Quote:
Originally Posted by brewing
I understand the hoarding by Conlon. I'm thinking of the total distribution. Even if he possessed 50% of the MI market, the total of the test markets had to be smaller than the rest of the country.
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Hi Brent. I would have responded sooner, but I was at work. From the response of other board members, it would seem I sit corrected as to the breadth of the distribution regions of the 1975 Topps Minis. Guess I needed some time to think about this.
OK, the connotation of a test issue comes down to a print run vastly fewer than the regular issue. And you are quite right in asserting "the total of the test markets had to be smaller than the rest of the country". I dare say it was much, much smaller, given what Topps cranked out for their standard nationwide release.
The key in this discussion is still Charles Conlon. He alone had the foresight, or rather forceful avarice, to hoard and hoard the MINIs. I know there may have been a few collectors who bought a wax box or two and saved them for posterity, and maybe 1-2 actually bought a case. However, in the case of Conlon, he wound up accumulating a truckload of cases. Then sat on them--until the hobby began to blossom with each year of the 80s. Alan Rosen's purchase of one case of MINT 52 high numbers and semi-highs was a major catalyst at getting collector - investors, accumulators, hoarders, and speculators jacked up about buying new old stock in the form of unopened boxes and even cases. People were buying new stuff and just "putting it away for the future". All the major card companies obliged and fed this frenzy.
When Mr. Conlon finally began to offer boxes from his haul, 1975 seemed long enough ago for those cards to "seem" semi-vintage. They were a nice, colorful design. Gorgeous Nolan Ryan. Revered rookies Yount and Brett. As I communicated, Charles never let on how many he had. Again, the public thought of the MINIs as a test issue. = Scarce. = Good investment. Please do not misunderstand what I have said about Charles Conlon. Hoarding is not against the law. Buying low and selling high is not wrong; we all like to enjoy such financial success. Mr. Conlon sensed a good thing in the MINIs, and he was right! But he was a shrewd wheeler-dealer, and a tough negotiator. We could all wish he was giving us help.
Flash forward to when Charles Conlon passed away in about 2008-09. He was still very active selling his cards. All this time buyers thought they were getting a case or box of an issue few in number. The grading industry had been in full swing for over 15 years. Any serious collector knew the big money cards were those having been graded. For a '75 Topps, that means anything PSA 9 and preferably 10. To my LITTLE knowledge, no one, with the possible exception of major dealer Larry Fritsch, had any left-over cases of the regular issue 1975 Topps. They were bought, collected, and handled back in the day. But Conlon had brand new stuff, the stuff cardboard dreams are made of. So, when he died, collectors discovered the truth---he had a whole lot more than he let on. The REA auction of Mr. Conlon's holdings still brought big money. The pictures in the REA catolog of all those cases painted a vivid scenario of flooding the market, even if some buyers sat on them for 30 years.
The potential number of pristine specimens coming from all those cases, and we are not talking about a dozen cases but a LOT more, spoke in clear terms that the value of the MINIs was now minimized. That is why I wrote of a beautiful huge balloon getting the needle.
Could you imagine what a find of say ten cases of '52 Topps high numbers would do to THAT market. Most of us, myself included, would be overjoyed. Those who had labored hard and spent a fortune to furiously build a run of the HIGHs would be fuming furiously. The demand would be there, but a fresh supply of that magnitude would Richtor-Scale their value several notches down.
Supply and demand stands.
Sorry Brent. I better shut up. ---Brian Powell