A Brief History of O-Pee-Chee Hockey Cards From 1933—2008

O-Pee-Chee began as a Canadian candy company in 1911, and first produced hockey cards to be packaged with their sweets between 1933⁠—41. They were then out of the hockey card game for many years.

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O-Pee-Chee began a partnership with Topps for a 1957-58 series of cards that I gather mostly involved the distribution of Topps-produced cards in Canada. That arrangement was consistent through 1967-68 before branching out into two similar but different Topps & O-Pee-Chee sets in 1968-69.

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Topps and O-Pee-Chee continued working hand-in-hand releasing similar but separate sets on either side of the border all the way through 1994-95. Since that time, there has not been a true, full O-Pee-Chee company of any sort, but the magical name has stayed alive on hockey cards. Topps licensed and used the name in one way or another between 1996⁠—2004, and then Upper Deck purchased the name and has used it since 2006.

The first Upper Deck-produced O-Pee-Chee set arrived for the 2006-07 season and featured glossy cards that, for me, fall flat with a late-1990s to early-2000s vibe to them. I don’t think collectors were looking for a revival of those dark ages of card design. I know I’m not.

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The following season, Upper Deck’s O-Pee-Chee approach took a big step in the right direction by scrapping the gloss and going with old-school cardboard stock that evokes the classic Topps/O-Pee-Chee era (even if it was Topps that used darker cardboard and O-Pee-Chee used a brighter, thinner version).

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I think 2007-08 is a decent offering, but for my money, it wasn’t until their third attempt that Upper Deck really nailed a sweet spot with O-Pee-Chee that delivers both a nostalgia kick and more modern and fun twists. I’ll be taking a closer look at each O-Pee-Chee set since then over the coming weeks.