1970 O-Pee-Chee Gino Baretta #104 Montreal Alouettes VG 3

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Gino Baretta #104 Montreal Alouettes VG 3 This is the second of two 1970 O-Pee-Chee Gino Baretta number 104 examples from the same nine card sheet, the copy with the brighter overall photo presentation but a disclosed crease, offered separately so collectors building the 115 card 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL set can pick the flaw profile they prefer at the price point that fits. The set is a milestone of the Canadian hobby: produced by O-Pee-Chee, the London, Ontario company that had long been Topps' Canadian partner, it gave the Canadian Football League its first dedicated card release in more than five years and captured the Alouettes in the season they would complete a stunning mid-season resurrection, rising from a 2-8 record to win the 1970 Grey Cup over Calgary, the franchise's first championship since the legendary 1949 Dust Bowl final. Baretta's reverse biography describes him as one of the most consistent punters in the C. F. L., a non-import product of the Notre-Dame-de-Grace leagues whose boot constantly flipped field position, the quiet craft behind championship defence. The photograph itself, with Baretta's leg extended and the ball spinning against a deep blue sky, is widely considered among the most attractive action shots in the set, and specialist cards of this era have steadily grown harder to find because so few collectors preserved kicker cards over the decades. Where the first Baretta copy in this lot suffers from dinged corners and a scratched reverse, this copy keeps its corners respectable and its black bilingual back clean, but it carries a light front crease that honest grading must respect, and it is priced as the budget alternative rather than disguised as anything more. The reverse is the genuine Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back printed in English and French, and it is not a puzzle back. a light crease runs across the sky area of the photograph above the punting figure, subtle at first glance and most apparent when the card is tilted under light, and it is joined by light, even rounding at all four corners, a handful of small white print specks in the sky and a thin surface scuff left of the player's raised arm, while the edges are clean and straight on all sides, centering is comfortably balanced, the gloss and colour remain strong, and the black bilingual reverse is glossy and clean with only light corner touches and no scratches or stains. Because visible creasing caps a raw card in the VG tier regardless of how well everything else presents, we grade this example conservatively at VG 3, a transparent assessment meant to match what a careful collector or grading service would see. Grade Estimate: VG 3