How to Know the Value of a Hockey Card

Follow the team. The value of a player's hockey card is based not only on their individual performance but also on the overall win and loss record of the team for whom they play. Monitoring the progress of the team helps you keep track of price fluctuations and demand for cards that feature that team's players.

Subscribe to a pricing guide. The sports card collecting industry publishes pricing guides for cards that are issued, commemorating just about every professional sport imaginable. Reputable guides, like the ones published by Beckett, list values of cards, track how that value has increased or decreased over time, and often also feature articles about news related to the collecting world, such as reviews of collector's conventions and alerts about counterfeit cards in circulation. These guides are published monthly and a subscription to one is very inexpensive, making them an invaluable tool for the serious collector.

Pay attention to detail. Details like special graphics or holograms, hand-numbering of a series and the number of times a series of cards was printed for distribution all affect a card's value. Watch these details closely on your hockey cards and learn what they mean. They will help you more accurately determine your card's value and also help you ensure your cards are authentic.

Track the players. A hockey card's value is determined by its features and its rarity, but it is also impacted by the kind of season had by the player it features. Foreign players who participate in world championship competitions representing their native countries or players whose teams make it to the Stanley Cup playoffs will experience a great increase in the value of their cards. These milestones for the player could be a very lucrative time for a collector to buy or sell their cards.

Ask an expert. A lot of card collecting that was once done in sporting goods and comic book stores is now done via online sales and bidding and through collector's forums. Even if you're not quite ready to jump into the online bidding war for your favorite hockey player's rookie card, these forums can be a great place to meet other collectors who have been buying, selling and trading for a long time and know the rules and tricks of the collecting world.