Any 1970, 1971, 1972 or 1973 bb or fb wax trays out there?

summerof68

I've always been a big fan of the beauty and eye appeal of wax trays. Early '70s trays are extremely scarce and seldom appear at the auction houses and ebay. I'm a baseball & football guy and over the years I have only seen two 1972 baseball trays and no '72 fb trays. I've never seen a 1973 bb or fb tray nor have I ever seen a '71 bb or fb tray. However I have seen a couple of those fantastic 1969 Topps baseball nickel six pack trays. And there was that time years ago on ebay when the notorious Barry brothers placed both a 1970 Topps baseball tray & a 1969 Topps football tray up for sale using one of their many user IDs (antiquespplus*). Knowing these brother's reputation for producing bad trays I immediately knew the trays were a result of their "handywork". Incidentally the brothers pulled both trays within 24 hours of being listed and I've never seen them resurface again.

Years ago I also spoke with an ebayer who told me he used to do some authenticating for the well known ebay consignor "Just Collect". He said that in his personal collection he had two 1971 Topps baseball wax trays. I told him I had never seen one and would love to have a picture of one to have in my picture archives. He replied that they were in a safe deposit box and the next time he accessed the box he would bring one home and send me a picture. Years have passed and no picture.

So today I thought I would it would be interesting to ask if any of you pack collectors out there have any 1970 thru 1973 Topps baseball or football wax trays. I know myself and other pack collectors would love to get a glimpse at such extraordinarily rare items!

Below is a 1969 Topps Baseball "six pack" wax tray that sold at Mastro Auctions in '04 for $5,983. Note the .25 cent sticker on back--someone got a great deal back in the day!

jmoran19

I'm pretty sure these are the fabricated trays your talking about:

summerof68

John, yes those are most likely the ones that were listed years ago by Antiquespplus*. For this reason I never saved pictures of them. They are very interesting to view however.

grote15

I have always been an avid collector of baseball wax trays and have a run of them from 1974-1980. The 79 and 80 trays are fairly easy to find, but anything prior to 78 is very tough. It's also very difficult to find trays from this era without noticeable tears, particularly on the corners of the tray as the cellophane Topps used to wrap them in was very thin, much thinner than the wrapping used for their cello packs.

The 75 tray is probably my favorite from my collection:

grote15

Topps was known for occasionally using wrappers from previous years to package wax, and one of those examples was in 1976 when they used "all series" wrappers from 1974. As a result, you will sometimes see 1976 wax trays marketed as 1974 trays, but there's an easy way to tell the difference as the price per pack in 1974 was 10c instead of 15c, so authentic 74 trays will bear the graphic on top "3 10c packs" instead of "3 15c packs" from 1976.

grote15

Here's a 74 wax tray with the all series wrapper:

tsalems1

Very nice Tim!

grote15

And here's a 74 tray with the "Bonus Checklist" wrapper variety...Will post a few more from the 70s later.

summerof68

Great racks Tim. And I agree the '75 is super nice!! Oh and might I add that the quality of your pictures are remarkable and do great justice to your packs!!!
Edited to add that now that I have seen your '74 (Bonus) tray that is now my favorite--super clean for a rare '74!

grote15

Thanks, Summer and Tom!

jmoran19

Tim, awesome trays! Love the 1974 bonus tray too

The only pre 78 tray I own is a 73/74 basketball tray, will try to find a pic of it later

John

jmoran19

I still have one of those ump ball and strike things too LOL

grote15

Here's a 77 tray in particularly nice shape considering it was on the shelf for sale back in 1977 as the sticker will attest to. Even better, back then you could have bought this tray of 3 15c packs for just 39c LOL!

handyman

Do any 1971 Trays exist from any sport?
Are there any known to exist?

StarPaxMan

<< <i>Here's a 77 tray in particularly nice shape considering it was on the shelf for sale back in 1977 as the sticker will attest to. Even better, back then you could have bought this tray of 3 15c packs for just 39c LOL!



>>



Yup! 39 cents plus tax at Newberrys and TG&Y for grand total of 42 cents in Calif exept Arizona and maybe some othe states, BUT!!
late in 1977 you could find them at shows for 3 & 4 for a dollar.

summerof68

Great read on the link DavidG1966! That would be something to see an authentic 1962 Topps baseball wax tray still in existance. Or a '63 thru '68 for that matter.

