Early rack packs

[tulsaboy]

People keep trying to "will" the Christmas racks into legitimacy, with all sorts of fanciful claims about particular staples, wear on the rack edges, which cardboard is the "right" cardboard, etc. The reality is that there are absolutely zero contemporary sources that prove that the Christmas racks were packaged close in time to the production of the cards. They appeared out of nowhere with Mark Murphy several years ago, and then have proliferated. The fact that you can now find Christmas racks with Topps, Fleer, Donruss, and even traded cards as late as 1986 is a pretty good indicator that these are still being made today in somebody's basement. Some folks have tried to say that they "clearly remember seeing these decades ago," but nobody can show off any contemporaneous photos, documents, etc. that back up the claim. If they really were legitimate, and if they really were as common as the sheer modern volume of them makes it seem, someone would have been able to show off a Christmas morning photo from 1965 with a handful of them by now. If you're active on the Vintage Wax and Packs Facebook page, where a number of significant unopened collectors hang out, you would be able to follow the conversations that have been ongoing about these racks. The community consensus is that they are fraudulent, and are worth whatever the value might be of the cards that you can see. Thus far, anytime they are opened on camera, there are no "hits" inside the racks. The best cards are always on the fronts and backs, making pretty clear that they are concocted with the intent to defraud.
kevin