Description

Nice rookie card of the Canadiens’ Marc Reaume, from the rare Quaker Oats issue of 1955.  See notes below!

PSA Pop: 1 of 4, 10 higher, of only 21 total

Graded 4 VG-EX by PSA

*click on images to view hi-rez

Quaker Oats: Parkhurst made this mirror set for food company Quaker Oats which included the hockey cards as a premium in a variety of their products.  They are the same as regular Parkies on the front, but the backs feature green ink (regular Parkies had red ink) and included the details of the Quaker contest.  There is no mention of Parkhurst.  Since the set was meant to be collected in its entirety and exchanged for “valuable prizes”, a few high-profile cards were notoriously short printed (Harry Lumley, Maurice Richard and King Clancy) to rig it so very few prizes were ever awarded.  

In terms of rarity, using PSA populations, this is the rarest of the major 1950s & 60s hockey sets.  There is, as of this writing, but 2,298 “green backs” in the PSA database compared to over 9,000 for the regular Parkie set.  The next lowest set between Topps and Parkhurst is the 1966 Topps “test” set, which shows approximately 3,800 cards.  Of the general sets issued, the 1958 Parkhurst set (approx. 7,000), 1958 Topps set (approx. 7,300) and the 1957 Parkhurst set (approx. 7,500) have the next lowest PSA populations.  It may surprise some to learn the most plentiful set from the era is the 1951 Parkhurst set, which has approx. 28,000 cards in the database, followed by Topps inaugural 1954 set at approx. 18,500, a little more than Parkhurst’s last set, the colorful 1963 issue at approx. 18,000.  Using the PSA database, it certainly illustrates the relative scarcity of this highly prized and sought-after set.