1968 Topps Yellow Letter Brinkman/Cox — Topps vs. Milton Bradley?

[raineybt]

Hey all —

I'm trying to pin down the true origin of the yellow letter variations for Ed Brinkman and Casey Cox from the 1968 Topps set. Specifically, I’m wondering if there are actually three versions of each card out there:

1968 Topps White Letter (standard Topps issue)

1968 Topps Yellow Letter (pack-pulled variation?)

1968 Topps Milton Bradley Yellow Letter (from the Win-a-Card game)

There’s some confusion out there because at least PSA has slabbed cards both as "1968 Topps / Yellow Letter" and "1968 Topps Milton Bradley / Yellow Letter." So the question is — were any yellow letter Brinkman or Cox cards actually pulled from Series 1 Topps packs in 1968, or are all of them Milton Bradley cards that have been misattributed over time?

For reference, here’s a solid article on the MB set:
A Tale of the Yellow Back: 1968 Milton Bradley Set – Sports Collectors Digest

I’d love to hear from anyone who has insight - as a Senators collector who's now focused almost exclusively on variants, I have to know whether this is a problem of broad lack of knowledge (including at PSA) or if these two cards are similar to the White Letter variants from 1969.

[ALR-bishop]

It is my belief the Cox and Brinkman yellows are all MB cards, but I do keep a pair of each with my MB and Topps 1968 sets because PSA and the old Catalogs included them as variations to the 68 Topps set.

Not sure if Carlton Miller still posts here but he has been my go to expert on the Topps MB set. Here is an article he did on it

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrE...Fd3pYN71avF.4-

[raineybt]

That's the article I posted, which appears to be by far the best resource on this. I completely get keeping two copies for two different sets, I'm just not willing to collect PSA variations if they aren't actually different!

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

It is my belief the Cox and Brinkman yellows are all MB cards, but I do keep a pair of each with my MB and Topps 1968 sets because PSA and the old Catalogs included them as variations to the 68 Topps set.

Not sure if Carlton Miller still posts here but he has been my go to expert on the Topps MB set. Here is an article he did on it

https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrE...Fd3pYN71avF.4-

[ALR-bishop]

Agree with you Brian, but if you want to collect a master set of 1968 Topps most master set lists include the yellow Cox and Brinkman. If you are a real OCD type like me you have to have the whole 68 MB set anyway as sort of variations to the basic 68 set . But if you treat the two sets completely separate, which I think is legitimate, then I think you only need one copy of them. For me, I will continue to keep one copy with each set

[G1911]

There's only 2 versions of each, the Topps and the Milton Bradley. Catalogs and corporations are frequently incorrect.

[JollyElm]

PSA slowly educated themselves and corrected things, that's why they weren't initially labeled solely as MB versions.

It's tantamount to how many issues/problems there were with their mislabeling of many 1962 Green Tints and non-Green Tints (e.g., PSA 8 1962 Topps #190 Wally Moon No Cap - Green Tint, which is a card that does not exist, among many others).

[Cliff Bowman]

PSA mislabel something? Impossible .