Here’s a great piece, written by Dennis Owyang, that Baseball Cards Magazine republished in its June 1984 issue from The Wrapper about one of my favorite non-sports sets: 1957 Topps Robin Hood!
Here’s how PSA, which has graded 2,725 cards from the set, describes it:
The 1957 Robin Hood set consists of 60 cards, each one 2-1/2″ by 3-1/2″. This release, based on the long-running British TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene, features a colorful scene from the program that is surrounded by a small white frame. The card title appears in white lettering atop a color “arrow” along the bottom border. Card backs have an artistic rendering of the man in tights as well as the card number, card title, and a block of text, in addition to the Robin Hood man. The 1957 Robin Hood set is anchored by Strange Welcome (#1), Fight for Justice (#9), Robin Hood, Outlaw (#13), Friar Hears the Plan (#27), Robin’s Victory (#34), Setting the Trap (#37), and Robin Takes Aim (#52).
Since I write an Unopened Newsletter (The Unopened Market Report, released every Monday) and have an Unopened Archive, I wanted to share those items from the set here.
First, Topps released the set in 5-cent and 1-cent wax packs. Here are the wrappers (Heritage sold the wrapper with a high grade set in 2011, and Vintage Non-Sports sold the penny wrapper in 2025 for $252.88).
PSA has slabbed seven of the 5-cent wax packs, and no penny packs, but I did find one from GAI online (REA sold the 5 cent pack pictured below).
Naturally, if there were packs, there were boxes too. I’ve been unable to track down a penny pack box, but Mastro sold a 5-cent wax box in April 2004 and 30 unopened packs. This is the auction that included OPC’s archives, so that may be why the strip of tape is on the box, why it has the words about it being distributed by O-Pee-Chee under license with Topps, and why 36-count was stamped on it, despite “24 Count” being directly printed on the box.
Notice the description mentions early vending box discoveries, but I haven’t been able to track down any of those in GAI holders or with Robin Hood stamped on their sides.
The only other wax box I could track down is this partial from Clean Sweep Auctions, originally from the Topps file room (the same one flattened on the vintage non-sports forums).
At some point, Topps inserted the cards into cello packs, and PSA has graded two (both sold by REA, the pictured one was sold in 2023 for $810. The other sold for $450 in the spring of 2025).
Let me know if you have more info about 1957 Topps Robin Hood unopened material so that I can update this post. And be sure to check out The Unopened Archive for more. Happy collecting!
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