For most people August 6, 2013 will be just another day, but for die-hard hockey collectors it will be an event. Such is the case for Frank Leclair who is taking August 6 off of work. Why you may ask? It is the release date for 2013-14 NHL O-Pee-Chee and Frank has been putting together master sets of that product since the late 1970’s. Frank will be taking a vacation day to open up a whopping ten cases of the product.
“Believe it or not, just opening 10 cases of O-Pee-Chee can take over 10 hours,” said Frank Leclair. “It’s well worth it in the end though and I look forward to it every year. It’s going to be a blast!”
Upper Deck’s 2013-14 NHL O-Pee-Chee trading card product arrives in stores on August 6 and some collectors are making that day a holiday!
But why O-Pee-Chee Hockey?
“O-Pee-Chee Hockey is a brand that has been around for decades and has a ton of heritage,” said Leclair. “It brings most of us hobbyists back to our younger years of collecting cards. I still remember the days when our parents gave us 50 cents to go to the local convenience store and we’d buy packs of O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards with the bubble gum inside. Back then I would have traded away my Gretzky rookies for anyone in a Montreal Canadiens uniform, whoops! Building a master set of O-Pee-Chee is difficult with 500 base cards in the product along with inserts, but not an impossible challenge since there are no 1-of-1 parallels. This makes it the best set to build in my opinion.”
O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards have tons of heritage in the hobby and there a lot of collectors who build a set of the product every year because it is one of the most comprehensive products of the year.
Leclair appreciates some of the innovative new inserts Upper Deck has added to the brand in recent years as well, especially the Team Patch Logo cards. “This set is extremely difficult to complete, but a lot of fun as well,” said Leclair. “The fact that O-Pee-Chee is a relatively inexpensive product that a lot of collectors break, it is easy to find many of the cards you are looking for on the secondary market. Often times with higher-end products, too many boxes remain unopened on store shelves so many tough cards never surface.”
The Team Patch Logo cards celebrate the history of great NHL Clubs and events.
Leclair puts together the entire set with the exception of the super rare blank back parallels every year. We asked Leclair if he has any tips for new collectors looking to get into the hobby because of the Upper Deck NHL Double Rookie Class this season. He said, “Build what you can afford. Don’t attempt something that is out of your comfort zone because you want to make your experience enjoyable. Start by building the smaller, inexpensive sets to see how you enjoy them. It is the best way to develop an appreciation for your cards.”
This year’s O-Pee-Chee Hockey product is loaded like never before with tons of great rookie content!
If you are planning to open 2013-14 NHL O-Pee-Chee in Canada, make sure to save your wrappers. The popular wrapper redemption program returns this season exclusive to Canada where you can turn empty wrappers into limited-edition parallel cards.
To help set collectors plan, Upper Deck has finalized and released the checklist for 2013-14 NHL O-Pee-Chee early. Check it out here. Also, we have released the group odds for autographs and Team Patch Logo cards to popular collector sites to review now.
While many die-hard hockey fans have been putting together their O-Pee-Chee NHL sets for years, this is the perfect season to start collecting the product!
If you love hockey, this is a great time to get started collecting hockey cards. And if you really love hockey cards submit your vacation request for August 6 like Frank did and make it an O-Pee-Chee Hockey Holiday!
4 Comments
l’m a 40 years old guy, and I always collected opc hockey cards. I mainly have all opc sets from 69-70 to 2012-13 I stop collecting in 1995, after finishing building the 1993-94 opc gold set. I start collecting again but someting like 10 years after. I purchased all the base sets from that year to 2011-12. Last year, i purchased 2 cases of opc 2012-13, and i collected every parallel cards, including black rainbow and red. with help of eBay, all is possible! so i plan to collect every parallel set again! My question… did upper deck give anything to collector like me who complete the red set?
If you’re looking for any of these sweet OPC cards to fill your set, I am sure there will be great singles on hand at this Sunday’s westTOcardshow! Sunday Aug11th at the Toronto Plaza Hotel 1677 Wilson Ave. Its from 10-4! Hope to see you there! Cheers!
I have opened 4 boxes of 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee so far. I would like to make two comments one positive, one negative.
I Believe a set of cards is a review of the prior year. I don’t know if it was deliberate or because of the short time but it appears this years cards show and list players for the team they played for, not showing a player in a Bruins uniform with a Dallas Stars team logo and name on the card. If you want to show players with new teams do that in an update set. I like this years set.
The ring cards are absolutely rediculous stop putting out crap insert cards. I am not impressed with them.
OPC cards have always been my favorite and I prefer them over all others. Having said that, I don’t like the direction that Upper Deck has taken the brand. Reduced card counts in packs, lower pack counts in boxes, higher retail prices and limited availability continue to hurt the “fun” factor of the hobby. It also doesn’t help that Upper Deck prides itself on a special insert set for every day of the year. They should have learned from the over saturation of the card market in the 1990’s. Collecting sets are difficult and expensive.
I’d love to pass down the hobby to my grandkids one day, but it has become overpriced with a seriously diminished fun factor.