For a time in the early 2000s, I was fascinated by sealed wax from the late 70s and early 80s. I recently found a box of packs that I opened in that period. Mostly 1981-1985 Fleer that I’ve assimilated into my slow attempt to hand collate those sets. But this one was an oddball.
1978 O-Pee-Chee, like most O-Pee-Chee releases, was just the Canadian version of Topps. This year for OPC was a little different- they chopped the checklist significantly (242 cards) and focuses on Montreal and Toronto players. But it still has a sweet Eddie Murray RC, which I guess is why I bought this. I mean, I don’t care about OPC cards and I already had a 1978 Topps set, complete with that sweet Murray, but I guess the allure of a slightly cheaper lottery ticket (with almost 3X odds of pulling a Murray) got my attention. Too bad no one cares about OPC, generally speaking. The cards are short printed compared to the Topps, but their values are even, if not less with the Topps versions. So, basically, this was a bad idea. But let’s seet how I did!
1978 O-Pee-Chee Baseball Wax Wrapper
I love the French on the wrapper- it makes baseball cards seem so fancy! I wonder what the exchange rate made 15 cents CD worth in 1978…
Rollie Fingers AND Joe Morgan?! Hot pack!
That’s a pretty good pack right there. If I’m a kid in Saskatchewan, I’m stoked to find a Gary Carter, plus two more Canadian team cards. Too bad this American kid packblocked that little semi-frog. U-S-A!
10 years later, a young Andy will be pulling half a dozen Dave Parkers out of packs he got for Easter. Long live 1988 Donruss!
How’s that for a little detail? I’m actually surprised at how poor of condition these are in. The edges are soft-cut and the color is weak on all of them. Not super surprising since most cards of this era had production problems of one type or another. I lucked out and got only one printing spot in these 10 cards, but none of these are dead mint. The best luck I ever had with wax from this era was pulling a 1979 Paul Molitor from a pack… and the printing was pretty rough- it looked like a ghost Molitor was standing next to the real one.
So I guess there’s a lesson to be learned here: Buying old wax to chase down mint cards is stupid. I would’ve been better off saving the $8 or $10 this pack cost towards a raw Murray. Of course, that logic fails when I realize that I don’t even really want an OPC Murray RC. I mean, I guess I’d take one, but why the hell would I go looking for one in a pack like some kind of a moron.
Oh right. This is an addiction, not a hobby. C’est la vie!
That’s 3 blog posts I’ve read today that focused on Eddie Murray. Is it his birthday or something?
The Montefusco almost looks like a Tim Lincecum card. Not because he’s a lanky Giants pitcher, but because he looks high.