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. 

Upper Deck, the exclusive NHL-licensed manufacturer of trading cards, released its much-anticipated 2023-2024 collection last week. 

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

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

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

The young athelete made his name as a hockey phenom 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 18 years old.

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, a gold shimmering card; only one single copy exists.

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

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.

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.