Wayne Gretzky

Hockey1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

Wayne Gretzky from 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey

Sport & Year

Hockey1979

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

Wayne Gretzky - Hockey 1979 | Sports Card Scanner