Upper Deck has secured the rights to the O-Pee-Chee brand name and will release a 700 card set later in the hockey season.

O-Pee-Chee cards dates back to 1933 and over the years contained some of the most sought after rookie cards including the 1979-80 Wayne Gretzky rookie card.

The 2006-07 set will consist of the following:

• Industry’s most comprehensive hockey set
• An average of one themed subset card in every pack
• One memorabilia card per box
• O-Pee-Chee autograph cards

Signature and Memorabilia Cards

• O-Pee-Chee Swatches - game-used jersey cards - inserted 1:36
• O-Pee-Chee Autographs - signature cards - inserted 1:36

Parallel cards and inserts

• Regular Cards - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)
• Hall Worthy - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)
• Team Checklist - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)
• Stat Leaders - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)
• Rookie/Sophomore Showdown - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)
• Marquee Rookies - Rainbow Parallel (#’d to 100)

Regular Set

• 500 Regular Cards
• 25 Hall Worthy
• 30 Team Checklists
• 15 Stat Leaders
• 30 Rookie/Sophomore Showdown
• Marquee Rookies

 
1979-80 Wayne Gretzky O-Pee-Chee Rookie Card

[tags]O-Pee-Chee, Upper Deck[/tags]

A PSA Gem Mint 10 1979 O-Pee-Chee rookie card of Wayne Gretzky recently traded hands for $80,000. 

Rick Snyder, founder and President of MINT State, brokered the sale between two of the company’s clients.

“Our consignor purchased the only PSA-graded Gem Mint 10 of Gretzky’s OPC rookie card in August 2005,” explained Snyder. “He made a recent decision to refocus his collection and asked MINT State to find a buyer. In less than 30 minutes, the card had sold to a private collector for $80,000, the highest price ever paid for a single hockey card.”Snyder continued, “Extremely high grade football, basketball, and hockey cards continue to escalate in value at higher rates than their baseball counterparts. The buyer viewed this as a rare opportunity to acquire the finest known rookie card of a major sport’s universally recognized all-time greatest player.”

It is the only PSA 10 Gretzky O-Pee-Chee ever graded by PSA.  According to the Beckett Grading Services population report, there have been 2 cards graded a Gem Mint 9.5 and none graded 10 Pristine.