Product Review: 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Hobby Box

With the hockey season just starting we wanted to open up a box of some good ole hockey cards. So we decided on 2013-14 O-Pee-Chee. Now this product came out a bit ago but we wanted to open something with a heritage feel to it. Now this is a pretty decent price point for a lot of cards and fun wrapped into a box.

Each hobby box will contain 32 packs with 8 cards per pack. A whopping 256 cards within the box for around $65-70. This product is the biggest set to collect with 600 cards. 100 of those cards are Marquee Rookies which are found 1:2 packs. Within each pack you will receive 1 Retro Parallel, collecting that set would be a very big undertaking as well.

Along with the Retro Parallels, each base card has a Rainbow, Black Rainbow, and Blank Back Retro Parallel. Black Rainbows are the only ones serial numbered which are to 100.

Two inserts that you'll also find are OPC Stickers and OPC Rings. Stickers are found 1:3 packs with Rings found 1:16. The Rings insert can be punched out and worn by collectors (if you'd like that).

Not only will you find these inserts and parallels but Autographs are also found within packs. Keep in mind these autographs are pretty tough with odds like 1:192 and 1:384. You will have an easier time finding one on eBay or COMC instead of in packs.

Last year O-Pee-Chee introduced Team Logo Patches and they have continued into this year as well. Modern Era, Anniversary, Expansion/Post-WW2, Pre-WW2, and Cartoons are all different patches to be found. Odds of finding a patch start at 1:125 and continue up to the rarest patches at 1:17760 packs! Needless to say they are hot on the secondary market and trading.

So lets kick off the 2013-14 Hockey season with breaking into this box, here's what we pulled:

Base Cards: 177 (0 doubles)
Base Card Rookies: 15 - Gallagher, Fasth, Brunner, Bennett
Base Card Rainbow Foil: 8 - Brown, Fleischmann, Burmistrov, Gordon, Klesla, Mitchell, Kunitz, Eaves
Base Card Black Foil: 1 - Bryan Little 99/100
Base Card Retro: 32
Stickers: 9 - Bure, Orr, Lemieux, Messier, Miller, Burmistrov, Getzlaf, Pavelec, Datsyuk
O-Pee-Chee Rings: 2 - New Jersey Devils, Dave Schultz
Manufactured Team Patch: 2 - Edmonton Oilers (96-97 to 10-11), Quebec Nordiques (80-81 to 94-95)

We love the retro feel with O-Pee-Chee, hence why we picked this product to bust on a week like this. Very simple stock like the cards we grew up on. A nice design to boot and zero doubles found in a box with all these cards is great. Really like the Marquee Rookies are found every 2 packs giving them some extra value and harder to build the set overall. 

The retro parallels are fun looking but not really a fan of them really. I understand them but some of the colours on the cards aren't the greatest even for a retro set. On contrary we really like the Rainbow and Black Foil parallels. They add some nice value to the box and if you pull one of the star players you could have a healthy return on the secondary market. 

The Ring insert is pretty flimsy but again these are meant to be out and put onto little collectors fingers. The Stickers are pretty good on the ones we pulled. Love the photos especially this Bure. Lots of retired stars showing up on these which is cool to see.

Not expecting this at all, but we pulled 2 Team Patches within our box. Yes we pulled 2 patches that have odds of 1:125 packs to pull. Another cool thing was that we pulled 2 Canadian teams with one being the defunct Nordiques. Both are done nicely within the cards and look great. Both are in the 1st tier of Patches to be found and will look great in any collection. Very surprising to see these pulled within 1 box so thinking this must have been a mistake within the packaging.

Overall we liked the 2013-14 edition of O-Pee-Chee. It provides a lot of value to collectors with a very low price point. Set collectors will enjoy busting boxes to try for the 600 card set. We'd recommend this box/product to any hockey fan. Lots of cards, inserts and a chance at a Patch or Autograph is well worth the under $70 price tag you'll find boxes at.

Most cards/hits pulled in our breaks end up on our site storefront www.packgambler.com, or our COMC account ThePackGambler. If you are interested in any of the cards we have mentioned please send us an e-mail at packgamblersales@gmail.com

Gambler Overall Rating: 4.6 out of 5
Cost: 5/5
Patches: 5/5
Parallels: 4/5
Inserts: 4/5
Concept: 5/5
Fun Aspect: 5/5