Completed Set: 1980-81 Topps Hockey

Ohhh, those 1980-81 Topps hockey scratch-off pucks. They still rankle hockey card collectors far and wide, more than 40 years after the set was released. But here's a message to those rankled folks:

 

You have the O-Pee-Chee version.

 

There. I said it.

You see, O-Pee-Chee didn't place any scratch-off material on the pucks in their version of the set. And it was larger too, topping out at 396 cards compared to Topps' 264. So you've got all the clean, unscratched cards you want there.

And I'll absolutely take the Topps cards if no one else wants them. It has everything to do with the nostalgia factor.

If I were a young, unassuming, hockey-loving kid growing up in the States in 1980, I would have probably devoured this set with gusto. The scratch-off surface would have been a bonus, not a deterrent.

Who's that player? Lemme see! (Grabs a quarter and starts scratching.)

 

Back at that time, cards were still fun things you bought in packs for 25 cents. You'd open the wax wrapper, chew the stick of gum, flip through the cards, and then what? Sort them by number or team, assemble them into a stack, and stick them in a drawer or a shoebox. You might even rubber band them.

 

Simple.

And listen, with 10 cards per pack, would I have lost enthusiasm to scratch every card after a couple of packs? Probably. But that's okay, too. The set is still a fun one. And now that I've said my piece, let's get to the cards. Scratch-offs aside, I think you'll find that it's a pretty solid set.

First things first:  

 

Please rise and remove your helmets for the playing of our national anthems.

 

 

 

O Canada! Our home and native land...

 

 

 

 

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light...

 

 

 

 

Speaking of O say, can you see, perhaps the coolest thing Topps did in this set was to honor the US Olympians from the recent Miracle on Ice team by applying a USA hockey stamp to their cards. That would have provided even more excitement for a hockey-loving kid growing up in the US back then. (How big was the US Olympic victory? Even O-Pee-Chee, a Canadian company, added the USA hockey stamp to those specific cards in their set.)

You know what else must have been cool? Finding these cards featuring goalies in their classic white masks and brown leather pads.

Bonus: Goalies sporting the towel tuck.

 

 

 

 

There's plenty of action captured in this set as well. Check out those five skaters zooming around Rangers goalie John Davidson. He's ready for the onslaught, though.

On the subject of action, let's talk about the design of these cards. The diagonal team bar across the bottom helps show motion and energy, which is fitting for the sport of hockey. And whether you like the scratch-off idea or not, the hockey puck shape is fun. Then you have the thin colored border around the card, which sometimes matches the team colors (Bruins yellow, Canadiens red, Flyers orange), and other times doesn't (Black Hawks green, Whalers purple, Flames green). But that's no big deal here. The colors are bright and fun. You get those magentas and cyans and oranges and yellows.

 

 

You've got some big rookies in this set as well. From left to right, there's Mike Gartner, Ray Bourque, and Michel Goulet. I'm pretty happy that all three of these guys have unscratched pucks, as well as the second-year Wayne Gretzky card at the top of this post.

 

 

You know what else I like? Classic hockey jerseys. You already saw some of them earlier in this post, but I'll reiterate with the six cards here: Those are some fantastic designs. (Even Vancouver's "flying V" design is great in its awfulness.) They're so fantastic, in fact, that over the past few years many of them have made comebacks in one form or another during special retro game nights around the NHL.

 

 

 

 

  

 

One downside to the set would be the airbrushed cards. For Billy Harris (left) and Dave Lewis (middle), it was bad enough that they were traded away from the New York Islanders right before the team would win four straight Stanley Cups. But now they're also airbrushed into Kings uniforms? Robert Picard (right) seems to think that's a little cruel and unusual. And I'd agree.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A second downside, some might say, would be the lack of a player name on the card back. But if the player name did appear on the back, there'd be no reason to have the scratch-off material covering up the name on the front. 

 

As for colors, the green text on a dark yellow background isn't the best for readability, but it isn't the worst either. So it's fine. Besides, there are some nice cartoons to be found throughout the set. 

 

 

 

Now let's get to the subsets.

 

 

 

There were some record breaker cards to start things off, including a couple of records set by youngsters. (Bourque's record was most points by a rookie defenseman, 65.)

 

 

 

 

 

Players named as first-team and second-team all-stars received a separate card in the set to go along with their base card. Check out the design on the back. Although sparse, I really like it. Who else hears the sound of wooden stick on puck?

 

 

There were two types of checklists included in the set: a team leaders card (front and back shown) that included each player's position and uniform number, and then a standard checklist. The standard checklists did not receive the scratch-off treatment, but all of that material covering the team card more than made up for it!

 

 

 

 

In the middle of the set, you had the typical group of league leader cards. Got to love the penalty minute leaders. How about these season totals: Jimmy Mann 287 PIM, Dave Williams 278 PIM, Paul Holmgren 267 PIM.

 

 

The final three cards of the set documented some of the previous season's playoff action. I love that image of the Broad Street Bullies skating onto the ice as a team, looking like a pack of hungry wolves. Interstingly, these three cards also did not get the scratch-off treatment.

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, one team pin-up was included in each wax pack. These paper inserts folded out to a size of about 4 x 7 inches.

 

Let's get back to the scratched vs. unscratched thing for a moment. Looking through all the cards above, you've noticed that some are scratched, and some are unscratched. That means I've completed this set in the most basic form. And I'm fine with that.

 

I'm not looking to immediately increase the difficulty by trying to assemble an entire unscratched set, or anything. But I thought it would at least be beneficial to know how close I currently stand to that achievement. So I went through the binder, page by page, and tallied the scratched and unscratched cards. Here's the breakdown:

 

Scratched:130

Unscratched: 129

No coating: 5

That means I have almost exactly 50% of the set in unscratched condition, including the Bourque, Gartner, and Goulet rookie cards, as well as the Gretzky base card. It's an intriguing percentage, especially with those big cards already crossed off the list. I'll have to give this one some more thought.

 

In any case, scratch-offs aside, there's a lot to enjoy about this set. Fun colors, some nice-looking subsets, good cartoons, and classic uniforms.

What do you think about the 1980-81 Topps hockey set? Should I go for a fully unscratched set next?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section, and thanks for reading as always!