Is it the Gretzky rookie ?
 

If you think of all the important rookie cards, not only in hockey, but in all sports, is the Gretzky rookie card the one that can be found to have the worst eye appeal on some examples ?

Think about all the flaws that are associated with that card. Sometimes horribly o/c. Sometimes horrible registry. Most often tilted.

I would think there are others, like anything from the 1951 Parkhurst set, where there are lots of registry and cut issues as well.

Does the Gretzky rookie take the cake, or is there another high profile rookie that is found more often than not with major issues ?

Bobby Hull's is notorious for being off center. Jacque Plante from 55 is also tough.

1979 Ozzie Smith, tilted, miscut, fuzzy cut etc.

Looking for a perfect Plante rookie is next to impossible! This card is often found with centering issues, tilts, registration issues, print lines, print spots, etc. :(

Anything from 1982 O-Pee-Chee Hockey is extremely tough to find centered!

The '57 Bill Russell is usually a mess too

The 1958 Topps Bobby Hull RC takes the honour. Its located at the bottom right corner of the printing sheet so its always O/C and easier to damage already. It is also the last numbered card in the set so it usually placed at the bottom of the stack so its sustainable to lots of fingers rubbing and scratching, bottom surface stains and scratches, and etc damage.

Its population report confirms is rarity of high grades. Only 35x PSA 7, 7x PSA 8, 2x PSA 9, 0 PSA 10. It is much harder to find in high grades than even '51 Howe RC, '66 Topps Orr, or '79 OPC Gretzky. That's why its 7s and 8s go for good money, in fact, the 8 just sold for $87,000 yesterday and I think its a low price for this card. The younger generations don't know the story behind this card and its rarity, I think it should have sold for above $100k. I wouldn't even have been surprised if it sold for $200k yesterday with today's meteoric rise in card prices. Any of Hull's high graded card (7s, 8s, and 9s) would be a great pick up right now before their prices explode.

I have heard this from other collectors. This is not my opinion. There is talk in Canada that Hull is not collected as much as Howe or Orr because of what happened off the ice, not what happened on the ice.

By many accounts Bobby Hull is a terrible person.

He abused and beat his wives, even getting arrested in the 80s for domestic abuse and battery after the police found him drunk and his wife beaten. He assaulted a police officer in the process and pled guilty to that.

He's also made Nazi-sympathizing comments and practically admitted to being a racist in the same breath.

How the Blackhawks keep trotting him out as a franchise hero this day in age is baffling to me.

When it comes to his 1958 Topps I'm conflicted. On the one hand it's a very low pop and condition sensitive vintage card of an on-ice ''legend'', exactly the sort of card I usually long for. But on the other hand he was/is a garbage human being off the ice who would be cancelled in a heartbeat in today's world.

With prices going the way they are and PSA 1 examples crossing the $1k CAD mark now I just can't talk myself into spending the money to get one into my PC.

And Bobby wasn't a small man.

That picture explains why his slap shot was so feared by goalies, and why Brett inherited good genes. Bobby's son Brett is just the opposite. Put a few beers in Brett and he is the life of the party. I saw this in Lake Tahoe one summer at the celebrity golf tournament. Was in the same casino with Brett, M. Jordan, and sat right next to Mario Lemieux and talked and played blackjack with Mario. Brett was the life of the party in the casino that night. Talking with and drinking with anyone. He's a super friendly guy. But as was mentioned above, his dad is not collected very much because he is quite the opposite.

People that domestic abuse are crap although his charges were dropped in the end. The alleged racist comment reported by one journalist was something he has denied.

There's another Top 15 in Basketball that was in a huge alleged sexual assault case. Prosecutors seemed to have a strong case but it was later dropped due to the victim refusing to continue same as how Hull's domestic charges were dropped. I sold his rookie card when I heard about the sexual assault case and never bought his card again but immediately after, everyone seem to have forgotten and he became much loved by everybody and will forever be immortalised. People choose to not remember this Top 15 basketball star's past.

There has been alot of players with past controversal history that made it into HOF in all sports. With Hull, its understandable that people would prefer to collect the Top 10s with cleaner images. But there are also other players with history in sports that people choose to turn a blind eye.

Speaking of blind eye, in an unrelated topic, Mark Wahlberg was a racist that attacked 10 year old black kids with rocks and permanently blinded a Vietnamese army vet in another one of his racial attacks. He wasn't a Top 10 of anything but still made quite a big name for himself in his industry and people continue to support his movies. People just seems to pick and choose which jerks they want to forgive and forget.