1985-86 O-Pee-Chee Mario Lemieux #9 RC

A smaller set in leaner times

O-Pee-Chee was founded in 1911 in London, Ontario, by brothers J.K. and D.H. McDermid, gum men who named the company after an Ojibwe word for the robin. In 1958 it signed a marketing agreement with Topps to make trading cards in Canada, beginning with hockey and football, and from 1970 federal law required French text on the backs of its cards.

The 1984 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards were, by various reports, overproduced to the point that the company and dealers struggled to sell them. The next year O-Pee-Chee cut back hard. The 1985 set ran to 264 cards, down from the 396 cards of each of its previous 11 hockey sets, and while a pack still cost 35 cents, it held seven cards instead of 15, plus one sticker. Collectors who have chased the set believe the print run was smaller too, though no one has proof.

The boxes were advertised as a 1986 product, and the set includes a trade made on November 14, 1985, when Boston sent Pete Peeters to Washington for Pat Riggin, so the cards could not have been released before then. The fronts used tight close-up photos; one collector says some are so close you can read the players' lips.

Super Mario in Pittsburgh

Mario Lemieux was born October 5, 1965, in Montreal. As a junior with the Laval Voisins of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League he scored 247 goals and 315 assists in 200 games over three seasons. The last-place Pittsburgh Penguins took the 6-foot-4 center first overall in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft, and he scored his first NHL goal on his first shot of his first shift in his first game.

His 1984-85 rookie season brought 43 goals and 100 points in 73 games, the Calder Trophy and an All-Star Game appearance. In 1985-86, the season this card was sold, he scored 48 goals and 141 points, finished second in Hart Trophy voting and won the Lester B. Pearson Award.

He went on to lead the league in points six times and win three Hart Trophies. His 1988-89 season, 85 goals and 199 points, is one of the greatest in the sport's history. On New Year's Eve 1988 against New Jersey he became the only player to score five goals five different ways in one game: even strength, power play, shorthanded, penalty shot and empty net.

Back problems and Hodgkin's disease interrupted his career. On the day of his last radiation treatment he flew to Philadelphia, played that night and drew a standing ovation from the home crowd. He retired in 1997 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame the same year, skipping the usual waiting period. In 1999 he bought the Penguins, then returned as a player in 2000, finishing in 2006 with 690 goals and 1,723 points in 915 games and two Stanley Cups.

Canada, 1985

The year the set was printed, Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers won their second straight Stanley Cup, beating Philadelphia on May 30. In March, Rick Hansen set out on his Man in Motion world tour for spinal cord research, and on July 1 the first cellular phone call in Canada linked the mayors of Toronto and Montreal.

It was also a year of loss. Air India Flight 182, flying from Montreal to London, was destroyed by a bomb on June 23, and on December 12 Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashed on takeoff at Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256 people.

From under $3,000 to the tens of thousands

One of the set's top collectors recalls PSA 10 Lemieux rookies selling for less than $3,000 in 2012, and prices rising sharply in each of the following three years. In August 2018 a PSA 10 sold at online auction for $9,116.40 with buyer's premium, after just two bids.

Prices climbed with the wider card boom. A Dallas auction house offered a PSA 10 in February 2021, two months after an O-Pee-Chee Gretzky rookie brought a record $1.29 million at the same house; its catalog noted that Lemieux's surname translates from French as 'the best.' The sale price is not public. Another PSA 10 sold there in July 2021, also without a public price.

In 2025 and 2026, tracked sales of PSA 10 copies ranged from the mid-$30,000s to about $48,500. A PSA 10 sold for $45,600 in May 2026 on a U.S. marketplace, and price trackers recorded sales of $47,354.40 on September 17, 2026, and $48,508 on September 27, 2026; the sources do not say whether those were auctions or fixed-price sales. In early October 2026 a PSA 10 was listed at a fixed price of $75,000.

Spotting a real one

O-Pee-Chee and Topps each issued a Lemieux rookie numbered 9. The O-Pee-Chee has bilingual backs and the O-Pee-Chee logo; collectors favor it because Lemieux was a Montreal native, and because in Gem Mint condition it is far scarcer. One auction catalog estimated the O-Pee-Chee as more than 50 percent scarcer in PSA 10 than the Topps, with similar total submissions. PSA's own notes blame marginal centering and slight rough cuts.

