Collectors on the hunt for rare Connor Bedard rookie card

Hockey trading card collectors are scrambling to hobby shops across Metro Vancouver, hoping to get their hands on a one-of-a-kind Connor Bedard card — which could fetch the finder $1 million US. 

Upper Deck, the exclusive, NHL-licensed manufacturer of trading cards, released its much-anticipated 2023-24 collection last week. 

The collection is one of the most coveted sets in hockey every year, according to one local card game store owner, due to the popularity of the Young Guns cards that feature the best and brightest young rookies in the game.

"There's a heck of a lot of excitement around it for sure," Ken Richardson, owner of Pastime Sports and Games in Langley, B.C., told CBC News.

But this year, he said, there's been more anticipation than ever because the collection features North Vancouver hockey phenomenon Bedard.

The young athlete made his name in the Western Hockey League where he played for the Regina Pats. After breaking decades-old records, he was drafted into the NHL by the Chicago Blackhawks at age 18.

Now there's a unique card for the unique player: a shimmering golden card hidden in a hobby box on a store shelf somewhere that's attracted a million-dollar bounty.

Hobby boxes contain 12 packs of 12 cards  —144 cards in total —  and these particular boxes include six Young Guns cards, which may belong to any of the 50 rookie players. Contained in one of the boxes is the "Outburst Gold Connor Bedard" card — of which only one copy exists.

"That's Willy Wonka's golden ticket right there," Richardson said.

An American collectibles company, Dave and Adam's Card World, posted a "bounty" of $1 million on social media for the Bedard gold card last week.

"We haven't really seen ... a generational talent like Bedard [in a long time]," said the company's CEO Adam Martin.  

"I feel like hockey collectors worldwide have been waiting for someone like Bedard to come along to say, 'this is the card that I want to own.' We've seen an explosion of interest in all of his cards."

Martin said the company will offer the money if the card is in good condition, without any damage.

Joe Geluch and his five-year-old son Barry, from North Vancouver, B.C., are on the hunt for their golden ticket. 

"It's fun opening [the boxes] with my dad," Barry said. 

For Geluch, hunting for that one Bedard card has meant spending more time with his son.

"It has sparked an interest for us to do such things together," he said.

The father-son duo haven't found the outburst card but have, nonetheless, bagged another rare item — a Connor Bedard printing plate, once used to manufacture the cards found in the Upper Deck collection series.

'The prices people are paying ... it's crazy'

Rookie cards are major investments that can fetch anywhere from a few thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Billy Celio, senior product manager of Upper Deck.

"Hockey is actually still quite calm when it comes to this sort of stuff," he said. "The prices people are paying for football and basketball and baseball cards ... it's crazy."

Just this February, a Saskatchewan family sold a case full of unopened 1979 hockey card boxes for over $5 million. The boxes contained an unknown number of Wayne Gretzky rookie cards.