That Gai 5 1970 tray has some positive things going for it. Just from the picture it appears that each wax pack has the correct size gum from that era. Just might be the real deal!!!

summerof68

<< <i>Do any 1971 Trays exist from any sport?
Are there any known to exist? >>


In the last ten years I've never seen a '71 baseball or football tray on ebay or any other auction house. I believe a 1971 Topps baseball wax tray would be the Holy Grail of '70s era trays

grote15

78s are just a year earlier than 79s but they are many times tougher to find for some reason..

summerof68

<< <i> What else is tucked deep inside the GroteMart Vaults? >>


Just as it is with the Fritsch warehouse...no one knows!

grote15

<< <i>

<< <i> What else is tucked deep inside the GroteMart Vaults? >>


Just as it is with the Fritsch warehouse...no one knows! >>

jmmiller777

Wow, great picts guys. I didn't realize we had barcodes back in 1975. I don't think I have ever seen one in person.

grote15

<< <i>Wow, great picts guys. I didn't realize we had barcodes back in 1975. I don't think I have ever seen one in person. >>



Thanks!

Barcodes were first used in commerce in 1974, which is likely why Topps changed the cardboard tray backing design in 1975..

70ToppsFanatic

Unlikely that you will find 1971 wax trays.

As i understand it Topps cut the wax production down in 1971 due to less than
expected sales results in 1970 and 1969.

StarPaxMan

In 1971 one of my 21st birthday presents was a lot of regular and tray racks, about 10 each
i remember saying i already have plenty of cards! a case of schlitz would've been nice,,,
schlitz was a popular brand of beer back then.

summerof68

<< <i>In 1971 one of my 21st birthday presents was a lot of regular and tray racks, about 10 each
i remember saying i already have plenty of cards! a case of schlitz would've been nice,,,
schlitz was a popular brand of beer back then. >>


Then I have to ask...did you hopefully save any of those 10 or so '71 trays?

StarPaxMan

<< <i>

<< <i>In 1971 one of my 21st birthday presents was a lot of regular and tray racks, about 10 each
i remember saying i already have plenty of cards! a case of schlitz would've been nice,,,
schlitz was a popular brand of beer back then. >>


Then I have to ask...did you hopefully save any of those 10 or so '71 trays? >>



No, in 1971 i was probably the youngest baseball card dealer in So. Cal and it was all about making money for me with a mild interest in superstar cello pack collecting, i ripped every single rack pack i would get to build sets
and i had that reputation of selling the cleanest sets for years, no gun or wax stains in any of my sets, now here is something that would make wax collectors sick!!! many dealers couldn't sell the anoying tray racks by themself
so what they would do is RIP them to refill there wax boxes including me.

jmoran19

did someone say 1962 wax tray?

jmoran19

or do you prefer a 64 one, it has double the packs:

jmoran19

my 73/74 basketball wax tray as promised

Toro

Cool stuff all, thanks for sharing!

summerof68

<< <i>or do you prefer a 64 one, it has double the packs:

>>


Wow, those '64 six pack trays are unbelievable

summerof68

<< <i>

<< <i>

<< <i>In 1971 one of my 21st birthday presents was a lot of regular and tray racks, about 10 each
i remember saying i already have plenty of cards! a case of schlitz would've been nice,,,
schlitz was a popular brand of beer back then. >>


Then I have to ask...did you hopefully save any of those 10 or so '71 trays? >>



No, in 1971 i was probably the youngest baseball card dealer in So. Cal and it was all about making money for me with a mild interest in superstar cello pack collecting, i ripped every single rack pack i would get to build sets
and i had that reputation of selling the cleanest sets for years, no gun or wax stains in any of my sets, now here is something that would make wax collectors sick!!! many dealers couldn't sell the anoying tray racks by themself
so what they would do is RIP them to refill there wax boxes including me. >>


Busting wax trays to refill wax boxes...Oh the humanity!!!

grote15

Just think...the cost per CASE for those 65 wax trays was $8.64!!

Does anyone know if even a single tray survived? I have never even heard of one existing much less seen one.

I'd bet at auction a tray like that would fetch about 10K!

DCanfield

<< <i> now here is something that would make wax collectors sick!!! many dealers couldn't sell the anoying tray racks by themself
so what they would do is RIP them to refill there wax boxes including me. >>



I'm guilty too. Had maybe 3 cases of 79 trays and whenever we needed more wax packs we would break down the trays to sell by the pack. Thank goodness I didn't do them all and managed to save some!

StarPaxMan

I do remember ripping 1969 sixpacks or double trays to but is part of my history so! no regrets