1991-92 Bowman Hockey: A Redesign

Here's the word of the day at Nine Pockets:

gradient (noun): change in the value of a quantity (such as temperature, pressure, or concentration) with change in a given variable and especially per unit distance in a specified direction. 

 

From a design perspective, that "change in the value of a quantity . . . in a specified direction" also applies to color. 

 

It's interesting and science-y enough, but this is a trading card blog. So what in the world does it have to do with trading cards? And the 1991-92 Bowman hockey set?

 

Well, by the time the 1991-92 sporting season came along, the trading card industry was quite familiar with color gradients. Have a look at these three examples.

 

 

1987 Fleer, 1989 Donruss, and 1992 Fleer show their color gradient chops, vertically and horizontally

 

So it shouldn't be a surprise that the Bowman brand took their shot at it, too. Look here.

 

 

That dark purple-to-light-purple fade across the bottom is peculiar enough. But then you add the orange and light blue border around the rest of card, and it feels like maybe Bowman was borrowing from the popular southwestern design motifs of the early '90s. 

 

 

You could totally display some 1991-92 Bowman cards in a room like that.

 

And all of the cards in the set feature that same border design and color combination. It's not what I'd expect for a hockey card, but then again, if there was any era to find odd color combinations on cards, the early '90s was it. In fact, Bowman thought so much of the design that they used it for their baseball and football sets that year, too!

 

All that being said, when I was looking through the cards in Bowman's hockey set a few months ago, I paused for some reflection. As fitting as those colors were for the early '90s (and although there is something nice about having a set of cards with the same border design across the entire set), I thought the cards could use an update. So I got to work. 

 

Now I'm ready to show the results.

 

As I've done with other set redesigns, I selected one card from each team to work with. The choices were based on the photograph—it had to contain something that represented the sport well, or showed the uniform and team logo clearly.

 

Here we go, in alphabetical order, by city.

 

To go into more detail:

 

(1) Most teams have two main colors (aside from white and black), so I decided to use those team colors for the gradient bar and borders. I had to tinker with some teams more than others, but I like the result. For teams like Detroit and Toronto, which only have one main color, I added a neutral gray.

 

(2) In general, I like it when card fronts feature the player's position, or at least an abbreviation for the position. That little space on the left side of the gradient bar seemed like a perfect location to add the G, D, C, LW, or RW designation—almost like the folks at Bowman designed it that way. So I made use of the space.

(3) I went back and forth on adding a team logo to the card. First I tried placing the logo in a white circle, but it felt like way too many other card sets—even a couple from the same 1991-92 season, like O-Pee-Chee and Pro Set. Eventually I settled on a triangular "shield" type of shape. The downward-pointing direction matched up well with the upward-pointing triangle at the bottom left of the card. But in the end, I scrapped it altogether. The logo felt distracting.

 

And besides, that same year, Parkhurst only had a player name on the front. Stadium Club only had a player name on the front. And Pro Set Platinum didn't have anything on the front. No player name. No team logo. Just a full-bleed image and the Pro Set Platinum logo. So the lack of a team logo is fine here.

 

But wait, there's more.

 

In 1991, the San Jose Sharks became the first expansion team since the WHA–NHL merger in 1979. And although there weren't any official Sharks cards in the 1991-92 Bowman set, the company did add a "Now with Sharks" note to the cards of a few players who'd been claimed by San Jose in the expansion draft or traded to the team during the season. For some bonus content, I found one of those cards, did a little bit of airbrushing, and removed the "Now with Sharks" note.

 

 

This was the only Sharks card in the set that featured a headshot, and I'm thankful for that. Airbrushing a player's full uniform, or even their jersey, was something I didn't want to do. The collar of the jersey was enough.

But wait, there's still more.

Because this Bowman set is numbered and organized by team, I wanted to see how a 9-pocket page would look in the new design. I thought the Hartford redesign looked pretty nifty, and made that my experiment.

First, here are 9 of the team's cards in their original design.

 

 

It's really not so bad when you see it in the familiar 9-card layout. But I love those Hartford jerseys and colors. I needed to see the 9 cards in the new design. Here they are.

 

 

Ahh. That's the stuff.

 

And that 9-pocket page looked so sharp, I decided to do another team. Here's Vancouver in the original design.

