RANKING THE G.O.A.TS - ROOKIE HOCKEY CARD EDITION
- Doug Karlberg-Erlien
- Apr 23
- 4 min read
Well my friends, we have reached the end of our little scientific experiment. Today, we are looking at the all-time greats on the ice. As we've said in each of the prior three blogs, this isn't meant to be a debate on who should be on this list. It is meant to look deeper at the data on which player meets up in the intersection of price and liquidity. Hockey is a very different ecosystem than the other three sports. It's not as big but the fan base is passionate for sure.
Data provided by SportsCardsPro.com and the Price Charting app! Let's dive in!
Technically vintage, "The Great One"'s rookie card can be had graded or raw. His raw card has averaged over $600 including 8 sales in April. Higher grades (7, 8,9) have been extremely liquid since January 1 making Gretzky a strong buy and hold plays extremely smart.
Grade | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Comp | $720,000 | $31,033 | $4,935 |
Pop | 1 | 128 | 1,248 |
Sales Since Jan 1 | 0 | 2 | 28 |
One of my absolute chase cards for my PC. When I finally navigated my way into hockey, I was in my early 20's. I grew up in a small basketball town and we didn't even have an outdoor skating rink. Once I began to really get into the sport, the North Stars had left Minnesota so the team I gravitated to was the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens had beat the Stars in the 1991 Stanley Cup Finals but that didn't deter me from going all-in on Lemieux, Jagr and the boys. Super Mario will always be the guy for me that hooked me. His rookie card is sweet! It is also affordable with prices teetering between $100 and $140 on eBay. His cards are very liquid and depending on your purchase price, you've got a long runway for a great raw to grade play.
Grade | 9 | 8 | 7 |
Comp | $968 | $337 | $216 |
Pop | 1,222 | 2,958 | 1,402 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 25 | 30+ | 30+ |
One of the all-time greats picked the perfect rookie year. The 1966 Topps set in general looks sweet. It's like you are looking at an old time television set. There isn't a ton of movement with the Orr rookie only selling 23 times combined both raw and graded. Raw cards have sold three times in 2026 for an average of around $2,000. If you find one...scoop it!
Grade | 6 | 5 | 4 |
Comp | $10,822 | $7,801 | $6,011 |
Pop | 142 | 145 | 199 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
The Howe rookie is even more rare than the Orr. With low pop counts (zero PSA 10's) and only three PSA 9's, getting your handed on this card would be like hitting the lottery. Three raw sales have transpired since January 1. A PSA 9 sold in 2024 for $60,000.
5 | 4 | 3 | |
Comp | $11,353 | $9,122 | $6,325 |
Pop | 77 | 76 | 70 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
You are going to see a theme with the older vintage hockey cards. They may exist, but they don't move. There have been only seven "Rocket" sales since January 1 across all grades and raw cards. You'll find a few on eBay which are already graded!
Grade | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Comp | $2,593 | $2,337 | $1,341 |
Pop | 79 | 101 | 123 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 0 | 4 | 2 |
I don't own the O-Pee-Chee but do have two other Jagr rookies in my PC. Jagr falls in the liquid realm as raw, which you can nab for $15 or under a long with PSA 10's and 9's have sold more than 30 times each since January 1. I love this rookie card but the runway isn't long at all. You'll need to hit a gem 10 in order to be above water.
Grade | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Comp | $173 | $29 | $19 |
Pop | 3,972 | 6,762 | 1,810 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 30+ | 30+ | 21 |
I love Messier's rookie card! There hasn't been a ton of movement graded wise, but his raw rookies have been active since the end of February selling over 30 times. Price wise his ungraded cards have averaged around $52. There is a low pop for graded cards.
Grade | 8 | 7 | 6 |
Comp | $342 | $201 | $128 |
POP | 1097 | 1030 | 871 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 7 | 12 | 12 |
A fantastic collection card that doesn't show up too often. Low pop counts in ungraded and graded cards make it desirable.
Grade | 5 | 4 | 3 |
Comp | $2,021 | $1,206 | 1,026 |
Pop | 123 | 102 | 91 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
Our final two G.O.A.Ts share the same draft year. Sidney Crosby's Young Guns raw rookie runs $1,000+. It's steep and has the potential to have a raw to grade play in the right situation. There isn't a long runway when navigating grading.
Grade | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Comp | $4,256 | $1,578 | $1,298 |
Pop | 1,375 | 1,086 | 247 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 24 | 19 | 3 |
The NHL's all time leading goal-scorer, Ovechkin's Young Guns rookie is spectacular. Ungraded you can scoop it for around $650 making a good raw to grade flip a smart play. His cards are fairly liquid as well creating a nice little market and opportunity to profit.
Grade | 10 | 9 | 8 |
Comp | $3,550 | $1,018 | $801 |
Pop | 1,367 | 1,795 | 653 |
Sales Since 1/1 | 16 | 30+ | 15 |
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