September Pickups

[pokerplyr80]

I'm not familiar with Topps cloth. How were they issued? Was 88 the only year?

[swarmee]

1977 they made a lot of cloth sticker cards. 1988 Topps may have been a test run and are rarer. There have been some recent Archives sets that put cloth inserts in as well (2012?).

[tjenkins]

2011 Topps Lineage had some cloth sticker also that looked like this:

[pokerplyr80]

Thanks for the info. I did an eBay search and saw a few from the 70s too. There were actually more of those available than the 88s it seems.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I'm not familiar with Topps cloth. How were they issued? Was 88 the only year?

Hey jesse,

The answer to this is complicated. 1977 was the only "real" cloth issue as far as mass distribution (other than modern archives stuff) They were also made as tests for 70, 72 and 76. All of these issues have adhesive backs and are technically cloth stickers.

The 88s are called cloth but in my mind are a different animal. I have about 50 in my test collection. There are only a handful of complete sets as these are "dumpster" cards, Cards that were never meant for the public and were meant to be destroyed but were snuck out. The 1985 minis are the same. Any examples of either are cut from sheets that were taken from the trash. The rumor on the 88s were that they were supposed to turn into a sponge when soaked as a novelty. I have soaked one and it doesn't work.

These are not stickers and are printed (no backs) on a material that closely resembles tough paper towel than cardboard. The 88s used to be more valuable but I feel are now fairly cheap and undervalued as no one knows much about them.