A few weeks ago here on the blog, I shared the newly acquired sticker album you see above, along with a box of 48 packs of stickers from that same season. I also mentioned that I was going to gradually open the packs and place the stickers in the album, for the sake of nostalgia and good vibes.
This post is the first in a series where I'll show which stickers I pulled, and start building up the album.
So let's go back to the 1989-90 hockey season. Young Gregory has been learning a lot about the sport of ice hockey. Now he's ready
to tear open his first six packs of stickers. He's excited, yet
focused, because he wants to place the stickers in their designated
spots in the album as straight as possible.
He grabs the fist six packs from the top-left corner of the box. Let's get to it!
Pack 1
Remember those 4-panel action scenes that always appeared in sticker albums back then? You'd have to wait until you pulled all four stickers to see everything that was happening in the larger photo. I'm glad I got a couple of those out of the way right from the start.
Young Gregory pulled a few Calgary Flames stickers in this first pack, which helped his hockey knowledge greatly. The Flames defeated the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals
the previous season, and that must have provided great retribution. The same two
teams met in the finals just a few seasons earlier (1985-86), with
Montreal taking the championship.
(NOTE: From
here on, I'm not going to share images of all six stickers from each
pack, because that might get tiresome on the eyes. Instead, I'll just share the best stickers, along with some interesting information about the players and
teams, where applicable.)
Pack 2
We've got a Joe Sakic "rookie" sticker! (I put that word in quotes because some folks don't consider stickers to be rookie cards, and because Sakic has a base sticker in the set as well.) Regardless, Joe had an excellent freshman season with the Nordiques, totaling 23 goals and 39 assists for 62 points. Brian Leetch topped him (23 G, 48 A, 71 PTS) and took home the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year. Patrick Roy made an appearance in this pack as well, along with his Jennings Trophy compatriot, Brian Hayward.
This pack also yielded a Jari Kurri sticker, and one of the special "future star" sticker backs. It's part of a 34-card set that includes some future stars and some all-stars. It's great to have the Sakic version in the collection so early on. I'm going to make it a separate goal to complete this sticker back set.
Pack 3
This pack didn't have much of interest by way of sticker fronts, but it gives me an opportunity to show off some of the super-awesome product offers on the sticker backs.
To receive your Team Puck, just send your name, address, postal code, and $3.95 plus 2 Sticker Wrappers for each Team Puck you desire.
Young Gregory is already trying to figure out a way to earn a couple of extra dollars around the house so he can send away for some of these products.
Pack 4
Pack 4 didn't provide much excitement, either, but Al MacInnis would have been a fun pull for a young Flames fan. And there's another look at a rookie subset sticker, this time featuring Scott Young of the Whalers.
Pack 5
Yeah! A Wayne Gretzky all-star subset sticker! Young Gregory saw clips from the press conference last year when Mr. Gretzky bid a tearful goodbye to the fans in Edmonton, and he's pretty psyched to see The Great One in his new Kings uniform. How did Wayne do in his first season with the Kings? 54 goals, 114 assists, 168 points, and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player. Pat LaFontaine and Peter Stastny were also excellent pulls from this pack.
Pack 6
There wasn't a whole lot in the final pack of this round, but the Steve Duchesne all-star sticker helps fill up that page in the album a little more. We also get our first look at the all-star sticker back, featuring Geoff Courtnall in that sweet Washington Capitals jersey. The previous season, Courtnall put up a career-high 42 goals, plus 38 assists. 16 of his goals were scored on the power play, which was also a career high.
Here's the best page after the first six packs:
That's 5 Oilers out of 14 total. Not bad!
And because I know many of you collectors enjoy poring over collection stats as much as I do, here's the rundown so far:
Main Set (182 total panels)
New panels: 36
New duplicates: 0
Total panels: 36
Total duplicates: 0
Panels needed: 146
Set completion: 20%
Future Star/All-Star Card Backs (34 total)
New backs: 9
New duplicates: 0
Total backs: 9
Total duplicates: 0
Backs needed: 25
Set completion: 26%
Best Stickers
Wayne Gretzky all-star, Joe Sakic rookie subset.
What's your favorite card of this first batch? Do you have any fun memories of sticker albums, be it hockey, baseball or any other sport?
Share in the comment section, and thanks for following along!
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