The minis were not available in Southern Minnesota. I don't recall seeing them until a card show in Brooklyn Park (Twin Cities suburb) in 1978, but I didn't get around much
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Historically, Topps had reduced the size of their cards in '57. The difference was stark, but kids got used to it. Now it's 1975. Our country was trying to get out of the terrible recession of 1973-74. We were about to be hit with one of the worst periods of double-digit inflation, during the Carter administration. In 1975, Topps had increased the cost of a wax pack from 10 cents to 15 cents. The MINIs would have trimmed Topps' overhead costs by perhaps 25%. Maybe it was about this time that Topps trimmed the size of their stick of gum tucked in the wax pack.
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I don't think the recession had anything to do with it--I think it was strictly a marketing experiment. BTW, double digit inflation occurred before Carter took office. During his administration, inflation was in the modest or so single digits until his final year, when it went it over 10%. And to be clear, the recessions technically occurred before and after Carter was President-- one on Ford's watch, the other on Reagan's (both saw double digit inflation for longer than Carter). These things are clearly cyclical, and the numbers certainly can lag economic policy, so I am not laying blame or being overly political. I just get tired of Jimmy Carter being treated as a whipping boy.
Back to cards. I believe Topps was merely looking to change it up and see what happened. If they truly were treating their bottom line as paramount, they would have simply stuck to their guns with the smaller size (and the price increase), at least absent a total rejection of the product by the market, which I do not believe occurred. IOW, the minis would have survived longer.