I bought a case of OPC

That is, I bought 12 boxes–or 384 hobby packs–of 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee Hockey.

Crazy, right?

I’ve never bought a case of cards before. But yesterday, the 22-pound behemoth you see above was delivered to my front door.

I had to rationalize this expense–as most collectors would. I did put in some OT at my job last month, so these cards are paid for. I waited and waited and found the best available online price from a retailer who offered an additional $25 off. Plus, no tax and no shipping costs.

But I also had to come up with numerous good reasons why I should buy a whole freakin’ case, and not just a few hobby boxes.

  • I will get a complete base set (and then some)
  • I will get 192 Short Prints–hopefully one of each of the 100 possible
  • I will get 384 Retro Variants
  • I will get roughly 128 Stickers–hopefully at least one copy of 1-100
  • I will get 24 Pop Ups, which I’ll probably want to keep too
  • I will get 4 patch cards, and can probably sell those and make back a good portion of my money
  • I will get the 2 OPC Signatures cards. I do enjoy autographs.
  • I will get the case hit Team Canada autograph. I would like to have that card too.
  • I will get all of the box bottom cards, and have more left over to trade
  • I will have 384 wrappers leftover that I could potentially trade to a Canadian collector for Upper Deck’s “Canada Only” OPC promotion
  • I will have 96 Rainbow Parallels that I could potentially trade for the Retro Variants or Pop-Ups I still need.

Of course, I may not get a complete set out of the deal, might get shorted on an autograph and get the worst possible “hits” imaginable.

Then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Wish me luck.

mm

Author: Sal Barry

Sal Barry is the editor and webmaster of Puck Junk. He is a freelance hockey writer, college professor and terrible hockey player. Follow him on Twitter @puckjunk

6 thoughts on “I bought a case of OPC”

  1. Sweet, that looks like hours of wax-ripping fun right there! You’re totally right that selling your four patch cards should help you re-coup a good portion of the cost. Looking forward to seeing the results!

  2. awesome Sal.

    I’m 90 cards from finishing the regular 1-600 set, and 80 cards from finishing the retro 1-600 set, and 7 from finishing the sticker set. So if you get dupes…. hit me up.

    oh, and that wrapper redemption thing ended awhile ago… sorry. They only had so many packs available and once they were claimed……………

  3. I’m getting two boxes of series one and a box of OPC from 2012-13 and 2011-12 tonight. never done a case before. I’m sure my wife would kill me 😉 Good luck.

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