Vintage Sports Cards – Baseball – Basketball – Football – Hockey
I’ve studied the unopened hobby niche for a while, and this is the first 1952 Topps Look ‘n See One-Cent Display Box I’ve seen. It was offered for sale in an April 2004 auction catalog along with a five-cent wrapper.
The cards from the 1952 Topps Look ‘n See set aren’t particularly scarce, but the unopened material rarely surfaces.
The 6-1/2” x 6-1/2” x 2” EX/MT conditioned display box originally held 120 1-cent wax packs.
Vintage unopened sports card material has been a popular segment of the hobby for a while now. One of the more prominent companies and industry leaders in the segment is the Baseball Card Exchange (BBCE), owned and operated by Steve Hart. Steve even authenticates unopened packs for PSA. In June 2020, they posted on their Facebook page about the “X-Out.”
Since not every collector has a Facebook account, I wanted to summarize their post and add more information so that everyone can learn a little more about unopened cards.
In the past, retailers pre-ordered boxes of cards, and if they didn’t sell all of them, Topps allowed them to return unsold boxes for credit.
For instance, let’s say that Topps originally distributed a Baseball Wax Box to a dealer for $20. Then, at the end of the season, Topps would allow the dealers to return that box for a $17 credit. Topps would in turn “re-sell” (blowout) those boxes to dealers for $10. (These numbers are fictitious and just used as examples). Well, they had to have a way to keep the “unsavory” dealers (there might be one or two lurking within the industry!) from buying those boxes for $10 and “re-returning” them for $17. Hence, the “X-Out” was born. When a box was returned, it was given the “X-Out”. From 1981 to 1988 Topps used various markings to identify “X-Outs” on wax, rack and cello boxes in all major sports and non-sports issues.
BBCE
It seems as though they used everything from a crayon or marker to a 4” paintbrush to put an ‘X’ or a line across the top of the box. This ‘X-Out’ signified that the box had already been returned once, and it could not be returned again.
BBCE
Often, they just drew a line across the box as well.
The ‘X-Out’ marking on some years were worse than others. I think that 1984 was the worst as they seemed to very, very generously deface the lids of their boxes that year. Another problem with the ‘X-Out’ is that they usually put the boxes back into the cases without letting the marking dry completely. So, when the boxes are removed from the cases today it results in many of the lids being torn off.
BBCE
The following picture of a 1984 Topps Football Box shows a piece of another box stuck to the top.
Topps also marked the outside of those cases with “Final Sale” stamp.
You can see “FINAL SALE NOT TO BE RETURNED” stamped on this 1983 Topps Baseball Unopened Rack Pack Case.
A few former card shop owners have shared that they received some cases marked “final sale” in which none of the boxes were “X-Outs.” It’s possible that Topps had certain products that could only be returned for a limited amount of time and, therefore, didn’t require marking. Or maybe other products could only be returned by the case. One dealer noted that rack pack boxes that they received were never marked.
Additionally, there are cases from before 1981 that are marked “Final Sale,” indicating that exchange programs started earlier. For example, the 1979 Topps case below shows “Final Sale,” but we haven’t seen any boxes from this era with an “X-Out” on it. I’m assuming Topps noticed some shady behavior and started marking the boxes in 1981.
Non-sports cards followed the same pattern, as you can see on the Garbage Pail Kid box which has a black line across it, and the 1978 Topps Jaws 2 Case marked “Final Sale.”
If you have any other information or comments about “X-Out” boxes or “Final Sale” cases – be sure to share them in the comments section below.
I always feel bad for vintage hockey unopened collectors; finding these items is tougher than tracking down a unicorn. Here’s one of them, a 1961/62 Topps Five-Cent Display Box.
Mastro included this one in their December 2004 Sports Auctions of Distinction catalog.
