Sunday, June 27, 2010

1980 Topps Super Unopened Pack

About a month ago, I picked up an unopened pack of three 1980 Topps Superstar Photo Cards via ebay. With the recent posting of Dave Parker, I thought that this feature would be timely, especially since the Cobra is the one on the top:



Chet Lemon is the card on the back, seen here.



Interestingly, these cards have white backs, instead of the grey ones with the Topps logo that I have been showing. The cards were very popular at first and were distributed in these three card packs. Apparently, hobby dealers tried to snap up cases of these in a bit of mindless speculation. Perhaps due to the unexpected demand, Topps printed all sixty cards again, but this time on thinner gray card stock. These cards were distributed a number of ways, including five card cello packs. I have learned that the white-backed cards are more valuable, although not by a lot.

When I was a kid, I always got these either at 7-11 or Kmart. Does anyone recognize the price tag logo in the top right corner? It is obscuring Tommy John's hat. Someone already blacked out "89" cents for the retail price. We didn't get a Walgreens in Michigan until the late 1990s, I am wondering if that is it?

On the back is a checklist of all 60 cards in the set, some of which have been featured here already. There is also a "Full Series Offer" where with this wrapper and nine bucks you can get the whole set directly through Topps. A quick search of ebay shows that 30 years later, you can still get the set for around the same or less.

I wonder what would happen if I sent this to Topps today and apologized for it being late?

3 comments:

  1. The only place we could find these as kids was at a Greek grocery store.

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  2. I don't remember the rack packs. Here in AZ I think they were just in the grey back packs and one to a pack. They were available at the 7-11 and Circle K stores.

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  3. The price sticker is from Woolco. They were a discount department store chain that was owned by Woolworth.

    You can see their logo here, which is the "W" you see on the price sticker. I recognized it as we had a Woolco where I grew up.

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