1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Mike Laughton #148 Rookie Card Oakland Seals VG 3

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Mike Laughton #148 Rookie Card Oakland Seals VG 3 Mike Laughton's 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee rookie card is a genuine first-year issue from the Canadian high-number series, and this affordable raw example puts a piece of Oakland Seals history within reach of any collector. Laughton came out of Nelson, British Columbia and worked his way through the Western Hockey League and the American Hockey League before the Seals handed him a regular job down the middle, and the bilingual reverse of card #148 captures that moment of promise, quoting the belief of coach Fred Glover that this smooth skating centre would give the team added strength at centre ice, with the same passage repeated in French. The cartoon panel trumpets his 20 goals in 53 games from the previous season, and the statistical lines record 43 points in that campaign along with 88 career games to date. Laughton became a recognizable part of the Seals attack during the franchise's brief and colourful California run before joining the World Hockey Association with the New York Raiders, and his cards remain in steady demand from collectors who focus on defunct NHL clubs, British Columbia born players and the early WHA. Because card #148 falls in the range above 132, it exists only in the Canadian O-Pee-Chee release and has no American Topps equivalent, a fact that keeps these high numbers on want lists on both sides of the border. The design is pure late sixties, with a full-bleed colour photo, the red hockey stick running down the right side, the position dot in the lower corner and the team name in bold red type, all of which makes the green and blue Seals sweater pop off the card. The reverse is the familiar teal and gold 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee design with full English and French biographies printed in Canada. It is a bilingual back, not a puzzle back. this example shows clear circulated handling, with the front displaying rounded corners at all four points and a short crease running into the lower right corner tip, light to moderate white chipping along the bottom and right edges, a faint surface wrinkle visible in the pale background at the upper right, and centering that sits slightly low with a narrower bottom border beneath the red team name; colour and focus in the portrait remain strong with no scuffing over the uniform. The reverse shows moderate edge chipping across the bottom border, softened corners, mild toning of the gold biography box and a small pressure mark near the lower right, while all English and French text and the complete statistical block stay clearly legible with no writing, tape or paper loss. A conservative raw grade estimate of VG 3 reflects the corner crease and cumulative edge wear on a card that still presents attractively in a display page or a working set. Grade Estimate: VG 3