Star Wars Trading Card Collecting Part Two: 1977 O-Pee-Chee Canada
Links: Star Wars Trading Card Collecting Part One
1977 O-Pee-Chee (Canada) 36-pack wax box - All photos from the collection of Paul Holstein
O-Pee-Chee is the Canadian trading card company, corresponding to Topps in the United States. Topps produced 5 series of cards (blue, red, yellow, green, and orange borders that were each 66 card sets and eventually numbered from 1-330) in 1977 and 1978 for the movie Star Wars: A New Hope. The popularity of the film, and the movie trading cards, prompted companies worldwide to make similar card sets.
If you haven’t read the first article about collecting the U.S. Topps Series One Star Wars trading cards, PSA grading, and competitive collecting via the PSA set registry, I would recommend that you go back and read that one first. This second article focuses on the Canadian O-Pee-Chee set made in 1977. Canada produced three sets (blue, red, and orange borders) with the first two sets being 66 cards and the third and final set being 132 cards. The OPC set ended up with a total of 264 cards.
The Canadian O-Pee-Chee set is easily distinguishable from the U.S. Topps set by the captions on the cards. They used a different font, and the majority of the cards also have French translations underneath the English. The O-Pee-Chee set was also cut with a duller blade (the individual cards are cut down from large sheets), so the edges are markedly less smooth (this is not a defect, and most collectors appreciate the different cut on theses). In addition to the rougher cut, O-Pee-Chee cards are more likely to be cut off center, and to not meet PSA’s size requirements. A much larger percentage from this set are returned by PSA as not gradable, but at least they don’t charge you for those.
Similar to the U.S. set, the cards were distributed in 36-count wax pack boxes, and each pack contained 7 cards, a sticker, and a rock-hard piece of gum. The wax packs can be collected, graded, and they even have their own competitive set on the PSA set registry. For the first series, there were three different wrapper variations including a send-in offer for a diary with a lock and key ($1.35 + 10 wrappers) or a “Wonder Camera” (75 wrappers, or $0.75 and 10 wrappers).
The stickers from this set were not easily differentiated from the U.S. stickers, so they are rarely collected separately as O-Pee-Chee stickers. One giveaway that the stickers came in an O-Pee-Chee pack, is that they have a small tear on them from the packaging process (which also limits their chance for high grades from PSA).
The most interesting feature of the OPC set may be the two error cards. The first is a typo on card #183, where the caption says “Ken Kenobi” rather than “Ben Kenobi.”. This is card #259 in the Topps set and #183 in the OPC set. The error is unique to the OPC set. Also, card #141, corresponds to U.S. card #207. If you haven’t seen the U.S. version of this card, a disgruntled employee airbrushed an extra appendage on C-3PO, and many of the cards were distributed before Topps could issue a corrected version. In the O-Pee-Chee set, there is only a single version (corrected), as shown above. If you look closely you can see that the “extra appendage” was badly airbrushed out. Some O-Pee-Chee uncorrected cards are floating around, however, they are all fakes.
As with the U.S. Topps cards, autographed Canadian OPC cards are some of the most highly collectible cards in the hobby. When getting these slabbed by PSA, you have the option of having the card authenticated (in the examples above, where you see “1977 Star Wars OPC” on the flip, the card was authenticated) or also graded. You also have the option of only having the autograph authenticated or graded.
If you want to find out more about vintage Star Wars card collecting, join the Facebook group Vintage Star Wars Trading Cards 1977-1984. I also post hundreds of photos on my Instagram page and my entire collection is up on the PSA set registry. Andy Dukes also has a nearly complete catalog of the vintage cards on his website.