hockey forum

[Eric72]

What year, generally speaking, is the line of demarcation between vintage and modern?

For me, it's 1988 at the latest. Anything after that, Wayne Gretzky appears as an LA King. Prior to that, there are Gretzky cards in an Oilers uniform, Roy rookies, Lemieux rookies, Pelle Lindbergh cards, etc. I just can't bring myself to call them "modern" cards.

I could see 79/80 being the start of the modern hockey card era. Along with the Gretzky rookie, there are WHA entries into an NHL set, the last regular card of Gordie Howe, and there's a distinctly different "look and feel" to cards when compared to cards from prior years. Perhaps it's the fact that many key rookies from the early 80s played long and impactful careers. Their names were still relevant well into the 1990s.