The New York Rangers' centennial season has been one to forget on the ice. Luckily, the legendary trading-card retailer Upper Deck created a unique way for fans to celebrate 100 years of Rangers hockey in a more positive way.
Upper Deck unveiled two Rangers Centennial-themed trading-card boxes, a retail box that is available now and a higher-end hobby box that will be available at Upper Deck's website and New York-area card shops March 18.
"We created two great sets at varying prices to create greater accessibility from Rangers fans to the different type of collectors," Upper Deck senior brand manager, sports, Ed Spiker told Forever Blueshirts "The hobby price might be a bit more difficult for younger fans who also might be budding collectors, so that's partly the reason for the retail box set."
The retail box ($49.99) features 105 Rangers cards, where fans can chase Blue parallels, Red parallels or the even rarer Blueshirts Parallel insert that features one of the 18 greatest players in team history.
"There also could be a hard-signed autograph parallel in the retail box set," Spiker said. "That's something you don't commonly see in a retail offering is hard-signed autographs."
The hobby box ($139.95) has 15 cards and comes in a commemorative tin. Rangers fans can chase higher-end and unique cards such as Blue parallel autographed cards, Cup-celebration cards numbered to 94 or even the ultra-rare Blue Seats Memories Relics, featuring a piece of a Madison Square Garden seat cushion.
The hobby box also has ultra-rare Blueshirts materials cards, including game-used jersey patch cards, plus dual, triple and quad autograph cards – some which also have a piece of equipment like the goalie-pad card featuring signatures of Henrik Lundqvist and Mike Richter .
Some tins will also have Ticket to Greatness cards, numbered to 5, which feature a card/ticket stub from Wayne Gretzky 's greatest moments in his three-season history with the Rangers.
"The hobby side is definitely more robust than the retail offering, and it also comes in a collectible tin," Spiker said. "The hobby offering offers a wide variety of autograph memorabilia cards."
Both the retail and hobby boxes feature cards that go as far back as the team's first season, 1926-27, since card No. 1 on the checklist is the team's first captain Bill Cook. Cook, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1952, is only one of the Hall of Famers in both sets, since players like Jean Ratelle, Andy Bathgate, Harry Howell, Rod Gilbert , Marcel Dionne, Brad Park and others are featured on base cards and parallels.
"We do literally span the 100 years of the organization," Spiker explained. "It's a great way to immerse yourself in the history and know who played when. In some regards it's educational, learning who the great players were from the different eras."
Spiker was assigned Centennial projects for each of the Original Six teams in the NHL. He explained the multi-year challenge of putting together a collection. He got ample assistance from members of the Upper Deck team, including project developer and longtime Rangers fan Matthew Bleiberg, who assisted in tailoring the sets for the Blueshirts Faithful.
"These Centennial sets are unique and a little bit different from the vast majority of the projects we work on," Spiker said. "In terms of trying to put together a checklist that captures the organization's history and key moments, the right memorabilia and designs that are going to resonate with Rangers fans, it's a longer process, but it's also quite fun.
"It's a nice little challenge, and I know for [Bleiberg], being a native New Yorker and lifelong Rangers fan [it's] just a dream come true to be able to work on a set like this."
Spiker also noted how the Rangers' ongoing viability is a success for the NHL.
"Each of these Centennials is a significant moment in the history of the NHL," Spiker said. "These are storied franchises because they were first, so that's the primary reason for creating these [sets]."
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