1966 Topps Series Release Dates ... Approx?

[ALBB]

Wow,..That Keene card ..holy crap

Imagine opening a pack with him, Crandell, a team card, a checklist card,and another no hat wearing bald guy !!

[bb66]

Haha Albert that would have been bad. We had the Philadelphia football cards in Knoxville,Tn. I bought them in 64',65'&66'.

[obcbeatle]

So below is the 66T Crandall I pulled from a pack in 1966. Not as extreme as the Keane, but to this 8 year old, Crandall looked older then my grandfather :-) Ironically, as I grew older I became a big Del Crandall fan since I am a big Braves and Giants fan and Crandall played for both teams (if only briefly for the Giants). Crandall was a big part of the 1957 champion Braves, and pennant winners too in 1958. He was a very good defensive catcher. In Strat-O-Matic he is almost always a "1" defensively :-) I guess he just didn't age well. And I guess I shouldn't talk :-)

(how come my image below isn't rotated correctly)?

66t_crandall.jpg

[bb66]

I decided to look at the backs of the 1966 Topps High-Numbered cards for any interesting dates or clues to production deadlines or anything else. Opening day that year was April 12.Several players were mentioned with late April dates:#529-Elia optioned April 29th,#531-Cunningham released April 25th,& #559-Pena optioned April 28th.Four players(cards)were mentioned for changes in the month of May-#561,584,589,&597.These four-Coleman,Fernandez,Klimchock,&Salmon were either sold,optioned,or released.Two other players were interesting because exact May dates were listed. These were the latest two dates specifically listed on 1966 high-number cards.Card #539-Astros Rookie Stars lists Carroll Sembera as being optioned to Oklahoma City May 9,1966.Card #544-Cards Rookie Stars has George Kernek optioned to Tulsa on May 9,1966.

jmoran19--I will get those two pictures from my brother as soon as I can and post them.Besides the baseball cards laying around us there was some matchbox cars and their boxes,too. Lucky kids!!!!

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by bb66

I decided to look at the backs of the 1966 Topps High-Numbered cards for any interesting dates or clues to production deadlines or anything else. Opening day that year was April 12.Several players were mentioned with late April dates:#529-Elia optioned April 29th,#531-Cunningham released April 25th,& #559-Pena optioned April 28th.Four players(cards)were mentioned for changes in the month of May-#561,584,589,&597.These four-Coleman,Fernandez,Klimchock,&Salmon were either sold,optioned,or released.Two other players were interesting because exact May dates were listed. These were the latest two dates specifically listed on 1966 high-number cards.Card #539-Astros Rookie Stars lists Carroll Sembera as being optioned to Oklahoma City May 9,1966.Card #544-Cards Rookie Stars has George Kernek optioned to Tulsa on May 9,1966.

Text on the reverse was easier to change than pictures but reverses were printed first so I would think the print dates were somewhat close to the May dates for the high numbers. I would say July is the most likely print month for those as you had to get everything composed, proofed, printed, delivered to Topps, cut and packaged, sold to the jobbers and direct accounts then shipped in time for an August rollout. I think in the mid 60's the series still fanned out from Duryea and possibly a couple of other distribution centers, so a slightly slow roll out nationwide.

[cesarcap]

This is off topic slightly but I found it hard to put the 66's together versus the 67's. Financially yeah, 67's are PAINFUL. But there are fewer collectors chasing this set it seems to me, and perhaps fewer dealers, net54 and ebay listings? But for me, it also SEEMS like as soon as I do finish a set, everyone lists the set I just completed.

[Chicosbailbonds]

I would think they would come out around March 1 and each series would be 4 weeks. The 6th series would come out around August and the 7th Series Labor Day. There is only so much retail space with the football cards coming out also, so they may have made just enough to stock a store once and the football cards would replace them, thus “holding” the spot, not to lose it to other candy,

[toppcat]

Hopefully the formatting holds and this makes sense-here is a matrix of the Topps Series Vs. Checklists you may find interesting:

SERIES/ PRESS RUN/ LIST SAYS/ DIFF. / LIST NO.
1958
1 1 - 110 1-88 22 N/A
2 111 - 198 89-176 22 N/A
3 199 - 286 177-264 22 N/A
4 287 - 374 265-352 22 N/A
5 375 - 440 352-440 0 N/A
6 441 - 495 441-495 0 N/A

1959
1 1 - 110 1-88 22 N/A
2 111 - 198 89-176 22 N/A
3 199 - 286 177-264 22 N/A
4 287 - 374 265-352 22 N/A
5 375 - 440 353-429 11 N/A
6 441 - 506 430-495 11 N/A
7 507 - 572 496-572 0 N/A

1960
1 1 - 110 1-88 22 N/A
2 111 - 198 89-176 22 N/A
3 199 - 286 177-264 22 N/A
4 287 - 374 265-352 22 N/A
5 375 - 440 353-429 11 N/A
6 441 - 506 430-495 11 N/A
7 507 - 572 496-572 0 N/A

1961
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 17
2 110 196 89-176 20 98
3 197 283 177-264 19 189
4 284 370 265-352 18 273
5 371 446 353-429 17 361
6 447 522 430-506 16 437
7 523 589 507-587 0 516

