The white borders were gone. In their place was a rainbow of colors. Ten cent wax packs were gone, too, replaced by a 15 cent price tag. 1975 had brought changes to the world of bubble gum cards but Topps kept the presses rolling and there was plenty of unopened material to be had, even decades after the set that brought us a multitude of Hall of Fame rookie … [Read more...]
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Vintage Pack Facts: 1969 Topps Baseball
It was the end of the decade...and the end of an era for those who could always count on tossing a nickel on the store counter for a pack of baseball cards. Football season brought more cards per pack but the price of had doubled for good. Expansion had come to baseball in 1969 and Topps' seven series roll out included 664 cards, making it the largest set to … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1972-73 Topps Basketball
After producing in relatively small quantities the year before, Topps made sure there was plenty of 1972-73 basketball for everyone. Even today, it's a relatively easy score, whether you're collecting cards for a set--or want an unopened pack. This week's edition of Vintage Pack Facts from VintageBreaks.com is a look back at the purple pack power of 1972-73 … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1976 Topps Baseball
It was the year of the American bicentennial and everything was red, white and blue...including the lettering on the top of Topps baseball card wax pack boxes. While the number of cards needed for a complete set wasn't changing just yet, there were quite a few ways to attack that 660-card collection. This week's Pack Facts from Vintage Breaks takes us back to the … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1971-72 Topps Hockey
The Boston Bruins were on their way to a second Stanley Cup championship in three years, Bobby Hull would score his 600th goal, Montreal's young rookie goalie was quickly becoming a star and 43-year-old Gump Worsley was still stopping shots. Hockey card collectors had two sets to pick from but the Topps set was half the size of its Canadian cousin, OPC. The good … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1954 Bowman Football
In the mid-1950s, the NFL was still a few years away from becoming a growing juggernaut. It did have a football card contract, though. Bowman Gum had a run of success that would soon come to an end but the Philadelphia-based gum maker was the name of the game to kids who followed pro football and names like Tittle, Layne, Groza and Gifford. This week's Vintage … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1974-75 Topps Basketball
As the sports world plowed through the decade of the 1970s, little had changed on the trading card landscape. Topps still held monopolies on the production of baseball, football, basketball and hockey trading cards. In many cases, kids still considered the gum to be an equally attractive component of each pack. The 1974-75 Topps packs were different in a couple … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1974-75 O-Pee-Chee Hockey
Canadian collectors who began their ritual of buying hockey cards in the fall and winter of 1974-75 discovered some changes in the packs that they snared from the shelves of local markets and drug stores: they'd need to buy more of them if they had any hope of completing a set. Saving their snow shoveling and errand money to buy a full box was great--but they would … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1976-77 Topps Basketball
The world of pro basketball was a wild and woolly place in the 1970s and Topps was along for the ride. After a call to the league got them another crack at NBA trading cards in the late 60s, the company toyed with the format of its cards--and the size. Their first two sets were "tall boys", rectangular in size, supposedly a nod to the size of the players. They … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1960 Leaf Baseball
They couldn't sell them with gum. They apparently couldn't call them baseball cards and apparently landing a lot of the biggest names in baseball at the time wasn't easy. Still, Leaf pushed onward. Their 1960 product came to market as a five-cent package of "Original Authentic Baseball Photos." So, yes, other than the fact that they were the same size as … [Read more...]
