Quote:
Originally Posted by ALR-bishop
Topps brought back multi player cards in 1966 and had the League Leader cards in the middle of the set where the World Series cards might have been rather than the beginning. Plus 40 + team rookie cards. Then in bringing back World Series cards in 67-69 they did it in black and white and not color as before.
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1966 was an expensive year for Topps as they moved production and shipping to Duryea and had just bought out (or were about to) Fleer's player rights for several hundred thousand dollars to boot. I'm sure they paid rights or some kind of fees for the WS shots and probably just passed on that expense in '66.
Cost is probably why they just had one long insert series in 1966 as well (which lasted two more years). Once Duryea got settled mid-year, the test/limited/extra issues exploded. Seems like some change in management philosophy occurred at the same time.
They soon figured (or relearned) how to get Sporting News sponsorship for the 1968 All Stars then for the 1969 and 1970 WS cards. Sport Mag sponsorship too for Basketball in 1970.