1980 Topps #140 Ray Bourque RC: He Wears No. 7, the Number He Handed Phil Esposito in 1987, and PSA Has Graded Seven 10s
Ray Bourque's rookie card shows him in the number he would later give away. He wears No. 7 for the Bruins on 1980 Topps #140, the number Phil Esposito made famous in Boston, and on Dec. 3, 1987, Bourque pulled that jersey off in front of the Boston Garden crowd and handed it to Esposito. PSA has graded 1,999 copies of the card. Seven are Gem Mint 10s.
The card is #140 in the 1980-81 Topps hockey set, which PSA files as 1980 Topps, and PSA's record for it carries both the rookie and Hall of Fame designations. Bourque stands on the ice in the Bruins' black road sweater, the spoked-B crest on his chest and a 7 on his shoulder, his stick held across his body. A green "BRUINS" banner runs along the bottom, and in the lower-right corner sits a black puck over a pink strip that reads "DEFENSE." The copy pictured is a PSA Mint 9, cert 07265380.
The Black Puck
That black puck is the card's quiz. Topps covered each player's name with a black wax coating on the puck and promoted it as a "Who Am I? Coin Rub-Off Quiz," Kevin Glew wrote in a Dec. 31, 2015 PSA Set Registry article. To learn whose card you had pulled, you scratched it off. On the copy pictured, the coating is intact and the name is still hidden.
Scratching does not cost a card its grade by itself. "Technically, PSA does not downgrade the card for having the box scratched off," then-PSA president Joe Orlando said in that article. "What our graders will downgrade for is if the act of scratching has left any visible damage in the area."
No. 29 in Camp, No. 7 on Opening Night
Boston took Bourque eighth overall in the 1979 draft. He wore No. 29 in training camp, he told BostonBruins.com in 2023, and found a different sweater in his stall for the first game. "I got to the first game and No. 7 was there," he said. "I knew who wore No. 7 with the Bruins."
Esposito had worn it from 1967 until he was traded to the New York Rangers in November 1975. Bourque wore it as a rookie in 1979-80, played all 80 games, scored 17 goals and 65 points, and won the Calder Trophy.
When the Bruins scheduled Esposito's number retirement for Dec. 3, 1987, Bourque was still wearing it. The plan, worked out by general manager Harry Sinden, Tom Johnson and public relations chief Nate Greenberg on a late drive back from Hartford, had Bourque surprise everyone at the ceremony. He skated over to Esposito, took off his No. 7 and handed it to him. Underneath was a 77, which he wore for the rest of his career.
Twenty-One Seasons, Then One Game
Bourque won the Norris Trophy as the league's best defenceman five times and played 21 seasons in Boston. On March 6, 2000, the Bruins traded him to the Colorado Avalanche. In 2001 the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in Game 7 against the New Jersey Devils, and captain Joe Sakic handed the Cup to Bourque first. It was his last NHL game.
He retired with 1,612 regular-season games and the records for goals (410), assists (1,169) and points (1,579) by a defenceman. Both the Bruins and the Avalanche retired No. 77, and he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2004, his first year of eligibility.
PSA Population Report
| PSA Grade | Population | Value |
|---|---|---|
| PSA 10 | 7 | $1,900 |
| PSA 9 | 154 | $200 |
| PSA 8 | 634 | $60 |
| Total Graded (All Grades) | 1,999 | — |
* Population data as of October 21, 2026. PSA population counts are dynamic and increase as more cards are submitted for grading.
Seven 10s
PSA's 2015 article counted four PSA 10s of this card. There are seven now, out of 1,999 graded copies. The same article noted that the card is sometimes found miscut and poorly centered.
The population peaks at PSA 8, and almost everything sits between 4 and 8:
- PSA 9: 154
- PSA 8: 634
- PSA 7: 561
- PSA 6: 393
- PSA 5: 153
- PSA 4: 83
- PSA 3: 8
- PSA 2: 4
No copy has graded a straight PSA 1, and two are encapsulated Authentic, which completes the 1,999.
Qualified grades make up a large share of the high end. PSA has issued 284 qualified grades on it, against 15 half grades. There are 160 qualified 8s, and 85 qualified 9s, more than half as many as the 154 straight 9s. A qualified grade is PSA's grade for a card with one specific flaw, noted on the label beside the number.
Verdict: the rookie on this card is wearing a borrowed number. Eight years later he gave it back to Esposito in front of the Boston Garden, then played on until 2001 and won the Stanley Cup in his final game. His rookie card hides his name under a black puck, and seven of 1,999 graded copies are PSA 10s.
