1982 Topps Baseball Wax Packs

countdouglas

Hello Everyone!

 I've been a long time lurker on this board. I've enjoyed reading and learning from some of the more knowledgeable collectors on various topics for quite some time now. I've only recently registered though, as I've never really felt the need to contribute to the discussions, nor previously really had a topic that I thought would be of interest to anyone... until now.

 First, as an aside, I first began buying baseball card packs in bulk during the summer of 1981. I can to this day distinctly remember that smell that was a mixture of wax, cardboard, and gum powder. The gum was a much larger piece than what would later be inserted in the mid 80s, and I would stack the pieces inside of a zip lock bag and store them in the refrigerator until it came time to star for my little league team, at which time I would pack my cheek full of gum so that it bulged out like the so-so player George Brett, and his teammate and my favorite player, the superstar, future Hall of Fame lock with the Hall of Fame name, Willie Mays Aikens.

 Flash forward to 1982. I was once again buying wax packs in bulk, and as far as I can remember, once again hoarding the gum. My mom even bought a whole wax box, and we gave out packs as party favors to all of my classmates that attended my birthday party. I was so envious of my friend that had pulled an 82 Aikens, because I had yet to be so lucky, that I dug into my pile of birthday cash and handed over $2 for the right to call that card my own. My mom somehow found out about it, and I later received a scolding about the value of money. Anyway, that Aikens card is the first single that I ever purchased individually from packs. I also recall in 1982 buying the Topps Stickers, as well, and trying like mad to fill every slot in the sticker album, with no luck getting those last few, no matter how hard that I tried...

 Anyway, flash forward again to now, and I'm about to get to the crux of this posting. I am not someone that buys unopened material routinely, if at all. I'm quite certain that I haven't opened a 1982 pack since, well, 1982. Until this week.

 There was an eBay listing for a small lot of mixed year packs, which included 4 1982 packs. I bid on it with zero expectations, absolutely assuming that if I indeed won, that the value would be gained from the joy of opening, and not from the cards. I threw up what I considered a lowball bid for what I considered an insignificant amount of money if I happened to win (my mom would disagree, I'm sure). Well, win them, I did.

 So, they arrived, and I proceeded to open them. The wrapper clearly states 15 cards and one piece of gum. I am no pack expert, so I have no idea whether they'd been searched previously, or not. As I'm opening, the fist thing that I notice is that the cards are all face up. The wax stain is all over Dale Murphy's face. I removed the cards from the pack, and the second thing that I notice...IS NO GUM! I immediately have my excitement deflate, as I'm sure that I'm opening previously searched packs by scammers so careless that they forgot to put the gum back in. I start thumbing through the cards, and there in the middle of the pack is a random Lloyd Moseby Topps Sticker!?!? What?!?!

 Ok, let me say again, I collected 82 Topps baseball cards heavily back in 1982. I'm quite certain that if I'd have bought packs back then with no gum, that would have contributed to those being the last packs of baseball cards that I bought. I used that gum like an early day PED, so I'm sure I'd have remembered being shortchanged back in 82. I also collected the stickers, buying the 5 count (I believe) packs from my local drug store. I think I'd have also remembered getting random stickers in my packs. Anyway, I paused to do a Google search, and alas, it was not hard to find mention of Topps Stickers being randomly inserted to promote the "Coming Soon" of the sticker packs. So I learned something!

 I proceeded to finish up with the other 3 packs. Same thing. No gum, with random sticker inserted. I counted the cards and there were 15 per pack, not one with any gum residue. I didn't get anybody good. No Ripken, Ryan, etc. I was disappointed there wasn't even an Aikens or a Shooty Babitt. I got several in Acton cards and regular issues of some lesser HOFs, and a big clue in the autographed George Foster All-Star card.

 Ok, if you made it to the bottom of this post, I'm finally getting around to the question. I enjoy learning from people with much more knowledge than me. Can anyone fill in the details on these packs. Do they sound legitimate? Searched or not searched, I don't really even care about that. I'm just excited to hear some expert tell me the story of these packs. I opened a lot of 82s back in the day, and to think that 35 years later, I am just becoming aware of possible packaging variations is quite exciting to me, if indeed unexplainable to most people. I would like to learn any information about these packs that anyone can add...At what point in the print run were they produced? What location of the country were they limited to, if at all limited? Why would Topps Chewing Gum produce packages of cards without their namesake product included? What kind of customer relations blowback did they experience by selling cards with wrappers that clearly state there is one stick of gum inside, only for there to be no gum? Or is this just a situation created by amateur scammers?

Thank you for your input in advance!

countdouglas

The only guess that I have, myself, is that perhaps after 1981, when all 3 companies were producing cards with gum, there were lawsuits and injunctions in place as Topps tried to reinstate their monopoly. Perhaps these packs were early 1982 edition print runs before the outcome was known. Which would account for the George Foster All-Star autograph error. (I'll need to reexamine the cards for blackless...) Anyway, as you know, Topps was not allowed to keep their monopoly over the actual production of baseball cards, but they were allowed to keep their monopoly over the inclusion of gum in their packs, which is why Donruss had to switch to puzzle pieces and Fleer to sticker inserts. Again, this is just a guess...

grote15

There should be an 8-7 split between cards from low letter sheets (A, B & C) and high letter sheets (D, E & F) inside the pack.

Without saying anything otherwise about authenticity for these particular packs, it was uncommon, but not unheard of, for Topps to to produce packs without gum during this era. 1982 Topps baseball is also one of the more common years for factory miswraps, too.

