On Their Own

Our multi-part series on the Topps and O-Pee-Chee Hockey sets of the 50's, 60's and 70's almost concludes today with a survey of the secondary, standalone NHL sets issued by both companies.

Unlike the US Baseball issues, where Topps was (sporadically at first) issuing secondary sets from the mid 1950's and tertiary sets by the mid 60's, it took until the early 1970's for the hockey market to see such wonders. Certainly the reason was economic.  Their main hockey mad audience was primarily in Canada, with roughly ten to twelve percent of the population of the US. Now I'm sure interest was higher as far more kids watched and played (and lived and breathed) the game in Canada but realistically the market was probably about 20% at most when compared to how much baseball product was moved in both countries. So there wasn't a whole lot of dollars to be had and there was also a pretty weak exchange rate.

I briefly touched upon the lone Canadian Bazooka issue earlier in this series of posts and frankly, it's ridiculously scarce and also replicates the great card design in 1971-72.  Here is a nice panel:

The Bazooka cards are a bit smaller than the regular issue; the VHC Guide pegs them at 1 7/8" x 2 3/4" and the pictures remained the same.  It's hard to find these without tape marks on the end cards as if they weren't difficult enough.  I'm pretty sure that Serge Bernier is currently starring in The Americans alongside Keri Russell.

O-Pee-Chee really branched out for the 1971-72 season.  A standalone issue of 24 Posters came and went pretty quickly.  These actually came in attached pairs and included a shot of the previous season's champs.  Feast your eyes....

Each individual poster is about 10" x 17 7/8", printed on cheap stock but lots of them were cut apart so your experience may vary. In addition, a veritable plethora of folds makes minty poster impossible. Those are clearly patterned after the 1968 US Baseball Player Poster issue, packaging and all. Here is a look at the cutting lines in the middle; the waste area seems to be superfluous to me:

The 1973-74 OPC WHA Posters have also been looked previously at in this series.  Smaller than the 1971-72 posters , they are printed on thicker stock and look a lot nicer. VHC has them measuring 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" and I'll use that as I don't want to unfold and flatten my very nice example just to confirm. They were not paired but did come two to a pack:

The combo team/league logo is quite prominent:

Having gone big in Canada, Topps went small in the US the following year.  Their 1974-75 issue of Cloth Stickers featuring NHL team emblems is a real head scratcher.  Topps was experimenting with cloth stickers on the Baseball side at the time and I get that but these are just weird:

Very much in thrall of the 1973-74 Baseball Action Stickers, at least the cloth versions of those, you may notice the dimensions are a bit off. That's because they are a quarter inch short in both directions from standard size. I have no idea why Topps chose to do that. There are 19 large sticker subjects and 18 pennants (the NHL did not get its own pennant) and with mixing-and-matching  24 different stickers make up the full set.  The early 70's Topps sticker glue bugaboo also presents itself rather messily. Topps would not really figure out a proper glue and cloth material ratio until the 1977 Cloth Baseball set was issued.

The pack features a Boston Bruins logo; odd since they had lost in the cup finals to the Flyers to conclude the 1973-74 NHL season.  Maybe Topps only issued these in a select few cities; they are certainly hard to find, although I wouldn't call them scarce.

Now, while the NHL did not have its own pennant, it did have a larger presence. A checklist card had one of nine puzzle pieces on the front (yes, front).  Here's an uncut panel:

Maybe Topps issued a checklist to show there were no WHA cards in the set. Of course, it also helped stiffen the pack.

If you flip it, you get:

Things quieted down for a bit on the secondary issues front until 1979, when a tough to find little item came out:

Once again I had to nail scans from Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector Price Guide (1st edition; he's now up to a 2nd edition).  Topps was experimenting with similar type pairings in the US across most of their sports lines (but not basketball). They would repeat the procedure in 1980-81 as well, although it's unclear to me if that was just a reissue of the blister pack.  I'm amazed it still has Topps as being in Brooklyn; they were pretty much using their Duryea, PA address from 1969 onward and I believe this is the latest date where I have seen such a thing. Here is how the interior of the wrapper looks:

For our last peek at secondary hockey offerings, here is a familiar looking Giant Photo as Topps issued similar ones for baseball and football in the US:

Hanlon looks like he should be on the bridge of Battlestar Galactica! The ginormous O-Pee-Chee logo on the reverse is absolutely killer:

At 5" x 7", these were pretty big, weren't they?

