O-Pee-Chee Box Toppers

Who knew that the packaging from hockey cards we used to throw away as kids would become collectable? Some collectors fancy unopened waxpacks, boxes and cases. The wrappers of OPC packs from the 1970s, 80s and 90s come in different versions. And the wax boxes started featuring actual “box bottom” cards in 1985-86 that were meant to be collected.

But do you remember Pat Lafontaine of the Islanders on the box top?

The very first box topper was Clark Gillies in 1984-85:

Patrick Roy from 1986-87:

Michel Goulet from 1987-88:

Mario Lemieux from 1988-89:

Al MacInnis from 1989-90:

Carefully cut from the box, these blank-back cards can be inserted into sleeves and stored like regular cards. But the next two years featured images of cards more as part of the box’s design.

Here's the combo of Bill Ranford and Cam Neely from 1990-91:

Next up was Ed Belfour and Mario Lemieux in 1991-92:

And just in case you might be running out of stuff to collect, how about those mini-cards that sometimes adorned the side of the OPC wax boxes or box sets? I guess you have to draw the line somewhere, don't you?

1976-77 O-Pee-Chee Goalie Errors

Standard checklists will tell you the 1976-77 O-Pee-Chee hockey set numbers 396 cards. But if you're a completist, that number bumps up to 399 with the addition of a few goalie errors.

Gary Simmons is card #176, and there are three different version of his OPC card. All three varieties picture Simmons in his California Seals jersey. The team would transfer to Cleveland and be known as the Barons to start the 1976-77 season. OPC tried to keep up with the change by using the Barons monicker across the top of the card and printing "Team transferred to Cleveland" on most of the new Barons cards. Just not for Simmons.

Around the same time, the Kansas City Scouts were moving to Colorado to become the Rockies. OPC noted those cards by printing "Team transferred to Colorado." Simmons got mixed up in all franchise changes taking place.

The card on the left is the most common corrected version with the transfer phrase removed. The card on the right is the earliest error version incorrectly denoting "Team Transferred to Colorado" on the front. The card in the middle is an even rarer version featuring a very poor attempt by OPC to airbrush (or smear) the error away.

A second error that needed to be corrected in the 1976-77 OPC issue "dots" card #331 of Gary Inness. The mistake is so small it is almost imperceptible.

Give up? The Flyers logo atop the card on the left has a yellow dot in the center. It has been altered to Philly orange in the more common corrected card on the right.

1979-80 Alta-Dena Kings & Lakers with Souvenir Folder

This unnumbered eight-card set was sponsored by California-based Alta-Dena Dairy. The cards are slightly larger than standard, measuring approximately 2 3/4" by 4".

This set features Los Angeles Kings (Marcel Dionne, Butch Goring, Mike Murphy and Dave Taylor) and Los Angeles Lakers (Adrian Dantley, Norm Nixon, Don Ford and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). Both teams were owned by Jerry Buss at the time.

The back of each card features an offer for youngsters 14-and-under to present the complete eight-card set in the souvenir folder to the Forum Box Office and receive a half-price discount on certain tickets to any one of the Lakers and Kings games listed on the reverse of the card.

The set was probably released in the late summer of 1979 since Adrian Dantley was traded to Utah for Spencer Haywood on September 13.

1987-88 Shell Vancouver Canucks Set

This 24-card set of Vancouver Canucks was sponsored by Shell Oil and released only in British Columbia, Canada. It was issued as eight different three-card panels, with the cards measuring the standard size after perforation (2 1/2" by 3 1/2"). The cardstock is rather thick, and gives each card some nice heft and sturdiness.

The cards were distributed as a promotion for Shell Oil, with one panel per week given out at participating Shell stations. Included with the cards was a coupon offering a $5 discount on tickets to the Canucks games.

The front features a color head and shoulders shot of the player, with the Canucks logo superimposed at the upper left hand corner of the picture. The player's name, position, and the Formula Shell logo appear below the picture. The cards are unnumbered, and the backs provide biographical and career information on each player.

The 1987-88 Canucks finished last in the Smythe division and out of the playoffs for the second season in a row. A big reason for the failed season was a 12-game winless streak in February and March where the team lost 10, including 9 in a row, and tied twice. The Canucks were never able to put more than two consecutive wins together the entire season.

