careful.  In 2007, counterfeit examples began to arrive.

Its extremely easy to spot a counterfeit.  Keep these thoughts in mind:

• No card number.  That’s right!  These genius counterfeiters completely forgot to place the “611” on the back.
• Locate the NFLPA logo on the back.  On counterfeits this logo is very smudged.  Not crisp and clear like an authentic example.
• The gold border on the back is not the correct color.  Counterfeit copies tend to have a brighter gold border.

Card of the Day: Brett Favre 2008 Topps Packers Tractor Photo #34

Card of the Day: Brett Favre 1991 Topps Stadium Club #94

Card of the Day: Brett Hull 1988-89 Topps #66