Joining A Fan Club

The well of Topps affinity products is a never ending source of wonder.  Case in point: some 1974 ballpark promotions featuring team branded Baseball Rak Paks!

Three teams were involved from what I can determine: Orioles, Tigers and A's.  Scans from the A's promotion seem to be non-existent and word is they are the hardest of the three to find so no luck there but I can show you the other two.

Here's the Orioles Rak, courtesy of Friend o'the Archive Rex Morgart, front:

and back:

The front of the header card is plain to see but the reverse is interesting:

Man, remember Labor Day doubleheaders?!  Also, dig the Topps commodity code running along the right side there:

Keep that code (and T-Shirt night) in mind as we move on to Detroit:

That's from an REA auction (Spring 2019) and is an impressive collection of nineteen of these scarce items.  The price?  A cool $20,600 semolians!  I should note a Winfield rookie, a second year Schmidt and several other HOF'ers were showing but that is an impressive haul. All are BBCE overwrapped as well.

Here's a legible look at the front of the header-note the Pepsi Cola connection here that is lacking on the Orioles giveaway.  I do not know if the A's were associated with Pepsi or not but Detroit sure was, in a very local way:

The back of the Tigers header is, uh, not a list of upcoming promotions:

Here too, a commodity code!  The Orioles code is the same, except for the revision number of 01, so this at 02 followed in turn. I am going to say the A's would be 03.

Now about that T-Shirt promotion noted on the Baltimore header.  Detroit went Pepsi-branded again for theirs:

Not related to the Raks but neat-o!

Raks Resurgent

1975 saw production of three sportscard Rak Paks.  Baseball, as always, led the parade:

While the card count remained at 42, the price went up a dime compared to 1974, a sharp increase reflecting,no doubt, the effects of the first Energy Crisis. The header card also changed from blue to red, following the lead of the '74 football raks, which sported the same color.  Presumably this was done to male the raks standout a little more on the increasingly crowded counters of America.

The header card also serves as an ad card for Topps Sports Club.

Football raks were, in 1975, quite similar to the baseball:

 

The Sports Club mailer ad remains as well:

 

Basketball once again was MIA but hockey returned in rak (and several other forms) in 1975:

The back of the header?  Yup-Sports Club ad:

While the mid 70's raks are bland (and the football and hockey cards blander still), it's useful to know the price points and extras on the headers to help distinguish fakes.  Rak paks are among the most faked items in the hobby and a little knowledge always helps.

Rak 'Em Up

After a four year run utilizing essentially the same header cards for their rak paks in all sports, Topps changed things in 1974.  Partially driven by rising costs and partially driven by a new business model where baseball and other sports cards would no longer be sold series-by-series, a redesign was undertaken as this baseball rak shows:

Ch-ch-changes from 1970-73:
1) Blue header, no more yellow.
2) "New" wording has been retired.
3) "All 660 Cards" wording added (and then some, since this pack contains cards from the bonus "Traded" series.
4) A dozen cards have been excised from the pack.

Even more changes would happen by the time the football raks came out as the header turned red, wording was removed  and the card count fell by another eight compared to baseball:

Basketball seems to have been completely changed over without any Raks being offered.  Instead, Topps started to use the "wax tray" concept, where a number of wax packs would be overwrapped. Such trays will be covered in a future series of posts.

The same fate appears to have struck the hockey cards as well. I'm not sure why these changes occurred but it is entirely possible basketball and hockey were not selling enough units to warrant rak paks.  Also, basketball and hockey weighed in at a mere 264 cards while baseball was 660+ and football was a muscular 528 in number.

Rak Habit

Topps was showing the effects of lack of competition in 1973.  Once again, the year's rak paks featured the standard yellow header card and with the exception of the hockey cards, each major sport featured a design that was clean but a little bland.

Baseball leads the way:

This was the year all cards were available in one series, although not in all locales or configurations. From top to bottom those cards fronting each cell number: 430, 490 and 622 so this was a pack that spanned at least three series worth of cards.  I consider 1973 a pivotal year for Topps design-wise as the gaudy creations of the early 1970's gave way to the stylized look above.

Football cards also had a streamlined design:

Clean lines there and they seem to my eye a logical extension of the baseball design.

It's the same with basketball:

A little more color for basketball; note how he neatline around the photo changes color from card to card.

Hockey would bring yet more color to the cards:

That is one colorful rak!

This would mark the end of the "yellow header" cards which tied together all of Topps highest priced packs from 1970-73 in unwavering fashion.  When we look at 1974, differences will start to become apparent, which is good as this series of posts is a sort of field guide to each style.

Far Out Raks

On to that grooviest of years in our Rak Pak odyssey: 1972:  While the baseball cards forty (!) years ago looked like a black light would be required for viewing, the rak packaging was decidedly pedestrian again:

The header is unchanged, except for the product code, from the prior two years.  Topps just loved continuity with their graphics as it cut down on costs.  1972 was the first full year of Topps new, corporate ownership structure and one of the first casualties was the baseball card inserts that had been standard issue since 1961.  Not that the inserts appeared in any of the 1970's raks but a turn toward even more fiscal restraint was occurring at Topps HQ. Football would also follow suit in the header continuity department, although the psychedelic flair exhibited on the baseball cards was long gone.  Having said that, it's a nice, clean design:

The hockey rak?  Yup, just like last year's model:

As for basketball, with no scans showing up on teh internets, I reached out to noted scanologist John Moran and he replied that he had only seen a couple and had no examples in his digital domain.  If he doesn't have a scan, it must be a scarce item.  Anyone out there got a scan?

