Wayne Gretzky
Hockey • 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey
Sport & Year
Hockey • 1979
Brand & Set
O-Pee-Chee - 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey
Card Number
#18
Card Type
Rookie Card
Rarity
Base (Ultra-Rare and iconic)
Parallel Variant & Language
Base (Light Blue borders) • English / French (Bilingual set)
Condition & Value Assessment
Condition Grade
Excellent (estimated EX 5 / VG-EX 4)
Estimated Market Value
Raw: $1,500 - $3,500; Graded (PSA 5): $2,800 - $4,200; (PSA 10): Record-breaking $3.75M+
Recent Sales
Sotheby's and Heritage Auctions regularly feature this card. Mid-grade PSA copies (5-7) range between $3,000 and $8,000 recently on eBay and PWCC.
Condition Details
Visible centering issues (shifted significantly to the right/top). Minor whitening on corners. Typical rough-cut edges associated with O-Pee-Chee stock of this era. Surface appears clean through common secondary lighting but lower-left corner shows slight softening.
Grading Recommendation
Highly Recommended. Even at a mid-grade, the O-Pee-Chee Gretzky RC is the 'Holy Grail' of modern hockey cards. Authentication and grading significantly stabilize the market value and protect against the high volume of counterfeits.
Card Description
Gretzky is shown in his iconic blue Edmonton Oilers jersey. The card features a unique skating action shot with a Washington Capitals player in the background. The design includes a yellow hockey puck in the bottom right featuring his name, and a red banner in the bottom left displaying 'OILERS'.
Notable Features
Rookie Card (RC). Extremely difficult to find in high grades due to the 'rough cut' from wire-cutters used by O-Pee-Chee. Bilingual text (Center/Centre) on front.
Authentication Notes
The O-Pee-Chee version is distinguished from the Topps version by the rough-cut edges and the bilingual puck text. Counterfeits are extremely common; look for the 'yellow print dot' on Gretzky's shoulder as a common indicator of some genuine early print runs, and ensure the blue color ink pattern is consistent with 1970s printing-dot matrices.
Scanned: 2026-04-14T02:09:44.887697