Collector Finds INSANELY RARE Unopened Case of 1979 O-Pee-Chee Hockey! How Many Gretzky Rookies?? 

What would you do?

The average of the last few PSA 8 sales is around 12.5k. Let's say there are 27 Gretzkys and let's generously say that they are all PSA 8s - and let's even more generously say there are 3 MORE Gretzkys, and they are all PSA 9s, which recently went for about 132k. That grand total of those 30 Gretzkys still comes in under 750K. I'm sure there is value in the other cards in the set, but unless you have a gambling addiction, with millions to blow, paying that kind of money to crack this case seems rather unwise.

Take the 2-3 million and walk away

I would immediately sell 10 of the 16 boxes and invest that money wisely. 4 of the remaining 6 I would put in a safety deposit box and throw away the key. The remaining 2 boxes - I would open - but at this pace - 1 pack per week on same day same time. The first Gretzky I find I determine if it had a shot at an 8 or 9. If so off to PSA. The rest of the packs off to PSA to be graded - keep all the 9’s and 10’s if any and sell the rest of the graded packs. This way I would: 1. Make a lot of money. 2. Have a High grade Hockey GOAT RC 3. Have sealed wax boxes and packs for future sale 4. Above all have a lot of fun ripping wax trying to find the Hockey GOAT!

This is every collectors dream scenario! What would be cool would be if psa or beckett invited the potential auction winner with the case to their headquarters and completely document the rip and grade the potential Gretzky's straight from packs to slabs with the utmost care and limited handling.

Hey Mike I'm with you on that one. I'm an A/C technician and I go in alot of attics and I see alot of old stuff most is forgotten stuff. I have several customers who have vintage cards that belong to there son or father and tell me that they don't know if there valuable or not . I'm hoping one day someone will say do you want these box of old cards . I'd be like hell yeah lol. There is still a lot out there to make it on ATF lol. I would open half and leave other half sealed. Hopefully you get 10 or more Wayne's rookie card. Michael Jordan's rookie card is over rated there's more than 25000. Im pretty sure there's warehouses full of junk wax cards still to come. Great story.

Good to see hockey making an appearance.

This story gets me excited. I’m one of the people back in the early eighties that used to shoot our cards against the wall and winner takes all! So many of our cards ended up in our bike spokes. We created some incredible memories (and the stories have grown over the year!) As a collector, I look back at those days and wish I had been more selective, but I have little regrets. But this story gives me a chance to really fantasise about what I would do I think I would sell half the boxes and keep half. I’d open my boxes after I sold the other half. Can an auction house make it a condition of the sale that the sold boxes would be held until all the others are sold??? Or at least for a reasonable duration of time so the inside condition remains a mystery during the sale period? Then let the chips fall where they may! 😊 But I’d be interested in hearing what others think about this idea.

So many opportunities here....last boxes on Heritage sold for $210K in Feb 2022 and $151K in Jul 2021. Heritage in Nov 2021 had 48 graded packs sell for $120K. Seems like the best thing to do is keep them in a sealed box as the breakup value would hit $2.4M t0 $3.4M however $3.4M for PSA 10 Gretzky is tempting.

Good analysis. Thanks for the info. As mentioned in the post, OPC cards had a lot of rough edge cuts. This was due to the fact OPC used a wire to cut the cardboard as opposed to a blade. In addition to the deterioration of the gum, the other negative variable with OPC was how off-centred the borders were. This was not restricted to just the 79-80 cards: almost every year from the 70s to the end of the 80s OPC had terrible centring. Even as a kid my friends and I wondered what those guys were on when they were cutting those cards! haha. That terrible centring alone accounts for why there are so few high percentages grades for OPC. The centring and the edges are two of the reasons Beckett assigns 1979-80 as Condition Sensitive. I would be so eager to bust open all of the packs, but based on the price that was paid it doesn't make sense.

