The Official 13th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention Auction, held July 8-10, 1992, included a ton of incredible items, including the original Flexi-Chrome for Gordie Howe’s 1957/58 Topps hockey card! Superior Galleries only provided color scans for about 1/5 of its items on color plates at the beginning of the catalog; luckily, they included this one!
They described the item as follows:
This is the original artwork for the Gordie Howe card of that year A very rare and desirable item. Framed and matted with the Flexi-Chrome, and beneath it the actual card which has been autographed by Gordie Howe. This originally came out of the Gurnsey-Topps auction in 1989. A very rare hockey piece.
Overall Excellent condition. $6000-8000
Here’s a scan from Guernsey’s Topps Auction catalog showing the Gordie Howe Hockey Flexichrome. It sold for $1,600 plus the 10% buyer’s premium.
The PSA/DNA Certified Pop Report contains nine 1957 Topps Gordie Howe cards; this PSA 5/Auto 9 sold for $1,112 on eBay in February 2023.
Kit Kiefer was a former editor of Baseball Cards Magazine and the VP of Professional Hobby Consultants, so he knows a thing or two about sports cards. Here’s his list of the 10 most significant action photos of all time, in order of importance. Not bad, huh?
The list was part of a much longer article in the February 1997 issue of Sports Card Magazine, in which he mentioned that “action photos on sports cards were non existent for the first 100 years, but today they are as common as a new pack of cards.”
In terms of popularity, you have to consider adding the 1991 Topps Carlton Fisk card featuring Cecil Fielder barreling toward him; here’s the Desert Shield version (4 Sharp Corners was offering it on eBay for $759 in November 2024).
After the success of their baseball set in 1989, Upper Deck jumped into the hockey card market with a 1990-91 release that they promoted with cards of Wayne Gretzky and Patrick Roy (cards 241A and 241B). However, just as they did with baseball, Upper Deck also promoted their hockey set in the early 90s with serial-numbered commemorative sheets. Hockey didn’t have an established Old-Timer Series for Upper Deck to sponsor and highlight their cards through, so they predominantly distributed these sheets at NHL games. In this article, I’ll highlight four Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet sets.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheets
TCDB lists 11 total blank-backed 8 1/2″ x 11″ commemorative sheets in its checklist for this “set” of sheets. Upper Deck distributed them at various NHL games to promote their first hockey set. They’re all serial-numbered.
Upper Deck released the first sheet at the game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Detroit Red Wings on November 17, 1990.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Maple Leafs Vs. Red Wings
Here are a few other examples.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Rangers vs. Whalers
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Blues vs. Sabres
Upper Deck released two sheets as part of the 42nd NHL All-Star Game at Chicago Stadium on January 19, 1991, as well.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Provence of Wales Conference All-Stars
There was also a sheet dated June 21, 1991, to honor “six players selected by the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association as the most proficient at their respective positions in their first year of competitions in the National Hockey League.” Given the date, I’m unsure how Upper Deck distributed this sheet. Notice the gold emblem in the lower right corner doesn’t have a 1990/1991 date like the others; it’s a 1991 Limited Edition Collector Series Sheet.
1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – 1990-91 NHL/UD All-Rookie Team
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheets
TCDB lists the 1991-92 Upper Deck sheets as Promotional rather than Commemorative Sheets for some reason, so I’ll stick with that for the section heading, but the concept was the same as the previous series of sheets. However, there appear to be 19 different ones that were used to promote the 1991-92 set.
Here are a pair of examples: one used as a promotion at the Flames vs. Rangers game on November 4, 1991, and another that was used at the Rangers vs. Capital game on February 7, 1992.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Flames Vs. Rangers
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Rangers Vs. Capitals
And while I mentioned that Upper Deck didn’t sponsor a Heroes of Hockey Series as they did in Baseball, this year, there was an Alumni Heroes of Hockey game that was played on January 17, 1992, between the 1974/75 Stanley Cup Champion Flyers and a team of legendary NGL stars the day before the 43rd NHL All-Star Game.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – Philadelphia Heroes of Hockey vs. NHL Heroes of Hockey
The next night, on January 18, Upper Deck distributed sheets honoring the Wales and Campbell Conference All-Star Teams.
1991-92 Upper Deck Hockey Promotional Sheet – All-Star Teams
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheets
There are 17 items listed in TCDB’s checklist of Upper Deck Commemorative sheets used to promote the 1992-93 hockey set. The majority were given away at NHL games; again, there was a pair for Campbell and Wales All-Stars, but there was also one for the 1991-92 Upper Deck All-Rookie Team, a Hockey Heroes pair for Gordie Howe, and one for the New York Rangers as the Defending NHL Regular Season Champions. Here are a few examples.
