Topps 1968 Milton Bradley set

[tschock]

I picked these up at the National for less than $1 / card out of a 5000 count box of '67s-'69s. 80 cards in all. Many of these are EXMT and better.

Carlton, I'm in Durham as well. I wonder where that falls in the list of "most MB collectors per capita"?

[goheels]

My second son is a pretty ravenous collector. That makes now at least 3 in the Bull City.

There were a decent number of games that found their way to the Old North State. Some of my childhood buddies from Charlotte still have their game boards. I bought out a very nice collection a few months ago from a long time collector in central NC.

Nice cards from the National. Those white letter 69s are screamers.

[LuckyLarry]

Nothing like being at a card show with time to kill, and thumbing through stacks of 1968 Topps baseball cards and 1967 Topps football cards, and finding MBs. Of course I've never come across a hoard like Taylor picked up, but thanks to his generosity, a couple of these now reside in my collection
I usually have a difficult time picking out the baseball cards, and I like to see the white stripe on the border to confirm. The football cards almost always show some of the "burlap" from the baseball cards. Thankfully there is no doubt when you come across MB Hot Rod cards, compared to the 1968 regular issue Hot Rod cards


Most of my MB Hot Rod cards show some of the "burlap" from the baseball cards

[ALR-bishop]

You MB guys posting cars and football guys in here need to be reported

Before you know it Carlton will be posting scans of the game boxes themselves

[Leon]

Duly noted....carry on

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

You MB guys posting cars and football guys in here need to be reported

Before you know it Carlton will be posting scans of the game boxes themselves

[toppcat]

Larry-you have the 1964 (gray/pink) and 1968 Hot Rods (white/pink) both showing in case you didn't notice.

[LuckyLarry]

Hi Dave I did not know this information. All the "Sport Americana Price Guide #4" says is "the backs are printed in a variety of colors (pink, yellow, brown etc.)

At one time I did not even know what the yellow backs were I have a pretty good pile of these, most are the (gray/pink).

They must be "late" '64 because some of the cards mention 1965 events/models?

Larry

Originally Posted by toppcat

Larry-you have the 1964 (gray/pink) and 1968 Hot Rods (white/pink) both showing in case you didn't notice.

[goheels]

I know this isn't a non-sport board, but I do want to correct the above. There were 4 hot rod sets issued, according to the Wrapper, a non sport newsletter I used to get. The 1964 hot rods were pink on gray stock, 66 cards. They were repeated in 1966 or so, with 44 cards that were pink on white stock. A third series was 1967 with orange backs, I don't have any but I have seen them. Finally, the 22 cards that came with the 1968 MB set were all yellow backs.

The backs of the 68 hot rod cards are very relevant to the 68 MB baseball cards. All yellow back hot rod cards are MB cards, period. I have about 500 total hot rod cards, and I would guess that 300 are the darker yellow (think French's mustard) and 200 are lighter yellow (lemon yellow). You can see that in some of the cards posted above. The same 60/40 percentage holds of course for the football and baseball cards as you would expect since The FB cards are also very obvious, since the regular 68 FB stock is more orange than the 68 BB stock in the first 2 series.

PSA has gotten stuck on the lighter yellow vs the darker yellow cards, to an extent. They have begun grading the darker yellow again.

[LuckyLarry]

Originally Posted by goheels

I know this isn't a non-sport board, but I do want to correct the above. There were 4 hot rod sets issued, according to the Wrapper, a non sport newsletter I used to get. The 1964 hot rods were pink on gray stock, 66 cards. They were repeated in 1966 or so, with 44 cards that were pink on white stock. A third series was 1967 with orange backs, I don't have any but I have seen them. Finally, the 22 cards that came with the 1968 MB set were all yellow backs.

Thanks for the reply Carlton but it looks like there might have been at least one additional hot rod set issued "pink on cream stock"? All of my "pink on white" or "pink on cream" cards are numbered 44 and below with the exception of this "pink on cream" numbered #61?

After further review:
1964 Topps Hot-Rods "pink on gray" numbered 1-66
1966-1970 (?) Topps Hot-Rods re-issued "pink on white" or "pink on cream" 44 cards issued and skip numbered
1968 Topps Hot-Rods (Milton Bradley) "yellow on cream" 22 cards and skip-numbered

[goheels]

I think (could be mistaken) that the pink on cream and pink on white are the same series. I can't find the Wrapper Issue #117 that documented this. The numbers in that second HR set are 1-33 plus 11 more skip numbered.