Counterfeits exist. On fakes the photo background has a bluish tint, and the area behind the statistics on the back looks orange rather than pink. Collectors have also found a rare dark-back variation, with purple-toned burgundy and gray areas, that resembles the Topps backs; so far it carries no premium.

A separate yellow-bordered Lemieux appeared on one of four box-bottom panels, with a different photo, and had to be cut from the box by hand. It is not the #9 rookie.

The numbers

1984-85 rookie season

73 GP, 43 G, 57 A, 100 PTS, -33. Calder Trophy; All-Star Game

1985-86 season (card year)

79 GP, 48 G, 93 A, 141 PTS, -8. 2nd in Hart voting; Lester B. Pearson Award

1987-88 season

77 GP, 70 G, 98 A, 168 PTS. Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy

1988-89 season

76 GP, 85 G, 114 A, 199 PTS, +41. Art Ross Trophy

Career (17 NHL seasons)

915 GP, 690 G, 1,033 A, 1,723 PTS, all with Pittsburgh

Draft

1984 NHL Entry Draft, 1st overall, Pittsburgh Penguins

Honors

Hockey Hall of Fame 1997; 2 Stanley Cups as a player; 3 Hart Trophies

Junior (Laval, QMJHL)

200 games, 247 goals, 315 assists over three seasons

Timeline

1. 1911

   The McDermid brothers found O-Pee-Chee in London, Ontario.

2. 1958

   O-Pee-Chee signs a marketing agreement with Topps to make cards in Canada.

3. Oct 5, 1965

   Mario Lemieux is born in Montreal.

4. 1984

   Pittsburgh drafts Lemieux first overall; O-Pee-Chee's large 1984 hockey run is reportedly overproduced.

5. 1985

   Lemieux wins the Calder Trophy after a 100-point rookie season.

6. Nov 14, 1985

   The Peeters-Riggin trade, reflected on the cards, sets the earliest possible release date for the set.

7. 1986

   The 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee set reaches stores in boxes marked as a 1986 product.

8. Dec 31, 1988

   Lemieux scores five goals five different ways against New Jersey.

9. 1997

   Lemieux retires and enters the Hockey Hall of Fame the same year.

10. 1999

    Lemieux buys the Penguins.

11. 2006

    Lemieux plays his final NHL season.

12. 2012

    PSA 10 copies sell for less than $3,000, as one collector recalls.

13. Aug 2018

    A PSA 10 sells at online auction for $9,116.40.

14. Feb 27, 2021

    A PSA 10 sells at auction in Dallas; price not public.

15. Sep 27, 2026

    Price trackers record a PSA 10 sale of $48,508.

The world in 1985

• Mar 21, 1985

  Rick Hansen begins his Man in Motion world tour.

• May 2, 1985

  Ontario elects a Progressive Conservative minority government under Frank Miller.

• May 30, 1985

  The Edmonton Oilers win their second straight Stanley Cup.

• Jun 23, 1985

  Air India Flight 182, from Montreal to London, is bombed.

• Jul 1, 1985

  Canada's first cellular phone call links the mayors of Toronto and Montreal.

• Dec 12, 1985

  Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes at Gander, killing 256.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1985-86 O-Pee-Chee Mario Lemieux #9 RC is number 37 of 100 in the trading cards entries of the FLOAT 100. 97 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (89 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• O-Pee-Chee takes its name from an Ojibwe word meaning 'the robin.'
• In 1985 O-Pee-Chee kept the pack price at 35 cents but cut the cards per pack from 15 to seven.
• The boxes for the 1985-86 set were labeled as a 1986 product.
• Lemieux scored on his first shot of his first shift of his first NHL game.
• On the day of his last radiation treatment for Hodgkin's disease, Lemieux flew to Philadelphia and played that night.
• Lemieux is the first NHL player to become an owner of a club, buying the Penguins in 1999.
• Counterfeit Lemieux rookies show an orange tint, rather than pink, behind the statistics on the back.