The sell-sheets for 2022-23 O-Pee-Chee are finally here! The actual cards won’t be in our hands for quite a while—Steel City is listing the tentative release date as March 15, 2023, an unusually late release for O-Pee-Chee.
One significant change to the composition of the base set is the move of “all-stars” to the high-numbered short prints. Veteran stars have always been regular base cards in the past but now join rookies to make up the slightly short-printed numbers 501-600. Also new are four different rainbow foil parallels for just the rookies and all-stars: regular /350, black /100, green /33, and gold /1. (Apparently familiar short prints such as league leaders, season highlights, and team checklists will not be part of the set this year.)
One-per-pack retro variations of the whole base set are back for a 15th straight year and are paralleled with black bordered versions numbered to 100.
Blue and red parallels return for the entire base set, and new neon pink parallels numbered to 75 for the whole base set join the lineup. New yellow base parallels are exclusive to blasters.
As for inserts, playing cards return for a seventh straight year. An O-Pee-Chee Premier insert set returns for a third straight year, though this time they are not “tallboys” but standard size cards. The Premier set features diamond rainbow foil board parallels numbered to 99.
Tougher inserts include O-Pee-Chee Patches, 3-D Marquee Rookies, printing plates, Top Rookie Puzzle Bounty cards, and no doubt some unannounced Easter eggs.
I think the designs for both the base set and retros look sharp and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next iteration of O-Pee-Chee hockey. What are your first impressions of 2022-23 O-Pee-Chee?
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