Again, not bad by any means. But get a load of them in the new design.

I think that yellow-orange-black gradient is pretty sweet.

So that's the redesign. I had fun with this one, for sure. I think Vancouver, Hartford, Los Angeles, and Calgary are my favorites at the moment.

What are your thoughts? Which team looks the best? 

 

Do you think hockey card collectors would have opened more Bowman packs in 1991-92 if the cards were color matched like the ones above? 

Let me know in the comment section. And thanks for reading, as always.

My First Facebook Marketplace Experience: Wax Boxes!

I'm sure I'm late to the party here compared with many collectors, but recently I discovered Facebook Marketplace.

 

The original impetus wasn't even for any kind of purchase, trading cards or otherwise. It was because I had a few items I wanted to sell, including a couple of golf clubs and some small pieces of furniture. Normally I'd go to craigslist for that kind of thing, but my brother had mentioned Marketplace a few months prior, so I figured I'd give it a try.

 

I've got to say it was pretty easy to navigate the site and create listings. And other than the slight annoyance of some people (or bots) asking "Is this item still available?" and then immediately demanding my phone number and home address, it's been a pleasant experience. Since my original listings went up, I've made a couple of sales, and our garage is a bit less cluttered. 

 

Win-win.

 

So I suppose rather naturally, I felt like seeing what the other side of the coin was like. I went through a short list of items I might need or want: golf balls, some books, other collectibles (ahem. . . trading cards) and conducted some searches.

Soon I found myself scrolling through the listings and bookmarking the ones that I was interested in. And you know what? It felt reminiscent of an old mail-order catalog from a toy store or department store that you'd get back in the day. I can't be the only one who looked through a Toys-R-Us circular or a Sears catalog and proceeded to dog-ear the pages that had items I wanted, right? Facebook Marketplace is like a modern version of those catalogs, in a way. At least that's how I've been having fun with it.

 

And my experience with trading cards so far? The listings really run the gamut, from "too good to be true" on one end to "RARE ERROR JUNK WAX CARD FOR $5,000!" on the other end.

 

So it takes a bit of effort to find the legitimate deals. And even after that, finding a time to meet up to purchase an item can take a while, and involve a tedious back-and-forth with the seller. But all that work can pay off.

 

Case in point?

 

 

This 1990-91 Topps hockey wax box, complete with 36 packs! A member listed it for quite a bargain—just about the same price it would have been in 1990, at the original price of 50¢ per pack. For the dose of nostalgia, I couldn't resist. He was located between my office and my home, and as soon as we worked out a day and time to meet, the box was mine.

Here's a look at the inside:

That illustrated hockey guy who is seen celebrating a goal on the front of each pack wrapper was used from the 1985-86 set all the way through to this 1990-91 set. Different color patterns were featured each time. He had a pretty good run!

 

And here's a shot of the box bottom, featuring one of the four-card panels that Topps made popular from the mid-1980s into the early '90s.

That's a pretty good quartet there! (Mike Modano's rookie card is found within the base set, so that box bottom version is pretty cool.)

But that's not the only deal I found.

 

A couple of months ago I posted about a hockey pack rip that my brother and I did after a round of golf. The packs were from the 1991-92 Upper Deck hockey set. Funny enough, around the same time that I found the Topps hockey box shown above listed on Marketplace, I found a different seller who was offering a full wax box from the Upper Deck set.

 

And as the timing worked out, I met up with the seller and picked up the box just one day after I met up with the seller of the Topps hockey box!

Here it is.

 

 

 

Still sealed in the original factory wrap. But that's not all . . .

 

 

 

The seller had a second box! And at the price he was offering, I couldn't say no. 

 

This other box was sealed as well, but there was a bunch of dirt and grime on it. (At least I hope it was just dirt and grime.) So I peeled it off before I took the photo.

 

Here's the unsealed box in "local card shop display mode."

 

 

That would have been an attractive sight to young collectors during the 1991-92 hockey season, for sure.

And following Topps' lead, Upper Deck put something on the box bottoms, as well.

Instead of a four-card panel, it was just one large "card". (No stats on the back, however.) Got to love that Brett Hull image.

Now, do I know what I'm going to do with these boxes?

No.

I've already got the complete 1990-91 Topps set and 1991-92 Upper Deck set (stay tuned for separate blog posts about that), so there's no need to open packs in an effort to try and find any cards I need.

