Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction Winter 2022
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Regarded as one of the most iconic trading cards ever produced, Wayne Gretzky’s #18 rookie card from the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee and Topps sets is a must-have for any vintage hockey card collection. We are pleased to present a desirable example. This PSA PR 1 copy of the O-Pee-Chee version is just slightly off-centered left to right, with a few creases and surface wrinkles visible, with exceptional corners and a beautiful overall appearance for the grade. This is one of the hottest cards in the hobby today, don’t miss out on a chance to own one!
For 40 years, generations of collectors have coveted Gretzky’s rookie card and it remains by far the most-desired hockey card of the 1980s. There was no telling at the time that The Great One would accomplish so much in the game and this card has remained consistently popular. By the 1990s, counterfeit versions of the O-Pee-Chee version card began to pop up and there was no better way to ensure yours was real than to have it professionally graded. This hobby treasure shows a 17-year-old superstar in the making just a week after he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers by the Indianapolis Racers. On November 9, 1978, iconic hockey photographer Steve Babineau was on assignment by The Hockey News to go to the Springfield Civic Center to get shots of Gretzky as he faced his hero, Gordie Howe, and the New England Whalers. As a stringer for Topps and O-Pee-Chee, Babineau was able to pull double duty and made sure he had photos ready for the companies for the next season since a merger between the WHA and NHL was imminent. A year later, the photo was on cardboard and kids everywhere were ready to put it in bike spokes or play a card flipping game with Gretzky and his peers – further ensuring that high-grade copies would be difficult to find in the future. It also did not help that O-Pee-Chee’s primitive cutting techniques created many border and centering problems.
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