The 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee is one of the most Iconic sports cards today. It has the trifecta for rarity.
- It was from a set of 396 cards (Topps was a merely 264 cards)! It was hard to pull in a pack of 14 cards (minus 1 for bubble gum residue!)
- It was cut with “Wires” and not blades. The Topps version was cut with blades giving razor sharp edges. The O-Pee-Chee Cards used wires that became dull and left chipped borders. This results in condition issues.
- It was hard to get a perfectly centered card…this affects the grade…if you have a perfectly centered card, read the rest of the article because you MIGHT HAVE A FAKE!
It has been known, that a printing defect is known on ALL Gretzky O-Pee-Chee Exemplars…the Yellow DOT on the Shoulder…but BEWARE, some fakes have this dot on the shoulder so we look into other clues…
The SOLID BLACK BORDER as well as SMOOTH EDGED TEXT. Printing Plates produce SOLID BLACK BORDERS, as well as smooth edged text…computers create PIXELS (dots) that show rougher edges… as well as some fakes have no YELLOW highlighting around the OILERS…
Some REAL Gretzky’s have the ‘1st Print Lines’, they are generally harder to fake. Some people desire these rookies for that reason besides being “1st Print”
As mentioned earlier…The O-Pee-Chee version of Gretzky’s Rookie was cut using wires (not blades), therefore, the legit Gretzky’s sometimes have chipped border(s) as the wires would get dull…sharp edges usually mean’s it was “trimmed” using a blade or outright FAKE!
I actually own a Wayne Gretzky Autographed Rookie Card, I was concerned since it looks like their is PINK highlighter on it…that’s not pink highlighter, it actually was Misalignment in the printing plates. Real Gretzky’s have this….sometimes! Even 1 of the 2 graded PSA 10 gretzky’s has it! And it was still graded a perfect 10…