Monster Trade from Reader Daniel - Part 1

I haven't been able to muster up a post in quite some time. Between the holiday season, and quite honestly a lack of interest in cards for a while there, I just didn't have it in me. I'm finally starting to work up the motivation to get going again, and what better place to start than showing off the first part of a monster trade with reader Daniel. Way back at the end of November, I put out the call for help with my 1988-89 Topps hockey set and boy did Daniel answer! He sent what is easily amongst the best trade packages I've received since I started the blog over 3 years ago. The package contained so many cards that I'm going to break it out into half a dozen posts or so.

For the first post, we'll start off with some 1985-86 Topps hockey stickers:

An under-rated scorer, and a name probably not recognized by the casual modern-day hockey fan, Ogrodnick had a monster year with Detroit in 1984-85. He set career highs in goals (55!), assists (50) and points (obviously).

These aren't listed in my Beckett, but if they were I'm guessing Gretzky would have the highest "book value". It's always nice to add a new Gretzky to the collection.

Sticker number 3 in the set is Gretzky's linemate from Edmonton, and one of my favorite 1980's players, Jari Kurri. This card came out during the stretch when Kurri was logging 100-point seasons regularly.

Paul Coffey makes it three straight Oilers. Coffey was the league's most offensive-minded defenseman in the mid-1980's, winning the Norris Trophy in both 1984-85 and 1985-86. He also scored 48 goals in 1985-86, breaking Bobby Orr's record for goals by a defenseman in a season. Not too shabby.

Paul Coffey might've been the league's top defenseman when these cards were released, but Bourque was right on his heels. He would take home Norris trophies in 1986-87, 1987-88, 1989-90, 1990-91 and 1993-94.

Pelle Lindbergh's sticker represents just my second or third card of this tragic figure. Pelle received the most votes of any player for the 1986 NHL All-Star game, which occurred just months after his untimely death. It was the first (and still only) time a player was posthumously selected for an NHL All-Star team.

The design for these stickers is nearly identical to the 1985-86 Topps base cards. The upper left corner contains the NHL shield logo, whereas in the base set the logo for the player's team was found here. On these All-Star stickers the logo is always in the upper left, but in the base set the design alternated, sometimes the team logos are upper left, other times upper right. The All-Star banner along the top was obviously absent in the base set as well, but those are really the only differences in design.

Bring back the Jets!

I've gone on at length about Bossy in previous posts so I'll spare you. Arguably the greatest pure goal-scorer in the league's history.

This shot of the always-helmetless Doug Wilson fits nicely within the frame of the card's border.

Finally, we have Tom Barrasso displaying an incredibly old looking set of goalie pads and sporting a Cooper helmet.

The first 12 stickers in the set are these All-Star player stickers. Daniel sent me 11 of the 12, I just need to track down #10, Rod Langway. There are also team stickers, which comprise cards 13-33.

One of my major goals for 2011 is to finish my run of Topps hockey sets from 79-80 - 90-91, and get them all neatly organized in binders. These stickers have been put in place and look pretty nice in Ultra Pro pages I have to say. I'll be posting more of what Daniel sent soon, along with a couple of pack rips!