This is what we in the hobby would call a “fun rip.”
These 24 GAI-graded 1969/70 Topps basketball wax packs were offered for sale together in Mastro’s April 2004 catalog. The original 24-count counter-sales display box was included, too.
Each 10-cent pack had ten cards and one of the year’s paper “rulers” inserts. The pack’s grades included GAI Perfect 10: 6 packs; GAI Gem Mint 9.5: 7 packs; GAI Min 9: 7 packs; GAI NM-MT+ 8.5: 1 pack; GAI NM-MT 8: 2 packs; GAI NM+ 7/5: 1 pack.
If you didn’t know, PSA started grading oversized packs around the fall of 2023, and most notably, Goldin sold a lot of 14 1969 Topps basketball tallboy packs in March 2024 for $148,840!
The packs’ grades included:
PSA NM 7: 1 pack
PSA EX-MT 6: 9 packs
PSA EX 5: 4 packs
At the time (June 2024), PSA’s Pop Report still only included those 14 packs.
Here’s a really cool item from Mastro’s Classic Collector Auction in June 2006: a 1947-66 Exhibit Baseball unopened partial cello box of 25 packs.
The catalog didn’t include any lot descriptions, but the pack on the right has Ernie Banks’s Bat on Should card on top (he also has a portrait variation), and the pack on the left shows Gil Hodges.
Also, while these arcade cards historically were meant for vending machines, Adam S. Warshaw, in his book Exhibit and Related Arcade Sports Cards, wrote that for a short time in the 1960s, ESCO tried to sell cards in cello packs, noting that the unopened materials are worth far more than the cards inside them.
The box shows that ESCO also had cello boxes with T.V. Cowboys, Jet Planes, Recording Artists, and Sport Cars.
Also, ESCO may have distributed these boxes with paper promos. Lelands sold a nearly complete cello box (28 packs) in December 2005 for $2,289, which included a “Jumbo Baseball Trading Cards” example.
One of my favorite things from back issues of The Trader Speaks is seeing all the game’s greats who were regular signers at card shows. Brooklyn’s second Baseball Card And Sports Memorabilia Show had Cal Abrams, Gene Hermanski, and Billy Loes!
The advertisement was printed in the January 1980 issue to promote the March 1980 show.
Cal Abrams represented a lot of his buddies via a company named Cal Abrams Sports Inc. Abrams, Hermanski, and Loes all played for the Dodgers together. Cal Abrams played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1949-1952, Hermanski played for them in 1943 and from 1943-1951, and Billy Loes was a Dodger in 1950 and from 1952-1956.
The Trader Speaks printed the following advertisement, a month earlier than the one pictured above, in December 1979.
You can see that the company also represented Clem Labine, Stan Lopata, Willard Marshall, Frank Thomas, Joe Pignatano, Carl Erskine, Sal Yvars, and Ken Raffensberger.
Mastro offered this 1976/77 Topps basketball unopened vending case in their April 2006 catalog; what are the odds it’s still sealed today?
As you can see, the case contained sixteen 500-count boxes for a total of 8,000 untouched cards, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, and Julius Erving. And with a 144 total card set size in 1976, there’d be a ton of each in there!
Here’s an example of what the tall-boy-sized vending boxes look like.
Mastro didn’t describe the case’s provenance, but Fritsch did sell through Mastro a lot then, so it could have been from “The Fritsch Vault.”
Collect Auctions sold this empty 1976 Topps Basketball Vending Case in August 2020 for $110, which differs from the sealed Mastro example pictured above.
Steiner Sports is currently (September 2024) offering this one for $262, which also looks different than the Mastro case.
So there’s a chance there were a couple of these sealed cases out in the hobby over the past twenty years; remember, BBCE only wraps vending boxes from sealed cases or, I believe, those with great provenance from The Fritsch Vault.
Tony Galovich wrote the following three-page article about “investing” in unopened card packs and boxes for the June 1992 issue of Alan Kaye’s Sports Cards News & Price Guides; it brought about a lot of conversation on Facebook, so I thought I’d share it here too.
You can see that he highlighted some interesting history:
A 1953 Topps five-cent baseball wax pack sale for $11k in the summer of 1991.
