2015 Topps Heritage Includes Scratch ‘n Sniff Cards

2015 Topps Heritage Baseball is set for release Wednesday, March 4 with the design focused around the company’s 1966 card set.  You might feel like you’re back in ’66 if you are lucky enough to pull what are ‘scratch ‘n sniff’ variations to certain cards.

In the hours ahead of the official release, some dealers were opening cases of the product and came across card backs that had a white strip or two, sort of like the wax stains you may have found on cards years ago.  Rubbing a finger across it, they say, revealed a slight aroma of the gum we got with packs of cards until the early 1990s.

I asked a guy to scratch the back of one those card backs (not the lighter ones but the gum stain rectangle ones) and sure enough BUBBLE GUM

— Brent Williams (@brentandbecca) March 3, 2015

Here is one that really shows up! Thanks for sharing pic.twitter.com/v5MpfZCL7G

— Brent Williams (@brentandbecca) March 3, 2015

Topps says the “gum damage’ variations appear on all 500 subjects in the base card set but that’s an odd term to use considering it was the wax seal that left a skid mark on the bottom card in each back during the days when gum came with packs, not the gum.

So far, it appears as if there are about a half dozen scratch ‘n sniff cards per case of Heritage so they will be hard to find.

Once again, there will be 24 packs per hobby box of Heritage.  A full checklist is linked below.

Each Heritage box will contain one autograph or relic card as well as a box loader that could include Ad Panels, three-card strips with an ad on the back, original 1966 Topps cards foil-stamped with a 50^th anniversary logo and 1966 Oversized Punch Boards, styled after the vintage Topps Punch Out game with an insert version numbered to 50, Jumbo Patches numbered to 25, autographs numbered to 10 and autographed Jumbo Patches numbered to 10. There is a 425-card base set in 2015 Topps Heritage with 75 additional short prints to be chased. Base card photo variations include Throwback uniforms and In Action images.  Parallels include Blue backs, Minis (# to 100), Chrome Variation, Chrome Refractor, black-bordered Chrome Refractors (# to 66) and gold-bordered Chrome (# to 5). Some of the off-season moves in baseball are reflected with back variations that reflect the player’s new team.

One of the throwback inserts in 2015 Heritage is 1966 Bazooka. Here is the 2014 batting champ pic.twitter.com/H6Bpk4zU6b — Topps Company (@toppscards) March 2, 2015

Topps says all autographs will be on card and red ink versions numbered to 66.  There will be dual autographs (# to 25) and triple (# to 5) randomly packed as well.

Heritage Clubhouse Collection Autograph Relics are hand-numbered to 25 with dual relics numbered to 10 while Flashbacks autograph relics are numbered to 25.  There are also 1/1 cut signatures.

Relic cards include Clubhouse Collection Single uniform and bat relic cards of active stars with gold parallels numbered to 99; dual relics with swatches from bats and uniforms featuring present and past players, numbered to 66; with new triple relics (# to 25) and quad relics (# to 10) part of the package.

Coin and stamp relics are back with 1966 nickels numbered to 15, dimes to 10 and quarters to five.  There is a JFK silver half dollar 1/1.

Postage stamp relics feature a photo of an event or player with a stamp issued in 1966.  Those are numbered to 50.

Insert cards will include New Age Performers, matched with players in the same mold as superstars from 1966, Then and Now, Baseball Flashbacks and News Flashbacks.

Topps will draw on its non-sport heritage for some of its buyback cards that will be randomly packed including Rub-Offs; Batman, Get Smart and Lost In Space, all stamped with a 50^th anniversary logo.

Topps is known for mimicing the many quirks of the original master set.  Here’s a list of 1966 Topps errors and variations that could translate into similar, but intentional, errors and variations in Heritage.

Pre-sales for 2015 Topps Heritage Baseball are generally $65-75 per hobby box.  You can see boxes for sale via eBay by clicking here.

You can see Heritage singles as they are listed by clicking here.

2015 Topps Heritage Baseball Checklist

Look for 2015 Heritage High Numbers baseball later this year.

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About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for over 40 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected].