1970 O-Pee-Chee Mike Webster #109 Montreal Alouettes VG-EX 4

Description

1970 O-Pee-Chee Mike Webster #109 Montreal Alouettes VG-EX 4 Offered here is the second copy of the 1970 O-Pee-Chee Mike Webster card number 109 from the same nine card sheet, a more affordable entry point into this scarce Canadian football issue for collectors building the 115 card set on a budget. The 1970 O-Pee-Chee CFL set was a landmark release, reuniting Canadian football fans with their heroes after more than five years without a national card issue, and it documented an Alouettes team that would end the season as Grey Cup champions after one of the greatest second-half turnarounds in league history. Webster, a 255 pound defensive tackle out of Notre Dame, was acquired by Montreal in a trade with the B. C. Lions and worked his way into the defensive line rotation, one of the many American-trained imports whose journeys north the set's bilingual backs carefully chronicled in both English and French. Collectors occasionally confuse this card with the more famous Mike Webster of Pittsburgh Steelers fame, but this number 109 belongs to the Alouettes defender, and it carries genuine crossover appeal for vintage football collectors who appreciate the shared 1969 Topps design and the uniquely Canadian black bilingual reverse. This particular copy is the lesser conditioned of the two Webster examples from the sheet and is priced accordingly, making it an ideal filler card while the superior copy anchors the display shelf. The reverse is the authentic Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back and is not a puzzle back. the top border shows the heaviest wear on the card with chipping and roughness along the top edge and rounding with whitening at both top corners, the bottom corners are lightly touched, a faint diagonal surface wrinkle is visible in the upper left sky area of the front under raking light, the remaining edges are clean, centering is acceptable, the colours remain bright, and the black bilingual reverse shows wear at the top corners with an otherwise glossy and unmarked surface. Because of the top edge chipping and the light surface wrinkle, we grade this example conservatively at VG-EX 4, and we have priced it as a budget copy so that the buyer's expectations are anchored to the weakest corner rather than the strong overall colour and gloss. Grade Estimate: VG-EX 4