Don't you just hate the '90s?

[wild4life]

It stinks when you have a Guy LaFleur card with a BV less than $1! There were so many incredible players back then but they made so many hockey cards it's just plain rediculous! Anyone else get this feeling? lol

[centrehice]

I love the cards from 1995-2000. The very best Artist Proofs, Short Printed Inserts to ever collect before the advent of Game-Used everything.

The 1997-98 Crown Royale Freeze Out Die-Cut is the nicest Hockey Card ever designed.

http://cgi.ebay.com/1997-98-Crown-Ro...#ht_1492wt_898

Have a look at that beauty. The photo does not do it any justice, they are gorgeous....The Felix Potvin is even nicer.

[MatsSundin13Rocks]

1995-2000 was the pinnacle of the hobby. Cards were selling crazy! The Epix, Artist Proof, Rink Collection, and amazing rare #'d cards were worth a fortune at that time as they were the NEW hot thing. Once autos and GU became common place #'d and rare inserts drove the hobby to huge success.

It was 1990-1994 that was the major problem!!! Almost all cards from those years were mass produced garbage!

[Spud]

Enjoying reading this thread. Not much to add at this point other than my father left me over a few hundred thousand hockey cards from the years 1988-2004, over half of which I donated to children's charities, including thousands of rookie cards (didn't see the point in keeping more than 30 Modano rookie cards). Wish I still had my cards from the 1960's though - sigh! Spud

[wild4life]

Well, I stand corrected but, so far, almost all my '90s experience is with 1990 cards I've bought cheap at the local card store.

[Footnote75]

The 1997-98 Crown Royale Freeze Out Die-Cut is the nicest Hockey Card ever designed.

Have a look at that beauty. The photo does not do it any justice, they are gorgeous....The Felix Potvin is even nicer.

Oh thank you, I want that now!!

[mr ozzie]

It stinks when you have a Guy LaFleur card with a BV less than $1! There were so many incredible players back then but they made so many hockey cards it's just plain rediculous! Anyone else get this feeling? lol

We're getting a re-hash of the 90s right now with Panini in the mix and ITG increasing their product lineup. UD's product lineup may be down to 12 this year, but the ones that are out of production are going to be crammed into products that are in production (just take a look at UD ICE for example). You can't expect UD to take a loss in revenue without either a) increasing box/case prices and/or b) increasing production levels of the 12 products remaining in their lineup.

[jbudny]

I love the 90's stuff. All of the inserts are creative and in the 90's a lot of those inserts sold for quite a bit until all the short print, patch, gu junk came out. Now the industry is about money. $100 card packs?? It makes me sick to think about them and how so many people dish out that kind of money for them. The hobby is run by people with deep pockets and it's frustrating when you try to collect for fun and can't focus on any player PC's because there is someone with deeper pockets then you.

With saying that I've totally changed my look at the hobby and how I approach it. I search high and low through antique malls, flea markets, garage sales and other sites. I've been lucky through hard work to find what I want for a fair price.

I think 1991-92 was the worst year EVER for cards. None of the products that came out hold any value.

[mugatu471]

I liked the simplicity of the earlier 90's a lot. Since I was like 5, all you did was trade with your friends. As I started to get older and more GU's and AU's were inserted, people wouldn't trade with me unless they were winning the trade. I then had to resort to eBay to get my cards and that's kind of how it is today. I still love the hobby, but the actual trading aspect has gone down a lot for me.

[30ranfordfan]

I love a lot of stuff from the 90s. I really don't think that the effort goes into design anywhere near as much as it did back then. I suppose it doesn't need to - a 5 colour patch makes up for boring looking designs.


As a few examples.....


For me, this is still one of the best inserts sets - ever.


Tell me the last time anyone made a parallel that looks even close to as good as these ones?



And there were lots of very cool base designs:









While it's true that most cards from that era never retained their value, does anyone really think that today's card are doing a much better job? Rookie cards of star players, yes. Everything else?? Maybe I'm just looking for the wrong kind of stuff - but I don't see many autos, patches, semi-star (or lower) RCs, plates, etc holding their value at all.