Most Topps vintage sports card wrappers featured mail-in offers for sports-related knick-knacks (card lockers, albums, ball&strike counters, etc.), but they occasionally had an offer for cards. One such example happened in 1975 when one of the Topps football wrappers featured a mail-in offer to “Get All 26 Team Check List Cards.”
The 1975 Topps Football wrapper’s front advertised the scratch-off game that came in every pack. But there were three wrapper variations that year for mail-in offers (along the side of a flattened wrapper or the back of an unopened wax pack). One for the Topps Super Sports Card Locker, another to join the Topps Sports Club, and one for the Team Check List Cards shown below.
For 40 cents and one football wrapper, Topps would send back a tri-folded uncut sheet featuring 26 standard-sized cards (one for each of the 26 NFL teams).
The front of the cards has each team’s 1975 schedule, while the backs have player checklists that feature the card number, the player’s name and position, and an empty check box. The fronts are distinguished by color, too, with AFC teams having a red top and NFC teams featuring a blue background along the top. All the backs have pink backgrounds.
Since the set was only available as a mail-in offer that had to be hand-cut, and Topps folded the card stock, finding cards is challenging, particularly high-grade ones. PSA has only graded 132 total examples, and raw cards aren’t that much more available. As I write this, there is one graded card on eBay, and there aren’t any on COMC.
As far as pricing goes, your guess is as good as mine now, but here are a few of the most “recent” graded sales for a few of the more popular teams:
Cowboys – The last sale was in May 2018, when a PSA 3 sold for $67
Steelers – The last sale was in October 2019, when a PSA 3 sold for $120
Bears – The last sale was in Feb 2021, when a PSA 7 sold for $35
Colts – The last sale was in April 2018, when a PSA 8 sold for $18
49ers – The last sale was in April 2018, when a PSA 9 sold for $150
While checklist cards like this are a bit of an odd addition for the common collector, dedicated football card hobbyists may appreciate tracking down an uncut sheet and each of the 26 cards. Unfortunately, it will take a bit of patience; the mail-in offer expired in December of 1975, happy collecting!
Been trying to find a Steelers of this to have graded for years now with no luck. This is the hardest of all the uncut checklists. If anyone ever sees one please let me know.
Good luck!
Davin, I have one ungraded in penny sleeve. Not sure what it would grade out at.. vertical centering is off but card is in good shape and unmarked
I’m definitely interested in it. At this point I’ll take the best I can find
It’s in pretty good shape, prolly grade 5 or possibly 6. First time I’ve ever replied on any of this stuff. If I can figure out way to take pic and send I will but I’m older and technology not my thing lol
That would be great. I’d leave my email here for you but not sure if it’s allowed. I guess sooner or later we will have to contact each other outside this page.
I was wondering same thing as far as email or phone number. I do have a store on Mercari.. maybe I could list for an outrageous price that way you could see it but I’m kind of tempted to get graded now after reading article. I have 25 of the 26, missing the Rams
I’m good with it! Anything for the hobby !
Just let me know what you might want to do.
Mercari would be fine with me. I look there all the time. No matter what I do want the card weather its raw or graded. I have a massive PSA Steelers collection and this card just happens to be part of the registry. Steelers are about the only team set that requires it. Just my luck. lol
Ok let me think about it. To be clear , if graded u only want from PSA?
That would be correct.
Ok.. I will keep u updated, at this point sending in to get graded. If I didn’t think it would pull a 6 I wouldn’t send in.
Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from you.
I just thought of something. If you are on the PSA Registry you can look me up there and contact me. Im on there as davin72. You can easily find me on any Steelers set from 1950 – 1989.
Ok thanks
Technically I can see your emails as the site admin and could email you both as a connection so the email isn’t public
Any thoughts on the PSA pop/rarity of an uncut sheet? I have one, but I used it as my checklist while putting the set
together. Otherwise, it’s in high grade.
Is it unmarked also? That would be the big thing. Last uncut sheet I saw sold for between $200 -$250 about 3 years ago.
Thánks Davin…it is marked very neatly as a checklist, but otherwise not marked or written on.
Would you be interested in selling it.
Thanks, but I’ll keep it for now. I may reach out to PSA to see if they would consider grading it.
They dont grade the whole sheet. Only way to get it graded is to cut out each individual checklist and send them in.
Well I thought I got lucky. Found an uncut sheet on eBay a few weeks ago and bought it for $200. Seems now that the USPS has lost it (if you can believe that lol) and im getting no response from the seller. Guess Ill just wait a couple more days and get a refund from ebay on it. There is another one for sale on ebay but seller wants $2000 for it but after just buying one for $200 that $2000 seems a little crazy. Guess Ill just keep looking.
What a total bummer! Hope you find a good deal soon. Maybe reach out to some folks going to the National to keep an eye open for you? Unfortunately I won’t be going.
Well good news is the seller finally contacted me…probably cause ebay got involved. Said he is going to contact USPS to see if they can help. Its now past a week of when it was suppose to get delivered so I’m sure its gone for good. Still have my fingers crossed tho. Im not going to the National either but I might be able to find some people who are and maybe they can look for me.