It wasn't a great time to be a basketball card collector. After a mammoth 330-card set in 1977-76 and a unique postcard-sized set the next year, Topps all but waved the white flag on hoops for the next three years. The checklists shrunk to 132 cards. By 1979-80, the design of the cards and pack were decidedly uninspiring. Dealers were taking just about … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1971-72 Topps Basketball
Fans of the 11 teams in the American Basketball Association had to be stoked when they picked up a pack of 1971-72 Topps basketball cards. For the first time, the league's players were welcomed into the basketball bubble gum fraternity. Kids across America were intrigued by the red, white and blue ball, the unique team names, the unfamiliar uniforms and the players … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1980-81 O-Pee-Chee Hockey
Coming off a wild season where Gordie Howe retired, Wayne Gretzky rose to prominence, and the New York Islanders won their first of what proved to be four straight Stanley Cup championships, Canadian kids were ready to bust open packs of 1980-81 O-Pee-Chee. No one could possibly expect then that this set would prove to be arguably the decade's best in terms of rookie and … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1964 Philadelphia Football
After eight years with Topps at the forefront of NFL trading cards, the 1964 season brought a big change. Philadelphia Gum, founded by a former Bowman Gum executive 16 years earlier, snared the exclusive rights to make football cards for the next four seasons. Their first effort came in the fall of 1964 and it's the focus of this week's Vintage Pack Facts. … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1975-76 Topps and OPC Hockey
It was a good news/bad news proposition for hockey card collectors as the 1975-76 season approached. Topps boxes now contained 12 more packs than the year before. If you wanted to collect the entire set, though, it would require more dimes and nickels as Topps increased the size of its set from 264 cards in 1974-75 to 330 for '75-76. While the 1975-76 Topps … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1974 Topps Baseball
There was a lot going on in Topps' New York City offices and in their Duryea, PA plant in 1974. The San Diego Padres were thought to be moving to Washington, D.C., creating headaches for the company that prided itself on keeping its cards as current as possible. They were, for the first time, making plans for a "factory set," allowing collectors to buy the year's … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1967 Philadelphia Football
Swell brand bubble gum is what they were really selling. It's all over the packaging of Philadelphia Chewing Gum's trading cards in the 1960s. For football card collectors, though, it's those "Philly Gum" cards that are most memorable. Nostalgia if you're old enough. Retro fun if you're not. Philadelphia Gum had wrestled the NFL trading card license away … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1971 Topps Football
Much larger sets were coming soon, but in 1971, football card collecting was the same as it had been. Two series of 263 cards and inserts. This time though, the insert was interactive: game cards and player posters that occupied hours upon hours of chilly autumn and early winter days and nights for kids around the country. The costs remained much the same … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1963 Topps Football
The Green Bay Packers had won their second straight NFL championship and then enjoy 27 picks in the draft. Jim Brown would rush for 1,863 yards in 14 games and Y.A. Tittle would toss 36 touchdown passes. The 1963 NFL season also brought some of the most colorful football cards in history. This week's edition of Vintage Pack Facts takes us back to the fall of … [Read more...]
Vintage Pack Facts: 1955 Bowman Baseball
The end would come soon enough but in 1955, Bowman Gum was making one last-ditch effort to try to collect as many nickels and pennies as they could from baseball card collecting kids. They came up with a design that incorporated America's new favorite evening pastime. They created a whopper of a set at 320 cards and they gave kids more cards in their packs. It wasn't … [Read more...]