Topps had some competition in the football card market as the decade of the 1960s dawned. The company reported selling about 70 million football cards in 1959. There was a new league with franchises in new cities. Who knows how many kids opted for Fleer’s AFL set in 1960 but Topps dropped the number of cards in its 1960 NFL set from 176 to 132. With no single prints or double prints, that means your chances of pulling a Hall of Famer out of those packs today aren’t that bad.
Of course, the big problem today is finding them.
- Traditional wax pack boxes of 1960 Topps football held 24 5-cent packs.
- There were penny packs issued but they are extremely rare today. Even wrappers and display boxes are scarce.
- Packs included an ad on the front for “Magic Football Funnies” which refers to the hidden image on the back that could be rubbed off with the use of a coin or the Metallic Stickers that were inserted or the M. The stickers contained logos of pro and college teams.
- Cello boxes contained 36 ten-cent packs containing 12 cards. That’s a whopping 432 cards per box. With good collation, you could presumably get three complete sets out of a single box.
- While we know of no unopened vending boxes that have been discovered, it’s reasonable to assume they were produced as was commonplace at the time.
- More Pact Facts after the gallery…
- There are 31 Hall of Famers on the checklist–one out of every 4.26 cards. It more likely than not that your cello pack would include at least two, possibly three or even four Hall of Famers. In fact, a recently opened 1960 Topps cello pack surrendered a Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown.
- Sales weren’t exactly suffering for Topps. The company had reported selling about 70 million football cards in 1959 as it prepared its 1960 set for release.
- A full box of 36 cello packs sold via Robert Edward Auctions in 2017 for $33,000.
- We know of no recent sales of complete 1960 Topps football wax boxes but a display box with seven packs sold through Mile High Card Company for over $16,000.
- Wrappers and display boxes can often be found on eBay.
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