Topps production numbers from 1972
parkerj
Posts: 1,098 ✭✭✭
Not sure if this has been posted before, but copying from the article found here
<< <i>
I recently read an interview with Sy Berger that took place just prior to the launching of the 1973 Topps BB cards production line. There were some very interesting production stats revealed which I thought I would share with you.
Interestingly, the interviewer made the inside of the Topps office warehouse sound like a proverbial Willy Wonka fantasy land where samples of gum and baseball card packs were readily available wherever one traveled in the office.
In terms of production, Berger noted that in the just completed 1972 Topps year, they sold about 250 million baseball cards, which was 60% of their sports card volume. The ratio of BB production to FB was 2.5 to 1, with hockey and basketball just about even.
Using the above data and doing some real simple math, we can estimate the following about 1972. If 60 percent of production was BB cards, and BB equaled 250 million, then Topps produced roughly 420 million sports cards. The breakdown of this 420 million cards would be:
250 million BB cards,
100 million FB cards
35 million Hockey
35 million Basketball
Berger confirmed the obvious, which was that cards sold in greater volume earlier in the year versus later in the summer. BB series were produced every 6 weeks with the first ones hitting the streets in early March and lasting until the first week of September.
I cannot remember when I first started buying 1973 packs, but I seem to recall sometime around the start of Little League, which was probably mid to late March.
One last item of note, was that Topps produced roughly 20 million baseball packs in 1972. Given 24 packs to a box, rough math indicates that there were somewhere in the area of 833,333 boxes produced. >>
<< <i>
I recently read an interview with Sy Berger that took place just prior to the launching of the 1973 Topps BB cards production line. There were some very interesting production stats revealed which I thought I would share with you.
Interestingly, the interviewer made the inside of the Topps office warehouse sound like a proverbial Willy Wonka fantasy land where samples of gum and baseball card packs were readily available wherever one traveled in the office.
In terms of production, Berger noted that in the just completed 1972 Topps year, they sold about 250 million baseball cards, which was 60% of their sports card volume. The ratio of BB production to FB was 2.5 to 1, with hockey and basketball just about even.
Using the above data and doing some real simple math, we can estimate the following about 1972. If 60 percent of production was BB cards, and BB equaled 250 million, then Topps produced roughly 420 million sports cards. The breakdown of this 420 million cards would be:
250 million BB cards,
100 million FB cards
35 million Hockey
35 million Basketball
Berger confirmed the obvious, which was that cards sold in greater volume earlier in the year versus later in the summer. BB series were produced every 6 weeks with the first ones hitting the streets in early March and lasting until the first week of September.
I cannot remember when I first started buying 1973 packs, but I seem to recall sometime around the start of Little League, which was probably mid to late March.
One last item of note, was that Topps produced roughly 20 million baseball packs in 1972. Given 24 packs to a box, rough math indicates that there were somewhere in the area of 833,333 boxes produced. >>
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<< <i>Is it me or does 250 million seem like a lot? >>
One quarter of one biiiilllllion cards!
<< One quarter of one biiiilllllion cards! >>
Or equal to the 1987 Topps Ruben Sierra production run