Unopened case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards sells for $3.72 million in Heritage auction

An unopened case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee Hockey cards featuring the iconic Wayne Gretzky rookie card sold for $3.72 million during the Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction at Heritage Auctions.

The sealed, unopened case, which was recently discovered in Canada, is believed to be the only unopened case of the 1979 OPC set to surface in the 21^st century. Heritage estimated the rare find could sell for $2.5 to $3 million.

Also See: Topps Hobby Rip Night a big hit on National Trading Card Day 

Jason Simonds, Heritage’s New York City Consignment Director for Sports, called the unopened case “a unicorn in the hobby.”

“It’s a mythical creature,” he said. “It just doesn’t exist. Finds like this don’t happen. It’s a once in a generation thing.”

Steve Hart of the Baseball Card Exchange, which authenticated and sealed the case, called it the “holy grail of any sport, [1970] and on up.”

The case was found in Saskatchewan, Canada at the home of a hockey card collector who collected countless Canadian-made cards to trade with collectors in the U.S. According to Heritage, he had so many cases and boxes of cards that his family eventually lost count. The 1979 OPC case was found by his son behind “stacks and stacks of other stuff.”

The case contains 16 boxes with 48 wax packs per box, with 14 cards in each pack, for a total of 10,752 cards. With 396 cards in the set, Heritage estimates there could be as many as 27 or more Gretzky rookie cards in the case.

Also See: Topps Series 1 kicks off baseball season with electric, new design 

Gretzky’s 1979 O-Pee-Chee rookie card sold at Heritage Auctions in 2020 for $1.29 million. (Two years later, Heritage auctioned the 1979 Topps version of the card for $1.2 million.) Heritage later brokered a private sale of a Gem Mint 10 copy of Gretzky’s OPC rookie card for an astounding $3.75 million, shattering the previous record.

If one of the Gretzky rookies winds up being graded GEM MINT 10, it would be rare indeed as only two OPC Gretzky rookies have ever received a perfect grade compared to more than 300 Michael Jordan rookie cards. There have been 93 OPC Gretzky rookies graded PSA 9 that have sold for as much as $150,000.

The Heritage Winter auction, which totaled more than $25.9 million in sales, also featured another seven-figure sale as a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card, graded PSA 8.5, sold for $2.37 million.

Also See: Top Mickey Mantle cards for collectors 

Other top sales included:

• A 1915 Boston Red Sox postcard featuring rookie Babe Ruth for $564,000.

• A 1962 Hank Aaron signed and game-worn Milwaukee Braves uniform for $420,000.

• A 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded PSA 8, for $360,000.

• 1986 Fleer Basketball complete set with every card graded PSA 10 for $360,000.

• A 1915 Cracker Jack Joe Jackson card, graded SGC 8.5, for $336,000.

• 1937 O-Pee-Chee A-118 Joe DiMaggio card, graded SGC 9, for $288,000.

• A signed 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle rookie card, graded PSA 2.5, for $284,000.

• 1966 Topps Baseball (Series 2 and 3) wax box with 24 unopened packs for $276,000.

• 1969 Willie Mays signed San Francisco Giants jersey for $276,000.

• 1928-29 Babe Ruth signed and game-used bat for $234,000.

According to Sports Collectors Daily, a twice-signed, game-used baseball glove that Babe Ruth purportedly used in the 1916 World Series was pulled prior to the close of the auction to conduct further research into its background. 

You Also Might Like: Jordan, Bird, Magic lead NBA All-Time All-Hobby team