1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Jim Roberts #174 St. Louis Blues (VG-EX)

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Jim Roberts #174 St. Louis Blues (VG-EX) A clean, display-worthy example of Jim "Jimmy" Roberts' 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee card #174, pulled from the third series of Topps' legendary 231-card "stick border" O-Pee-Chee release printed in London, Ontario. The 1969-70 OPC set remains one of the most beloved vintage hockey designs of all time, defined by its white card frame, the bold red hockey stick running the right edge, the colour-coded position disc (blue for Defense, as seen here), the red "BLUES" team slug, and the beloved bilingual cartoon trivia panel on the reverse — the same design language that made 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee a childhood staple from St. John's to Victoria. Jim Roberts was Scotty Bowman's ultimate utility player on the early expansion Blues, a steady defensive defenceman and elite penalty-killer who could jump up to forward when needed. The English bio on this very card sums up his game perfectly: "Never a spectacular scorer, Jim Roberts is the St. Louis 'handyman.' He can play forward or defense, and is a fine penalty killer." After anchoring the Blues during their three straight Stanley Cup Final runs (1968-1970), Roberts moved on to the Montreal Canadiens dynasty and won five Stanley Cup rings in the 1970s before returning to St. Louis to close out his 1,006-game NHL career. This 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Jim Roberts #174 features the classic full-length ice-level pose — Roberts bent at the waist in his blue #6 Blues road sweater, gold stripes shining, Cooper gloves on his stick, with the familiar light cyan arena background behind him. The reverse is the standard O-Pee-Chee bilingual cardback printed in Canada: vitals (29 years old, 5'10", 185 lbs, Port Hope, Ontario, nine pro seasons), English and French bios, the "Jim is a hockey school instructor in the off-season! / Jim est instructeur de hockey pendant l'été!" cartoon with Jim in a coaching pose, the year-by-year N. H. L. Record / Record dans la L. N. H. stat table showing his 1968-69 line (72 GP, 14-19-33, 81 PIM) and lifetime totals, and the vertical © T. C. G. PRINTED IN CANADA stamp confirming Canadian OPC distribution rather than the English-only US Topps parallel. Corners: top two corners show minor softening and very light rounding from decades of sleeve storage; bottom two corners retain good point with only micro-touches. Edges: perimeter wear is mild and even, with no heavy chipping, notches, or edge creases visible. Surface: the front photo carries the appealing bright cyan-blue ice tone common to this print run, ink saturation is strong, and no creases, wrinkles, gum stains, or major scuffs are visible on the face; only the most minor age-related print speckles are present. Centering: the image is reasonably well-centered both horizontally and vertically, with a slight shift toward the right that leaves a touch more white border on the left. The bilingual back shows light-to-moderate paper ageing, cleaner edges than its counterpart in this lot, and a fully legible cartoon and stat panel with no paper loss or tape marks. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4