The wax wrappers and rough cut cards disappeared long ago but an old school hobby brand lives on with the upcoming arrival of 2017-18 O-Pee-Chee hockey. The low-cost product from Upper Deck is something along the lines of a Topps baseball flagship set, albeit one without any autographs.
Each box will have 32 packs with eight cards per pack. Online pricing is currently in the $65-$75 range.
OPC hockey is all about the base cards with Auston Matthews kicking it off as card #1, but there are some things to chase as well. This year’s base set is 600 cards, including a 100-card series of high numbers that will fall one in every 
two packs.
Cards numbered 501-550 will feature Marquee Rookie cards, a group that will include some players who made their debuts too late last season such as Clayton Keller, Alex Nylander, Tyson Jost, Nikita Scherbak, Alex Tuch, Josh Ho-Sang, Ivan Barbashev, 
and Evgeny Svechnikov. The rest of the series includes Season Highlights, League Leaders and Team Checklists. The base set also has Rainbow Foil (Inserted 1:4) and Black Rainbow Foil (#’d to 100) parallels. Retro variations will fall one per pack, highlighting some past O-Pee-Chee designs.
New to the product is a 77-card insert set of Minis. Each box will include eight. There are SPs and variations including Black and Black Foil parallels.
O-Pee-Chee Patches are back with 100 on the checklist including some ultra-rare mascot variations and players from the past and present.
Look for O-Pee-Chee Playing Cards, which return this year and fall at a rate of five per box. The Aces will be harder to get than others, especially the scarce Foil versions.
PRODUCT BREAKDOWN:
High-Series Inserts: Combine to Deliver 1 in 2 packs
– Marquee Rookies
– Season Highlights
– League Leaders
– Team Checklist
O-Pee-Chee Patches:
– 2017-18 Base – Inserted 1:190
– 2017-18 Marquee Rookies/Legends – Inserted 1:1200
– 100 Year Anniversary Logo – Inserted 1:360
– 100 Year Anniversary Logo Legends – Inserted 1:2000
– Logo Patch Update – Inserted 1:1400
– Mascots – Inserted 1:2000
– Rare Mascots – Inserted 1:25000
Minis:
– Regular – Inserted 1:7
– Black Foil Parallel – Inserted 1:21
– Regular Black Variations – #’d to 27
– Short Prints – Inserted 1:35
– Short Prints Black Foil Parallel – Inserted 1:103
– Short Prints Black Variations – #’d to 27 – Rare Variations – Inserted 1:86
– Rare Variations Black Foil Parallel – Inserted 1:256
– Rare Variations Black Variations – #’d to 27
Regular Set Parallels:
– OPC Retro – Inserted 1:1
– Rainbow Foil – Inserted 1:4
– Black Rainbow Foil – #’d to 100
O-Pee-Chee’s Unique Inserts:
– OPC Playing Cards (2 thru Kings) – Inserted 1:9
– OPC Playing Cards Foil Parallel (2 thru Kings) – Inserted 1:33
– OPC Playing Cards (Aces) – Inserted 1:200
– OPC Playing Cards Foil Parallel (Aces) – Inserted 1:1568
Base Cards:
– 500 including 100 short prints inserted 1:2 packs
2017-18 O-Pee-Chee hockey is scheduled to be released September 6.
You can see boxes and cases for sale on eBay by clicking here.
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