1980 Topps Baseball Puffy Stickers Pack Question

[Msmith310]

I am looking for all the info I can find on this pack.

I have been told it has been discussed in this forum previously although I am new and couldn’t find any threads.

From what I understand it is most likely a mock up for presentation and told there would be just a few of them made.

There are several fictional named players on the sheet as well as George Foster and Steve Garvey who are listed with wrong positions and wrong teams.

Can someone please tell me what has been learned about the pack so far?

Thanks

[ALR-bishop]

I bought one of the Puffy Sticker packs from a dealer in Norcross Georgia years ago. At that time based on the little info he had I put it in with my 1977 sets. Not sure why now.

Because it is poorly constructed and has so many mistakes it could easily be a fake, but you would think someone trying to put together a sellable fake would do a better job. So maybe it was a prototype idea by some Topps employee.

We do know Topps could make mistakes in it's own issues as evidenced by getting 3 of 8 players wrong in their 1973 reprint of the 1953 set. See below

And the Bench/Carew sticker below is also a mistake but listed by Lemke in the SCD Catalog as a Topps item. Who knows ? The Aaron/promo card below is definitely a fake. It's a pasted Surf Book picture. Bob listed it in Catalog as a fake

The Mantle Mask below is listed in the Catalog as a Topps send away item, but probably is not. But has been high priced since listed in the old SCD Catalogs

Not sure about the 67 Comics either

Hard to say on the Puffy Stickers but it is a neat item. Yours is just the second I have seen. Let's hope they do not start showing up everywhere for every year like Christmas Rack packs

[Msmith310]

The more I learn about this pack the more questions I seem to have.

I can see the argument to it being a fake as they didn’t even use a good Topps logo. But then again why would anyone make a fake item with fictional names on them while including someone like Reggie Jackson also?

The packaging is nearly identical to the 1980 Empire Strikes back puffy stickers and even some of the fonts used look the same. Of course that was a completed issue so the packaging had been finalized with the corrected logo and other trademark lingo.

After all the information I have gathered to date I am believing more and more that this was an early Topps mock up for a first generation pitch.

Seems like way too much detail to be just a homemade item and because of all the mistakes and fake names I can’t believe anyone made it as a fake to sell.

One of the reasons I believe it to be from 1980 is because we know the ESB puffy stickers were also issued in 1980.

Another odd similarity is Topps did another oddball test pack in 1980 with both baseball and ESB cards. Those were the blister packs that included the collector boxes.

It seems coincidental that the baseball puffy stickers might have been looked into at the same time as the ESB puffy stickers just like the blister packs.

One last reason I believe them to be mock ups is the extreme rarity of the packs. I have been collecting unopened packs close to 50 years and had never seen this item before adding it to my collection.

Like you it is the only other one I had ever seen. If these were fakes or actually put into production by Topps we would have seen others by now. Much more likely that just 2-3 were made up for a presentation to Topps decision makers as to if they were to pursue further interest.

I actually got my pack from someone who had another true “Test” pack I had never seen before which leads me even more to believe that this made it out of the topps factory originally.

No matter what the truth is, it may be one of the oddest packs I own.

[mrmopar]

Awesome to see another. I missed one that sold on ebay. I assumed it was Al who won it, but maybe he bought it from the winner...or maybe there is a third one out there. It was many years ago, in the early ebay days. Would love to own one, but I figure oddities like these will either be impossible to find or restrictively expensive, like when someone offered me a 1980 Topps Garvey test coin a few years back for the lowly sum of $1500. I like Garvey, but just not willing to sink that much into an item like that. Especially because I also missed out on an old ebay lot that had several of the coins and it sold for around $100-150 if I recall correctly. Sadly, I recall asking the winner (back when you could still see other IDs) and he was willing to sell one of the Garvey at a bargain price now, but it felt like too much then compared to what he had just paid for the lot! One of my biggest regrets in my collecting career.

[ALR-bishop]

The three 80 Coins are tough Curt. At one time I had visions of trying to collect the different color/material variations of each but quickly gave up on that and quit at 3. Although at one time I did have 2 Jacksons

I am not aware of any pack or wrapper for them but a collector here, rgpete I think, does have a presentation box with 2 of the coins

Doug -your views on the stickers are similar to mine. Hope we are right ��

[Mike D.]

If you market this item as an "early prototype for Immaculate Grid" you might be able to sell it for a handsome sum.

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

The three 80 Coins are tough Curt. At one time I had visions of trying to collect the different color/material variations of each but quickly gave up on that and quit at 3. Although at one time I did have 2 Jacksons

I am not aware of any pack or wrapper for them but a collector here, rgpete I think, does have a presentation box with 2 of the coins

Doug -your views on the stickers are similar to mine. Hope we are right ��

You are correct ALR-bishop, here is my 1980 topps coins Presentation Board with 2 Gold Jackson's and 2 Silver Garvey's I have not seen a Garvey only the ones on this board

Close up

[dariushou]

I have a silver Garvey , silver carew and bronz carew. cant seem to get my hands on reggie, dammit.

ill try to dig them up to post scans, but could be a while as they are hidden somewhere.