Field Guide To Dating Topps Wrappers

One of the things that drives me batty about eBay is the fact so many items are incorrectly described and dated. Sometimes this is intentional but often it is not and merely results from a lack of understanding on the part of the seller.  Misdating happens with third party graders and in catalog auctions as well but it's especially prevalent on eBay and sometimes there is not enough in the descriptions or scans to figure out what you are looking at.  So I thought a little guide to various identifiers on many Topps wrappers might be helpful. This post mostly covers wax wrappers post 1956 but some of the graphic elements discussed below can be found on Cello and Rak Paks in many instances.

GIANT SIZE ERA AND EARLIER 

Some very early Topps wrappers (and a number of retail box bottoms) carry a date and some do not; generally the earliest gum tab packs and five cent packs that held panelized issues such as Magic Photo and Fightin' Marines from 1950-52 carry a copyright date.  Here is a five cent Magic Photo pack back with a 1948 copyright in the lower right corner, courtesy of Friend o'the Archive Al Richter:

Given that there are not many wrappers from this era that can't be identified by date just from their look (and general hobby references) and the small amount of reissued sets, there's not much I can say that is helpful.  I know that sounds like a copout but it's the truth!  Still, there are some things worth knowing.

Differences in the three earliest Tatoo issues (1948, 1949, 1953) can be seen in detail here. The 1948 and 1949 series of Magic Photo each have dated penny wrappers and the 1955 penny (small) Hocus Focus cards come in a similar wrapper but carry a 1955 date. Some more on that can be found here. 1949 and 1955 Funny Foldees could have different packaging but nobody knows which is which or even if there is a difference.

The one issue that most collectors don't realize as misdated is the Doubles reissue of the 1951 Red Backs and Blue Backs, which came out in 1952.  The Doubles packs had two cards and no candy, while the original issues came in in 1951 under the Baseball Candy rubric.  No change in the cards was made but the packaging was different. Here, take a look at this Doubles box bottom showing a 1952 copyright:

There possibly was a Golden Coin reissue in 1952 (originally a 1948-49 release) that may be worth knowing about as the different Golden Coins between the two sets could exhibit some slight differences. The problem is no 1952 issue of the set has been confirmed, although it is highly likely it occurred. More information is here as to why.

World on Wheels has wrappers that reference either 1954 or 1955, the latter containing the higher (and more valuable) numbers. Have a look here.

STANDARD SIZE ERA

Topps went to a standard size of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" for most of their releases starting with Elvis Presley in late 1956.  Dating some issues by the wrapper can be tough but for most it's not a problem as the year and cards are well known. Wrappers from 1957 to mid 1958 can be identified by two different methods.

If there is a Bazooka ad and penny piece graphic on the wrapper,the upper left red triangle of the Bazooka pack will state "The Atom" on these packs.  "The Atom" phrasing was part of the Bazooka launch in 1947 so it had a long life! From mid-1958 on Bazooka graphics will state "Topps" in the upper left triangle. Here is a Space Cards wrapper from '57 followed by a Target: Moon wrapper proof from what I now believe to be 1958 showing the different Bazooka packaging:

Here are the two Bazooka graphics, isolated:

If it's a Blony ad (a brand Topps acquired with the Bowman purchase in February 1956 and which dates back to 1930), graphics from sometime in 1957 onward have a rainbow look to them:

.

Blony would go dormant (or very, very quiet for a time) until being revived as a twist wrap product around 1968 but it was not the well-marketed product that Bazooka was.  Bowman had also marketed Blony as a twist but in more of an elongated shape (Topps' had a rounder look to theirs).

For Baseball from 1952-55 Topps did a slight modification of the font for their brand name and briefly had a premium offer on the wrapper in '52:

But by the time Baseball and All American Football arrived in '55, the logo was a blast from the past, mimicing the designs of the 30's and 40's:

Yes, that's a Canadian All-American Football wrapper!

