Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

NNSL (Sep 04/98) - Forget Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa's assault on Roger Maris's Major League Baseball home run record, when it comes to sports collectibles, hockey cards rule in Yellowknife.

Moreno Lodovici has been running Tiger Sports Cards and Collectibles in Yellowknife for the past three years.

An avid hockey fan and collector himself, he's seem some definite trends in the collectible world during the past decade.

"In Yellowknife, hockey cards are definitely the No. 1 choice of collectors," says Lodovici.

"I get a good mixture of kids and adults here. It's still mostly a guy thing, but I do get the odd girl or woman collector in."

Lodovici says the sports card industry boomed in the early '90s, but experienced a bad downturn after labor disputes in the NHL and Major League Baseball.

He says the industry has rebounded somewhat, but it's still tough sledding locally with the Yellowknife economy being in a downswing.

"With the younger collectors, they come in looking for the Top 10 list players -- Bure, Gretzky, Potvin, Roy, Selanne, Yzerman, Federov, those guys.

"Curtis Joseph was a hot card when he was with Edmonton, but it remains to be seen how popular his collectibles will be now that the star goaltender is with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"As far as favourite hockey teams in Yellowknife, from what I see hockey fans looking for, I'd say the top four favourite NHL teams in Yk are Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit and Colorado."

Unlike most of the country, Lodovici said sport card collecting in Yellowknife has pretty much stayed the popular domain of the true collectors, even during the boom period of the early '90s.

"We never really had any fly-by-night guys in it just looking to make a buck," he says.

"The customer base here has always been collectors. I see some guys who buy packs just hoping to get a $30 or $40 card out of whatever box, but most stick with one set until they complete it before moving on."

Lodovici says Upper Deck cards remain the No. 1 choice of Yellowknife collectors, both young and old.

"I'd say the Collector's Choice cards are more popular with the kids because they're the lower end card, price wise.

"After you get by Upper Deck's main set and Collector's Choice, I'd say the No. 2 card in popularity is Pinnacle, although Pacific did make an impact in Yk with its first-year cards."