Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenAge50s
I grew up in the Western NY area not too far from Buffalo. I bought alot of both Topps & Bowman, but never saw a Leaf or any Topps card above #250 anywhere in that area.
For yrs I thought my set was complete w/ #1-250!
I had Bowman from '48 on up but never knew Leaf existed. I had '51 Topps Red, Blue, Connie Mack & Team cards, but never saw a 3rd or 4th Series '52 Topps!
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Fred-
Interesting post. I am guessing you did not get any Major League All Stars then?
Your lack of high numbers in Buffalo is intriguing as I have a sort-of-theory that if Detroit did not get highs (or at least a lot of them) Buffalo and the upper US Great Lakes may not have either. I wonder if this ties in with players from Cleveland and Detroit not being too numerous in the highs as Topps knew their upper Great Lakes distribution was questionable in late 52, so why include players from those cities?
Conversely, I believe St. Catharine's, Hamilton and Toronto were all Canadian outposts that were normal recipients of Topps cards in the early to mid 50's, plus (eventually) Montreal/Quebec, or at least when 54/55 hockey came out. I am going off memory here but I seem to recall those three cities were Topps cities back then. Some of the 52 high number mysteries must revolve around which distributors Topps had lined up.
The selling into 53 makes a lot of sense. I wonder if Topps did that in 54, 55 and '56, which might explain why some wrappers are dated in 53, 54 and 55 and some are not.
Have at either theory folks-the more input the better!