O-Pee-Chee

The O-Pee-Chee Company, Ltd. was a 20th-century Canadian confectionery company that produced candy until the mid-1990s. The O-Pee-Chee Gum Company got its start in 1911 when brothers John McKinnon (J.K.) McDermid and Duncan Hugh (D.H.) McDermid started to manufacture chewing gum. According to O-Pee-Chee literature, both brothers had been in the gum business and knew the business very well. The brothers had worked for C.R. Somerville, a gum manufacturing plant in London, Ontario. After the Somerville firm was sold to American Chicle Company in 1908 and the plant moved to Toronto, the McDermid brothers took over the box division and eventually purchased it in 1910 (Somerville Paper Box Limited). Shortly thereafter, they started O-Pee-Chee and produced their first box of Gipsy gum.

In terms of company genealogy, the McDermids owned the O-Pee-Chee Company Limited (as renamed in 1921) and Somerville Paper Box Limited until 1944. They sold Somerville Paper Box Limited to Garfield Weston in 1945 and changed their own O-Pee-Chee Co. Ltd. from a public company (since 1921) to a private company. The company was now run by John Gordon McDermid, the son and nephew of the McDermid brothers. The younger McDermid ran the company until his death in 1953 after which Frank Leahy took over the company. Leahy was the President of the O-Pee-Chee Co. Ltd. before he purchased the company from the McDermid estate in 1961. Leahy ran the business until his death in 1980, after which Gary Koreen stepped in and purchased the company from his wife, Mary-Margaret (the daughter of Frank Leahy).

1993 O-Pee-Chee

This a list with brief summary of O-Pee-Chee baseball card products for 1993.

Base Set

The 1993 O-Pee-Chee set totals 396 cards and was issued in wax packs. Subsets include traded players and Checklist cards. The cards bilingual English and French text. Size: 2½ × 3½ in.

World Champions

This set has 18 total cards and was issued as an insert in 1993 O-Pee-Chee wax packs. They feature the 1992 World Champion Toronto Blue Jays team. Size: 2½ × 3½

World Series Heroes

This set totals 4 cards and was issued as an insert in 1993 O-Pee-Chee wax packs. The cards feature key players and their World Series highlights are described on the back in English and French. Size: 2½ × 3½ in.

OPC Premier

The Premier set totals 132 cards and was issued in foil packs. The cards have a white border and color player photos on front and back. Size: 2½ × 3½ in.

Premier Star Performers

This set has 22 cards and were available as inserts in 1993 O-Pee-Chee Premier foil packs. They feature gold borders and bilingual player bios on the back. This set had a parallel foil version with gold stamped set logos. Size: 2½ × 3½ in.

1991 O-Pee-Chee

This a list with brief summary of O-Pee-Chee baseball card products for 1991.

Base Set

For the second straight year, O-Pee-Chee printed a set virtually identical to that year's Topps set complete with the Topps anniversary logo instead of any O-Pee-Chee branding. The major differences between the two sets, other than the white cardstock, similar to that used by the boxed Topps Traded sets, are the bilingual reverse sides and the copyright line. Several cards included traded lines which did not appear in the American set. Size: 2½ × 3½ in.

Box Bottoms

Canadianized versions of the Topps Wax Box Cards were also produced. The cards were printed in groups of four on the bottom of the wax pack boxes. There were 4 different boxes for a total of 16 cards. They resemble the base cards except for having career milestones on the back instead of full statistics and a yellow border instead of white. The set is lettered A-P rather than numbered. Size: 2½ × 3½ in. when individually cut out.