1957 brought changes to Baseball yet again as this scan from www.sportscardradio.com shows the font losing some of it's earlier pizazz:
:

This Topps logo will appear on some but not all pack fronts from 1957 on but it morphed into something less appealing in 1958.  This 1958 and forward logo is very plain looking and is just the word "Topps" in all capital letters. Baseball and Football display this bland "Post-Sputnik" logo almost without fail but Non Sports wrappers often do not, either because licensing information appears or a controversial set might have used the Bubbles, Inc. name instead. And sometimes Topps wanted to advertise Bazooka or Blony and did not use a Topps logo (no idea why as this seems backwards). So some wrappers have no pertinent graphics on the front and the side panel must be examined for clues. Here is the "bland" logo on a 1960 Football pack:

Side panels will have the Topps (or Bubbles Inc.) address displayed in almost all instances and prior to mid-1963 ZIP codes were not used (they were introduced on July 1 of that year).  Some address lines might display the old "Brooklyn 32" style (almost all do not but I haven't seen all of them) but if there is a premium offer you will see it in the relevant text.

The 1957 and 1958 styles would be mixed and matched through the early and mid 60's Here is a 1963 Baseball wrapper that goes back to the '57 design (tight loops on the p's are the giveaway):

In this detail of the indicia, you will see there is no postal or ZIP code:

It;s a little harder to see but the premium offer on the opposite flap has a "B'klyn 32" address:

It is worth noting many (but not all) retail box bottoms from this era are dated and have similar designations as well.  The '63 Baseball box clearly shows "Brooklyn 32":

However, the use of "32" on some premium offers went well into 1965 so while a ZIP code is definitely post-1963, a two digit code is not always pre-1963! Still, as there are not too many reissues or anomalies prior to 1966, looking for the plain Topps logos will usually be enough to see what's what.

Penny packs of 1965 Baseball were produced but by the time Football came out, the practice had ended, so you can't have a one cent pack any later than 1965, except for penny tattoo issues, which were much smaller in size at this time anyway than the standard sized issues..

In 1966, roughly coincident with their move of confectionery production, packaging and warehousing facilities from Brooklyn to Duryea, Pennsylvania, Topps created a new, lower case curved "Topps" logo that was the most well known version.  1966 Baseball, the first card/gum set produced in Duryea had this new logo, although the Topps manufacturing address on the packaging would remain as Brooklyn until about the middle of 1969.

The Baseball wrapper in '66 has a weird perspective, so here's a Football that shows off the new design:

This closeup gives a really good look at the logo:

The Duryea move also brought about production codes,which helped the Topps brass back in Brooklyn keep track of each set or product being manufactured.  The majority of these codes will have the last digit representing the year of production (it is a single digit, not a double so one ending in 7 would mean 1967 on a  five cent pack).  These were not applied to all materials originally but by 1968 virtually all packs and retail boxes, not to mention other packaging, had a code.  Most times these were nine digits, with four dashes separating various groupings of numbers, all of which had meaning to Topps.  Even this scarce Baseball Plaks wrapper form 1967 (not 1968, check the last digit) has the code in the lower right corner which reads 0-490-94-01-7. Most card packaging from this time has a code starting with a zero while some non-confectionery products such as Flying Things or other more toy-like issues would use a different style of production code.

The box bottom for the packs has a little different code but the link is the 490 product code.  It starts with 1, meaning wax box I believe.  I am still trying to determine if the toys produced in Japan such as Pop Guns had their own system, so stay tuned.The full box code below for Baseball Plaks is 1-490-35-01-7:

The original curved Topps logo started out with no Trademark Registration symbol but it would show up by 1967, below and to the right of the logo normally but it was still a nickel per pack:

It's hard to make out but the registered trademark sign is below and to the right of the Topps logo.

It would move sometimes to above and to the right of the logo as on this 1970 Super Football wrapper: 

Topps filed for their new trademark on March 17, 1966 and it was "published for opposition" on March 7, 1967 with an official registration date of May 23, 1967. Topps probably banked on there being no opposition and started using it immediately on their best selling product.  Some 1967 issues have the symbol and some don't so it was a transition year.  

