In May 1995, Trading Cards Magazine ran a piece by Jim Stevens asking which hockey cards were worth buying with $500. I thought it’d be fun to see how John Moore’s picks have held up!
You can see that Moore recommended: One Ken Dryden 1971-72 OPC RC #45, $300; one Patrick Roy 1986-87 OPC RC #53, $140; two Dale Hawerchuk 1982-83 OPC RCs #380, $36; and four Paul Kariya 1992-93 UD RCs #586, $24. Total expense: $500.
Let’s assume he was talking about cards that would grade PSA 8s, which is a bit optimistic, but I need to compare against something.
It looks like Ken Dryden’s PSA 8 RC’s are ~$1475, Roy PSA 8 rookies are ~$330, Hawerchuk’s RC is ~$40 (times two is $80), and Paul Kariya’s UD RC is essentially worthless in a PSA 8 slab. So combined, that’s $1,885 from the original $500. But just a moment, the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI Inflation Calculator says that $500 in May 1995 has the same purchasing power as $1,043.60 in January 2025.
Not bad by Moore overall. But everyone probably should have stuck to Gretzky’s rookie cards, eh?
After dedicating a lot of time exploring early ’90s baseball autograph insert sets, I decided to broaden my horizons a bit and delve into the world of hockey insert cards from the same era. In doing so, I stumbled upon two really attractive sets: the 1993-94 Donruss Elite and the 1994-95 Donruss Elite insert sets. The 15 1993 and 10 1994 insert cards are limited to just 10,000 copies each, and the latter set boasts a distinctive deckle edge design reminiscent of the iconic Topps baseball cards from 1969!
1969 Topps Deckle Edge #21 Pete Rose
1993-94 Donruss Elite Inserts
The 15 NHL superstar Donruss Elite cards were random inserts in two different Donruss packs. Cards 1-10 were Series 1 inserts, while U1-U5 were included in Elite Update packs. As I wrote in the intro, they’re all numbered to 10k. In their promotional material for the set, Donruss included the Teemu Selanne card but didn’t highlight any set details.
1993 Donruss Hockey Advertisement
The fronts of the cards have a color photo of an NHL start in a diamond with prism foil borders around it. The player’s name is printed at the bottom. The back features a card number out of 10, a serial number out of 10000, a headshot, and career highlights against a marble background with silver borders. I’ve read that the insert ratio was ~1:60 packs.
1993 Donruss Elite #4 Eric Lindros
Here’s the set’s checklist:
1. Mario Lemieux
2. Alexandre Daigle
3. Teemu Selanne
4. Eric Lindros
5. Brett Hull
6. Jeremy Roenick
7. Doug Gilmour
8. Alexander Mogilny
9. Patrick Roy
10. Wayne Gretzky
U1. Mikael Renberg
U2. Sergei Fedorov
U3. Felix Potvin
U4. Cam Neely
U5. Alexei Yashin
1993 Donruss Elite Complete Set
PSA has graded just over 250 examples, including 106 Gretzky, 45 Lemieux, and 29 Roy cards. A PSA 8 Gretzky sold for $37 in January 2025, and a PSA 10 Lemieux went for $285 in February 2021.
1993 Donruss Elite #10 Wayne Gretzky
1994-95 Donruss Elite Inserts
In 1994, Donruss limited the Elite Inserts to ten and only included them in Series 1 packs. Again, only 10k of each were made. This time, however, the insertion rate was 1:72 packs. Donruss had the Jeremy Roenick card on its promotional material, but no other details were included in the piece I found.
1994 Donruss Hockey Advertisement
I sort of wish Donruss had stuck with the design of the 1993 set but included the deckle cut as they did in 1994. For this series, the cards featured a rectangular player image on the front, surrounded by a silver foil deckle edge. The player’s name matching the silver foil border is an excellent integration. The back features the serial number out of 10,000 along the top with the card number, a rectangular photo, and some player information below it.
1994 Donruss Elite #10 Patrick Roy
Here’s the set’s checklist:
1. Jason Arnott
2. Martin Brodeur
3. Pavel Bure
4. Sergei Fedorov
5. Wayne Gretzky
6. Mario Lemieux
7. Eric Lindros
8. Felix Potvin
9. Jeremy Roenick
10. Patrick Roy
1994 Donruss Elite #6 Mario Lemieux
PSA has graded a little over 300 of these cards, including 109 of Gretzky, 55 of Lemieux, 32 of Roy, and 28 of Brodeur. PSA 10 Gretzky’s have sold for between $157 (July 2021) and $293 (January 2025) in the past few years, and one collector has managed a complete PSA 10 graded set on the registry.
1994 Donruss Elite #5 Wayne Gretzky
Conclusion
As you can see in the hockey card category of my archives, they aren’t my usual territory, but I’m eager to expand my knowledge and explore them further. While my expertise primarily lies in baseball cards, the 1993-94 and 1994-95 Donruss Elite hockey sets are really alluring, with the latter’s design harking back to one of my favorite deckle designs of the late ’60s. Stay tuned for more discoveries and insights as I continue my quest to learn more about hockey collectibles!
