Monday, October 30, 2023

Puck Junk's Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame

 One of the most hilarious series in the card blogosphere is Puck Junk's Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame. You can't help but to laugh hysterically with every post. 

Back at the National, which was in Sal's backyard, he produced a promo set of 6 cards of the Bad Hockey Card Hall of Fame, and while I wasn't able to get to the National, he was kind enough to send me a set. 

I finally got them scanned, so I thought I would check and see how many of the original cards appear in my collection. 

Card #1 is a checklist...I love checklists! 


Card #2 is Pavel Bure from 1991-92 Upper Deck, and yes, I do have this card, but I have not scanned it yet. This makes the Hall of Fame for the photo choice. I'm not as down on the concept of non-hockey images on hockey cards as most people, although if it wasn't for the Canucks wordmark and NHL logo you wouldn't be able to tell which sport it went to based on the photo alone. 


Card #3 is Mel Bridgman from 1983-84 O-Pee-Chee, and this card makes the Hall for the terrible paint job given to his uniform including for some reason that funky gray helmet. I do not have this card. I do not have many from the mid-80s OPC sets, mostly the Rangers. What says 80s hockey better than a toothless enforcer? 


Card #4 is Bryan Pitton from 2010-11 Score, and the photo choice is obviously why this card made the HOF. According to the back of the card, even his teammates got into teasing him because of this card, based on the Puck Junk post. If that doesn't get a card into the Hall of Fame, nothing will! Not only do I not have the original card, this is actually the ONLY card of Bryan Pitton in my collection, so that means this scan will be his official representation in my Alphabetical Directory and Hockey Encyclopedia as well. I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse, haha! 


Skipping ahead to card #6, we have Dale McCourt from 1979-80 Topps, which makes the Hall because of the backstory of this card- McCourt refused to play for the Kings, taking it all the way to the Supreme Court (!) to prevent it from happening...but that didn't stop Topps from painting a Kings uniform on him anyway. I do not have the original card. 

Finally, we finish with my favorite card in this set...

Card #5 is Rogie Vachon from 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee, and if I have to explain why this card is in the Bad Hockey Hall of Fame, your eyesight is worse than mine 😂 Due to a trade to the Kings, they needed a new photo, but instead of say, using a close up of just his face, or drawing on a new uniform as they used to do, nope...they cut out a picture of his head and glued it to Ross Lonsbury's body, making this downright scary yet hilarious card. Alas, I do not have this card. I thought I did, but it turns out I have a DIFFERENT card where they pasted someone's head on someone else's body. Yes, that means they did this more than once! 

Perhaps that will make Series 2. 

So I only have 1 of 5, and none scanned. I hope you enjoyed this look at this funny cards, and I thank Sal for sending me the promo set. Hopefully in time I will be able to add all the original cards to my collection as well. 

 


6 comments:

  1. Love these! I don't know much about hockey cards so these were all new to me. Hard to believe some of them were real cards.

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  2. I have the Bure and Bridgman, and the Bridgman freaks me out every time I see it. Never saw that Vachon before, but I knew something was off immediately. The McCourt is an interesting one. Doesn't look bad but the story behind it is odd for sure. Kind of like if Score had airbrushed/photoshopped Eric Lindros into a Quebec Nordiques jersey.


    Wonder why Puck Junk didn't pick the 88-89 O-Pee-Chee Mike Krushelnyski card? That one is just terrible.

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  3. I would make the McCourt - The Bad Good Hockey card hall of fame. - I thought Topps did a great job with the uniform and contrasting it with the design (border, logo etc...) it is a super colorful card.

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