1971 Topps Football - anyone else collecting this set?

[G1911]

1971 Topps is my favorite vintage football set, and the first set I collected and put together, from ages 8-12. The corny cartoons, vivid borders, and some fun posed shots amidst the portraits, I love the design.

As far as I'm aware, there are no variations. I always like to add variants and recurring print defects to my complete sets, but there's not much to ad for this year, besides some miscuts/out of focus cards and the occasional blank back (I have Dixon and Yempremian).

I'm now working on the Game cards as a compliment to my set, but don't have any of the Posters. For a 1 per pack insert, the Game cards seem to be extremely common and cheaper than the base cards.

Much of my love for this set is sentimental now, as the first set I collected with my father. I quickly turned to vintage, my first 71 being a Jim Otto given to me by our neighbor from his childhood collection. I loved the All-Star Blue and Red borders, and my father and I slowly put it together mostly from card shows and my local card shop, sadly long since closed, with every penny I could scrounge up. Bradshaw and Simpson were the final cards, as a Bradshaw was pretty expensive to me at that time (even a creased one took quite a few mowed lawns to afford). My mother didn't think it appropriate to spend my hard earned cash on a picture of OJ, so I got that one on the sly from my Dad to finish it.

Most of my set is what PSA would grade as Excellent but I call VG-EX, have a few I need to upgrade now but I'll be keeping the Poor condition Otto and a few sentimental favorites in my binder set. This is the only set I've done to any kind of a condition standard.

Sentimentality aside, it still measures up as a great set to me. 263 cards is not that many to put together, the design screams 'the 70's' to me, and the second series, like 1968-1970, is not at all difficult even if notably less common than the first series. Rookies of Bradshaw, Houston, Lanier, Mean Joe Greene, Schottenheimer, Charlie Sanders and Wehrli. I'm putting together 68, 69, 70 and 72 (ignoring the third series for now), but none of them do I like as much as the 71's.

The 1971 O-Pee-Chee CFL set carries a similar design, and the front design was recycled for the 30 card 1974 Wonder Bread issue, which is pretty easy to put together as well. The Wonder Bread cards can be found in a version without the series name at top on the card backs, which is much more difficult to locate and put together. Upper Deck pilfered the design for their 2001 UD Vintage set, though none of the recycled design sets use the cheesy cartoon player Topps inserted in place of a team logo, since they apparently did not have licenses to use team logos on their cards.

Is anyone else a fan of the 71 issue? Have any favorite cards, any cool print defects or proofs or uncut material? Opened a pack or box of these?

[Kurri17]

Great post, love the personal side of your collecting this set. The '71 set was also the first set that I bought packs and collected as a kid in California in '71, and then I went right into '72 baseball. But. unlike you, I wasn't always such a big fan. It had some sentimental appeal, but I wasn't that big a fan of the design as my collecting went on through the years. That all changed about three years ago, after I had finished or nearly finished all of the other '70s sets (rebuilt actually after the cliche young adult purge) and wanted to start the '71. Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, I got a great deal on about a third of the set, but in EXMT or better type condition. So, I was sorta stuck, and I have built the entire set in EXMT or better with the exception of Bradshaw, who I have yet to acquire.

In the process of building the set, I enjoyed looking for high grade examples to add to my set, and fell in love with the joy of finding nice ones to fill my set. In the process, I was constantly finding upgrades and replacing and upgrading my set. I was very fortunate to have a dealer show up a couple of times at a local show who had tons of them in nice shape. I have ended up with my 262/263 set, and am about 2/3 of the way with a lesser set with all of my dupes.

I particularly like some of the Dolphins cards from this set, the Dick Anderson, Kiick, Csonka, and Warfield cards just look great to me with the color combos.

I also agree about the Wonder Bread set, its a nice looking set as well. I'm almost done with the '70 set, and like you want to move on to the '68 and '69 sets.

Good luck on those sets, enjoyed seeing and hearing about your journey on this one.

