The Official 13th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention Auction, held July 8-10, 1992, included a ton of incredible items, including the original Flexi-Chrome for Gordie Howe’s 1957/58 Topps hockey card! Superior Galleries only provided color scans for about 1/5 of its items on color plates at the beginning of the catalog; luckily, they included this one!
They described the item as follows:
This is the original artwork for the Gordie Howe card of that year A very rare and desirable item. Framed and matted with the Flexi-Chrome, and beneath it the actual card which has been autographed by Gordie Howe. This originally came out of the Gurnsey-Topps auction in 1989. A very rare hockey piece.
Overall Excellent condition. $6000-8000
Here’s a scan from Guernsey’s Topps Auction catalog showing the Gordie Howe Hockey Flexichrome. It sold for $1,600 plus the 10% buyer’s premium.
The PSA/DNA Certified Pop Report contains nine 1957 Topps Gordie Howe cards; this PSA 5/Auto 9 sold for $1,112 on eBay in February 2023.
Kit Kiefer was a former editor of Baseball Cards Magazine and the VP of Professional Hobby Consultants, so he knows a thing or two about sports cards. Here’s his list of the 10 most significant action photos of all time, in order of importance. Not bad, huh?
The list was part of a much longer article in the February 1997 issue of Sports Card Magazine, in which he mentioned that “action photos on sports cards were non existent for the first 100 years, but today they are as common as a new pack of cards.”
In terms of popularity, you have to consider adding the 1991 Topps Carlton Fisk card featuring Cecil Fielder barreling toward him; here’s the Desert Shield version (4 Sharp Corners was offering it on eBay for $759 in November 2024).
After the success of their baseball set in 1989, Upper Deck jumped into the hockey card market with a 1990-91 release that they promoted with cards of Wayne Gretzky and Patrick Roy (cards 241A and 241B). However, just as they did with baseball, Upper Deck also promoted their hockey set in the early 90s with serial-numbered commemorative sheets. Hockey didn’t have an established Old-Timer Series for Upper Deck to sponsor and highlight their cards through, so they predominantly distributed these sheets at NHL games. In this article, I’ll highlight four Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet sets.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheets
TCDB lists 11 total blank-backed 8 1/2″ x 11″ commemorative sheets in its checklist for this “set” of sheets. Upper Deck distributed them at various NHL games to promote their first hockey set. They’re all serial-numbered.
Upper Deck released the first sheet at the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings on November 17, 1990.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Maple Leafs Vs. Red Wings
Here are a few other examples.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Rangers vs. Whalers
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Blues vs. Sabres
Upper Deck released two sheets as part of the 42nd NHL All-Star Game at Chicago Stadium on January 19, 1991, as well.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Provence of Wales Conference All-Stars
There was also a sheet dated June 21, 1991, to honor “six players selected by the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association as the most proficient at their respective positions in their first year of competitions in the National Hockey League.” Given the date, I’m unsure how Upper Deck distributed this sheet. Notice the gold emblem in the lower right corner doesn’t have a 1990/1991 date like the others; it’s a 1991 Limited Edition Collector Series Sheet.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – 1990-91 NHL/UD All-Rookie Team
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheets
TCDB lists the 1991-92 Upper Deck sheets as Promotional rather than Commemorative Sheets for some reason, so I’ll stick with that for the section heading, but the concept was the same as the previous series of sheets. However, there appear to be 19 different ones that were used to promote the 1991-92 set.
Here are a pair of examples: one used as a promotion at the Flames vs. Rangers game on November 4, 1991, and another that was used at the Rangers vs. Capital game on February 7, 1992.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Flames Vs. Rangers
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Rangers Vs. Capitals
And while I mentioned that Upper Deck didn’t sponsor a Heroes of Hockey Series as they did in Baseball, this year, there was an Alumni Heroes of Hockey game that was played on January 17, 1992, between the 1974/75 Stanley Cup Champion Flyers and a team of legendary NGL stars the day before the 43rd NHL All-Star Game.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Philadelphia Heroes of Hockey vs. NHL Heroes of Hockey
The next night, on January 18, Upper Deck distributed sheets honoring the Wales and Campbell Conference All-Star Teams.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – All-Star Teams
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheets
There are 17 items listed in TCDB’s checklist of Upper Deck Commemorative sheets used to promote the 1992-93 hockey set. The majority were given away at NHL games; again, there was a pair for Campbell and Wales All-Stars, but there was also one for the 1991-92 Upper Deck All-Rookie Team, a Hockey Heroes pair for Gordie Howe, and one for the New York Rangers as the Defending NHL Regular Season Champions. Here are a few examples.
