1971 Topps Information/Images Needed
 

Looking for:

1) Wax Wrappers - I have both versions with a Gold Rush Candy side ad and a "Collect All the Top Stars" with an ad for raspberry big buddy bubblegum - I assume there were other combinations. Any images would be appreciated.

2) Wax case information/images

3) Cello Case information/images

4) ANYTHING on groceries - packs, trays, cases - I have no images or information at all.

5) Rack case and box information/images

6) Vending case images

7) Coins - believe they were issued by series, 51 coins per, in series 2, 3, and 4 - does this sound correct?

8) Scratch offs - series? 1, 5 or 6 or some combination? Boxes with the "Insert in Every Pack" seem very rare, so perhaps 5 or 6?

9) Series 3 A (left hand) slit image needed.

10) Racks with a 1971 card as a header - what's up with them?

Codes have and needed:

Wax Case: ?
Wax Box Top Stars: 1-401-37-01-1
Wax Box Coins: 1-402-37-01-1
Wax Box Insert: ?
Wax Box Card Entry: ?
Wax Wrapper Top Stars: 0-401-90-01-1
Wax Wrapper Insert: 0-402-90-01-1

Cello Case: ?
Cello Box: ?
Cello Pack: 1-368-15-01-1

Grocery Case: ?
Grocery Tray: ?
Grocery Pack: ?

Rack Case: ?
Rack Box: ?
Rack Pack: 1-991-03-01-0
Rack Pack '71 Card Header:?

Vending Case: ?
Vending Box: ?

Personalized Card Entry: 4-350-37-01-1

Here are scan of the 1971 pack that I have.

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<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/142640322@N08/53831877060/in/dateposted-public/" title="img022"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53831877060_e6df4f2dc7_c.jpg" width="581" height="800" alt="img022"/></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Thank you!

Series 3 left side. I also have the full 264 card sheet for series 2 and 4, want me to post too? John

P.S. You gonna also include the 1971 supp. issues (Greatest Moments, Supers, Tattoos)?

Wax pack case pics I saved.

Never seen or have any evidence of 1971 wax/grocery trays

#7 coins - Def. issued in series 2, 3 and 4 packs. Series 1 did not have any inserts. Not sure if the 3 different colored (back) sets of 51 were issued by series or randomly.

#8 scratch offs. Def. came with series 6, I opened a series 6 wax pack (in a 1970 wrapper) many moons ago and got a Boog Powell scratch off. Note, the inside of the scratch off has a red background vs white for 1970. Never seen a series 5 wax pack opened but pretty sure it would include a scratch off too.

John

#10 - Rak w/player card as header. There are legitimate ones. My theory is either they ran out of headers or they didn't get produced in time for series 1 raks. Others friends think they might have been promo. Items.

I opened the below Rak probably around 2001/2002. One section came from the left slit, one section from the right slit and the 3rd flopped between the 2 slits. Sequence as expected. Received many 8's in addition to these two cards (also got 2 Davey C. RC's).

Last post for now, headed to PT. A friend sent me this article from a 1971 publication, it’s dated 9/25, assuming 1971 ha. Talks about series 5 and 6 wax packs as well as the greatest moments set.

John

Here is my 1971 Topps wax pack wrapper. It is the Extra Insert version and has an ad for a Bubble Gum Shaker.

Attachment 627088

Hope this helps.

Mike

Wow - thanks to all for this great information!

Couple things - I will happily take images of 2nd and 4th series full sheets - I have images of both but I could use upgrades on both.

I assume the wax case pictured held 1st series (possibly 5th) Collect All the Top Stars boxes as the 401 number corresponds to those wrappers.

As to the 1973 case, I already had the image shown here so I assume one held the by-series boxes and the other held the All 660 Cards boxes. The wrappers all used the same code (the All 660 simply printed it in red) and I have the code from a by-series box. Nothing matches up to a 453 prefix though, which is odd. Thoughts?

Oh, and I won't be featuring the extras like the Greatest Moments, etc. There are so many rabbit holes this project could take me down (like those codes for instance) already.

Thanks!

And I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I'd have been able to record a lot more product codes from Cello, Wax, Rack and Vending boxes if those BBCE labels weren't all affixed right in the center of the box bottoms! Wonder if they record the codes before they put the labels on....

Ok have data on 9 legit series 3 wax packs being open. 6 contained a coin with a blue back, 3 contained coins with a silver back so IMO probably random.

Here's a coin proof sheet, 51 subjects. I once suspected that it was one 51 coin batch per 2nd-3rd-4th series but the silver/blue 3rd series coins described above may disprove that.

