More Popular: 71 or 75 BB

[mintacular]

Which set has more collectors? Any empirical evidence? Thanks.

[esquiresports]

I've seen a few "favorite set" and "least favorite set" of the 1970s posts. I recall the 1971 showing up on favorites much more often than 1975. Neither seemed to get many "least favorite" votes. As far as cards graded, it's close to a tie, with 217K 1971s and 207K 1975 Topps cards being graded by PSA.

[JollyElm]

To me it's pretty simple. The 71's are more popular for a few reasons:

1. The tough black borders make most people like me on the constant lookout to upgrade the cards we have.

2. There's a very wide variety of action shots that add a great visual element to the set.

3. Since the set was released in series, it's always tough finding the much sought after high numbers. By 1975, that element was gone.

4. A bunch of HOF'ers--Mays, Banks, Wilhelm and Mazeroski immediately come to mind--had one of their last cards in this set.

I think the 1975 set unquestionably wins the HOF rookie card battle, though. Brett, Yount, Rice and Carter. Niiiiice!!

[67_Palmer]

Both great sets, but if I'm picking one, I'm going with the 71's.

[39special]

I also like the '71 set.The '75 set has a nice look to it,and doesn't have the high priced hi#.

[Rich Klein]

only because they are harder to complete than 75's

[the 'stache]

It's a tough call for me, because one of my favorite all-time cards are in each set:

My '71 Clemente

http://imageshack.us/a/img542/9800/71toppsrclemente.png

And my '75 Yount

http://imageshack.us/a/img22/1682/75toppsryount.png

I think aesthetically, I like the '71 set a little more because of the reasons mentioned, the black border, and the action shots.

Then again, the '75 set also has George Brett's rookie....

:D

[Paul S]

...but for my own self I prefer the 71. Both sets have great and special cards/images in their own right, but the '75 has a design that I feel detracts from images. The 71 gives the images their due. It's like for 75, Peter Max did the design, and for 71 Johnny "The Man In Black" Cash had them silkscreened on his shirt. 75 is of its' time. 71 is timeless.

[Jim65]

1975 was really my first year buying cards and its one of my all time favorites for that reason.

[brian1961]

Unless the first set you collected as a kid was the 1975 set, the Topps black beauty of '71 is by far the more popular. Nice mix, with game action shots sprinkled in here and there for the very first time. The Munson is considered one of Topps' top 100 of all time. World Series cards. We should not forget the addition of the last great subset from Topps---the coins.

One of the cons about the '75s are the Minis. Charles Conlon feverishly bought almost all of them, hoarded them, and then began selling them a box here and a box there, never revealing he was sitting on cases of them. You wanted Minis, you had to go to Conlon. Shrewd business move on his part, though I can easily say that, since I was not a buyer.

My point, after his death a few years back, REA handled his collection estate. There were STILL more '75 Minis than you could shake a stick at. It finally hit everyone that there was kind of a glut of them, and it all seemed to throw a tidal wave of cold water on the whole of interest in '75 Topps baseball. Regardless, the Yount and Brett rookies both have great eye appeal, and as I recall, so does the Nolan Ryan.

Nothing really changed with the black beauties--condition sensitivity, scarce series, poor quality control on the centering of the cards, and even whatever Larry Fritsch had available did not alter the fact that few cards will grade 9s and 10s.

Just an aside, though if this is common knowledge, I beg your pardon. The year 1971 was the second in which Topps charged a whole dime for one pack of cards, with gum. In 1975, Topps decided to reduce their overhead yet again, now charging 15 cents a pack for I believe 15 cards and a smaller stick of gum. The money they saved on wrappers and a smaller gum portion was substantial, no doubt, as well as forcing the customer to buy what would have been at least 3 packs of cards 6 years before, 1969 being the last year of the nickel packs.

Just my 5 and 10s worth.

Cheers.------------------Brian Powell

[chris6net]

1971

[Samsdaddy]

1975 was really my first year buying cards and its one of my all time favorites for that reason.

Old thread but it is a quiet Friday evening.

Same as above, this was my first year collecting cards and it is one of my all time favorites for that very reason as well.

[Matthew80]

I'm not sure which has the most collectors, but I'll throw in for the 75s as my favorite.

The set gives Hammerin' Hank is due bookending the set, there are several Ryan cards, the Brett rookie is just a gorgeous card, and Mike Schmidt looks like Dirty Harry.

The '71 set will also eat up too much money and the horrid Ernie Banks overshadows the iconic Ryan, Clemente and Munson.

+1 for the 75 set