1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Climie #318 Ottawa Nationals WHA Rookie

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Climie #318 Ottawa Nationals WHA Rookie Step into the wildest era in professional hockey history with a 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Climie #318, an original single trading card pulled directly from the legendary inaugural-season World Hockey Association issue. Sixteen teams from the WHA's first year were immortalized in this set, and Ron Climie's rookie entry from the Ottawa Nationals represents one of the most affordable tickets for collectors chasing truly vintage cardboard. Climie, a young centreman/stickhandler who was born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1950, suited up for the Ottawa Nationals' lone year of existence before the franchise relocated to become the Toronto Toros. What makes this 318 card such a fascinating artifact is that it exists only in the O-Pee-Chee catalog, not in the parent Topps WHA release, giving Canadian collectors (and Canadian-themed investment portfolios) a built-in scarcity factor. The card captures Climie in a beautiful stadium portrait, his long flowing hair tousled in classic seventies fashion, and the bold yellow and orange National Publications colour ribbons give the card its unmistakable visual signature. The reverse is the canonical Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with the French translation running parallel to the English text and the unmistakable "PRINTED IN CANADA" stamp. The "O-Pee-Chee" italicized red logo anchors the bottom edge behind the "T. C. G." credit, a proud Canadian mark. this Climie is raw and ungraded. Centring in the front is slightly bias-toward-right, evident in the wider left margin; the back shows similar tolerance, well within printing norms for OPC chipboard. Visible corner softening is mild—upper-left is the most touched, matching typical OPC behaviour where the laminate fails at the corner last. Edge chipping is minimal, with one micro-fleck on the lower-right edge and another along the lower-left. No creases, no wrinkles, no surface scratches visible on either face; gloss remains largely intact with the glossiness that has aged but not flaked. The lower jaw area of the photo includes a faint paper wave, almost certainly a press artefact from the 1972-73 printing, not a wrinkle. Conservative grade: EX-MT/NR-MT, very near PSA 6 to PSA 7 territory, dependent on grader threshold. Grade Estimate: EX-MT 6