Questions for '76 baseball wax experts

Porkins

Am a novice when it comes to '76 unopened and would appreciate some help fellas...

From a scan, and without the pack in hand, is there any way to tell if a '76 wax pack is the full 15 cent, 10 card wax pack, or if it is the 5-6 count (have heard both numbers) smaller pack? I notice that some of the '76 packs I see have "All 660 Cards In 1 Series!" below the logo artwork, and some have "1976 Series!." The ones I am interested in are of the latter variety.

Secondly, is there any way to tell if a '76 pack will include the Traded series cards in the pack?

Finally, if a pack does include the Traded series, is there a set in stone number of cards in the pack that will be from the Traded series, or is it random, just like any other card?

Thanks very much for any and all input.

-Scott

gemint

I don't know if I would consider myself an expert in 1976 wax but I own several and opened many (mostly back in the day). I believe all packs can (and usually do) contain traded subset cards but I don't believe there is a set number included. I think the only way to tell if the pack contains 10 or 6 is to feel the thickness. There's no difference in the wax wrapper from what I can tell. The packs with 'all 660 cards in 1 series!' are where the factory used leftover 1974 wrappers.

Ironmanfan

wasn't there a recent reference book published about 1970's unopened material?

IMF

Porkins

Thanks gemint, that answers all my questions. I was wondering why I got such a good price on some packs (yes, i'm assuming they're legit)... I'll bet they are the 6 card packs.

IMF, I remember a thread that referenced the book you're talking about, but I don't remember any details...

-Scott

packCollector

I haven't checked my notes but I thought 74 had both 10 and 15 cent packs , 76 had only 15 cent packs.

PaulMaul

<< <i>I haven't checked my notes but I thought 74 had both 10 and 15 cent packs , 76 had only 15 cent packs. >>



I'm pretty sure 1974 was the year the price change from 10 to 15 cent actually occurred. The 1974 display box exists with both prices. The 1976 10-cent packs were a market test to see if the lower price point for fewer cards would appeal to buyers.

grote15

1976 had both 10c and 15c wax packs. The 10c packs are the ones with fewer cards and were a market test. Topps raised the wax pack price to 15c in 1975. Because Topps reused 1974 wrappers in 1976 one of the ways you can tell if a wax tray is from either 1974 or 1976 is by the per pack price on the cellophane as all 1974 wax packs were 10c (the trays also bear a different cardboard backing and ads.) When Topps raised the wax pack price to 15c in 1975, they also increased the card count from 8 in 1974 backin to tusual to 10. A 1974 box with a 15c price point on it is likely a 1976 box as Topps reused packaging from 1974 in 1976 and 1974 packs retailed for 10c.

Porkins

Thanks Paul and Grote.

Grote, I was hoping you might chime in. In your opinion (or anyone's) how should one gauge the value of unopened 10c packs versus the 15c'ers. I know Steve sells the 15c'ers for 65. From a sheer card number standpoint, my novice guess says fair value on the 10c'ers would be 50-60% of this?

Thanks a bunch!
-Scott

PaulMaul

<< <i>1976 had both 10c and 15c wax packs. The 10c packs are the ones with fewer cards and were a market test. Topps raised the wax pack price to 15c in 1975. Because Topps reused 1974 wrappers in 1976 one of the ways you can tell if a wax tray is from either 1974 or 1976 is by the per pack price on the cellophane as all 1974 wax packs were 10c (the trays also bear a different cardboard backing and ads.) When Topps raised the wax pack price to 15c in 1975, they also increased the card count from 8 in 1974 backin to tusual to 10. A 1974 box with a 15c price point on it is likely a 1976 box as Topps reused packaging from 1974 in 1976 and 1974 packs retailed for 10c. >>




I definitely remember seeing a 1974 style box with a 15-cent price, though I can't be sure it held 1974 packs. I also found the following quote from "unopened pack guy" (aka Chris aka cjm13):

"Did you know that 1974 was the year of Price Increases? At the end of the BB card production cycle, Topps tested raising the pack price from 10 cents to 15 cents."

Anyone else recall seeing a 15-cent 1974 box?

PaulMaul

Here it is:

PaulMaul

Perhaps this box contained the same 8-card 1974 baseball packs, and it was just testing the market to gage resistance to the higher price. Presumably that is the same thing that happened with the 49-cent 1971 football racks. Evidently in that case, they must have abandoned the price increase for awhile.

grote15

To my knowledge the price for baseball wax packs in 1974 was 10c as Topps added 2 cards per pack in 1975 for a total of 10 (up from 8 in the previous year). They probably did some testing at the end of the year with packaging too.