Are 1987 OPC Baseball wax boxes a diamond in the rough?
spazzy
Posts: 592 ✭✭
Noticed on SMR that 1987 OPC Baseball Bonds RC go for 2000.00 and up in a PSA10. Is 1987 OPC baseball that rare that it would have better than avg. future appreciation? I see Fact sealed boxes selling for 100.00 plus a box and this is for a 80s product. Also noticed that even 1988 and 89 OPC baseball fact sealed boxes are rising. Is it that hard to get a Bonds RC in a 10 or even a 9 in this product? Steve has Fact sealed 87 boxes for 99.00 and it seems they have been selling.
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Bonds is notoriously off center in this set.
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
Bonds are very difficult 10's. opc in general had lower production than topps
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
No
Join the Rookie stars on top PSA registry today:
1980-1989 Cello Packs - Rookies
I remember not too long ago these boxes were like $15 each..
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.
Might have better odds than playing the lottery, and be more fun.
Down side is you probably won't win the lottery OR find a PSA10 Bonds.
You have a better chance of pulling a PSA 10 Bonds by playing the lottery.
Arthur
I didn't want to get too much into this at the time because I had a Bonds at PSA and didn't want to jinx anything.
At this point, I believe I've opened either 57 or 58 boxes of '87 O-Pee-Chee. All of them were purchased 4-5 years ago, long before the whole OPC explosion thing happened. I've got invoices from BBCE of me buying 9 or 10 '87 boxes at a time at $9 each. I've also opened a sealed case. I'm nearly done with a complete run of Hall of Famers from the set with them showing on the front or back of a pack. My point is, I've opened an arseton of this stuff.
It's common in the hobby to say that a card is plagued with a particular condition issue. Well, the '87 OPC Bonds is downright bubonic. I know we live in a time when hyperbole is a condiment but I have never pulled a Bonds card -- in all 57 or 58 wax boxes -- that would have gotten me a PSA 8 due to centering. To put it another way, in all of those boxes, I've never pulled a Bonds card that was better centered than this one:
I know what you're thinking: bulls**t. As god is my witness, all of the Bonds cards I've pulled haven't had better T/B centering than that one. Except, of course, than the one I pulled a few weeks ago when I was bored and ripped a box. Not only was that one better than all of those other atrocities, it had a shot.
Of course, the cut and tilt kept it a 9 but I enjoyed the week of dreaming I had after I sent it out. While I obviously would have loved a 10, I'm still pretty happy with the 9, which is plenty difficult to procure in its own right. I've still got some boxes left too so I'm sure there will be some rippage in the near future. I don't expect any T/B centering better than 85/15 though.
Arthur
Arthur after seeing your diagram above i remembered coming across this auction,have you or anyone else here ever use one of these? I'm thinking about grabbing one to check it out.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Trading-Sports-Card-Centering-Tool-for-PSA-BGS-GAI-Chance-at-a-PSA-10/302271472583?ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
Nice hit with the 9, I have also been trying to chase this card down all over Canada, lol!
Still no luck but will continue to search for it!
Nice job pulling a 9! I also picked up some boxes on their downside, but after ripping one box no Bonds I quit.
Must say that I never liked that card of his. Always picture Willie McGee on the Pirates
That centering thingy is interesting. I feel like I can pretty much eyeball what is and what is not within 60/40 and for the stuff that's close I can measure the pixels in the same time it would take me to break that thing out.
Arthur
The same here but i might give it a try at some point just for curiosity sake.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
I have a T-Shirt that says that.
bobsbbcards SGC Registry Sets
a PSA 10 recently sold for 2,550.00 not a bad price. I think there are only 18 of them.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
I forgot to mention, more to the question posed by the OP, the set also has very difficult high-grade Canseco and Will Clark cards that sell for decent coin. I still think ripping boxes at $90+ is a financially losing proposition. I've never come close to a 10 on either of those cards in all of my boxes either. But the set definitely isn't Bonds or nothing.
Arthur
Arthur, how has the collation of these boxes been? 7 cards per pack, correct? I'm guessing you have been able to complete around 30-35 sets. Hope you get that Bonds 10.
Adam
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
i would also like to chime in on this as a big unopened opc baseball collector i have been picking up sealed cases of opc baseball for the last 10 years and i can tell you that this stuff is getting very very tuff to find...i have alot of 1987 opc basball from bbce boxes where some say tape intact and some dont but i also think to find these boxes in 1987 fasc are getting near impossible to find and from the boxes i have opened which has been about 30 or so reggie is 100 percent right on the bonds i have only been able to find about 2 to grade both were 9s which still brings decent money and there is also about 6 other cards that bring decent money like reggie said with clark and canseco...i love opc baseball and it does seem like boxes are getting tuffer.