Back with a look at some hockey premiums next week.

What In The World?

When the World Hockey Association came along in 1972, their team owners knew they had to make a big splash to compete with the expanding and increasingly robust National Hockey League and that they did, with the signing of Bobby Hull to a rich (by the standards of the times) contract with the Winnipeg Jets. They also managed to lure another 66 NHL players away and after withstanding a series of lawsuits and largely penurious economic conditions, lasted seven tumultuous seasons, ultimately seeing four teams absorbed into the National Hockey League.  O-Pee-Chee got into the game right away by including 52 WHA players in their last series in 1972-73, including the aforementioned Golden Jet.

The 1973-74 OPC set did not include WHA players and it seems to me the NHL made it clear the two leagues were not to share pack space ever again.  And if they didn't, they certainly should have!

Topps gave not a whit about the WHA in the US and really, given their shorter sets, didn't seem too worked up about the NHL either during most of the 70's. O-Pee-Chee though, was happy enough to put WHA players into the hands of Canadian consumers and issued a set of large player posters, 20 subjects long in 1973-74. I had to snag these images from an online post made by one 200lbhockeyplayer over at the Freedom Card Board as mine is too big to scan and my stitching abilities are, shall we say, non-existent:

There was also a great shot of the Howe family's hockey players among the posters:

Posters measure about 7 1/2" x 12 1/2" according to Bobby Burrell and are on better stock than the NHL posters of two seasons prior.

The wrapper indicates these were licensed from Topps.  Strange, as you would think O-Pee-Chee would have had the means to create their own set; indeed the posters display an O.P.C.copyright in their lower border:

You can clearly see that design was taken from the 1968 and 1970 reissue of the Topps Baseball Player Posters:

The lack of a card set would seemingly indicate there were legal wranglings occurring that prevented a standalone set of pasteboards being issued for the new league. But Quaker managed a 50 card WHA cereal prize set so they may simply have stolen the puck away from the Topps/OPC juggernaut for a season.

O-Pee-Chee though certainly bounced back, issuing a 66 card WHA set for 1974-75:

The wrapper is quite colorful and a reflection of the times; that surf green color is off the charts:

The autographs were the facsimile ones on the front of the cards.  Big whoop. The licensing from Topps continued unabated though!

The 1975-76 WHA season brought a doubling of the set size from O-Pee-Chee, to 132 subjects:

That card just screams 70's...so does the wrapper.  This one is from Friend o'the Archives Bobby Burrell's Vintage Hockey Collector Guide:.  Go show his hockey forum some love too, eh?

Things were pretty static for 1976-77 with O-Pee-Chee and the WHA; 132 cards again and the grooviness wearing off:

More of the same ol' same ol' in 1977-78, the last year of O-Pee-Chee's WHA issues.  132 cards that were not all that attractive unfortunately.  Too bad they couldn't have issued one further set, they would likely have included Wayne Gretzky's rookie card if they had hung on.

They did save the best for last though.  Gordie Howe scored his 1000th goal (between the NHL and WHA, including playoffs) on December 7, 1977 so O-Pee-Chee scrambled to include this card in the set, which was their  #1 and also his regular card for the series.

No inserts, fairly blah designs but you know what, OPC documented the WHA as well as any other source, if not even surpassing them.  Bien joue!

Up North (Or Not)

Pretty much any collector of vintage cards is familiar with the Canadian firm O-Pee-Chee, which was founded as a confectioner in 1911 and started issuing, or distributing under license, various sports and non-sports cards in the 1930's, including several classic baseball and hockey sets and even a glass gun in the very early days prior to that. I'm not sure if the prewar issues they licensed were done so out of economic necessity or due to Canadian packaging laws of the era but after the end of World War 2 O-Pee-Chee went dark for a while on the trading card front, relying upon their confectionery line to sustain them.

