1979 O-pee-chee Ozzie Smith
olb31
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Wow these cards are incredibly difficult to come by anywhere near centered. I know the topps is tough too, but there are 1000 times more of them than the OPC. EVen low grades are off centered. I had one graded years ago that I bought in a set that's decently centered, and it got an 8, but since it's tough to find one.
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For real. 79 Topps always seem off centered but they are nothing compared to the OPCs. I have about half the set and am considering finishing but it’s going to take a looooong time to get a decently conditioned one. Not sure I want to deal with the hassle.
I've come close to consigning this one a couple of times, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Not even sure its value, but I know the pop count is a fraction of the Topps version.
Beauty. A Topps would probably go between $2500-$3000 so that one would be expensive. I’d keep it too.
that is a fantastic copy of the opc smith.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
If topps 9's are $3,000, then this one should be upwards $10,000, maybe more. IN my opinion.
Wow. Thanks for your input.
I would be stunned if it went for 10k. OPC doesn’t seem to have a 3x multiple.
Looks like the last one sold earlier this year for almost $2,500. Pop is 38. There are 2 10's, which I will assume are probably sheet cut cards. For a vital rookie card with this low of a pop, $2,500 seems like a huge bargain. a 1975 OPC Ryan psa 9 sold for almost $9,000, this one should be close to that.
Yep you are correct, see my post above.
OPC pop numbers are much lower but that is primarily because Topps is so much more popular among collectors and far fewer OPC cards are submitted.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I bet the 75 Brett OPC would be pretty close to 3x. the 68 Ryan is as well
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Brett 75 OPC PSA 10 at 23k and 68 Ryan OPC PSA 8 at 17.5k currently with 5 days to go in the latest monthly heritage auction. Looking forward to seeing where they finish up at.
One of those with auto in opc would be amazing.
Agree will be interesting to see where they end.
Dang, beating a dead horse about OPC baseball. It's niche.
niche, but very very cool. iykyk
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I disagree with you on this. Money is money. Passing over a centered near mint or better raw Ozzie, Eddie, Nolan, Barry, Mickey or any other star card, just because it's opc. No way. Knowing that a 1973 opc nolan ryan psa 8 sold for $1,200 a couple of weeks would make you want to buy the cards.
So if I am at a show and I see a nice raw 1976 OPC Hank aaron for $40, i am not going to say to myself, "well that's an opc card, I don't want that".
Here are a few real factors:
1) condition - like the ozzie and eddie and many others, the OPC cards are just not well enough centered to send in.
2) quantity - approx 5% of topps, thus very difficult to even find one at a card show.
3) Past sells - due to the lack of "inventory" it's hard to put your hand on just what an OPC card should sell for. The 80's kind of shows you this. There are 1983 OPC gwynn's, 1985 opc Puckett's, 1987 opc Bonds etc for sale due to the increased production of the 80's opc cards. (prolly still about 5% of the topps) ALl of these and many more sell for 5-10 times more than their Topps counterpart, it's not close. Thus when you can see past sells readily, it makes the consumer more confident to buy the card.
Number 3 is very key. Everyone wants to know the value of their cards or a card they want to purchase. If that amount is hard to come by or is not known, this makes the consumer a little more hesitant. But as time has gone by we have seen that most Nolan Ryan opc cards are = or better than the Topps counterpart. We have seen the 80's opc rookies dominate the topps version.
Not one 1979 Ozzie opc psa 8 and up on ebay. 4 7's that have no side border basically and the raw ones are just as bad.
For a rookie card the 1979 OZZIE OPC has to be the hardest to find in centered psa 8 and up condition as any rookie card out there.
I would love that card for my OPC set. Although this card is tough to find centered, I can't imagine this card selling for more than $3000 IMO. 1979 OPC is much easier to locate than some of the other OPC years. 1971 OPC is really tough to get in high grade and many of the stars in PSA 8's which have a pop of 5 or 6 sell pretty closely to the Topps version.
I said nothing about value. Reread my post. My point (which is a valid one) is that OPC pop numbers are far less than Topps because Topps is much more popular than OPC and far fewer OPC cards are submitted to PSA. The numbers don't lie.
