How a Connor Bedard rookie card drew a $1 million bounty — the ‘Young Guns’ version is finally released

Montasy Comics general manager Jimmy Chen got an immediate glimpse of the hype surrounding Connor Bedard’s rookie card from the moment Bedard officially became an NHL player.

“It started as soon as he was drafted,” recalled Chen, whose store is located in midtown Manhattan. “I got texts, ‘Are you getting Connor Bedard cards?'”

Since Bedard was drafted No. 1 by the Chicago Blackhawks in June, the hype, anticipation and, well, the expected value of his rookie card has only increased. And NHLPA/NHL rules saying that a player cannot be featured on a card until he plays his first game on ice for an NHL team has only heightened the frenzy. In other words, Chen, like everyone else, would have to wait.

Collectors got a taste of Bedard’s power in the market when Upper Deck included a surprise short-print “Easter egg” card in its fall Series 1 release (Upper Deck says they “worked closely with both the NHLPA and the NHL” to include the card in the early run). That’s going for between $400 and $1,800 on the secondary market, depending on the condition and grade. Topps has released some stickers of Bedard through its Topps Now line; they can be had for about $6. But the main draw is always Upper Deck’s “Young Guns” release — widely considered to be a player’s first “official” rookie card.

Come the release of Upper Deck’s Series 2 on Wednesday, the initial asking price for Bedard’s card on the secondary market is expected to be significant. A hobby box of unopened packs can be purchased for about $300 and will contain six Young Guns cards (although not necessarily Bedard’s). A tin is about $90 and will have three Young Guns. Is it worth it? You have to first determine how much a Bedard Young Guns will be worth.

“Right now the feeling is — I’m trying to be conservative — I’m thinking it’s probably going to be $200 to $400,” Chen says.

Jimmy Chen in front of his card selection at Montasy Comics in midtown Manhattan

As much as collectors have been buzzing about the release, that noise has yet to reach Bedard himself, who didn’t even know his Young Guns card was coming out.

“I had no clue, honestly — I didn’t see any of that,” Bedard said after a recent practice. “But it’s cool. It’s cool to be on one now.”

That has been about Bedard’s reaction whenever he’s been asked about something notable involving himself this season. Whether it’s been drawing record-breaking TV audiences, being talked about by people who don’t normally talk about hockey, being selected to the NHL All-Star Game or pulling off a Michigan goal, Bedard has given the impression that he’s happy those things are happening, but he’s also not going to feed the hype train with too much excitement over himself.

Bedard was willing to share a bit about his own card-collecting experience growing up and what it means to be on the other side now. Being 18, it wasn’t that long ago he was the one tearing open packs searching for his favorite players.

“I collected a bunch of cards,” Bedard said. “I had a bunch of binders.”

Bedard said he got into collecting when he was about five or six years old. “It’s always fun to open a pack and see what you get. So, yeah, it’s sweet. … It’s good. I think when you can impact people or kids kind of look up to you, it’s always a good feeling.”

Both Chen and Bedard believe that this Series 2 release will also help the sport of hockey, as interest heightens.

“It brings in more collectors who might not have otherwise looked at hockey as much,” Chen adds. “They look at it, and go, ‘Ooh, yeah, I heard about this Connor Bedard kid,’ and then they’ll look on YouTube to see how he actually plays, and that’s how you can make more fans of hockey.”

“It grows the sport,” Bedard says of card collecting. “It’s a lot of fun as a kid to play with and just to collect. It makes you more of a fan of hockey.”

Paul Zickler is the Director of Sports Brands for Upper Deck, and the burden of sating the Bedard appetite falls mainly on him.

“This is a new frontier for us,” he says.

Chen, the shop owner, sings the praises of hockey card collecting as an underrated and affordable way for people to jump into the hobby and Zickler says Upper Deck made plans to keep that reputation up in two ways. First, a collector should expect those six Young Guns cards in each hobby box — and keep in mind that while Bedard is the draw, there are several promising rookies in this class, as well.

Second, Upper Deck reconfigured their flagship brand “for the first time in over 20 years” — adding more “parallels” (which are versions of the same card with a different colored border or design and levels of print scarcity), and the big twist: there will be a 1-of-1 “OutBurst Gold” Bedard Young Guns card for the first time ever.

“I’m really excited to see what kind of secondary market is established with this being the case.” said Zickler.

He didn’t have to wait long. Two days before the official release, card shop Dave and Adam’s offered $1 million for the 1-of-1 Bedard, provided the card is “in good condition.”

Card shops have put “bounties” on 1-of-1s of players in other sports — Druw Jones’ Bowman 1st 1-of-1, for example, had a $250,000 bounty if it was pulled within a certain amount of time from the release (it was). A Victor Wembanyama 1-of-1 “Black Shimmer Prizm” was pulled in a break and listed on eBay for $500,000 (the listing has since been taken down). The million-dollar price tag for Bedard only helped heighten the frenzy.

How does the excitement surrounding Bedard’s rookie card compare to NHL rookie phenoms of the past?

“It’s definitely night and day,” Chen says. “There’s a huge spotlight on collectibles [and] the hobby in general. You haven’t seen this much hype surrounding a rookie in a while in hockey. They’ll compare him to Wayne Gretzky.”

There were no 1-of-1s when Gretzky’s rookie was released in 1979 by O-Pee-Chee, but his card with a PSA 9 grade (“Mint”) can fetch six figures. A PSA 10 (“Gem Mint”) Gretzky rookie sold in 2021 for $3.75 million.

Bedard isn’t the only Blackhawks rookie who will be in the upcoming Young Guns collection. Defenseman Kevin Korchinski will be as well. Like Bedard, Korchinski wasn’t aware the cards were coming out this week, but Korchinski was hopeful Upper Deck caught a good image of him.

Korchinski was confident Bedard’s card would be highly sought after.

“I guess a lot of collectors will want that one because obviously rookie cards sell for more,” Korchinski said of Bedard. “For him, he’s definitely happy about that. It’ll be cool to see how they turn out.”

You can count Jimmy Chen, Paul Zickler and many others interested in seeing how it turns out, too.

(Card images via Upper Deck)