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Traded Cards and Uncut Sheets
PaulMaul
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Just transplanting this from the unrelated thread where it originally appeared.
In 1974, the traded cards were on a separate sheet, presumably printed later than the normal sheets:
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But in 1976, the traded cards appear to have been printed at the same time as the normal set...
It appears that there are six uncut sheets for this set. Four of them have 132 distinct cards from the normal set. The other two have 66 cards from the regular set (six rows) and three repeats of half the traded set making up the other six rows.
The other strange thing is the sheet with Rose (and possibly other of the non-traded sheets as well) seem to appear in two different versions, with the two blocks of six rows interchanged. Perhaps a side A/side B thing?
...and here’s a player appearing on the same sheet as his traded card....
So if they were all printed at the same time, why even have the traded cards. Why not just use the correct team? Just a novelty?
I guess it’s also possible that the 132 cards from the normal set that appear on the two sheets with traded cards were originally on a single sheet, and that sheet was later reworked into the two sheets with the traded cards. It would be helpful to be able to see the product code numbers on the traded sheets, but most images I can find don’t permit that.
How are the wax/cello packs put together based on these sheets. Left to right? top to bottom? interspaced?
Collecting Unopened from '72-'83; mostly BBCE certified boxes/cases/racks.
Prefer to buy in bulk.
It’s a little complicated, but my basic understanding is this.
The 132 card sheet you will find images of on the web is really half of a full sheet. For 1975 and older, the full sheet contains a left side whose cards have one asterisk and a right side that has cards with two asterisks. (A given player always occurs with the same number of asterisks).
A wax or cello pack from this era will contain two groups of cards, one group from each of the sides. So the cards on top of a 1974 cello will have one * and those on the bottom have two **.
(This is why not every star card can appear on the top of a cello pack).
The pattern for filling the pack from a sheet is usually a knight’s move pattern. @jmoran19 showed me these pictures once to illustrate.
I believe starting in 1976 there were three types of sheets: no asterisk, one * and two **. Then in 1978 it went to six types, A through F. That makes these questions far more complicated, but @grote15 has a pretty good grasp of these matters 🙂
Correct me if I'm wrong, but for the most part, the only way you could get these sheets is by eh, "borrowing" them from the Topps factory without anyone seeing or knowing it? I guess all the more reason these sheets are such awesome items...IF you have the wall space to display them properly that is!
I wouldn't mind maybe someday getting those team checklist sheets from the 70s/early 80s at least...
Dimes: 54S, 53P, 50P, 49S, 45D+S, 44S, 43D, 41S, 40D+S, 39D+S, 38D+S, 37D+S, 36S, 35D+S, all 16-34's
Quarters: 52S, 47S, 46S, 40S, 39S, 38S, 37D+S, 36D+S, 35D, 34D, 32D+S
74 Topps: 37,38,46,47,48,138,151,193,210,214,223,241,256,264,268,277,289,316,435,552,570,577,592,602,610,654,655
1997 Finest silver: 115, 135, 139, 145, 310
1995 Ultra Gold Medallion Sets: Golden Prospects, HR Kings, On-Base Leaders, Power Plus, RBI Kings, Rising Stars
I think the theory on where some of the existing sheets come from is that they were top and bottom sheets in stacks. Since those were the ones that would be damaged, they were discarded...where discarded probably means someone ultimately took a lot of them. This could be why many have substantial wear and tear, though that also just comes from sheets being very difficult to store and protect.
I am not sure about pre-1981, but from 1981 to the early 90s at least, you could purchase uncut sheets through various retail options.
This is a header card from the 1981 Coca-Cola parallel team sets.
I am unclear if the offer is for the uncut sheet of regular 1981 Topps cards, or if it is for an uncut sheet of the Coca-Cola cards, but indicates "Never Offered Before", so I'd infer 1981 as being the first year you could legitimately acquire sheets, with any existing prior years' sheets being "reclamation projects" from the Topps company's discard piles. I believe I have also seen a similar add somewhere else for the 1981 Topps baseball sheets, but I seem to recall that you could request/designate if you wanted sheet A, B, C, D, E or F. (???)
Kmart, Toys 'R Us, KayBee, etc., all had sheets available through the 80s. This is a screen grab of an uncut sheet display from a seller on eBay.
Later, you could also buy complete sets in sheet form. Another eBay screen grab.
I love the look of uncut sheets displayed on the wall, and it's informative as well, as you can see the placement of the cards and better understand why certain ones are more prone to condition problems than others.
that @jmoran19 dude is a total d*ck!
660 card sets = 5 132 card sheets. Here is a terrible picture of the 1976 132 card sheet prior to being revised into the 264 card traded sheet. John
P.S. The 132 card sheet is "no asterisk"
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
Here is the other half of the 264 card "traded" sheet.
Eyes aren't as young as they use to be but i think the code for the sheet you posted is 3-332-10-04-6.
This is side A or left side I believe. John
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
Thanks for all the great information John. I love this stuff!
The way the sheet codes work the “04” suggests there were two other revisions before this. Do you know what they might be?
One other question John...prior to 1974 the double sheet for a given series consisted of half of the series on each side, repeated twice. Starting with 1974 the sheets contain 132 distinct cards. Do you know what the double sheets were like during the “all 660” era? In 1974, was the double sheet just two different half sheets, one * and one **? And what happened with double sheets once there were three and then six asterisk variations?
Traded cards are so pervasive throughout retail 1976 packs that it makes sense that they were mixed with base cards from the set on multiple sheets. To my knowledge, all the traded cards were printed on the no asterisk sheets.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
I think 1974 is probably si> @Sdub said:
For 76 cello packs, top half should consist of 2-asterisk cards with bottom half of pack from 1-asterisk or 0-asterisk cards.
For 76 rack packs, header section should consist of 1-asterisk cards, middle section with 0-asterisk cards and end section with 2-asterisk cards. There is also a known aberration for 76 racks in which cards from both header and end sections contain 2-asterisk cards with middle section consisting of usual 0-asterisk cards.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Thanks Tim, you just saved me about $15,000 or ripping.
Collecting Unopened from '72-'83; mostly BBCE certified boxes/cases/racks.
Prefer to buy in bulk.
No idea, I don’t have any photos of 1976 traded proof sheets to know if they flipped players or made small technical revisions like the ones on the 1974 traded sheet above.
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
Actually It depends on the year and the amount of cards in each series. If it is a 132 card series (ignore the DP of current series CL) generally 66 unique cards were printed twice on each 132 card half sheet. If it was an 88 card series sometimes 44 unique cards were printed 3 times on each half. This seems to be the method for early 70's cards. For 1960's 44 cards were printed twice (in rows 1 thru 4 and 9 thru 12) and 44 cards were printed once (rows 5 thru 8) on one half of the 264 card sheet and then on the other half sheet rows 5 thru 8 were printed twice in rows 1-4 and 9-12 and then rows 1-4/9-12 were printed once in rows 5-8. 110 card series generally printed all 110 cards once and then 2 rows twice.
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of baseball full sheets from 1973 thru 1976 but I have some clues based on a 1972 basketball full sheet and a 1974 FB full sheet. Each of them have 264 unique cards. Note 1974 FB was 528 unique cards all issued at once so two different 264 card sheets were produced.
John
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972