1990-91 Upper Deck #308 Team Checklist (Brian Bellows)

1990-91 Topps #305 Minnesota North Stars

I just received the 1990-91 Topps North Stars team set in the mail today.  It's kind of amazing, but I never really picked up any cards from this set when I was a kid.  1990 was the year that the hockey card market expanded from Topps/O-Pee-Chee to include Pro Set, Score, and Upper Deck (as well as OPC Premier).  I guess that in all the excitement over the new brands, I must have decided to ignore Topps that year.  Looking back, that's kind of a shame.  The design was definitely more pleasing than that season's Pro Set and Score sets, at least. 

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee #306 Minnesota North Stars

1981-82 Topps #55 Minnesota North Stars Team Leaders (Bobby Smith)

1983-84 O-Pee-Chee #164 Minnesota North Stars Team Leaders (Dino Ciccarelli)

1973-74 Topps #192 Stanley Cup Playoffs: North Stars vs. Flyers

Sometimes I really wish I would have been alive to see some of the '70s battles against the likes of the Flyers and Bruins.

1973-74 Topps #99 Minnesota North Stars

At some point in my adolescence, I managed to acquire a pretty cool lot of 1973-74 Topps hockey cards.  I remember trading for them with another kid, and I'm sure that I probably gave up some late '80s/early '90s cards from another sport, but I have no recollection at all as to what I gave up or who I traded with.  At any rate, I managed to pick up nine North Stars cards from that set, along with a Bobby Orr, both Espositos, and a Billy Smith rookie, among others.  They're not in the greatest shape (though most are better than this team card, with its giant crease down the middle), so I may upgrade eventually, but they've done the job for this long...

1990-91 Pro Set #574 Minnesota North Stars

I can not think of another card that best exemplifies the ridiculous excess of early '90s trading cards.  The back has a few fun facts of North Stars history, but no team checklist or statistics.  On the front?  No action shot.  Not even a mug shot of Modano, Bellows, or Broten.  Nope.  Just a giant black and white marble team logo.

1979-80 Topps #251 Minnesota North Stars Team Checklist

The 1979-80 set has always been my favorite set of hockey cards.  Never mind that I had never owned a single card from the set until last week.

The dominating blue borders were unlike any Topps/O-Pee-Chee outings that I had seen in any sport.  From a big picture standpoint, the set included the biggest card in the hobby (Wayne Gretzky's rookie card).  Locally, my most wanted hockey card was Bobby Smith's rookie card.

I had my eyes peeled for a nice '79 North Stars team set ever since I started going nuts with this project several weeks back, and I finally found one on eBay.  I got a great deal on it, and it was advertised as "EX-MT" condition.  When it arrived, I was stunned to find every card in gorgeous NM-MT condition.  This team set is one of the cornerstones of my budding collection.