Contemplating collecting a player, have some questions

[MR.M's Cards]

Welcome to hockey card collecting I am sure you will enjoy it :) some great advice already given above....lots of great guys in the hockey forums that I am sure can help you along the way as needed

[Wolvesjr34]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the input :) So much to consider :) I might even find a Wild player to collect since I'm a Minesota fan in the NBA... (Canucks all the way as a support thing in NHL though).

[creasecollector]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the input :) So much to consider :) I might even find a Wild player to collect since I'm a Minesota fan in the NBA... (Canucks all the way as a support thing in NHL though).

No worries man, best of luck in your NHL collecting endeavours. :)

[Wolvesjr34]

If anyone is still looking at this thread, what would be a good set to collect? Talkign basic sets, what generally has good designs and reasonable affordability? As I might just buy some boxes and put sets together in lieu of chasing players.

[adamslogik]

Honestly, the NHL has a lot more movement than the NBA, so if you're willing to collect a player when he goes to another team, then by all means, player collect a rookie. If not though, then you might want to hold off collecting any players who don't have long term deals in place, especially with the lower end rookies. Marquee rookie players at least stand a chance of sticking around, but there are too many examples to name when it comes to lesser players who made a splash in their rookie seasons and were then traded for their efforts (Hodgson, Shattenkirk, etc...)

I've had bad luck in the past collecting young habs rookies like D'Agostini, Sekac, Tinordi, only to see them traded to other teams. I don't like them enough to collect them once they are on a new team, and if you think you would feel the same way, then I would wait until they've signed their first real contract.

[creasecollector]

If anyone is still looking at this thread, what would be a good set to collect? Talkign basic sets, what generally has good designs and reasonable affordability? As I might just buy some boxes and put sets together in lieu of chasing players.

Aside from a few top dogs, the Series 1 & 2 Young Guns set is a pretty affordable set to go after. The Young Guns are a staple rookie card to collect if any player catches your eye and you do decide to start going to start collecting a player collection.

[sedinfan]

In terms of differences between basketball and hockey - probably the biggest thing that surprises basketball collectors is rookie card parallels aren't nearly as valued in hockey. Generally true RC's are a lot more desirable and easier to trade/sell than shorter-printed parallels. The most common example is a Sidney Crosby RC x/99 from 05-06 The Cup will sell for significantly more than the gold parallel serial numbered to his jersey number x/87... though in the case of Ovechkin where his gold parallel is limited enough to his jersey number x/8 the disparity in print run is enough to elevate it to a higher price.

Another difference is brand names that are highly coveted in basketball don't necessarily translate to being as popular (or valuable) in hockey. The main sets in hockey are...

The Cup - Upper Deck's end-of-season ultra high-end product. Typically the top 6 rookies get x/99 autographed patch RC's (mostly these are event-worn patches), other rookies are a bit more plentiful.

SP Authentic - Contains the most desired hard-signed rookie cards, Future Watch Auto (FWA) x/999. Also the Future Watch Auto Patch (FWAP) cards x/100 are amongst the more desirable rookie year cards that aren't considered true RC's.

Upper Deck Series 1 / 2 - The flagship set released in two parts in the fall and spring contains the popular Young Guns rookie cards - no print runs on these but estimate range in the thousands to even ten thousand'ish copies. By no means rare, but popular year-in/year-out... the parallel Exclusives x/100 and High Gloss (HG) x/10 are pretty highly sought as well.

Ice - Maybe not quite as widely collected as the above, but the x/99 RC's are popular - the Ice Premiers Auto Patch x/10 cards while not true RC's are highly sought after.

OPC - Has a long history going back to the late 60's, back in simpler times when packs of cards still came with bubblegum. A large base set ~600 cards that comes out early in the season, fun and affordable to break and put together the base set, if not particularly valuable.

Beyond that you've got a variety of annual releases that range from decent to poor... sites like Cardboard Connection will give a decent review / checklist of each product. Upper Deck also has a few non-annual releases... stuff like Masterpieces they did in 08-09 and 14-15 where every base card is a reproduction of art instead of a photo.

If you're looking to build a set I'd look at OPC or UD Series 1/2 and see which appeals to you - since you mentioned good design as being a criteria, probably UD's flagship set would make sense. If you're looking to hard core player collect a Canuck - if you won the lottery recently maybe we can talk if you're looking to acquire an insane Sedin collection, otherwise I wouldn't bother chasing them :) But beyond the twins, all I can say is to seriously player collect a high-end player over their entire career is a major investment, we've seen a lot of folks try for 2-3 years and then give up when either their player gets traded or fizzles out. It can be really fun becoming "The Man" who has the best PC in the world for a given player, it's really rare to be able to cash out for even a decent fraction of what you invested though if you have a change of heart, so all I can recommend from my point of view almost two decades in to my obsession is, if you find a player that you can identify with (whether you love his personality, how he plays the game, whatever) and are prepared to enjoy the chase more than any thoughts of potential return on investment down the road then go for it... and share all your awesome pickups with us in show n tells so we can enjoy your growing collection :)

[bamlinden]

Dave's made some great points above. For me, it's all about fun. I need to collect a player that I enjoy collecting - not a player that I think I can "catch up" with in terms of cards or "start early" in hopes of getting as much as I can as quick as possible.

The connection you have with the player is key in my opinion (especially if this is a long term project). Have fun with it. It's not a race (you will never get one of every card out there...so don't make that a goal) and enjoy the hunt. Searching and finding the cards can be a blast.

Pick a player you like and then see what the landscape is hobby-wise for him. If it's a good fit then go for it.

Enjoy!