eBay Guides - OPC O-Pee-Chee Baseball Cards

OPC O-Pee-Chee Baseball Cards

yamo50

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O-Pee-Chee, also known as OPC, is considered the “sister” company of Topps. In the yester years OPC had issued cards far before the Topps company. In 1933, OPC produced a set of hockey cards (V304A & B). These sets hold a value of around $14K.

V304

The first baseball set (V300), were produced in 1937 and were #’d 101-140, and kind of looked like Goudeys of the same era. There were only AL players in this 40 card issue, the highlight being the elusive Dimaggio.

v300

Other than there lack luster issues of tattoos in the early 60’s, the first issue of “topps like” cards were in 1965. The front of the cards were the same as Topps, the paper was different, and the only noticeable difference was the ‘TCG printed in CANADA’ on the reverse of the cards. This set was #’d 1- 283 . 1966 & 67 were basically the same deal as the 1965 issue except #’d 1-196. It is said within the hobby that OPC cards from these years were only printed at a rate of about 5% of Topps cards.

1960 OPC tattoo

In 1970, OPC cards started to be printed in both English and French. It is at this point that the ‘noticeable differences’ between the Topps and OPC cards made themselves a little more defined. The 1971 OPC set had different colored card backs, which were yellow. They also had 14 different card fronts that were not a part of the set issued by Topps. In 1972, Gil Hodges’ death was memorialized in a card which was not issued by Topps.

1972 gil hodges OPC

In my “opinion”, the issues of OPC 1980 and later do not garner much of a premium in the secondary market like the pre-1978 issues.

1979 OPC Ozzie smith (rookie)

BE CAREFUL of the OPC issues. A typical characteristic of these cards are the ‘rough’ edges. I have seen examples of somewhat smooth edged OPCs but make sure that the card measures up. Carry a loupe magnifier with you to shows. The rough cut OPCs are accepted for what it is and another thing to look for is centered examples. Off centering is a very common problem with vintage OPCs. Well centered varieties garner higher realized prices than off-center or mis-cut examples.

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