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...]
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Vintage Pack Facts: 1973-74 Topps Basketball
As the 1970s unfolded, Topps settled into a pattern of consistency with its annual basketball card releases. Standard sized cards with 264 in a set between ABA and NBA players, leaders and post-season highlights. The only thing collectors had to wonder about was the design. And of course, if you were a kid, you were hoping the price of a pack wouldn't … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1962 Topps Football
Not that it was a major concern for the youngsters who collected them at the time, but Topps' decision to use black borders for its 1962 football set has caused plenty of headaches for collectors of high-grade cards. To this day, PSA has yet to grade even a single card as a 10. Only a little over one percent of the more than 29,000 cards submitted there to date have … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1975 Topps Football
Collectors looking for a set that has a heaping helping of solid rookie cards, a nice roster of Hall of Famers and a price that isn’t sky high have always appreciated the simple charms of the 1975 Topps football set. This week’s edition of Vintage Pack Facts in cooperation with VintageBreaks.com offers a look back at how these somewhat underrated cards made … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1974 Topps Football
Things were stressful as summer turned toward fall in 1974. Watergate. The war in Vietnam. Inflation. Moms, dads and older siblings were stressed. Kids looking for a little stability in life could still count on dropping a dime on the counter of their local drug store and getting a fresh back of cards, though. It had been that way as long as we … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1970 Topps Football
After a decade’s worth of competition for players and dollars, the NFL and AFL had buried the hatchet and begun the process of becoming one united pro football league as boxes of 1970 Topps football cards began hitting shelves in late summer. Topps continued to enjoy a monopoly, having won back the NFL license from Philadelphia Gum a few years earlier. The company … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1963 Fleer Football
A four-year run was about to end for Fleer Corporation. After partnering with the newly-launched American Football League at the start of the turbulent decade that was the 1960s, the gum maker created four relatively simple sets of trading cards featuring AFL players. It would all change in '64 when Philadelphia Gum jumped into the mix and made a deal for … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1958 Topps Football
It was a moment that made collectors of vintage cards a little weak in the knees. That 2006 episode of Antiques Road Show is buried somewhere in the broadcasting archives--or maybe lost to time--but the story lives on. A woman had come to the show (it had been videotaped in 2005) with 312 1958 Topps football cello packs that had somehow been salvaged from her … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1972 Topps Baseball Wax
Like Major League Baseball itself, Topps was in an expansion mode in the early 1970s. The company went from producing a 720 card set in 1970 to 752 in 1971 and then really put the onus on young set builders by cranking out a whopping 787 different cards in 1972. It all started with a late winter release of Series 1 and wouldn't end until the fall when the … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1971 Topps Baseball Wax
After boosting its set to 720 cards in 1970, Topps went even bigger the following year. Their 1971 baseball set grew to 752 cards (they'd top it again in '72 with a whopping 787). This week's edition of Vintage Pack Facts courtesy of VintageBreaks.com takes a look at the products released by Topps during that 1971 season, one that ended with Roberto … [Read more...]