There is a chance of finding a special autographed Brett Hull card in those Upper Deck packs, so maybe I'll open a few packs from the unsealed box, just for fun, and to see if I can somehow pull an autographed card.

 

I could also save some packs for future rips on the golf course with my brother.

Or maybe I'll send some packs to hockey card collectors out there, so they can get a little dose of nostalgia, too.

For now, all three boxes are going to be displayed on a shelf in my home office closet, which is partially used to house my card collection.

What I do know is that I purchased three hockey wax boxes in a 24-hour period, and I've been searching Marketplace to see what else might be out there. And this raises a small red flag. I only have so much room in my home office closet. And I'm not sure I need to load up on 1990s wax boxes.

 

As Barney Fife might say, I think I need to nip this activity in the bud.

 

 

 

How about you readers and collectors? Do you have any favorable (or unfavorable) experiences with buying or selling cards on Facebook Marketplace? Do I have a wax box problem developing? Should I nip it?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading, as always!

Completed Set: 2023 Allen & Ginter TALONted

Quick story:

 

About 11 or 12 years ago, when I was living in the Lower Hudson Valley, I'd commute into Manhattan for work on the Metro-North railroad. My home station was one of the local stops that was situated right on the river, which provided some outstanding views from the platform. And beside the railroad station was an old, abandoned electric generating plant of some sort. Attached to the plant were two brick smokestacks that rose high into the sky. The building became my mysterious little friend for many years. 

 

Well, one morning while waiting for the train, I heard some distinct bird cries from way up on top of the smokestacks. It sounded like a bird of prey much more than a songbird of any kind. I looked up, but couldn't make anything out before the train arrived. Over the next week or so, I'd often hear the same sounds in the morning. My best guess was that a pair of hawks or falcons (or eagles?!) had nested up there, and I was hearing either their little chick or one of the two adults. My hypothesis was confirmed soon enough, because one day I looked up there, and saw this:

 

 

 

Peregrine falcons! Here's another view of one of them.

 

 

This was a pretty cool sighting. Peregrines are no longer on the Federal endangered list, but they do remain endangered in New York State. At the time, I remember being so taken aback by the sighting that I found the phone number of a regional wildlife office, just so I could call and report that a pair of falcons had likely nested up there. Impressively, the person I spoke with mentioned that the nesting pair on that specific tower had already been reported and confirmed by others, and that the wildlife department was investigating. 

 

It's years later now, and I couldn't tell you what happened to that nesting pair, or how long they made their home on the smokestack. Regardless, it was a pretty cool experience.

I suppose at this point it'd be no surprise to any of you that I'm a bird-watcher. It's not a new hobby, either. I'd say it goes back to my early childhood, when my dad showed me a field guide to the birds of the northeast. (Lots of detailed information and full-color illustrations inside.) 

It's been a casual yet continual activity ever since. Birds are pretty remarkable creatures. When out for a walk, waiting for the train, or anywhere else, it can be fun to keep an eye and an ear open—not only for birds in flight, but also for songs and calls. 

 

I no longer have that original field guide, but my current version sports a little removable Post-It flag on each page that contains a bird I've seen in the wild.

So what in the world does all this have to do with trading cards?

Well, 2023's Allen & Ginter baseball release contained an insert set called "TALONted". Within it were 20 different birds of prey. Seeing a couple of the cards online was enough for me to want to collect the full set. (It would be my first completed A&G insert set since I finished acquiring all 10 Magnificent Moons cards back in 2019.)

And although I could have picked up the whole shebang on eBay for an affordable price, I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way: Through trades. It's just much more fun that way. Plus, by trading, I'm able to help a few fellow collectors out with some of their card needs.

 

So after a handful of trades, I'm happy to report that I've got the entire set now. Because it's only 20 cards deep, I'm going to share all of them here, two by two.

Let's go.

 

Ospreys often make their nests near water sources, as their main source of food is fish. (Nice photo on the card!) As for the Andean condor, its wingspan can reach up to 10.5 feet. I can only imagine what it would be like to see one up close with its wings spread out.

 

 

There's the peregrine falcon on the left. Falconry is still a big thing in parts of the world. A few years ago I actually had the chance to have a trained falcon perch on my arm for a few seconds. Very cool experience. The back of the vulture's card mentions that a group of vultures is called a "kettle".

