What are some of the more difficult sets from the 70's?

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I get what you are saying Howie, not a few month but a couple of years before the GM offer by CCC.


The lack of wrappers for both sets make me think whatever distribution occurred for both was not via retail packs.

Maybe more info will turn up, it's only been 45 years or so

I think its a combination. Test issue fizzle, Fun Packs reissue, rest of inventory to CCC. They may have had other ads elsewhere with them that appeared earlier or their catalogs had listsings prior to mid 1973; they actually didn't advertise that much in TTS over the years and certainly were not in all issues.

Now the fact only the XP's were being sold by some "East Coast" dealers is interesting. Did the SP's get held back for eventual CCC full sets? I'm sure there's a great story about the way CCC became semi-integrated with Topps as ta third party reseller. I tried to get at the story and was working to get a call with Richard Gelman when I was entertaining the idea of doing a bio of Woody but it never happened and I'm not sure I have the time to really pursue it right now. Topps had all sorts of small revenue streams for sets that had been returned or didn't sell well.

CCC really started ramping up after they published a price guide in 1960 but had been selling Topps excess inventory for years prior, first as Sam Rosen (Woody Gelman's stepfather) and then Woody from 1959 forward after Rosen's death. Counting backwards from the catalog edition numbers puts the founding of Rosen/CCC in 1954. Rosen originally sold cards out of a building on 34th St in Manhattan (still standing) before CCC moved to Franklin Square on Long Island, which was the next town over from Woody, who lived in Malverne (and sometimes car pooled to work with Sy Berger, who lived a couple of towns east).

The Oct 15th pub date for that TTS means info was current through mid September. So dealers had the GM short sets before the end of the baseball season.