This is my fourth post defining groups of post-war sports card checklists. Earlier, I wrote about:
- The Golden Era of Topps Baseball Checklists
- The Retro Classic Sports Card Checklists
- The Post-War OG Sports Card Checklists
This article is about four hockey checklists I call the Oreo Cookie hockey card checklists, the pair of checklists in the 1965 and 1966 Topps hockey sets.
If you’re a graphic artist or card designer and you’ve got to make a hockey product, utilizing the shape and color of a puck makes a lot of sense. Commonly hockey card designers used a puck on the back of cards as the background for the card number, like on the following 1961 Topps Hockey checklist.
In 1965 and 1966, Topps doubled down on using hockey pucks as they put nine of them along the front of the card to be the background for the word “CHECKLIST.” However, Topps made the pucks look more like Oreo Cookies with the white shadow/outline intended to make them look three-dimensional.
The back of the cards all have a very plain cardboard-like appearance. Here’s some more detail about all four Oreo Cookie checklists:
1965 Topps Hockey Checklists
Together, I think the two 1965 Topps hockey checklists (#66 and #121) present really well together. The light blue and yellow backgrounds pop when you hold them in your hand. And card #121 was an honorable mention on my checklist bucket list.
Card #66 has a total PSA-graded population of 134 without any 10s, seven PSA 9s, and 31 PSA 8s. The last high-grade sale I found was a PSA 8 in April 2021 for $504. Earlier in 2021, in January, a PSA 9 sold for $1183.
Card #121 also has a total PSA-graded population of 134 without any 10s, six PSA 9s, and 21 PSA 8s. The only public sale I found for a PSA 9 was for $1500 in April 2018, and the PSA 8 pictured above sold for $535 back in October 2013. More recently, a PSA 8 sold for $1300 in December 2021.
An interesting thing about card #121 is that it doesn’t include the last seven cards in the set (122-128).
1966 Topps Hockey Checklists
The 1966 Topps hockey checklists share a similar design to the 1965s but with a wooden TV frame to match the rest of the cards in the set. What’s funny in 1966 is that both checklists also used hockey pucks as the backgrounds for the card numbers on the backs.
Card #66 has a total PSA-graded population of 143 without any 9s or 10s and 13 PSA 8s. A PS 8 sold for $1201 in July 2020. More recently, a PSA 7 sold for $1260 in August 2020.
Card #120 has a total PSA-graded population of 164 without any 10s, a single PSA 9, and ten PSA 8s. A PSA 8 sold for $1508 in July 2020, and PWCC sold one with their “exceptional” designation (pictured above) for $2500 in March 2021.
In the comments, let me know what you think about the Oreo Cookie design choice in the comments. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the Post War Cards Newsletter over on Substack, and happy collecting!