BBCE 1952 Topps Wax Pack "Brick"

[Volod]

Originally Posted by steve B

That's hard to say.
I suppose it could affect the local sales if stores were "encouraged" to stock 8 year old cards. And that might reflect poorly on the company.

It's pretty common today for companies to secure even old stocks that are destined for the trash.
The makerspace I'm a member of got a bunch of hardware etc donated from a local branch of a big company when it closed. They had a very good but old machine shop for repairing their equipment. I asked about the machines, not necessarily as donations, but if they could be bought if not donated.
Nope. They were afraid of liability.. If I bought the building I suppose, but the assumption was that it would get bulldozed into a hole or hauled away with the rest of the building if/when it got torn down.

Yeah, interesting analogy. But, what I meant in regard to "trash security" is, if Topps viewed the overstock as just something to dispose of (not through their normal wholesaling or retailing channels), why not use the cheapest means available? I can't imagine any liability concern with old cardstock viz dumping or incinerating versus hauling out to sea. What actually seems fishy to me (no pun) about the anecdotal account is that Berger was interviewed in the 1980's, around the time that vintage cards were exploding in value - especially the '52 Topps Mantle - and that hobby atmosphere may have "clouded" his memory about things that were done thirty years before.