Question for collectors of new hockey cards
 

I have quite a few hockey cards from the late 60's through about 20 years ago. I really haven't focused too much on them since about 2005, with the exception of a few key players. I've watched a lot of playoff hockey, and I started thinking about grabbing some of the more recent sets. And then I went on ebay and saw the prices...

Why are hockey sets so darned expensive? It seems that for many of the Upper Deck and OPC sets of the past ten years, it would cost upward of $500 each to complete them. Is there some reason for this?

It’s because the rookie cards are short printed. Sets without short printed rookies are dirt cheap.

Short printed is a relative term, given how many PSA 10s and BGS 9.5s of the Young Guns there are.

Yup. But theyre still signifiantly scarcer than the base cards.

This is the logic that keeps me from buying. I won't start a set I can't complete. Ugh.

This is also what keeps me away from most anything beyond the 80's - I don't like the planned scarcity and purposeful short prints. I like to build a complete set and if I know I can't I don't see the point in starting (unless it's something like 1952 Topps baseball, where I can do just the Low numbers)

Newer Hockey sets
 

It depends on how highly you value the RC's. You can complete Upper Deck MVP sets from about 2005 to 2010 and then switch to Score or OPC. The RC's are not expensive and the sets can be completed fairly easily.