Finally got a mini 1975 Topps card
 

Ever since I was a kid I wanted a card from this set.

Well, I finally got myself a 1975 Ryan card .... fired up!

Do you like or own any 1975 mini's?


https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/...Jls/s-l225.jpg

I picked up a mini Winny this weekend.

Attachment 296589

These cards were nowhere to be found in NY in 1975, and my friends and I had no idea this set even existed until many, many years later. Now that I'm out in California, these suckers are extremely easy to find. I've been told by quite a few people that in 1975 they were sold everywhere in these parts, just like 'regular' Topps cards.

Yes - I like 'em a lot!

I'm working on an ungraded set that's about 70% completed. It's a slow go for me since I'm only trying to pick up NM+ cards that are well centered...which can be very difficult since the quality control for Topps that year seemed to be lacking. If you continue to work on that set you will soon find that out ;).

If you really want to delve into that set, I would recommend looking at an excellent thread over at the PSA website in their set registry forum. Lots of great info about that set in there. Good luck if you pursue that set!

I've got a set, and can confirm they were pretty common in L.A. in the summer of '75.
As the story I'd heard at the Anaheim convention that year was that they were distributed as a test in Michigan and Northern California. But someone (perhaps Kmart, not sure) had a distribution warehouse in Northern California and stores in the LA area, so they ended up here, a market they weren't intended by Topps to be marketed in.
At the time my friends and I were able to get about 3x the amount of regular '75 Topps for them in ads we ran in SCD, TTS, etc. In time, probably due to them not being as scarce as originally thought, it's come down to parity. Charlie Conlon had "a few boxes" put away and would trickle them out, and it was only when he passed away it came out just how much he had stashed.
When I was putting together an unopened pack run about 10-15 years ago '75 regular was actually much harder than mini.

Have a set and a pack. Even a couple of variants :)

There is/was an avid group of mini collectors and a long thread on the CU board in the PSA Registry Forum.

I lived in Michigan when they came out so I got them off the shelves. I thought it was weird and had no idea why they made the cards smaller that year.

Got a complete set of them to go along with the standard set.

I collected them, but REALLY likes the Hostess cards that year because I got Ho-Ho's instead of gum.

Nice pick up. I've always like the '75 mini's. I traded a 1991 Topps set with a Brien Taylor autograph for 800 mini's. And finding high grade cards is not overly difficult.

Here is the variant showing the flow of heavenly grace on Charlie Sands

'http://i1267.photobucket.com/albums/...ps79302c5e.jpg

Minis
 

I live in Washington state I was 13 in 75 and stores only had minis, it was probably ten years later before I ever saw or knew regular ones existed. I still have two complete sets and bought 1000's of them that year. I traded all my dupes in the 80's for cards I needed they fuel my collection for years when I didn't have much money to spend on cards. Rick

I can verify that the 1975 minis were available in Southern California. I opened dozens of rack packs of them in 1975. My parents bought them for me mainly at a Long's Drug Store in San Diego. I sat at our kitchen table and had stacks of minis all over it :D I ultimately completed the set with the addition of some cards bought at some local shows in the late 1970s.

Steve

Have mini set, regular set and OPC set from 1975. Love the mini's. Only remember them from shows in or post-1975. Never made it to KY. Have a pack in my pack collection too............

Here is the CU "mini" maximus thread

https://forums.collectors.com/discus...-thread#latest

" Topps cards smaller than they had ever been made before"

That's about as far as I got. Hard to take it seriously after that.

I like the minis, I have about half the set, maybe a bit more. We had them briefly in western Mass., so I had a few from packs.

I was 13 years old in 1975. My family took a trip to the Wisconsin Dells and we stopped at Larry Fritsch's warehouse. It was like Disneyland to me. He let me and my dad hold the T206 Wagner card card that he pulled out of his safe. He couldn't have been nicer to us. He told my dad he was sending a semi trailer to Michigan to buy as many cases of Minis as he could find. When we got home my dad took me to the candy warehouse and he bought a case of Minis and we took them home and broke them into sets. I still have the empty case and all the boxes and kept every single card and still have them today. One my my best memories of time spent with my dad. He is 94 years old and we still talk about those minis 42 years later. And that is why I love this hobby!! Thanks dad.

Nice story. :)