Buy one from BST and save some coin
ETA: https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/955970/sale-new-grademaster-card-centering-tool-for-sale-update-now-includes-ebay-listings/p1
PSA 9's go for over $200
I did good on recent submission:
1 28842418 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds Card
2 28842419 MINT 9 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds Card
3 28842420 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds Card
I haven't sat down and done any hard data on the collation so anything I can provide will simply be my perception and memory. I haven't compiled any sets, just put the raw cards into monster boxes. I'm not a set collector so doing that work doesn't appeal to me. I do love all the '87 designs though so when I get older I probably will go through it all and maybe do a registry set.
I can tell you I didn't pull a Bonds in my first 5 boxes, I remember that. I remember the first few Bonds cards I got had Lloyd Moseby right after them but then that stopped and the sequence never repeated itself again. There are some sequences that are pretty stable (I know Sandberg almost always has another HOFer in the pack with him, can't remember who though).
I can tell you the most common HOFers I found to be showing on either the top or bottom of a pack were:
Brett
Molitor
Rickey
Sandberg
Other than that I can't really think of anything to tell you. If I ever break down all the raw cards I have I'll post the results in this thread. That just seems like a miserable task, at this point though.
Arthur
That data point sure makes the 3 BGS 9.5's that sold recently for between $350 & $600 seem like better deals. All 3 had 3 9.5's and one 9 as subs. Total cost for the 3 would have been less than the cost of the PSA 10. If the sale price of the PSA 10 was repeatable and not an anomaly, it sounds like it may have been worth the gamble to have picked up all 3 BGS ones and subbed to PSA for crossover.
Thank you for the info. I'm just hoping you have better luck on collation than you did with 89 Donruss from that other thread
buying O-Pee-Chee (OPC) baseball
Odds are likely that 1 or all of those BGS are sheet cut. There are a lot of sheets and cut panels out there
Haha!
You're probably right on that one Tom! Nice to see you popping up back here lately.
Speak of the devil I guess. I just noticed that the guy who bought the 9.5 Bonds in Feb. for $350 has listed it for 3-day auction.
Larkin,
Thanks so much for the publicity!! I'm glad people like the tool!
Schultz24
Wow...What a Journey...Out of the first 5 boxes that did not have Bonds, were they from fact taped boxes?...Great information
I can't remember. Keep in mind, not to toot my own toot, but, I was way ahead of the whole '87 OPC Bonds thing. I was buying boxes off Steve for $9/ea and the Bonds 10 was selling for ~$300. I figured I'd pull one or just buy one eventually when they popped up (5 sold in an eight month stretch between late-13 and mid-14). I wasn't examining the boxes for factory tape or taking copious notes at that point. I hadn't had my baby carrot kung fu kicked in over and over and over again by the neverending 85/15 T/B centering yet.
By the time one sold for $400 it was too late. That June, 2015 BIN got hit immediately. I know because I was set to hit the next one that popped up. The rest is history.
Arthur
Recent pull.... sorry pic isn't better quality.
That's unicorn centering on that. Looks like a slam dunk 9.
Arthur
Awesome pull! How many boxes did you rip?
John
I was stunned when looking at completed sales of BBCE 1987 OPC boxes. So to answer the OP, the answer is a resounding yes.
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Greg Maddux #1 Master SetGreg Maddux #2 Basic Set
Having opened the amount of these boxes that I've opened and having seen the results on the Bonds card it is simply unfathomable to me for this box to have this market value IF YOU'RE RIPPING. Obviously, as an unopened piece it's quite important, especially as either tape intact or FASC.
But I implore you, dear reader, don't rip '87 OPC looking for a Bonds that will grade higher than a PSA 6-7. It's for your own benefit.
Arthur
Not always. I opened 3 boxes in the last 4-5 years and pulled 1 PSA 9 and 2 PSA 8's.
Is this one worth submitting? Will it get a MC due to the diamond cut?
image uploader
yes. even 7s and 8s are selling for decent coin.
that is pretty good centering even taking into account the diamond cut. all my raw ones are significantly off center.
George Brett, Roger Clemens and Tommy Brady.
That's what I thought, the scan for some reason makes the diamond cut seem much worse then in hand. And this was the nicest of a bunch that I pulled from wax.
I found a run of approx. 50 Opc Bonds at a show -maybe 2 were better than 70/30 LtR.
Kiss me twice.....let's party.
submit that as fast as you can
Checked my submissions, three 8's and one 9.
47970214 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds 28842418 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds 28842419 MINT 9 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds 28842420 NEAR MINT-MINT 8 1987 O-Pee-Chee 320 Barry Bonds