The older you get, the more you tend to reminisce on past Christmases as the holiday approaches and when I think back to my younger years, there was always of lot of Canadiens related presents under the three for me when I was a kid.
Kids nowadays all seem to collect Pokemon cards, but back in the 1980s, no one in Canada had even heard of Pokemons, which makes sense really since they wouldn't hit the gaming market until the mid-90s. We were all addicted to hockey cards.
From as far as I can remember, my dad bought me packs of hockey cards every time he had to gas up his truck. Every morning as he was leaving for work, I would ask him if he needed to fill up the truck and when the answer was positive, I would literally wait by the door until he return with a couple of packs of O-Pee-Chee, Pro Sets or later, Upper Deck cards.
My two cousins were just as crazy about hockey cards as I was and we always put down some packs on our Christmas list, but on Christmas, Santa truly outdid himself. Under the tree, there were three presents of exactly the same size and weight and we were really wondering what they could possibly be.
If collectors today are used to buying boxes of cards, back then, there weren't many hobby shops around and whenever kids received cards, it was a couple of packs here and there. When the time came to open the presents, these three were of course saved for last.
When we finally got our hands on them and promptly tore the wrapping paper we realized that we all got a factory sealed box of 1991-92 Pro Set hockey cards. After posing for the obligatory photos, we headed back to our lair in the basement and started taking turns opening packs.
We had decided to pool our resources together, opening all 108 packs and sorting all the cards before holding a draft. As lucky as I was, I won the rock, paper, scissors battle we held to determine the draft order and with my first pick, I drafted card #CC2, The Mask - Patrick Roy.
That's how, in the wee hours of Christmas morning 1991, I landed the rarest card of my collection, at the time of course.
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