I’ve always thought it was a little unfortunate that, thanks to the popularity of the 1957 Topps baseball set, unopened wax packs have become museum pieces that are simply out of reach for most collectors. Fortunately, there’s another way to enjoy this part of the hobby. Vintage wrapper collecting remains a niche pursuit and, while these wrappers still sell for hundreds of dollars apiece, they’re much more attainable than unopened packs. Plus, a complete run stored in binder pages presents really well.
The idea for this article came after I stumbled across a photo a collector shared back in 2021 showing the four different 1957 Topps 5-cent baseball wrappers.
One thing I’ve always liked about Topps wrappers from this era is the artwork. The generic baseball scenes and bold color combinations have a timeless look, and I think the 1957 wrappers are among the best examples from the golden age of Topps baseball wrappers.
But the artwork wasn’t the only thing that caught my attention. After doing a bit more research, I discovered that completing a true 1957 Topps baseball wrapper run actually requires six different wrappers: four standard 5-cent designs, a printing variation, and the penny pack wrapper.
The most common 5-cent wrapper is the “Now! Get Started in the Bazooka Baseball Contest” design. It exists in two varieties: one with a black bar in the upper-right portion of the wrapper and another with a black-and-red bar.
The next most common appears to be the “You’ll Love Blony” 5-cent wrapper.
I’ve only rarely encountered the “Young America’s Favorite Bubble Gum” wrapper over the years.
The toughest 5-cent wrapper to find is the “You’ll Love New Twin Blony.”
My hunch is that the “You’ll Love New Twin Blony” wrapper was introduced later in the baseball production run. It’s the same wrapper most often found on authenticated 1957 Topps football packs, and football production followed baseball season. That’s only speculation, though, I don’t have any production data to confirm it.
The 1-cent wrapper shares the same overall design language as the 5-cent wrappers, featuring the sliding player illustration and alternating yellow and red color scheme.
Unfortunately, while they’re much less expensive than unopened packs, these wrappers still command healthy prices because of the enduring popularity of the 1957 Topps set.
A pair of 1-cent wrappers sold for about $330 each in May 2021, while another realized $225 in May 2026. A “Now! Get Started” 5-cent wrapper sold for $264 in July 2021, and another brought $240 in REA’s February 2025 auction. Back in August 2017, a group containing four 5-cent wrappers and one 1-cent wrapper sold for $801. More recently, a “You’ll Love Blony” wrapper realized $610 on eBay in June 2026, while a “You’ll Love New Twin Blony” wrapper sold for $586 on eBay in May 2026.
If you’re thinking about starting a wrapper run, there are usually a handful of examples available online at a time, but obviously the tougher varieties don’t surface very often. You can browse current 1957 Topps wrapper listings on eBay here.
Putting it all together, a complete 1957 Topps baseball wrapper run consists of six wrappers and would likely cost several thousand dollars to assemble today. While that’s an achievable goal for a determined collector, I’m not even sure it’s possible to build an unopened pack run featuring every wrapper variation.
If you’re a collector of the 1957 Topps baseball set, or simply looking for a challenging niche within the hobby, assembling the complete wrapper run would make for a rewarding pursuit.
Happy Collecting!
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