When I took the aforementioned commuter train up and down the Hudson River into Manhattan for work, I'd occasionally see a bald eagle or two soaring above the river. I'd even see them from my home. They really are a sight to behold, and I'm happy they've made a bit of a comeback over the past 10 or 15 years. As for buzzards, the actual bird looks quite different from that dopey character who's featured in a few bugs bunny cartoons.

 

 

The great horned owl can be found in many habitats across the US. That classic "hoo-hoo-hoo" that you hear in so many TV shows and films? That's the great horned owl. The snowy owl's range is mostly farther north (i.e., Canada and the Arctic), but they can sometimes be spotted in the US. Interestingly, and unlike most owls, they are diurnal.

 

 

The golden eagle always reminds me of a song of the same name by a musician named John Shannon. Looks like he's about to grab some lunch on that card image. The merlin is one of the smaller birds of prey, but it's very fast and sneaky. The card back mentions that merlins were used for sport by medieval noblewomen, including Catherine the Great and Mary queen of Scots.

 

We'll we're halfway through, and you might have noticed that there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason in the order of the cards. They're not arranged in alphabetical order, or by species. That's totally fine with me. I think it's probably better that it's random. As for the images, most of them show the birds in flight, or with their talons out, ready to try to grab their prey. I do appreciate the colors used and the somewhat artistic look of the images, as well.

Let's look at a card back now.

Write-ups are nicely done, as they often are with A&G insert sets. All of the fine print is kept decently out of the way at the bottom of the card, which is good.

Back to the set now.

 

The secretary bird can be found in Africa. Their genus and species name, Sagittarius serpentarius, means "archer of snakes", because the bird is known for hunting snakes. The hen harrier is found around Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and received its name because it is known to hunt on free-ranging fowl.

 

Sparrowhawks are common across the United Kingdom, and are ambush hunters. As the name suggests, they often hunt smaller birds. The red kite is found across Europe, and can be spotted by their reddish color and forked tail. Along with hunting, they're known to scavenge for meals.

 

Gyrfalcons have a similar habitat to the snowy owl, and are the largest of the falcon family. The barn owl has a more creepy-looking face than other owls. The shape actually helps its impressive hearing abilities. Barn owls are known to nest in human-built structures like barn lofts, hence the name. 

 

The California condor is native to the Western US. They're scavengers that are capable of flying long distances in a day in search of food. The seriema is native to South America, and with those long legs it's no surprise that they run around on the ground as much as they fly.

 

The harrier can be found throughout the US and Canada, and hunt all sorts of small animals. Interestingly, they're one of the types of birds that nest on the ground, in heavy patches of vegetation. Red-tailed hawks are pretty common in many areas of the US, and can be spotted by their rusty-red tails.

And that's the set.

 

Now here's a checklist of TALONted birds I've actually seen in the wild:

Bald Eagle

Osprey

Peregrine Falcon

Red-Tailed Hawk

 

I've heard what sounds like a great horned owl near the house, early in the morning, but I don't think I've ever actually seen one. I'll have to start going out for the occasional early-morning or late-night walk. I guess 4 out of 20 isn't bad, especially considering that some of the birds on the checklist aren't native to my region of the US, or the US at all.

Jon Pennysleeves, you've got a lot of nature around the homestead. Any interesting bird sightings? 

 

Fuji, have you ever seen a California Condor? They're on the endangered list, but they've been making a bit of a comeback.

 

If any of you readers have a bird story or two, share in the comment section.
 

Thanks for reading!

A Smorgasbord! Drake's Big Hitters and Super Pitchers

From the 1970s through the 1990s, it seemed like you could find your favorite baseball stars on food product packaging everywhere you looked: supermarkets, corner stores, restaurants, and beyond. This past year, in an effort to capture a little more nostalgia, I set a goal to expand my own collection of these "food-issue" cards. In this series I'll show the specific examples I've acquired, and share a little bit of history about the food or beverage sponsor as well. 

Previous entries can be found here.

 

 

It's the beginning of February. Those snowball fights on the Little League fields have been fun, but you're getting the itch to play the sort of game those fields were meant for. 

 

Baseball.

