Quote:
Originally Posted by ALR-bishop
Dave- do you think the "winners" originally got all of the cards Topps printed of them, except maybe for some stock or example holdovers. If so , maybe some kids/ families did not give many or any away
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Each "winner" got what I think were two vending boxes of their cards (either 500 or 1000 total) plus a supply of spiked 1972 regular ten cent wax packs with their cards mixed in (described as a "carton" but revealed as a retail box, see below) so they could open them and show off to their friends. I am still trying to determine how the Bole sisters each got a card in a supposedly random process and what else happened as there are pockets of these things that show up (a main group of 9 subjects seems most common, then a group of 14 (including the 9 subgroup), then the lone April T Bole. Still, I can't see Topps keeping a lot of these around once the contest was over. Perhaps they were the strangest fun pack contents ever in late 1972.
A couple of people have reached out to Winners or researched them over the years for details and some gave all their cards away, some still have most of them and others just don't remember where their stash went. The winners seem regionalized to a degree as well (Pittsburgh, Cali).
It might be worth contacting Kevin Savage as I think he has featured a few grouping in his auctions and may have an idea on sources. Also, a couple of whales have been building the set, cards have gone for outrageous process in the last year or so; I certainly sold mine too cheap
When I heard from Lisa Bole a couple of years ago, she had this to say:
"I was also a Topps 1971 winner and was surprised and amused to find that there were people out there actually interested in this. I was six years old in 1971 so I'm not sure how accurate my memories are but am happy to share what I can remember about it.
I believe it was a nationwide contest which makes it all the more surprising that both my sister and I were winners. Like my sister said - my mom was really into entering contests back then and she was extremely lucky. I'm guessing from your picture of the box proof that there were 25 winners in total. We were in California.
No baseball or software experience (or even interest) was required. All that was needed to enter was a parent willing to fill out an entry blank and mail it in along with a photo of their kid (in my case it was my kindergarden class photo). Although I did become a huge baseball fan a few years later... my mom made those up (Angels/Dodgers/Jim Fregosi/Don Sutton)...
"As winners we each received one sealed box of Topps baseball cards. Within each box were several sealed wax packages (I'm not sure the number but think it was probably the normal amount that came in a box of baseball cards). Each wax package contained 10 big league baseball cards, one of your personal baseball cards and a stick of that wonderful sugary cardboard gum. In addition to the box with our cards sealed into it we also received an additional stack of our baseball cards. The number floating in my head is that it was 1000 extra cards - but when I picture the stack in my head I think it was maybe half of that. As far as I know, our cards were never released into general circulation. We had our stack to hand out to our friends or to do what we wished with - but that was it....For a long time I had the box and a few of the wax packages taped together (my brother opened them all to get the gum) but am not sure where they are now."
Some quick math at 1000 cards per winner plus a box x 25 means about 100 full 264 sheets would have been run off, or half that if only 500 copies went to each kid.
01-18-2014, 11:02 PM
1971 Topps Winners
I applaud anyone with the gumption to try and complete this set! If only Dave could figure out who the last 6 subjects are!
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