A Guide to Numbered Hockey (and sports) Cards.

Numbered hockey cards were first introduced in the early 1990's.
These cards would be chaser insert cards that were of a specific
player or position (like goalie).  The print run on the early
cards was in the thousands, or even 10,000 or more.  I remember
spending money trying to find the limited edition numbered
Patrick Roy card that was from a McDonald's set.  There was
over 10,000 of these.  At the time it was worth a lot, but now
it is not.

As time has gone on the industry and collector has realized that
numbered cards that have a high print run are not worth that much.
What make's the card special? The lower the print run, the better.
Today cards with print runs of 2000 are overprinted and not really
desired.  The basic rule of thumb is, the lower the print run
the higher the value of the card.

Take the 2005-2006 Upper Deck Be A Player set.  They have variations
of a card numbered at 100, 50, 10, and then finally 1.  I sold an /10
card of a nobody for over $50 US.  All because of the rarity of the
card.  So the /1's are very rare!

Now, limited print run is not the only way that a numbered card can
be rare.  There is also the phenomenon of selected numbers in the
print run being worth more then the other cards.  For example:

Out of a print run of 150 for a Wayne Gretzky Card the following
cards might carry a premium over the other cards.

1/150 For the first card of the print run.
99/150 For Wayne's player number
150/150 For the final card of the print run.

You might also have premiums for special years, or such also.

Any numbered card is a treat to own.  You are assured that there
are only that many cards in existence, and you have one.  So
hold on to them and enjoy.  They are obviously a collectible.

Latsyrhc
Tamarack Collectibles