How have the #NHLDraft trades affected cards and collectors?

When I heard that the Boston Bruins had traded Dougie Hamilton to Calgary, my first thought was just “wow, you don’t see young, well thought of defensemen moved very often.”  I’m not going to get into any opinions of if he is a future superstar or not, but I can tell you that I’ve heard people who know much more about hockey than I say that they don’t believe he is.

My second thought turned to a Bruins collector on Facebook.  He has a very impressive, high-end Hamilton PC.  A few hours later I was going through posts in the group and he was (sadly) looking to unload them.  It was sad, as I could tell from the tone in what he had typed just how disappointed he was.  There was a Flames fan that was interested and the collector that has them finally said something about being to upset at the moment to work on a trade and that he had noted the interest and would get back with the (Flames) collector.  I wanted to show my girlfriend (who at least ACTS like she’s somewhat interested in my hobby) some of the fantastic cards he had, but the thread had been deleted.

I also messaged someone else I know shortly after the trade was announced and mentioned it would be interesting to see if there was any spike in Hamilton card prices.  I suspected there could be.  He said that he anticipates a drop in value.  My line of thinking was due to a couple of things, trades I’ve made and markets.  I have made more trades with folks in Alberta than any other state or province.  Not all were interested in Flames cards, but they’ve been one of the more popular teams requested when folks have searched my traders bucket.  While there are a lot of hardcore Bruins collectors out there, I have rarely had interest in Bruins cards.  It could be that I don’t have what they are looking for.  Could it be that Boston fans might also collect Red Sox, Patriots and other local teams?  Perhaps they have to split their available card funds.

I looked shortly after the trade and didn’t see any immediate spike in sales values or that more items purchased.  Looking now (4:40 Central Time), 23 items have sold in the 30+ hours since the trade.  To go back 23 sales before the trade, you went back four days.  It definitely appears more were bought and many of them were higher end.

A look at the hockey trading page on Sports Card Forum shows some interesting thread titles.  On the front page alone, I see “Take my Eddie Lacks…,” “Canes Fans or Swedish player collectors? a few Nice Eddie Lacks RCs now FT: Cup,Dom,+,” “Guess my Griffin Reinhart PC is available…,” and “Bruins fan looking to move some Soderberg, Lucic and Hamilton…”  I can’t say that I blame any of them if they are looking to move cards.  As a collector, I hope that they are able to get something back that they are happy with.  It has to be tough as a team collector when someone you’ve put time and money into is traded or leaves.  I can say that when the day comes that Andrew Shaw leaves the Blackhawks, The Andrew Shaw Project will go nowhere.  It will live on and continue to grow.

There is an opposite side of the spectrum as well and phrases such as “The Lord giveth and taketh away” and “when one door closes, another door opens” come to mind.  Over on CloutsnChara, there is a thread that was posted this morning titled “I guess I collect Emerson Etem now. who has got any?”  Based on when it was posted and when the trade happened, that thread started very shortly after the trade was announced.

I do wonder this (and would love replies below): when your team acquires someone who already has cards, are you interested in picking up those cards?  As a Rangers fan, do you want Etem cards in a Ducks sweater, or do you just want to wait until you can pick up Rangers cards?  Maybe, it’s both.  We’d love to hear these, or any, thoughts.

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