1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Carol Vadnais #82 Stamp Back Oakland Seals Raw (EX 5)

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Carol Vadnais #82 Stamp Back Oakland Seals Raw (EX 5) This is a genuinely interesting piece for O-Pee-Chee specialists: card #82 of future NHL star defenseman Carol Vadnais, printed with the well-known "stamp back" variation where the usual cartoon panel is replaced by a "Place Carol Vadnais Stamp Here" graphic, tying into an O-Pee-Chee stamp-album promotion that ran alongside the regular 1969-70 hockey issue. This variation is scarcer than the standard cartoon-back printing and is actively sought by advanced O-Pee-Chee collectors who want a complete picture of the set's print variations, so it is worth flagging explicitly for buyers who specialize in these Canadian oddities. The bilingual biography text above the stamp graphic still delivers Vadnais's full write-up in both English and French, noting he was developed by the Montreal Canadiens organization and made available in the 1967 expansion draft, with the O-Pee-Chee copywriters correctly predicting stardom: "the book on him was right, he was destined for stardom." That prediction proved accurate, as Vadnais went on to a long, accomplished NHL career that included multiple All-Star appearances and a Stanley Cup with Montreal. The front captures him in his early Seals days, a green jersey and full-body pose against the standard 1969-70 diagonal stick border. For any collector assembling a run of O-Pee-Chee's scarcer stamp-back subset, or simply looking for an attractive early card of a future All-Star defenseman, this is a strong pickup. the front photo is clean and sharp, with good color saturation, solid centering, and only light wear at the corner tips, no creases or surface staining are visible. The reverse stamp-back graphic is well preserved with clean, legible text and only minor edge softness at the bottom corners. Given the strong centering, absence of creasing, and generally sharp corners on both the front and the unusual stamp-back reverse, this card grades conservatively into the EX range, a nice condition example of a genuinely collectible O-Pee-Chee variation. Grade Estimate: EX 5