Box Break: 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier

During The National last month, I purchased a box of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier Hockey cards for $5. It seemed like a fun retro break to do. The set is small, at just 198 cards, and seemed relatively easy to put together. Plus, I already had some doubles in my collection, so I thought if anything, I’d get a set out of the deal. I was wrong.

A box of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier Hockey has 36 packs, and each pack has eight cards, so a full box yields 288 cards. In an ideal world, that would get me one of each of the 198 cards, plus 90 doubles. But I failed to remember that O-Pee-Chee and Topps would print cards on sheets of 132. If the set is 198 cards, that means that some cards would be printed in lesser quantities, while others would be printed in greater quantities. 

Just for the heck of it, I decided to keep track of how many of each card that I got. 

1 – Dale Hawerchuk x 2
2 – Ray Sheppard x 2
3 – Wayne Gretzky x 2

4 – John MacLean x 1
5 – Pat Verbeek x 0
6 – Doug Wilson x 2
7 – Adam Oates x 2
8 – Bob McGill x 3
9 – Mike Vernon x 1
10 – Glenn Anderson x 1
11 – Tony Amonte RC x 3
12 – Steve Leach x 0
13 – Steve Duchesne x 0
14 – Patrick Roy x 2
15 – Jarmo Myllys x 1
16 – Yanick Dupre RC x 0
17 – Chris Chelios x 1
18 – Bill Ranford x 0
19 – Ed Belfour x3
20 – Michel Picard RC  x 3
21 – Rob Zettler x 2
22 – Kevin Todd RC x 2
23 – Mike Ricci x 1
24 – Jaromir Jagr x 0
25 – Sergei Nemchinov x 0
26 – Kevin Stevens x 0
27 – Dan Quinn x 3
28 – Adam Graves x 4
29 – Pat Jablonski RC x 3
30 – Scott Mellanby x 0
31 – Tomas Forslund RC x 1
32 – Doug Weight RC x 3

33 – Peter Ing x 0
34 – Luc Robitaille x 3
35 – Scott Niedermayer x 0
36 – Dean Evason x 3
37 – John Tonelli x 0
38 – Ron Hextall x 1
39 – Troy Mallette x 0
40 – Tony Hrkac x 3
41 – Ken Hodge x 4
42 – Kip Miller x 2
43 – Randy Burridge x 1
44 – Rob Blake x 3
45 – Sergei Makarov x 4
46 – Luke Richardson x 0
47 – Craig Berube x 0
48 – Joe Nieuwendyk x 0
49 – Brett Hull x 3

50 – Phil Housley x 1
51 – Mark Messier x 0
52 – Jeremy Roenick x 1
53 – Dave Christian x 3
54 – Dave Barr x 0
55 – Sergio Momesso x 0
56 – Pat Falloon x 0
57 – Brian Leetch x 0
58 – Russ Courtnall x 0
59 – Pierre Turgeon x 0
60 – Steve Larmer x 4
61 – Petr Klima x 3
62 – Mikhail Tatarinov x 0
63 – Rick Tocchet x 3
64 – Pat LaFontaine x 1
65 – Rob Pearson RC x 0
66 – Glen Featherstone x 2
67 – Pavel Bure x 0 
68 – Sergei Fedorov x 3
69 – Kelly Kisio x 0
70 – Joe Sakic x 2
71 – Denis Savard x 1
72 – Andrew Cassels x 0
73 – Steve Yzerman x 3
74 – Todd Elik x 3
75 – Troy Murray x 2
76 – Rob Ramage x 2 
77 – Trevor Linden x 1 
78 – Mike Richter x 3
79 – Paul Coffey x 1

80 – Craig Ludwig x 1
81 – Al MacInnis x 0
82 – Tomas Sandstrom x 3
83 – Tim Kerr x 3
84 – Scott Stevens x 0
85 – Steve Kasper x 1
86 – Kirk Muller x 1
87 – Pat MacLeod RC x 0
88 – Kevin Hatcher x 2
89 – Wayne Presley x 1
90 – Darryl Sydor x 1
91 – Tom Chorske x 1
92 – Theoren Fleury x 1
93 – Craig Janney x 3
94 – Rod Brind’Amour x 1
95 – Ron Sutter x 2
96 – Matt DelGuidice RC x 0
97 – Rollie Melanson x 4
98 – Tom Kurvers x 2
99 – Bryan Marchment RC x 1
100 – Grant Fuhr x 1
101 – Geoff Courtnall x 0
102 – Joel Otto x 2
103 – Tom Barrasso x 3
104 – Vincent Damphousse x 0
105 – John LeClair RC x 4
106 – Gary Leeman x 3
107 – Cam Neely x 3
108 – Jeff Hackett x 1
109 – Stu Barnes x 2
110 – Neil Wilkinson x 3
111 – Jari Kurri x 1
112 – Jon Casey x 2
113 – Stephane Richer x 2
114 – Mario Lemieux x 0
115 – Brad Jones RC x 1
116 – Wendel Clark x 3
117 – Nicklas Lidstrom RC x 0
118 – Vladimir Konstantinov RC x 0
119 – Ray Bourque x 1
120 – Ron Francis x 3
121 – Esa Tikkanen x 1
122 – Randy Hillier x 3
123 – Randy Gilhen x 3
124 – Barry Pederson x 1
125 – Charlie Huddy x 2
126 – Gary Roberts x 0
127 – John Cullen x 2
128 – Dave Gagner x 0
129 – Bob Kudelski x 3
130 – Brendan Shanahan x 0 
131 – Dirk Graham x 2
132 – Checklist #1 x 4
133 – Andy Moog x 0 
134 – Gary Leeman (Original Six Toronto) x 0
135 – Steve Larmer (Original Six Chicago) x 3
136 – Steve Smith x 0
137 – Dave Manson x 3
138 – Nelson Emerson x 1
139 – Doug Weight RC (Original Six New York) x 3
140 – Uwe Krupp x 3
141 – Peter Douris (Original Six Boston) x 1
142 – Steve Yzerman (Original Six Detroit) x 0
143 – Derian Hatcher x 0
144 – Vladimir Ruzicka (Original Six Boston) x 2
145 – Kirk Muller (Original Six Montreal) x 3
146 – Darrin Shannon x 0
147 – Mike Gartner (Original Six New York) x 0
148 – Bobby Carpenter (Original Six Boston) x 2
149 – Josef Beranek RC x  1
150 – Chris Chelios (Original Six Chicago) x 3
151 – Bob Rouse (Original Six Toronto) x 0
152 – Guy Carbonneau (Original Six Montreal) x 2
153 – Joe Mullen x 0
154 – Ken Hodge (Original Six Boston) x 1
155 – Vladimir Konstantinov RC (Original Six Detroit) x 1
156 – Brent Sutter x 1
157 – Eric Desjardins (Original Six Montreal) x 2
158 – Kirk McLean x 0
159 – John Tonelli (Original Six Chicago) x 2
160 – Robert Cimetta (Original Six Toronto) x 3
161 – Shayne Corson x 1
162 – Russ Romaniuk RC x 4

