Monday, November 29, 2021

Fun lot from Canada

I picked up a fun mixed lot of vintage cards from a Canadian seller. The lot was described as a mix of OPC and Topps, but turned out to be 90% OPC which is fun.

These look like ordinary, beat-up Topps cards from '65 to '67 . . .

But these cards are from the first three O-Pee-Chee sets! I learned that the only way you can tell is the back, where it says "Printed in Canada". I went back through all the cards from these years that I already had, and found one '66 Lou Johnson in my trade box that was also printed in Canada. You may want to look through yours!
My first OPC Deckle Edge cards. They are blank backed, and have black signatures, instead of Blue like the Topps issues.
Somehow '70 OPC keeps finding me! It must have been printed in higher quantities than other years, right? I added 54 new cards to that set, and I now have twice as many from '70 as I do from the other vintage OPC sets combined.

Some big names that were in the '70 OPCs. I don't even have Marichal, Bunning or Palmer in my '70 Topps set.

I've seen plenty of Topps cards from the '50s that were pulled from a scrapbook. I guess in Canada kids were still doing that as late as 1970. A lot of these cards had paper bits glued to the back. Some of the more interesting things on the backs of some of these cards were typewritten pages (in French!), stickers, and what I think was a postage stamp.
A few from '71-'73. Might as well show the backs as you wouldn't know they were OPC from the front.
A checklist-heavy group from '77, with one big name.

And rounding out the late 70s with some Big Red Machine notables.

There were Topps cards too. The seller had photographed the cards in a random mess, and I only saw this fella in the background of a shot. My first vintage Rapid Robert!

A few more Topps needs from the '60s.
Someone was doing their math homework on the back of Joe Torre's card.

A nice oddball pickup was this '71 Kellogg's Willie Stargell. These cards were known for their interesting writeup. This one notes that Stargell "has worked in ghettos in conjunction with the War on Poverty".

Here's another card I didn't have already, but won't be going into the '63 setbuild. It does appear to be an authentic autograph, from what I can see online, so this will be going into my autographs binder.

On to the trade bait! Perhaps you are working on a team set, or PC one or more of these guys. I should have better conditioned cards to trade so don't worry about the damage.

A few other available OPCs. The lot had two copies of the '66 checklist and the '79 Morgan, and I already had the '80 Blue Jays team.
Some older Topps cards that are available. For some of these I may have better conditioned cards, others not.

Four from '64.

Some '69 Topps cards, highlighted by an NL Home Run Leaders card with some big names, and two-high number rookie cards.

Closing out with a couple from the '70s.











4 comments:

  1. That's awesome. Those early OPC cards are not easy to find.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Someone either thought Donn Clendenon was Willie Stargell or maybe just wanted him to be?

    And poor Saul Rogovin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Plenty of good players. I'm way too condition sensitive for a lot like this though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. lol, that Rogovin is barely a card.

    Good stuff, I don't think any of my '60s cards are hiding out as OPCs, but it's worth a check.

    ReplyDelete