Five cent wax continued to be produced until late 1969 when ten cent pricing became the norm. (EDIT 7/2/16-I should have stated that certain card and sticker and sets, such as Wacky Packages and Ugly Stickers, would still be sold in 5 cent wax through at least 1976; these would often only have two stickers per pack. Some other offbeat items may also have been sold in five cent packs into the 1970's but for the most part ten cent wax was the norm from 1970 until prices went up again.). Many packs of the period have no pricing on them though, as it was shown on the retail box. Also, in mid 1969 (first on an experimental ten cent cello Baseball pack that mimicked the five cent wax) the manufacturing address finally flipped to Duryea but the changeover was sporadic during this year. By the time Football appeared in the fall, 10 cents and Duryea were the norm:

Then around 1978 Topps would occasionally add a little box around the logo, sometimes with color added, sometimes not:

The curved logo would survive until 1980-81 before it was replaced with this:

1981 Topps Baseball was the first packaging to use this new logo I believe but some products in '81 still had the curved one.

Another handy thing to know was where the premium fulfillment warehouses were located. Exterior premium offers began reappearing sporadically in 1959 after a hiatus, prior to that they had been mostly printed on pack inserts.  On '59 Baseball pack and for a few years hence on many products, the address is one of a number of PO Boxes in Brooklyn:

Depending upon what was being ordered, some differing addresses can appear but most premiums of the era were ordered from Brooklyn. Not all offers had expiration dates though. Then in 1965 St. Paul, Minn. started appearing in the premium offers, as this Beatles Color Photos wrapper shows:

But you could still get premiums from Brooklyn at this time; it seemed to depend upon the age of the premium. Older ones came out of Brooklyn while newer ones, such as the famous Exploding Battleship, came from Minnesota. Once Topps got production up and running in Duryea though and shed a lot of their Brooklyn warehouse space, St. Paul became the norm around 1967. By this time the premium fulfillment was likely exclusively contracted to third parties.

Occasionally some special offer would be struck by Topps and a random city would pop up but St. Paul would last until about 1973-74, when Westbury, NY began appearing as the mailing address (and which operation was, unbeknownst to me at the time, housed in an industrial area mere blocks from my childhood home).  You can see it on this 1974 Wacky Packages wrapper:

Westbury would remain through the end of the decade and beyond. I'll stop here as post-1981 packaging is well-documented elsewhere and my focus also ends at the end of the 70's.

As always with Topps, there are exceptions to the rule but what I have outlined above is a handy, quick guide to identifying issues where you can't fully inspect the packaging up close or only a part is visible.  At some point I will delve into the intricacies of the Production Codes but that is a truly epic project. Meanwhile, know that you can use the code (geez, I sound like Dexter Morgan) for dating --as long as it's visible-- to easily decipher Topps dates in addition to the less obvious clues on the wrappers.

Target: Moon Date

Back in 2012 I had an article appear in The Wrapper #265 that compared the vastly similar Space Cards and Target: Moon issues and attempted to date each set as the conventional hobby wisdom had them both coming out at the same time in 1957 or '58.  I was able to determine Space Cards had been issued in 1957 and Target: Moon (the blue backed edition) had come out sometime after mid-1958 due to differences in the Bazooka advertising on the wrappers. My conclusion on Target: Moon was that is had likely been issued in 1962 but that there was a possible date range of mid-1958 to mid-1963. I won't bore you with the details but you can read all about it here.

Thanks to a Target: Moon penny box proof being offered in the latest Legendary auction, another piece of the puzzle has been revealed.  This proof gives us a good look at the box bottom, which along with the indicia on many period wrappers, is often the best way to glean information about the peculiarities of certain sets.  The proof is magnificent:

I'll flip it around so you can read it but the red copyright strip on what would be the box bottom is a big clue as to possible time frame, as is the inclusion of a Blony "hint" on the back panel. The first thing to notice though is that the Bazooka gum tab shown states "Topps" and not "The Atom" on the red triangle portion, which confirms the mid 1958 or later date of issue.

