NHL Hockey Collectors

[Faun]

Hey everyone, with the NHL season just around the corner and some new products in the horizon I wanted to see if there is much of a scene on here.

I did a bit of a search and there wasn't much that has popped up post or comment wise recently unfortunately for "NHL" or "hockey".

Is there people that do collect it here? Is there people that are interested and haven't started?

 

[Higgo84]

Hey, mate. Jump on US Sports Cards Australia Facebook group. Big Aussie NHL collectors group.

 

[Lazlow]

(Bumping this thread for general Hockey collector chat)

Don't have any slabbed cards in my hockey collection, but I saw a Kuzmenko Young Guns PSA9 on COMC auctions for $2. Ended up winning it for $15.

nek minnt

There had been trade rumours for about a month tho, so not totally unsurprising. Its a lot to give up, but I can't say I hate the go hard or go home ballsiness of it.


Also doubled down on Wednesday Slapperz + The Cup again at Cherry to walk away with nothing, again.

Also didn't win $200m

My luck is not great at the moment!

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

Save your money on those awful breaks. I have been wasting money on them since Christmas and I don't dare look but I suspect it's closer to $1000 than $500.

I did jag a nice Quinn Hughes on card auto /50 but that's the best card by a fair bit and it's about an $80 card. I'm flush with topl-oaders since going into a lot of breaks but they are cheaper at the shop, lol.

I got nothing in the 3 box Premier break last night. It's only $20 but there lies the problem. In isolation it seems ok, but it adds up quickly and you mostly have precious little to show for it. It's worse than a pokie machine. Not kidding.

Also, The Cup 1xbox breaks have been atrocious. I've watched a ton of that opened on various channels and the last 3 or 4 boxes I've seen opened on Cherry were absolutely putrid. Maybe $200 worth of cards from a $1400 box. Upper Deck have hit the printing presses big time in the last few years. The best hit I saw and it was nice came form a case break - Gretzky auto. However, 4 of the 6 boxes in the case were nasty. I said as much in the live chat but was jumped on by the Cherry 'Gatekeeper'.

And as long as Artifacts continues to go into Slapperz I'm not going in them. It's a crap value for money product and only marginally better than Clear Cut which is truly disgusting when it comes to value

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

(Bumping this thread for general Hockey collector chat)

Don't have any slabbed cards in my hockey collection, but I saw a Kuzmenko Young Guns PSA9 on COMC auctions for $2. Ended up winning it for $15.

nek minnt

There had been trade rumours for about a month tho, so not totally unsurprising. Its a lot to give up, but I can't say I hate the go hard or go home ballsiness of it.


Also doubled down on Wednesday Slapperz + The Cup again at Cherry to walk away with nothing, again.

Also didn't win $200m

My luck is not great at the moment!

Vancouver finally delivering on their promise. This trade shows that they think they have a big chance this year. Knowing my luck they will get bounced in the first round. They do look good though.

I really hope they can do it as my Stanley Cup betting system is unravelling at the seams and only Vancouver, Boston, Detroit or NY Rangers will see me profit. Another 6 teams will see me break even or have s light win/loss and then there's hand-grenades like Toronto, Tampa which would mean a complete wipe out of all funds.


I love betting on the Stanley Cup. Absolutely love it. Best major competition to bet in given how many legit chances there are to win it - unlike so many other markets which have only a few realistic chances (EPL).

The 'system' only works if you get the teams at the highest odds and they make the playoffs. Got Vancouver at 66-1, Boston at 18-1, Rangers at 18-1, Florida 21-1, Winnipeg at 40-1, but teams like New Jersey 12-1 and Minnesota 28-1, Ottawa 33-1, Kraken 33-1, have nutted me as none will make it. Could've taken the Oilers at 17-1 when they were playing like rubbish but they legit looked like they may miss out and then I had to start putting funds on at 10-1 and now they are 8.5-1 and the system is on life support. Dallas have never been better than 12-1. Vegas I took at 14-1 they then came into 10-1 which looked like I'd made the right move but are now back out to 16-1 which hurts.

My goal is to get a Gretzky and Lemieux OPC rookie card in a PSA2 and PSA6 respectively. If Vancouver win I'll be able to do it. If Toronto win I won't be buying cards for 6 months.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

I really wish I had not looked. $500 on breaks since Feb1. That likely means $1000+ just on breaks this year which is much worse than I thought. I did win a box of 2021-22 S2 so all up maybe $250 back from $1200 in. 10% ROI is about right.

