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

Description

1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Jim Roberts #174 St. Louis Blues (VG) An honest, collector-grade example of Jim Roberts' 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee card #174, showcasing the same classic stick-border design and the same steady Port Hope, Ontario native who quietly became one of the most valuable role players of the early expansion era. Jim Roberts was the type of player hockey coaches dream about — reliable, versatile, mistake-free, and willing to do the dirty work on the penalty kill without ever complaining about ice time or ice conditions. The bio on the back of this card notes he "seldom makes a mistake," and that scouting report held true across a 15-season NHL career that spanned 1,006 regular season games and over 150 Stanley Cup Playoff contests, a remarkable total for a defensive defenceman of his era. After helping lead the St. Louis Blues to three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals between 1968 and 1970, Roberts joined the Montreal Canadiens and became a key piece of the Habs' 1970s dynasty, winning five Stanley Cup championships (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979) before finishing his career back in St. Louis — making him one of the few players in NHL history to win Cups both before and after the expansion era with two different franchises. This 1969-70 O-Pee-Chee Jim Roberts #174 features the same on-ice pose as its companion card in this collection — Roberts bent over his stick in the blue #6 sweater with gold trim and the Cooper gloves — but this copy shows a noticeably deeper grey-green print tone to the ice background, a classic example of the natural ink-mixing variation on the press line that gives each 1960s O-Pee-Chee single its own personality. The circular St. Louis Blues crest sits in the upper-right corner, the blue Defense disc anchors the lower-right, and the red "BLUES" slug pops below his name. The reverse features the familiar bilingual O-Pee-Chee cardback: English and French bios, the "Puck Stick / Jim est instructeur de hockey pendant l'été!" hockey-school cartoon, the N. H. L. Record / Record dans la L. N. H. stats table, and the © T. C. G. PRINTED IN CANADA vertical stamp — a true Canadian-issue OPC, not the US Topps version. This copy shows honest wear typical of a card that spent five decades in collector pages and sleeves. Corners: top-left corner is the softest, rounded from repeated handling in and out of pages; top-right shows matching but slightly lesser rounding; bottom two corners have visible touches but remain more defined than the top two. Edges: the top white border displays light chipping and a couple of micro-nicks consistent with long-term binder life; the right edge along the stick graphic has minor surface scuffing; left and bottom edges show mild wear. Surface: the front face retains good ink density with the characteristic deeper green-toned ice background, no major stains or wax damage are visible, but there is light surface softening from handling. Centering: the image is shifted slightly rightward, leaving a bit more white border on the left; top-to-bottom is closer to centered. The bilingual back shows moderate paper ageing and foxing around the edges, some minor edge chipping at the top, and fully legible text — no major paper loss or creases break through the card stock. Grade Estimate: VG 3