Jim Carey: The Vezina Winner Who Vanished From Hockey Cards

In 1994 Carey exploded onto the scene with the Washington Capitals, at only 22 years old, he was one of the biggest young goalies in hockey. He went 35-24-9, recorded nine shutouts and won the Vezina Trophy.

At 22.

You would think that was the beginning of the story. It was almost the end.

Carey's performance declined; Washington traded him to Boston in the Adam Oates deal, and after a brief stop in St. Louis, his NHL career ended at just 24 years old.

His timing couldn't have been worse for hockey card collectors. His PSA 10 rookies are surprisingly tough to find and expensive, mostly because no one subs them.

The 90s were chock-full of foil cards, glossy cards, embossed cards, die-cuts, parallels, inserts and enough new brands appearing every season to completely destroy a kid's allowance.

And right in the middle of all that cardboard junk wax chaos was Vezina winner Jim Carey.

Carey's rookie cards arrived in 1994-95, with his SP #128

To get a PSA 10, at first I tried subbing my own. Every time I bought a copy that looked perfect.

I found a surface scratch.

Next one.

White edge.

Next.

Soft corner.

Suddenly I was inspecting 1$ Jim Carey rookie cards like I was authenticating the Mona Lisa.

The more shitty Carey rookie cards I found, the more I wanted a PSA 10. Eventually I found a graded PSA 10 on eBay and jumped on it. $250. Overpay. But whatever, mission accomplished.

Next, I found out Jim Carey memorabilia cards are even trickier. Carey played during the transition between the junk-wax craziness of the early 1990s and the memorabilia boom that followed in the late 1990s.

1994 Jim Carey rookie card PSA 10

Just when major manufacturers like Upper Deck started inserting game-used jerseys, pads, sticks and including autos, Carey had completely vanished from the league and collectors’ minds.

That's why collecting game-used memorabilia from Carey today is very very difficult. Eventually, I found I had to turn to the unlicensed In The Game products for his mem cards.

I found there are a handful of game-used stick cards without his face and only a couple of auto cards showing him in his mask.

I went for the 2012 ITG Between The Pipes Auto because it was the only card I could find that actually showed Carey in his NHL mask. Apparently, someone else felt the same; there was a nasty bidding war on eBay between the 2 of us, and I ended up winning the card for about $45 CDN.

Another nasty price for a player who was a bust. I mean, sometimes we all overpay; I just had to do it twice with Jim Carey.