I’d sell half of the 16 sealed boxes to 8 different individuals who offered me the most money. I’d keep 4 boxes for myself, stashed away in a big fireproof/moisture-proof safe. The remaining 4 boxes, I’d contract with a cable news sports station to open “live” on a one hour TV special. I’d have PSA representatives there to document, certify & grade each valuable card. Imagine the TV ratings for such a unique telecast, as well as all the commercial endorsements.

I really wish it was easier to find the total print run for sets in the public domain.

I actually have opened a lot of 79 OPC unfortunately base. Lol Back around 2010 you could be unopened 79 opc wax packs for 10 to 15 each so I'd buy then often. Back then I'd submitt a common to PSA if I thought it would grade well especially for only $6 a pop. In 15 pack I only got one psa 10 and it was a common, so 10s even pack fresh are tough. I still got just short of $100 for it. That's probably more than I'd gotten for psa 7 Ozzie Smith. Busting wax was fun back then, you actually could get your money out of it.

Will be very lucky to pull a single PSA 8. Gretzky rookies are notoriously off center

No way would I open them. The gum is going to stick and destroy at least one card in each pack. The quality control for O-Pee-Chee was absolute crap! It would be a miracle to find one without an O-Pee-Chee cut (that cut you showed on the 10 is an absolute minimum as most look like the eastern seaboard) AND be centered decently. I would bet the majority are 5's and 6's.

There it is- and I was among hundreds that “gave you the heads up”. Lol. Yeah the gums the big X factor. I suspect they majority if not all will range in the 6-7 range. A slabbed PSA 6 goes for “only” 2, 500.00 on EBay now. For that reason I keep them in case. Great stuff 👍❤️

I would absolutely crack a box but would piece out the rest, packs or boxes, and double my money for when the '52 Topps high number case comes around!

I live where this was found. After 20 years of advertising that IM BUYING, never did I come across this collection. Doh!!!!

If anyone pays that amount and opens that case they’re crazy. Not gonna get any 10s, and if they do they’re devaluing what a Gretzky OPC PSA 10 will be worth b/c there will be more of them now.

My guess is a few big dealers going in on the case together who would split it up amongst themselves. Kind of like buying into a break. I bet some of the boxes do get opened but I personally would rather have one sitting in a safe and occasionally pull it out for bragging rights😂 cool find! I'm not into hockey but that's the only card I wouldn't mind having one day🎉

I have complete O Pee Chee and Topps sets but I would still be sorely tempted to crack the 768 packs in that case. What fun that would be!

I got back in the hobby in 2019… as a teenager in 1979 I must have bought a 1979 topps hockcey box…. in 2019 I found 3 topps greztky rookies.. graded them… two psa 7s… one psa 6…. they were packed pulled and in a shoe box since 1979… so perfect pack pulled cards are very hard to get those high grades from a 1979 box… I would not OPEN the case.. would keep it as is….

Sold my SGC 6 for $3k last year! I would definitely keep them shut! OPC are super hard to find in great shape due to the print standards were very bad! Two diffrent variations also! Print run 1 and 2! What I love about OPC is the rough cut the cards have! U also mentioned the gum! It was like acid in those packs! Definitely will have some destroyed cards! As a collector and dealer I love OCP! GRETZKY is still the grail in OPC next would be the 1987 OPC Bonds!

That's a lot of freight to carry.....I'm sure a syndicate was put together to buy it and allocate it out. I couldn;'t resist the urge to open a few...too bad after Gretzky's RC, there isn't too much else to get excited about in the 396 card set other than Howe's and Hull's last card.

The value of this is in leaving it sealed

It's cold in Canada this time of year, burn it...starm warm 🔥

They should make a special lot designation for graded cards pulled from this hoard, like they do for some coins. Anything from this lot would be highly sought after.

