1988/89 Topps Hockey
In March of 2023, I hit a card show with my friend Arron and we had a pretty nice three-sport find: a dealer had eight 3200-count boxes for $10 each or take the whole group for $60. I asked him about it and he said it was mostly late 80s to mid 90s junk era stuff, mixed between baseball, basketball, and hockey. At that point he didn't want to load it back in his truck so he was willing to take $40. So Arron and I split it. It turned out better than we expected: loads of TTM-able stuff, additions to some unsigned sets I was working on, two signed cards, two Derek Jeter RCs, a small amount of vintage, plus a bunch of stuff for players he collects.
In the hockey box was a starter set of 1988-89 Topps hockey. A 198 card set, there were a good 120 in there-- unsigned, but still very TTM-worthy. My friend Lee asked if I was going to try to complete it signed. At first I thought hell no, I'm already swamped in projects. But considering how many of them sign, how few are deceased (eight or so), and how small the set is, meh, sure, why not?
It's one of my favorite designs with the iconic thumbtack, which I used occasionally in making some minor league baseball custom 4x6 photos. It'll be tough to complete with Gretzky's well-known reluctance to sign his card, RC's of Hall of Fame members Joe Nieuwendyk, Brett Hull, and Brendan Shanahan, should-be Hall of Famer Pierre Turgeon and the late great Bob Probert, but it'll be fun to work on.
# Name How Acquired
1 Mario Lemieux
2 Bob Joyce
3 Joel Quenneville
4 Tony McKegney
5 Stephane Richer
6 Mark Howe
7 Brent Sutter
8 Gilles Meloche TTM, November 2020
9 Jimmy Carson
10 John MacLean
11 Gary Leeman
12 Gerard Gallant
13 Marcel Dionne
14 Dave Christian
15 Gary Nylund
16 Joe Nieuwendyk
17 Billy Smith
18 Christian Ruuttu
19 Randy Cunneyworth
20 Brian Lawton
21 Scott Mellanby
22 Peter Stastny
23 Gord Kluzak
24 Sylvain Turgeon
25 Clint Malarchuk
26 Denis Savard
27 Craig Simpson
28 Petr Klima
29 Pat Verbeek
30 Moe Mantha
31 Chris Nilan TTM, April 2021
32 Barry Pederson
33 Randy Burridge
34 Ron Hextall
35 Gaston Gingras
36 Kevin Dineen
37 Tom Laidlaw
38 Paul MacLean
39 John Chabot
40 Lindy Ruff IP, September 2014
41 Dan Quinn
42 Don Beaupre
43 Gary Suter
44 Mikko Makela
45 Mark Johnson
46 Dave Taylor
47 Ulf Dahlen
48 Jeff Sharples
49 Chris Chelios
50 Mike Gartner
51 Darren Pang IP, June 2018
52 Ron Francis
53 Ken Morrow
54 Michel Goulet
55 Ray Sheppard
56 Doug Gilmour
57 David Shaw
58 Cam Neely
59 Grant Fuhr
60 Scott Stevens
61 Bob Brooke
62 Dave Hunter
63 Alan Kerr
64 Brad Marsh
65 Dale Hawerchuk
66 Brett Hull
67 Patrik Sundstrom
68 Greg Stefan
69 James Patrick ***HAVE OPC VERSION***
70 Dale Hunter
71 Al Iafrate
72 Bobby Carpenter
73 Ray Bourque
74 John Tucker
75 Carey Wilson
76 Joe Mullen
77 Rick Vaive
78 Shawn Burr
79 Murray Craven
80 Clark Gillies
81 Bernie Federko
82 Tony Tanti
83 Greg Gilbert
84 Kirk Muller
85 Dave Tippett
86 Kevin Hatcher
87 Rick Middleton
88 Bobby Smith
89 Doug Wilson Trade
90 Scott Arniel
91 Brian Mullen
92 Mike O'Connell
93 Mark Messier
94 Sean Burke
95 Brian Bellows
96 Doug Bodger
97 Bryan Trottier
98 Anton Stastny
99 Checklist
100 Dave Poulin
101 Bob Bourne
102 John Vanbiesbrouck
103 Allen Pedersen
104 Mike Ridley
105 Andrew McBain
106 Troy Murray
107 Tom Barrasso
108 Tomas Jonsson
109 Rob Brown
110 Hakan Loob
111 Ilkka Sinisalo
112 Dave Archibald
113 Doug Halward
114 Ray Ferraro
115 Doug Brown
116 Patrick Roy
117 Greg Millen
118 Ken Linseman Trade, Russ Crowell, March 2015
119 Phil Housley
120 Wayne Gretzky
121 Tomas Sandstrom
122 Brendan Shanahan
123 Pat LaFontaine
124 Luc Robitaille
125 Ed Olczyk
126 Ron Sutter
127 Mike Liut
128 Brent Ashton
129 Tony Hrkac
130 Kelly Miller
131 Alan Haworth
132 Dave McLlwain
133 Mike Ramsey
134 Bob Sweeney
135 Dirk Graham ***HAVE OPC VERSION***
136 Ulf Samuelsson
137 Petri Skriko
138 Aaron Broten
139 Jim Fox
140 Randy Wood
141 Larry Murphy
142 Daniel Berthiaume
143 Kelly Kisio
144 Neal Broten
145 Reed Larson
146 Peter Zezel
147 Jari Kurri
148 Jim Johnson
149 Gino Cavallini
150 Glen Hanlon
151 Bengt Gustafsson
152 Mike Bullard
153 John Ogrodnick
154 Steve Larmer
155 Kelly Hrudey
156 Mats Naslund
157 Bruce Driver
158 Randy Hillier
159 Craig Hartsburg
160 Rollie Melanson
161 Adam Oates
162 Greg Adams
163 Dave Andreychuk
164 Dave Babych
165 Brian Noonan
166 Glen Wesley
167 Dave Ellett
168 Brian Propp
169 Bernie Nicholls
170 Walt Poddubny
171 Steve Konroyd
172 Doug Sulliman
173 Mario Gosselin
174 Brian Benning
175 Dino Ciccarelli
176 Steve Kasper
177 Rick Tocchet
178 Brad McCrimmon
179 Paul Coffey
180 Pete Peeters
181 Bob Probert
182 Steve Duchesne
183 Russ Courtnall
184 Mike Foligno
185 Wayne Presley
186 Reggie Lemelin
187 Mark Hunter
188 Joe Cirella
189 Glenn Anderson
190 John Anderson
191 Patrick Flatley
192 Rod Langway
193 Brian MacLellan
194 Pierre Turgeon
195 Brian Hayward
196 Steve Yzerman
197 Doug Crossman
198 Checklist