Blony will be revisited in a minute but lets check out the copyright strip up close:

The address is our quarry here as it states Brooklyn 32, N.Y., which is proper since it should predate the use of ZIP codes which came into use on July 1, 1963. The colored bar of copyright, and manufacturing information first saw use by Topps in 1955 and stopped in 1963.  Here are some other box bottoms for comparison.  First 1957 Baseball:

An exact match (not always the case). Here is a 1962 Baseball Bucks box:

It's blurry but there is a "32" postal designation in the color bar.  By 1963 the color bar was gone as a new style was introduced but the "32" was still there, at least in the beginning of the year as this 1963 Baseball box shows:

1963's Beverly Hillbillies was similar to the above:

Not all issues follow these patterns.  There is a 1961 Baseball box with no color bar and no "32" and some 1964 Baseball boxes have no indicia on the bottom at all (possibly due to the ZIP code changeover) and to further confuse things a 1965 Outer Limits box still has the "32" plus a PO Box number as it identifies Topps alter-ego Bubbles, Inc. but I think you get my drift; the color bar disappears in 1963, so Target: Moon would have been issued before then.  The "32" slowly faded away and a Brooklyn, N.Y. address without it or a ZIP code followed.  Around the time of the move to Duryea in 1966 a 11232 ZIP code came into play until Brooklyn itself was banished in mid-1969 as Topps abandoned their roots for good.

Now what about that furshlugginer Blony ad? As we know, Topps acquired the brand when it bought Bowman in 1956.  I don't know when Blony ads featuring the "rainbow" bubble shown on the Target: Moon box started showing up in earnest once Topps redesigned that brand's wrapper so that's no help, although it was identified as a "twin" pack (2 pieces) in some 1957 product ads (the rainbow pack is not a twin pack I don't think). Blony continued on, spasmodically, into the 1970's but underwent another redesign in 1969.  

As of now, I am wavering on my 1962 estimated issue date for Target: Moon and hoping to develop a little more information on the Blony graphics to nail the date down better.  Jeff Shepherd has a huge amount of his collection featured in a new book about Bazooka Joe (go buy it-trust me) and he has some dating on Blony wrappers I want to think about and discuss with him. As always, readers thoughts are appreciated.

(UPDATE May 30, 2013: As usual, Shep comes through-the rainbow design on Blony was used in 1957-58  (when a major redesign occurred) while the "Topps" version of Bazooka replaced the "Atom" version in mid 1958.  So Target: Moon must have been a reissue of Space Cards a year after the original issue. This reissue was missed by the American Card Catalog compilers in the 1960 (and last) version of that guide.)

Chicken or Egg, Space Cards or Target Moon?

Once of the more enduring, albeit least contentious debates in the hobby, has been over the issue dates of two blue backed sets, Space Cards and Target: Moon, the latter of which was also reissued in slightly altered format in 1967 with salmon backs and a whole lot of skip numbering. You will recall these are alleged to be identical sets when referring to the blue backed Target: Moon cards, with just the name of said set altered on the reverse, but it ain't so.

Here is an obverse of card #34 in all three sets, Moon Explorers:

The Space Cards reverse looks like this:







Meanwhile, Target: Moon #34 had a back that, in addition to the set name change, also had a title change but only on the reverse, the only card I can find like this across all three sets, excepting some contractions of longer titles:

In case you were wondering, Space Cards #33 refers to Card #34 as Lunar Expedition, so that was clearly what Topps wanted to call it.  But the front on Target: Moon is still entitled Moon Explorers! It's the same with the salmon back cards reissued in 1967 although card #33 was not released in that configuration and we can't see what it was calling card #34 in the preview line.  Here it is:

The front still says Moon Explorers, which is now in error twice, over a span of several years.

I promised a couple of posts ago to show why Target Moon came out after Space Cards, which was the actual point of this post, so take a look at this Space Cards wrapper:

It looks a little weird because there is another wrapper under it but ignore that.  Instead, compare it to this Target: Moon wrapper proof (which is the same as the issued version except for the printer's lines):

Notice anything different besides the set name?  The Bazooka ad has changed slightly and it gives us a huge clue as to which came first.  Here is a closeup of the Bazooka piece in the ad:

I really fuzzed it up when expanding but you can see the upper left corner reads "The Atom", reflecting Topps' Atom Bubble Gum ad campaign of eleven years duration.  Now look at the Bazooka piece from the Target: Moon wrapper:

It says Topps.  "The Atom" was dropped in mid 1958 and replaced by "Topps", probably due to the very real threat of nuclear war with Russia at the time.  We know Space Cards came out in 1957 and now we know Target: Moon came out after the middle of 1958.  Target: Moon by the way, is card # 7 in all three sets. My guess as to the issue date of the Target: Moon the set is about 1962 but that is a story for another day (since it's in an article I have in a recent issue of The Wrapper).

