Release timing for early Topps Venezuelan cards

[Spike]

Thanks, Dave, forgot about the tobacco connections through Topps' older incarnations. There's probably a larger business context to what they licensed or sold in the Caribbean that would make these pieces fit together better. It's not a puzzle easily assembled by working backwards from a catalog of baseball sets!

Others mentioned that high-series 1950s cards have turned up in Venezuela, hinting that Topps sent leftover stock there after American baseball seasons. If that's the case, it's also tempting as a reason for locals to only print and sell the early series, which wouldn't reach their own candy stores. Not the whole story, certainly, but at least possible.