1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Carlton #337 Ottawa Nationals WHA Card High Number

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Carlton #337 Ottawa Nationals WHA Card High Number Lock in an impeccable piece of hockey-card history with a 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Wayne Carlton #337 single trading card, an original example from the inaugural World Hockey Association issue and a high-numbered card from the most desired subset of the set. Wayne Carlton, a stalwart physical defenseman-turned-winger born August 4, 1948, in Sudbury, Ontario, played for both the Ottawa Nationals and Toronto Toros during the WHA's first year after being acquired by Ottawa in one of the draft's most under-reported moves, and his #337 card captures him in the iconic padded shoulders of the short-lived Ottawa club. The card depicts Carlton in a chest-up close-cropped pose in his white road sweater, hair trimmed into classic 1970s speaking-heads style, and the framing against the lush twilight-green backcloth is increasingly iconic among collectors who chase O-Pee-Chee colour palettes. This particular set, notable because Topps itself produced a parallel American set for the WHA but O-Pee-Chee issued a fully Canadian exclusive version for the 1972-73 season, is coveted by OPC purists who recognize it is, in effect, a different run. The 337 designation makes it a "high number," produced at the tail end of the print run, and this collector circumstance frequently translates to a meaningfully tougher pull than lower-numbered leg cards. The back is the canonical Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual card, presenting Carlo's career biography in both English and French in two columns, with the orange-and-black title strip at the top and the tiny "© O. P. C." copyright and proud "PRINTED IN CANADA" stamp at the lower-left confirming its Canadian heritage.