Curious about 1973 Topps distribution

[toppcat]

Given the wide (yet limited) range of places with "All 660" packs described in this thread, it seems possible to me that Topps was testing how to do a full distribution through each of the major hubs they had at the time (three plus NY I believe) while at the same time issuing the cards in series elsewhere. Kind of like priming the pump of the jobbers as there would seemingly have to be a lot more cases of cards going to each one all at once in the "All 660" distribution. They were compressing four months of distribution into one big wave essentially, which was major change for all parties.

Can't recall if the 73's came out earlier than normal, which was usually around March 1 but I vaguely remember them being issued in series but also having a couple of Blue checklists. When I started collecting again in '81 after laying off in '76, the Blue checklists were familiar to me. I was buying packs (mostly racks but some packs from the ice cream man) on Long Island in '73 as a kid but the Blue checklists could have come from a year end dumping of cards at Newberry's or Woolworth's by Topps and I also spent summers in Massachusetts then so who knows?

A team checklist in just the "All 660" packs makes some sense though as Topps would usually try to churn each upcoming series by lagging earlier series compared to the regular checklists by 22 cards or so. But if you had all 660 cards at once, perhaos they changed tactics to let the kids know all the cards issued from their favorite team to keep them hunting.

[Rickyy]

I don't recall seeing any blue team checklists at all when I was actually piecing the set together as a kid back in N. Calif in 1973...and I bought tons of packs. I do specifically recall buying a mixed series rack pack at a toy store in Sunnyvale, CA back then. It contained a mixture of Semi High and High Number cards.

Ricky Y

[ncinin]

I was fourteen years old in 1973 and the last year as a teenager I bought packs and I bought alot of them.

In my part of North Carolina 1973's were issued in series and we had all series. The high numbers were not hard to get. We had no mixed series packs.

I never saw any blue checklists and didn't know they existed until the 1980's.

[moeson]

I hope this isn't overkill, but I dug up a March 1973 issue of The Ballcard Collector, featuring this interview with legendary Topps official Bill Haber concerning 1973 Topps.

In other BCC issues, a collector reported that Ohio had all cards issued at once. Also, a Canadian columnist noted that the entire OPC set was released in late May, in a similar fashion to many parts of the US. Later in the year, the Card Collectors Company was advertising the Blue Checklist set (@$2.95), along with many test set items.

[Rich Klein]

This article answers one very well know hobby question which is why there were no Rick Reichardt, Jay Johnstone or Rusty Staub cards during this timeframe.

Reading the article, Topps did a reasonably good job of not printing cards of players they felt would not be in the majors in 1973 such as Tony LaRussa but the biggest question is how could they feel Staub would not be oin a major league team in 1973. Although being hurt in 1972, he was obviously going to be in the Mets plans for 1973 so was there something more that that. Remember in 1970 and 71 Staub was not pr8inted till later in the season so I wonder, and that is all this is, whether there was a yearly cointract battle with Staub and Topps.


Regards
Rich

[ALR-bishop]

Great input Howie. Thanks for posting that

[nolemmings]

Wow, thanks for the input guys; it's great to see others jogging their memories back to those department and grocery store days.

Howie, fantastic article with lots of nuggets. I never stopped to think that Topps would have had such a specific plan--exactly 20 action shots in each series? It's interesting to see that Haber claimed Topps was hoping to issue the entire 1973 series to "the majority of the country" and not just certain target areas. Since I could get the entire set in my little world (pre-Internet, satellite TV or even USA Today), I always thought everyone else could as well. That's one reason I started this thread-- to see what was more prevalent--distribution by series or all at once. I still can't tell with any certainty. If Topps did not in fact follow Haber's stated hope of giving the majority of the country the full set, then I wonder if Dave H.'s point came into play about how compressing four months of distribution into one big wave was such a major change for various parties that it could not be done as smoothly as planned.

Finally, despite this detailed explanation of the '73 set that Haber offered, I see that he makes no mention of any team checklists. These would have been novel and in my view noteworthy at the time, and it makes me wonder if Topps came upon this idea after the set had been produced and Haber had penned his letter.

Again, love the info and the stories, keep 'em coming. Any articles or ads from the time always appreciated.

[esquiresports]

Maybe everyone knows this or it's been written in this thread, but Topps definitely distributed in series (one through five) and an all-in-one series. OPC is all-in-one series only. I do not know where the all series boxes were released. They are relatively uncommon in my experience.

Note how the OPC box says "team checklist in every pack." If this carried over to the Topps version, it could explain the source of the blue checklists.

I am attaching photos of my second series box (labeled as such), my fourth series box (black "hey kids") tab, and empty all-series box (pink "hey kids" tab and note the all series designation on the box side). I know first series had a tab that said "1st Series" because I lost out on an auction for one. Still sad about that.

I am also attaching an empty OPC box and OPC pack. The Topps version of this pack is very similar looking, but I don't own one.

[GasHouseGang]

You look like a collector of packs and boxes so you seem to be someone who would know. Were the checklists offered as sheets on one of the 1973 packs? The 1973 checklists I have were torn from a full sheet and I seem to remember reading that they were offered that way. Any info?

[GeorgeBailey2]

First, I want to thank those that have provided information, particularly the letter from Bill Haber. The scans are just plain old cardboard porn.

In King of Prussia, it was wax packs in series. I don't recall seeing cellos or racks. In August, though, we spent our usual two weeks in Ocean City. The penny candy store at the north end of the boardwalk had racks which had the one pocket of the last series. At least a third of what I bought that year was bought at the shore. In today's vernacular: "Best Summer Ev-ah!"

Never even knew they had the blue checklists until years later.

Someone mentioned that the mail away may have been an uncut sheet. Is that verified? I know that the Topps Collectors Club in 1976 sent an uncut sheet of the team checklists (the team photo cards) as part of the membership. It was folded and was printed on a brighter and thinner card stock than the issued cards.

[esquiresports]

Originally Posted by GasHouseGang

You look like a collector of packs and boxes so you seem to be someone who would know. Were the checklists offered as sheets on one of the 1973 packs? The 1973 checklists I have were torn from a full sheet and I seem to remember reading that they were offered that way. Any info?

I have seen uncut checklist sheets offered on eBay, but I believe they were of the red variety. I can pull my 1973 packs and see if a team checklist sheet is one of the offers.

[moeson]

1973 Topps distribution was mentioned in the November-December 1973 issue of Sports Fan. It looks like West Coast collectors took direct action after years of last series frustration and were looking forward to an all at once 1974 set.

[ALR-bishop]

I was thinking Howie, that these things are a great read now, looking back at the hobby from a different era, but had I got one of these back in 1973 I may have looked at all that small,scrunched up print and decided it was not worth the effort

[moeson]

Al, it sure helped to have much younger eyes back then when the hobby was so hungry for information. No wonder SCD became such a big hit in a short time.