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Mario Lemieux (90-91 Upper Deck #144) |
Scored a small stack of early 1990s NHL Upper Deck for less than a buck a card, mostly rookie card/rookie year.
Upper Deck made its' NHL debut in 1990-91, instantly establishing itself as the manufacturer of premium cards. When I was young, a pack of Upper Deck was so expensive that it made a kid consider spending his allowance on a pack of cigarettes instead...
Hockey cards aren't worth what they used to be. But since I never intend to sell my collection, it's fun to acquire some novelty items that were impossible to get when I was younger.
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Owen Nolan (1991-92 Upper Deck #362) |
The next day, I'm in possession of one of his Rookie Cards.
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Eric Lindros (1991 Score #329, 91-92 Upper Deck #9, 92-93 Upper Deck #88) |
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Mats Sundin (92-93 Upper Deck #374) |
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Peter Forsberg (91-92 Upper Deck #64) |
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Steve Duchesne with Mike Ricci cameo (93-94 Upper Deck #217) |
(Couldn't help but throw in this card from my existing collection of Duchesne with Mike Ricci.)
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Chris Simon (93-94 Upper Deck #243) |
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Owen Nolan (1991-92 Pro Set #196) |
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Joe Sakic (94-95 Upper Deck McDonald's #McD-01) |
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Ed Belfour (1990-91 Pro Set #598) |
Note that he's wearing number 30, and a mask with his trademark eagle... (his Upper Deck card below features a plain white helmet, wearing number 31. I presume because Alain Chevrier was wearing 30 with Chicago at the time)
1990-91 Upper Deck is still an awesome set, and the cards are now affordable.
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So many Rookies, including Bure, Fedorov, Jagr, Modano, and Primeau. |
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Still dig the nostalgic value of second/third year players... Belfour, Joseph, Mogilny, Recchi, Richter, Roenick and Sakic. |
One of my favorite finds was what I assumed to be Keith Tkachuk's Rookie Card (91-92 Upper Deck #698), representing Team USA at the World Junior Tournament.
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Keith Tkachuk (91-92 Upper Deck World Czech Juniors #85) |
But what's with the foreign text on the back? Turns out that it's card #85 from a 100 card set called "Upper Deck Czech World Juniors". It uses the exact same photo as the English version, but I'm assuming it was only sold in Czechoslovakia, because the packaging I found online is definitely not English.
Not a true Rookie Card, nor as valuable as the English one... But still neat to have a piece of Czechoslovakian cardboard in my collection.