[jefferyepayne]

I'm a fan of this set too! Love the nice clean look of the '71s. They were a few years before I started collecting as a kid but I completed this set some time ago as I always thought it looked great.

Thanks for sharing you story and cards!

jeff

[familytoad]

Umm... I collect this set.

Time is limited tonight but I have a few stories to tell...even if I may have told them here before and some of you know about my 71T obsession.

I’ll be back...

[mr2686]

Love this set. Still have the ones I picked up in packs each week I came home from flag football in the 6th grade. Will someday get back to finishing the set...sadly, my football days are over though. LOL

[mortimer brewster]

As an 11 year old I discovered football cards in September of 1971. Every time I found a quarter I ran to the store and bought a a pack. I traded with friends and flipped them at the playground. We didn't care about condition or saving the cards.

I remember looking at the back of George Blanda's card. The print was so small to fit his line by line stats (1949-1970).

In November when the weather got bad, we took the cards to the playground and throw them up in the air and watched the little kids run after them.

About a year or so later I was at our local Woolworths and saw a whole display case of Cello packs they were trying to get rid of. Nobody wanted them. I believe they were packaged in little boxes like playing cards.

About 10 years ago I purchased the set in ex-nm shape for 220.00.

The write ups on the back were a little disappointing. Quoting stats from the College and Pro Football guides.

[familytoad]

Interesting that you were able to find the 71's in a quarter "box". Our town had none, only the 10 cents packs. I would do any chore I could in order to get a dime. That turned into cards right away!

At the same time, autumn 1971 in Vermont, we *could* still buy 1970 cards in the little box for a quarter. Big money for me!
Being only 9 years old, it didn't initially occur to me that they weren't the same season cards, but thought it was cool to be able to see one of the players you'd get. I recall having the 1970's mixed into my grocery bag collection.

In my next post I may update you on my current collection of 1971 FB. It may be too much...

[LuckyLarry]

Originally Posted by familytoad

In my next post I may update you on my current collection of 1971 FB. It may be too much...

I think we are ready!
Larry

[LuckyLarry]

A few years ago at our local card show I picked up a full set of "Pin-Ups" (minus Butkus) in PSA slabs for $100 as the dealer was tired of lugging them around. Then I bought the Butkus to complete my set!
Larry

[OlderTheBetter]

I don't actively collect this set but I have several sheets of the 1971 posters in nice shape if anyone would like to work out a deal with me for them.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

Is anyone else a fan of the 71 issue? Have any favorite cards, any cool print defects or proofs or uncut material? Opened a pack or box of these?

I haven't collected football, basketball, or hockey since I was a kid in the late 70's-mid 80's, but I do look for a few variations and I will get any interesting print flaws I run across if they are priced reasonably. I got this one on eBay years ago, it is missing the final yellow ink print run and the final black ink print run. It has a complete back so it is not a progressive proof.

[G1911]

Picked these two up in separate sales the last few months, both here on N54. I like miscuts, even cooler when they are extreme and have a star.

[G1911]

And a weird Butkus printing defect with way too much black:

[jefferyepayne]

Originally Posted by G1911

And a weird Butkus printing defect with way too much black:

Punk Rock Butkus, LOL.

jeff

[Chicosbailbonds]

The posters are hard to find centered.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by G1911

And a weird Butkus printing defect with way too much black:

I love print errors like that with the out of control black ink.

[G1911]

Going through my 1971's again, thought I'd resurrect this with a request for data on the Game Cards. For as long as I've been in the hobby, some of the Game inserts have been marked as DP's. The one thing I've learned about football cards is that what the hobby thinks are SP's and DP's are often wrong once we see a sheet. I'd be surprised if Starr and Namath are NOT DP's as they seem extremely abundant, but does anyone have an image of a sheet of the game cards?

I think there is a legitimate stock difference too, which unlike most Topps stock variations is visible on the front. It could be toning, with the sample size I've had in hand I suspect it is not toning.