Mid-Week Hockey Top 10 (8/14/19)

A new feature I hope to develop here on The Real DFG is going to be a weekly look at the Top 10 most recent highest selling hockey cards on various platforms.  There is a deluge of collectors out there (or investors) with cash to spend.  With the hype around other sports, prospecting, and speculative buying, I wanted to shed some light on the key cards that have been moving in the hockey world.

Most sales will be from Ebay since it is the largest collection of auctions and BIN sales out there.  However, I am only searching hockey cards, singles, and final sales.  I am not verifying whether these transactions are 100% complete and paid for.  If there are other sales to note, I will list those here as well.

Source:  Ebay Closed Sales as of 8/14/19

1.  

2003-04 Upper Deck Premier Wayne Gretzky 1st Year Shield Auto 1/1 (sold by toddanthonymn)

Closed Selling Price:  $99,999 (8/12/19)

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Those of you that have ever seen this error in the post title know that is the error you will usually see in Microsoft's Excel program when there is a typo in the formula.  That is very much applicable to this post.

Recently, newly acquired Blackhawk, Robin Lehner, received his Bill Masterton Trophy from the NHL, acknowledging him as this season's player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey."  He had a heck of a season, overcoming his health issues at the start of the season and eventually finishing third in Vezina voting.  However, in what would seem their haste to complete the job, the engraver inscribed the trophy as "Robin Lehner, New York Rangers."  That's great...if only he hadn't played with the New York Islanders.

You had one job...🤔 pic.twitter.com/fmzYQWKuFf

— Robin Lehner (@RobinLehner) August 10, 2019

The Franchise Comes To the Steel City - or - The Trade That Broke The Whalers

A condensed version of this post originally appeared over on Puck Junk as part of the Most Lopsided Trades article.  This is the whole article in it's complete form if you wanted to read it.

March 4th, 1991, seemingly a typical Monday 28 years ago, will go down in history as one of the biggest, franchise defining moments for both the Pittsburgh Penguins and Hartford Whalers. While there were many other trades, draft picks, and acquisitions in those late 80s-early 90s years, this trade spawned a couple Stanley Cup Championships and many years of Penguin dominance in both their division and conference while assisting in the eventual demise of the brass bonanza in Hartford.

1992-93 Fleer Ultra

After an abysmal road trip to Western Canada, Penguins GM Craig Patrick worked a deal with (former Penguins GM) Whalers GM Ed Johnston to acquire Ron Francis, Ulf Samuelsson and Grant Jennings in exchange for John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker. If you can believe it AT THE TIME, the trade was seen as a benefit to both clubs and in some circles, people thought Hartford came out on top.

Quick Hits: Looking at the Pittsburgh Penguins Trade Deadline Moves

In my humble opinion, NHL Trade Deadline Day should be a national holiday in both the United States and Canada, no work and required TV, radio, and internet viewing for all (kids can still go to school though).  Unfortunately corporate America (and probably corporate Canada) won't allow that.

But I digress...

The NHL Trade Deadline is usually a frenzy of movement of many minor leaguers and role type players, with a few blockbusters occasionally thrown in.  This year, the Rangers trading Kevin Hayes to Winnipeg for Brendan Lemieux and picks was big.  Keith Kincaid to the Blue Jackets for a pick, Mark Stone to Vegas for a great defensive prospect, and Wayne Simmons to Nashville were all pretty note worthy as well.  

But, as a Penguins fan, I would like to focus on the recent moves in Pittsburgh, and there were two of them.  Keep in mind, if the Stadium Series game had not eroded into an on-ice debacle and safety failure that NBC refused to address and hurt their ratings, we may have not even see these trades by the Penguins.  Losing Kris Letang and Brian Doumolin, both ultimately as a result of a questionable hit by now Nashville Predator Wayne Simmons, that apparently won't be reviewed by the Dept of Player Safety, triggered these moves.

Box Break - - 2018-19 Artifacts

This article was originally posted over on Puck Junk. Thought I would post it here as well for posterity.

When it comes to new hockey card releases, I am frequently a late bloomer when it comes breaking boxes. This year, 2018-19 Artifacts was no different. Released October 4, 2018, Artifacts is usually one of the first products to hit the market at the start of the new season (as well as MVP and O-Pee-Chee). I hadn’t had a chance to pick this product up until recently and I wanted to share my break and thoughts with our readers.

Continuing in it’s annual tradition of including memorabilia options as well as rookie redemptions, Artifacts gives collectors a chance at a variety of “hits” without breaking the bank. For around $100, every hobby box features eight packs with four cards per pack. A break should expect to feature three premium cards which will include a combination of memorabilia cards, autographs or an Aurum insert, the all-gold foil printed cards that return for another year (which I will get to in a minute).

The Thermochromic Puck

The NHL announced a new "technology" for treating pucks to be unveiled at the Winter Classic. I wrote about it over on Puck Junk a bit ago. Take a few minutes and check it out. Leave a comment with your thoughts.

The NHL made the announcement yesterday (at least it was at the time I originally wrote this article) that for the first time, official game pucks to be used in this season’s NHL Winter Classic game will feature a new technology using a thermochromic coating. Thermo-what, you ask? To put it in the simplest terms, PPG — yes the Pittsburgh-based paint company that sponsors the Penguins’ home arena and is advertised as the official paint of the NHL — has developed a coating that changes color based on temperature. That’s right — color changing pucks.

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