I should start by saying I've been collecting a lot of 2015-2020ish O-Pee-Chee lately and enjoying them a whole lot, which makes this set all the more frustrating. OPC *should* have a potential niche as a price-point offering with 1-2 parallels or inserts that feels like a nice wax-pack of the 80s or early 90s - instead, you have a weird in-between print/stock quality that feels closer to early 90s Score, some gross-looking parallels (the yellow in particular looks like a highlighter job), a slew of confusing inserts, and a retail price point a hair above what I'd consider reasonable.

I'd say the high points are the overall design of the base card set (which is OK), the design of the Retros (which is really great), and the likelihood that you'll still be able to snag these for a lower price a few years down the line when everyone's just fixating on Upper Deck instead. It's certainly not the worst you'll see (some high-end sets from this year are way more gaudy, to be fair), but I'd consider it below-average and ranked it accordingly.

It feels like Upper Deck put minimal effort into this years set. For instance, Quick is still shown as being on the Kings, even though that isn’t the last team he was with at the end of the season. Same goes for Kane still being a Blackhawk. The card stock doesn’t feel like a traditional O-Pee-Chee card anymore, and the card backs offer very little for people who enjoyed the stats and stories that O-Pee-Chee used to have in the pre Upper Deck days. When I compare these to 2024 Topps Baseball, I feel jealous. The card backs on those still have everything that a fan of old school cards would want. Topps Heritage Baseball is also everything I would like to see in hockey’s O-Pee-Chee Retro. It just feels like Upper Deck is getting farther away from from that traditional card feel. Maybe it’s working for them, I don’t know. But at least for me, Upper Deck’s effort here is a let down.