The Newest Innovation in Hockey Cards

Sean Leahy broke this story today and has what can be described as an epic post on the subject. Check it.

If you pay any attention to trading cards, you know they have gotten ridiculous in recent years. Pieces of game used jerseys and sticks, even strands of Babe Ruth’s hair (I’m not kidding).

In the next phase of getting consumers the best products in the fastest amount of time, companies are introducing the pre-rookie rookie card. It is what is says — a rookie card of the player before they had ever played in the NHL.

‘This is not news,’ you say. ‘Companies have been putting out cards of kids in juniors for years’.

While that is indeed true, the trading card companies have decided to take things one step further than juniors. Actually, it’s a Carl Lewis-sized leap further. They’re going to back to when the kids were just that — kids. For example, in Patrick Kane’s pre-rookie card that you see pictured above, printed by Pinnacle, he was only about 6 (see: little kid in the upper right hand corner).

Upper deck is planning a ground breaking response to Pinnacle’s pre-rookie rookie cards. Nothing is final yet, but pre-birth rookie cards are supposedly in the works. Rumors are circulating whether these cards are going to picture sonograms of the players while they were still in their mother’s womb or be more closely related to their conception. For the sake of humanity, I hope it’s the former. The fewer references out there to that one fateful night in the back of Mr. and Mrs. Briere’s ’76 Chevy Nova, the better.
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