2018-19 O-PEE-CHEE COAST TO COAST EASTER EGGS
TURNS OUT THERE ARE TONS OF SURPRISES IN THIS CANADA-ONLY RETAIL RELEASE
As a retail-only product exclusive to Canadian Tire stores, 2018-19 O-Pee-Chee Coast To Coast Hockey didn’t generate a lot of pre-release hype in the hobby. But the discovery of a slew of unannounced cards, including new inserts and variations, in the days after its early-April release has transformed it into one of the year’s must-break products.
Being surprises, print runs, insertion rates and even exact set sizes are not known. Typically, Upper Deck doesn’t give out this info. Instead, they leave it to the collecting community to find them and put the pieces together.
With that in mind, here are the variations we’ve confirmed so far. Please note that all checklists are works-in-progress and will be updated at Beckett.com as new cards surface.
VARIATIONS
Coast To Coast wax busters have uncovered a large lineup of base card photo variations. The only way to distinguish them from common base cards is to compare images. There have been no announced production runs, but secondary market prices suggest the variations are much harder to find.
Here’s the list of confirmed variants so far.
• 8 Joe Thornton
• 24 Jakub Voracek
• 101 Connor McDavid
• 108 Anze Kopitar
• 109 P.K. Subban
• 116 Patrik Laine
• 120 Sidney Crosby
• 121 Brent Burns
• 130 Patrick Kane
• 133 Nikita Kucherov
• 135 Roberto Luongo
• 141 Phil Kessel
• 144 Pekka Rinne
• 145 Drew Doughty
• 149 Henrik Lundqvist
• 150 Alex Ovechkin
• 151 Rasmus Dahlin
• 160 Elias Pettersson
• 190 Jesperi Kotkaniemi
• 191 Wayne Gretzky
• 195 Mario Lemieux
• 200 Bobby Orr
VS BLACK
Vs Black hearkens back to a surprise insert seeded into 201718 Upper Deck Team Canada, last year’s Canadian Tire-exclusive release. While that set offered White and Black versions of the floating head cards, this time around it looks like there’s only the Black option.
The checklist, which highlights NHL rookies who have skated against Team Canada, picks up where the first installment left off, starting with #V-25. It appears that this list could be complete at four cards.
• VS-25 Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres – Sweden
• VS-26 Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa Senators – USA
• VS-27 Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks – Sweden
• VS-28 Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Montreal Canadiens – Finland
ICONIC CAPTAINS
Iconic Captains is an insert set that honors the game’s leaders. Based on early breaks, and how far the numbering reaches on the checklist, these could prove to be especially tough.
• IC-1 Wayne Gretzky
• IC-3 Jean Beliveau
• IC-4 Mario Lemieux
• IC-5 Steve Yzerman
• IC-6 Connor McDavid
• IC-7 Sidney Crosby
• IC-8 Alex Ovechkin
• IC-9 Jonathan Toews
• IC-10 Anze Kopitar
• IC-12 Steven Stamkos
• IC-14 Jamie Benn
• IC-15 Gabriel Landeskog
• IC-16 Joe Pavelski
• IC-17 Jack Eichel
RETRO TRANSPARENT ROOKIES
We expected 10 Transparent Rookies showcasing 2018-19 freshmen standouts. Turns out, there are two additional cards in the series that feature a pair of Hall of Famers.
• CCR-PR Patrick Roy, Montreal Canadiens
• CCR-WG Wayne Gretzky, Edmonton Oilers
LANDMARKS OF THE NORTH VARIATIONS
Variations aren’t just for the base set. Landmarks of the North, an insert set that takes a trading card journey across Canada, has some alternate versions, too. We’ve confirmed four to-date.
• LN-11 Yellowknife
• LN-12 Banff National Park
• LN-15 Jasper National Park
• LN-30 Montreal