I've been steadily adding some hockey and baseball cards to the organize as I'm clearing out thousands of commons from cards I bought over the years that just have been sitting around. You never know, I could find a gem somewhere! Today's cards are:
1991-92 Parkhurst Steve Chiasson #268, 1991-92 Parkhurst Brian Skrudland #314 1997-98 Zenith Hockey Saku Koivu #26. None of these cards are anything more than commons based on ebay sales. The Zenith card hasn't even been sold lately, hence the COMC logo on this image.
The 1991-92 Parkhurst are from a brand that if you're not a hockey fan may not be familiar to you. Here's an interesting history that I found on Wikipedia since I really didn't know what happened to them. For now Upper Deck still has the license, UD has this sport only at the moment as a fully licensed seller of hockey cards. Most football collectors like myself are extremely upset with this as issues like Panini Flawless slap the high end collectors in the face. While there are some good, even great cards in this release it's many times over more risky than UD Exquisite was.
Modern Parkhurst hockey cards[edit]
The Parkhurst was resuscitated in 1991 by a group led by Dr. Brian H. Price. After Price tried unsuccessfully to acquire an NHL license. As a last resort to bring the historic brand back, he licensed Parkhurst to
Pro Set Inc., a Dallas based hockey card manufacturer. After the hockey card explosion of 1990–91, Parkhurst cards were back in the marketplace. Now promoted as a premium brand of cards, there were three different series available. Series I and Series II were available in both English and French and featured the rookie cards of players such as
Dominik Hasek and
John LeClair. The 1991–92 Update Set was the final release of the year and was the most valuable of all three sets. One of the key rookie cards of that set was of Bill Guerin. Of note, the cases of Parkhurst cards were sequentially numbered, and this was the first time hockey card cases were numbered.
When Pro Set, Inc. entered
Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection prior to the 1992–93 "season", Price was forced to travel weekly from Toronto to Dallas and became the unofficial hockey brand manager in order to keep the brand alive. The second year of Parkhurst (1992–93) was the last with Pro Set as the company went bankrupt and Price took his Parkhurst brand name to The Upper Deck Company, a five-year agreement which began with the 1993–94 season.
As part of the Upper Deck/Parkurst license agreement, during the 1993–94 hockey season, Price was allowed under the Upper Deck/NHL licence to create and release three retrospective Parkhurst trading cards sets. The first set of cards was known unofficially as "The Missing Link" (a mock 1956-57 set). These cards were produced to complement the fact that Parkhurst did not make cards in 1956. All the cards in the set featured the
Original Six teams. The cards featured stats from the 1955–56 season, and had a very retro feel to them, with a no-gloss finish and simple design. One of the most unusual cards in the set was a card featuring the likeness of
Johnny Bower in a New York Rangers uniform, while other Parkhurst traditions were upheld, such as action cards.
The popularity of this set led to two other retro-style sets, one commemorating the 1964–65 season (in the "Tall Boy" format Topps used that year), released in 1995, and a subsequent set issued in 1996. This set "commemorated" the 1966–67 season, which signified the rookie season of
Bobby Orr and the final
Stanley Cup triumph of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Once again, all Original Six teams were featured in the set and each pack contained a "wheel", akin to the Shirriff pieces issued around this time. There was one wheel issued per pack, which paralleled the shell cards (player cards) in the set, as well as 10 bonus wheels that paralleled the Beehive-inspired inserts of Orr and Gordie Howe.
Aside from the Missing Link sets, three other series were issued by Price and Upper Deck (two series in 1993–94 and one in 1994–95) in North America. One other set released in 1994–95 was the Parkhurst SE series (Special Edition), intended for distribution in Europe but equally available in North America. It could be distinguished from the standard 1994-95 Parkhurst cards by its unique numbering with an SE prefix. This set also featured the first cards of players like
Jarome Iginla and
Jean-Sébastien Giguère.
After two years, Upper Deck breached their Parkhurst license agreement in 1995, thus the brand was no longer in Upper Deck's hands. With no place else to turn, Price created his own release, Parkhurst International, only available in the European markets. Some of the highlights from the 1995–96 Parkhurst set can be found in Series II, including the first card of
Wayne Gretzky in a St. Louis Blues uniform. Although the controversy of this card was that Wayne Gretzky's face was superimposed over previous captain Shayne Corson's body, it was not correct. Wayne Gretzky was also featured on another card in the Series II set, but this time, it was on the back. Kevin Stevens was featured in Series II as a member of the
Los Angeles Kings. On the back of the card is a picture of Kevin Stevens and Wayne Gretzky wearing the Los Angeles Kings' third jersey. This is the only known card that features an image of Wayne Gretzky in this infamous Kings "playing card" jersey. Despite these unique Gretzky issues, the brand disappeared after 1995–96, save for phone card and 24-karat gold specialty issues.
In The Game obtains Parkhurst license[edit]
For the 50th anniversary of the initial set, the Parkhurst brand was relaunched by Dr Price's new venture
In The Game Trading Cards. The set originally appeared as an insert in various 2000–01 products before being re-introduced a year later as a standalone set. Parkhurst was issued both in 2001–02 and 2002–03 before becoming a larger brand name in 2003–04, where it was broken up into multiple sets, including Parkhurst Rookie and Parkhurst Original Six, which was subdivided into six sets. Several collectors still debate the legitimacy of these cards being considered rookie cards, since they were team-specific. The only other set issued under the Parkhurst moniker was Parkhurst Retro (in the 2002–03 season), which utilized the 1951–52 design.
Upper Deck Company acquires Parkhurst license[edit]
The new incarnation lasted only a few years before the
2004–05 NHL lockout threw the trading card market into chaos. During this year, the NHLPA did not work with In The Game. ITG, rather than use the Parkhurst name, used alternate titles such as In The Game Franchises under a licence from the NHL.
Prior to the lockout, Ted Saskin of the NHLPA made a back room deal with Upper Deck making them exclusive licensee for NHLPA hockey trading cards. When the NHL resumed operation, the NHL got wind of the NHLPA's arrangement and agreed to give
Upper Deck an exclusive arrangement, too.
In 2005, Upper Deck acquired the license to the Parkhurst brand name and issued a new Parkhurst series. This was a unique brand that was launched late in the 2005–06 season, featuring 700 cards and had a card of Alexander Ovechkin's goal, lying flat on his back (card number 588). Another unique card commemorated the first head-to-head meeting between Ovechkin and
Sidney Crosby (card number 600). In all, there were four cards of
Alexander Ovechkin (card numbers 588, 597, 600, and 700), while there were six cards of Sidney Crosby (card numbers 526, 586, 587, 593, 657, and 694). Not to be forgotten, this set also features Stanley Cup Hero Cam Ward of the
Carolina Hurricanes(card number 614).
Parkhurst returned in the 2006–07 season, with a shift in focus to retired players. The set included a wide variety of
autographs, from Hall of Fame honoured members such as Patrick Roy to cult favourites like Bobby Smith.
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