Why is O-Pee-Chee worth more than Topps???

[CoolHandLuke]

Here is my take. Hockey was much more popular in Canada then in the states in the 70's and sets did have more cards. But what really made it that way was that there was not much Topps selling in Canada because there was not really a secondary market except for card show. Since you could not buy Topps pack, there was no interest back then to build sets. When Beckett started in 1989 they simply applied the demand that was in place at the time and OPC sold way higher. Now Beckett does not change much pricing on older cards except maybe for the big star. So it stayed that way ever since.

[subban7677]

It's not just a case of Beckett allowing the higher OPC prices to simply stay in place, however. A Dryden OPC RC will sell for more than its Topps counterpart any day of the week, will it not?

[Tripredacus]

It seems to me, that with 80s sets at least, the OPC editions are on nicer card stock than Topps. It is easy to tell between the two (especially ones where there is no brand logo on the front) by looking at the back. The brighter, clearer ones are OPC and the darker ones are Topps.

[30ranfordfan]

Luc may very well be onto something.

We're talking about hockey products. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that at any point since 1985: A Mario Lemieux RC sold for more (on average) in Canada than it did in the USA. Would have been (and probably still is) a big seller in the Pittsburgh area, but I betcha there would be a premium paid for that card in Toronto that did not exist in Los Angeles.

Since Topps was the set readily available in the USA, and OPC the one that was available in Canada, it would only make sense that the OPC versions of the cards typically sold for me.


If you were going to get into 80s set building today, I think you'd be crazy to do anything but OPC. Too many RCs are missing from the Topps sets (Theo Fleury, Mike Vernon are two the come to mind right away.... but I'm sure there are a couple of even bigger ones if you go earlier in the 80s). OPC was always a slightly bigger set. None of the biggest ones are missing (Gretzky, Messier, Lemieux, Bourque, Roy, Yzerman are the "big 6" IMO) but there are other guys in those 2nd and 3rd rungs that are.

The OPC card stock is better, and is allegedly not as widely produced (other than 89-90, when Topps was shorter printed for some reason) but I would imagine both were printed in such large volumes that today, it doesn't really matter.

I think there is also one year in there that Topps didn't make a hockey set - just OPC ??

If you're eyeing some "key" Topps cards from the 80s: The RCs from 89-90 are considered to be the better versions (Sakic, Leetch, Linden. Fleury is only in the larger OPC set). In 88-89, the Brett Hull RC year, the Gretzky card is much nicer in the Topps set. Shows him holding up a Kings Sweater @ a press conference.... rather than the much uglier pose photo that was used in OPC. When I did my set of 88-89 OPC, I also grabbed the Topps Gretzky as a "companion" to the set :)

Plus there is the 80-81 Topps set. Get the unscratched cards. I think unscratched and in mint condition, these would outsell the OPC version (where there was nothing to scratch). Not exactly my biggest strength in hobby knowledge though, so maybe I'm wrong here?

[jandrack]

1982-83 and 1983-84 were the years there was just OPC hockey and no regular Topps (I think Topps still did stickers those years). Such a sad time for this kid in the US! I was so darn happy to see the 1984-85 Topps hockey return, especially since my favorite player, Clark Gillies, was on the box top that year.

Since Topps is what I grew up with I tend to lean towards the Topps cards of the 1970s and 80s but I've been slowly trying to fill in the blanks with the OPC cards that weren't included in the smaller Topps sets.