Some 70's and 80's hockey if you like

Most of these sets I'm about to show have a long way to go until they're complete, but the fun I'm going to have in chasing them all down is going to be endless.

I showed the 14 baseball cards from my recent COMC order yesterday, and that total is small in comparison to the 25 vintage cards from the 71-72 through 86-87 OPC sets that are pictured below.

All but one of the scans have 3 cards pictured.   It just worked out that way after going thru the pile.  The Jacques Lemaire card has a couple of creases which you can see if you look close (1 just above his head to the left, the other by his left glove), but for me they don't ruin the aesthetic of the card.  The Tony McKegney card was cheap and I wanted to get the 80-81 set going, and the Flames team card drops the want list for 76-77 OPC down to 12.  Bobby Orr and Ken Dryden are the two big "obstacles" left before that set is done.

The different colored borders that the 73-74 OPC set contains has me intrigued.  It'll be a while before I start seriously working on this set, but these trio of cards were a good start for me.  The Larry Robinson and Billy Smith RC's are pricey, and there are several other cards that go for $20 or more in really good condition, so this is another set that while not big, will take some time as I'll be picky in what I pick up for the set.

These three 83-84 OPC cards bring that want list even further down, as I now only need 11 to complete the set.  This will be done before too long (hopefully) even though I still need the Scott Stevens RC and the base card of Wayne Gretzky.

Biggest scan of the post, as these 6 84-85 OPC's were a nice cost-effective purchase.  I mailed an envelope to Norway on Saturday as part of a trade that will net me 22 of these.  When they come in, I'll be over 100 cards towards the set.

Both the 85-86 and 86-87 OPC sets are among my favorites, and I look forward to putting them together.   Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy RCs will be the major hurdles in finishing both of these, as they are tough to find for less than $150 in decent condition.

Love the airbrush on the Gamble, totally wiped out the Maple Leaf

The 71-72 OPC set I've been picking at for over a year now and I'm almost a quarter of the way through (just 2 more to get me there).   This is the one set that I've seen more cards than any other with paper loss on the back.  I'm sure many of these cards back in the day were taped into binders or onto some kind of paper, and when pulled off the backs were torn up.   It's a shame because this might be one of the best sets ever, and finding cards without that paper loss is essential for me.
I've pretty much given up finding any commons less than $1, but that's OK because I'm really only buying 2 or 3 at a time, thus not spending a whole lot of $$.

This isn't even the whole of the hockey portion, tomorrow I'll post the more modern cards.

Thanks for reading!

Robert