O-Pee-Chee was a Canadian subsidiary of Topps that produced baseball cards for the Canadian market from 1952 to 1981, using the same photographs and designs as the American Topps sets but printed in Canada and featuring French text on the reverse. Like their American Topps counterparts, many O-Pee-Chee cards have become quite valuable, especially the rarest and most coveted examples.
One of the holy grails of O-Pee-Chee collecting is the 1952 Mickey Mantle card. Only a handful are known to exist, since the 1952 set had a very small print run to begin with as baseball card collecting was still in its infancy. PSA has graded only two 1952 Mantle O-Pee-Chee cards, with one earning an impressive gem mint PSA 10 grade. In 2014, that sole PSA 10 1952 Mantle O-Pee-Chee sold at auction for an astronomical $368,500, setting the record for highest price ever paid for a baseball card at that time.
Another incredibly rare pre-1960 O-Pee-Chee variant is the 1959 Warren Spahn card, which features a photo of Spahn in a Braves uniform even though he was traded from Milwaukee to the Giants prior to the 1959 season. Braves photos were all pulled from the printing plates but a few stray examples featuring Spahn as a Brave somehow made it into packs that year. The card has been called the “biggest aberration error card” of the entire O-Pee-Chee set and registry. Only a small handful are known to exist in collectors’ hands today.
For collectors looking for rarer post-1960 O-Pee-Chee cards, the 1963 Eddie Mathews is a true prize. Like the 1959 Spahn, it features an erroneous photo, showing Mathews as a Milwaukee Brave when he had been traded from that team in 1962. Even rarer than the Spahn, experts believe only one to three of the 1963 Mathews cards were ever produced before the error was caught and corrected on the printing plates. A pristine PSA-graded 1963 Mathews recently sold at auction for over $80,000, underscoring its great scarcity and demand.
Two other incredibly scarce post-1960 O-Pee-Chee variants worth mentioning are the 1968 Nolan Ryan and 1969 Tom Seaver rookie cards. The 1968 Ryan was produced with the wrong photo, showing him as an Angel even though he was a Met that season. Only a small handful are known. The 1969 Seaver is considered by many the true Seaver rookie since it predates his more common 1969 Topps and Fleer cards. Again, production was limited and a pristine copy in a PSA 10 slab recently changed hands for $100,000.
Rookie cards for future Hall of Famers like Rodriguez, Henderson, Ripken, and Murray also command big money in their rarest O-Pee-Chee forms, such as the 1975 Fred Lynn with a photo of him as an Angel instead of a Red Sox. Condition is critical, as is pedigree documentation for ultra-rare specimens. Prices into the five and even six figures are routine for true “one-of-a-kind” O-Pee-Chee errors and photo substitutions alongside superior grades.
Additional categories of rare pre-1962 O-Pee-Chee cards include those featuring all-time greats like Ted Williams, Stan Musial, and Willie Mays in their rookie seasons, as well as the extremely low-population early returned proofs and test prints that are virtually impossible to acquire. Legendary collectors like Bill Mastro continue to set record prices paid for these vintage O-Pee-Chee keys at major auctions.
While the 1980s O-Pee-Chee sets are no longer valuable as whole sets due to higher initial print runs, outlier short prints featuring stars like Rickey Henderson and Cal Ripken Jr do attract premiums—especially those qualifying as true rookie cards in the hands of Canadian collectors. The 1981 Fleer Rickey Henderson rookie is likewise a key O-Pee-Chee collectible.
Rare O-Pee-Chee variants are in high demand among both Canadian and American collectors. With strict population reports, the true “one-of-a-kind” errors and photo substitutions can equal or surpass their American Topps counterparts in value due to their extreme scarcity. Pristine high-grade examples of icons like Mantle, Spahn, Mathews, Ryan and Seaver will always be prized targets for advanced O-Pee-Chee collectors willing to pay top dollar.