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Blackhawks Vs. Red Wings
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – 1991-92 NHL/UD All-Rookie Team
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – Gordie Howe Birthday Tour
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Commemorative Sheet – All-Star Teams
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet
The Gretzky Heroes sheet wasn’t available at a game; it was a mail-in wrapper redemption that numbered to 29166.
1992-93 Upper Deck Hockey Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet
The terms required users to send a sheet offer card, 15 foil pack wrappers from’ 92-93 Low Series Hockey, and $2.95 via check or money order to:
Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes Commemorative Sheet Offer – Front and Back
There was a series of Hockey Heroes: Wayne Gretzky cards inserted in Low Series packs at a rate of 1:18.
Conclusion
Just like the baseball sheets, the Upper Deck hockey commemorative sheets can each be picked up for just a few dollars; however, a few examples exist (like the Gordie Howe pictured above) that are signed, which will cost quite a bit more. I suspect there aren’t a lot of collectors who have tracked down all 48 Upper Deck hockey sheets; it would make for an incredible collection to view in a binder. Now, don’t forget to come back to the site so you don’t miss the next two parts of this series on Upper Deck Sheets. The basketball and football sheets come out next!
Whenever there’s a market, there are cheaters. This piece was written by Rocky Landsverk and published in the April 1997 issue of Sports Card Magazine. It provides a fantastic 101 on spotting 1951/52 Parkhurst fakes that hit the market in the mid to late ’80s.
To reiterate, look for the creases in the illustration, dot patterns using a magnifying glass, and the smoothness of the cardboard backs.
Ryan Nolan’s book Spotting Fakes has a section on the 1951 Parkhurst Gordie Howe card; on the fakes, he says:
the colon after born is missing
equal thickness and color borders left and right
red lettering at the bottom is thicker
many reprints have this bottom red lettering as black text
many reprints also have a really dark background
don’t expect a perfect card, very few copies exist in a high grade
Unfortunately, Bob Lemke and Sally Grace’s Sportscard Counterfeit Detector doesn’t specifically include any vintage hockey cards printed before Gretzky’s 1979/80 OPC RC. However, it has so much other solid advice; it’s definitely worth buying.
The 1966/67 Topps hockey set is one of the decade’s most popular issues: wood-grain borders and Bobby Orr! I ran across this uncut sheet featuring the complete set of 132 cards in Mastro’s April 2004 auction catalog.
Mastro described the 26” x 43” final production sheet, arranged in the standard 11×12 layout, as being in Near-Mint condition, with only minor edge wear.
Now, let’s look at a few uncut sheets from this set that have popped up for sale over the years.
In May 2016, Heritage Auctions sold a different example of the regular issue Topps uncut sheet, printed in Canada, for $7,170.
On the lower end of the condition spectrum, but perhaps more unique, is this sheet I found listed on eBay at a $6,000 asking price. It’s described as having a blank back (but without a picture).
Lastly, there’s this incredible 1966/67 Topps USA Test uncut sheet that has been available on eBay, with an asking price of $44,000, courtesy of Vegas-Cardhouse.
While flipping through the April 1998 edition of Sports Card Magazine and Price Guide, I stumbled upon a fascinating article authored by T.S. O’Connell titled “Collector Issues” with a subheading that read ‘Once upon a time in the hobby, there weren’t enough cards for collectors to collect (no kidding)… so TCMA, Larry Fritsch, and Mike Cramer filled an important niche.’ It inspired me to write a series of articles as a baseline for future writing, dedicated to these hobby pioneers who gave collectors “something other than good ol’ Topps” cards to collect. In this particular piece, I’ll spotlight Mike Aronstein and his company, TCMA, along with a few of their key sets and cards.
Sports Cards Magazine and Price Guide – April 1998
The Baseball Card Hobby in the 1970s
O’Connell wrote that some folks called the 1970s the hobby’s ‘Dark Ages’ because there wasn’t a lot of newly printed material. That’s why collector issues became a thing – card shows were also still a few years away. O’Connell also shared that Fleer’s Robert Laughlin sets, released from 1970-74, showed the hobby had room for more than Topps and probably continued to motivate Fleer to push against the Topps monopoly.
TCMA 101
TCMA probably gets the most credit for “championing the collector issue,” according to O’Connell. Aronstein started the company with Tom Collier, so they used their initials “TC” and “MA” to name the company TCMA. Aronstein bought out Collier two years later and changed the company’s name to The Card Memorabilia Associates. They produced hundreds of sets, often in black-and-white and without a license.
