Curious about 1973 Topps distribution

[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.

[stlcardsfan]

The blue team checklists are interesting. My cousin game me a box full of approx. 2,000 1973s that I know he opened in packs. Not a blue checklist to be found.

And he gave me almost as many 1974s. Probably included a stack of at least 100 red checklists.

[ALR-bishop]

I have no personal knowledge of whether they were actually pack inserts but they were available as a send away promotion offer on one of the two 600 pack wrapper variations

[Lueth2048]

I remember them as pack inserts.

[ALR-bishop]

[toppcat]

Great article Howie-what a fantastic read!

[brob28]

Originally Posted by toppcat

Great article Howie-what a fantastic read!

I agree Howie, would love to see anything similar on any other production years. Thanks for sharing.