The original question dose a 1996 Topps factory come with outer wrap or simply tape to seal it needs to be more specific. In 1996 there were a number of factory sets issued. You mentioned that for a number of years 1986 through 1991 there were Factory sets and Christmas sets. 1986 was the return of the Christmas set and is I think a good set to hold ( a Christmas set has a colorful outside box and the name comes from the fact that the 1974 factory set was in the sears Christmas catalog) these are the most sought after sets. The early factory sets came in a plain box and in 1988 they used a plain ugly brown cardboard box with no writing at all 15 sets to a case. In 1996 they had a couple different "christmas" sets hobby retail etc. as well as the mantle cereal boxes. the retail set has a gold stamp on a brownish background and the hobby set is a white background with a red stamp. There were also a set of 4 Mantle cereal boxes that contained a complete set. The retail set comes in a couple configurations based on how many cards were in the box. The scarcest of these has a three card panel inside of Jeter. and has a small yellow starburst saying the panel is inside the set. I have 3 96 sets all different and all wrapped one has tape inside as well. So if you have a retail set with tape "Maybe" ..
Hope this helps.
Jonathan
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