Topps early 70's vending question

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Posted By: Paul Grubor

Hi, I'm just curious if anyone knows about the cuts and sizes of the cards from 1971 Topps Baseball released in vending boxes. Are they all standard size or are some cut a tad smaller. Also, what about 1971 Topps football and 1972 Topps Baseball from vending. Are those sizes all over the board? I'm asking this because I sent 45 cards to psa and 17 of them came back as evidence of trimming. The others were all 7's 8's and even some 9's and they're all from the same collection. Any help would really be appreciated. One last question..Will psa grade a card that is not exactly 2.5 X 3.5?

Thanks,

Paul

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Posted By: boxingcardman

By that time Topps had the QC thing pretty much squared away. I haven't noticed any discernable variations among cards and I love that set so I've looked at thousands from vending over the years.

Have you evaluated your cards yourself under ideal lighting conditions? You should be able to spot trimmed edges. Look at Kevin Saucier's altered cards page for hints.

Sic Gorgiamus Allos Subjectatos Nunc

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Posted By: Paul Grubor

Well here's a portion of an article written by Joe Orlando and titled "Whack Jobs".


I can remember opening vending cases from the early 1970s where
the cards came in a variety of sizes. Pre-war cards, especially, were cut very inconsistently. To most, the size differences are subtle but when placed in a holder, the card's size is more apparent. My point here is simple. Cards can come in different sizes straight from the factory -- straight out of the pack -- straight from a vending case. Experienced hobbyists know this but many do not.

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Posted By: Scott Mt. Joy

I have had this issue with 72 FB, many I had from orginal packs would not grade, when measured they were all a bit short, bummer.

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Posted By: Rob Ray

Many years ago,I purchased a couple of early 70s vending boxes from Mark Murphy,a very trustworthy dealer at the time (albeit pricey as heck)....at least in my memory it was from him. Anyway,back then,I decided to crack the boxes to upgrade my sets .PLenty of mint cards,and LOTs of stars (so I'm positive they weren't searched),many stuck together...but mostly NM-M. Anyway,there seemed to be a pattern in one of the boxes of cards (70 or 72,I forget) where a few cards in a row...5 or 6?...were just a titch (sp?) shorter L-R than the others. I'm sure it was that way originally,as well.
Not to mention: Of the many early 70s racks I purchased years back,there were more than a few cards that would't measure up,so to speak. I've told the story before of a NJ dealer who came to my house in Brooklyn and opened rack after rack (after buying them from me,of course),which was shocking enough. He opened EVERYthing. You'd be surprised how many 71 rack-fresh cards were o/c or 'short" by a minute amount.
ONe of the reasons I don't "do" graded: I'm sure many of those today would come back as "altered."
Like another poster said,there are many instances of right out of the pack or box cards being "short" back then. Experienced buyers know this and those who aren't...don't know this. You can tell a factory default from a poorly altered card.
And don't even TALK about vintage OPcs...seems like they had blind folks serrating THOSE babies back in the day

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Posted By: Ricky Y

Re: 71 Topps. I purchased a couple of series from Larry Frisch in the late 70's. I'm sure they came straight from vending..and they had that crispness with the vending wave on them..still have them in my raw set and quite a few of them are smaller in size.

Ricky Y

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Posted By: Paul

This may be a dumb question, especially from someone who has been collecting since 1970. But what are vending boxes? I've seen them. I even own a couple of empty ones. But what were they used for? I never saw a retail store selling individual cards out of a vending box. And I never saw them selling whole vending boxes. Only wax packs, cello packs, and rack packs were available were I grew up. So what were the vending boxes for?

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Posted By: DD

Dealers would purchase vending boxes (by the case) from Topps, and then collate complete series/sets from them. Each box contained 500 cards, with 24 boxes to a case. A lot easier then busting pack after pack, and probably cheaper for Topps to produce as well.

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Posted By: Paul

Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. Do you know when this practice started? Other than Larry Fritsch, there weren't a whole lot of dealers for Topps to ship vending cases to before the mid-70s or so.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

used for the penny machines where it would spit a single or couple of cards out. Have seen those type of machines out there. Maybe inside of the little cardboard folders that the machine pushed out. I think vending began in the late 1960's? I don't remember seeing much mention on vending before 1968 or something. I could be COMPLETELY wrong on that assessment though........

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Posted By: Dave Hornish

I used to buy cards in a nickel vending machine in 1972. I vividly remember getting a Gil Hodges from the machine in the entrance of Coronet in Westbury, Long Island after he had died.