Topps meanwhile, started selling Bazooka in Canada around 1948 and, at a minimum, Tatoo gum as well.  They also were selling their bulk gumballs, known as Bozo, in Canada and may have made that product Canadian only for a decade or so to boot.  Meanwhile, after watching Parkhurst issue a popular string of hockey cards up North, Topps launched their Hockey card line in 1954-55 before shutting it down after what were probably fairly dismal sales.  Topps only had the four US NHL teams for their inaugural issue while Parkhurst had all six. It's thought by hockey card guru Bobby Burrell that this set was imported into Canada and did not see sales in the United States, although the Bazooka prize and premium inserts that came in the pack have a Brooklyn mailing address so it's up in the air I guess.  The set was definitely printed in the US and imported.  In addition to the indicia on the cards and wrapper, I have read about an accident involving a shipment of these from Detroit (O-Pee-Chee HQ was in London, Ontario about 100 miles northeast of Motor City) but can't locate that article now but do recall a number of cards were destroyed. I would put this set in the top five of all Topps card designs by the way:

Topps bailed on the 1955-56 season and then it seems like a license problem (meddling by Topps?) prevented Parkhurst from putting out a set in 1956-57 . Topps also missed 1956-57 as did Parkhurst but both companies came back strong in 1957-58 with sets; Parkhurst now only featured the two Canadian teams while Topps had the four US entries.  This truncating of the Parkhurst issue strongly suggests to me that Topps managed to cause enough havoc with the NHL, or the individual teams, to prevent anything coming out for the 1956-57 season.  It's thought that Topps issued their cards near the beginning of the season and then Parkhurst issued theirs after the New Year, a pattern that would seemingly continue as long as the two firms competed with each other.

This 2/4 split of teams would continue until 1960-61, when Parkhurst managed to snag the Detroit Red Wings for their set, likely meaning that each team was able to negotiate their own licensing deals at the time. 3/3 would be the pattern until Parkhurst gave up issuing cards after their 1963-64 issue.

Now back to 1957-58, where the cards are definitely from the lower 48 but also have been French-i-fied:

Every source I've seen indicates the Topps and O-Pee-Chee licencing arrangements commenced in 1958 across multiple product lines and that year is cited as the year the cards started being printed in Canada. But looky here:

What exactly was made where? There are two manufacturers and two countries of manufacture listed, with no breakdown of what was done where. The cards were made in the USA, but was the wrapper or gum?  How can you tell?!

Following this, for the 1958-59 season, as Topps seems to have determined their business model in Canada would be a lot more sustainable if a Canadian firm actually handled the manufacture and distribution of their products. There is a cohesive body of thought in the hobby that for the next decade O-Pee-Chee made all their Hockey sets from Topps production materials starting with this season but it's not quite as simple as that as once again the cards were from the U.S.:

The ultra scarce 1958-59 wrapper is at odds with the cards, noting everything was made, distributed and printed in Canada under License with Topps.

Interesting that the Bazooka ad is American and Canadian-oriented at the same time!

1959-60? More of the same:

Bobby Burrell was kind enough to forward a scan of the almost impossible 1959-60 wrapper; it's virtually the same as the prior year, just with the primary graphic color being yellow.  The indicia remained the same though but dig those felt initials, a Topps premium mainstay since the 1940's:

For 1960-61 though, it's a different story entirely. The cards are still American made:

While both Topps and O-Pee-Chee information is on the wrapper; as you can see there is a bit of a conflict:

As with the 1957-58 issue, I'm going to take the last "Printed In U.S.A" as referring to the wrapper, although that could be incorrect as the mailing address for the premium album (which we have seen here) is in Ontario- not to mention the cards once again stating they were printed in the USA!

                                                                                                                                                                    

Beginning in 1961-62 the cards themselves started displaying Canadian indicia, although Topps (T.C.G.) was still shown as the manufacturer; it would seem they truly began sharing production materials with OPC at this juncture. This is the only Hockey set that mentions lithography by the way:

The 1961-62 wrapper added a twist-English and French, snug as bugs in a rug:

Basically I am of the opinion that the sets were more Topps than O-Pee-Chee until this year, and then more O-Pee-Chee than Topps accordingly going forward.  Clearly the Canadian production of all materials and confections associated with the Hockey sets commenced in 1961-62.

Stay tuned, we'll look at most of the rest of the 60's tout suite, next time out.