Curious about 1973 Topps distribution

[moeson]

Al, it sure helped to have much younger eyes back then when the hobby was so hungry for information. No wonder SCD became such a big hit in a short time.

[Rich Klein]

Al Blumkin, mentioned in that article, is a very good friend of mine, I'll ask him to share his recollections of those trips in the very near future.

RIch

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by moeson

Al, it sure helped to have much younger eyes back then when the hobby was so hungry for information. No wonder SCD became such a big hit in a short time.

I've been going through old Trader Speaks from earliest to latest in researching my next book and right around 1970-early 1971 it seems like there was an almost exponential leap in interest in baseball cards. TTS circulation soars over 2,000, other publications seem to launch monthly and there are regular stories of news coverage of hobby events.

A couple years after that we get The Great American Baseball Card Flipping Trading and Bubble Gum book. Then not long after that comes out I remember Joe Garagiola on This Week In baseball doing a story on Topps and it was off to the races after that over the next five years, culminating in the great hobby expansion of 1981. Imagine if the internet had been around then.

[Rich Klein]

I think we had a definite explosion around 1978 as in my pre-Beckett dealing days there were a couple of points where it seemed as if we got more cards

One pre-1968 to 1968

1974

1978

1981

1987 for the over explosion

Rich