Old Hockey Cards Could Net One Canadian Family Over $1M & It's All About Wayne Gretzky

A family in Saskatchewan could soon be getting a huge payday thanks to what they found in some old boxes at home.

The family came across boxes filled with hockey cards dating back to 1979 and they could be worth more than a million dollars.

Heritage Auctions shared photos of the boxes on its website calling it the "greatest unopened find of the 21st century."

Inside the boxes, there are 16 unopened wax boxes containing thousands of 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee hockey cards, which was Wayne Gretzky's rookie year.

The online description says it's expected there are 27 "physically pristine" Gretzky rookie cards, but the exact number is unknown because the boxes remain closed.

In its online description, Heritage Auctions outlined just how rare this find is. It says before this discovery, there were two Gem Mint 10 OPC Gretzky rookie cards.

"No other unopened case of 1979-80 OPC has ever surfaced in the 21st century, and it's all but impossible to imagine another ever will," the description says.

1979-80 O-Pee-Chee Hockey Wax Box Sealed Case (16 boxes/48 packs/BBCE Authentication) – Only...www.youtube.com

As of Monday morning, the bid for the cards was over $ 1.3 million.

The auction will continue until mid-February so the price could be much higher by then.

In the online description, Heritage Auctions says the Canadian man who found the box wasn't aware he owned this "outrageous Holy Grail case" and that they had been "gathering dust" since he bought them directly from a wholesaler.

"By any metric of evaluation, it's a thrilling miracle of survival, and one of the greatest trading card lots that Heritage has ever had the privilege to offer," the description reads.

This isn't the first time a Gretzky rookie card was sold for millions of dollars.

In 2021, a 1979 O-Pee-Chee Gretzky rookie card sold for $3.75 million in a private sale, as reported by ESPN.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.