80's Hockey Cards: OPC vs Topps

Ahh the 80's. the times of mass consumption and production.
Sports cards killed many forests in the 80s, thats for sure!

Lately ive been into the hockey cards, specifically the 80s.

From Gretzky in the 79/80 set, to Sakic wrapping up the decade
with the 89/90 release. and oh so much in between.

Topps, the name synonymous with "Sports Cards" had two different
releases for Hockey Cards....Topps and its Canadian Sister,
O-Pee-Chee (OPC for short)

Being an American boy in new york in the 80s, Topps was "it"
my local T~Amo (candy store) carried Topps. But then again, who
didn't? lol

Discussing the "value" of sports cards is always tricky, more-so
when talking about it with people that are not "into" the hobby

To "Cliff-Notes" it, if a Topps Hockey Card is "worth" $20, its
OPC version is worth $30. Not sure why that is, as *i* do not
feel that there are that many less OPCs made. infact i could
argue that there are MORE of any particular OPC then its Topps
counterpart due to how much more popular the sport is in Canada.

When pricing out wax packs, OPC blows Topps off the ice.
Lets go over the decade at hand:

Year / OPC / Topps

79 - $275 (14 Cards / 396 Card Set) - $75 (10 Cards / 264 Card Set)
80 - $65 (10 / 396) - ($15 / 264)
81 - $30 (10 / 396) - ($7 / 198)
82 - $8 (10 / 396) - (N/A)
83 - $7 (10 / 396) - (N/A)
84 - $17 (15 / 396) - ($6 / 165)
85 - $40 ( 8 / 264) - ($20 / 165)
86 - $25 ( 8 / 264) - ($15 / 198)
87 - $7 ( 8 / 264) - ( $5 / 198)
88 - $7 ( 8 / 264) - ($4.50/198)
89 - $20ish, 48 pack box (330 card set) - $30 for a box of 36 (198 card set)
(This is where the MASS production started for Hockey Cards, and is in fact, the
only time that its widely accepted that Topps is better then its OPC release for the season.

"Big Rookie Cards" broken down by year:

Year / Player (OPC/Topps)

79: Gretzky ($800/$550)

80: Messier ($100/NA); Bourque ($100/$80); Gartner ($40/$20); Goulet ($15/$10)

81: Coffey ($80/NA); Kurri ($40/$60); Stastny ($15/$4); Moog ($25/NA); Murphy
($15/$8); Ciccarelli ($20/$10); Savard ($30/$10) (more on the '81 Topps issue below)

82: Fuhr ($40); Francis ($20); Mullen ($8); Hawerchuk ($20)
There was no Topps issued for the 1982/3 Season.

83: Housley ($5); Larmer ($8); Nicholls ($5); Lindbergh ($15); S. Stevens ($10)
There was no Topps issued for the 1983/4 Season.

84: Yzerman ($100/$40); Neely ($40/NA); Gilmour ($30/NA); Chelios ($25/NA) LaFontaine ($15/$8)

85: Lemieux ($200/$150); MacInnis ($30/NA); Iafrate ($5/NA)

86: Roy ($150/$100); Vanbiesbrouck ($25/$12); Clark ($15/$8); Steve Thomas ($5/NA)

87: Robitaille ($30/$20); Ranford ($8/$5); Oates ($15/$10); Hextall ($10/$10); Vernon ($10/NA); C Lemieux ($6/NA); Richer ($5/NA); Damphousse ($8/NA)

88: Hull ($50/$25); Nieuwendyk ($10/$4); Shanahan ($30/$15); Turgeon ($12/$10)

89: Sakic ($12/$15); Leetch ($3/$6); Fleury ($5/NA)


Year by year wax breakdown:

1979: Wayne Gretzky Rookie. What more needs to be said? Oh yea, last year cards of Howe, Hull, and Dryden. I give the edge to Topps on this one, risk vs reward.

1980: Messier not being in Topps is the only "let down" for this year.

1981: The Topps Issue was an interesting one as Topps (for some reason) decided to issue the packs in "Regions" of "East" and "West". Meaning that depending on which part of America you lived in, your packs contained some of the basic make up of the set, and then the rest of the pack was either "East" or "West". I've never opened any of these packs, so i do not know the breakdown of how many of each there are in any particular pack. (They did the same thing with Basketball in 1981 as well)
Now with the Rookie Cards that year, the Kurri and Stastny are in the "Basic" part of the set. The Murphy, Ciccarelli, and Savard are only in the "West" packs.
Unfortunately, Topps made absolutely no way to tell which packs are East and which are West. Kind of a bummer for opening packs now in 2010.
The OPC release is MUCH better for 1981, no regional release.

1982: No Topps, bummer.

1983: No Topps, bummer.

1984: The Topps issue was heavily printed. That and lacking three major RC's really hurts the product. OPC is strong. OPC Wins.

1985: With OPC dropping the cards per pack to 8 (yes EIGHT) vs 12 for Topps, i give the edge to Topps here. Al MacInnis was great, but a D-Man known for a hard slap-shot cannot give OPC the victory at the price point

1986: OPC still at 8 cards per pack, but Topps ups theirs to 15. Topps Wins with nearly twice as many cards per pack for nearly half the price.

1987: see 1986. There are a handful of rookies not in Topps, but the cards per pack gives Topps the edge.

1988: see 1987, and the rookies that Topps did miss, none are really worth pulling. Topps wins.

1989: OPC slaughtered MANY forests to print the quantities that they did in 1989. Topps was (all things considered for the year 1989 in Topps overall Universe) not all that massively produced. Topps wins.

1979: Topps
1980: Topps
1981: OPC
1982: OPC
1983: OPC
1984: OPC
1985: Topps
1986: Topps
1987: Topps
1988: Topps
1989: Topps

There you have it, my breakdown of Hockey Cards in the 80's.
According to me, you're best bang for your buck per year is listed above,
with reasons for why given.

Thank You for taking your time out to read my post,
Eric