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1981 Hockey - Results 11/15
OddRodz
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
NO Gretzky first pack. Will see if BBCE will accept a return now. 
1
OddRodz
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
OddRodz
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
OddRodz
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
OddRodz
Posts: 645 ✭✭✭
NO Gretzky first pack. Will see if BBCE will accept a return now.
Comments
A hockey rip! I love it. Two Sabres too.
Kevin
Kevin
Oh I see it's going to be one of 'those' boxes where the o/c comes in at all the wrong times
Bummer on the Gretz. But two more Sabres.
Kevin
Kevin
There are enough low pop 9s with no 10 out there too. I would check the report against your pulls for even the psa 9s if you plan to hold or sell. At some point I imagine hockey will get an uptick, hopefully similar to football.
You will get plenty of Gretzky. It is a Double Print card in that set. Is your box an East or a West distribution one?
Edit: Looks like an East box. Oh well, there are still some OK cards in the East high numbers, but bummer you'll miss out on Dino, Murph and Savard.
What's the indicator for East vs West? That is the only style that I've ever noticed and I don't see any printing indicators. Curious because I have one of these boxes too.
Thanks for any help,
Kevin
Kevin
You can't tell by the box on the outside. Once you open 1 pack, you'll know which one you've got because some cards will be from the DP portion and some will be high numbers with either east or west up by the card number on back. Look at the pulls from the first pack he posted and you can figure it out. I will assume that since it is a BBCE box, that it is not a frankenbox and all the packs will be consistent and from the same box as issued, so in this case, all East variety.
If similar to 81/82 basketball, the only indicator is the cards in the packs. There were only certain cards in the regional subsets (like the McHale RC only available in the East). Curious if this was just a Topps thing, or did OPC have regional subsets as well?
This was just a Topps thing. The 1981-82 OPC set was an even distribution regardless of region, with no duplication of card numbers within the set like you have with Topps.
Ahhhh. I did notice the Eastern slant to the teams after your comment but wasn’t sure if there was another identifier on the box. I had know idea about the east/west releases. In the ‘80s I just bought packs from the rinks and didn’t take the time to learn more.
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
Kevin
Kevin
Awesome to see a hockey box! This is a great set and it's fun to put the East and West sets together.
any reason 1981 hockey wax boxes sell for the same price as two boxes of 1985 topps baseball?
Topps Hockey:
Pro (vs. OPC) - The sets are small in total number of cards but you get a fair amount of cards per pack compared to number of cards per OPC pack, so your chances at getting multiple copies of the bigger hit cards in the set when opening a box are good. (For example, the box in this thread will likely yield several Gretzkys, Kurris and Stastnys where as 1985 Topps baseball may only have on McGwire or maybe none). As an added bonus, the gum isn't as sugarsticky as the OPC gum.
Con (vs. OPC) - The sets are small in total number of cards so the simultaneous/near-parallel OPC version will be more inclusive and therefore will have a lot more different stars & RC's that are not present in the Topps sets. Production and distribution are relatively high and it is generally easier to find the single cards in higher grade than it is in OPC so value does not hold like OPC.
Comparing 1 x 1981 Topps hockey with 2x '85 Topps baseball, they do seem like relatively even products for what you can expect to get from ripping them both, when you consider how many worthwhile gradable cards you get from each as well as popularity of the cards and also lower production on '81 hockey than '85 baseball. If '85 baseball had equal production quantity and number of cards per set as with '81 T hockey, I think the baseball box would outsell it possibly as much as 3 x hockey vs. 1 x baseball.
However, both are situations where you're chasing 10's and even then, most people who want the cards already have them due to available volume.
It is fun and entertaining to rip older hockey, but 1981 Topps is IMO tied for last place in the 1980's Topps hockey sets as far as collection or value. I'd probably put '81 and '89 even with the 1977 set (which effectively has no big time RC's to chase), though 1977 may even be a touch lower down the list. 1980 and 1984-1988 are all significantly ahead of 1981 & 1989 (there were no Topps sets in 1982 or 1983).
miwlvrn - that is an amazing analysis. Very fun to read!
