A Tribute to Topps - Who Pulled the Ultimate April Fool

Stone193

...On Kids with Pack Fever

It’s the summer of 1957. I have my allowance in hand. Dad’s redundantly trite advice has some ring to it: “don’t spend it all in one place.” Yeah, right dad!

I head right up to the corner candy store on 80th and Main Street and ask Mr. Hoffmeyer if Topps has come in yet. His reply – “when don’t I have Topps for you kids?”

I’ve got my quarter and pick up 5 packs. One from the top, 3 from the middle and one comtemporaneously selected from the bottom right corner.

I sat on the curb outside of the store and carefully lay the 5 packs beside me. I hold the first in my hand…I’m momentarily blinded by the sun glistening off the waxed paper. I’m also reminded of my last major purchase of 3 weeks prior…no Mick or Duke! I’m determined to pick up a Duke and Mick this time! I’m really nervous – this is a whole weeks allowance in the balance! No Hershey bar…no small coke with chocolate syrup…no 3 Musketeers this week…I mean business! I’m on a mission…the Duke, the Mick…this is it - they're mine!

Four packs down, my brain aches from the sugar rush of 4 pieces of bazooka and still no Mick...no Duke. I open the last pack – I know this will be “the one!” Wrong! I strike out!

Thanx Topps for screwing with little kids and not telling them the cards were in series!!!

Was this Topps' version of an April fool or was I the fool?
mike

pandrews

lostdart58

Wow......a Stone sighting!!

Boopotts

Along the same lines, I spent about 14 consecutive weeks worth of allowance in the summer of 1984 on nothing but '84T baseball trying to pull a Gooden RC. I wish someone had told me that it wouldn't come out until the next year

HoofHearted

Stone! Man, you must be older than me! I was only 3 the summer of '57.

But, historically, was '57 the first year of issuing cards in series?? Looking at an old Beckett BBC Price Guide (#21 from 1999), it appears by the pricing structure that that was the first year. With no hobby mags available, if Topps decided to distribute their new, whopping 407-card set in series, there probably wasn't much of a way of advertising the fact.

Did you ever get the Mantle or Snider in a pack??

hh

Stone193

<< <i>Stone! Man, you must be older than me! I was only 3 the summer of '57.

But, historically, was '57 the first year of issuing cards in series?? Looking at an old Beckett BBC Price Guide (#21 from 1999), it appears by the pricing structure that that was the first year. With no hobby mags available, if Topps decided to distribute their new, whopping 407-card set in series, there probably wasn't much of a way of advertising the fact.

Did you ever get the Mantle or Snider in a pack??

hh >>


Mike
They were in series all the back to 1952.

mike

Pharber

I remember 1957. I was in the fourth grade. I got 15 cents for milk money every friday and instead of giving it to the teacher, I bought three packs of cards. Then, during the week, the teacher, thinking my parents did not have any money to buy me milk for lunch, gave me a carton of milk (an extra because some kid was out sick) That worked for a while. But my teacher called my mother and when I got home that afternoon, I got the belt. And I deserved it. But it was worth the beating. Nothing is better than opening up a pack of cards in the early morning in the schoolyard.

gonzer

Great story Stone, brings back memories galore.

Stone193

<< <i>Did you ever get the Mantle or Snider in a pack?? >>


No Mike.

I had the same thing in 59 but I do remember that year trading a Teddy for a Duke.

For those on my block - Boston cards were not worth much in trade but I found a kid who was doing the team set - go figure?

mike

pandrews