This may be the best set of hockey cards ever. Everything about them is beautiful. There may be other sets that look nearly as good on the front, but 79-80 OPC has by far the best
back of any cards I've seen. It doesn't get better than putting all the stats and important info in a skate and having a cartoon on every card.
In good condition, this set is worth more than I'd ever be willing to pay, but I managed to find a set of low-grade cards that fit my budget of not very much money. All of the cards have dinged up corners, and some are fairly badly
off-centered, but some cards have actually been corrected, like
Charlie Simmer who apparently was a left winger and not a center as OPC claimed, and
Vic Venasky who was obviously missing a mustache.
There are more great cards than I can show, but I can say that this set has pretty much everything you could want. There are
league-leaders,
team cards (including ones for the
WHA teams that were merging with the NHL)
badass goalies, sweet
unibrows, and terrible
painted jerseys. My one beef with the set is that they don't show
Gerry Cheevers with his
stitch mask down. It doesn't seem right to have great photos of
third-rate goalies and then such a boring photo of one of the greatest.
Five of my favourites:
#62 - Jim Bedard - The only unconventional photo in the entire set. I dig the 70's scoreboard in the background.
#155 - Stan Mikita - I also dig Mikita's bulbous head.
#175 - Gordie Howe - He may not be the
oldest man ever put on a hockey card, but he's the oldest man who ever deserved it.
#327 - Ed Staniowski - A third-rate goalie with a great photo.
#328 - Ron Plumb - Plumb had already played for the Whalers for two season before this card came out, but the best OPC could do was this blurry photo five-year old photo from his one season with the San Diego Mariners. Awesome!
#442 - Pavel Bure
