Who Doesn't Like O Pee Chee? A Look at 1987

 

Way back when I first learned there were cards made by a company called O Pee Chee, I brushed it off as some cheap knock off.  Which they are of course.  I used to think of them as O Cheesey.  Identical photos, design and everything else.  Same thing as Leaf.  Topps was king and there was no appreciation for these copycat companies.  Of course my perception has changed somewhat since then.

When I look at all those 800 count Topps sets, I start to think O Pee Chee and Leaf had the right idea.  Condense the sets to a manageable size, which also (hopefully) means more quality star players per set.  Unless you're one of those people that like to collect obscure players.

Like this guy, Tim Wallach.  Ok, I'm picking on him here because I recently came across this blog about Tim Wallach.  Which I found somewhat humorous.

There are plenty of stars in the set.  This might be my second favorite card of Rickey.

More Hall of Famers.  Twins fans are really partial to each.  Jack Morris, even though he spent only one season with the Twins but he made it count.  He's also one of us (from St Paul).  Bert was a fan favorite before his induction to the Hall of Fame.  He became even more endearing to fans during the broadcasts when he would circle fans.  It wasn't long before fans brought signs to the game saying "circle me Bert".

Rookie cup alert!  Remember when these two were the next big thing?

I threw this in because Pedro was a favorite of mine back then.  I still have a player model Pedro Guerrero bat I used for a few years.  I really need to pick up an autograph of this guy.

No rookie cup for Bonds.  According to PSA, a graded 10 from this set will fetch nearly $20k!  

SIGH... mine is not a PSA 10.  I know, crocodile tears.

One of the cool things about O Pee Chee is the updates they tried to incorporate.  Reardon made a huge impact with the Twins in 1987.

The other good thing O Pee Chee did was brighten the backside of the card.  The high contrast really pops and makes the back easier to read.

I found this set sitting on the shelf at a local shop and really had a hard time justifying the price because my old bias kicked in.   Fortunately I reconsidered as the shop had a nice holiday sale going at the time and I was able to overcome my bias rather quickly.  Unless you're buying PSA 10's the set is rather affordable.  I'll be keeping this one for awhile.