The company re-printed older sets, made postcard-size sets of league leaders’ cards, and made a big push into the minor-league market. But, I know them most for their great teams of the past sets; they made over 50 of them from 1974-88. They also produced a few larger sets like “The 1960s,” with 293 cards in 1978, and “The Baseball History Series,” focused on the ’50s with 291 cards – the sets used the 1953 Bowman Color set design. The company was headquartered north of New York City in Westchester County. TCMA eventually sold to Impel Marketing.
Mike Aronstein, SSPC, and Donruss
Aronstein grew up around Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and collected cards as a kid. While he didn’t hold the first hobby convention, the one he had on March 15, 1970 (with 19 attendees) was the largest meet-up to that point, and you can read all about it in SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee article called ‘50 years ago today…‘ Before that, in 1968, Aronstein made a Sports Starts Publishing Company set with his uncle but dropped it because they couldn’t keep up with the demand. Then, with Collier, a hobby friend, Aronstein decided to do reprints of old cards and founded TCMA in 1972. Sports Collectors Digest has a lot more details about Aronstein, the early days of TCMA, and its history in this article, but there are two other stories I want to highlight.
Mike Aronstein Sorting 1963 Topps Baseball Cards
First, in a separate venture in 1975, Aronstein produced the Sports Starts Publishing Company (SSPC) 630-card set, which featured current players. Topps sued and settled, but demand for the ~10k sets that TCMA distributed showed how much room there was in the hobby for competition. And second, because of that success, in 1980, when the Topps monopoly ended, TCMA became the exclusive distributor for Donruss baseball cards.
Key TCMA Sets and Cards
1981 TCMA NBA Cards
1972 TCMA The 1930’s
This set has over 500 cards and was one of TCMA’s first ventures. Because the “set” was issued in 21 series of 24 cards each, the designs have some variety. Most cards are black-and-white except Series 18-19, printed in blue. TCMA reportedly printed ~1000 sets, with the key cards being hobby icons Lou Gehrig and Joe Dimaggio.
1973-80 TCMA All-Time Greats Postcards
1973-80 TCMA Robert Clemente All-Time Greats Postcard
These postcards represent one of the longest collectors’ series issued by TCMA. Six series of unnumbered cards were issued, so you will usually see them checklisted alphabetically.
1973-78 TCMA League Leaders
1973-78 TCMA League Leaders Jackie Robinson The 1940’s
These League Leaders cards were the same postcard size as the All-Time Greats and honored statistical leaders in each league from the 20s through the 50s. The key card is Mantle’s.
1977-80 TCMA The War Years
This set is one of the pricer sets of cards and featured players on MLB rosters circa 1942-46 when sets weren’t being produced.
Team Sets
1975 TCMA All-Time New York Yankees PSA Graded Set
I already mentioned that TCMA released a ton of Team Sets; I was really into the 1975 TCMA All-Time New York Yankees set when I returned to the hobby as an adult (they also had sets for the Giants and Dodgers All-Time greats the year)
TCMA Minor League Cards
TCMA produced many great minor league cards, including the 1981 Pawtucket Red Sox Wade Boggs card and the 1981 Rochester Red Wings Cal Ripken Jr. card.
1981 TCMA Pawtucket Red Sox #15 Wade Boggs
1981 TCMA Rochester Red Wings #15 Cal Ripken Jr.
TCMA also produced John Elway’s 1982 Minor League Baseball card and one for Rickey Henderson in 1979, featuring him on the Ogden A’s.
1982 TCMA Oneonta Yankees #13 John Elway
Wrap-Up and Further Reading
It’s not always easy to find every TCMA card you want, and I’m not sure there’s a complete checklist of everything they created that’s easily accessible, but the company and its sets are really important in hobby history for influencing the boom that started in the 80s.
I’ll continue to highlight Aronstein, TCMA, and its sets in future articles and deep dives in the future, but first, be on the lookout for collector issues articles focusing on Larry Fritsch and Mike Cramer in the next few weeks.
Sports Cards Magazine & Price Guide had a great feature in the mid-’90s, providing “a wrapup of some of the country’s largest sports auctions.” This one from September 1996 was chockful of incredible items.
Larson highlighted the John F. Kennedy signed ball as the highlight of Mastro’s auction that topped $850,000 in sales. But I wanted to compare two of the cards to today’s prices. The PSA 8 graded 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle sold for $24,394; today, that’s probably a $1M card. And the PSA 8 1914 Crack Jack Joe Jackson, well, Heritage sold one nine years ago for $101k.
As for the rest of the article, half of that stuff won’t show up for sale again, but if any of it does, you can bet on it being a lot pricier!
