1979 Topps premium

[steve B]

Looks like I messed up psting this last night

In 1979 Topps offered Tradin Cards as a premium. I think the offer was part of the jumbo cello packs, but I'm not sure at the moment.

These were cards offered by a private company and were mostly made to give parents some fun cards of little leaguers. But occasionally an enterprising individual would use other pictures. I think they were supposed to be screened for this, but some did slip through.

A neat twist on a non-Topps Topps premium.

Steve B

[ALR-bishop]

I would sure like to know more about these Steve. They were a Topps Premium ? But not produced by Topps ? A Send away for product ?

[David Bender]

Wow! Where did you find these and do you have others?

[steve B]

I got them from a local auction run by a longtime dealer. They were the ones that sent away for them back when they were new. There may be a few other players out there, Yaz and maybe a couple others.

I think these were a mail away item and the offer card was in the big cellos that had a pack of large gum at the bottom. The packs were an odd format that wasn't all that common. I think they only made them 3 years
1979 had the tradin' cards offer?
1980 had a scratchoff game
1981 had a blank backer card and 1980 datecoded wrappers.

I looked through a bunch of my disorganised stuff last night to see if I could find the pack or offer card. All I could find was the 1981 pack. But I'm sure the pack or offer card will turn up as I reorganize things.

Steve B

[novakjr]

Let see if I've got this straight. These were basically the pictures that the parents of a little leaguer could get so that they could have a card of their kids? And that a few people submitted pictures of major leaguers to make their own brand of card?

I believe Topps started doing a similar thing online a few years ago, and you could create the card virtually online using their templates from older year layouts, and then order limited print runs of anything from 50-750(or something like that). People started making cards of Bryce Harper and other highly touted minor leaguers/ draft prospects/ or picks. They are technically Topps cards, also dated with stats(if the buyer/designer chose to include them). I wonder if these will ever have any kind of effect on the hobby?

[steve B]

That's exactly what they are. I'm fairly sure this promotion was for 20 cards at a time. If I recall things right there were a few submissions they did that got rejected. They did use photos they took themselves, so no copyright worries aside from no MLB license or team license for the logos.

I'll have to check out the Topps online card thing.

Hard to say of they'll have any hobby impact. Probably not since stuff like this is very hard to catalog. I bought these as curiosities and examples of that Topps premium. They cost a bit since it's actual players. The modern ones could be interesting as they're a labeled Topps product.

Steve B