3 best. 3 worst Topps issues

[nolemmings]

I'll chime in on this topic again. I try to look at the sets as if they were released when I was a kid, and of course many of them in fact were. My least favorite:

1. 1978. Hands down. It's as if the guy tasked with designing this set took the preceding year's issue--itself pretty unremarkable--and took 15 minutes to tweak a couple of things to distinguish it (must have been the same guy they used in 1969). Those things, an ugly uncreative script team name and the player's position, abbreviated no less, put inside a baseball, make it look like someone forgot to do their homework assignment and slapped together something in between classes. Hate it.

2. 1973. First year to issue all cards at once, and the first to dive headlong into "action shots", after an apparent warm reception from the '71 and '72 dabbling into that format. Between the hideous airbrushing gone wild to the long range who-the-heck-is that shot selection, these just fell flat. I will give them credit for the LHP/RHP distinction and it's not totally their fault that the action photography was not yet up to snuff; still, with the drab black backs and their vertical orientation that limited the stats, this was lackluster at best.

3. 1954. I won't totally re-hash my prior rant--it can be found here.
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...highlight=1954
Suffice it to say that the player selection was so lousy-- a 1/10 chance at getting a coach or manager and virtually no AL Champion Indian pitchers, for example-- that any kid ripping packs that year was dismally disappointed. Topps was hugely lucky that they hit on Aaron, Kaline and Banks, or this would be universally roasted as the worst Topps set ever.

BEST.

1. 1966. My first year collecting. Love the color coordination for all players on a team--also used well in '68 and '69 (same colors even). Mad that they chose that one year to exclude World Series cards as my beloved Twins had been participants. Just liked everything about the set except maybe the capless guys from the Angels and Braves in the early series.

2. 1961. Really think this is a clean design, although the photography could be better. This was the first set I ever collected that was issued before I had started collecting-- my first effort at a set from the past, and I will always remember the first card given to me--Billy Pierce. Had never heard of him, did a bit of research and saw he was quite good and this spurred me to first study many others who had played before "my time". Really started me into vintage collecting, later followed by prewar.

3. 1956. Player selection is outstanding, love the over-sized cards, and the design and artwork are great, even if many were repeated from the prior year or two. If they could have just squeezed Musial in there somehow.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

2. 1973. First year to issue all cards at once, and the first to dive headlong into "action shots", after an apparent warm reception from the '71 and '72 dabbling into that format. Between the hideous airbrushing gone wild to the long range who-the-heck-is that shot selection, these just fell flat. I will give them credit for the LHP/RHP distinction and it's not totally their fault that the action photography was not yet up to snuff; still, with the drab black backs and their vertical orientation that limited the stats, this was lackluster at best.

Minor point, but it was 1974 when Topps issued all the cards at once. 1973 still had the various series.

[nolemmings]

Sorry, but the 1973 were also released all at once. In some parts of the country they were released in series, but they were all printed at once and at least where I grew up in Minnesota, were all available at the same time.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Sorry, but the 1973 were also released all at once. In some parts of the country they were released in series, but they were all printed at once and at least where I grew up in Minnesota, were all available at the same time.

Sorry, but I don't buy it. The whole country had the set released in series...but not your town in Minnesota? Come on.

[nolemmings]

Sorry, but I don't buy it. The whole country had the set released in series...but not your town in Minnesota? Come on.

Um, you might want to re-think that.

[JollyElm]

That pack must have been issued after the season was over, sort of like those infamous 'Christmas' packs. The graphic on that pack is the same one used during the season, only it didn't have that "660 cards" verbiage on it.

1973 Topps Wrapper.jpg

I have never even once heard a person claim they were all released at the same time. Look anywhere--the PSA website, Beckett, etc.--they all say the same thing: they were issued in series. That is why Beckett always listed them in separate series.

[Cardboard Junkie]

best 52 60 72
worst 73 and anything recent.

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by nolemmings

Um, you might want to re-think that.

I know nothing about these packs but using anything in a GAI slab to prove it is real is not a good idea. They slabbed several made up fake packs. I would be amazed if the cards in the pack are the right year.

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

My favorites: 1953, 1957, 1965

My not so favorites: 1961, 1968, 1972

[K-Nole]

http://www.psacardfacts.com/Hierarchy.aspx?c=188

http://www.cardboardconnection.com/1...seball-cards-2

http://www.1973baseballcards.com/?p=1

[m.wright58926]

Lots of dislike for the 73 set, I actually like the little icons for the positions. I know many of the pics are bad, but it makes me laugh at times, the ridiculous distant shots of like 4 players converging around 2nd base...maybe spotting a huge vintage land yacht parked under the palms in the background...perhaps it was the rookie year of the Topps art director.

Anyways - 3 best:
1. 1955 Love 2 pics and horizontal format, 56 and 60 too
2. 1965 Pennants are cool
3. 1976 Like the bars, colorful like 75 but toned down some

Worst
1. 1968 Pinkish dot design???
2. 1970 Obviously
3. 1958 Why so bland sandwiched between 57 and 59?