During the early 1960’s, Topps Chewing Gum Company printed NHL hockey cards in the United States, and then shipped the vast majority of them to its Canadian subsidiary. There, O-Pee-Chee, the affiliate company, produced its own packaging for use in distributing the cards north of the U.S. border. Offered is an original 36-Count display box from the Topps/O-Pee-Chee series of 1961/62. The 8” x 3-3/4” x 1-7/8” box, with the issue’s scarce stamp insert prominently featuring in its front-panel graphics, grades at least NM with only very mild, natural handling faults. This scarce relic is a superb representative of a highly collectible U.S.-Canadia collaborative effort.
The minimum bid at the time was $200; that wouldn’t be close to enough today. In the fall of 2022, REA sold a display box, perhaps the same one, that they described as the first they had ever handled and the only example they had seen available at public auction in the past twenty years for $10,500.
Still interested in vintage hockey unopened? In the market for an authenticated 1961/62 Topps hockey wax pack? BBCE listed this one on their site in August 2004 for $25k. PSA has only slabbed seven.
Time for another Carpet o’ Wax! This time, 24 1956 Topps Elvis Presley Five-Cent Wax Packs!
Mastro offered this non-sport classic in their April 2004 catalog; here’s the photo of the box they included with the packs.
The box has a factory-placed strip of clear tape and bears a “36 count” overprint, indicating that its contents were marketed in Canada.
The reference number for this 66-card set is R710-1. Most cards are marked “Bubbles Inc.,” so you may also see the set referred to as the 1956 Bubbles Elvis Presley card, which Topps also distributed in penny packs and vending boxes.
1954 Topps baseball boxes are extraordinarily desirable (Hello Ted Williams!); Ron Oser Enterprises sold this one in December 2000 with three wrappers.
The lot’s description mentioned that the box had been repaired and glued but was otherwise in VGEX condition.
Rockhurst Auctions re-sold the exact same box in April 2024 for $8,050.
If you’re a vintage display box collector, I’ve seen the following 1954 Topps baseball box variations:
Yesterday, I shared a 1950 Topps Bring ‘Em Back Alive One-Cent display box, so today, I figured I’d share the box for the set’s sequel, 1951 Topps Animals of the World!
This one-cent display box was the preceding lot to the Frank Buck’s box in Mastro’s April 2004 catalog. This wrapper accompanied the box.
The box was described as being in near-mint condition, while the wrapper was described as EX.
This set is designated R714-1 by the American Card Catalog, and the cards featured artwork by Mary Lee Baker. They came as singles (1 card per pack for a penny) and perforated 2-card panels (6 cards/5-cent pack), and the panels command a premium. Also, the cards issued as singles have white cardboard stock on the back, while the panels have gray cardboard on the back.
If you want a slabbed wax pack, PSA has graded seven 1950 Topps Bring ‘Em Back Alive wax packs and ten 1951 Topps Animals of the World wax packs.
Here’s an impossibly scarce Topps display box from their early years as a company that once held 120 penny packs of Frank Buck’s Bring ‘Em Back Alive cards.
Mastro offered this box in their April 2004 Americana Premier Catalog Auction, which included the most ridiculous selection of non-sports cards I’ve ever seen. The box came with the following Canadian-printed wrapper.
The lot’s description said Topps produced the box in 1951, but the community seems to have settled on a 1950 labeling for the set with an American Card Catalog Designation of R714-2 (ACC# R714-2). The box was described as being in near-mint condition, while the wrapper was described as EX.
Heritage sold the following box, which looks like it could be the same one Mastro did, for $504 in May 2024.
Also, for some reason, my Sport Americana Price Guide to the Non-Sports Cards 1930-1960 describes this as a Bowman set, but you can see the bottom of the box has a Topps copyright with a 1950 date. I think it was just a typo, though. When referencing it elsewhere in the book, they referred to the set as a Topps-produced one.
The Non-Sports Bible says the 100-card set “was originally issued as 2-card panels that are now quite difficult to find intact. ‘Animals of the World’ is sequel to this set. Panels command a premium due to scarcity.” Despite not mentioning it, I’m pretty sure the one-cent packs had just a single card. And more about the Animals of the World set in tomorrow’s blog post.