1968 Topps Team cards--Why so many missing?

[nolemmings]

Maybe this has been answered before but why does the 1968 Topps baseball set lack team photo cards for 1/3 of the squads in MLB? I could understand omissions due to franchise movement or expansion, as that had happened before, but in '68 it just seems like Topps just made a half-hearted effort to include the team shots. As a youth I always sorted my cards by team, with the photo on top, and I saw no rhyme nor reason for the teams included or omitted. I recall there were some strained relations between Topps and both the players and the teams in that 1968-69 period, and 1969 had zero team photos for I believe the only year in decades. What was going on?

[savedfrommyspokes]

Todd, I had the exact same question a few years ago....here are some of the responses I received:

http://net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=144732

[ALR-bishop]

Was this not also a period where Topps was using many old photos because they had been unable to get Marvin Miller who was now negotiating for The Players Association to agree to their low ball offer for a new licensing agreement. As I recall new photos started showing up only in the latter series in that set