"A Taste of Topps"
 

I'm hoping someone can lend some insight on two books I came across in a stash of stuff that I'm cleaning out of my office.

They are two Topps books that appear to be press material. The books are navy blue (hardback) and are titled, “A Taste of Topps.” They are identical except for the cards that are stored in them, and despite the title there is no gum to actually taste.

Each book has a written three-page summary of Topps baseball products for the 1995 season, followed by five permanent pages of nine-pocket sheets that are filled with cards from four different products:

 1995 Topps
 1995 Topps Stadium Club
 1994 Bowman
 1994 Topps Finest

Each book contains the same number of cards (45), but the player selection in the two books are slightly different. Most of them are commons, but there is a decent selection of star players (Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, Murray, Molitor, Ripken, etc.)

My guess is that these were mailed to card dealers, members of the media and baseball teams, as they appear to have been issued by the Topps PR staff. Anyone have any thoughts? Thanks

I don't know anything about them but would be willing to buy one from you if you're selling.

Are the cards any different than the regular issue? Maybe there are subtle differences in cropping, numbers (or lack of), promo stamps, etc? It would be better if they were special in some way rather than just a random selection of cards that anyone could assemble (or change).

Tastes
 

Neat items Brad. Thanks for sharing.

When I saw the title I was worried you had been chewing some of the Topps Thirst Break gum :)

I don't have the books in front of me at the moment, as I left them at my office and won't have access to them again until Monday. With the quick inspection I did yesterday, I did not notice a difference in the cards from the normal Topps sets. There is definitely NOT a "Sample" or "Promo" stamp on them. With that said, my Topps knowledge generally tapers off after 1991, so I'm not too familiar with mid-90s stuff.

My guess is that Topps sent out cards from the (probably just-released) 1995 Topps and Stadium Club line, and since 1995 Bowman and Topps Finest probably hadn't been issued yet, they included the '94 versions of those two products.

The cards are in side-load nine-pocket sheets and yes, they could be removed and swapped out. I'm positive that did not happen in the case of these two books, as I've had them stored in a box in my office for 20+ years and I'm not much of a "modern" card collector, so they never really appealed to me very much. I believe they were sent to me or someone at my work, but I just don't remember the specifics.

I would think at this point they would be most interesting to a Topps or modern baseball card "historian." The overall value of the actual cards isn't much I don't think -- I didn't see any major rookie cards -- but the complete books are cool just from the standpoint of being a little snapshot of the hobby in 1995.

Thanks for looking and for the input,
Brad