A 1979 OPC PSA 9 Ozzie Smith is a valuable card. That said, in general, the vast majority of OPC commons are pretty cheap compared to their Topps counterparts in higher grade. Why is that? Because no one bothers to actively seek out OPC common cards to submit to PSA. The stars command premiums, however, for player set collectors. I have never suggested otherwise.
The whole "5% of Topps production" is highly misleading also. As an unopened collector, I can tell you that most (not all) OPC unopened packs from the 70s are just about as plentiful as Topps. They are certainly nowhere near what that percentage would suggest where there's 1 1979 OPC pack for every 19 1979 Topps packs. And if we're talking value between them, a 1979 Topps baseball wax pack is nearly twice the value of a 1979 OPC baseball wax pack.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I think that goes more to your point that Topps is much more popular than OPC.
Therefore more OPC packs were left unopened.
That is not a good indicator of print run ratios to Topps either.
Truth is no one really knows. The 5% figure is generally used but no one knows for sure and one thing we do know is that 1979 OPC wax is very plentiful, along with many other years from the 70s.
I agree completely that Topps is far more popular.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I have always heard that OPC production figures were 5% of Topps. What I dont know is where that number came from? Was there any truth/accuracy behind it, or was it just a number someone threw out years ago and people repeating it throughout the years made it stick?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Here is your quote. and I followed with the answer.
1) condition - like the ozzie and eddie and many others, the OPC cards are just not well enough centered to send in.
2) quantity - approx 5% of topps, thus very difficult to even find one at a card show.
3) Past sells - due to the lack of "inventory" it's hard to put your hand on just what an OPC card should sell for. The 80's kind of shows you this. There are 1983 OPC gwynn's, 1985 opc Puckett's, 1987 opc Bonds etc for sale due to the increased production of the 80's opc cards. (prolly still about 5% of the topps) ALl of these and many more sell for 5-10 times more than their Topps counterpart, it's not close. Thus when you can see past sells readily, it makes the consumer more confident to buy the card.
Look at this way, If you have a POP 1 of a Pete Rose card, let's say a 1979 OPC PSA 10, which has a pop of 1. How much would you sell it for? How much would I buy it for? There are no comps. You would have to go by the Topps version sells. But as we have seen with Bonds, Ryan, Gwynn, etc that isn't always reflective of what you could get or what the true value is.
Hence, the 1987 Bonds opc psa 8's and 9's have a pretty established value and those cards sell well, just like a 1983 gwynn opc. But within the last month a person purchased a 1975 opc psa 6 Nolan Ryan from 4Sharp for $149, turned around and resold it for $300. A topps psa 6 goes for about $70. There just isn't enough sells to get a good value. Plus the miscuts and horrific cardboard stock used, keep people from wasting their time grading them. I don't necessarily think people just don't like them or want them.
I've read the 5% thing on several websites, but never saw where it came from, or how they figured it out.
Can PSA pop reports be used in any way?
1979 Topps baseball total pop is 137,450
1979 OPC baseball total pop is 9,543
OPC is about 6.9% of Topps
1979 Topps baseball wax pack pop count is 853
1979 OPC baseball wax pack pop count is 449
OPC is about 52.6% of Topps
Other factors off the top of my head are Topps cards are just what collectors want when it comes to baseball. And, Topps simply has more cards in the set(792) vs the OPC set(396).
I get it. You are and have always been an OPC cheerleader. That's fine and I enjoy OPC wax and OPC cards as well. I'm just a bit more realistic than you are about the facts and the underlying factors with regard to the sets and their popularity (or lack thereof). Happy collecting!
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I would argue 80s cards are a different beast. If your thing is 80s cards and you are motivated by the chase, you don't have many options other than niche. It doesn't matter what your niche is (there are many) but if you want the chase you've likely explored some combination of tiffany, variations, OPC/Leaf, mint-only, minor league, or non sport (e.g. GPK). Pre eBay you could make a case for there being somewhat of a challenge in finding any particular card (even 80s) depending where you lived --but nowadays that's not the case and for me it's hard to get excited about buying a card when there are 100s and 100s of exactly the same card available on eBay. It's not that I don't like the base Topps (I do!), it's just that I finished picking up all those cards as soon as I jumped back in the hobby and I don't feel motivated to build hoards of any particular card with seemingly endless supply.
