Wayne Gretzky‘s rookie card from O-Pee-Chee just broke a huge record as it sold for over $1 million dollars in a private auction.
According to CBC Sports, the card sold for a record $1.29 million, and is the first hockey card in history to bring in that price.
The card, which features Wayne in his rookie days on the Edmonton Oilers team, it just one of the 5,700 rookie cards issued by O-Pee-Chee, and is one of only two to receive a perfect “gem mint” score.
The perfect score is rare, as “Ninety per cent of the cards as they came out of the factory wouldn’t be considered ‘gem mint’ by today’s grading standards,” Chris Ivy, Heritage’s director of sports auctions, said, “They were using recycled cardboard that chipped easily, they were off-center, and there were a lot of print defects.
He added that “this card survived 40-plus years in this perfect condition … the desirability of it for collectors is to have the best of the best, and that’s what this is.”
After the Oilers, Wayne went on to play for the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues and LA Kings and earned the moniker of “The Great One”.
Wayne is the hall of famer dad to Paulina Gretzky, fiancee of Dustin Johnson, who just won the Masters 2020.
Together, Paulina and Dustin have two children together.
