Getting Testy

Going to lay some eye candy on you today kids, in the form of some Topps test packs.

Topps was infamous for running very brief tests of products in at least four ways: lab testing with kids and the product in a controlled setting, handing out test items at local schools, giving distributors and salesmen a few samples to see the enthusiasm level among their buyers, and throwing a box or two of boxes on select retail store counters and gauging the public's response. The latter method is by far the most well known today and many test products, especially those from the 1966-74 period are rare and expensive (especially if sports related) these days. Before 1966, well it's not easy to to tell how tests were conducted at the retail level.

The retail test packaging that is known today mostly was created using plain white wax wrappers, with a product sticker on the front sans price and, if the product was being tested with a confectionery item within, a small ingredients label on the back that also served to "seal" the pack.  These, it is said, often resided in a generic white box and that's presumably where the pack price was displayed as these were never marked as to cost. Around 1974 this started being supplanted by different mediums and Topps also started doing more specific tests, such as using two price points. Almost all Topps products, except their recurring annual sports issues were tested in one or more forms and almost always at the retail level. Many products failed their tests and never made it to a full blown release.  Others were designed for a regional sales campaign, or promoted from test status for such a purpose, and are often found in greater numbers than those that were just tested at retail.

Test packaging is not always extant for certain issues and of course some sets are legendary rarities.  One such set is the 1966 Baseball Punchboards where the wrapper is not even known, just a bare description of it, from Rob Lifson:

Topps designed and proofed a retail box for the set:

Great cards, almost impossible to find!

It's possible the full checklist for this set is not complete.  In 2009 14 two card panels out of what I speculated were a set of 18 were known.  I don't believe the count has changed since then.  These are among the hardest-to-find tests Topps ever created and some of the Hall of Famers can go for staggering sums.

1966 (that date may not be firm, I suspect it's a little later) also brought a tough Non-Sports test, Fold-A-Roos.  This pack illustrates how typical stickers on both front and back look:

That front may not match up with this back and at least a couple of packs are known to have survived:

It's a tough set and not may people know about it. Being metamorphic makes it very unlikely many of these are still around:

Examples of a regional test or limited issue are well-known to baseball collectors.  These two 1967 sticker sets appear to have been a test AND a regional issue. You can actually find these in the wild:

If there's a test wrapper with sticker, it may replicate the above two pack fronts. Also on display the retail box which is not plain white:

The Pirates box is known in proof form:

That product code on the reverse eliminates this as a test box proof.  The stickers look great BTW, with 33 per team, so 66 across both sets:

Topps thought about a similar pin issue as well that featured just San Francisco Giants but it never launched in any form except as a proof.

Here's one more for today, from perhaps the most popular of all the test issues, 1968's 3-D Baseball:

Sorry but I can't find an ingredients sticker, maybe someone will send me one and I'll pop it in here.

Back with more tests next week!

Yaz-a-ma-taz

Friend o' the Archive John Moran was kind enough to send along a Red Sox wrapper from the 1967 Sticker issue recently discussed here. Where the Pirates wrapper showed a pretty good likeness of Bill Mazeroski, the Red Sox pack displayed an unmistakable Carl Yastrzemski who was playing the last Triple Crown season MLB has seen.



It's got a bit of a tilt to it, doesn't it? I really like the poetic license taken with Maz and Yaz for the two wrappers!

While we are on a Yastrzemski kick, does anyone out there know what this came from? I don't think it matches any known Topps images but I'm horrible at looking at raw photos and projecting what they looked like when actually used on a card. This appears to e an engraving:



The back has Don Schwall scrawled on it but I think it looks like Yaz. So did the guy who sent the scans to me years ago (forgot your name buddy, sorry).



Don Schwall looked like this when he was on the Bosox:



I don't think that's our man. By the way, Don Schwall was one heck of an athlete, was the 1961 AL Rookie of the Year and won the first game in Atlanta Braves history. Click on the link, you'll see!

So is the "Yaz" a red herring? I don't think he is but if you know what the engraving is, drop the Archive a line.

Buying Local

1967 was the year that Topps really started pouring it on. Whether it was due to their purchase of Fleer's baseball player contracts the year earlier or having run through a full production cycle at their new Duryea, PA plant, baseball related sets or planned sets were numerous in the Summer of Love. They also started heavy experimentation with the medium of the product itself across all lines of cards.

But back to baseball. The regular issue cards from '67 are quite well done and it is an extremely popular set to collect. The All Star Pinup poster inserts are attractive, albeit printed on cheap stock, and there were a ton of supplemental sets and even a couple of attempts to market on a local basis. I count the following sets or attempts in 1967 (*= proof or test issue):

Regular Issue
All Star Pinups
Punchouts
Pirates Stickers
Red Sox Stickers
Giant Stand Ups *
All Star Discs *
San Francisco Giants Discs *

Also in the mix were four players in the Who Am I? set and a Babe Ruth Comic Book Foldee appearance. There is also the matter of the mysterious Roberto Clemente Poster Sticker. Whew! Today though, let's briefly focus on the two sticker sets.

Now most collectors are familiar with the Pirates and Red Sox Stickers. Consisting of 33 stickers each, these were intended to be sold in Pittsburgh and Boston, almost certainly as a test to see if there was interest in locally focused sets. The stickers are quite well done, standard sized and printed on sturdy stock, Here's a Red Sox Sticker:



A Bucco:



And so nobody gets hoodwinked on Ebay, this is how the backs look, with their brown paper backs, slit about 60% of the way down:



While not common, since I suspect leftover stickers were sold through the Card Collector's Company, the stickers are getting a bit tougher to find these days, like many mid 60's Topps small sets and inserts. Don't get me wrong, these still are out there but they exist in reasonably small numbers compared to the regular baseball cards.

The stickers came three for a nickel and were sold in normal wax, not white test, wrappers (which may not yet have existed):


(From the collection of Bob Fisk)

I have a wavy scan of the Red Sox box (side view) from Net54baseball.com:



I would like to get some more box scans up but they are scarce, with the wrappers not too far behind.

The Stickers featured either 24 players and coaches (Pirates) or 26 (Red Sox) and then rounded out their numbers with some logo, slogan and fun cards, which I will get into next time for reasons that will be made apparent. Sorry to be a tease!