Did Topps Tiffany Commonly Get Into Kids Hands?

[ALR-bishop]

I have the sets 84-91 and associated Updates still in sealed boxes. They may be all stuck together by now. Have not followed prices. Later picked up the 2001 and 2002 Limited sets, which I think may be similar. One sealed, and one opened and ok

[packs]

I collected HEAVILY when I was a little guy. I mean every set: Upper Deck, Topps, Pacific, Pinnacle, Flair, Donruss, Leaf, everything I could get my hands on.

I never heard of Topps Tiffany until I was an adult.

[Zach Wheat]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I have the sets 84-91 and associated Updates still in sealed boxes. They maybe all stuck together by now. Have not followed prices. Later picked up the 2001 and 2002 Limited sets, which I think may be similar. On sealed, and one opened and ok

Remember Justin's freezer trick for unsticking cards from this era.

I have most Tiffany sets and updates. I remember them being sold in card shops, but not being able to buy a whole set. The card shop I frequented, used to sell a bunch of singles for set builders. I presume the shop owner kept most of the star cards and sold off the singles.

[Deertick]

Any individual cards that were sold were from set breaks. Sets were only available by the (6) case. You had to have a Topps dealer account just to be able to buy a case.
My memory is that if you wanted to order, there was an allocation based on the dealers regular issues (not just baseball) order amount, with a limit on quantity. (say, $50K+, you could buy 50 cases. $20K, 15 cases). They then would fulfill orders and worked their way down to lower level accounts. Us local hotel and mall schleppers would pool together and get an order from someone who had extra slots.

I believe that later they offered me an allotment as incentive for ordering a certain amount of product (Football! Basketball! Hockey!, lol), but that may have been something else.

[deweyinthehall]

To me, the elder statesmen are those who purchased '52 Topps in packs in, well, '52. Although I would probably be lumped in there as well these days - I began ripping in '78 and can clearly recall that time when there was Topps, Kelloggs, Hostess and then wait til next year.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Mungo Hungo

I LOL at “elder statesmen of the hobby who can remember 1983 / 1984 / 1985.” Please, someone tell me this cannot be an accurate representation of “elder statesman” ….

Originally Posted by deweyinthehall

To me, the elder statesmen are those who purchased '52 Topps in packs in, well, '52. Although I would probably be lumped in there as well these days - I began ripping in '78 and can clearly recall that time when there was Topps, Kelloggs, Hostess and then wait til next year.

If buying 1952 packs is the line in the sand, we are taking about the same generation. By 1984, these kids would have been old enough to own a card shop and order a case. Or they were old enough with cash flow to buy a set.

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[RayBShotz]

Originally Posted by ALR-bishop

I have the sets 84-91 and associated Updates still in sealed boxes. They may be all stuck together by now. Have not followed prices. Later picked up the 2001 and 2002 Limited sets, which I think may be similar. One sealed, and one opened and ok

Al - I broke a seal and busted an 86 Topps Tiffany set recently and the cards showed no signs of sticking at all. They were prisitine and slid out of the box nicely.
RayB

To answer the original question; I would have to think that there were a few "hobby aware" parents that might have given the set to their kids as a birthday or Christmas gift back in the day. So lets just say yes; a small percentage got in the hands of kids. Anecdotal of course.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by RayBShotz

Al - I broke a seal and busted an 86 Topps Tiffany set recently and the cards showed no signs of sticking at all. They were pristine and slid out of the box nicely.

I have honestly not seen too much issue with bricking on Tiffany, the ugly yellowing for sure, but bricking has not been an issue. I wish I could solve the yellowing issues but my solution has been just to not buy any already changing, try to keep out of direct sun, and keep my fingers crossed so far.

I do admit I am very selective about where I buy sealed glossy from and have had fairly good luck. I believe wholeheartedly that bricking is from poor storage conditions. High heat and humidity are the absolute worst for gloss. It causes the gloss to subtly melt and gain a mild viscosity. Then as the cards come back to temp, that gloss rehardens and forms the "glue" sticking these together. This is why I adopted the method mentioned earlier of freezing the cards at least overnight prior to opening as the frozen gloss is far easier to separate.

As to my purchases, I avoid areas that have a likelihood of high heat or humid storage in a non-temp controlled environment. Places like storage units, attics, or garages. No buys in southern climates, I try to buy northern. While this is certainly not foolproof in any way as who knows the travels of those cards in 40 years plus, it has given me better luck.

I would advise any junk wax hoarders in areas like this to make sure their stash is in a ventilated and air conditioned area of your home. If you live in the north and have a basement with no water issues, it is a great place too. I find it a perfect place and have never had bricking. Sadly, my second divorce left a good pile of items in a garage over a summer due to no other option and I had issues with those cards. I was more upset about the junk wax than the wife, lol.

[DaClyde]

Bricking usually only occurs with cards that have that high gloss coating on both sides. Putting a high glossy coating on both side of trading cards has always been an extremely bad idea.

[ALR-bishop]

Ray, Justin and Jason---thanks for the input

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by DaClyde

Bricking usually only occurs with cards that have that high gloss coating on both sides. Putting a high glossy coating on both side of trading cards has always been an extremely bad idea.

Indeed, you need the magic combo of double gloss. The worst cards I have noticed for bricking are most of the Pinnacle products and the Wild card releases. Just horribly difficult to store these two brands without penny sleeving them all.