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

[steve B]

For what it's worth, when I got into cards in the late 70's I hung out at the local card shop and since I was interested they taught me stuff sometimes.

One day they showed me a test wrapper, maybe 74 deckle? And told me if I ever saw cards wrapped with that sort of wrapper to just buy them all, or as many as I had the money for.

They also said that people and dealers doing that was making Topps do fewer test issues since they couldn't get a reliable test.

I never did see any, but did occasionally find the odd item like thirst break gum. One pack, in a store that was part of the woolworths chain. Nasty stuff.

Steve B

[toppcat]

I think the real testing ended around 1974 along with the killing off of most ancillary baseball sets. It seems like once they did the 75 mini's the only items that seem like true retail tests are actually in house proofs and mockups. 1966-74 seems to be the test era; I even suspect the Dice Game cards may have been done in the early part of this time frame.

[steve B]

That makes sense.

It also makes some of the late 70's early 80's stuff stranger if they weren't some sort of test. Maybe they decided to test using a more finished looking package so it didn't look like a test.

I'm thinking of the stuff that was somewhat limited geographically. Like the 79 Comics, Some formats of the 81 5x7s, Thirstbreak gum, and a few others like that.

Steve B

[ALR-bishop]

Had been meaning to circle back to Steve's comments about the advice he got to save cards with funny wrappers and his less than enthusiastic comment about Topps Thirst Break Gum

The Thirst Break gum had a wrapper that depicted a sport figure. There were 54 or so subjects and baseball was just a subset. Usually on such sets, like Hocus Focus and Who Am I, I just collected the baseball subset. On the Thirst Break set I did them all for some reason. I bought most as singles or in lots on ebay , but could not find them all. So I bought an unopened box ( sometime around 2005). The gum was issued in 1981. I think it was orange then. It is a gooey brown mess now. I found the ones I needed but it took a long time to clean the wrappers of the gum without damaging the comic. I have some gum left if someone wants a taste

Also, here are some of the funny wrappers

[steve B]

I'm always amazed at the stuff ALR shows. And considering I started collecting when hardly anyone cared about the test sets......I think my greatest moments card cost maybe $2. I should have bought more of that stuff and less of the normal cards.

Yes, the Thirst break gum was orange. And for sure in the top 4-5 worst bits of junk food I've ever had. Very similar to "Gator Gum" which was Gatorade flavored. Only worse. Pretty much a tie with chocolate fudge gum I forget the name of.

Steve B