There was a time in my life when I'd occasionally stumble across O-Pee-Chee and Leaf baseball cards and think to myself... I'd much rather own the Topps and Donruss versions. Sadly... I think it had to do with the fact that Beckett had them valued higher in their price guides than their Canadian card company counterparts.
Part of me was always a little confused by this, because I had been informed on numerous occasions that O-Pee-Chee and Leaf baseball cards from the 80's were printed in smaller quantities and as collectors we know that "less" usually means "more".
***Just discovered I don't own a raw copy of this card 😠
These days the hobby has started to right the ship... and certain Leaf and O-Pee-Chee cards are starting to command more financial respect. Two weeks ago, I saw The Diamond King showed off five of his favorite Greg Maddux cards and one of them was his 1987 Leaf rookie card. He mentioned that he "always figured that they would be more valuable" compared to the Donruss rookie card.
Well you figured "right" Kevin. Your post inspired me to look up what each of these Maddux rookie cards sell for on eBay. Raw copies of his Donruss card seem to sell in the $3 to $5 these days... while the Leaf card commands about twice as much.
1987 Donruss #36
The graded versions are just a tad bit different. PSA 10 graded copies of the Donruss card sell in the $225 to $325 range.
What do you think PSA 10 copies of his Leaf rookie card sell for? Go ahead. Guess.
1987 Leaf #36
Would you believe me if I told you that this card sells for four figures? In August, three different copies sold in the $1,400 to $1,650 range. That's insane.
By the way... I paid $66.99 (+ $3 shipping) for the Donruss rookie back in 2010 off of eBay. The Leaf set me back $97.89 (+ $3 shipping) in 2016.
Maddux's Topps rookie was part of the 1987 Topps Traded set, so he doesn't have an O-Pee-Chee rookie card. However I figured it'd be interesting to compare Tony Gwynn's 1983 Topps and O-Pee-Chee rookie cards.
1983 Topps #482
1983 O-Pee-Chee #143
Raw Topps rookie cards of Mr. Padre are all over the place. Some sell for as low as $10... and as high as $40... while the Canadian counterpart sells in the $8 to $25 range. I think part of the discrepancy has to do with OPC having edge and centering issues.
I could never afford PSA 10 copies of these cards, but I do have a pair of PSA 9's:
1983 Topps #482
1983 O-Pee-Chee #143
I picked up the Topps rookie for $31 (+ $3.50 shipping) back in 2010... and the O-Pee-Chee in 2014 for $39.50 (+ $2.50 shipping). Today people pay anywhere from $160 to $190 for the Topps rookie in this condition, while the O-Pee-Chee brings in around $450 to $600.
I know that most of you would never pay these prices for slabbed cards. Heck. Even I won't pay these insane prices. But there are collectors out there who will. I can sort of understand why someone would pay a hundred or two for a PSA 9 O-Pee-Chee rookie of Gwynn. Only 250 have received that grade. PSA 9 population report on the Topps Gwynn rookie card shows over 4,500 copies. This card should not be selling for triple digits.
Sorry about that. I'm not here to tell my readers what things should or shouldn't be valued at. People are going to pay what they want to pay. I'm just here to document the current market rates on some 80's rookie cards and how their values haven't been consistent over the years.
It'll be interesting to see if these values eventually crash, hold their own, or gradually rise in the next ten years or so.
What do you think? Feel free to comment down below.
I'm guessing prices will eventually settle back down to more reasonable levels. But even if there's a huge hobby crash, I doubt prices will go back to what they were when I purchased these four cards.
1986 Topps #46
***Hatcher doesn't have a 1986 Leaf or O-Pee-Chee card
By the way... today marks the 35th anniversary of Greg Maddux's MLB debut. Back on September 2, 1986 the Chicago Cubs were hosting the Houston Astros and the game went into extra innings. Maddux entered the game in the top of the 18th and gave up a home run to Billy Hatcher which cost them the game. Hatcher would go on to face Maddux forty-two more times during his career, but that was the only home run he hit off of him.
Happy Thursday and sayonara!
15 comments:
Oh my O-Pee-Chee!
People who deal in graded cards aren't even playing the same game as I am. It's not the same hobby.
Love O-Pee-Chee cards, always have. Can't say the same for Donruss.
Cool.
I say the prices drop back to the normal level. Back in 2015 I picked up all 3 of the 1983 Topps key rookie cards for a grand total of $10.00. They were raw, but definitely MINT, maybe even Gem Mint. $10.00. I feel like those 3 should be valued at $10.00 each today. Reasoning......way over produced. A little bit different than say a 1979 Smith or a 68' Ryan. LOL. Production should always be the number 1 factor in the value of a card followed secondly by demand based on successful career, and lastly popularity.