[nolemmings]

Darren,

The 1973 set was issued all at once where I lived, and I don't care what you believe. As a teenager who had collected for several years at the time, I was acutely aware of cards being issued in series over the years. The people at Ben Franklin, the only store within biking distance to sell baseball cards, more than once told me how they would not order more--the new series-- until the old supply had been sold, meaning I would usually have to encourage my friends to buy or just accumulate "doubles", as I generally had completed the series. So arrival of the new series cards was a big deal every year-- until 1973. They all came out at once.

Consider this. 1972 Topps high-numbers were printed in March 1972 or later, as the beautiful "traded" mini-set included Wise, Carlton and McLain playing for their new teams--no airbrush--and these players were not acquired until the end of February/early March. So we know that high-numbers from this set (and other years) were printed using photos taken from at least Spring training if not early season games.

Now look at 1973. The so-called "high numbers" include many airbrushes, e.g Earl Williams, Davey Johnson, Larry Hisle, of players who Topps could have corrected by Spring. Most importantly, McLain is a high number with an air-brushed Braves cap--and he had been released in March, having never played a game for Atlanta that season! Similarly, high-number Ken Reynolds is shown in an airbrushed Twins cap, and he had been traded to the Brewers in the Spring, having never pitched for Minnesota! Also high-number Jack Heidemann is shown with Cleveland, when he had been traded in the Spring to Oakland. So why are these guys appearing in the 1973 high series, in airbrushed caps no less, when they had been off those teams the entire season? Why, because the cards had been printed in the Winter of '72 and all at once.

[ALR-bishop]

What amazes me is that a guy as astute as Anthony could be so wrong about 57 and 59

Todd-- I get what you say about 54, but it is even more true of the iconic 52 set which is also full of coaches, managers and guys who hardly played at the ML level, if at all.

[stlcardsfan]

You guys are only considering the fronts. 1970 has the best backs of any year! Clear, bright and ultra easy to read (especially when you get older). But I digress:

Best:

1967
1972
1965

Worst:

1958
1962
1968

[nolemmings]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

...
Todd-- I get what you say about 54, but it is even more true of the iconic 52 set which is also full of coaches, managers and guys who hardly played at the ML level, if at all.

True to some extent Al, but not nearly as bad. By my count there were only about 15 managers/coaches out of 407 in the '52 set, about one out of 27 cards (asssuming I didn't miss some). In '54 there were 26 out of 250 cards, better than 1 in 10. I get what you're saying about the undistinguished players, but at least Topps rolled the dice and gave kids a chance to look at someone relatively within their age group and not those old coots who had long since hung 'em up.

Originally Posted by spec

Todd is right on the money. I ended 16 years of collecting out of packs when Topps did not issue the 1973 set in series -- at least in the Boston/Brookline, Mass. area. Since 1959 I had purchased a box each time a series came out, discovering even at the age of 12 that that was the most efficient way to get all the cards in a series, at least when you lived in a rural area as I did until 1967. That strategy did not work when all 660 cards were distributed at once, so I just bought the entire set from a dealer.
Bo.b Richa.rdson

Thanks Bob- nice to see someone else remembers.

[33rd Street]

1953 topps- I realize sets from the fifties suffer from the bowman/topps mini war but in 53 topps got a great Mantle in there a high number mays and that great Paige! Top it off with the best card (my opinion) of Robinson to open the set and I can live with no Snider, Musial etc. these cards just scream nostalgia to me. Little pieces of art.

1956 Topps- I guess you can tell I'm a 50's guy by now. Now that bowman's gone topps gets to load up this issue with every great except Musial. For eye appeal and collectabilty this is topps best issue in my opinion it's lacking any rookie class at all that little go go sox SS doesn't excite many collectors but there are 33 HOF's in this classic.

1957 Topps- last year for New York Giants and the bums! Set has it all, legends of the sport and a great rookie class. Centered 57's are some of my favorite cards.

Worst

1968-1970- nothing about these three years excites me. The only good thing that happened was Mantle never had a 1970 card! Thank god I didn't have to see the mick on some of the goffy early seventy issues with huge sideburns and polyester uniforms!!

1958 Topps- very colorful but the worst of the fifties in my opinion.

1974- this is topps worst issue ever in my opinion. Just so happens its the year I was born. Yuck.

[glynparson]

Best
1. 1952
2. 1953
3. 1955

Worst

1. 1990
2. 1976
3. 1973

[onlyvintage62]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Sorry, but I don't buy it. The whole country had the set released in series...but not your town in Minnesota? Come on.

It has been verified (even by Topps), that parts of the country had all the cards released at once. It was a marketing test to see how it would impact sales.

The reason being is that they were losing money by printing cards in series, as demand fell off by the 6th and 7th series.

I know that the entire states of California and Florida - at least- had the card released in one shot.