Back in 1968, Topps made a set of Action Stickers which was a part of a ceaseless pursuance of products that would score with their young audience. Some of you are possibly doin
g a double take right now.
Action Stickers?
These 1968 Action Stickers are only known within Topps history’s corps of fans and serious collectors. They were sold in a strip of three and a stick of bubble gum for a dime.
How scarce are they? Considering the fact that PSA has graded less than 200 of them in total, pretty rare. But how scarce are the stickers in high grade? None are graded higher than 8 (only 7 of those exist) and only seven stickers are graded 7.
The set of ’68 Action Stickers consisted of a long strip of three sections: three small die-cut photos of players at the top and bottom and one larger single player featured in the middle. Facsimile autographs add a baseball card type feel to the manila-colored stickers which were designed to peel off. The three sections were separated by a perforation and then folded into the packs. That method is what has made the comparatively few samples which survived very difficult to find. They’re graded as panels and individual sections. There are 16 numbered center panels but only 12 are different. The backs are blank.
The kids who bought many of them in the turbulent summer of 1968 possibly used them for their intended purpose-they got stuck on something and then became obsolete. Panels #13 through 16 were double printed.
They are extremely popular with those who collect the cards of a particular player and those few who build high grade sets on grading company registries. Just Collect recently sold a PSA 8 Harmon Killebrew sticker panel for $1,275. An SGC 60-graded Roberto Clemente brought $605 and a PSA 2 even scored $310. A PSA 4 Carl Yastrzemski tallied $204.
The set is packed with other Hall of Famers including Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Al Kaline, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Frank and Brooks Robinson and more.
Non-stars can still be found for less than $75, even in graded form.
Complete sets of 1968 Topps Action Sticker intact panels are rare and valued at around $4,000-5,000 if in higher grades.
Click here to see what’s currently available on eBay.
