1968 was the first year OPC produced a genuinely unique set. OPC pretty much distributed Topps cards in Canada starting in the 1950s, but in 1968 the arrangement shifted, and Topps and OPC disturbed two similar but different sets. The 1968 OPC set still mimicked the Topps design but had 216 cards to expand with the league’s expansion to 12 teams in the 1967 NHL season, while Topps stuck with 132 cards. Many hockey collectors consider the 1968 OPC set to be the most desirable OPC set.
OPC released its 216-card set in two series. The first series came out in 6-card, five-cent packs with 36 packs to a box and contained the first 132 cards. A few months later, the second series was released and included a series exclusive push-out card in the packs.
Most vintage hockey packs are pretty rare, and 1968 was no exception for unopened material. Mark Murphy’s guide doesn’t even have a photo of any 1968 OPC hockey products. Luckily the Topps Archives has an excellent article on the push-out inserts where they share pictures of some wax wrappers and an empty box.
PSA has graded only 16 1968 Topps hockey wax packs. Authenticated OPC wax packs are even rarer; they have graded a total of three 1968 OPC Series one packs and ZERO series two packs. I only know of a single 1968 OPC Hockey Series Two Wax Pack, and it was recently shared with me by the owner.
Valuing this potentially one-of-a-kind pack is tough—a 1968 OPC first series pack sold for $6100 in August 2016 at Huggins and Scott Auctions.
And the following series one wrapper, is listed on eBay for $2250 (with 20 watchers).
Even empty boxes are desirable; in 2019, a 1968 Topps and OPC Series One box lot sold for $776. So based on a single sale of a first series pack five years ago, the fact that series two packs appear even rarer, and likely demand from multiple wax pack registry and hockey collectors, any price over (and potentially well over) $10k wouldn’t surprise me.
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