In 2019, a new, boutique trading card company burst upon the hobby scene. Parkside Collectibles was the brainchild of Eric Christensen and Matt Peek, two entrepreneurs whose passion and creativity resulted in the most detailed and wonderfully executed lacrosse card set to date. Unfortunately for Parkside, time has shown they were the right people at the wrong time.
Parkside was already in agreement with Major League Lacrosse and had begun work on its 2019 MLL set when Paul Rabil announced the formation of the Premier Lacrosse League in October 2018. Six months later the MLL contracted and three teams (Charlotte Hounds, Florida Launch and Ohio Machine) ceased to exist. Despite these setbacks, Parkside pushed on and released its debut set on May 31, 2019.
It would be an extreme understatement to say that Parkside simply issued a nice set of lacrosse cards. In truth, they seemingly thought of everything. The set has elements that were designed for fans of all ages and degrees. The base set consists of 150 cards featuring past legends, current stars, head coaches and even team mascots. Complementing the base set are a series of interesting inserts and specialty cards with varying degrees of rarity. Below is a list of the most desirable cards, along with the number of each card printed
- Alumni Signatures (100) & Signature Series (225) – Seven lacrosse legends and 21 current stars are featured on these attractive cards with on-card autos. Of particular note is a Lyle Thompson Signature Series card that was not issued in packs, but bundled with an unopened box and sold via the Parkside website. In addition to Thompson are Signature Series rookie cards of Zed Williams and Zach Currier.
- Image Variation (375) – A 10-card series featuring alternate images of top players.
- Vintage (250)Â – A classy and attractive insert in which players are shown via sepia-toned images.
- Relics (50) – Ten cards featuring attractive relic swatches embedded into the cards.
- Gummy Arts – A 10-card set featuring the caricature artwork of Chicago-based artist, Mike Noren.
- Americana (Signed – 40) (Unsigned – 260) – Tobacco-styled cards featuring 2019 MLL All-Star and 2020 MLL Most Valuable Player Bryce Wasserman.
In addition to a variety of outstanding cards, Parkside included four free ticket vouchers to any MLL game inside each 20-pack box of its 2019 product.
The 2019 Parkside MLL issue was a trading card bounty the likes of which lacrosse fans had never seen before. Parkside had set its own bar very high, but sadly and through no fault of their own, it was a level that has not yet again been met in the lacrosse card world.
The MLL was to celebrate its 20th season in 2020, but the onslaught of COVID-19 disrupted the entire world, and professional lacrosse and ultimately lacrosse cards were caught up in the mess. COVID caused the MLL’s standard 10-game season to be truncated into a one-week season in which each team played five games while quarantined in Annapolis, Maryland.
As a result of the MLL disruption and challenges of the times, Parkside was forced to make sudden and drastic changes to its 2020 MLL release. A comprehensive and meticulously designed card set was scrapped and replaced by a significantly smaller boxed set. This 15-card base set was packaged with one-of-12 cards in a separate signature series. Only 1,400 of the base sets were produced along with 100 of each signature series card. These sets were sold via the Parkside website for $19.99 each.
The 2020 cards featured the same high quality and attention to detail that collectors appreciated in the 2019 release. The base set included attractive cards of Lyle Thompson and John Grant Jr., in addition to rookie cards of former Syracuse star Bubba Voight and a Ryan Lee/Andrew Kew dual card.
Unfortunately this was the last Parkside lacrosse issue we have seen. In December 2020, the MLL was absorbed by the PLL. The Cannons Lacrosse Club, a nod to the 2020 MLL Champion Boston Cannons, became the eighth PLL touring team, the roster of which was assembled through an expansion draft. The PLL entered into a trading card agreement with Topps. Parkside shifted gears and began working with the National Women’s Soccer League, with whom the company has had great success.
Check back in next week when we take a look at the modern lacrosse card landscape with Topps and Athletes Unlimited, home of professional women’s lacrosse.