Quoting Bdiam
I know a little about these cards, so I'll throw-in my two-cents.
First and foremost, Imperial Oil "DID NOT" recall nor destroy these cards. Rather, they sold "millions" of these packages and little binders across Canada, even after the Olympics were over. In fact, some stations had so many cases of these cards, that Imperial made them hold-onto them for quite a period, rather then sending them back.
As far as there being 50-players who signed 200 autographs, that has never been confirmed, nor denied. Just as certain players prove difficult to fulfill their agreements to sign with the card companies, so it was back in the day. This wasn't an issue with the Canadian players (Team Canada got a pile of money from Imperial Oil and Hockey Canada made sure that everyone on the team, fulfilled their obligations). However, certain players from the other countries, weren't as forth-coming. Thus, certain autographs of players from Finland and Sweden, have sold for huge dollars in the past. I believe that I sold a couple of Fins for $500-$600/piece and that was at least five-years ago.
How tough was it to pull an autograph? - For those old enough, a good example would be the Pro Set Stanley Cup hologram. In one sense, they were extremely difficult to pull. On the other hand, this proved true because there were tens of thousands of cases made. People who are more familiar with this than I am, have said that your chances of pulling an autograph were somewhere in the 1:5-10 cases range and 1:15-20 cases for some of the European players.
If you are ever lucky enough to pull an autograph from one of the packs, the card will have a distinctive look to it - namely, the back of the card has an Orange/Black background and the top right corner will basically congratulate you for pulling an authentic autograph of that player.
Here's where the real fun begins. A few years after the cards had surfaced and the station owners finally moved what was left, a few different looking autographs began to surface. Basically, the front of the card was autographed just like the regular ones but the backs did not have the congratulation and orange/black border. At first, most people thought that these were fakes and said as much. However, this didn't necessarily prove to be true. In fact, one person that I know sent-in over (50) of these non-orange/black autographs to be graded for authentication and every single one, came back as authentic.
I could go further with the story about this but I've typed enough for the day. Long story short, the non-orange/black autographs were obtained in person with the players (some say while at the Olympics) and anywhere from 10-20 of each were inserted in later packs, to possibly(?) make-up for the shortage in so many other players not signing. I bought a dozen or so autographs (non-orange/black ones) in the late 90's/early 2000's and did-so from someone within the company who had access to such things. I sold a bunch back in the day (might still have a pile of them somewhere) and the couple of buyers who sent their cards in for verification, got a 100% A-okay. I also purchased (25) of the 1980's hockey pucks on the wooden shields (still in the original boxes) from the same guy, so I felt that he was more then legit.
At the end of the day, just as with sooo many other items, there is "quantity" of these cards somewhere. Again with the history but the 1990's Kraft albums are another example. They were highly collectible and at the time, tough to get in quantity. Once we left the 1990's and got into the 2000's, there were two parties in Qweebec, who would basically sell you a 100, 200 or even more of the albums in one shot. The prices then tanked on the albums.
The Orange/black autographs are a nice set to make for the guy who has patience. The non-Orange/Black auto's are a set that several people are still making and apparently paying 3x, 5x or even 10x the price of the normal autograph, likely because they are beyond super-rare and because there are apparent pictures of some of the players signing these cards in the dressing rooms, while they were at the Olympics - making them true Olympic memorabilia.