I did a quick image search of coins checklists on COMC and those that are lightly marked (i.e. perhaps 20 coins at most) tend to be marked throughout the entire 153 coin set, giving more weight, I think, to the notion that all coins were issued randomly in 2, 3 and 4.

In the 1971 article above, the author notes that there were no coins in 5 and 6, but that the "old 8x11 poster or 1970 game cards were substituted" - given this was written contemporaneously with the ripping of packs in late 1971, it seems clear that Topps inserted posters as well - the 1970 posters were more square than 8x11, but regardless does anyone recall these being pulled from late 1971 packs?

Is it possible Topps issued some of the 1971 last series in a cello brick? Not rack pack. I have a distinct memory of my Mom buying said brick in a toy store in SF just days or weeks before we moved from SF to Miami, probably September/October 1971. Kind of a parting gift for the long drive across the country. Distinct because all Summer long I bought cards in wax packs, and the cello brick was a pleasant shock to my understanding of how baseball cards were distributed. And the brick held a lot of cards, with many players I didn't have already, and I suspect they were high numbers because I discovered a bunch of high numbers in a shoe box when I got back into the hobby in the middle 1980's. Just curious if anyone else is familiar with cards being packaged in a cello brick back then?

Absolutely, cello packs were standard issue in addition to wax and rak packs. 1971 cellos contained 30 cards, examples below

The headers used in 1971 were the same as in 1970, so that got me thinking maybe once they ran low or ran out, it was only late series racks that used regular cards as headers - but then there's the one you posted with 1st series cards. So I'm not sure where this leaves us (I have an image of such a rack with all 4th series cards).

264 card sheets

No, I am from the Midwest and there were no poster inserts in my 1971 Topps in southern Minnesota. As for the "1970 game cards", I assume he meant the scratch-offs. Since these were essentially the same in 1970 and 1971, I don't recall whether any white background 1970s were planted in 1971 packs-- it would have been of very little importance to me if I ever noticed. After opening the first of these in 1970, I "played" the scratch-off only a couple of times and then never even bothered to really look at the insides again. Curious as to how many here routinely played this game and thereby "ruined" their scratch-off cards?

Informative thread-- thanks.

1971 - Variations
 

I have always been of the mindset that I would chase variations which were design based as opposed to print errors or differences.

At the extremes, this would mean I DO have the 1974 Washington variations but I have no interest in the 1990 NNOF Thomas because it resulted from a printing incident.

Looking at the 1971 set - the Boots Day light fixture seems to just be a matter of a slight difference in ink brightness all around during some passes. In other words, I don't think anyone tried to airbrush out the light fixture. Is that the common opinion?

What do we make of the Jim Nash and Jim Northrup black in blotches - do we think these occurred accidentally somehow during the printing process? They don't appear to me to me intentional or even left over printers marks. Thoughts?

As to the checklists, I do collect the variations where they were set up different on the different sheets - different spacing in type face, different placement of card numbers, etc.

The coloration differences in the helmets, faces and bats I chalk up to printing anomalies and don't care so much about.

As to the little black lines that are sometimes there and sometimes not on the helmet, it seems to me based on the application of black ink in other areas of the helmets that these are just by-products of printing - no one set out to have the black line on some versions, and forgot to place it on others.
Thoughts?

The Boots Day is unquestionably an attempt to get rid of the pesky stanchion by the Topps Art Dep't. That is a true variation.

The 1971 Nash and Northrup scratch/blobs cards are different and could be called unintentional variations. They become a personal preference of whether or not you want to think of them as variations. For me, it's a yes.

Page is up -

https://mrpekrul.wixsite.com/narcissism/1971

Still need a lot of information regarding cases (all but wax), Rack boxes, ANYTHING grocery related, etc.

Thanks to all those who contributed!

Thanks jmoran19, those are cool, although, the cello bricks I vaguely remember had no cardboard packaging, in your example the blue perimeter with Topps branding. It was just the clear cello wrapping, with more than 30 cards. I've never seen one since. But, at my age it could just be my faulty memory :)

In 1976 I found a half box of cellos in the cardboard boxes. Cleaned those out. Wish I’d not busted them but I was eleven years old and that’s what eleven year old boys do with packs

1971 wax tray ?
 

who here is going to post their photos of a gorgeous 71 bb wax tray ?

A friend had this in his store holding plastic sheets. I rescued it and sold it on ebay a few years ago but I still had these pictures. It was in bad shape.

Attachment 657749

Attachment 657750

Attachment 657751

Been active in the unopened community for 30 years, never seen one

John