Monday, December 24, 2012
My top 25 sets #2: 1984-85 OPC hockey
Set 1984-85 OPC
Number of cards in set: 396
Affordability: 7
Key RCs: Cam Neely, Steve Yzerman, Doug Gilmour, Chris Chelios, Pat LaFontaine
Is the set built?: It was once, read on for the story
What I like about this set: Mimicking the 1983 Topps baseball design with the added player photo featured on an inset circle, and with a top shelf crop of RCs, this ranks as the best 80's set that OPC released. The color of the border matches the prominent team color, always a great feature in my book. There are also some very undervalued RC's of some great players. Dave Andreychuk and Pat Verbeek, $6. Tom Barrasso, $5?
The card back is also very uncluttered and easy to read. Complete career stats, and in some cases a lengthy bio printed both in English and French are available. The silhouette of a hockey stick on the back does not really interfere with any of the wording as well. The players name is contained in a rectangular blue box, and the rest of the back has a pink/red background with dark blue lettering.
What I don't like about this set: That the complete set I once had is no longer in my possession. I stupidly sold it a long time ago when I was in need of money. I really should have sold something less important, like a kidney.
This set is another where memories play a big part of the reason why the set is ranked really high. This set is one that I never started collecting until the card boom of the early 90's. I bought a couple of packs of it, I want to say for around $8 at a card show, and instantly fell in love. When I lived close to the US border in the early 90's, I would actually drive across the border into Niagara Falls, NY, to the LCS there to pickup packs. This is at a time when the dollar was maybe 70 cents American, so that made the trip a little more pricey. But in the end, this set was well worth it. When I moved to the US, like any other newbie, I was strapped for cash, so assets were sold, including this beauty.
Never again. I will rebuild it sometime, and do my best never to let go again.
Thanks for reading, Robert
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I have a few singles from this set and today is the first time I saw the resemblance between this and it's baseball counterpart. The 1983 baseball set is one of my favorites... and I think this set look better than that. Great looking set. Happy holidays.
ReplyDeleteEven worth going after the Topps version since they can be had for a REAL bargain!
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