The salmon backed Target: Moon cards were not sold with gum by the way and that too is a story for another day!

Baked Salmon

When Topps wanted to really mess around with their products, they sometimes went all in.  One very odd case of reissues concerns three partial sets of cards, reprinted with Salmon colored backs and then sold only in Fun Packs, circa 1968 or '69. For added fun, these three sets may be related to a partial reissue of another set that itself has three permutations.  Confused?  Just Wait!

Our saga begins in the 1950's, with a fabulous 88 card series called Space Cards. This set is not part of all the shenanigans though but it begat a set issued around 1962 called Target: Moon. that used the same artwork,  text and deep blue backs as Space Cards but with the title changed. I've written about these two sets in The Wrapper #265 but that's a study of issue dates for the twos sets and not much else.  What is germane though is that half of the Target: Moon set also appears with salmon colored backs. Here is a look at card #1, with the three different backs (the blues are similar but one scan is quite dark):

The Target: Moon cards have three salmon-colored siblings: Hot Rods, Who Am I? and Knock-Knocks.

Hot Rods is a crazy set: it was first issued in 1964 or '65 a a set of 66 cards, printed on gray stock with a salmon colored back.  22 cards from Hot Rods were then reprinted with bright yellow backs as part of a game by Milton Bradley called "Win A Card", which also featured some reprinted 1967 Football and 1968 Baseball cards with the same yellow backs.  This makes a lot of sense as they were all reprinted on the same sheet. The Game dates to 1968.

That wasn't enough for Topps though, as Hot Rods saw a second reissue of 44 cards, which included all the numbers from the 22 card yellow backed reissue but this time they had salmon colored backs and came on either white or tan stock. Take a look at these galley shots from the Network 54 Vintage Non Sports forum to see:

If you are keeping count of salmon colored backs, we are up to 88.  And we haven't even talked about Who Am I? yet. Who Am I? was a 1967 set of 44 illustrated cards that had a scratch off feature on the front. Famous for its four baseball players (Ruth, Koufax, Mays and Mantle), a number of other famous subjects appear as well, some of which are updated versions of illustrations from the 1952 Look 'N See set. 38 of these cards were reissued, without the scratch off coating and with salmon backs. Here, regular issue then salmon back:

 





























The uncoated card is also, quite logically missing the instructions. We now have a count of 124 salmon backed cards.  If you just said to yourself: "Self, there should be 8 more salmon backed cards!" you are correct, sort of.  There are actually 30 more salmon backed cards.

Of these 30, eight are double printed Who Am I? cards. Indeed, all 124 of the preceding cards plus the 8 WAI? double prints all appear together on a 132 card press sheet.

But wait, there's more.  22 cards entitled Knock-Knocks also appear with salmon backs.  We'll get into those in our next installment as right now I want to talk distribution.

The conventional hobby wisdom is that the salmon backed Target: Moon, Hot Rod, Who Am I? cards were all issued in 1969 Fun Packs. Since Fun Packs (sold in bulk in poly bags in department stores and the like) were seasonal dumping grounds for various returned and unissued Topps stock it seems a little odd these salmon backed cards did not first see issue at the retail level.

My present operating theory, which is certainly open to criticism, is that the salmon backed cards could have been intended to be a second series of cards for the "Win A Card" game.

When said game sold poorly and was scrapped, said salmon backed cards were orphaned.  Topps hated having cards lying around the warehouse so they rolled them into Fun packs, probably for Hallowe'en.

I should note some sources consider the salmon backed Target: Moon cards to be a Popsicle related premium.  They are not and that particular disconnect stems from a reissue of the 1963 Astronauts 3D set, which happened to be retitled Popsicle Space Cards.  That too is a story for another day, although this back (cribbed from Net54 again) shows why there is such confusion:

Stay tuned for some Knock-Knock jokes!