As a kid I was always confused by Donruss and Leaf and always wondered why the looked exactly the same. I didn't know at the time that Leaf was the Canadian version of Donruss. Once I got back into collecting around 2012 or so, I found myself liking a lot of the O-Pee-Chee stuff because it was just a smidge different that their Topps counterparts. I always did like Donruss cards from the 80s, just never was a fan of their Leaf version.
Good research. I agree with Night Owl, collecting graded cards just isn't in my ballpark. My super uneducated opinion is that the graded card market will soften, but never fall close to what it was 10 years ago. Until something changes, of course, because something will. Someday.
Yeah see, this illustrates my point about grading exactly. So if you have a Maddux card that is raw, but basically mint (would grade to a 10), it is only worth three to five bucks. But if certified to be grade 10 (which doesn't change anything but the imprisonment, it is now worth $2-300. Why? Because it's been officially confirmed to be exactly the same as when it was $5? There is no difference. And don't mention population. That's just a count of how many random people decided to get it graded and how many random cards received that grade. It has no significance to the actual number of cards that exist in that grade on Earth.
I've always enjoyed slabbed singles but the prices have gone way out of my range. A modern single like Gwynn's Topps RC is far too easy to find in pack-fresh shape to sell at such a premium just for the "mint 9" label. I could see where O-pee-chee singles might be more sought after in high grade due to those notorious OPC issues like edges and centering. That said they've never been as popular as their Topps counterparts, so I'm surprised at those prices, too.
Not going to comment on grading. Not my thing. I also suspect that despite being rarer that raw Canadian cards just won't have the popularity moving forward. So unless the bottom falls out of the market and Topps popularity drops I suspect Topps will be long term more desirable.
About the cards themselves though. Leaf was always a bit weird to me in how it was identical to Donruss except for the bilingual. I do however like the 1985 version with the 🍃 logo though. OPC was more fun because of the paper stock difference. Seeing the white backs after getting used to the duller grey Topps backs was always a shock.
gcrl - nice
night owl - my favorite thing about card collecting is the numerous ways and things to collect. it's a good thing we don't all collect the same thing and the same way... otherwise it'd be pretty boring.
elliptical man - thanks
johnnys trading spot - i hope it does. there are a lot of graded cards i'd like to add to my collection one day that i've totally missed out on. And I'd love to collect as many 1983 Topps Gwynns as I can before I die... but I'm never gonna pay more than a few bucks, so I need prices to drop back down.
adam - i wasn't a big fan of leaf back in the day either, but these days i'd love to own complete leaf sets from the 80's.
the diamond king - it'll be interesting to see how collectors and collecting changes over the next decade or so. i agree that the graded card market will soften as well. there's no way people continue to pay crazy grading fees for cheap 50¢ cards.
gca - you're spot on and i agree 100%. i didn't start collecting graded cards because i thought they were rarer or anything. i liked the uniformity of the slabs. and for vintage cards, i bought them for authenticity.
chris - i agree. i should have been paying a premium on o-pee-chee singles... since it's obvious their edges and centering are typically worse than topps.
nick vossbrink - i would be happy if the market on canadian cardboard softens, because i've always been a bargain hunter kind of collector. i'd love to one day own all of the leaf and o-pee-chee baseball sets from the 80's, but refuse to pay ridiculous prices. and i totally agree that topps will always be way more popular than o-pee-chee.
I love the 1980s O=Pee-Chee cards, especially the ones with the traded and sign with ones. Some of my favorite Cardinals cards from the 1980s are O-Pee-Chees. Leaf cards were alright, but I always felt like they were really too close to the Donruss cards.
Makes me regret giving away so many Leaf and OPC cards. Darn it!
Leaf and OPC were so hard to find growing up. I definitely see why they command a premium these days.
Growing up near the US-Canadian border, O-Pee-Chee and Leaf cards were regular sightings at card shows. So much so that I never realized they were scarcer to find than the US brand.
the snorting bull - the first cardinals o-pee-chee card that comes to mind is the 1982 ozzie smith
peter k steinberg - i regret not treasuring the ones i came across when i worked at the card shops... and not adding more to my collection over the years
sumomenkoman - yeah, they weren't very common in my area during the 80's. and even when i did see them, i didn't really go after them
matt - it would have been cool to live near the border. sounds like you had access to cards from all four card companies.
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