396
cards in the set
O-Pee-Chee's 1979-80 hockey set runs to 396 cards. It opens with eight league-leader cards for the season before, which is the reason Gretzky, who spent that season in the WHA, did not land near the front. We set that out in why his card is number 18.
After the leaders come the players, with All-Stars marked by a banner along the bottom. Card 83 recaps the previous Stanley Cup final. Cards 161 to 165 honour record breakers. The team cards run from 244 to 261, and three checklists complete the count.
Everything sits inside the blue border that makes the set instantly recognisable, and, as every set builder learns, so hard to find in high grade.
The set that introduced Gretzky also said goodbye to a generation.
Gordie Howe, card 175, appears with the Hartford Whalers, newly arrived from the WHA, in his final season. His last card and Gretzky's first sit in the same set, a fact collectors have never tired of pointing out.
Bobby Hull, card 185, also has his final card here. So do Ken Dryden, the Montreal goalie, and Stan Mikita, Hull's long-time Chicago teammate.
For a lot of collectors, these four are the reason to build the set rather than just buy card 18.
1979-80 was the first season after the NHL absorbed four teams from the World Hockey Association: the Edmonton Oilers, the Winnipeg Jets, the Quebec Nordiques and the Hartford Whalers. That merger is the reason Gretzky is on an NHL card at all.
It also creates one of the set's quirks. O-Pee-Chee had issued WHA sets in the late 1970s, so many players arriving from that league already had cards. Their 1979-80 cards are not treated as rookie cards by the hobby, even when the player was new to the NHL. Mark Howe, Gordie's son and a Hall of Famer, is the best-known example.
There are sixty rookie cards in the set, Gretzky's among them.
When the set was new, the rookie collectors chased most was not Gretzky's but Bobby Smith's, card 206. Others of note include Charlie Simmer, John Tonelli, Barry Melrose, Don Maloney and Morris Lukowich.
Oddly for such a famous set, it is not rich in Hall of Fame rookies beyond card 18. The great rookie class of that season, Gretzky apart, got their first cards a year later.
The misspelling on card 7. The game-winning-goals leaders card spells Bryan Trottier's first name "Brian" on the front.
Where the new teams sit. The Nordiques team card sits in the team run alongside the established clubs. The cards of the other three arriving teams are scattered elsewhere in the set.
The blue lines. The faint blue lines on the backs of some Gretzky rookies are reported on the other cards printed in the same column of the sheet too, which says something about what they are. We looked into them in what the blue lines mean.
Most of the 396 cards are inexpensive on their own, and the Gretzky accounts for a large share of what a complete set is worth. That shapes how people build it.
Some build it raw, around a graded Gretzky. The set without card 18 is far more affordable, and card 18 is bought separately, graded, with all the checks in our guide to spotting a fake.
Some build it graded, card by card. PSA runs a set registry for it, and a high-grade set is hard to finish, because a clean blue border is scarce on every card, not just the famous one.
Some buy it complete. Complete sets do come up, often with the Gretzky included. Check that card above all, because in a set sold as one lot, it is where the value, and the risk, sit.
Sources. The set size, the leaders cards, the team cards at 244 to 261, the blue borders' chipping, centring problems, print defects and rough edges, and Howe at 175 and Hull at 185 are from PSA's Set Registry description of the set. The last cards of Howe, Hull, Dryden and Mikita, the Gretzky's share of the set's value, and the record breakers at 161 to 165 and Stanley Cup card at 83 are from Cardboard Connection and Glory Days Collectibles. The sixty rookie cards, the WHA players' cards not counted as rookies with Mark Howe as the example, Bobby Smith as the most sought-after card when the set was new, and the season's great rookies having their first cards a year later are from Sports Collectors Daily. The other rookies listed are from Vintage Hockey Cards Report. The four WHA teams absorbed, the Nordiques team card and the other arriving teams scattered through the set are from Glory Days Collectibles. The blue lines appearing down the column of the sheet are from collector discussion on the Collectors Universe forums. The misspelling of Trottier's name on card 7 is from the Trading Card Database. Checked on 3 October 2026.