As a current wax pack collector and a hockey card junkie growing up in Canada I opened hundreds of these packs from 1979 and I can tell you the chances of finding any nines or tens in these boxes is so low you might as well go outside and walk the streets looking for nickels you would get more money that way….lol…The probability of getting some sixes sevens or eights is way more realistic. Unfortunately, these would not even come close to paying for one of these boxes…. there were so many off-center, rough cut and miss cut cards from this set you cant even believe it….OPC used a wire to cut these cards and once that wire got dull…. it literally ripped and tore the cards yet for some reason they still put them in packs and sold them to us kids…… Quality control was very poor…. This is just a rich man’s game of roulette anybody who would want to buy one of these at over 200,000 K and then open these packs obviously doesn’t have to worry about their money…. The value of these boxes and packs stays high, but only in their un opened state…. Another thing people forget about the 79-80 set is that it was a terrible set overall there are no other high-end rookie cards from this year the 80-81 and 81-82 were much much better overall hockey card packs to open because of all the different rookies at least if you were to open a pack of cards from 1980-81 season you had a chance at a Bourque or Messier rookie….. if it wasn’t for the Gretzky rookie in these 1979-80 packs this set would have been the worst for popularity in the history of hockey cards. so when you buy these, you literally would be just opening them going through the cards and throwing everything out just looking for the Gretzky. In other words, there are no consolation prizes here….. I don’t really mean throwing them out because there are still some cool cards but you get my point here… In contrast, if you were to open a box of 1980-81…… you will enjoy going through every pack and taking your time because you could pull a bourque,messier,gartner,goulet…. Wayne Gretzky‘s first All-Star card and all of the amazing Wayne Gretzky leader cards…… It’s just something to consider for anyone willing to purchase some of these packs when these boxes get broken open…… In summary, anybody who buys one of these boxes and thinks that there is a PSA 9 or a PSA 10 inside and that they are going to pull a gem mint Wayne Gretzky card send it off to PSA and become rich is delusional if you have the money to buy one of these boxes and open these packs You are very lucky to have achieved such wealth…. have fun and enjoy the thrill of trying to find a Gretzky….wish it was me…lol

I wish the grading companies would take into "account" that rough cut across the board with vintage when grading. Ive seen 6's looking better compared to that first 10 you showed. Personally I would either keep the case intact or save half the case intact and rip a couple boxes. Great find! Amazing those finds are still out there. Love your stories.

If I had the kind of money to buy the case, I could afford to lose that kind of money because I would be ripping like crazy. I would probably send a few boxes to get authenticated and resell those. I would put a complete set together. I would grade every Gretzky that I pulled, and I would grade every other card of HOFers or really anyone at all that had some value. I would stash some of the graded cards in a PC and resell the rest. Would most likely lose money but damn it would be fun!

3:48 GI JOE! A REAL AMERICAN HERO!

Collector in me says rip!!! Dealer/flipper in me says hold and sell one sealed box at a time. Great story.

I begged my buddy Tom to help me dig up his cards that he buried at his childhood home in 1973. He declined.

If you have the money to purchase a $2M case it is unlikely not your last $2M. I would open it. If case is pristine as advertised you most likely only have centering issues and potential gum issues. I would use a reputable PSA submitter who can pre-screen cards as I am sure putting high end sets that could appear on PSA registries would go for a ton in addition to the Gretzky Rookies. This is a once in a lifetime experience to open a case like that. Ultra rich people pay for experiences like that.

The cards had alot of print dots ,topps had . Canadian ones ,no clue.great stuff.Great box.🥳🎉👏💵💲💰🎰

As a fellow 1979 baby, Wayne Gretzky RC is a grail I must have. One day…

You have to remember how people treated their cards back in the day. I bet 99% of the people opening cards back in those days didn't protect them. They were for kids, and they were worthless. It wasn't until years later that they had some ok value. I have some old Becketts, and I looked in one from February 91 with Mario on the cover, and the price of a Gretzky RC is $350 and $600 mint. That after he's dominated the league for years and is guaranteed to break every major hockey record. Maybe some people kept their cards in a box and didn't touch them, but I doubt very many didn't just throw them around and play games with them. I know a contractor who told me back in day he had dozens of Gretzky RCs, and everyone just chewed the gum and the cards were something to look at, and then you traded them and tossed them in your backpack to show friends at school. No sleeves or hard covers. Just a bunch of Gretzkys tumbling around in your backpack. This case is pristine, but humidity could be an issue....... I still think whoever buys this case is going to make millions off of it. He will probably hold it and then resell it down the road for anywhere from 2x to 5x.

