1983 O-Pee-Chee

Card Manufacturer: O-Pee-Chee

Card Set: O-Pee-Chee Baseball

Year: 1983

Card Number: 350

Card Type: Base

Good old O-Pee-Chee.  The Topps of the North.

I'll be honest growing up I wasn't quite sure what the deal was between O-Pee-Chee and Topps, or why the O-Pee-Chee cards were more valuable.  

Of course having been in the baseball card world for over 30 years and having access to all sorts of books and websites we know that O-Pee-Chee was a Canadian candy company that licensed the Topps design to sell sports cards in Canada.  O-Pee-Chee was bought by Nestle back in the 90's and the brand name is now licensed to Upper Deck, or at least it was. 

But for over 30 years OPC and Topps had a the symbiotic relationship and since the OPC cards had a much lower print run than their Topps counterparts cards have a little higher value.  There are some years where it's very hard to tell the OPC and Topps cards apart from the front.  Many years there were no company logos on the front and you have to flip the card over to see where it was printed.  O-Pee-Chee also tended to be printed on better card stock so the backs were whiter or brighter.  Luckily in 1983 the O-Pee-Chee name is clearly featured in the upper right hand corner.

And like all the O-Pee-Chee cards since the 70's they have dual language on the front and back.

If you always wondered what O-Pee-Chee means it's a native american word for the robin.