Question about the 1973 topps set
 

It’s not a complaint (I’m working on it....now) but anybody have an idea as to why the 1973 set and the high numbers aren’t overly priced high? All sets 72 and down Have the high numbers priced 12.00-30.00 but not 73 up

Supply and Demand is the simple answer. There's more '73 highs and less demand for them than say '52 highs. Much the same as '68 highs aren't as valuable as '67 highs.

Beyond '73 Topps stopped releasing cards in series, so the short print high numbers become extinct.

There are a couple of threads in here about distribution of the 73 set. While 74 may have been the first year Topps released the entire set at once everywhere, the entire 73 set was also released at one time in some limited areas of the country, while is series in most parts. So the entire set may have been produced at one time.

Threads on 73 distribution

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=Awr9...emu0aErcTe4k8-

1973 was the first card set I collected as a nine year old and I distinctly remember going to the local Ben Franklin in the fall and seeing the last series of cards tonnaged out on the floor with a clearance sticker on them. I want to say they were a nickle or a dime per pack and I convinced my dad to buy me a bucks worth. I was in heaven.

It doesn't surprise me that the high series from this set are not high priced as I remember seeing all of those unopened packs just sitting there back in the day.

Not sure if it’s mentioned in the other thread but 1972 had 6 series vs 5 for 1973

All good answers, thanks everybody........I was minus 2 at the time lol

ah, the memories
 

Thanks for posting that old thread Al. The '73s were all printed by the end of 1972, and the cards were all issued at once in parts of the country.

I see there's a youtube video that shows a "all in one series" box being opened, and it corroborates a couple of points I made in the old thread. At least I hope it does-- I didn't watch the whole video but only the first handful of packs being opened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbbb2iowzGo&t=409s

As you can see, there do not appear to be any blue checklists inserted in the packs. They must have been mail order only for those of us who didn't get the cards in series. Also, cards from multiple if not every series are represented in each pack--the numbers are read aloud as the packs are opened and contents read. So the box doesn't simply contain packs from each series, which I always doubted anyway, but instead the entire set was packaged at once and inserted randomly in each pack, without regard to any "series". Quite simply, for some of us there was no reason to consider a high number to be any more difficult than any other card.

I think I was a part of this break. This box had the "all series" wrapper and there was basically no hit.
https://www.blowoutforums.com/showth...highlight=1973

I submitted a few cards from this break to PSA and got like a 7 and an 8. Also got a wrapper during a random.