Years ago, my brother was on a mission to pull a nice 85 McGwire. We bought two boxes of OPC, not realizing he isn't in the set. Obviously our own stupid fault. I called BBCE to order a third OPC box and happened to mention "third times a charm." Steve took the time to ask what we were chasing. When I told him, he broke the bad news to me and instead sold us an 85 Topps box (I believe at the same price, but I don't recall that fact 100%). Long story short, my brother pulled the McGwire. BBCE is awesome.
Yes, for some reason, Topps vs. OPC baseball is the complete opposite of Topps vs. OPC hockey when it comes to set size and which cards are in both vs. only in one of the two checklists (well, most OPC baseball sets anyway, since half the 1970's sets were the same as Topps and half were not)
Um, perhaps because hockey was bigger in Canada and baseball bigger in the U.S.?
Yeah, agreed on the 1981 Topps not being one of the elite boxes of the 80's, hence this one being ripped
Had no idea about the east/west thing. Some of the cards have EAST under the number on back and some don't.
It will be quite a nice going through it as there is Gretzky galore. Will pull whatever is close to 10 material and some day make a decision on grading. If enough come back 10 or even 9, this would be a cool smaller registry set to build. If not... what are 8's worth.. a buck ? 9's ....3 ?
non star 10's.... 6 ?
The gum isn't sticking at all at least. It's just leaving a little ricin dust powder I can panyhose off and collect to snort later. (heh heh ). The back wrapper side is sticking more than the gum side.
2 sheets. 198 different. 1-66 issued for both east and west boxes and double printed. 67-132 are specific for east and west boxes. 1-66 have the *'s under the number, while 67-132 have EAST and WEST, respectively, under the number.
The Kurri in your scan looks good. Hope the zoom in looks equally good in hand.
Edit to add, I picked up a PSA 10 Kurri from 4sc several years ago that did not have as good of centering as yours there.
The Gretzky next to the Kurri looks good too, depending on the back sides of those.
Good luck with the Gretzky 10's; those can pay off for sure!
It is a little disheartening when a 10 Bourque can be had for less than grading fees and assoc. shipping costs.
https://ebay.com/itm/1981-Topps-Ray-Bourque-126-PSA-10-Rare-L-K-Bruins-/302434185814?epid=159347073&hash=item466a7b7256%3Ag%3ABg8AAOSwP8BZp2BK&nma=true&si=HN1OmlW%252BF%252FTmDvNr6phtGciCBk0%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
I must have 6 boxes worth of these singles cards I opened and are in monster boxes. I should go through them for grade worthy cards. I also have 4 unopened boxes, 2 east and 2 west boxes. I had them from sealed cases back in 1981.
Robert
email bcmiller7@comcast.net
Wow.. a PSA 10 Borque sold for 6.50 ??? Well that's disheartening for this set. The only thing now is to get some centered Gretzkys it seems. Will have to run back through all these to check for any real low pop commons.
Well, what's your count on each of the Gretzky cards, Kurri, and Stastny? Any of those looking like 10's?
Id love to look through your monster boxes Bob!!! You have some great cards!!!!!
It's still sittin' here 2/3 unopened. Dang time consuming life requirements.. keeps me from the more important stuff like box breaks.......
The only bummer thing here, and it may have actually somehow been factory, was there was one pack. in the middle of the box, without any gum. The wrapper was also without any glue of any kind but still wrapped around the cards as normal. The bummer though was a card, directly in the middle of the pack, had standard gum ricin dust residue in gum form on the back. There was no gum there. No further comment.
Fun friggin box rip. Still need to go through the box for low pops etc. but the highlights as known from above are:
You may be surprised. but yes !!! I got the friggin rare as rare 1981 Topps Hockey Franco Harris card too
Some very nice Kurri cards! Sucks about the mysterious missing gum / ricin incident. Ever encounter that before in a BBCE box?
Kevin
Kevin
Just one other time out of quite a few. A wrapped 1983 Topps Baseball cell box unfortunately had a single pack near the bottom that had a price sticker still on it. No other packs with stickers.