Well Thought Out Yet Completely Random Penguin Card of the Week

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee Retro Mario Lemieux

So it is pretty easy to throw up a Mario Lemieux card and call it quits.  Most of his stuff speaks for itself as it should.  But this one is different.  There are a lot of posts about cards that never were.  This one is like a fantasy card that actually came true, but many years after the fact.

The Retro parallel set in 2008-09 OPC is designed exactly after the 1979-80 set.  Yes, the same set the featured the rookie card of the top player of the last 30 years that finishes ahead of Super Mario in many categories.  The Wayne Gretzky rookie is one of the most sought after cards in the hockey card world, especially in decent condition.  Graded version of it sell in the thousands of dollars and I would be happy with even a "3" just to say I own one.

But, alas, I don't.  Instead, I have my favorite player of all time in a mock up of one of the best hockey sets.  This is what it might have looked like, had he actually been a rookie in the 1978-79 season.  Although we would have to change the uniform to the white, tri-colored collar, with the Columbian and navy blue and black accent stripes.  1980 was the first year for the Black & Gold but this would be a shot from 78-79.  And the logo would have to go back to the skating penguin over the triangle instead of that "corporate created" crap they had after the cups.

As for the card design, I think Upper Deck did a great job with this Retro set by duplicating the back and front of the cards almost perfectly.  This would be an awesome set to chase if not for the fact that it is near 500 cards.  But with this addition to my collection, I now have all the Pens retro base parallels (I said base because there is a Rainbow version as well).