163 – Nicklas Lidstrom RC (Original Six Detroit) x 2
164 – Mike Gartner x 0 
165 – Curtis Joseph x 3
166 – Brian Mullen x 3
167 – Jimmy Carson x 3
168 – Petr Svoboda (Original Six Montreal) x 0
169 – Troy Crowder x 1
170 – Patrick Roy (Original Six Montreal) x 0
171 – Adam Creighton x 0
172 – James Patrick (Original Six New York) x 2
173 – Sergei Fedorov (Original Six Detroit) x 1

174 – Jeremy Roenick (Original Six Chicago) x 1
175 – Tim Cheveldae (Original Six Detroit) x 0
176 – Dmitri Khristich x 1
177 – Wendel Clark (Original Six Toronto) x 1
178 – Andrei Lomakin x 3
179 – Benoit Hogue x 0
180 – Dave Ellett (Original Six Toronto) x 2
181 – Mathieu Schneider (Original Six Montreal) x 3
182 – Kay Whitmore x 3
183 – Brian Leetch (Original Six New York) x 0 
184 – Sylvain Turgeon (Original Six Montreal) x 1
185 – Brian Bradley (Original Six Toronto) x 4
186 – John LeClair RC (Original Six Montreal) x 0
187 – Paul Fenton x 4
188 – Alain Cote RC (Original Six Montreal) x 0 
189 – Mike Krushelnyski (Original Six Toronto) x 0
190 – Brian Bradley x 0
191 – Grant Fuhr (Original Six Toronto) x 1
192 – Ray Bourque (Original Six Boston) x 2
193 – Owen Nolan x 0
194 – Russ Courtnall (Original Six Montreal) x 0
195 – Steve Thomas x 3
196 – Ed Olczyk x 2
197 – Chris Terreri x 0
198 – Checklist #2 x 1

As you can see from the list above, there were many cards that I did not get: 64, to be exact. I got 134 different cards, which puts me at about 68% of a complete 198-card set. That is disappointing. There were many cards that I got doubles, triples and even quadruples of. At a glance, my breakdown of duplicate cards went like this: 

0 of each card: 64
1 of each card: 46
2 of each cards: 32
3 of each card:  46
4 of each card: 10

My guess is that this set was printed on two 132-card sheets, with 66 cards double-printed and 132 cards single-printed. This would explain why I pulled three of the same card 46 times and four of the same card 10 times. I’m guessing that 10 of the cards that I got two of were also within the double-printed cards, while all the cards that I got one or zero of each were the single-printed cards. 

You would think that a full box would give you one each of the 132 single-printed cards, two each of the 66 double-printed cards, and then a random assortment of 32 cards; probably 18 single prints and 18 double prints. But that’s me being an idealist. 

Overall, I guess I can’t be too disappointed, as the box only cost me $5 and was a fun break. I kind of regret not getting a second box at that price; perhaps that would have put me at one — or even two — complete sets. Then again, I don’t really need to spend money on cards that I already own. Still, these pack-fresh cards have perfectly-white borders, whereas the set I bought in 1991 has slightly yellowed with age. Maybe I’ll get another box of 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier if I can find one cheap at the next show I go to. 

Follow Sal Barry on Twitter @PuckJunk.  

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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

5 thoughts on “Box Break: 1991-92 O-Pee-Chee Premier”

  1. But at least one of your quadruplicates was Paul Fenton. I hear he’s pretty good at hocke…er, pretty good at being a hockey executi….er, um. You know what? At least one of your quadruplicates was the John LeClair rookie.

  2. About a few months ago, my local hobby shop had about 12 boxes of these for $15 (Canadian) a box. So I said to my buddy, “Let’s buy two boxes each, with four boxes I am sure we will both get a complete set.” Boy, was I wrong!

    Out of four boxes, we only got ONE complete set, and it was my buddy who got it. The next weekend I went back and bought two more boxes and after opening the entire first box and still didn’t finish my set, I had to open my second box I opened to get the last few cards I needed.

    In total, we went through 5 and a half boxes for me to finish a set of 1991-92 OPC Premier.

    1. Wow! Thanks for sharing your story. I had no idea that the collation for 1991-92 OPC Premier was THAT bad. One set in 5 boxes? Yikes!

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