A Blast From The Past: Looking Back At The 2009-10 Upper Deck Champ’s Mini Rookies

Ah, Champs Mini’s. Gotta love them, right? I personally do. The slight homage to the original C55 hockey cards (which I also touched on in 

a recent blog post from 1911 still resonate with collectors today, even if over 100 years has pasted and the hockey cards today are nothing like they once were, small collectible cards like these really throw it back to a simpler time I think. Maybe that’s just me.But I know for every collector out there who love these Mini cards, there are a ton of collectors who don’t. Whether it’s their extreme lack of size, simple features, or the sheer lack of availability on those tougher parallels, I get how some collectors might shrug at the idea of picking up multiple mini cards for their collection.​However, negative inputs aside, I really do like these cards in my collection and I always try to catch a glimpse of them when I’m going over the highlights of my collection. I know that while they might look a lot like nothing to the casual collector, these Champs Mini Rookies can be a rare treasure in anyones collection. ​​To get a feel for how hard these were to hit in a pack on 2009-10 UD Champs, here’s a list of the stated odds for the Mini Rookies below. This was also the first time the mini 

rookies had coloured back parallels, as the Champs product debut in 2008-09 only had coloured back variations for the regular base set. ​

– Mini Rookies, Red Back – inserted 1:240
– Mini Rookies, Blue Back – inserted 1:360
– Mini Rookies, Green Back – inserted 1:640
– Mini Rookies, Parkhurst Back – inserted 1:1500

Super tough hits, right? Now combine these ratios with the fact that not every single collector would be all that familiar with these back variations to begin with, and you’ve got yourself one (or in this case, four) pesky cards to look out for. I can only imagine how many of these rare parallels are sitting in 50 cent bins across the country, hidden behind 1000’s of regular 2.5 x 3.5 inch cards, waiting to see the light of day again. I was lucky to snag my those 4 mini backs almost in one shot for my Enroth PC. I received the rarest of them all Parkhurst Variation back from a collector named Craig, who used to collect Enroth heavily back in the day. He has also helped me out with cards from his collection many times, and this time was no different. The other 3 coloured backs I received in a bulk deal with a Buffalo Sabres collector. He messaged me on Hobby Insider one day completely out of the blue asking if I needed the remaining 09-10 Champs backs, which I of course said yes. Are you still looking for these Champs Mini’s, or have you wrestled them into the boat after all these years. What’s your story with these tough parallels? I’d love to hear some.

Happy Collecting!