The pro game was struggling when the 1977-78 Topps basketball set hit the market. America was smack in the middle of disco fever but there was no dancing in the NBA offices. TV ratings were abysmal, even with the addition of four fresh teams from the ABA. The malaise was reflected on cardboard. 1977-78 Topps Basketball Brought Smaller Cards; Smaller Checklist After … [Read more...]
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Hoops Cards on Steroids: 1976-77 Topps Basketball
You’re almost tempted to stick a stamp on the back and mail them from your favorite vacation spot. 1976-77 Topps basketball cards certainly feel like postcards. At 3 1/8” x 5 ¼” these cardboard behemoths represent the largest flagship sports card set ever made. With a deep Hall of Fame roster and just 144 cards to collect, it’s also one of the most collectible of the 1970s … [Read more...]
1974-75 Topps Basketball Set Offers Value
The NBA of 41 years ago may not have borne much resemblance to the game today but some things haven’t changed. The Golden State Warriors are the kings of the court and the Los Angeles Lakers are not playoff-worthy. The 1974-75 Topps Basketball set marked the last in a three-year run of tidy 264-card sets and welcomed some new stars who’d be active in the game long after their … [Read more...]
1973-74 Topps Basketball Set Low on Rookies; High on HOFers
The 1973-74 Topps Basketball set may never measure up to the sets produced during the golden age of basketball cards — the emergence of 1980s stars Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, followed by Michael Jordan, was a big turning point for collectors. But the set gave basketball card collectors another taste of the two-league war being waged by the NBA and the upstart ABA, … [Read more...]
Best Vintage Hoops Bargain? 1972-73 Has Doc, HOF Horde
The Doctor was in and so was the Zen Master. The ABA was back. Wheaties were in the mix and Wilt tipped it all off. The 1972-73 Topps Basketball set is a gold mine of 70s hoop goodness, even if some of the players still had their shirts on backwards. After pushing out a 233-card issue in 1971, Topps kicked it up another notch in ’72 with a tidy, 264-card … [Read more...]
1971-72 Topps Basketball Set Welcomed ABA
I’ll always have a fondness for the 1971-72 Topps Basketball set. A day or two before Christmas, the boyfriend of my high school age sister dropped by the house and deposited a present under our tree that I quickly deduced was an entire unopened box under our tree. To a kid who had to search the couch cushions to find a dime for one pack, getting 24 of them in one fell swoop … [Read more...]
Kahn’s Basketball Cards Gave Collectors A Bite Of Hoop History
No matter how you slice it, the Kahn’s basketball cards that were released between 1957 and 1965 were a rare, regional phenomenon. The Cincinnati-based meat company’s slogan was “The Wiener The World Awaited.” For basketball card collectors, these NBA sets came at a price — the cards were packaged with Kahn’s hot dogs, so finding any in pristine condition was … [Read more...]
1975-76 Topps Basketball Bulked Up Ahead of Merger
In the Bicentennial winter, the red, white and blue American Basketball Association was on its last legs. Before the next season, a merger agreement put four surviving ABA teams into the NBA with the rest alive only in memory. For collectors, the last images of the Kentucky Colonels, Spirits of St. Louis, Virginia Squires, San Diego Sails and Utah Stars live on in the … [Read more...]
Ten 1970s Basketball Cards for the Hoop History Lover
They went from tall to small, then back to small again. 1970s Topps basketball cards were all over the board in the decade in which they dutifully produced sets each and every season. They're far from fancy and some years Topps didn't have the rights to show logos so the players wore shirts backwards when the photographer snapped. It was like it or lump it for basketball … [Read more...]
1971-72 Topps Trio Stickers Rare in High Grade
They were one of the more unique pack bonuses you could ever find, designed to be stuck on stuff but almost too nice even for kids to consider doing so. Executed in a format that would be revisited a decade later, the 1971-72 Topps Basketball Trio Stickers may be among the more underrated ‘mini sets’ of all time, with a handful of scarce panels that make accumulating a nice … [Read more...]