I plan to keep posting on raks sporadically until we hit 1980.  There's so many fakes out there I want to show  as many examples as I can here.  Anything I can do to help reduce bidding on the absolutely ridiculous number of outright counterfeit or fake items on Ebay is time well spent in my book.

Rare Raks

I have a few minutes before Mrs. Archives gets home and we can kick this year's Valentine's Day activities off so why not post on Rak Paks again?

As I wrote earlier this month, 1970 Football Raks are hard to find but Friend o'the Archive John Moran has come through with a scan, or more properly, a half dozen scans, indicating these Raks have grown in population since his last musings:

That one is unhung by the way......

What I suspect is a far rarer bird is this 1971 Basketball Rak, also sent in by the intrepid Mr. Moran.  Initially thought by me to be chimerical, it clearly is not. Behold it's semi-psychedelic brilliance:

That makes 1971 the first year will all four major sports represented in Raks. I am wondering now what the first Non Sports Post '67 Rak Pak was; seems like a good subject for some more research.

Raks Bak

Continuing on through the hazy, crazy 70's in our Topps Rak Pak journey, 1971 turned out to be a whole lot like 1970.  The 71 baseball raks seem to be more abundant than the previous year's but other wise are virtually identical:

Except for the product code, it's a dead ringer for 1970.  I still get a chuckle out of the "new" designation that appeared each year. EDIT 11/5/14-The hole became smaller starting with 4th series baseball raks.

The football raks follow the baseball in form and relative availability:

Hockey also came back in '71 (although it may just be that the 70 raks are so scarce they defy googling):

Same look, same price! I don't believe O-Pee-Chee followed suit in Canada on the rak paks; wax, cello and vending look to be the main configurations up North for some reason.

The research I have done indicates no 1971 Basketball raks were produced. This being Topps, if one popped up I would not be surprised but I believe it would be a couple of more years for a rak full of hoops players.

54 Is A Whole Lot More

In 1970, after injuring myself in a playground accident, I had to stay home a few weeks from school and was left with some time on my hands.  My father, feeling bad for me, would bring me home a rak pack of 1970 baseball cards every other day or so and in no time I amassed a large collection of these gray bordered pasteboards.

1970 was the year Topps changed their sales strategy in many ways and one of the biggest was upping the count in their baseball rak paks from 36 to 54 cards while increasing the price from 29 cents to 39 cents.  If you're adding that up, it meant that each card that used to cost .8 of a cent now retailed for .72 of a cent.  Plus you got a whole bunch more cards!

The 1970 rak header card retained the general look from 1969 but of course reflected the changes in count and price:

You will note the header, which after being redesigned for 1968-69 and had been red was now yellow.  The other change was that the older raks contained three 12 card cello packs within each pocket while the new ones had 18 loose cards in each. As it was in 1968-69, the header is also in its own cell.

What I recall most about these paks was that approximately one half of the run in the first cell would usually reappear in the third cell (sometimes upside down in relation to the other cards).  Random cards that also appeared elsewhere in the rak would also reappear upside down, usually on the front or back of a pocket.  So maybe 20% of each rak contained duplicate cards.  Well, you needed extras to trade, right?

As for football, Topps did make raks but noted unopened pack collector and Friend o'the Archive John Moran wrote three or four years ago he has seen only two.  Topps was also pushing a 25 cent cello pack starting this year (in a nice box--more about these sometime soon) so maybe the focus was more on them.  I cannot find any details about a hockey rack and the basketball cards from 1970 would have been too large to effectively sell in raks.

If anyone has scans of the 1970 football or hockey raks (if they were even made), send 'em along!

Naughty Not Nice

One of the problems with buying vintage unopened Topps packs is that there is a lot of bogus product out there.  Wax packs are notorious for being pillaged, filled with commons and then resealed but cello packs are also created in ways to deceive.  However, the most obvious problem packs right now are "Christmas" rak paks.

Generally, these have a Holiday themed header card and three pockets of four cards each.  The earliest ones are from "1952", the latest ones stretch into the 1970's.  They are all 100% fake, produced well after the fact by third party sellers.

Here is a typical example:

That mix of black and red backs does not seem like something Topps would have ever done! Sadly, these are being sold in volume on eBay and many sell for healthy prices.  Here is a later one from "1958" that is quite heinous:

The Bessent and Berra cards are nasty; off-center and dinged cards are common in these fantasy packs.  Here is yet another example from "1968":

Other variants exist with header cards that are mostly white, with a candy cane motif and feature artfully aged staples.  I can't find a scan of one right now but they are out there and probably predate the ones above to the point they could have been produced in the late 60's or early 70's.  The first mention of these I can recall was in Sports Collectors Digest over 20 years ago, when they were (initially) presented as being legitimate to the era, if not Topps.

