Hockey Memorabilia

Looking for hockey memorabilia?

Collectors are a funny bunch. Passionate about sports, they're a cross between a fan and an obsessive. And as fans, they usually take an avid interest in their sport of choice. A sports’ origins are often prized and highly sought after. Understanding this formula takes us a few steps down the road to comprehending a growing trend in hockey memorabilia—specifically, a market for pre-war hockey cards. Hockey fans are often viewed as the odd birds in American sports collecting—they're seen as zealots and martyrs to the sports’ recent internal problems. But despite losing a season, the market for hockey memorabilia persists. Also find out more about sports memorabilia.

So it’s not surprising that hockey fans want to reconnect with the sports’ beginnings. What you have to understand when collecting pre-war hockey cards—or any pre-war cards in general—can be broken down into a four points:

There is a limited supply of cards.
Demand for cards is a factor.
Know your goal—do you want a team set? A year set?
What's your own budget like?

During the dawn of sports card production, hockey looked to compete with baseball in terms of popularity. The cards were distributed in tobacco packs by the Imperial Tobacco Company, from 1911 to 1913. These sets are known as the C-series and showcased color portraits of players. After World War 1, only one more set of cigarette cards was issued. Take a look at our article on football memorabilia.

Highly prized by collectors are the food and candy cards of the 1920’s. Maple Crispette, Paulin’s Candy, Holland Creameries and Crescent all issued sets. These are very rare and prized in any condition grade. 1933 to 1944 are considered the “boom years” for hockey cards. They were produced in high volume by several Canadian candy companies—Hamilton gum, Canadian gum and World Wide Gum, among others—right up until production was halted due to the war.

PSA, the leading sports card authenticators, note that only graded 500+ pre-war hockey cards in decent condition. This number might discourage casual collectors, but hard-core hockey memorabilia enthusiasts will persist. The good news for collectors is that demand for these hockey cards is relatively low. This can probably be attributed to the sports’ relatively low popularity in the USA and to many fans’ frustration with the disgraceful 2005 lock-out season. Pre-war hockey memorabilia collecting is an intriguing field. A quick search on ebay reveals a small, dedicated community. While they will occasionally go head-to-head in an auction, they generally seem to share each others’ enthusiasm for this area of collecting and help each other out as much as possible.

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