1991 Topps Baseball "Vintage Card Inserts"...

gregmadduxfan

My friend and I recently bought a large collection and it contained a lot of wax boxes in it. As we were going through some of the stuff tonight there were a couple of 91 topps baseball boxes. I really didn't want to spend anytime opening any of those packs so I joked around about how we could possible pull an old Mantle or Ted Williams card from one of the packs. My buddy who knows little about cards ended up pulling a 71 topps Bob Gibson. I know it's not worth a whole lot but I was just shocked that we actually pulled one of the vintage cards that topps randomly put into the packs. I was just wondering if anyone else ever pulled anything good from one of these packs because I assume there is still a lot of sealed wax out there from 91 Topps and there could be a chance to pull a few decent cards.

helionaut

Yes, there's a fair amount of that stuff still around. A few years ago I went looking for a sealed 91 case and found one, but I didn't want to pay the price the guy wanted. I was possessed by the idea of pulling a "vintage buyback" as they are called today. I didn't care if it was a 1978 Biff Pocoroba or what, but I just wanted to have that experience. However, that eventually wore off. As many cards as Topps produced over the years, 1991 production was so great that there's only 1 of those cards in every 5 cases or so, so you got pretty lucky, moreso that it was a great player. So even opening a case wouldn't give you a great shot at pulling one. I know I must've opened at least 8 boxes worth of packs trying to complete my set that year and never hit one.

One other thing to note, the 1952-1956 cards were obviously not able to be inserted into packs, so they used redemption vouchers that expired over a decade ago, so even if you hit one of those, that'll be the extent of your luck. Still, it's nice to dream about pulling a 1957 Mantle or 1963 Koufax or 1989 Gregg Jefferies out of a 1991 pack 13 years after the fact.

xbaggypants

I pulled a 1965 common in 91'. Form what I can remember it wasn't any better than a EX-MT card

Ironmanfan

If my memory serves me right, I think Topps bought one of every card (1952-1990) from Larry Fritsch and randomly inserted them in packs. I actually own a 1991 Topps rack pack with a 1974 Chicago Cubs team card showing on the top (pretty unique).

NickM

Not only did they use redemptions for the large-size cards, they also used redemptions for any card valued at $50 or more at the time.

Topps did vintage card inserts in 2003 as well. I pulled a Gary Carter Record Breaker from '89 Topps out of a pack. They actually did something to make it special - they embossed it with a special Topps Vintage Card logo. I don't know how many of each vintage card they included in 2003.

Nick

AlanAllen

Nick,
They released the print numbers for the vintage embossed cards from '03. You can look them up on Beckett. Your Gary Carter RB had a print run of 26.

Joe

NickM

Joe - thanks. I didn't realize they had published it.

Nick