Great show! Hockey cards are my jam! That set is highly collectible like the like the 86 Jordan set. The commons alone graded would probable get you 200K the stars graded could fetch you another 200K. I dont know what I would do with it. Probably hold onto it and try to sell the case in a couple of years or try to sell the boxes in the future. Your PSA cost would crazy high.

I have done a lot of research on this card as it’s the last OPC hockey card from the 80s that I need for my collection. I would be absolutely shocked if a 10 came out of this collection. Even the two 10s that are in existence, if cracked, would not grade a 10 now based on PSA standards I don’t believe. They are notoriously off centred and have a lot of print blemishes etc. Opening those cases would be a terrible idea if you were thinking of it from an investment opportunity. That said I would pay to watch someone rip these open for sure!! 😂

The kid in me would want to tear right through those boxes! The collector in me would sell, as who knows what shape the cards are in.

The cutting machines are ATROCIOUS with O-Pee-Chee. Plus the gum is more sugary so it breaks down quickly and saturates the cards. The centering is also horrible too. Getting a 10 is near impossible for O-Pee-Chee cards. It's best to keep this case sealed. BUT the buyer can do what he she wants.

Thanks for sharing Mike. I would not open the packs

Great video. A piece of me would open them all but at the same time I would want to make my money back. Personally I would love to have one that is in good condition not necessarily for a number grade but one that is authentic

I have heard that the reason OPC have rough edges is because the cards were cut with wires and the Topps cards were cut with blades... Is that true or is it just a story I heard that makes sense?

Keep them sealed. Maybe open one box. And grade another box individually as packs

what are recent prices for a box of 1979 OPC? need that to make a decision right . . . 16 boxes @ $2.3m for the case that's about $140K per box and 1.5 Gretzky cards per box (Topps box recently sold on BBCE for $36K). 48 packs per box = $2,900 per pack (that's super expensive). I probably wouldn't buy it at anything above $1.8m

I would definitely open them.

I'd do a half and half...I would have Steve Hart open the case, and wrap half of the boxes as coming from a sealed case, and include the provenance of this case...selling those individually would more than recoup half of the cost of the case I am guessing, as more people can bid on individual boxes than can bid on a full case...I would then open the other half of the boxes looking for PSA gradable cards

This find literally terrifies me. I am not sure what I would do. As a collector, I feel like I would have to bust a few packs (at least), from a few boxes, to get an idea of what the centering/cut was like. If it looked like regular O-Pee-Chee from that era (cut with a cheese grater looking 🙄) I would stop opening and sell the rest. If they were cut nice and actually centered?? Hard to not open and pray for 9's and 10's. A few years back I opened some 1981-82 OPC packs and got some Gretzky 9's (and a few should've been a 10) and I can say......they were worth opening!! Obviously 1979-80 are a different monster, but the allure of getting seventeen 9's and two 10's wouldve been too hard to resist.....if they're not centered, sell the last 12-14 boxes BBCE wrapped.....but you gotta try imo!! This find makes me squeamish.....this couldn't have been the only boxes.....imagine having a case of 1980-81, unopened and unscratched??? With Bourque and Messier (I think both in opc), not to mention the Gretzky unscratched and unsoiled?? At that point, (when you find them) why not just open and grade......profit margins shouldn't matter with free money. I'm definitely gambling this to the fullest!! (Even though selling intact is the most sound plan!) Since we are playing with house money!!

You can’t open it. Not if it goes for $2+ million. The odds of getting a pristine GEM Mint 10 Gretzky are next to zero. And, even if you did get one, the population count is so low for them that you would likely affect the value by introducing it to the market. Gotta just sit on it. 3:47

I'm opening at least 3 boxes. There is a difference between buying a card and pulling it yourself. I'm not getting buried with them.

