My Story

**Adam West** · 03-08-2014, 03:22 AM

My first hockey card I got was December 25, 1973. I got a pack in my Christmas stocking.

I remember being at school and having a few cards from the 1974-75 OPC set because my sister gave me heck for trading away my Orest Kindrachuck card. My uncle was a coach with the team so I guess I wasn't supposed to trade any Flyer cards away.

I also remember my mother shopping at Loblaws and getting the hockey card panels. My sister and I would separate the panels and take turns picking. The Flyers and the Leafs were the ones that went first. I just wish we did a better job of separating the panels back then.

They had a huge flea market in Pickering. It was inside in the mall, which in those days was shut on Sundays but also in the parking lot. I remember finding a vendor that had a whole bunch on 1972-73 OPC cards. I always liked older cards so I went through them all and picked out all the ones that were in my eyes in good shape. This gave me a good starting point to collect the whole set. Over time I managed to finish the set.

Growing up in Pickering, we would on occasion go to the Burger King. This Burger King had a complete set of 1970-71 Dad’s cookies cards framed up on the wall. I remember always going over and looking at the cards when I was a kid. It is the reason I bought that set when I saw it for sale at a show.

I used to go to different card shows when I was a kid. This one must have been just after Christmas and my birthday because I had money to spend. What caught my eye was a 1951-52 Parkhurst Gordie Howe and a 1952-53 Parkhurst Gordie Howe. I’m not sure of the condition but from what I can remember pretty good shape. The Howe rookie was $110 and the second year card was $60. It just seemed like so much money for a 12 year old kid. I was thinking about how many cards I could get for that amount of money. I didn't get one of those cards that day but did come home with a 1952-53 Parkhurst Terry Sawchuck for $20.

I remember going to McDonalds in the mornings and buying their hockey card packs. You could only get 3 per purchase so I would ask people in line if they were buying the hockey cards. If they said no I would ask them to buy some for me and give them the money to do so. After a while the manager came up to me and asked how many packs I wanted. I told him 40 and he went back behind the counter and sold them to me. I was happy. After I finished my set I would continue to buy the cards. I would open one pack and save the other two unopened. My mother would also help me with my McDonalds cards. I would always get some in my Christmas stocking.

I don’t know what I want to do with my cards. I sometimes ask myself should I just sell them all, or just sell most of them but keep a few of my favourites. If I keep a few which do I keep. Or maybe just try and put together a few of my favourite older sets to keep.

I now live in Niagara Falls, Ontario but all my cards at still at my mom’s house in West Hill. I know some where I have a list of cards I wanted to finish some sets.

Most of my cards care 1970 to 1991 but I do have a few cards from earlier years. I have a lot of doubles from those years. The good thing about them is I actually have them all inventoried. One winter I went through them all and marked how many I had of each in my Charlton Price Guide. I didn't mark down conditions but if you are working on a 1978-79 OPC set and need an Anders Hedberg, Terry O’Reilly, Carol Vadnais, Don Lever, Barry Gibbs and an Atlanta Flames Checklist to finish your set I can tell you that I have 5 Hedbergs, 4 O’Reillys, 7 Vadnais, 1 Lever, 10 Gibbs but you are out of luck on the Flames Checklist I don’t have one other than in my set.

**hudley19** · 03-08-2014, 03:36 AM

Hi Stephen
Welcome to SCF , beautiful story and glad that you have shared it with us :) a lot of vintage collectors here so hope you get to finish up your sets . If you have any questions feel free to contact me, good luck and have fun :)
Zack

**spuds1961** · 03-08-2014, 11:51 AM

Great story Stephen, also nice to see your mom has not thrown away the cards like the rest of our moms did. If you need any help with the site just pm me take care Steve.