A 1954 Topps cello pack with Hank Aaron showing that sold for $25k in the fall of 1991.
A 1934 Goudey wax pack with Jimmie Foxx on the bottom that sold for $20k in 1992.
All the 1952 Topps baseball wax packs emerging; including a find of around 800 in Seattle in 1991. He said dealers were paying $5k each for them and that someone had just opened a complete box
The find of an entire case of 1953 Topps five-cent packs (Canadian variation) a few years earlier.
The sale of a 1951 Bowman one-cent wax pack for $1,500 “recently.”
The price appreciation of 1961 Topps rack packs going from $600 a few years earlier to $1,500 in 1992.
A 1967 Topps high-number case selling for >$70,000 and the find of 1961 and 1962 cases.
The sale of a 1952 Topps high number case eight years earlier for over $200k.
He shared market prices for the following football products: 1959 Topps vending box-$2,200, 1957 five-cent wax pack-$550, 1964 Philadelphia rack pack-$450, 1984 USFL set case-$30k, 1972 high number wax box-$3,600, 1960 Fleer wax pack-$250, and 1966 Topps wax pack-$325.
From a basketball side he said that 1957 Topps packs were selling for $1k+ and that he heard of a vending case sale in 1991. He also said 1961 Fleer packs were fetching $500+. Also, 1969 Topps boxes were worth >$5k, with packs being >$500. In 1986, Fleer basketball cases were worth $30k, with the rarer 1987 cases bringing $10k.
Galovich also talked about how scarce hockey unopened products already were in 1992.
As I wrote in the intro, I shared the article on the Facebook “Vintage Wacks and Packs” group, and it prompted some interesting comments:
One collector asked if the 1952 case was the Mr. Mint case, but that one was for cards from a case. However, another collector mentioned that he knew who sold that case and who bought it and that it sold for $450k, not $200k. Also, that year, NrMt-Mt ’52 Mantles dropped to $675.
Another collector mentioned that he’d been collecting since 1970 and had never heard of the ’52 case but had remembered the ’67 case. He also saw first-hand, around 1983, an unopened high series case of 63s.
The person who sold the 1954 cello pack with Hank Aaron on top commented that a large horde of Topps high-number boxes was found and sold at the KC show in 1980 between 1962 and 1967 by a retired Topps sales guy.
One of the group admins made a note of “the reference to the 1975 cello with Brett on top and Yount on back, BOTH of which just happened to be faced out (a known trademark for a certain someone who was active during that time), illustrates just how long ago star pack were being fabricated.” I suppose I need to republish my old articles about 1975 Topps pack collation.
The 1977 Topps Star Wars #207 C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) Error card is probably the second most infamous card in the hobby (next to the 1989 Fleer Bill Ripken FF Error). But Topps felt the card was a bit too inappropriate and airbrushed the “appendage” out in a later printing of the green-bordered 4th series set.
1977 Topps Star Wars #207 C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) Error – Front
1977 Topps Star Wars #207 C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) Corrected/Airbrushed Version
For years, the official story had been that a piece of Anthony Daniels’ costume fell off as the picture was taken, but the rumor was always that a Topps artist snuck one in.
In 2007, the official site of Star Wars wrote, “It appears that the extra appendage is not the work of an artist, but rather a trick of timing and light. The untouched archive photo shows the image just as it appears on the card. The current theory is that at the exact instant the photo was snapped, a piece fell off the Threepio costume, and just happened to line up in such a way as to suggest a bawdy image. The original contact sheets from the photo-shoot attests to this. They are not retouched in any way, yet still contain the same image. Whatever the real explanation is, the ‘mischievous airbrush artist’ scenario simply doesn’t fit.”
Gary Gerani, in his book Star Wars: The Original Topps Trading Card Series: Volume One (2015), wrote that, apparently, someone on set strapped a long metallic appendage to the droid’s lower half. However, he said the team was releasing a new (unplanned) series of Star Wars cards as fast as possible (since the movie kept doing so well), no one noticed the gaff and the cards went out to the public in packs.
