The Quest for 1958-59 Topps

Sitting here at my desk I've decided to conquer the 1958-59 Topps hockey card set. Why the 1958-59 issue? Partly just because. I used to be a huge hockey collector back in the 1980s. Had absolutely everything from 1969-70 to 1990-91. Then--like most collectors-- I fell out of love once it become impossible and unmanageable (and impractical for someone paying for college) to continue collecting the crazy number of issues put on the market.

I consider myself lucky that I was able to sell most of my collection at a time (early 1990s) when I could still get a reasonable percentage of my initial "investment" back. I was also lucky to have started collecting in the 1980s when prices were reasonable (even if I was making only $4 or $5 an hour at my summer-time jobs). At the time I was a just a kid collecting hockey cards. Most of my weekly pay check would get spent in one of two places...the local convenience store buying wax packs or through the mail (that's how we purchased cards "back in the day"). My mom set up my first checking account just so she wouldn't have to write all the checks for me.

I remember buying a WHOLE WAX CASE of 1984-85 OPC when it came out and splitting it with a friend. It was a lot of money at the time. I ended up with 20+ gem mint sets. I can remember a fist-full of Yzerman RCs. But therein lied the problem...it bacame about the value of the cards. It was the first time I'd purchased any cards with the intention of "making some money" and not simply adding to my collection. I now consider it the beginning of the end.

Which brings us back to 1958-59. Ironically, I never had any of these cards in my collection other than the Hull RC. As good a reason as any to make it my target.

Its also manageable in terms of being only 66 cards. Most of the cards are reasonable priced...except of course for the aforementioned Hull. I actually possessed a Hull RC in the past that I bought back in the early 1990s for what I remember being less than $100. About now I wish I had that card back...it would be a great starting point for the set.

Any how, here is a run down of the cards I'll be searching for:

1958-59 Topps Hockey
Bilingual backed cards depicting the players on the four US NHL teams: Boston, Chicago, Detroit and New York. Contains 66 cards with 13 rookies.

1 Bob Armstrong
2 Terry Sawchuk
3 Glen Skov
4 Leo Labine
5 Dollard St. Laurent
6 Danny Lewicki
7 John Hanna RC
8 Gordie Howe
9 Vic Stasiuk
10 Larry Regan
11 Forbes Kennedy
12 Elmer Vasko
13 Glenn Hall
14 Ken Wharram RC
15 Len Lunde RC
16 Ed Litzenberger
17 Norm Johnson RC
18 Earl Ingarfield RC
19 Les Colwill RC
20 Leo Boivin
21 Andy Bathgate
22 Johnny Wilson
23 Larry Cahan
24 Marcel Pronovost
25 Larry Hillman
26 Jim Bartlett RC
27 Nick Mickoski
28 Larry Popein
29 Fleming Mackell
30 Eddie Shack RC
31 Jack Evans
32 Dean Prentice
33 Claude LaForge RC
34 Bill Gadsby
35 Bronco Horvath
36 Pierre Pilote
37 Earl Balfour
38 Gus Mortson
39 Lorne "Gump" Worsley
40 Johnny Bucyk
41 Lou Fontinato
42 Tod Sloan
43 Charlie Burns RC
44 Don Simmons
45 Jerry Toppazzini
46 Andy Hebenton
47 Pete Goegan RC
48 George "Red" Sullivan
49 Hank Ciesla RC
50 Doug Mohns
51 Jean-Guy Gendron
52 Alex Delvecchio
53 Eric Nesterenko
54 Camille Henry
55 Lorne Ferguson
56 Fern Flaman
57 Earl "Dutch" Reibel
58 Warren Godfrey
59 Ron Murphy
60 Harry Howell
61 Leonard "Red" Kelly
62 Don McKenney
63 Ted Lindsay
64 Al Arbour
65 Norm Ullman
66 Bobby Hull RC