1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Stackhouse #287 Detroit Red Wings

Description

1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Stackhouse #287 Detroit Red Wings Big, mobile and armed with a slapshot that could flatten a defenseman's stick, Ron Stackhouse is the sleeping giant of this sheet, and this 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee Ron Stackhouse #287 captures the hard-shooting blueliner in his Detroit days before he broke out as one of the most productive offensive defensemen in the game. The full-body pose against the green backdrop shows him coiled and ready with the puck, and the back bio describes a heavily built defender who uses his reach to steal pucks and joins the rush with authority, exactly the profile that would soon make him a power-play star. Stackhouse's career took off after his Detroit tenure when he landed with the Pittsburgh Penguins and erupted into a point-per-game threat from the blue line, posting seasons that placed him among the league's scoring leaders at his position and endearing him to a generation of Penguins fans during the franchise's formative years. As a third-series card from the 210 to 289 run, this OPC issue is somewhat scarcer than the early series printings, adding a quiet layer of scarcity to a card that Pittsburgh and Detroit collectors both chase. The card belongs to the 340-card 1972-73 O-Pee-Chee set with its classic tan woodgrain border, yellow name bar and circular winged wheel crest. The reverse is the true Canadian O-Pee-Chee bilingual back, with the English and French biography printed side by side above the cartoon panel and career record table, clearly the Canadian OPC printing and not the American Topps version, and it is not a puzzle back design. the front shows centering at roughly 55/45, a touch of whitening at the top right corner with the remaining corners holding sharp, minor edge chipping along the borders consistent with light handling, and a glossy surface with no creases, wrinkles or marks, while the bilingual back is clean with crisp orange ink. Grading conservatively as always, the corner whitening and slight centering drift keep this at a raw estimate of EX 5, an honest grade for a scarce third-series card of a future Penguins scoring star at a very friendly price. Grade Estimate: EX 5