1974 Topps Baseball Wax Pack/Box Variation
Dragnet
Posts: 636 ✭✭✭
Between the 2-card, 8-card and 12-card variations, along with 10cent and 15cent boxes, I am thoroughly confused. Hopefully someone here knows a thing or two about this issue.
From some eBay searching, it appears that wax boxes were sold with both the 15cent and 10cent labels. As can be seen in the links below, it looks the 15cent may have only held 24 packs, where the 10cent boxes held 36. Is this correct? Or perhaps each variation was sold as both 24 and 36 CT boxes?
1974 Topps Baseball 15cent Box (24CT)
1974 Topps Baseball 10cent Box (36CT)
That brings me to my next question -- was the pricing change just a matter of timing, with Topps choosing to increase mid-way through the year? Or are the prices directly tied to the number of cards in the pack (8 vs. 12)?
And assuming that the price (or wrapper) variation cannot always be directly tied to the number of cards, are there any identifiers or ways of detecting whether a pack has 8 or 12 cards (aside from thickness/conjecture)?
Thank you in advance!
From some eBay searching, it appears that wax boxes were sold with both the 15cent and 10cent labels. As can be seen in the links below, it looks the 15cent may have only held 24 packs, where the 10cent boxes held 36. Is this correct? Or perhaps each variation was sold as both 24 and 36 CT boxes?
1974 Topps Baseball 15cent Box (24CT)
1974 Topps Baseball 10cent Box (36CT)
That brings me to my next question -- was the pricing change just a matter of timing, with Topps choosing to increase mid-way through the year? Or are the prices directly tied to the number of cards in the pack (8 vs. 12)?
And assuming that the price (or wrapper) variation cannot always be directly tied to the number of cards, are there any identifiers or ways of detecting whether a pack has 8 or 12 cards (aside from thickness/conjecture)?
Thank you in advance!
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Comments
The 2 card fun packs came in the 30 pack fun bags. Here is some data (bottom right corner) rom an old BCN magazine
John
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
<< <i>pretty sure the 15 cent packs held 12 cards (288 total cards per box w/o inserts) and the 10 cent ones held 8 cards (what a shock, 288 total cards too).
The 2 card fun packs came in the 30 pack fun bags. Here is some data (bottom right corner) rom an old BCN magazine
John >>
Yep, same number of cards in a box... 15 cent packs had 12 cards and 24 packs, 10 cent packs were 2/3 the cost but only had 2/3 number of cards per pack... but with 36 packs, it still made it 288 cards per box. IIRC, the 36-count box even hypes the dealer as having more selling power or something to that affect. They must have thought 15 cents might have been too rich for some, so if they reduce the pack size (and price) that more kids would be able to afford them... therefore leaving less "leftovers" at the end of the year. Oh, the good ole days!
<< <i>I always thought the 15 cent box was a test run for raising the price and increasing card count in 1975. >>
I always thought 75 was a weird year for Topps when you consider 74 and 76... both had similar wrappers, came in 10 and 15 cent packs, both had a traded series added. 1975 was a total package redesign, full bleed color borders, and the minis. Just seemed funny 74 and 76s approach were so similar and 75 was just so out there.
<< <i>Were sales sluggish in 1975? I assumed the 10 cent packs being reintroduced in '76 must have been due to a poor response to the '75 price increase. >>
Not sure. And I think in 76, the difference between 10 and 15 cent packs was 7 and 10 cards (instead of 8 and 12)... and I think all boxes were 36-count.
All 76 boxes are 36 count, with either 10c or 15c packs.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
<< <i>I'll have to check my notes, but I don't believe there was a 12-card pack in 1974. I believe the packs were 8 cards (plus checklist in some packs as noted on wrapper or 10 cards. >>
Tim see my post above. Different type of packs and # of cards per pack
Current obsession, all things Topps 1969 - 1972
<< <i>
<< <i>I'll have to check my notes, but I don't believe there was a 12-card pack in 1974. I believe the packs were 8 cards (plus checklist in some packs as noted on wrapper or 10 cards. >>
Tim see my post above. Different type of packs and # of cards per pack >>
Has anyone ever opened a 15c pack from 1974 to confirm the card count is 12?
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
From responses, it seems the consensus was that the 24 CT boxes held only the 15cent packs, which were of the larger variety (12+1). Ultimately, I wanted to try and figure out if there was going to be any way to distinguish the 12+1 card pack from the 8+1 card pack (given one or the other) without opening the pack or weighing it. According to that sales printout, it looked like one clue was that the 12+1 packs were only of the "Bonus Team Checklist" wrapper variety. However when I checked past sales of the 24 CT box, I found only two, but both of them housed packs with the "All 660" wrapper variation (see links below).
24 CT Box #1
24 CT Box #2
Interestingly, both boxes are labeled as having the "Bonus Team Checklist" pack variety. Haha, so either these boxes were put together after the fact with the wrong packs or the sales printout is incorrect and/or incomplete. Jason (70ToppsFanatic) brought up the possibility that the 12-card vs 8-card packs may be distinguished using the product code on the wrapper, but he wasn't sure.. Perhaps someone knows about this?