Set Spotlight
08 09 O-Pee-Chee Premier Duos

In 2008 I purchased one pack of O-Pee-Chee premier. At the time the product was a high end break and I was intimidated by the win big lose big mentality, but I spent the money and rolled the dice. Little did I know before I cracked the pack, that I hadn’t just purchased some cards, but a quest to put together one of my most challenging sets.

Most of the cards in my pack were forgettable, but one was a gem. It was the PP2-HO Gordie Howe/Bobby Orr “Duos” auto numbered to 75. After checking in the Beckett, I came to the realization that this was the highest priced card (tied with the Gretzky/Messier) in the set.  Furthermore, Beckett only reported 26 total cards in the set. Weighing the enormity of the pull and the relatively small set size, I decided to put the set together.

This set is fantastic, and I consider it one of my prize personal collection pieces. Not only was it a fun and challenging set to put together, but the cards themselves are beautiful. The color choices and background patterns make these cards look luxurious. The majority of the signers are legendary, and all of the cards are hard signed. Additionally, you can tell that the players liked the cards because you can see the care that was taken to sign in the small autograph windows under each bust shot. There is very little overlap, and the signatures look clean.

The challenge in this set was availability. The fact that there were only 26 cards limited to 75 copies made finding a few a bear. Furthermore, the Beckett checklist was inaccurate, because it listed a few cards as part of the original set that Upper Deck had scraped from production. To the right is the original checklist followed by the picture gallery of the complete set. I have added a few collecting notes on the cards based on my personal experience and research. 


As always, if you the reader know of any errors, or you have proof of any cards that might exist that are part of this set, please contact me.

PP2-BF Derick Brassard/Nikita Filatov
PP2-BN Fabian Brunnstrom/James Neal
PP2-DH Marian Hossa/Pavel Datsyuk*1
PP2-DK Alex Delvecchio/Red Kelly
PP2-DZ Nikolia Zherdev/Chris Drury1
PP2-EN Phil Esposito/Cam Neely
PP2-FA Grant Fuhr/Glenn Anderson
PP2-FH Tomas Holmstrom/Johan Franzen1
PP2-GG Clark Gillies/Colton Gillies
PP2-GM Wayne Gretzky/Mark Messier
PP2-HE Bobby Hull/Tony Esposito
PP2-HO Mr. Hockey (Gordie Howe)/Bobby Orr
PP2-KR Jari Kurri/Luc Robitaille
PP2-KT Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews
PP2-LN Henrik Lundqvist/Markus Naslund
PP2-LS Vincent LeCavalier/ Martin St. Louis
PP2-MF Evgeni Malkin/Marc-Andre Fleury
PP2-MK Evgeni Malkin/Ilya Kovalchuk
PP2-ML Mark Messier/Brian Leetch
PP2-OB Bobby Orr/Ray Bourque
PP2-PV Gilbert Perreault/Thomas Vanek
PP2-RP Carey Price/Patrick Roy1
PP2-SB Brandon Sutter/Zach Boychuk
PP2-TC Joe Thornton/Jonathan Cheechoo
PP2-TM Kyle Turris/Peter Mueller
PP2-ZL Henrik Zetterberg/Nicklas Lidstrom2

*Packed out as an Exchange Card/Redemption Card
1 This card has been confirmed by Upper Deck as “Never Made”
2 This card was not packed out, but was rather sent as redemption fulfillment

PP2-BF Derick Brassard/Nikita Filatov

PP2-DH Marian Hossa/ Pavel Datsyuk
This is about as close as you can get to owning this card. It was seeded as a redemption, but was never made.

PP2-EN Phil Esposito/Cam Neely
What a great card. Anything with "Seabass" is solid in my book.

PP2-GG Clark Gillies/Colton Gillies
This is probably my least favorite of the cards in this set. I don't understand the father son theme and how it ties into the rest of this set.

PP2-HE Bobby Hull/Tony Esposito

PP2-KR Jari Kurri/Luc Robitaille
Because of the two players and their popularity, this was one of the harder cards to find.

PP2-LN Henrik Lundqvist/Markus Naslund

PP2-MF Evgeni Malkin/Marc-Andre Fleury

PP2-ML Mark Messier/ Brian Leetch

PP2-PV Gilbert Perreault/Thomas Vanek

PP2-TC Joe Thornton/Jonathan Cheechoo

PP2-ZL Henrik Zetterberg/Nicklas Lidstrom
This card is the set maker. It was listed as part of the original checklist, but was not packed out. Upper Deck later sent these out as replacements for redemptions that they could not honor. Although the print run is stated at 75, I believe that there are far fewer in public circulation. In the years since this set has been released I have only tracked three copies. Two were internet auctions. The third was this copy that I acquired through a trade.

PP2-BN Fabian Brunnstrom/James Neal

PP2-DK Alex Delvecchio/Red Kelly

PP2-FA Grant Fuhr/Glenn Anderson
Fantastic picture of Fuhr. The mask shot makes this card.

PP2-GM Wayne Gretzky/Mark Messier
This is probably my favorite card of this set. What an epic combo. I liked this card so much I have two copies. One for my set and one for the PC.

PP2-HO Gordie Howe (Mr. Hockey)/Bobby Orr
This is the card that started it all. I pulled this from my one box, and it was love at first sight.

PP2-KT Patrick Kane/Jonathan Toews
I don't think anyone knew how big this card was going to be when they made it. Now, it carries a premium and regularly sells close to its book value.

PP2-LS Vincent Lecavalier/Martin St. Louis

PP2-MK Evgeni Malkin/Ilya Kovalchuk

PP2-OB Bobby Orr/Ray Bourque
This is the only card that has autographs signed in two different colors of ink. All other cards are signed all in blue, or all in black.

PP2-SB Brandon Sutter/Zach Boychuk

PP2-TM Kyle Turris/Peter Mueller