1981 Topps Home Team vs. Super National

[Vintagevault13]

I may be totally missing something very obvious, but can someone tell me the difference between the 1981 Topps Super Home Team and the 1981 Super National cards? I collect Reggie Jackson cards and honestly can’t tell the difference between the two. Thanks in advance for any help.


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[Jim65]

The Hometeam have a checklist on the back.

[Vintagevault13]

Originally Posted by Jim65

The Hometeam have a checklist on the back.

Perfect. Thanks


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[tulsaboy]

Also, as far as I know, the Super Home Team were distributed in packs of one card per pack, in boxes that only contained cards from either one or two teams, which was clearly indicated on the front of the box. The Super National cards were distributed as complete sets to dealers I think. I have not seen packs of the Super National cards offered. But I would love to be proven wrong!
kevin

[steve B]

Originally Posted by tulsaboy

Also, as far as I know, the Super Home Team were distributed in packs of one card per pack, in boxes that only contained cards from either one or two teams, which was clearly indicated on the front of the box. The Super National cards were distributed as complete sets to dealers I think. I have not seen packs of the Super National cards offered. But I would love to be proven wrong!
kevin

Darn! another thing I'll have to dig out of wherever it is....

I have either a pack or pack header from a pack that was 5 cards. If I remember it right, it was the national set, but it's been a very long time since I looked at it.

[tulsaboy]

Well, let's be clear about what we are talking about...1980 Baseball Superstar Photo Cards (Supers) or 1981 Super Home Team/Super National.

The 1980 Supers were issued in both white backs and gray backs. They were issued in 48 count boxes of loose cards priced at 15 cents each, 3 card packs with a cardboard header and a cello pack dangling from the header (white backs), 5 card packs that were identical to the 3 card ones except for a sticker denoting "5 cards" placed over the "3 cards" spot on the header, and 5 card packs that had the header updated to show "5 cards" printed as part of the graphic on the cardboard header. The last version has a product code that indicates a 1981 date, while the previous two versions have product codes that indicate a 1980 date. The "wax box" that contained 36 of these packs has a 1980 date, and so does the 48 count box with loose cards. There were also some very early test packs done that were one card each and were solid yellow, but those weren't issued widely.

I believe that Topps still had inventory left over of the gray backs and kept marketing them in 1981, simultaneous with the marketing of the 1981 Super Home Team and 1981 Super National sets.

The Super Home Team and Super National sets were marketed differently than the 1980 set. Super Home Team came in those familiar faded red paper packages and then in a yellow box that is very similar in its graphics (especially the font used) to the 1980 box. The Super National sets I don't believe were issued in packs. At least, I have yet to see packs for those. I have seen a case where complete sets of the 15 different Super National cards were bundled together with rubber bands and packed 45 sets to a case. If someone has a pack or box of the Super National cards I would love to see it!

kevin
(sorry for the lengthy response!)

[steve B]

No need for the apology, that stuff was almost 40 years ago. I'm glad someone has it written down. I should have kept notes as the cards came out, but hardly anyone does that.

It's probable that I have a 1980 5 card pack somewhere and recalled it as a 1981 because of the labeling.

[ALR-bishop]

I have all these sets, including the 1980s in both gray and white. I think white exists in lesser quantities and has slightly thicker stock. The Rice pack below is white and the Cooper gray. Don't know on the single card pack. The 81 pack ( last one) is for the Giant Photo set of 60.

I have the 5 X 7 National set of 15, but no pack. Does one exist ? The SCD Standard Catalog says they were marketed in areas not covered by the other set. Ten of them have same photos as the regular set but no CLs on back. The other 5 cards are not in the other set

[tulsaboy]

Thanks for posting the photos, Al! The all yellow pack is a test pack (I believe) and should contain a white backed card. White appears to have come first, followed by the gray backs. I don't think that any packs were issued for the National set from 1980. I think that was simply distributed as sets to dealers. I have seen cases of the complete sets, where the sets are bundled together by a rubber band, but no packs or boxes. Odd, but Topps did lots of odd things.

kevin

[tulsaboy]

I also have an uncut sheet of gray backs that is battered and well worn, but is instructive because it shows that there were a number of cards that were printed in multiples. I am curious to know if the sheet was the same for the white backed cards or not.
kevin

[ALR-bishop]

Thanks for that input Kevin

[tulsaboy]

Here are a couple of photos of the uncut sheet, along with the product code that is printed on the lower left hand corner of the sheet. A couple of observations: There are 66 cards printed on the sheet, configured in six rows of eleven cards each. The 66 cards means that there are 6 double prints. Those players are:
Brett
Parker
Schmidt
Garvey
Jackson
Carew

All six of the double prints are found in the last column, at the end of each row. Three of the double prints (Jackson, Garvey, and Parker) are upside down for some reason. Hope this is of some interest. The sheet is gray backed. The product code is completely different from the product code on the bottom of the unopened box that I have, and different from the product code of a 5 card pack of gray back cards that I have.

kevin

[tulsaboy]

And just for good measure, to round things out, here is an unopened box (though note that it is an "X-Out" box and has the little white stickers for 5 cards stuck over the places where it should say "3 cards"), both the exterior of the box and what it looks like opened. This is the only one of these that I've ever seen.
kevin

[tulsaboy]

Al,
One other thing that I just noticed when I was comparing the two photos you took of your unopened packs... the "5 card" version, which should have gray backs in it, has the newer Topps logo used starting in 1981, while the "3 card" version, which should have white backs in it, has the older Topps logo that was used through 1980. I think that makes it fairly clear to me, along with the 1981 copyright on the back of the 5 card packs, that Topps issued these cards in both 1980 and 1981, or at least was developing packaging to get rid of surplus 1980 cards but using 1981 product codes and logos. Funny thing is, the packaging on the 5 card packs has the new Topps logo on the front, while the backs of the cards themselves have the old Topps logo. Wonder if this is the only time that happened?
kevin