1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Brian Perry #84 Rookie Card Oakland Seals VG-EX 4

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Brian Perry #84 Rookie Card Oakland Seals VG-EX 4 This is one of the more charming oddities in the entire 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee set, a rookie card of an English-born forward at a time when almost every name in the NHL came from a small town in Ontario, Quebec or the Prairies. Brian Perry was born in Aldershot, England, a fact the bilingual reverse states plainly under Home, and his path to the National Hockey League ran through three seasons with the Providence Reds of the American Hockey League before the Oakland Seals promoted him and, in the words of the card, liked what they saw. His 1968-69 line of 61 games, 10 goals and 21 assists for 31 points represented his entire NHL body of work to that point, and the cartoon panel dubs him a slick stick handler, or virtuose du baton in the French translation that makes these Canadian issues so collectible. The card itself is a first-year issue for Perry and captures the short-lived Oakland Seals in their vivid kelly green and Pacific blue uniforms, a uniform set that has become enormously popular with modern collectors and jersey collectors alike thanks to the franchise's cult status. The Seals lasted only until 1976 before relocating to Cleveland, which means every Oakland card from this era carries defunct-team appeal on top of its vintage value. Card #84 falls within the low-number range that also appeared in the 1969-70 Topps set, but the O-Pee-Chee version is scarcer in Canada-facing grade populations and is immediately identifiable by the teal and gold bilingual back printed in Canada by O-Pee-Chee of London, Ontario. It is a bilingual back, not a puzzle back. this is one of the stronger cards on the sheet, with a sharp full-bleed photo, four corners that show only light touch wear and minor rounding at the bottom right, minimal edge chipping confined to a few small white flecks along the right border, and centering that runs slightly to the left with a modestly wider bottom border; the surface is free of creases and shows only faint handling gloss loss, while the reverse displays light border wear along the top and left edges with clean, fully legible English and French text and no writing or stains. A conservative raw grade estimate of VG-EX 4 reflects the honest corner softening and slight off-centering while acknowledging that this example is notably cleaner than most surviving copies of a set famous for rough cuts and fragile borders, making it an excellent value entry point for a Seals or English-born NHL player collection. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4