Makes sense I guess. Personally, I’m only “motivated by the chase” for rarer items that I care about, not just anything that’s hard to find.
Speaking of 1979 OPC Ozzie Smith rookies, here is mine, pack pulled and self-subbed to PSA.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Yeah it's great when the two intersect.
@grote15 that is a fantastic OPC Ozzie. must be more meaningful as you pulled it yourself!
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
Thanks! Yes, for sure, I always had a stronger attachment to self-submitted cards. I don't sub as much as I did when prices were a lot cheaper, but I still enjoy doing so occasionally.
A few other pack pulled OPC cards over the years.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
grote - i try to understand inconsistencies. sometimes it easier than others. obviously there may be no one answer. being a CPA i am very analytical and one of the 5 principles of accounting is consistency.
and yes the ozzie looks great. the topps goes for $300. i will give you $350 for yours. let me know.
The hobby is certainly filled with its share of inconsistencies and anomalies and linear logic doesn't always apply to all aspects. I'd agree that there are different interpretations depending on your perspective, too.
I appreciate the offer on the Smith RC but it's the only graded example I have in my collection so I will likely just hold onto it for now. Here's another version of the 1979 OPC Smith RC in its original packaging, which I recently got back from PSA in a pack submission.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I have one of those in the next BBCE auction. Had two Ozzie backs in my box but wasn’t checking until I opened the first one. Not a big pack collector so will put it into something else I want more. Split box with my brother he has a Munson pack that graded a 9.
Good luck with the auction! I have a few PSA 9 78 OPC packs with Murray on back, also, one of of my favorite cards from the 70s.
The good thing about 1978 and 1979 OPC packs is that your chances of hitting a pack with Murray or Ozzie showing are greater vs Topps as both sets are much smaller than the Topps version.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Grote, My experience with opening those old opc packs is that at least one card is damaged by the gum. So if for example (see above) the murray card is showing, does that hurt the condition of the card? Is it more valuable just because its showing, kind of for the novelty of it, if the condition is worse?
If the key card is on top, yes, that is typically true, as the gum will usually affix to the back of the card, but not when the card is on back because the card on back of an OPC wax pack from this era is almost always faced out so a dryer sheet or nylon can easily wipe off any wax residue that may be on the surface of the card. I've pulled PSA 9s from cards faced out on back of a wax pack. That said, for unopened collectors, the value of the pack is not the card itself but the rarity of finding an original, unaltered pack in its original packaging with a key rookie card showing. That is far tougher to find vs the card itself and its potential grade. No serious unopened collector would ever consider opening a pack like that one.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Heritage auction 1975 OPC Brett PSA 10 sold for 63k last night, 68 OPC Ryan PSA 8 sitting at 32k with the juice with a few hours remaining till the end of this evening's auction.
wow!!!
is 63k the record for an OPC card?
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
PSA auction prices for this card has a sale as far back as 2012 which is the most recent sale on the website with a realized price of 5k and not knowing of any sales from that time till now I would have to believe so unless someone has info on a more recent sale, either way a great sale and a great card I would imagine the buyer and consigner are pretty happy!
Based on Henderson that somehow seems cheap. Crazy.
One of these sold for $97,200 in an 8.
when I am discussing OPC cards, I am thinking of the OPC that mirrored Topps from 1965-1991. also not the 1991 OPC premier set.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
1968 OPC ryan PSA 8 finishes at 42k with the juice. Most likely a record in this grade and more than 5X what the Topps 8 typically sells for.
Big pockets win big cards.
Enjoy the go.
I think you should be able to use collectibles in your retirement accounts. Most of the cards do better than the markets and with grading so big, the MV is usually somewhat determinable.
Most cards do not do better than the markets. I love cards but they are expensive to buy, expensive to sell, and don’t generate income. What other asset requires 10-20% rake to sell?
Rare cards have done spectacularly well but from an investing perspective the SP500 has soundly trounced 98% of cards we own.
Unfortunately this is absolutely true. I wish it wasn’t but it also keeps me from spending too much on them so maybe that’s good. 😊
Mile High Auction has a couple of OPC Nolan Ryan cards in their latest auction …68 OPC PSA 7 and a 1971 OPC 10 which should get some attention from Ryan registry collectors I’m sure.