Anyone who talks opening these boxes is not familiar with hockey packs back in that era. You would be very lucky to get a few graded 8 cards. Theses cards were roughly cut….most very cut off centre. And we are’nt even talking the gum. You could get a mint Gretzky …but have the gum stuck to the card. …..the only option would be to open a box or two and sell the rest.

that set is notorious for the blue borders chipping and transfering to other cards.

Would be nice to put a 79-80 PSA set together (hopefully 9’s and 10’s) with the Gretzky to see what that set would be worth.

The premise is I’m rich - so oh hell yeah I open them all !!! Wayne & I are the exact same age & I played hockey as a youngster So to me that would be like Christmas New Year’s Eve, and Halloween combined !!

The math says better to keep them all unopened, but the heart says at least open half of them, also, safe travels Mike

If I had the cash, I’d win this auction. Incredible find 🔥

Hi Mike, great AFF. I would not open these up. I would stash that case away and sell it in 5 - 10 years. I would be curious to know what the buyer does with this case.

I hope the buyer makes pack opening videos!

So if I were to find that case, I would keep it sealed and maybe in 10 years sell each boxes separately but save 2 boxes for my son.

Yes it would be incredibly hard to get a 10 in that box but you can't go by those stats you use. Most cards opened in the 70's and 80's ended up in bike spokes, played with bent and creased but everyone and their dog with a Gretzky rookie seemed to get it graded anyway. That's why the percentages are so incredibly low. When you open a pristine box none of the cards will be creased. The biggest issue of course would be the centering which was always brutal with that card. What would I do? If I was rich enough to buy it I'd have the fun and take the risk of opening it. I just wish I was an Oilers fan as a kid. I had a dozen Gretzky rookies that I traded straight up for my hero Darryl Sittler. Ya should get some counseling for that.

Who ever thinks a hockey card collector is buying this to open may be very wrong…it’s an investment not a gamble! buy it for 3-4 million sell it for 9M in 10 years. This is a 1 of a kind find! Nobody will open these. It would be an absolute gamble to start ripping boxes to try to hit a perfect card. Almost impossible.

I might rip a box or 2 for the chase. No way I open the majority though. Would be flushing $ down the drain.

i'm happy with my psa 2 thank you.

I have a lot of questions about this story to be honest. Its a strange one.

I would definitely open some of them. Wouldn’t be able to resist. (Don’t be hatin’ on the Star cards.)

I just sent my childhood Jordan rookie to Psa to be graded last month. I’m only expecting a 3 or 4 but that pop count is going up.

If I'm spending that much on anything, I better 1) Be able to live in it or 2) Be able to draw a dividend from it

"I just bought this case because I really like the gum." - Wayne Gretzky

I would keep half, sell half, best of both worlds.

Similar to the breakup value of a good lot, I would open the case and sell each box individually, over time.

Happy slightly early 45th. Mine was Monday.

A RU-vidr found a hoarder house in last 2 years of fkea market dealer and ended up with seven or more of the Gretzky rookies and had slabbed. Personally I would sell case as is , there are probably more out there.

If you found 25 Gretzky,sin a 4~8 would that be worth opening them up? The point of the case is to eventually see what is inside. How much more can you make on it being sealed. And what is 3 more 10,s come out of there. If the point is to hunt, then hunt. What if you sold the boxes individually? I would open and grade. But I would want to know the coalition as well to know when Gretzky was coming……

I think if I had the entire case, I would hold until the next big card boom and/or Gretzky boom, and I’d sell individual boxes at that time

The gum in opc can definitely do damage. I have seen it ruin several cards a pack. It is different than topps

The more singles added to the market place the lower the price will be. Simply supply and demand. I would not open and let the rarity of a unopened box gain in value over the years.

One thing I don't think any mentioned is that the odds of getting a 10 out of this is higher because the box has been sitting untouched and in great condition for 40+ years. Yes, I'm sure there will be print issues and gum issues but I'm thinking there should be 1 or 2 10s that come out of this.

Breaking old wax is almost always a losing proposition, financially... best to buy and hold...

