Hockey card collectors are flocking to hobby shops across the Greater Vancouver area in hopes of getting their hands on a one-of-a-kind Connor Bedard card – which could net the finder $1 million.
Upper Deck, the exclusive NHL-licensed trading card manufacturer, released its highly anticipated 2023-24 collection last week.
According to the owner of a local card store, the collection is one of the most sought-after sets in hockey each year, thanks to the popularity of the Young Guns cards, which feature the game’s best and most promising young players.
“There’s definitely a lot of excitement about it,” Ken Richardson, owner of Pastime Sports and Games in Langley, BC, told CBC News.
But this year, he said, the anticipation is greater than ever because the collection features North Vancouver hockey phenom Bedard.
The young athlete made a name for himself in the Western Hockey League, where he played for the Regina Pats. After breaking decades-old records, he was called up to the NHL by the Chicago Blackhawks at the age of 18.
Now there is a unique card for the unique player: a shimmering gold card hidden somewhere in a hobby box on a store shelf with a million dollar bounty on its head.
Hobby boxes contain 12 packs of 12 cards each – 144 cards in total – and these special boxes contain six Young Guns cards that can belong to any of the 50 rookie players. One of the boxes contains the “Outburst Gold Connor Bedard” card – of which only one copy exists.
“This is Willy Wonka’s golden ticket,” said Richardson.
Connor Bedard made his name as a hockey phenomenon in the WHL with the Regina Pats, where he broke decades-old records and was then drafted into the NHL by the Chicago Blackhawks at the age of 18. (Jason Kempin/Getty Images)
An American collectors company, Dave and Adam’s Card World, has put up a $1 million “bounty” on social media for the Bedard Gold Card last week.
“We haven’t seen a talent of this generation like Bedard in a long time,” said company CEO Adam Martin.
“I feel like hockey collectors all over the world have been waiting for someone like Bedard to come along and say, ‘That’s the card I want to own.’ We’ve seen an explosion of interest in all of his cards.”
Martin said the company would offer the money if the card was in good condition and without damage.
Joe Geluch and his five-year-old son Barry from North Vancouver, BC, are on the hunt for their golden ticket.
“It’s fun to open the boxes with my dad,” Barry said.
For Geluch, the hunt for that one Bedard card meant he could spend more time with his son.
“It sparked our interest in doing such things together,” he said.
Although the father-son duo did not find the breakout card, they did loot another rare item: a Connor Bedard printing plate that was once used to produce the cards in the Upper Deck collection series.
“The prices people are paying… it’s crazy”
According to Billy Celio, senior product manager at Upper Deck, rookie cards are big investments that can bring in anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Hockey is actually still pretty quiet when it comes to this kind of stuff,” he said. “The prices people are paying for football, basketball and baseball tickets … it’s crazy.”
Just this February, a Saskatchewan family sold a box full of unopened 1979 hockey card boxes for over $5 million. The boxes contained an unknown number of Wayne Gretzky rookie cards.
