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.

’16-’17 Leaf Metal Hockey Auto Contest Winner Announced

Congrats to hudsonfan15 on being the lucky winner of the David Levin 2016-17 Leaf Metal Hockey Purple Parallel Auto #’ed/15.  Once hudsonfan15 sends me his mailing address, I will ship this card ASAP.  Thanks!

’16-’17 Leaf Metal Hockey Auto Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a David Levin 2016-17 Leaf Metal Hockey Purple Parallel Auto #’ed/15.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, February 9, 2018 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Maple Leafs Printing Plate Contest! – NOW CLOSED

This contest is for a 2016 Leaf Lumber Kings Hockey 50 Goal Club – Rick Vaive – Magenta Plate #’ed 1/1.  Good luck!!!

Contest Details:

• This contest will end Friday, January 26, 2018 @ 8:00 p.m. EST.
• To enter, please leave a comment in this post.
• You can enter once per day.
• The winner will be selected at random.
• Please provide a valid e-mail address when entering.
• The winner will receive an e-mail when the contest is over.
• The winner has one week to send me their contact information or the contest will be held again.
• Once the contest is over, I will need the winner’s mailing address so I can ship them this card for FREE!!!

Card of the Day: Manon Rheaume 1993-94 Classic Pro Hockey Prospects Auto

Card of the Day: 1964 Topps Hockey 2nd Series Checklist #55

Flashback Product of the Week: 1987-88 Panini Hockey Stickers

For the most part, sets from the 1980’s don’t carry that much value.  But there are always some exceptions.  One of those exceptions happens to be 1987-88 Panini Hockey Stickers.

Panini got it’s start producing stickers in the early 1960’s and continues to make them today.  In 1987 Panini and the NHL came together to issue a 396 sticker set.  It was the first of it’s kind for NHL fans here in the U.S.  This product was more or less a test to see if hockey fans in America would be interested in an all NHL sticker set.  It turns out that fans were very interested.  The product was a major hit with collectors.  Many collectors consider it to be one of the best hockey products to come out of the 1980’s.  The key rookies include Luc Robitaille, Mike Vernon, Ron Hextall, and Bill Ranford.

Wayne Gretzky has nine different stickers in this set.  He has been with Upper Deck for years.  Its funny to think that Panini once had him.  Given today’s exclusives, I highly doubt we’ll ever seen Gretzky on a Panini card again.  Not unless Panini buys up all the competition, which has been a rumor floating around.  They’ve got all that international sticker money to play with.

If your lucky to find a sealed box, be prepared to open your wallet.  Asking prices are quite high, usually $1,000+.  100 packs come in a box, and each pack contains 6 stickers.  Given the success of the 1987-88 test release, Panini drove up production for the following years.  None of their other NHL sticker sets ever reached the popularity and/or value of their first.

2013-14 ITG Heroes & Prospects Box Break & Review

Design: 

The 3D cards are still my favorite part of this product.  They just look so darn good.  I swear it looks as if you could reach right inside the card and touch the ice.  The base set looks very similar to previous releases, as do many of the autographs and relics.  This being the 10th Anniversary of the Heroes & Prospects brand, In The Game created a special 45-card insert set that resembles many of the base cards found in the 2004-05 set.  White boxes still stand out on most of the autographs, but ITG has been using those forever.

Price: 

Boxes are currently selling for $80.00.

“Hit” Quality: 

On average you’ll find (2) autographs and (2) relics per box, but there is a good chance for you to pull more.  ITG sure does load up on the “hits” with this product.

I pulled the following:

Autos

• William Nylander Class Of 2014 Heroes And Prospects Auto
• Clark Bishop Class Of 2014 Heroes And Prospects Auto
• Ryan Hartman Heroes And Prospects Auto

Relics

• Jaedon Deschenaeu Subway Super Series Jersey Black Version
• Jonathan Drouin Subway Super Series 2-Color Patch Black Version
• Vladimir Tarasenko 10th Anniversary Jersey 1 of 70

Inserts

• Josh Ho-Sang Class of 2014 3D #196
• Brendan Lemieux Class of 2014 3D #153
• Brayden Point Class of 2014 3D #172
• Brendan Gaunce Heroes And Prospects 10th Anniversary #T-03
• Josh Morrissey Heroes And Prospects 10th Anniversary #T-34
• Spencer Martin Heroes And Prospects 10th Anniversary #T-25

International Prospects

• Jacob de la Rose #117
• Alexander Wennberg #115
• Robert Hagg #120
• Elias Lindholm #116
• Rasmus Ristolainen #119
• Tomas Hertl #121
• Adam Ollas Mattsson #112
• Alexander Protapovich #114
• Marcus Pettersson #111
• Aleksander Barkov #118

CHL Rookies

• Dylan Strome #96
• Sean Day #101
• Nikita Yazkov #108
• Matt Spencer #104
• Sergei Boikov #94
• Ivan Nikolishin #97
• Rihards Bukarts #91
• Mathew Barzal #106
• Travis Konecny #103
• Ty Edmonds #99
• Nicolas Roy #93
• Ty Ronning #110
• Anthony Beauvillier #107
• Anthony Brodeur #98
• Adam Musil #105
• Mitchell Marner #100
• Dmitri Osipov #109
• Daniel Sprong #92

Overall: 

Overall, I give 2013-14 ITG Heroes & Prospects 3.5 ice cubes out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect).  Ten years is a major accomplishment for a brand.  Congrats ITG!!!

2013-14 Panini Prizm Hockey Box Break & Review

Design: 

All I can say is that Prizm looks way better when you can use team names and logos.  No white box autographs is a plus too, and I enjoy all of the parallels Panini keeps making.

Price: 

Boxes are currently selling for $80.00.

“Hit” Quality: 

Just like the other Prizm products, you’re not going to see one “hit” after another.  This is for set collectors.  Each 20-pack box comes with (2) autographs, (2-3) parallels, and a handful of inserts.  The inclusion of veteran autographs along with the rookies was a good idea.

I pulled the following:

Autos

• Jonathan Audy-Marchessault Rookie Auto
• Mark Messier SSP Auto

Parallels

• Larry Robinson Immortalized Orange Prizm #’ed/50
• Jiri Tlusty Prizm #18
• Steven Stamkos Prizm #93
• Phil Esposito Endless Impressions Prizm #EI-14

Inserts

• Mike Richter Immortalized #I-8
• Corey Perry Pivotal Players #PP-1
• Jonathan Quick Net Defenders #ND-15

Rookies

• Justin Schultz #238
• Damien Brunner #235
• Tyler Toffoli #246
• Eric Gelinas #259
• Sami Vatanen #204
• Roman Cervenka #217
• Anders Lee #262
• Tye McGinn #274
• Michal Jordan #220
• Cristopher Nilstorp #231
• Jonathan Huberdeau #243
• Nicklas Jensen #293
• Viktor Fasth #205
• Chris Terry #218
• Brock Nelson
• Chris Brown #275
• Ryan Murphy #221
• Jack Campbell #232
• Matt Irwin #278
• Michael Kostka #289

Overall: 

Overall, I give 2013-14 Prizm Hockey 3 goalie masks out of 5 (1=poor & 5=perfect).  Hockey collectors craving for a chrome-like product should enjoy it.  I believe Prizm Hockey/Basketball are far superior to football and baseball.

Card of the Day: Art Ross 11-12 Panini Dominion Hockey Signed Stick Cuts