Quote:
Originally Posted by toppcat
Yup, you got it. There is an occasional curve, like with the last digit being anything other than 1, 2 or 3. They are indeed shipping date codes. Wonder if that last one ends in 8 due it being a RE (return privilege) or if it means something else. The one above it is September 20 as well but indicates 3rd shift. I think Lonnie found some that ended in 4, would have to go back and look. Depending on where the product was going, different unions packed and shipped-could mean something in that regard.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by West
Topps did still fulfill orders for their current year product in the 4th quarter. I recorded a 1986 Topps Wax Case with the serial number 410261 which would have been shipped out on October 2nd, 1986. I've also recorded a few serial numbers representing shipping dates in July, August and September of the current year product but the vast majority of the codes are from November-March. The earliest case code I can find for early released wax product for the upcoming year product was a 1990 Topps wax case with code dated 11/15/89. These were hobby boxes (Griffey green box). Was Topps base released around Thanksgiving? Seems quite early to me, so perhaps the cases were stamped when the pre-order was filled and then shipped out when the official release date came. Hopefully someone has a good memory as to when they first saw the new release product available at their card shops.
As to your question about Topps wrapping up production, the way I see it, when all the pre-press production was finished and printing was tooled up and ready to produce at scale (mid October?), Topps would send an order to Quebecor or whoever the printer was at that time for, say, 3 million sheets of base. That product starts rolling in to Duryea and they start cutting it up and packing it out. By mid November they have a warehouse that looks like this:
I'd guess uncut sheets keep coming at a rate of 500K sheets/week from early November until the end of March. By this time we have somewhere on the order of 6-10 million produced of each card in 1989 Topps base. Some of that still sits in the warehouse waiting to meet demand but maybe they get rid of a shift in packaging once April rolls around and the season starts. The printers likely just print base product on demand at this point and the same goes for packaging. They've moved on to football or Batman or whatever they need to fill orders for. Just speculation here. I spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff!
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I suppose I'd better start with the earliest and latest cases I can find (with an affordability factor). Most of the vending cases I viewed online only had the #951-1989 number stamp, nothing visible for the production stamp as far as I could tell. From there, I should see if continuing to break open this product is worth the time and effort to unravel the mystery of a card almost nobody remembers.
The next challenge is to find contact info for someone who may have worked on the design team at Topps in 1988-1989. A proofer, editor, etc. If you have any leads or know anyone who could put me in touch, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks again for this great chunk of info.