OPC 1980-81 Hockey up next? Opinions please!

mike22y2k

Recently finished 79T Hockey and I'm interested in starting a 1980-81 OPC PSA graded set.

What are some of the hurdles and what cost can I expect for this 2 year project?

Or should I just start on a 67 Star Trek set.

Thanks for any opinions

Mike

MULLINS5

First, congrats on finishing your '79 Topps set!

1980 O-Pee-Chee is a beautiful issue but a mammoth of one…not to mention if you are looking to compete in the registry turbos has a pretty sick set…more cards in high grade are available now due to 4SC, but still at almost 400 cards that’s a lot of money to spend.

The Star Trek set looks like fun, and at only about 70 cards seems more manageable. When building larger sports sets people tend to put a lot of money into players they don’t know much about, thus buying the grade/case rather than the card itself which zaps a lot of fun out of the process…but the Star Trek looks like it would be more fun on a card-to-card basis to build.

Of course, choose whichever one you want!

Patrick

mike22y2k

Thanks Patrick.

54topps

I'd say stick with Star Trek. Of course I only say that as Im working on the 80' OPC

RedHeart54

I love the '80 OPC set. (I finally bought a PSA 9 graded pack- TO STAY CLOSED.) You didn't mention what grade you want but a PSA 9 set, for example, would take over two years IMO.

Hurdles? Some of the Gretzky cards are very tough in PSA 9. The #2 Ray Bourque rookie scoring card is also very difficult. (I think I've only seen two or three on ebay in the last 9 or 10 years.) You also have the added joy that this is an expensive product to rip so there aren't a lot of pack fresh cards on the market. (The gum would be a killer too.) Even so, the cards have the typical early 80s OPC quality control (rough cuts, poor centering, etc) we love so much.

A great set but something (in high grade) with which you'd have to be patient.

Bosox1976

Star Trek - but keep your eye out for the top 10 OPC hockey toughies, and bid strong on them.

TurbosHockey

Well since this set is very near and dear to my heart I will say go for it. You can pick up 8's for around $9, PSA 9's for aroun 19.99 and PSA 10's are starting to creep up there at around $75.00 and up. Of course these are for commons. I was fortunate enough to get some nice raw singles about 5 years ago and then 1.5 years ago bought the number 2 set on the registry to help get me to alomost every card in PSA 9. Centering can be a real pain but you can't beat the rookie crop in here at all. A few months back Kevin Glew did a great article for the SMR you should read. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me.

Cheers.
Turbo

ICE9

Great ROOKIE selection with HOFers Borque (2), Messier, Gartner & Goulet...multiple 2nd year Gretzky's as well as Bossy, Trottier, Lafleur, Perreault, you can't go wrong. As mentioned above, the record breakers (first 5 or 6 cards) are tough to find centered because of very thin boarders. Good luck with which every you choose!

divecchia

I don't know a great deal about the set, but will say that any set consisting of almost 400 cards with many popular rookies and second year players would surely take more than 2 years to complete in high grade, unless your funds are endless. It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. If you are looking for something more long term I would try and do this set. If your looking to complete something within a certain time frame you may want to do the Star Trek set.

Donato

Edited to add: Congrats on completing your 1979 Topps Hockey set...

Bunker

Maybe you could put together a nice raw set of gradeable cards. Whenever there is a special send a handful in.