1952 High Series question about origins

[toppcat]

Originally Posted by Brianruns10

Yeah, I've always found the whole notion that the high series was exclusive to NY/New England to be pretty dubious too, for the fact that a family friend collected topps and put together a complete 52 set on its original run, and he lived in KC and the Kansas side. Though he made a point of mentioning it was with extreme difficulty, and much hunting...apparently he could only find one store that stocked the highs.

I am going to guess it was a Rexall drugstore. I think Topps had a distribution deal either directly with Rexall or a jobber that had a large number of Rexall outlets. They also had a deal with Woolworth's in 1952, although I am not sure if that was only in the NYC area. Most distribution would have been through tobacco jobbers long known to the Shorin family, probably dating back to 1910-14 or so.

The highs took some time to spread westward in '52 and early '53. Some went south but not many I think. They had a deal in place for Canada as well, it was made to cover second (80-130) series forward and the highs would have been part of it. That must have been uncut sheets as shipped as the Canadian packs only should have four cards (typical of Canada at the time) but I am not 100% positive on that last point.