1960s Topps MLB Union fighting

[ALBB]

interesting old story

[ALBB]

The story goes Topps was being extremely cheap with the players in the mid 60s... Marvin Miller played hard ball and forced Topps to pony up more money.

Can some math major calculate - based on Topps Profits in 1968....with packs of cards being 10 cents....how many cards they sold ( yes..its also non sports, and bazooka gum, etc.. )

I estimate 10 million baseball cards produced

[ALBB]

I find it amusing that Topps paid players a whole 5 bucks ! when they were in the minors...and a whole $125 it they made it....the massive amount of money they made using player images for about 15 yrs !..

[Chris Counts]

No doubt Topps was being cheap in 1968-69. The evidence is in the old photos the company continued to use. By the late '60s, it seemed like half the cards are just head shots without caps, or head shots with caps that have had the logo blacked out because the player was traded. You can find many photos that were used years after they were taken. Most photos are taken in East Coast cities — Topps never even bothered to visit many of the ballparks.

[chris6net]

I know this thread is about the 60,s but as a Young Mets Fan in 1972 I went all over Long Island trying to find the elusive Rusty Staub card in a Mets uniform. I guess I was to stupid to realize Singleton, Foli and Jorgenson were on Mets cards but no Rusty. At least I got one of the coolest cards of the childhood the 1972 Topps Expos Team card with the batting leaders on the back. Every category from AB's,hits,doubles,triples,HR's RBIetc has Staub listed. If you look at the back of the card it looks cool and will probably never be duplicated again especially for a team 3 years into existence.

[ALBB]

Also read during the late 60s early 70s MLB Union struggles , Marvin Miller told the players to play " hard ball " with Topps and don't sign anything or agree to photos.


This was that period when we seem to saw a load of " no team logo " stuff , because the owners also played " hard " and would not allow team names on stuff

I understand the late 60s Coke bottle caps had to get a last minute -air brush, to erase the team logos