Product Details

Just like it did in 1989 with baseball cards, Upper Deck’s debut on the ice took hockey card quality to a new level. It didn’t hurt matters any that it has a loaded checklist filled with rookie cards of Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers. The 1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey set has 550 total cards divided into two series. The first 400 are considered the Low Series and the final 150 make up the High Series. Both came with separate boxes, although High Series packs have a mix of all 550 cards.

The design brought a glossy look to hockey. Cards have white borders that are complimented by a marble frame that’s colored according to the player’s team. Crisp photography is what makes the cards really stand out, especially when compared to the drab pictures used on a lot of O-Pee-Chee and Topps sets in the years leading up to Upper Deck’s debut. Base card backs offer a cropped photo along with a variety of stats. The inclusion of a small anti-counterfeiting hologram on the back was a big deal at the time. 1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey is bolstered by several subsets that include some all-time greats and future superstars. These include All-Stars and Heroes of the NHL. Canadian Juniors are included in the High Series, offering rookie cards for many players who won gold for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship. Scott Niedermayer and Felix Potvin are among them. The top prospect in hockey at the time, Eric Lindros was under an exclusive deal with Score at the time. However, Upper Deck was able to sneak him onto a couple of multi-player Canadian Junior cards.

1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey marked the debut of the brand’s trademark Young Guns. Another High Series subset, rookies here include Sergei Fedorov and Pavel Bure. This is Bure’s only rookie card. 1990-91 was a very good year for rookie cards in hockey. The set has plenty outside of the Young Guns and Canadian Juniors subsets. Draft picks cards include Jaromir Jagr and Owen Nolan. Mike Modano, Ed Belfour, Mats Sundin, Mike Richter, Jeremy Roenick and Rod Brind’Amour are among the other standouts with rookies in the set. With inserts only starting to gain popularity at this point, there’s just one set of extra cards. Both series have randomly inserted holograms. The nine-card set includes Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Mark Messier. When tilted, the cards show movement. They can also be used as stickers. The technology has come a long way since then.

1990-91 Upper Deck French Hockey caused a major splash at their time of release. The cards are written in French but that’s not why they were originally popular. They were believed to be much rarer. At one point, packs were selling for more than $20 each. However, it turned out the cards were not rare at all. Today, the French cards carry little to no premium over their English counterparts other than the novelty aspect. 1990-91 Upper Deck French has the same checklist. Like most everything from the era, 1990-91 Upper Deck Hockey is readily available still today. Prices are also extremely reasonable. While it might not offer a lot of value today, this is a great looking set with an excellent checklist. It’s also the start of one of the cornerstone brands in hockey card collecting.