[West]

My records also show wax first, followed by a mix of vending, rack packs and cellos. These are the case codes I saved for 1989 year:

1989:
112691 - vend
112893 - wax
131693 – vend
120792 – jumbo pack case
122393 - wax
130991 -wax
222393 – Topps Big BB
332093 -wax
332098 - wax


You can see above that there was a 1989 vending case with serial number 112691. Dave from the Topps Archives, Lonnie C. and I figured out the Topps codes a few years ago (the sequence of which I was able to confirm in an interview with a former Topps employee). The first digit is the fiscal quarter, the second digit is the month of that quarter, 3rd and 4th digits the day of the month, 5th digit is the last number of the year and 6th digit was the shift that stamped it. A code of 112691 was stamped on January 26, 1989.

I have good reason to believe these codes were stamped at the shipping dept not when the case box was packed by the factory workers. This is because I have found several Topps cases stamped twice, with a "final sale not to be returned" stamp on it. That means it was returned by a seller/vendor, and restamped when a new bill of lading was filled out. I have found several cases with bill of lading receipts on them that match exactly to the 6 digit case code as well.

This means that vending was shipped out for retail sale in '89 as early as the last week of January.

Let me know if I can help with any other details, but the case codes themselves reveal quite a bit.