1962
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 22
2 110 - 196 89-176 20 98
3 197 - 283 177-264 19 192
4 284 - 370 265-352 18 277
5 371 - 446 353-429 17 367
6 447 - 522 430-506 16 441
7 523 - 598 507-598 0 516

1963
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 79
2 110 - 196 89-176 20 102
3 197 - 283 177-264 19 191
4 284 - 370 265-352 18 274
5 371 - 446 353-429 17 362
6 447 - 522 430-506 16 431
7 523 - 576 507-576 0 509

1964
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 76
2 110 - 196 89-176 20 102
3 197 - 283 177-264 19 188
4 284 - 370 265-352 18 274
5 371 - 446 353-429 17 362
6 447 - 522 430-506 16 438
7 523 - 587 507-587 0 517

1965
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 79
2 110 - 196 89-176 20 104
3 197 - 283 177-264 19 189
4 284 - 370 265-352 18 273
5 371 - 446 353-429 17 361
6 447 - 522 430-506 16 443
7 523 - 598 507-598 0 508

1966
1 1 - 109 1-88 21 34
2 110 - 196 89-176 20 101
3 197 - 283 177-264 19 183
4 284 - 370 265-352 18 279
5 371 - 446 353-429 17 363
6 447 - 522 430-506 16 444
7 523 - 598 507-598 0 517


1967
1 1 109 1-109 0 62
2 110 196 110-196 0 103
3 197 283 197-283 0 191
4 284 370 284-370 0 278
5 371 457 371-457 0 361
6 458 533 458-533 0 454
7 534 609 534-609 0 531

1968
1 1 109 1-109 0 67
2 110 196 110-196 0 107
3 197 283 197-283 0 192
4 284 370 284-370 0 278
5 371 457 371-457 0 356
6 458 533 458-533 0 454
7 534 598 534-598 0 518

1969
1 1 109 1-109 0 57
2 110 218 110-218 0 107
3 219 327 219-327 0 214
4 328 425 328-425 0 314
5 426 512 426-512 0 412
6 513 588 513-588 0 504
7 589 664 589-664 0 582


1970
1 1 132 1-132 0 9
2 133 263 133-263 0 128
3 264 372 264-372 0 244
4 373 459 373-459 0 343
5 460 546 460-546 0 432
6 547 633 547-633 0 542
7 634 720 634-720 0 588

1971
1 1 132 1-132 0 54
2 133 263 133-263 0 123
3 264 393 264-393 0 206
4 394 523 394-523 0 369
5 524 643 524-643 0 499
6 644 752 644-752 0 619



1972
1 1 132 1-132 0 4
2 133 263 133-263 0 103
3 264 394 264-394 0 251
4 395 525 393-525 0 378
5 526 656 526-656 0 478
6 657 787 657-787 0 604

[bb66]

Originally Posted by Chicosbailbonds

I would think they would come out around March 1 and each series would be 4 weeks. The 6th series would come out around August and the 7th Series Labor Day. There is only so much retail space with the football cards coming out also, so they may have made just enough to stock a store once and the football cards would replace them, thus “holding” the spot, not to lose it to other candy,

It sure seems likely you are right on the timing . I'm glad to see this info on each year and series. I sure appreciate all the good info and thoughts.

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Chicosbailbonds

I would think they would come out around March 1 and each series would be 4 weeks. The 6th series would come out around August and the 7th Series Labor Day. There is only so much retail space with the football cards coming out also, so they may have made just enough to stock a store once and the football cards would replace them, thus “holding” the spot, not to lose it to other candy,

Sounds about right-when there were high numbers, I think the target was right around Labor Day. I do recall being able to buy baseball and football at the same time when school started each year. FB cards were the big thing at that time of year where BB was big in the spring at school.

[obcbeatle]

Originally Posted by cesarcap

This is off topic slightly but I found it hard to put the 66's together versus the 67's. Financially yeah, 67's are PAINFUL. But there are fewer collectors chasing this set it seems to me, and perhaps fewer dealers, net54 and ebay listings? But for me, it also SEEMS like as soon as I do finish a set, everyone lists the set I just completed.

I feel your pain. 66 has taken me just as long as 67. Both are still unfinished and I started them both the year they were released. They are both painful. But both of those sets represent my childhood and the beginning of my baseball card collecting habit. Many of the the player photo's in those two sets are still ingrained in my memory and I can still see myself sitting on the floor of my house in SF (over 50 years ago!) sorting through those cards inside a "Keds" shoe box :-) I'm still trying to hang on to those memories!

[toppcat]

My third point could also just mean they advanced each series by (usually) 22 cards as a preview of the next series. I don't have enough sheet scans to check this properly. I'm amending my item 2 above to avoid further confusion. Like I said, these are theories until proven out.

Here's a second series 1958 half sheet (with the extra Bunning that replaced Bouchee as a bonus) and it looks like 88 subjects with 44 DP's. If this is the "A" sheet for the series then the "B" sheet would run the opposite (the DP from the first sheet are SP on the other, and vice-versa). So if you did 110 cards in the first series press run and your checklist goes to 88, you are 22 cards ahead of the game for series 2.

It would be great if we could get sheet scans going in this thread. A lot of us are quarantined, right? Plenty of time to comb your scans! You need 132 card half sheets to assess.