1973 Topps Comics
 

Just picked up a near set (23/24) of these, and figured I would share a bit with the forum. In part, this is a new pick-up post, with the added bonus that since this is a bit of an oddball set, some of you may just now be hearing about it for the first time, so it's also an educational post.

Since I bought them raw and submitted them to PSA for grading, it's also in some ways a post about grading.

For those not familiar with the set, here's a nice article online

https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.co...leased-rarity/

In my mind, it's a pretty fun set because the set is relatively small at just 24 items, and yet also includes a pretty decent smattering of HOFers and/or stars. That and they also have some nice colors, with the added benefit of being a bit of a crossover to another aspect of my misspent youth wasted on comics.

Over the last couple of years, with the difficulty in finding nice pieces in the mainline sets for reasonable prices, I've shifted a bit into some of the test sets and regional issues, which can often still be had at prices not too much higher than pre-pandemic. For the most part, I'm a player collector. However, as seems to often be the case, when I want to pick up a single item from an obscure set (in this case for McCovey), often the only way to find it is to purchase a larger group, which inevitably seems to lead to me getting into a new set.

So I picked up this near set a few months ago at auction, in ungraded form, and then immediately sent it off to PSA for grading at the Economy level. They arrived on 8/31 at PSA, and I just got them back in graded form, so about 2.5 months turnaround time. In terms of the grading, I was /somewhat/ pleasantly surprised. These items are incredibly thin, and so therefore very condition sensitive. Since they were intended to ultimately be used as gum wrappers, it's not surprising that they're not meant to be military grade.

Add to that, my recent experience has been that PSA's grades have been pretty harsh, which I think has been generally confirmed by others in the forum. When I sent them off, I expected mostly to get them back in holders in the 4-6 range. So getting some back at higher levels was a pleasant surprise. And if I'm being honest, when it comes to test sets that were never actually issued to the public, finding them at all is a big deal, and getting number grades north of 1 is often a major triumph.

Some of the photos might be a bit hard to make out all of the details, since we're limited here in quantity and size. If you want better shots, you can look up the cert on PSA's website, which should give you some better pics to be able to read all of the tiny text and get a closer look at some of the graphics.

Hopefully everyone enjoys them as much as I do!

Wow! :eek:

I knew who was missing immediately without looking :).

HA.

I am missing Nolan Ryan. There was a graded version (I think PSA 8) in the same auction, and it went for more than I paid for the rest of the set. Maybe 1.5x what I paid. Plus since I really just wanted the McCovey, I wasn't going to bid on the Ryan at that price. But now that I have the rest of the set, I guess I'll need to figure out a way to pick up the Ryan.

Just doing a cursory search, I can't imagine even a lower grade one would come up very often.

Yeah. Based on the PSA pop reports the most common piece has pop 13 (Willie Davis, oddly enough), and the lowest is pop 7. So they're hard to find. And I don't think there's that many floating around in raw form. Probably still a few out there, but it's hard to imagine that there are very many.

Somewhat oddly, many that do exist graded very well. Of the 186 ever graded, 9% are PSA 10, 17% are PSA 9, and 19% are PSA 8. So they were well cared for over the last 50 years.

One of my favorite Topps oddball sets, congrats on a nice pickup!

Some examples were folded and sold but I believe a majority were not and have survived in really nice shape.

The 1973 Topps Billy Williams Comic is one of his very few mainstream issues I need for my Cubs collection but unfortunately it’s above my pay grade. I also need his 1967 Topps Punch-Out, 1972 Topps Candy Lid, and 1967 Pro’s Pizza Color Disc.

Congrats Nicolo!
 

That is a super tough test set. It used to show up once every year or two, but I haven't seen one offered in quite some time - surprised I missed this one! Visually AWESOME! Enjoy it.

Those are all pretty challenging pieces to find! Lucky me, when it comes to the 1967 Topps Punch Out, Mays has 4 different varieties, so I had to get all 4 of them to round out the PSA master set. Shout out to Howard (above) who helped me pick up the last one that I was missing!

So cool!

Yowza!! Nice sandbox you get to play in. Great stuff!!

Great pick up Nicolo. I guess the Comics and same year Pin Ups were unlicensed since no logos. In 74 Topps did apparently get a license for the 74 Deckles and Puzzles since the logos re appeared ( But not for the 74 Emblems, whatever they were supposed to be :confused:)


My set, picked up a long time ago, is ungraded

https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...-16_190511.jpg
https://hosting.photobucket.com/imag...-16_190633.jpg

That unopened comic is sweet !
I have a Brooks comic and it has the 3 glue spots on the wide white margin on the wrapper. So it was definitely loaded with gum and a kid bought it at the store and ripped it open.
The comics seem to be a little tougher than the pin ups in my opinion.

Always fun to learn that there are some more raw sets out there.

And I agree that it’s a bit curious the way the team logos come and go from set to set. Seems like they would just license it for everything or nothing. But maybe with a test set like this, it wasn’t worth the investment if you weren’t going to mass distribute them.

In the early years Topps just needed a license from MLB but starting in the late 60s the players association under Marvin Miller was also a factor. Hence so many old photos and blotted logos in the 68/69 sets. That may have been a factor. Not sure. Dave Hornish probably has better insight on the logo issue

I think Topps was just trying to save some dough and show some fiscal oversight having become a public company in March 1972. They also got away from logos on Football and Basketball sets for a bit there too. I never noticed with those two sports back then but for baseball, I always thought logo-less sets were cheesy as a kid.

comic
 

very nice, way nicer then the 1979 version...

Another attempt at some pics
 

Since the original pics were so blurry, here's an attempt at a few more that might be clearer, just for anyone who wants to get a closer look without having to check them out at the PSA cert verification website.

Definitely one of my favorite Topps oddballs too!

I love these 60's and 70's test sets.

Great pickup.

Congrats. Busting a 9 on any of those is amazing. Love that set. I only have one.

After looking for a Joe Torre for my Cardinals team sets for about 15 years, I finally found one (PSA 7) about 3 years ago. It is one of the toughest to find in my collection.

Edited to say - it is a PSA 6 not PSA 7.

Anybody have a Johnny Bench Comic they would consider selling?? thanks, Michael.

Gave up attempting to get Willie Davis. There's been one on ebay for a couple years at a ridiculous amount and it basically made me not want one anymore, lol. For $500+ I'd rather get a HOF rookie. Very happy for you though, I agree with everyone else, they look tremendous.

Thanks.

Admittedly, I have a few of my duplicates from this set for sale on eBay, but at 3x museum prices. So I totally understand the decision to give up on them.

Here is my 1973 Topps Comics Joe Torre from my Cardinals collection I was referring to. It is a PSA 6, not a PSA 7 like I mistakenly said above.

https://i.postimg.cc/cCH7hykf/90-197...orre-PSA-6.jpg

Brooks Robinson
 

Man, that is an awesome pickup; congrats on getting one of my favorite Topps test issue.

I, like Scott, have a Brooksie raw version, but definitely would not grade up there if it was submitted, but I still love the look.

Thanks so much for posting!

I noticed an interesting tidbit while reading thru these posts. Possibly all of you have talked about it, but on the Nolan Ryan comic, it says 392 strikeouts in the text on the right, but in the ball, it says 329. Figure it's an uncorrected error.

Brian