OPC Gretzky Rookie Price Averages - A Little Research

[jcharles66]

I'm in the early stages of looking for an OPC Gretzky rookie, and am heading up to the Chicago National show with my wife (her b-day present to me) with the goal of picking one up - I have a bit of saving to do first :) I'm by no means an expert (not even close), but have started to compile sales data so I have some reference. I thought you might also find this interesting. I looked up 34 recent bid auction transactions on eBay and logged the sale price.

This is by no means a statistical sample, and only includes bid auction prices (not fixed):

Time Frame: around March 1st 2017 (30 days worth of info)

PSA Grade	Becket Book Value	Average Ebay Auction Price	Based on This # Sales	Low Sale	High Sale
VG 3	$250	$227	4	$202	$292
VG-EX 4	$300	$297	5	$261	$319
EX 5	$500	$391	4	$409	$452
EX-MT 6	800	$520	6	$535	$717
NM 7	1200	$1,417	7	$1,300	$1,571
NM-MT 8	3500	$3,668	8	$3,300	$4,375

Makes sense that the final sale on a card like this is very close to Beckett book value since there's so much sales history on the card. One thing that struck me was the variance on centering within the same grades.

I'm curious what I'll find at actual card shows in terms of pricing and qty for sale. I'm guessing eBay represents the low end of the market, but don't have any real experience to back this up. Any insights are appreciated!

Happy collecting -
- Jerry

[jameslacarte]

I'm sure you can find a pretty good deal for a Gretzky rookie. Im not sure you will find it at a card show though but i could be wrong. You may find the prices on EBay to be the better ones. I was fortunate as a kid to collect these sets. At .10 cents a pack you couldnt go wrong. I have the full set before Gretzky's rookie, his rookie year set & the next year 80-81 as well.I even got the locker boxes from the backs of the wrappers to put the cards in as well.. At 1 time i even had 2 doubles of the Gretzky but parted with the extra 2 years ago though i kept the best 1. I'm sure it would grade at least an 8. I had no idea back then the value this card would have or i probably would have kept all 3. Good luck in your search & do not overpay for one. You have done your homework already so use your info wisely.. Cheers

[jcharles66]

James, I can't imagine finding a Gretzky rookie as a kid. That card has so much more value than the $ value since you actually pulled it from the pack. I may end up buying one off Ebay at some point, but thought it would be fun to try and find one at July's Chicago show. Plus it gives me some time to save for it and I can hold it in my hands before buying it. Thx!

[creasecollector]

Nice research! Best of luck tracking down a OPC Gretzky Rookie for your collection :)

[jameslacarte]

I was only 9 when i got these. I had no idea what i even had until years later when i started collecting again & went through these old locker boxes. To my credit i had every team in they're team slots & it was easy to go through it & see what i had. In 1979 Beckett wasnt even thought of. I remember them in the 1990's when i took it up again so i was kind of surprised to see what i actually had & to go to my section of the locker where the doubles were kept & find 2 more makes me think that even at age 9 i knew he was something special. I hope you find what your looking for at a good price too. Cheers

[Stryfex]

Hmm, I had never paid much attention before but I had it in my head that gretzky OPC rookies were worth significantly more than that

[jcharles66]

Thanks CreaseCollector, me too :)

James, that's just a great story. Don't ever sell that card. I think we all daydream sometimes about having those kinds of experiences.

Stryfex, regarding value, once you get to a PSA 9 you're looking at $30K so there's a big incline starting at 7/8. But, I kind of agree with you. To think you can have a graded 6 at around $600 seems low. That's likely a function of the high number of cards issued at the time.

[CircleL]

I was the right age for buying packs when Gretzky was a rookie i was i think 7 or 8 years old that year and i always kept all my cards. I went back through my shoe boxes of cards when i was in my early twenties and to see if i had any of the Gretzky rookies and to my surprise i had 6 or them!

I ended up getting them all graded by KSA as i'm in Canada and they graded out at;
5 - 1 card
4 - 2 cards
3 - 2 cards
1 - 1 card

I was young and that is when you used to flick the cards against the wall playing games at school!

Still cool to have them and know that i pulled them all out of the packs or won them playing at school. Imagine your kid taking your Sid Crosby to school and flicking it against the wall!

Over the years I've always thought of keeping the graded 5 and selling the other 5 cards but i never seem to try that hard to sell them!

[boston12]

I had been wanting one for the longest time. I got a PSA 5 for $367 I think In the fall. It was OK centering. I had been watching for a time and realized the centering is what drives the price within grade. I was ok not getting the most centered copy for $367. There was a large gap in pricing between psa 5 and 6. I think your $$$ amounts for 6 are low. At least when I was watching they hovered between $700-800 regularly. Good luck on your hunt!

[jcharles66]

CircleL, that's awesome. Too bad your buddy standing next to you didn't say, "Hey, that's a Gretzky. I just happen to have soft sleeve and top loader in my backpack. You'll thank me later" :) Seriously, I bet you were thrilled to find them later on in your 20s.

Boston12, great that you got one! I agree that the 6 looks low. Here are the sales I based the average on: $717, $609, $660, $540, $535 and $575. Another just sold on March 6th for $600. It looks like some of the fixed price auctions averaged a little higher and I didn't include those in the average. There was one on 2/27 at $700 and another nicely centered version at $746. There's definitely a big difference in centering within the same grade as you pointed out.