Card Company Question

[Hawaiian Bam Bam]

Hello,
Im new to Hockey cards and I was wondering if someone would be so kind to please give me a run down on when the major card companies/brands start and stop production of cards

for example, when did topps stop making cards and panini start?

what are all the major brands of cards, topps, panini, upper deck?

what years and companies produced traded/update sets?

any and all help appreciate. thanks

[theboxbreaker96]

there are 3 panini and upper deck and ITG.

ITG does not have an offical license

panini started last year 10-11

topps stoped in 03-04 i think

[MattDMC]

there are only 2 panini and upper deck

panini started last year 10-11

topps stoped in 03-04 i think

Nice of you to leave out ITG

[theboxbreaker96]

Nice of you to leave out ITG

I knew I was missing something but couldnt think

Sorry

[Hawaiian Bam Bam]

thanks for all your help guys, i appreciate it.

where there any sets produced between 03-04 and when panini started up in 10-11?

what years did upper deck produce sets?

what about score and opeechee? are those widely collected by collectors?
thanks

[RGM81]

Upper Deck has been producing hockey cards since 1990, and from the years 2005 until the end of the 2009-10 season they had an exclusive license.

[CoolHandLuke]

Here the current brand under license. UD and Panini each have 11 licenses:

Upper Deck:

1. Artifacts
2. SP Authentic
3. Ultimate Collection
4. Victory
5. Upper Deck Serie I & II
6. Black Diamond
7. O-Pee-Chee
8. SP Game-Used
9. SPx
10. The Cup
11. Parkhurst Champions

Panini:

1. Playoff Contenders
2. Limited
3. Zenith
4. Donruss
5. Certified
6. Score
7. Adrenalyn XL
8. Crown Royale
9. Pinnacle
10. Luxury Suite
11. Dominion

In The Game (ITG):

1. Heroes And Prospects
2. Between The Pipes
3. Enshrined
4. Ultimate Memorabilia
5. Superlative
6. Decades
7. Canadiana
8. Canada Vs The World
9. Sportkings (Dr. Price, ITG president and owner is associate to this brand)
10. Famous Fabrics Ink Hockey (Dr. Price, ITG president and owner is associate to this brand)

ITG produce a lot of brand of the moment and not repeated year after year like 1972, Bleu Bland Rouge etc.. Decades is one two along with Canada Vs. the world. They do not have any license, so they exploit a lot cetrain field of interest collectors may have. Not sure if Canadiana is one of them, the same with Enshrined. Heroes And Prospects, Between The Pipes and Ultimate Memorabilia, those are fpr sure produce year after year and are their regular brands.

O-Pee-Chee was bought like 3 years ago by Upper deck as they have bought many brands and the same is true from Panini that did buy Donruss and all brand they had aquired. The Topps brand being the same as the manufacturer name would never be sold for that reason since Topps still produce other cards unless they would close. This is why they only sold O-Pee-Chee.

many brands that Upper Deck owns, were not produce in the past 2 years because they saw their license down from 20 to 11 since Panini got 11 of them. They were:

1. O-Pee-Chee Premiere
2. Ice (still produce as insert via Black Diamond and SPx as a special pack per hobby box)
3. Sweet Shot
4. Hot Prospects
5. McDonald's
6. Mini Jersey Collection
7. Ultra
8. MVP
9. Ovation

[30ranfordfan]

Others have already chimed in with a lot of other information, so I'll just add one of the things that has been left out. Rookie & Traded sets.

This is something that not many hockey sets really do. I can't recall Upper Deck ever doing a Rookie / Traded 'update' kind of set (they release Upper Deck Series 1 / Series 2..... but the 200 base cards in Series 2 are typically just 200 more players they didn't include in Series 1. The Rookie are 50 more Rookies that were not in Series 1, but most of them could have been. It's not really an 'update' set IMO).

Last year Score did a Rookie / Traded update set (they could be purchased for about $20 as a 99 card box set, if I recall - and 1 in 20 has a limited 100th card). I'm pretty sure that's the first time anyone has made one of these since the 'old' Score sets in the early 90s (Score used to fall under the 'Pinnacle' brand of cards, which went under a long time ago - it was one of the brands that Panini has purchased, and produces, since enter the market last year).

ITG has also done update sets, but they're not NHL sets. They release a product called 'Heroes & Prospects' each year, featuring mostly junior and minor-pro stars (and a few retired vets). Very nice set, but not really an 'NHL' set. They do release an Update set for this one too.