Cardboard gold

Any hockey collector, given the financial resources, can go out and buy the top-end jersey-auto rookie card of the NHL's latest phenom. For most of us, though, our goal is a little less lofty.

Thankfully, for both our bank accounts and collections, we have Upper Deck's annual ode to rookies, the Young Guns card. Sure, some of these gems command high prices. But the boxes and packs we open are much more affordable than say, Upper Deck's Ice, The Cup or other premium products.

And while there are a certain number of scrubs (young players snapped in pregame warm-ups during a late-season cup of coffee), there are also a few select cards that any collector, worth his or her salt, hopes to add to their goodie box.

I'm no different. While many of my rookie cards qualify for the bargain bin, I'm fortunate to have pulled these gems from boxes of Upper Deck Hockey Series 1 and 2.

Within this blog, you'll find, in reverse order, the top 10 Young Guns of the collection.

Enjoy!

Young Gun No. 10

2003-04 Series 1
Boston's Patrice Bergeron
Card #204
Value: $10-$25*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 9

2006-07 Series 1
Colorado's Paul Stastny
Card #207
Value: $15-$40*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 8

2002-03 Series 2
Buffalo's Ryan Miller
Card #436
Value: $15-$40*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 7

2004-05 Retro Series 1
Edmonton's Wayne Gretzky
Card #183
Value: $15-$40*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 6

2006-07 Series 1
Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal
Card #239
Value: $20-$50*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 5

2000-01 Series 1
Minnesota's Marian Gaborik
Card #229
Value $30-$60*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 4

2001-02 Series 1
Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk
Card #211
Value: $35-$70*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 3

2007-08 Series 1
Montreal's Carey Price
Card #227
Value: $40-$80*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 2

2000-01 Series 1
UD Exclusives 083/100
Atlanta's Dany Heatley
Card #198
Value: $50-$125*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Young Gun No. 1

2005-06 Series 1
Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby
Card #201
Value: $200-$350*

* Beckett Hockey, #205, May/June 2008

Full disclosure: A search through the collection failed to find this card. Hence, the smaller and fuzzier image from the original posting. I'll keep looking and will replace the photo once the card is found.

Evgeni Malkin checklist error?

Normally, these Young Gun checklist cards won't land on anyone's Top 10 list. Why? That's simple. There's usually a regular Young Guns card worth much more.

There are a couple of things, though, that make this one, a 2006-07 Upper Deck Series 2 Young Gun of Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin, extra special.

First, it's a High Gloss version, meaning it's limited to only 10 copies, catapulting this card, or any other sharing designation, to the upper atmosphere of no available pricing due to its scarcity.

According to Beckett Hockey #205 (May/June 2008), though, these cards are serial-numbered to 10.

But if you look closely, as I have many times, there's no numbering on the card. As a result, it's my guess this could be viewed as a corrected error card.

And, if that's the case, this could very well be the most valuable card of the collection.

What do you think?