I feel mildly ill. I'm glad I looked actually. No breaks for at least 6 months.

$1000 still buys you a very decent card.

 

[Lazlow]

Save your money on those awful breaks.

Haha, don't worry that was a the last. $100 in two weeks to walk away with nothing... in this economy!

Hockey to me has never been great for a return. If its not Upper Deck running the presses hot extending runs, its multiple manufacturers pumping volume into the market. And yet while Panini was producing some beautiful looking cards, the market always valued them a step below Upper Deck.

Its always felt over supplied for the size of the hobby. That said I do miss original In The Game... Captain C was one of my favourite products. And Heroes and Prospects was always a fun set to put together.

But between the handful of highly touted seasonal prospects (many of which will fade out, sell immeidately!), and the usual big names, everyone else can be had for next to peanuts. Rookie classes taper off very sharply, and then its hope there's a smokey who develops in the next couple of years.

I like the hobby though, and busting boxes is fun, but rather than chase hits I'm probably just going to focus on putting together one of the big base sets, S1/2/Ex or OPC, and maybe one of the smaller flashier ones, Metal Universe or OPC Platinum. Maybe start a new player PC. Its just far too expensive for much else these days.

Vancouver finally delivering on their promise. This trade shows that they think they have a big chance this year. Knowing my luck they will get bounced in the first round. They do look good though.

Short slump aside, its been a great season. But trying to keep a lid on because they fallen short twice before and I don't know if I could handle a third time. And if Vancouver could take a 3rd riot.

And they way Florida is playing, my gut tells me they're the one to watch.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

I enjoyed reading that.

On another note. Dirty Cherry Collectables just raised the price of S2 from $400 AUD to $500AUD. That's an eyewatering $330USD and the highest price I have seen anywhere. It was a no-no for me at $400AUD. They are price gouging likely because they know that whilst we can get it cheaper from Canada but by the time you factor in postage it's up there.

Anyone who pays $500AUD for a box of that is either very wealthy or hopelessly addicted.

I'll save up and buy a single of Bedard in the off season and I'll bust a hobby box on e-pack in six weeks time which should be priced at $200USD~

And Go Canucks!!

Thankfully I bought back a raw Elias Pettersson YG for $65 USD on COMC 6 weeks ago after selling my PSA10 copies of him. They are now around $100USD raw on there. He is finally delivering and if Vancouver wins his prices will go up big time. I wish I had hung onto all his cards frankly and with all the money I have wasted on shitty breaks I could've had his SPA FWA.

I have one break that I'm in and I bought it 3 weeks ago. I have one team in a 4X box break of S2. The Hawks get randomised and I'm due some luck. I have a 31-1 chance of hitting them and then maybe a 3-1 chance that the Bedard is in that 4 box lot. Basically a 100-1 shot.

A Bedard YG would be a nice way to enter my 6 month breaking hibernation.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

I forgot to say this but I have been slowly putting together 'master sets' of 2018/19 S1 and S2, 2019/20 S1 and S2( nearly finished) 2020-21 S1 and S2, 2021-22 S2( S1 I'm not doing) and the last one is 2022-23 S1. That should take me another two years.

Master set for me is the 50 card Youngs Guns set and the 30 card YG canvas set, the 90 card veteran canvas set, the 50 card portraits set and for S1 all the inserts. For S2 I add in the 30 card POE/Retired canvas set but there's very few insert sets - none for the earlier years, just the opc update cards.

I put the YG's and inserts in a binder, the canvas YG and POE cards get top-loaded and the regular canvas goes into cardboard boxes.

I'm tempted to do 2023-24 OPC as well but I should've bought way more boxes when they were selling for $100. Now that they are $200 I don't think I will. I'd want to do the retro set as well plus the playing cards and that's a big task.

Set collecting is great but it can be overwhelming at times.

Good luck if you're having a crack at the OPC set. Just the base set will be tough since the collation is horrible. From two boxes I had 137 cards out of the 600 required for the set and 120 duplicates or something like that.

 

[Treysportcc]

.

I enjoyed reading that.

On another note. Dirty Cherry Collectables just raised the price of S2 from $400 AUD to $500AUD. That's an eyewatering $330USD and the highest price I have seen anywhere. It was a no-no for me at $400AUD. They are price gouging likely because they know that whilst we can get it cheaper from Canada but by the time you factor in postage it's up there.

