Mary Shelley's Hockey Cards

2006-07 Upper Deck Game Jersey Sergei Samsonov

Ah, the Franken-Card.  Or as some may affectionately refer to it...the Cardboard Abomination.

Those of you out there that collect trading cards are well aware of their existence and if I were to guess, mostly loathe them.  This is the trading card "phenomenon" where a player is pictured and has contradictory representation in their uniforms or team designation.  In my opinion as a "no-one ever proclaimed me to be a trading card expert" expert, I see there to be three basic levels of franken-cards.

Mid-Week Hockey Top 10 (8/21/19)

This weeks look at the Top 10 selling hockey cards sees completed auctions dominated by the two rookies of The Great One.  Gretzky's rookie card hits this list 7 out of 10 times.  The 1966 Bobby Orr RC shows up on the list as well, which usually occupies a few positions.  A pre-war Paddy Moran tops off the list along with the only contemporary card belonging to Mitch Marner.

eBay closed sales (8/14/19 - 8/21/19)

1.

1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Gretzky RC #18 PSA 9 (sold by mandlcaards)

Closed Selling Price $40,000 (8/20/19)

What I Got With My #NSCC Free $10 From Ebay

If you attended the National Sports Collectors Convention a couple weeks ago, you may have encountered the booth run by Ebay that was located at the far side of the fancy red carpeting.  I'm guessing they were doing this all week but on Saturday, they were giving out free coupons for $10 toward any items on the site.

I took a look through things on my "wantlist" and came up with a way that I could get a few PC items on the cheap, using most of the coupon to pay for the items.  Here is how I fared.

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.