Gerani’s Explanation of the C-3PO Card – Page 346
Gerani’s Explanation of the C-3PO Card – Page 347
Despite Gerani’s explanation, in the fall of 2019, Anthony Daniels wrote about what happened in a little more detail. He said it was the oil bath’s fault. Daniels explained that the costume’s pants, at the time, were made of two pieces of thin plastic, front and back, that were attached with gold-colored tape. The oil dissolved the tape, and the pants came apart, leading to a bulging crease when he was lifted out of the bath. Daniels said Lucasfilm verified to him that an employee took the photo with the crease and accentuated it.
Now, no matter how the card made it to market, Topps is believed to have printed the airbrushed version in fewer numbers.
PSA’s population report isn’t the best guide in determining the print runs, though. An error card is worth grading in almost any condition, but that’s not necessarily true for airbrushed copies. Here’s a comparison of the card’s pop counts over the past two years.
1977 Topps Star Wars C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) PSA Population – September 2022
1977 Topps Star Wars C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) PSA Population – October 2024
Regardless, you can see that over 1,800 error cards exist in the pop report, while the corrected version has a total population of under 800. However, the error is much tougher to find with good centering or PSA 9/10 worthy condition. Only 5 PSA 10s of the error exist, while the correct version has 12 10s despite the smaller overall population. And despite doubling the total population, the 10s haven’t changed in two years.
Despite Gerani’s belief that the airbrushed version is the more valuable print because of its scarcity, the error generates a significant premium over the corrected version because demand for the error card is through the roof.
The last PSA 10 error sold for almost $5k in May 2020 (4 Sharp Corners may have sold a pair of errors on eBay for $3,338 and $2,247 in September and October 2023, but they’re in PSA’s APR under the regular version), while the previous corrected PSA 10 sold for $234 in July 2018. The last PSA 9 error sold for $2,645 in September 2024, and another sold for $1,580 in October 2022 (but around $600 in November 2020 before the hobby spike). The last corrected PSA 9 sold for $332 in June 2024 (but was as high as $400 in December 2021). PSA 8 errors have sold as recently as October 2024 for $600 compared to closer to $125 for the last corrected PSA 8 in September 2024.
Also, Daniels won’t sign the error card; if you see one, it’s probably fake. PSA shows he has signed 26 regular cards and one error (a few years ago, it showed 9, so that’s weird) in its PSA/DNA population report. A few have been listed on eBay for ~$650.
1977 Topps Star Wars #207 C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) – PSA/DNA
Beyond conventional singles, there are a few more interesting collectibles related to the C-3PO error for the master collector.
First, in its Fall 2018 auction, Robert Edwards Auctions sold an unissued blank-backed proof for $540.
1977 Topps Star Wars #207 C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) Proof Error – Front
Next, you can find uncut sheets with the error card. The following example has been listed on eBay for a little under $10k, but I’ve seen more recent examples for closer to $3k.
1977 Topps Star Wars 4th Series Uncut Sheet – Front
1977 Topps Star Wars 4th Series Uncut Sheet – Reverse
1977 Topps Star Wars 4th Series Uncut Sheet – C-3PO Card
And finally, if you want to pull a C-3PO card from a pack, here are the unopened items you will need to get your hands on.
1977 (1978) Topps Star Wards Series 4 Wax Box
1978 Topps Star Wars 4th Series Wax Pack
Two 4th Series BBCE Authenticated wax boxes sold on eBay a few years ago, one for $1426 in June 2022 and the other for $1795 in July 2022. REA sold eight boxes between the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2023, mostly for around $1,680.
PSA-graded wax packs are pretty common, as they have graded 400 of them (as of October 2024). The last PSA 7 pack sold for $63 in May 2024, while the last PSA 8 graded pack sold for $92.
Since the 330-card 1977 Topps Star Wars set has become much more popular in recent years as the hobby has boomed and as Disney has released new Star Wars movies and shows, the C-3PO error has grown (so to speak) even more popular and expensive, too. While we may not ever know, with 100% certainty, how the C-3PO error card came to be, it’s a card that might bring you a little chuckle. And if you’re a big Star Wars fan, boxes, packs, and uncut sheets make solid additions to a master collection. Happy collecting!
I published an article the other day about the 1939 Play Ball baseball set, emphasizing the three Ted Williams Rookie Cards. I thought I would do something similar in my analysis of the 1956 Topps White and Gray back cards by focusing on the Mickey Mantle cards (the last Mantle card to use artwork instead of photographs).