Unopened pack dealer and expert Steve Hart has been interviewed in a good piece on many bogus Topps packs, well worth a read. Don't let the grinch get you this holiday season!

Bak to Raks

1969 was the last year of the 3 x 12 rak pak arrays.  Starting in 1959, when three 12 card cello packs were overwrapped for point of sale purchase displays, Topps had stuck with this winning formula for over a decade.  But 1969 was the last year of many Topps pricing schemes; 1970 would bring a shift to larger and more expensive packaging across all lines.

The 1969 raks are essentially the same as the 68's:

That NEW tag stayed with the 69's; can't go wrong with a good thing! You can really see how loose the cards would get inside each pocket.  Football was again a match for baseball:

The only real changes in the header card from 1968 to '69 would have been to the Topps production code (a very helpful dating tool) and at some point in the year a switch from Brooklyn to Duryea as the place of manufacture: I need to find clearer scans to determine when they did this on the raks; it was about the the time the fifth series baseball cards were issued but if they had old stock showing Brooklyn, they may well have let it run out unless there was a compelling business reason not to. The baseball and football raks above came from Huggins & Scott's site.

Once again the hockey cards also came in raks (just Topps I think, not OPC):

As with almost all my tough hockey scans, that is from Bobby Burrell's fabulous Vintage Hockey Collector's Price Guide.  Hockey raks would have been produced in tiny numbers relative to baseball and even football.  Remember, if you are buying these off eBay, watch for fakes-there are far more of those and repackaged "Christmas" raks than legitimate ones out there.

Rak Attack

Looking up details on Topps Rak Paks for my previous post led me to some more images and I feel like this is about to turn into a multi-post look at Topps biggest retail packs.  I certainly bought the majority of my cards this way from 1970-74, many of them from a fabulous store called Coronet.

The modern Rak Pak, as we saw last time, debuted in 1968.  Ditching the old, three-cello overwrapped style pack, Topps lost the individual cello's and created individual pockets for three cells of cards:

The "new" label is clearly to show the pack itself has been redesigned but why do they still say 3/10 cent packs? I guess Topps wanted you to know you were saving a penny!  You got 12 cards per pak, so 36 per rak.

The football raks were similar in '68:

Believe it or not, Topps sold hockey cards in raks as well:

The ability to sell any type of product using one template was very appealing to Topps as it helped to reduce costs.  Rak paks were designed for variety and toy stores and were prevalent from what I recall of them. I have tried to identify a Non-Sports rak from 1968 but there do not seem to be any sets that would really work, except possibly Hot Rods.  A lot of Topps sets that year were odd-sized or short in length.  I would think sports had a longer shelf life generally and the raks would be a better fit for sports cards due to the length of the seasons.  I will keep looking though.

Nice Rak

Thanks to a (sadly) current eBay auction, I think I have stumbled onto the end of the Trading Card Guild era at Topps.  Long story short a bogus 1967 baseball rak pak is currently up on the 'bay but it's clearly a homemade job and I shall not link to it.  I did some research on legitimate Rak Paks though as a result and think I resolved the end date for the Guild.  First, let's look at some raks!

Basically, any rak pak prior to 1968 would contain 3 individual cello packs encased in an overwrap plus a header card stapled to the end of the overwrap, which extended a bit to accomodate the staples for the header.  The first of these appeared in 1959 if I am not mistaken and Topps used them for any variety of issues, not just baseball.

Here is what a proper '66 rak pak looks like:

You can see the three cells (plus a really great insert) and how they are overwrapped, plus the header card is stapled to the whole package, it's flaps sandwiching the rak proper.  This is how any rak through 1967 should look. In fact, here is a legit '67:

You can see the three cello packs still, plus the old style header card attachment.  I can't get it to reproduce properly here but the text at the bottom right of the header says Topps Chewing Gum.  The next year, the cellos had vanished as Topps moved to the more familiar version, sans individual cellos and utilizing three "cells" or pockets of loose cards, with a fourth cell that enclosed the header card.



Those last two raks are from Mark Murphy's excellent Unopened Pack Guide.  It's a little outdated as it was last updated in 2002 but is chock full of useful information.

But that's not why I am posting all this today. The real reason?  Take a look at that 1966 header card again, along the bottom, under the EXTRA SPECIAL FEATURE line, it says "Trading Card Guild Mfr."  That is the latest date I have seen associated with the Trading Card Guild and likely marks the end of their run.  It is increasingly apparent to me that Topps would haul out the Guild for any product sold without gum, i.e.non-confectionery items be they in vending, cellos or raks.  I suspect this was due to their contracts and no-competes on various, if not all issues, a problem worked out by 1967 it appears.

The Guild livery was more obvious on some raks than others.  Check out this classic 1962 Civil War News rak, a scan I pinched from an Abraham Lincoln site:

Amusingly, there is no Trading Card Guild ID on the rak but it certainly pushed the educational aspect.  That rak theoretically held about 40% of an entire set, although I am sure some duplicates lurk within!