Did Topps Tiffany Commonly Get Into Kids Hands?

[mrmopar]

I seem to recall mail order catalogs (TCMA/Renata Galasso type sellers) offering Tiffany sets, but that they were grossly expensive compared to the regular set, so if you were a kid at the time, you probably weren't forking over the $ for one.

That is something I wondered when I found a flyer for the Penn Emblem patches of 1979. You could order any of the 100+ patches, but there was a 3 patch minimum order and at $2.50 per patch with 50 cents shipping, you were at $8 for the three. I don't remember what the pack price was for Topps in 1979, but I bet a full box was close to the same price and choosing between 36 packs ready for immediate consumption or 3 patches that you'd have to wait for to be delivered via mail....which would have won out?

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

I'm quite surprised how many of you hadn't seen or even heard of Tiffany until years after the fact. My first memory is of reading about them in one hobby rag or another, so I was already familiar with them when I first started seeing the odd sealed set being offered at small Canadian shows in the late 1980's. I also recall obtaining a handful of singles just by chance around the same time. They were likely part of cheap, larger lots of commons.

[Harliduck]

I was 14 in 84, and buying all the packs I could get my hands on...and a couple times a year would visit the card shop here in Washington (it was an hour away, which may have been a state away for a 14 year old)...and I had never heard of Tiffany sets. I don't remember when I first heard about them...but it certainly wasn't apart of my childhood. I would have definitely wanted them...