Anyone who pays $500AUD for a box of that is either very wealthy or hopelessly addicted.

I'll save up and buy a single of Bedard in the off season and I'll bust a hobby box on e-pack in six weeks time which should be priced at $200USD~

And Go Canucks!!

Thankfully I bought back a raw Elias Pettersson YG for $65 USD on COMC 6 weeks ago after selling my PSA10 copies of him. They are now around $100USD raw on there. He is finally delivering and if Vancouver wins his prices will go up big time. I wish I had hung onto all his cards frankly and with all the money I have wasted on shitty breaks I could've had his SPA FWA.

I have one break that I'm in and I bought it 3 weeks ago. I have one team in a 4X box break of S2. The Hawks get randomised and I'm due some luck. I have a 31-1 chance of hitting them and then maybe a 3-1 chance that the Bedard is in that 4 box lot. Basically a 100-1 shot.

A Bedard YG would be a nice way to enter my 6 month breaking hibernation.

I have 2 boxes on preorder with them at $200. As soon as it was announced he wasn't in S1. They better fulfill that order. But wouldn't put it past them to do me dirty.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

I'm certain they don't know what they are doing when it comes to hockey. The main breaker suggested that hockey could do with some more products as they don't have nearly as many as baseball, football, etc. I pointed out that hockey did not need more products as it was a much smaller market than baseball, etc. He didn't seem to get that or was just wearing his Cherry hat as per usual as he stuck to his guns and insisted that the hockey market could do with more products. I would argue there should be less products as there are already way too many in relation to the size of the hockey market and some are so watered down they are not worth buying even at half the price they are now - Allure, Artifacts, Extended, Stature, the list goes on. I only started buying hockey products in 2018 but there has been a sharp decline in value since then - especially since 2020.

I had no idea they had S2 that low. I only saw the $400 price which is nuts. Now it's $500 which is a scummy move. I'm starting to see how some around here do not view them in a good light. Like when they run a sale but bump the prices up just before the sale.

They had SPA up at $325 at the same time they had S2 up at $400. I just didn't have the cash I thought they'll have my money for 8 months and may not fulfil the order when they realised they'd put it up at such a crazy low price. Whoever took them at $325 can 2.5X their money immediately. I think it was up for about week.

Well done seeing it at $200 and I hope they honour it. They should since they are still probably doubling their money at that price.

I wish there was some serious competition to Cherry. I used to get all my wax from Steel City but postage has become stupid the last 18 months. $80USD for 5 or 6 boxes hurts.

Hope you jag a Bedard!

 

[Treysportcc]

I agree with hockey like everything else having too many products already. There's certainly a few releases that should not be standalone products. They need a Chronicles type release that they can throw Credentials, Artifacts, Stature under one product.
They do release presale at very good prices but I'm guessing it's not the full allocation or even a case. They're very quick to sell-out only to bump the price not long after. I'm also tempted to take extended series at $169 with Cooley, Fantili YG as well as the Bedard YG canvas chase. I'll see how it goes as none of my S2 have even shipped yet.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

I don't think they have S2 in yet. I just noticed they had blasters out of stock and now they're back in stock pre-sale but $10 more expensive at $60

I would rather buy 6 blasters at $60 than 1 hobby at $500. However, I'll be buying neither as those prices are truly mad. I've seen Bedard YG's go for as low as $500USD and I'll be surprised if they don't come down to $300USD during the off season. Then they'll go back up again.

I think a lot of new people in the hobby have little idea how much of this stuff has been printed. Usually when e-pack - which a lot of people don't even know exists - gets released the prices come down further as there's guys on there who rip 15 cases at a time and then send to comc. That hasn't happened much lately as the prices on e-pack are double that at hobby shops for all products as they don't lower them from release.. However, S2 will release for $200USD max imo and it will go quickly depending on how much they have held back from the overall print run. Maybe less than in previous years which was supposedly 25%

If you can get a McDavid YG in PSA9 for $1000USD and Bedard has 5X as many base YG's then Bedard's YG should be no more $250USD raw - and that's if you think he's a McDavid level player which is far from a given at this point.

 

[Treysportcc]

I keep forgetting about e-pack, I've always put if off saying I'll sign up one day for an UD account not realising I've already done so when submitting redemptions. How long after product releases do they usually appear on e-pack? That's always confused me as I recall not too long ago they release a 15-16 product on the platform .

 

[Lazlow]

Depends product by product, there doesn't seem to be any real logic to it.

ie. 23-24 Series 1 was on ePack almost parallel to the physical release, yet 22-23 Allure was only just made available.