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Blackhawks Vs. Red Wings
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – 1991-92 NHL/UD All-Rookie Team
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Gordie Howe Birthday Tour
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – All-Star Teams
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet
The Gretzky Heroes sheet wasn’t available at a game; it was a mail-in wrapper redemption that numbered to 29166.
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet
The terms required users to send a sheet offer card, 15 foil pack wrappers from’ 92-93 Low Series Hockey, and $2.95 via check or money order to:
Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet Offer – Front and Back
There was a series of Hockey Heroes: Wayne Gretzky cards inserted in Low Series packs at a rate of 1:18.
Conclusion
Just like the baseball sheets, the Upper Deck hockey commemorative sheets can each be picked up for just a few dollars; however, a few examples exist (like the Gordie Howe pictured above) that are signed, which will cost quite a bit more. I suspect there aren’t a lot of collectors who have tracked down all 48 Upper Deck hockey sheets; it would make for an incredible collection to view in a binder. Now, don’t forget to come back to the site so you don’t miss the next two parts of this series on Upper Deck Sheets. The basketball and football sheets come out next!
Topps did well with their first hockey card design in 1954; it’s perhaps their best-designed set across any sport. While the fronts of the cards are sharp, the backs may be the most underappreciated in the hobby. So, I wanted to spend this article dissecting Topps’ first hockey set, emphasizing the design of the backs, since I feel most of us tend to neglect to pay attention to the “other side” of cards these days.
The 60-card 1954 Topps hockey set featured players from the four American teams (Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and New York). The cards were the same “giant-size” Topps had released for baseball at the time, 2-5/8″ by 3-3/4″. While Topps licensed the cards, most hobbyists believe they were only released in Canada. The set’s key card is of the great Gordie Howe.
1954 Topps Hockey #8 Gordie Howe – Front
1954 Topps Hockey #8 Gordie Howe – Reverse
The cards came in one-cent and five-cent packs. Five-cent packs had six cards, gum, and an insert wrapper. Collectors could send off that second wrapper for prizes. One-cent packs had one card and a piece of gum.
1954 Topps Hockey 5-Cent Wax Wrapper
1954 Topps Hockey Inner Premium Gum Wrapper
1954 Topps Hockey 1-Cent Wax Wrapper
The set wasn’t a huge success, perhaps because Topps released a set of U.S. teams mainly in Canada; collectors wouldn’t see another Topps hockey set until 1957.
1954 Topps #23 Danny Lewicki – Front
1954 Topps #23 Danny Lewicki – Reverse
The fronts’ design is genuinely awesome. They feature an oversized player photo on a white background, with red and blue colors along the bottom, highlighting the player’s name, position, and team. Plus, the facsimile autograph shows clearly against the background. But the backs of the cards shine, too.
1954 Topps #58 Terry Sawchuk – Front
1954 Topps #58 Terry Sawchuk – Reverse
Now, what makes a great card back? To me, it’s about design, color, and information, and Topps nailed all three here.
1954 Topps Hockey Backs
The design is clean. The card number is large, within a puck-like-shaped circle in the corner. The blue and red stripes highlight the player’s name, position, and team, similarly to the front’s design. Then you have the blue hockey stick separating the player’s vitals from their biography. The cartoon and generic hockey term/fact add some fun to the back, and the statistics from 1953 are an excellent, simple addition along the bottom.
The cards are All-American with white card stock and red and blue ink.
1954 Topps Hockey Backs
From an information standpoint, the only addition one could ask for (which would make the card too busy) would be career statistics. As it is, though, you can learn a lot about the player and hockey from these cards.
Topps left a fantastic first impression on hockey collectors with this beautifully designed set; the front and back have incredible eye appeal. There aren’t many sets that you can buy that would look as outstanding presented on a wall from either side as the 1954 Topps hockey set; happy collecting!
