Opening 1991 Topps Wax Packs...

[savedfrommyspokes]

I pulled a 75 Topps Brent Strom out of one of the 91Topps packs...I still have that card today....it was in about EX shape. Apparently Topps spared no expense in buying back the cards they inserted into these 1991 packs

[Harliduck]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

I pulled a 75 Topps Brent Strom out of one of the 91Topps packs...I still have that card today....it was in about EX shape. Apparently Topps spared no expense in buying back the cards they inserted into these 1991 packs

My 1970 Cito Gaston was severely miscut, but the corners were sharp.


Thanks Al for all the info...I do have that bunch of unopened 91s still sitting around, I can check my contest cards for you...haha. Any cool variations I should be looking for?

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by savedfrommyspokes

I pulled a 75 Topps Brent Strom out of one of the 91Topps packs...I still have that card today....it was in about EX shape. Apparently Topps spared no expense in buying back the cards they inserted into these 1991 packs

If the true odds of winning were 1:1,000 per Al's card above (must read the fine print) and the production figures were close to the same as the 1992 Topps set (76 million packs) then that is 76,000 "winners".

Z Wheat

[AustinMike]

Originally Posted by Zach Wheat

If the true odds of winning were 1:1,000 per Al's card above (must read the fine print) and the production figures were close to the same as the 1992 Topps set (76 million packs) then that is 76,000 "winners".

Z Wheat

Coming at it from a different direction, from 1952 to 1990, there were 24,530 cards in the main Topps sets. Therefore, if the 1/1,000 is correct, there would have been 24.53 million packs produced. The fine print on the game card does say that at least one of every card produced in included. In order to get up to 76 million packs, they'd have to put in around 3 of every card. It's more likely they put in 1 of every card and filled it out with many extra cheapos, for instance lots of 1988, 1989, 1990 commons.

[Zach Wheat]

The link provided in an earlier post - if correct - indicates they actually purchased 300,000 Topps cards for insertion. This presumably included counting cards for the full set winners for each year and a Grand Prize winner who won every set since 1952. And they indicate they spent less than $1MM in the promotion.

That's a lot of cards.

Z Wheat

[AustinMike]

If they did buy 300,000 cards, they made a lot of packs. Take away 24,530 for the complete run and another 24,530 for each individual year, that leaves 250,940 cards to be put in packs. With the stated odds of 1/1,000, that's almost 251 million packs. That's quite a bit more than the 1992 production of 77 million packs you cite. Were these only available in wax packs? Assumining they were all in 15 card wax packs (neglecting cellos and rack packs), that's 4.75 million 792 card 1991 SETS just from wax packs. Throw in factory sets and vending boxes (and potentially cello and rack packs) and you're talking a mammoth production run.

[ALR-bishop]

The statement about 52 to 56 cards and value cards being handled differently comes after the 1-1000, I wonder if they were included in the "calculations". You guys who are good with math always make me feel dumb

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by AustinMike

Were these only available in wax packs? Assumining they were all in 15 card wax packs (neglecting cellos and rack packs), that's 4.75 million 792 card 1991 SETS just from wax packs. Throw in factory sets and vending boxes (and potentially cello and rack packs) and you're talking a mammoth production run.

I am not sure if this only includes wax packs. I know the Desert Shield packs also had the same promotion and used the exact same boxes & wrappers - therefore the difficulty in telling the two sets apart without opening packs. I do not know if rak paks, vending cases, cellos & sets were included in the promotion...and therefore included in the 1:1,000 ratio. Either way it is a lot of cards.

Originally, I thought I could determine the date cards/sets/sheets were printed from the codes at the bottom or side of each box. However, I now believe the code actually is related to the print run / product type (code#362 sheets of baseball) / type (code 70 is for a box) as in the example below.

Therefore most of the 1991 variations - and as Al has pointed out there are numerous variations - will be found in the sheets that start with an 01 or an 02 print code indicating the corresponding print run as they fixed the errors. Desert Shield cards were printed in the 3rd print run but used the 1st print run boxes.

Z Wheat

[HasselhoffsCheeseburger]

Zach, unfortunately this doesn't assist in this thread's specific topic but I thought you might find this link helpful for future endeavors. It's nonsport-centric but does list Topps sportscard production codes as well.

http://www.wacky-packages.net/topps/topps-sets.htm