2023-24 Upper Deck Parkhurst Champions Hockey has been another hit with collectors, both young and old.
The mini retro cards are back again this year – Taking on a new design from the 1950’s and incorporating it’s own modern twist.
I picked up this Saros for my goalie collection. I have a few cards of his, as he’s one of my favourite active goalies in the NHL right now.
The 52′ retro cards included in this release are a tribute the the 1952-53 Parkhurst Hockey set. These cards had unique design elements featuring bold colours and creative backgrounds behind the players’ artistic renderings way back when.
Due to their age and unique appearance, they’re well-known in the vintage card world to this day.
The Saros mini retro card above is actually the special ‘Album Back’ parallel, which is another nod to the 1952-53 Parkhurst series.
Back in those days, ‘Parkies’ collectors could also receive photo albums to store their cards inside. The back of these Album Back parallel cards were made to mimic the original front covers of these card storage albums.
I’ve included some pictures of original 1952-53 vintage Parkies Photo Folio albums below.
An original 1952-53 Parkhurst Hockey vintage card album.
This one collector decided to give their album cover some colour and draw on the front. Very unique!
1952-53 Parkhurst Hockey card album (Back cover) – Featuring the set checklist.
Inside view of the album. You can see where the cards are supposed to be stored.
Another inside view of the album where collectors could store their hockey cards.I really enjoyed this parallel idea, as it was similar to last year’s Wrapper Back Parallel in the 2022-23 series.
Upper Deck once again to a nice job with these cards. I really enjoy seeing them try different things and pay tribute to this hobby’s history at the same time.
Happy Collecting,
Aaron / creasecollector
CREASECOLLECTOR 
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