On the evening of Wednesday, April 17, 2013, I’ll be listing 10 vintage hockey cards of decent value on eBay for the incredible low opening bid price of just 1 cent! Included in the ten is the 1963-64 Topps number 9 card featuring Charlie Burns of the Boston Bruins. The images shown are of the actual card being auctioned.
Full list of the 10 cards being auctioned.
The Card
The 1963-64 Topps number 9 hockey card of Charlie Burns is unique in that he didn’t play a single game in the National Hockey League that season. In fact, Burns would not play in the NHL again until he was picked up by the expansion Oakland Seals for the 1967-68 season. The hockey card is valued as a $10 common card but there’s hockey greatness about Charlie Burns that many hockey fans may not know about (read below for more info!).
Burns played the whole 1962-63 season with the Bruins. The defensive centre played 68 games, scoring 12 goals and assisting on ten more with a less than stellar Boston team. In 1963-64, he played his entire season in the WHL with the San Francisco Seals. He played 68 regular season games, scoring 33 goals and leading the team with 69 points. His point total placed him ninth in the league.
The Seals finished fourth in the six team league and captured the final playoff position. In an upsetting WHL season, San Francisco met the third place Los Angeles Blades in the finals and won the series in six games for the championship.
Go here to see how the auction is going: eBay Hockey Cards
The Player
Charlie Burns was born in Detroit, Michigan but moved to Toronto at a young age. He became a Canadian citizen at the age of 21, in time to represent the country at the World Hockey Championships. Burns played junior in the Ontario Hockey Association with the Toronto Marlboros for four years between 1952-53 and 1955-56 before moving on to the Whitby Dunlops of the OHA Senior circuit.
The Dunlops represented Canada at the 1958 World Hockey Championships, held in Oslo, Norway. The team easily won gold, going 7-0 in the tournament, outscoring their opponents 82 to 6. Their closest game came against the Soviet Union, winning 4-2. More typical scores included a 24-0 blowout over Finland and a 12-1 beating of the United States. Charlie was named the tournament’s best forward. The Dunlops also featured Harry Sinden on the roster.
Burns played pro hockey from 1958-59 to 1973-74. He played 749 regular season games in the NHL between 1958-59 and 1972-73 with the Detroit Red Wings, Boston Bruins, Oakland Seals, Pittsburgh Penguins and Minnesota North Stars. Charlie played in 31 Stanley Cup playoff games, all with the North Stars.
Over his 749 NHL games, Burns scored 106 goals and assisted on 198 for 304 points. In 1958-59, he was the only U.S. born player in the NHL (according to Wikipedia).
The Coach
Charlie had stints as player / coach in the WHL, NHL and AHL. In 1969-70, he played 50 games for the North Stars and also acted as head coach for 44 games. He returned as head coach with Minnesota in 1974-75 after his playing days were over. Burns lasted just 42 games that season with the dismal North Stars winning just 12 games.
Articles on other cards being auctioned:
Harry Watson 1954-55 Parkhurst 17
Bobby Clarke 1970-71 Dad’s Cookies 15
Philadelphia Flyers team leaders 1974-75 Topps 154
Darryl Sittler 1976-77 Topps 207