Brian Leetch's Actual OPC "Rookie" - 1988-89??

[mingus_md]

Red Garrett played for the New York Rangers in 1942-43 and has his rookie card in 2004-05 ITG Franchises, so 62 years late. There are probably others that beat this, maybe in Between the Pipes.

Ha! I hadn't thought about that angle..... when a rookie card gets made, years after they retired.

2004-05 ITG Franchises is filled with them. I suspect someone who beats 38 years. Bill Masterton (off the top of my head) was a Rookie in 67-68, but his first card was 2004-05 ITG Franchises. That's only 37 years though, so Madigan still has him beat.

[Savard18]

Red Garrett played for the New York Rangers in 1942-43 and has his rookie card in 2004-05 ITG Franchises, so 62 years late. There are probably others that beat this, maybe in Between the Pipes.

lol, when I pointed out McRae and his lack of cards for 8-9 seasons I was referencing or thinking of players that played at least since Topps and Parkhurst were producing and issuing cards on a yearly basis.

I just find his rookie to be interesting because - at least to me - Basil McRae was a well known player throughout the 80's and 90's, I mean IMO, he was Tie Domi before Tie Domi - they both certainly had similar fighting styles.. I don't know, I was just shocked that McRae's 89/90 OPC is his rookie factoring he is/was a "name player" if you watched hockey in the 80's and 90's - he's not the type of player where fans of the game say "who?" when you mention Basil McRae, lol... I mean he spent enough time in the box to be a household name if you were a fan of the teams he played for or your team was a rival...

[Savard18]

A "card", only in that it's the backing of a sticker, that came from a pack of stickers. Not a "rookie card" because it didn't come from a pack of cards.

Doesn't change the fact that they're cool items.... and in my own (Ranford) collection, I've got any OPC or Panini sticker that was ever made of him (including an LA Kings team photo from when they won the cup).

It does seem odd to me, that they would have made a sticker (card?) of him that year, but not a regular OPC card. Looking at the checklist quickly, it seems they used the back of a bunch of stickers to include other players that didn't have stickers (mostly Future Stars, but maybe more?). He only played 17 games the season before... and with the limited size of checklists back then, I guess I can see that they wouldn't have prioritized him - but I guess the thinking (in general) around checklists back then was very different.




I'm sure there's lots in the 70s and 80s like that. Maybe not as long as McRae.... but a few I know off the top of my head (all Oilers, lol):

Dave Brown. His Rookie Card is in 1990-91 Pro Set Series 2. He made his NHL debut in 1982-83 with Philadelphia, never spent a day in the minors after the 83-84 season. He had logged 313 Games, and 1033 PIMs with the Flyers before they traded him to Edmonton during the 88-89 season.... played the rest of the year with Edmonton, all of the 89-90 season with Edmonton, and part of the 90-91 season with Edmonton before Pro Set decided to make a card of him. Couple of other Oilers in that set (Buchberger, Beukeboom) only got RCs in 1990-91, after being in the league for quite a while - though not as long as Brown.

Would be an interesting one to look up, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it.

Well, as far as Leetch, I'll just go ahead and label it (no pun intended) a "pseudo-card", lol.. I mean I have plenty more of his actual base rookie cards, both Topps & OPC than I do of his 1988 OPC "pseudo-card", and honestly I think it's a really cool "item", not only that but I believe Leetch also has an actual sticker in the set as well, and another "Future Star" pseudo-card in 89 as well...

Also, you hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that it's odd that OPC didn't include Leetch's rookie card in their base set, but they issued him a "pseudo-card" in their sticker set?...

I actually have a theory on that and my theory is timing and when OPC, OPC Stickers and Topps were released. Obviously all three sets weren't all released at the same time. I mean I'm absolutely certain that Topps used to be released the earliest - at some point at the start of the season, maybe late September, early October then OPC followed up Topps and released their set perhaps around mid-November or early December, perhaps and the OPC stickers were probably released at some point after that.

And I base my theory on the idea that OPC lists trades on their cards that happened that very season and OPC includes rookies that played that season as well and Topps doesn't - well at least not usually - OPC does tho so OPC has to be released at some point a month or two into the season, which is why I say late October or November, and I do have evidence suggesting this, I mean have a look at these cards I'm sure you're familiar with:

Obviously the same year, and the only difference is one is Topps and the other is OPC, so clearly Topps was always released before OPC.

As far as figuring out or finding players that played a decent amount of time or games before they were issued their first regular issued card - I know www.hockeydb.com not only provides player statistics but hockeydb also provides players card checklists. So that may be a way to find players whom had to wait a long time before they were acknowledged on a piece of cardboard.

Either way I find the below cards interesting, also I have no issue at all with lower grade cards, however vintage cards with random gibberish written on them - especially the front - make me cringe. I mean I only have that one Sawchuk because it came in a Sawchuk lot and I've been meaning to upgrade the card with another one with a clean front regardless of the grade - I'd happily take one in VG just as long as it's not written on.. And to make it worse Sawchuk cards are very photogenic when not written on, lol.