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Reverse
First, some 1956 Topps baseball basics. 1956 marked the beginning of the Topps monopoly as they had just purchased Bowman. So, while 1954 and 1955 Topps didn’t have Mickey Mantle cards since he was signed exclusively with Bowman, he was back in the Topps lineup in 1956 (along with many other players).
The 1956 Topps set has 340 numbered cards and two unnumbered checklists, marking the first year that checklists (and team cards) appeared in a set. The set came out in four series: series one is cards 1-100, series two is 101-180, series three is 181-260, and series four is cards 261-340. Also, the cards measure 3-3/4’’x 2-5/8″ and were the last oversized cards.
While the fronts of the cards have the same design format, what’s most interesting to me about the 1956 Topps baseball set are the printing variations due to the card stock Topps used; cards 1-180 have either white or gray backs, while the last 160 cards all have gray backs. More specifically, cards 1-100 have more white backs, while the second series, 101-180, has more gray-back examples.
1956 Topps #33 Roberto Clemente – Gray Back
1956 Topps #33 Roberto Clemente – White Back
Some collectors don’t think the back color impacts prices much, but the white-backed series two cards definitely carry a premium, and some 1956 collectors have argued the series one gray backs have a 10% premium over white backs. Unfortunately, PSA only started differentiating the back around October 2008, so the pop report on the gray vs. white backs isn’t super accurate in guiding our analysis.
1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays – Gray Back
1956 Topps #130 Willie Mays – White Back
I read a write-up from a collector with three fully graded 1956 Topps sets. He said that for cards 1-100, the white backs are much more common (4 or 5:1) but have a negligible premium since there are still so many gray backs (Topps always seemed to print more first series cards across all their sets as baseball cards were hot when they first hit the market in the spring). However, for cards 101-180, he said the gray backs are significantly more common (12 to 15:1), so the white backs carry a hefty premium, especially at higher grades (PSA 7+) since the white-backed cards seem to be more brittle, too. Another collector added that the white backs have at least a 50% premium and that putting together an all-white back run in decent condition would be almost impossible today.
You may already have gathered that Mikey Mantle’s card (#135) happens to fall in the second series. While I mentioned that PSA’s population report won’t ever be completely accurate, with the high prices that Mantle cards command, it behooves a collector with a white back card to get the card re-slabbed with the correct designation.
The following table shows that PSA has graded over 9,500 1956 Topps Mickey Mantle cards (as of October 16th, 2024), with about a 9.5:1 ratio of gray vs. white-backed cards. Also, the average gray-back grade looks to be between four and five, while the average white-back grade appears to be closer to three.
PSA’s 1956 Topps Mickey Population Table
It’s tough to compare high-grade prices since so few exist and so few move publicly around the market. However, the white backs sell for more than the gray backs when you find examples from similar periods; here’s a summary of PSA 5-10 sales.
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back Sales
PSA 10: $360k in May 2017
PSA 9: $148.7k in Jan 2022, $137k in Oct 2021, $150k in Oct 2021, and $175k in August 2021
PSA 8: $19k in Oct 2024, $19.6k in Aug 2024, and $15.9k in Feb 2024
PSA 7: $5.8k in Aug 2024, $5.7k in July 2024, and $5.8k in May 2024
PSA 6: $4.2k in Oct 2024, $3.5k in Sept 2024, and $4.2k in Sept 2024
PSA 5: $2.5k in Oct 2024, $2.8k in Sept 2024, and $3.2k in Aug 2024
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle Gray Back – Reverse
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back Sales
PSA 10: No sales
PSA 9: None Exist
PSA 8: $20.2k in Sept 2017
PSA 7: $19.8k in Apr 2022 and $3.4k in Aug 2018
PSA 6: $5k in Aug 2024, $5.2k in Mar 2022, $3.5k in Oct 2020
PSA 5: $2.8k in Aug 2024, $3.3k in Aug 2024, and $2.5k in May 2024
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back – Front
1956 Topps #135 Mickey Mantle White Back – Reverse
If you’re a 1956 Topps baseball collector looking to complete a master set, I wish you the best of luck, particularly in getting those second-series white-backed cards; happy collecting!
