The vintage baseball card collecting community has Honus Wagner. The 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card produced by the Piedmont Cigarette Company is the most rare and valuable in existence. It is believed that there are only sixty of these cards in the world and they have sold for millions.
What is the most valuable hockey card available? Where the Wagner card gets international headlines every time one is sold, very few collectors actually know what is the highest valued hockey card. The card doesn’t quite light up auction houses for millions like the Honus Wagner card, but valued at $20,000 by Beckett hockey, it’s not a bad price for a thin old cut of cardboard.
Over the past few decades, considerable attention has been doted upon O-Pee-Chee’s #18 in the 1979-80 series. Of course, this is Wayne Gretzky’s rookie card. The card is currently valued at around $800.00 and has reached well over $1,000 in the past. Recently, the card sold for a hockey record of $80,000 at auction. Top grade unauthorized reprints that have found their way onto the collectables market have skewed the value of the original card.
Around 13 years before the Gretzky card came out, a set was sold by Topps that included the rookie card of, by some considered to be the best blue liner to ever play hockey, Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins. This card, with the front in the image of an old style television screen, was the 1966-67 Topps #35. The card is currently valued at $3,000 by Beckett in mint condition.
The rookie cards of two of hockey’s other greats are also valued at the $3,000 mark. Chicago Black Hawks and Winnipeg Jets legend, Bobby Hull’s first card was the 1958-59 Topps #66. Seven years before the Hull card came out, the 1951-52 Parkhurst #66 featured Gordie Howe as a rookie with the Detroit Red Wings. This was the first year that hockey cards were produced on a regular yearly basis and marked a return to hockey cards after no production for eleven years. Ironically, the 1988-89 Brett Hull O-Pee-Chee rookie card was also number 66.
In fact, the first known hockey cards were produced in 1910-11. The early cards were produced by tobacco companies and were generally much smaller than today’s standard size. The following year, the set showcased the great Georges Vezina in his rookie season with the Montreal Canadiens. Vezina, of course, is the goaltender that the NHL’s Vezina Trophy is named after. Vezina’s rookie card is valued at a cool $6,000.
From Vezina’s card, we take a huge jump to the next highest valued card. Harry Oliver played 16 seasons in the NHL from 1926-27 to 1936-37 with the
Boston Bruins and the New York Americans. Oliver was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1967. His first card was produced in 1933-34 as part of the V129 set. Since this had been the first year after a nine year absense for hockey cards, Harry’s, like most all other players, was a rookie card. Oliver’s was short printed. Because of this, the card is very rare today and is valued at $15,000.
Bert “Pig Iron” Corbeau is not a well-known name. Yet, Corbeau’s 1923-24 V145-1 #25 hockey card is the most valuable hockey card in the world. Corbeau had a ten year NHL career with the Montreal Canadiens, Hamilton Tigers and Toronto St. Pats (predecessor to the Maple Leafs) from 1917-18 to 1926-27. He was part of the Montreal Canadiens first Stanley Cup winning team, the first player to play for both Montreal and Toronto during his career and the first player to record 100 penalty minutes in one season. Corbeau’s rookie card from 1923-24 is valued at $20,000 but expect to pay much more if one can be found for sale.