Back Checking - 79-80 OPC/Topps Bob Sauve

So as most hockey and baseball collectors know, Topps and OPC for the most part have been siblings in the card world. Depending on the sport, one is more desirable than the other and Topps was the American thing to do and OPC was the Canadian. With OPC when it comes to hockey, you usually had a larger set, you traditionally got a dose of French with your card and the card stock was lighter in colour and the cards were often poorly cut.

In 1979-80 Wayne Gretzky's rookie year, both sets had some similarities and differences based on a few factors but in all the first 264 cards in the set were mostly the same. To accommodate the new franchises, Topps made a single card and OPC made several introducing fans to the team's logo and players in the set.

While skimming through my Topps and OPC sets I found a neat difference by accident. Check it out!

1979-80 Topps Bob Sauve

Here is the front of the Sauve card in Topps form. As you can see, the card is cleanly cut and the blue is very bright and other colours are clearly define as well . IF we were just looking at the front of the card, Topps always wins hands down.

1979-80 OPC Bob Sauve

The OPC offering isn't as easy on the eyes. The colours are more faded/muted and this card features a pretty typical off-centre cut that OPC was notorious for especially in the late 70's and early 80's.


1979-80 Topps Bob Sauve

Here is the back side to the Topps card, darker card stock than the OPC version below but what I want to draw your attention to is the comic. I guess instead of having an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, Bob kept his on the posts but made a habit of cutting them off! As a math teacher getting ready to go back to work next week, there have been countless times I have had students measure "angels" when attempting trigonometry and I always make a point on how to correctly spell angles but sadly it still is often spelled incorrectly. Apparently this artist on this card had the same issues as some of my past students.

1979-80 OPC Bob Sauve

What I find cool about the OPC version is when they went to translate to French or potentially immediately following the Topps release they fixed the spelling on "angles" and it appears correct on this card. From what I can tell, I don't think they ever changed it on the Topps version so it would technically be an UER because from what I can tell the Beckett Hockey doesn't have it even listed as an error so for there to be two versions is pretty unlikely.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by, it has been ages since I did a back checking post so hopefully you enjoyed its resurrection!

One of the finest pieces of art in my humble opinion...

In case you can't tell, this is a reprint of a Gretzky OPC rookie and even then, it isn't an amazing quality reproduction. I have seen reprints with the printer's mark on the left shoulder which has me scared about ever buying a non-graded OPC version Gretzky. However, I bought this for 3 bucks and I am glad I did because it is as close as I am going to get for a little while but I can still enjoy it for what it is....art.

I am very very tempted to get this scanned at a very high resolution (or find a high res one) and make a poster for my classroom. It is such an amazing looking card that I do consider it art. Would I like the set as much if Gretzky wasn't in it? Probably not. But this is how things turned out so I will enjoy them as they are and in my books, this is one of the top 10 cards ever made in sports and definitely one of the best in hockey.

Here is the back of the card, mistake and all. Took OPC a few years as 67ers pointed out for OPC to change his WHA games to 80 instead of 60.

Just a fun post about hockey art, hope to share the real thing Topps or OPC some day.

OPC/Topps Blank Back - OG Style

 Well a little while back I had a few moments to flip through some of my random mystery boxes and I found something I didn't even know existed.

Anyone collecting OPC in the last few years knows UD makes a blank back version of the base cards and makes them rather rare to pull, but what I didn't really know was that blank backs had been around long before that. Here is an example.

Front side, seems normal enough, condition is excellent-ish

Back side.....blank as my mind some days

So are these rare, are these done on purpose? Those are questions I don't have the answer to. I know that blank backs in modern cards are done on purpose to try and give those PC collectors more chase cards, but  was the purpose back in 1979 when these cards were made? Or was this card an error or misprint.

If you look on eBay, you will see many blank back cards from the 50's-present day and those seem much more plentiful that I could have ever imagined. Personally, I never pulled one of these from back in the day or in present-day products.

The questions I have are:

Are blank backs from the 90's and previous rare?
Were they made on purpose or are they an accident?
Are they valuable in any way?

Pulling a Wayne Gretzky rookie from a pack

A little while back I put out a request for math and collecting related ideas. Sal from Puck Junk gave me a few good ideas and here is the first one.

Something that has always been a dream of mine is to open a pack of 79-80 OPC and pull a pack fresh Wayne Gretzky rookie card. Having been too young when the cards were available for 20 cents and not having the $13495 for a box or $300+ dollars for a pack, all I can do is dream and look at the math.

Before I get into the math, there are always assumptions one makes with probability.

All packs are sealed, unsearched and you don't look at the back to see what card is there.

Each pack has 14 cards, no more and no less.

That each pack has randomized cards and by buying a box you aren't guaranteed to get a full set and you could get doubles of cards in the same pack.

Getting a Gretzky in a pack

Based on the set size and pack size, you have about a 3.48% chance of getting a Gretzky in a single pack. This includes the fact that you could get doubles of some cards in the pack.

Getting a Gretzky in a box

Based on set size and pack size, you have about an 81.72% chance of getting a Gretzky in a 48 pack box. This includes getting more than one which I am sure anyone spending 13K one a box would hope for a couple. Each box should give you 672 cards which in a perfect world would be a complete set and 276 other cards.

Here is a pretty cool image I found online of a Gretzky still in the pack.

Here is a shot of the front.

Here you can see the back and a bit of the Oilers jersey. I wonder if Wayne has a wax stain?

Another shot of the back.

Just for fun, I did a computer simulation of opening a 79-80 OPC box.

Here are some of my hits:

1 Gretzky Rookie #18

2 Jets Logo #81

2 Oilers Logo #82

1 Ken Dryden #150

3 Gordie Howe #175

1 Bobby Hull #185

2 Mike Bossy #230

1 Nordiques CL #261

Virtual Box Break

329 out of 396 (83%)

343 doubles

In all, my virtual break wasn't as successful as I hoped...good thing I didn't pay 13 grand for it. 1 Gretzky is better than none, but the grade and condition could make or break it. Missing 17% of the set also sucks, but with 343 doubles I am sure I could have traded for the rest.

I enjoyed doing the virtual break and would like to maybe do some others, if you can think of other boxes that need to be "virtually" busted please send along some ideas!