Kirk McLean's card from the set predates his OPC rookie card by two years. As a rookie for the Canucks he appeared in 41 games, and would go on to backstop the team for 11 seasons before being dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes in 1998.

1992 Kellogg's Trophies Set

Protected by a clear plastic cello pack, these 11 cards were inserted into Kellogg's Rice Krispies cereal boxes in Canada. Each cello pack contained two cards.

The set includes the Stanley Cup, President's Trophy, Hart, Conn Smythe, Vezina, Norris, Calder, Selke, Byng, Art Ross and Jack Adams.

The cards measure approximately 2 3/8" by 3 1/4" and were printed on thin card stock. The fronts featured a color photo of the trophy inside a gold border on a turquoise card face. The name of the trophy appears in a red circle at the center of the top. The backs are red and carried text in white print about the trophy. All text on both sides is in English and French. The cards are numbered on the front at the bottom center. 

Because of the thin card stock and full-color bleed on the front and back, this set tends to be condition sensitive. 

1974-75 Finnish Typotor

The 1974-75 Finnish Typotor set of 120 unnumbered cards is really two subsets. A 48-card Finnish SM-Liiga set of eight teams containing six players each, and a 72-card set of eight international teams with nine players each. There are also 45 penalty/referee cards not identified by Beckett, for a total of 165 cards.

The cards are rectangular with rounded edges and were sold in sets by Typotor Oy of Helsinki, Finland.

The SM-Liiga set features Finnish greats like Matti Murto and Pekka Rautakallio. The players of the leading clubs of the Finnish championship are represented: HIFK Helsinki, Ilves Tampere, Jokerit Helsinki, Lukko Rauma, Tappara Tampere, TPS Turku, Turun Toverit and Ässät Pori.

Key cards in the international set include Ulf Nilsson, Vladislav Tretiak and Boris Mikhailov, along with other players from the World Hockey Championship held in Helsinki in April 1974. The teams represented are Finland, Sweden, Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Germany (the six teams from Group A), as well as Norway (from Group B) and Switzerland (from Group C).

The cards are part of a game and came with an instruction sheet and header card.

The Peculiar Case of the 1974-75 Topps Cloth Stickers

Cloth stickers seem to have been all the rage in the 1970s. Both Fleer and Topps employed textiles in various releases for basketball and football issues, and Topps gave it a one-time shot with hockey in 1974.

Topps essentially took the previous year’s hockey insert sticker set and remade it on cloth stock. The sticker cards are a quarter-inch short in both directions from the standard 2 ½" x 3 ½" dimensions.

Each card is a two-piece cloth sticker, consisting of a team logo sticker on the top and a pennant sticker with team nickname on the bottom. There are 19 different stickers in the set plus 5 variation on the combination of logo and pennant, for a total of 24.

Climate and the passage of time aren’t kind to the adhesive used by Topps. It seems to oxidize over time and bleed through the paper backing of the stickers, appearing like staining, and even a bit like black mold on the blank backs. The staining can also show through the porous cloth stock, easily detracting from appearance. The adhesive can also deteriorate and dry over time, releasing the cloth sticker from the backing. The whole concept and choice of materials results in a rather fragile issue.

 

In comparison, it seems Topps figured out a better adhesive solution for its 1977 baseball cloth stickers. These seem to stand up to the tests of time a lot better.

The cloth hockey stickers were sold as a separate series from that year’s cards. Each wax pack contained two stickers and a combo checklist/puzzle piece (plus the proverbial stick of gum). A total of 12 puzzle pieces completed the NHL shield on a bright yellow background.

These stickers are not easy to come by, and the set I’ve been able to amass is certainly no beauty. It was definitely a challenge that required some patience. If you’re a condition-sensitive collector, this might not be the set for you.

The puzzle pieces are even more uncommon. It took me almost a year to find a single puzzle piece (on eBay). So I purchased an uncut sheet of the complete puzzle and called it done.

 

I spent over a year on this set and it seemed like unopened wax packs came up more often than either the individual stickers or puzzle pieces. But I can’t imagine what havoc that stick of gum would have inflicted on a pack’s fragile contents over the last 40+ years…