Hockey
Parkhurst Champions Cards: 2011 vs 2022
If you collected hockey cards as a kid, Parkhurst is a name you probably know. If you are looking at a card that says Parkhurst Champions, the first job is working out which one you have, because Upper Deck has put that name on two quite different sets. One is all retired legends. The other is mostly players from the 2022-23 season. Here is how to tell them apart and what each one contains.
Where the Parkhurst name comes from
Parkhurst was a Toronto company that made hockey cards from 1951-52 to 1963-64. Its 1951-52 set is widely treated as the start of the modern hockey card, and its checklist includes Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard. After the original run the name changed hands more than once. Upper Deck acquired it in 2005 and has printed Parkhurst cards since 2006. So a Parkhurst card made in the last twenty years is an Upper Deck card carrying an old Canadian name.
2011-12 Parkhurst Champions: the legends set
Upper Deck released this one in October 2011, and every player in it is retired. That is the single easiest way to recognise it. Packs held five cards, and a hobby box held 20 packs.
The 2011-12 cards we have scanned ourselves include Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Mario Lemieux, Gordie Howe, Patrick Roy, Bobby Hull, Brett Hull, Phil Esposito, Guy Lafleur, Jean Béliveau, Ray Bourque, Jari Kurri, Bobby Clarke, Denis Potvin, Ted Lindsay, Red Kelly, Alex Delvecchio and Richard Brodeur. Gretzky and Howe each turn up on more than one card number, so the number on the back matters when you look one up.
Beyond the base cards, the set has:
- Champ’s Minis: small-format cards, with some short-printed and some signed.
- Wire Photos: a photo insert set, including some cards with more than one player on them.
- Autographs: signed versions of base cards, plus colour and black-and-white Renditions autographs.
Online checklists do not agree on how many base cards there are, because they count the signed-only numbers differently. Before you call a card “base” or “short print”, check it against a full checklist for its exact number.
2022-23 Upper Deck Parkhurst Champions: a modern set with legends in it
This set came out late in the 2022-23 NHL season. It is mostly current veterans and rookies, with legends included as harder-to-find cards. Its base checklist is split into veterans, rookies and legends, and again the published counts disagree, so check the exact card number.
The names in this set are different, and they are the quickest way to tell the two apart. Look for ’51 Retros and 50s Flashbacks (both names point back to the original 1950s Parkhurst cards), Wire Images, Tomorrow’s Riches, Jukebox Heroes, All-Star Legends, Cuts Signatures autographs and Red parallels.
Which one have you got?
- Read the year on the back. The copyright line settles it faster than anything else.
- Was the player still playing in 2022-23? If so, it is the later set. The 2011-12 set has no active players at all.
- Check the insert name. Wire Photos and Champ’s Minis point to 2011-12. Wire Images, ’51 Retros and Tomorrow’s Riches point to 2022-23.
- Look up the card number, not just the player. The same legend can appear on several numbers, and the short prints sit in particular number ranges.
If a card is a parallel or an insert, the guide to hockey card parallels explains how Upper Deck names them. And if you are wondering whether a signed one counts as a big card, see what counts as a hit.
What a Parkhurst Champions card is worth
We are not putting prices on this page, because they move and a number here would go out of date. The method doesn’t change, though. Find recent sales of the same set, the same card number and the same version, then adjust for condition. Retired-legend base cards and their signed versions are completely different markets, even when the front photo looks alike. The walkthrough is in how to value a card you pulled, and what makes a card worth grading covers when a legends card is worth sending to a grader.
Parkhurst Champions on Waffles
We have carried 2011-12 Parkhurst Champions cards in our hockey packs. Each pack is four real cards we physically hold, one copy of each. Which ones are in the packs changes every time someone pulls one, so we don’t list them here. For the packs as they are right now, see the hockey packs and the published odds.