Probably depends on print runs and stock levels.

Good luck if you're having a crack at the OPC set. Just the base set will be tough since the collation is horrible. From two boxes I had 137 cards out of the 600 required for the set and 120 duplicates or something like that.

Oof

Bad enough Series 1 hobby now will only give you 108 base cards for a 250 card set.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

E-pack usually between 8-12 weeks after initial retail release. 22-23 Allure was out about 3 months ago from memory? I' not sure as it's not one of the products I follow. They are still way behind schedule with lots of products. 2021-22 The Cup came out 2 or 3 months ago and that is 18 months after it should have come out

There's tons of products on e-pack atm but why anyone is ripping anything other than 23-24 S1 is beyond me. Most, if not all, hockey wax has gone down in value after release for the last two years but e-pack just keeps their prices the same as at release with an occasional 15% sale which is nothing given that most of the UD hockey products can be gotten for 50% less from a hobby store. Case in point 2022-23 S2 ( slafkovsky) still sells for $125USD on e-pack when it sells on Steel City Collectibles for $54USD. That's why there is so much product on there right now. I'm waiting for Cherry to lower that product because they still have it at $150AUD and it needs to be at $100AUD.max. Usually by the time it hits e-pack it's already cheaper everywhere else.

I suspect people will swamp the site when 23-24 S2 goes on there. It will probably go for $180-$200USD and will stay that way until it runs out which might be 24 hours if it's $160 and the prices are still $250~ in stores. They never push prices up after release.

The biggest users are cashed up folks who don't care about anything other than the big hits and they can store the cards on there for no fee until they either grade them, trade them, or sell them. There are still some Connor McDavid YG's on there. One collector I sometimes talk to still has well over 100 Elias Pettersson YG's, and 5x Pettersson Exclusives/100 on there. He said he lives in a hot humid climate and is happy just to leave them on the site( COMC warehouse) rather than in his garage.

Some of the biggest wax busters in the hobby are on there. You see guys chatting in the forum and talking how they opened 10-20 cases in one go. It's not exactly hard work, lol.. Instead of trying to physically rip open packs - and dump a trailer load of base into a bin - you just press a button. I can see how that appeals to people with lots of money.


They have 23-24 S1 on there at $140USD per hobby so if you want to rip something on there that's about the only product that is currently in line with hobby store prices.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

Depends product by product, there doesn't seem to be any real logic to it.

ie. 23-24 Series 1 was on ePack almost parallel to the physical release, yet 22-23 Allure was only just made available.

Probably depends on print runs and stock levels.




Oof

Bad enough Series 1 hobby now will only give you 108 base cards for a 250 card set.

I could be wrong but I think 23-24 S1 was still at least 4 weeks behind physical release which is still much faster than usual.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

Maybe you're right. I just noticed that Cherry are currently breaking it. Perhaps it's 21-22 Allure I was thinking of. If that is the case then that's unusual because there is always a significant lag between epack and main release. Maybe this is the new normal.

Perhaps they have woken up to the fact that by the time it gets on e-pack in this climate it has already dropped 20% or more and the demand is not there as it usually would be. Pre-Covid stuff used to sit on there for years but after 2020 it would get sold out very quickly as most wax was rising in price. I have never seen as many products on there as I do today.

They need to cut production in a significant way. There's way too much of it.

 

[ozsportscardcollector]

Just watching a replay of the last cherry break a 4 boxer. I had Columbus. I won the Hawks in the random and Bedard came out in the first box. I'm on the board. Might have to buy 6X blasters to try and hit another one. 6 blasters cost $360 and you probably get 7 YG's. Better value than $500 for a hobby with 6 YG's. No big hits in the blasters but there nigh on impossible to hit in hobby anyway.

Whatever disagreements I've had with Blake they are forgotten, dismissed , burried. I'd give him a kiss if I could,

 

[Lazlow]

On another note. Dirty Cherry Collectables just raised the price of S2 from $400 AUD to $500AUD. That's an eyewatering $330USD and the highest price I have seen anywhere. It was a no-no for me at $400AUD. They are price gouging likely because they know that whilst we can get it cheaper from Canada but by the time you factor in postage it's up there.

Cherry's pricing seems to be keeping in step with dacardworld, they have Series 1 reduced to $145USD and Series 2 at $330USD!

Maybe I'll just focus on completing some of my older sets