Edmonton collectors flock to popular hobby shop on National Hockey Card Day

Hockey card collecting is no joke.

Many Edmonton collectors lined up early Saturday morning at Wayne’s Sports Cards and Collectibles to get their hands on free packs for National Hockey Card Day.

“I was in the McDonald’s drive-thru at 2:40 a.m. and I was here at 2:48 a.m.,” one Edmontonian told CityNews.

National Hockey Card Day is a special day in the card collecting community.

“Yeah it’s crazy,” said store owner Wayne Wagner. “We absolutely love the support from our customers and I’ve said this all along: we can put all the promotions we want in play but if the customers don’t like what we do, they’re just not gonna show up.”

National Hockey Card Day has been around for 15 years but Wagner has been doing his own card day for much longer. The owner says before card supplier Upper Deck and the National Hockey League teamed up to start their event, he had been doing it for five years already.

“So there was a little bit of a gap where they actually had a trading card day that went back to 2003-2004. They stopped doing it for a bunch of reasons, but we kept going,” Wagner recalled. “So we’ve been doing it for 18-20 years.”

This year’s card set is highlighted by the two Connors: Edmonton Oilers star McDavid and up-and-coming phenom Bedard.

Regardless of who they “pack,” fans were happy to be a part of the community.

“I hate playing hockey but I love watching it and collecting things to do with it,” one collector said. “Jerseys, cards, anything like that. Autographs especially. It’s cool. I love it.”