 

You worry that the next time you go down there for a snowball fight, you'll start uncontrollably clearing the snow off the base paths and then pull out that mitt and hardball you smuggled inside your jacket. If everyone starts pegging you with snowballs in protest, at least you'll be able to catch some of them.

 

But really, who could blame you? Opening Day in the major leagues seems far, far away. So when you get back home, you just try to hang in there. And to help, you grab a snack from the cupboard.

 

 

 

That sweet chocolate cake and a cold glass of milk is just what you need.

 

And choice of snack was definitely intentional. Because on the back of the box, you've got these:

 

 

Baseball cards!

 

It's a new box, and mom won't let you cut out the panel until it's empty. But that's okay. You bring the individually wrapped Devil Dog and glass of milk up to your room, rest it on top of your dresser, and pull open the top drawer. That's where you keep the other Drake's panels and cards you've collected. 

 

You take them all out and compare them to the cards on the new box downstairs. 

 

Good. No duplicates. 

 

Poring over the stats on the back helps settle your baseball fever a little. You munch on that Devil Dog, and then flip the cards back over to look at the images on the front. There are your favorite players, out in the sun, ready to get their uniforms dirty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You finish your snack, and bolstered by the chocolate-induced endorphins, remind yourself that it's only a matter of time before you can take the field on that first glorious Spring day. Then you clean up the floor in your room, put on your mitt, and practice your fielding stance. You've got some work to do.

 

 

Let's talk about the people who made this all possible, though.

 

The N.E. Drake Baking Company was founded in New York City way back in 1896 by Newman E. Drake. His brothers, Charles and Judson, would soon join on. The brothers had enough baking success during their first two decades to build a new five-story bakery in 1913 with some pretty fancy accommodations, including a laundry facility to clean the bakers' uniforms, and a rooftop garden where employees could take their breaks and relax.

Some of their products, like Devil Dogs and Yankee Doodles, have been in production since the 1920s. Other well-known snacks like the Coffee Cake became popular in the 1930s. Ring Dings entered the scene in the 1950s. Funny Bones and Yodels were introduced in the 1960s.

The Drake's connection to trading cards is pretty deep, too, going back to 1932, when the company released a 64-card set of film stars. (Interestingly, a Babe Ruth card was included in the set.) On the back of each card was an advertisement for Drake's Cakes. In 1950 the company released a 36-card set specific to baseball, and then in the 1980s they started a run of baseball sets featuring "Big Hitters" and "Super Pitchers", including the cards shown above. The sets were released from 1981 all the way through 1988, and ranged from 33 to 44 cards per set. 

 

You've got to tip your cap to Drake's for managing to fit some advertising on the back of each card, even with all those stats. Just scroll back up and look at the variety of products! (I definitely had the occasional Devil Dog, Yodel, or Ring Ding back in the day, but I'm not sure I've ever had a Sunny Doodle, Donut Delite, or Fruit Pie.)

As for the players on the front, I wasn't exactly sure how the big hitters and super pitchers were chosen. I knew that the hitters, for example, couldn't have been selected based on power numbers alone. Guys like Rod Carew, Mookie Wilson, and Steve Sax make appearances over the years. 

 

Then I found an answer printed on the back of each card of the 1981 set:

WHAT MAKES A "BIG HITTER"?

A "big hitter" consistently produces that key hit for his team. He is a clutch player. He may smash a home run or hit a sacrifice fly. His dependable bat delivers the big hit.

 

So there you have it.

 

Because the Super Pitchers didn't make an appearance until the 1986 set, we've got no text on the card backs explaining how they were selected.

 

In any case, if you were a kid in a grocery store back then, you'd surely be excited when you reached the aisle of snacks and cookies. With two- or three-card panels printed on the back of each specially marked box of Drake's products, I'd bet a lot of young baseball card collectors were flipping boxes over and looking for their favorite players—if their moms allowed that sort of tomfoolery in the supermarket.

At the moment, I only have Drake's cards from the 1986, 1987, and 1988 sets in my collection. They were all acquired recently. I don't think I had any in my collection back when I was a kid. But now that I do have a few, I think I might try to add one or two examples from the earlier years, too.

 

So how about your readers and collectors? 

 

If you were collecting back in the '80s, do you remember these Drake's cards? 

Do you have any in your collection? 

Do you have a favorite Drake's Cake?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!