origin of the vending box?

[toppcat]

I can tell you that vending was every bit as big a part of the marketing for Topps as retail when they started selling gum and then cards in the 1930's and 40's. After WW2, when raw materials and distribution networks were flowing again, around mid 1949, vending machines and distribution for them (automatic merchandising in the parlance of the time) were proliferating at exponential rates.

There are known Topps vending packs from as early as 1949 and as pointed out above, other companies, especially ESCO, were into this for a long, long time. The market though started to change only a few years after once nickel gum packs began supplanting penny packs and the single card penny venders were deemed not as profitable, although vending still was a big piece of the pie for many years after. Then vending in the 1960's started to cater more to after market dealers.

I certainly remember buying cards from vending machines in 1970-72.

[autograf]

I think in the later years.....1980's.....the vending cases were bought by the larger dealers like Renata Galasso and others as they were great for making hand-collated sets as well. I bought a vending case of 1987 topps and made sets out of it to sell at shows and the break was really pretty good overall. There were 24 vending boxes of 500 cards in there, 12000 cards for the case and it made about 13-14 sets. Overall, they would usually net me 25-40% profit over and above the cost of the vending case. Was my time sorting and building sets worth that 25-40% profit? I'm not gonna go back and do a cost/benefit analysis on it but that was at about 20-21 years old, so it was extra money to buy cards and comics with ultimately..........

[Tim Zwick]

When I first started collecting large dealers were buying vending cases from Topps in the late 60's & early 70"s and selling complete series and sets in their catalogs. I usually would have to buy the last series or two through the mail because they never came to the local stores in my little burg. For some reason in 1971 we never got the 2nd series and I remember ordering one from Card Collectors Co.

The first vending case I bought was in 1974 along with a group of other small time dealer/collector types in Michigan. They came through Charlie Brooks who used to publish the Sport Hobbyist and also had a store. I think they cost us around $50 a pop. The next couple years I did the same and in 1977 or 1978 I bought direct from Topps for the first time. You had to have a sales tax license to order and there was a five case minimum. Did this for many years.

[bigfanNY]

Saw this thread and thought I would add the Picture I posted earlier this week of My Topps Veding machine. It was purchased from a local Woolworths that went out of business in about 1979. Starting in 1975 The Woolworth's manager would sell us the leftover stock of Wax each Fall and that last year he pulled this out of the storeroom. We happily loaded it in the back of the 69 Pontiac Wagon Dad poped the clutch on the 3 on a Tree and we have owned it ever since. Five hundred views on my original Post and I cannot belive No one else here saved one of these from the scrap yard? Weighs in at about 45 pounds and still works. You open the front and load up each slot with about a Thousand cards.

Enjoy
Jonathan

[Sterling Sports Auctions]

Thanks for the photo Jonathan very nice piece.

By the way, nice last name! :-)

Lee Behrens
Sterling Sports Auctions