In the pink on white/cream I have all #1-33 except for #29.

I have #36, 38, 41, 43, 50, 58, 60, 61, 63--that's 9 of the 11 that would be in the production row.

Looks like I have 3 to go.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by goheels

I think (could be mistaken) that the pink on cream and pink on white are the same series. I can't find the Wrapper Issue #117 that documented this. The numbers in that second HR set are 1-33 plus 11 more skip numbered.

In the pink on white/cream I have all #1-33 except for #29.

I have #36, 38, 41, 43, 50, 58, 60, 61, 63--that's 9 of the 11 that would be in the production row.

Looks like I have 3 to go.

Pink/cream and pink/white should be the same issue, just different stock. For some reason Topps often had a brilliant white stock they used for some runs that never fades and others used less stable stock that fades a little over time.

[DBesse27]

When in doubt about MB's just ask BobbiW. I think he's a member here.

[ALR-bishop]

Trouble maker

[toppcat]

I have that Wrapper issue. The article was by Ron Wilson:

Pink/gray is the only back all 66 cards appear with

Pin/white and Pink/tan=44 cards. As noted above I believe these are the same issue.

His information on Win A Card is inaccurate, he's short cards in his counts and states there were two games, one in 1969, one in 1970.

Email me at dsh46 at aol dot com for a scan of the article.

[goheels]

In my SCD article somewhere in this thread is a picture of the game from the Milton Bradley "playbook" for 1968--a catalog of all their toys for the year. This catalog was published prior to the International Toy Fair in February 1968. I obtained this from Milton Bradley headquarters many, many years ago. MB salesmen carried this catalog when they went to five and dime stores trying to get orders for toys. Merchants ordered directly from the salesmen, not MB headquarters.

The side of the Win a Card game box says copyright applied for; inside the lid it states copyright 1968. The actual copyright was finally approved a year later, in April 1969. I checked all 5 of my game boxes, they all say the same thing. I will check with my brothers and buddies in Charlotte on their game boxes but I don't think I will find a different date. Recall that production was very limited, and the game was a bust in terms of sales.

More memorably, I remember how I felt in the summer of 1968 when I finally got three Hank Aarons. There is absolutely no evidence that this game came out in 1969 or 1970.

[horzverti]

I checked the copyright dates on my MB game boxes. They read copyright 1968 both on the inside (beneath rules print) and outside (side) of the top covers. It is interesting that I have one game box cover which does not read "Patent Applied For" on the outside side. I would think that they would all be exactly the same. I can only assume the printing of (or lack of) the patent text varied between production runs. Thanks for prompting me to check them out Carlton.
Love the MBs!

[ncinin]

Originally Posted by goheels

In my SCD article somewhere in this thread is a picture of the game from the Milton Bradley "playbook" for 1968--a catalog of all their toys for the year. This catalog was published prior to the International Toy Fair in February 1968. I obtained this from Milton Bradley headquarters many, many years ago. MB salesmen carried this catalog when they went to five and dime stores trying to get orders for toys. Merchants ordered directly from the salesmen, not MB headquarters.

The side of the Win a Card game box says copyright applied for; inside the lid it states copyright 1968. The actual copyright was finally approved a year later, in April 1969. I checked all 5 of my game boxes, they all say the same thing. I will check with my brothers and buddies in Charlotte on their game boxes but I don't think I will find a different date. Recall that production was very limited, and the game was a bust in terms of sales.

More memorably, I remember how I felt in the summer of 1968 when I finally got three Hank Aarons. There is absolutely no evidence that this game came out in 1969 or 1970.

You mention your brothers and buddies in Charlotte, an aunt bought me a MB game as a gift in 1968. I can not recall if it was a birthday or Christmas present. Were sales of these games more prevalent in the Charlotte area than other parts of the country?

[goheels]

New England had the most games for sure. In North Carolina there were games at Mack's and Clark's five and dime stores. I think they were regional and not national stores. There were a lot of cards around Tidewater. I lived there a few years as a young Navy doc and bought a lot of MBs in the late 80s from guys selling cards out of their garage. Lots of games across the Midwest--Missouri, lower Illinois, Iowa--nicest single game I ever got was from Iowa. This game was nationally distributed and I know of games from the western Canadian provinces.

I have personally seen MBs in card shops in at least 20 states. Hard to find vintage card shops these days--sigh.

[ALR-bishop]

I still have my Sonar Sub Hunt game

[goheels]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I still have my Sonar Sub Hunt game

With cards of submariners Ted Abernathy and Dan Quisenberry?