That be great if this case was made when the blades were sharp

I would be surprised if PSA would let any more tens come into existence and very few if any nines......they have an interest in making sure the population doesn't get to high....lol....just my thought

At 60 years old I would open and have graded if I had the money to buy this I could afford a loss but would it be fun

Man, if only I had unlimited funds. I would open the case, save a few boxes, and open a few boxes just for the hell of it. I wouldn’t care about ROI if I had that kind of money - I’d be doing it just for the fun of the rip! Hell, I’d send you a pack for your birthday year pack collection!

It would be funny if the purchaser does a prank video pretending to burn the cards - maybe he already owns one of the PSA 10s and wants the prank video to inflate the value of the 2 graded 10s 😂

Well, I guess this story puts to shame when I kick off and my wife finds my 1990/1991 Score Hockey case! Damnit!

There is no way I’d bust even one pack. Too much risk. Instead, sell the packs and buy yourself a dandy PSA-9. BTW, @madman7878 had a great idea - televise the busting of a pack or two. Shoot, you could set it up on stage at the National.

I would definitely open them up as you always make money when opening up high end boxes. It's like a law or something. Plus I heard that they made one "hot box" that has a Gretzky rookie card in every pack that has never been found yet so it has to be in this case. Also, the reason that they have a rough cut on the right side is that they used right handed old ladies to cut them with old sewing scissors.

If I had that much money to spend/gamble on a case, I would open cards until I found a Gretzky for my PC, and then I'd slowly sell the rest of the boxes to see if I could add the Gretzky to my PC for free. LOL

My brother in law has 2 of these cards but refuses to sell. He doesn’t think it’s real how much they are worth

They are doing the right thing putting it up for auction and making the Millions+ off of it as is. But, the collector inside of me would have want to take a week off work and rip thru the entire case for fun.

If I was rich, I'd take one of the wax boxes and open them live on the internet. That would be viral!

Definitely would rip.... maybe Fanatics will win the auction and sell break spots to promote Fanatics Live! Not that I would want a big corporate player like that outbidding those who are truly collectors, but seriously how cool would it be to have all the packs opened on a livestream? I would definitely watch it.

Only way buyer has a chance to make money is to sell the boxes separately. If they decide to open boxes, 100% they lose money. The chances of getting a grade of 10 are about as good as hitting the POWER BALL lottery. Still a very interesting story, but i believe that this buyer will sell boxes individually, at least if they are smart they will. I hope some filthy rich guy buys case and opens the boxes live. He can even charge for it to be seen.

I would open half. Take a chance on grading 12-14 Gretzky’s and see what happens. Leave the rest sealed for years and years

How many Great Ones has a gum stain or wax stain....The risk of opening the packs. How much pressure would psa have to grade one of Wayne card from this collection? Did O Pee Chee cut their cards better than Topps especially with centering of the cards?

I'm sorry but I would I would rip the product myself and grab all the Gretzky rookies and get them graded because there's probably more than 27 and if the boxes are immaculate then more likely you're going to get all 9's even if you got 27 PSA 9s it would still be worth more than the one point seven or so million by a long shot if you got 20 PSA 9s and 4 PSA 10s not to mention Gretzky was probably not the only stand out player he's the most valuable but still I would rip it open not only that I would televise it or stream it and sell the individual packs for 10 grand a piece people would pay probably not 10 grand maybe 3 or 4,000 per pack

100% open that asap--get all your friends together and rip it all. Once in a lifetime memory.

Mr. Beast should buy and open them all.

I'd sell it all 💯, the odds of finding a 10 is not in your favor

Jaw dropping numbers, but i think the safe and conservative thing to do is leave it unopened. I've seen 1979 o-pee-chee baseball box opened before and was almost a disaster. As you noted, the gum is a bigger issue than you think and the cards are incredibly sticky. Maybe if this case was in perfect climate control over the years, it has a better chance at being okay. But the risk reward is sky high if you do open it. If the Gretzky's are all good shape and you get just one or two 10s, rest 8 or 9, you just banked big time.