Quote:
Originally Posted by D. Bergin
Best thing to ever happen to Topps was losing the monopoly in 1981. Mainstream interest absolutely sky-rocketed after that.
So I'd say anything before that can't really qualify as junk.
Try to find a legit unopened box of anything before 1981, and see what price you're going to pay for it...even in sets that have very limited chase/rookie cards in them.
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This is something I often hear - the advent of multiple brands was needed to push Topps out of its doldrums, but I have to say I think some of their best work was in the 1970s and some of their worst was in the 1980s.
I've been doing a couple projects which have me poring over card images from the 80s of all makers and while Topps' card designs are often very good, the execution is often terrible, in comparison to Fleer and Donruss (setting aside Score and UD - both clearly superior). So many of their on-card images are fuzzy, dark, grainy, etc. - far worse than Fleer or Donruss and certainly far worse than their own product in the 1970s. The other thing which has recently left me really surprised was the extensive continued use of paint jobs, even for players/teams that the other companies managed to locate nice images of - even in Traded sets! So to me, the competition corresponded to a decrease in Topps' quality.
A bit off topic, but the quote got me thinking.