1971 O-Pee-Chee/OPC Baseball Cards
O-Pee-Chee is also called OPC and Topps Canadian.
Most vintage OPC sets were near replicas of their Topps brothers
in the exact same design, with the major difference being the
French & English backs. But in 1971, O-Pee-Chee made
several changes to their set including a complete redesign of
the card backs. OPC also changed over 20 cards including the
creation of the first "Traded" cards along with adding more EXPOS
to the set including #202 and #289.
1971 OPC's short prints are legendary, at only 5% of Topps' production, making this set very rare even in Canada. Some say 1971 OPC short print high numbers are even scarcer than the very, very scarce 1952 Topps highs, that mostly ended up being dumped deep into the Atlantic ocean.
The Semi-High #'s 524-643 are VERY, VERY costly on eBay and
elsewhere on the internet and the High #'s are INSANE !!!
ROOKIES included Hall-of-Famer Bert Blyleven,
Steve Garvey, Davey Concepcion, Bobby Valentine,
George Foster, Dusty Baker...
1971 Mattel Instant Replay Discs 1971 Topps 1971 Kellogg's
1970 OPC/O-Pee-Chee Baseball
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High Numbers - vintage cards were issued in the ‘50s-‘70s in a series. During the baseball season, the largest number of cards were made. As the schedule progressed into September, when there would be less interest in baseball cards , Topps for one, specifically decreased production and hence much less product was available. As a result, a scarcity-factor was created and a premium holds for these first type of "short-printed" cards.
Inserts - special randomly-inserted cards which are not part of the regular set. Many modern inserts are sequentially-numbered and rarer than the card sets into which they are inserted.
O-Pee-Chee / OPC - a subsidiary of Topps, this card issue was produced specifically for distribution in Canada.
Promotional Card - generally referred to as cards issued to show what the product will look like on release and intended to help spur future sales. Often called a "promo" card.
Reprint - cards issued to reproduce the originals. With the current trend of vintage reprints, the new versions have a distinguishing characteristic evidenced by numbering.
Restored - a card or piece of memorabilia which someone has tried to return to a "like-new" condition. A restored card is considered to be of very little value.
Rookie Card - any league-licensed, widely distributed card to feature a player in his first year of trading cards.