Oh no! Oh yes! O-P-C, this is the second part

 

Yesterday I teased today's post with a 1975 O-Pee-Chee wrapper. Yes, that means a '75 OPC pack-opening is coming. 

Don't get too excited. I didn't buy a sealed '75 OPC pack. 

The wrapper came to me as you see it from Poison75, aka, BaseballCommish75 on the SportsCardForum, aka, one half of the two collecting buddies (The Collective Mind being the other one) who have the most challenging want lists that I'm determined to crack ... someday.

Poison75 is looking to complete his own '75 project, which I'm sure he's mentioned in the comments on my blog previously but I don't recall what it is. I was the beneficiary of some extras from that project, which I'll show you right now:

You sharp-eyed Canadians have probably noticed immediately that those are '75 OPC cards next to the OPC wrapper!

Those are all the ingredients of a pack-opening if I ever saw one. So I put one together by averting my eyes and randomly selecting eight cards from the left stack (8 cards seems like I rip-off compared with the 10 that came out of Topps packs in '75, but the packs here in the U.S. were 15 cents, and I don't know what the conversion rate was then, stop taking the fun out of this).

Voila.

You'd look at this askance if it arrived "sealed" from ebay but I think I did a pretty good job there. Sorry, there's no gomme balloune with this, it probably broke into a million pieces at some point in the last 48 years.

 

From here we're going to pretend it's an actual pack opening. Let's see how good I did.

 

 

The pack-revealing commences. I don't remember if the cards came out of the pack face-up or face-down when I was opening them in '75. Maybe it was a mix of both. Pretty certain the gum was the first thing I saw.

Note the free umpire's ball and strike indicator offer, Either I never saw wrappers advertising that then or I was so clueless I didn't know what it was -- I do remember the grocery counter things from back in the '70s, which I was fascinated by, so I probably would've wished for this if I saw the ad.

Off we go!

602 - John Vukovich, Reds

 

For the most part, OPC was still a few years away from advertising its difference from Topps cards on the front. That didn't start until late in the 1970s, I believe. But the tell-tale ragged edging is there.

 

Did I pull the Topps version out of a pack in '75?: No, never saw it.

 

 

229 - Barry Foote, Expos

 

Great card. I would have been thrilled to pull this card out of a pack then. Speaking of which ...

 

Did I pull the Topps version out of a pack in '75?: No. But I did see the card for the first time during a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in which the entire '75 set was displayed on a series of boards that you could walk past. I noted certain cards (Garr, Foote in particular) and pined for them until I was old enough to order cards through the mail. Foote was one of the first.

 

 

342 - Leroy Stanton, Angels

 

It looks like Stanton's card back received the gum treatment when it originally came out of a pack. Also notice how wildly off-center it is, that was pretty common.

 

Did I pull the Topps card out of a pack in '75?:  I pulled the mini card. This was one of my favorites from the set.

236 - Angels team checklist

Did I pull the Topps card out of a pack in '75?: I don't think so. Many of my team cards from this time were the flimsy ones cut from a sheet that you could order off the back of the team card as you can see there.

 

403 - Tom Buskey, Indians

 

Props to the type-setters for '75 OPC who had to squeeze in a lot of wording for some of the cartoons. Must've gotten dicey.

 

Did I pull the Topps card out of a pack in '75?: Nope.

 

 

79 - Gary Matthews, Giants

 

Sarge's 1975 card isn't nearly as exciting as his 1974 card, but I really liked it back in '75.

 

Did I pull the Topps card out of a pack in '75: I did. I was on summer vacation in another town when I took a trip to the drug store with my brother and a friend and bought a couple of packs in which I pulled this card.

 

 

586 - Tim McCarver, Red Sox

 

SIDEBURNS. You want a Red Sox card of Tim McCarver, the '75 OPC and Topps versions are about all there is.

 

Did I pull the Topps version out of a pack in '75?: I did not.

 

 

 338 - Rick Stelmaszek, Cubs

An airbrushed Cub for the final card.

Did I pull the Topps card out of a pack in '75?: Never. I was not aware of Stelmaszek until starting a blog 35 years later.

That's the full pack booty. I would have been happy with that pack as a kid. No, I would not realize that half of the cards featured airbrushed hats.

These are the rest of the O-Pee-Chee cards that arrived in the package. 

Aside from the Dodgers, I have owned the same twelve 1975 OPC cards since about 2004. When I was chasing the '75 Topps set, I accidentally pulled some OPC cards for purchase that I thought were Topps cards.

This doubles my total for the non-Dodgers '75s (still chasing the remaining '75 OPC Dodgers I need). A number of people have asked me whether I intend to chase the 1975 OPC set to go with my completed Topps and Topps mini sets. The answer is always no.

This doesn't change things but it's nice to add a few more to a total that's stagnated for almost 20 years.

 

The BaseballCommish also sent these cards, I think I have the Dodgers already. We're not talking about the Bills.

Plus this amusing graded 1997 Score Hideo Nomo card. About the only way to get graded cards into my collection and keep them graded (i.e.: I don't bust them out with implements of freedom) is to send me a graded card that I already own in its proper non-encased state.

So congratulations '97 Score Nomo! You're one of about 7 or 8 graded cards in my collection.

That was fun. And it was nice to take the virtual trip to Canada for the last couple of days.

I'll be coming back to America for the rest of the week's posts. No passport needed.