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1973 Topps Blue Team Checklists
I am about to begin building the 1973 Topps set, but prices for unmarked blue team checklists are pretty crazy. For you set collectors, do you consider the set to be complete without the blue checklists? I am leaning that way since they aren’t numbered. Just interested in others’ thoughts. Thanks in advance. Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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I do not consider them a part of the set as they are not numbered. Would rather spend the cash buying cards I need. Otherwise I would but those last after I had the complete set as an alternative.
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I have them for my set, but didn't and wouldn't have chased them except they were included in a lot I purchased when I started the set. I never remember ever seeing these as a kid, but I was only 3 when the set came out and only saw 73 cards from my buddies big brothers.
Were these a regular inserts into the packs? |
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It is my understanding that these were inserts in series 5 packs. They were also available as a mail-in offer. Like you, I don’t recall seeing them when I was younger, although I did not really begin collecting until 1974 so I did not have many 1973 cards as a kid. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk |
Not only do you have to get all 24 Blue Team checklists, you have to get both variations of each team with one or two asterisks on the back :D.
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IIRC these cards were not issued in "series" packs but in the test packs if all 5 series released in places like Ohio and Florida which got those packs. I know I got a good amount of them in a store in Orlando Florida circa 1993
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They were not issued in the all-in-one series where I lived. Never saw a blue checklist for years.
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A few years ago there was a thread about these somewhere on these boards (I may have started it), and memories were all over the place about where and in what packs they were issued - I once heard someone only ever found them in series 5 racks. I didn't start collecting until '78 so it was before my time. A few years back I was lucky enough to nab an uncut sheet that would have been mailed out in response to the wrapper offer - it's pretty beat up, but I've never seen one before or since.
It would be interesting to see contemporary reporting (The Trader Speaks?) of manner of issuance - I know someone found an article a while back that demonstrated that the 1974 Traded cards were available from the start of the year, where most believed they had been a later issue. |
I remember buying a sheet from the mail-in offer and then cutting it up when I got it, not a very good job of it either unfortunately.
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They were not in the all series packs in Minnesota. The southern part of the state anyway.
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I collected the set a few years after the 1973 cards were issued and I never came across the blue checklists. I finally got some that appeared to be torn (unfortunately) from an uncut sheet. Are there factory cut versions or are they actually cut from the sheets that were offered?
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1973 was my first year of collecting, is my favorite set and I have built 3 of them. I never considered the blue checklists part of the set. However, about 5 years ago I came across a complete set in EXMT/NRMT condition at a show and spent the $150 to buy it.
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As posted above there is another thread on these from around a decade back. Below is that link. There doesn't seem to be much 'new' info added over the last ten years. But good to keep these threads linked together for future reference
https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=184284 |
I did not have them as a kid, but felt obligated to include them in my current set.
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I've got them in my 1973 set which was assembled many years ago, and would include them again if I was putting together a set today.
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Mike |
Thanks for all of the insight. This set is sneaky interesting with the checklists and some of the questions surrounding the distribution of the cards. I may slowly add the checklists as I find good deals. Probably not going to worry too much about condition as long as they are unmarked.
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The blue checklists came in at least some all series packs and the retail box indicated this. The box commodity code is in red and has a 451 product number vs. 401 for cards issued in series. I'm not 100% clear on whether or not any packs can be found with the 451 codes and it seems they just used the 401's and inserted the checklists. They were experimenting and as with all things Topps, there will be variance in how things were issued. I don't own a 73 premium example so can't say for certain but the card stock seems similar for both, see the attached image from a 2022 eBay auction I missed. |
I have a set of the individual cards (not hand cut) and a premium uncut sheet - the stock is the same.
By the way - these pages have looked kinda strange on my end lately - no ones avatar images are showing up, posted images aren't always appearing, and a little question mark inside a black diamond pops up in posts where some sort of punctuation should be - I will try to copy and paste a sample from an earlier post on this thread here: " I don�t recall " Is net54 about to explode or something?? |
Grew up in Ohio and got all the cards in one big series. The team checklists were included in the packs. Unfortunately I sold all my extras while setting up at shows, couldn’t figure out why one guy bought them all. To me they were very common, also didn’t know that the rest of the country was still buying by series and did not get the team checklists.
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I put together a set from packs in the Metro Detroit area from the corner store. Bought packs along with others on my block all summer as they were released in series in my area and none had blue checklists.
I consider them part of the master set |
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