Just a speculation here, as I have only encountered stickers in cello packs from 1982, personally, but perhaps Topps used stickers instead of gum for the packs in this particular production run.

countdouglas

This is exactly the kind of information that I'm looking for, and enjoy reading. I recognize your handle - grote15 - from previous posts about 70 Topps, I believe, and many other discussions about unopened. I defer to those with much more knowledge than me and appreciate anything that you can add to help me learn about the hobby.

Yes, I looked after you mentioned it, and indeed there were 8 cards grouped from the ABC sheets, and then 7 cards grouped from the DEF sheets in every pack. The packs have been opened, so that horse has left the barn. Whether I indeed had something rare or not, it's just exciting to come across something like this. I'm just looking for info from people more knowledgeable than me on the 82 packs. I maybe opened 200 wax packs spread over a summer 35 years ago, all from shipments to the Midwest, so my knowledge of packaging variations is very limited in that regard. Like I said, I don't recall ever getting the stickers included in a wax pack of cards, and all through the 80s, don't recall ever opening a pack without gum.

So any more 82 rippers out there with anything to add? I'd love to hear it.

Thanks again grote15 for sharing. I do truly enjoy the depth of your knowledge, and also the many others that comment, as well, on these boards.

countdouglas

As an aside, more as a joke than anything, I did video myself opening the packs to send in an email to a friend of mine. Again, more as a joke than to really document what I was doing. The actual packs are not in the frame, only my reaction to them as I hold them up one by one to the camera.

I would not want to post this video for various reasons, but it would not be hard for me to go back and recreate a list of the cards in each pack and the order they were packaged, if anyone was curious. Perhaps there is someone who is an expert on the sequencing of 82 Topps. I'm just kind of giddy over the unexpected outcome of my purchase, not that I have anything left of value now that they've been opened, but that I had the whole experience in the first place. I mean, you buy packs, you open, there's gum, there's cards... Ho-hum, next pack...These packs had stickers as well, and no gum. Caught me completely off guard. I don't know if it makes sense to anyone else...

bishop

Topps never had a true "monopoly" on "baseball cards". In the early days when they broke into the baseball card market with Bowman ( another gum/candy company) both companies were trying to sell candy and gum with cards as premiums ( much like earlier tobacco companies). Cards quickly became the market themselves.

Initially both Topps and Bowman generally signed players to "exclusive" contracts to sell their likeness with confections ( gum/candy). Topps bought out Bowman after the latter's 1955 effort.

Anyone could have produced the same likeness with no candy or gum ( assuming they got the player's authorization). Fleer ( another gum company) later tried cookies and Leaf tried marbles. Gum always won. The 63 Fleer card set with a cookie was derailed by poor sales, not by Topps per se.

Fleer's legal battles with Topps in the 60s was over the right to sell player likenesses in any form, cards or stamps or stickers, with gum. The players association under under Marvin Miller, after going to war with Topps in the late 60s to get better compensation for the players for their contracts with Topps covering exclusive distribution of their photos with gum and candy, generally sided with Topps

Fleer's litigation against Topps and the players association, which ultimately was successful years later, was aimed at eliminating Topps ability to exclusively market cards with gum. Ironically by the time they got that right gum was becoming a somewhat of a anachronism in baseball card packs and Topps business had long moved beyond the confections market into the strictly baseball card market

I do not know why some 82 packets would not have gum. There were some "Michigan" test packs in new packaging in 1983 but they had gum as well. I think gum dropped out
after 1991 ? They put gum back in play in 2015 with their Heritage offering that year but sealed it off from the cards

grote15

My pleasure, countdouglas. I enjoy sharing any info I can.

I once had a 1977 Topps baseball wax box in which many of the packs did not have gum. I wound up opening those packs and pulled many HOFers and a number of PSA 10s so the packs were 100% legit.

There are sequences to all Topps issues but sequences can also break mid-pack. However, the fact that your packs had the correct 8 to 7 split between low letter and high letter sheet cards is a strong indication that the packs were authentic and not resealed. Topps was known to do some weird things over the years so the sticker for the stick of gum sounds very plausible, too.

You should ask the seller if he has any more packs from that box and keep a couple sealed as an anomaly for your collection. Good luck.

LuvOldPacks

Of course for future pack purchases (and peace of mind) I would always suggest buying packs or boxes that have been BBCE or PSA authenticated. This way you'd be assured those weird Topps packs are legitimate ones.

countdouglas

I guess I didn't articulate correctly the nature of my purchase. I saw a small lot of mixed unopened packs. I threw up what I'd consider to be a relatively small bid, inconsequential to me, at least. I've wasted a lot more money on a lot more frivolous pursuits, and I somehow won.

My friend is a big consumer of the YouTube pack and box breaks, so as a joke, I thought I'd video myself opening some packs and send it to him. I knew he'd enjoy it. I really didn't give any thought at all as to whether they'd been previously searched, or not. I went into the purchase assuming that they'd been tampered with, and that I'd get diddly squat as far as the cards. Low expectations. I was just caught completely off guard as to the results when I opened the packs.

The pack is clearly marked as having 15 cards and one stick of gum. However, upon opening the first pack of 1982 cards, there was no gum! Both my friend and I had a good chuckle out of that. "They really botched that re-sealing job! They forgot the gum! Haha!" It was only after thumbing through the cards and finding a Topps sticker inserted, that I became suspicious that PERHAPS, and I stress perhaps, that I had something completely different. Something that I was unaware of.

I opened the remaining 3 packs, all lacking gum, and all with a sticker inserted. I thoroughly examined the wrappers and cards, looking for a hint of gum powder. I could not determine any trace of gum. The unusual circumstances led me to reach out to the board, to see if anyone with much more extensive history of ripping 1982 Topps could share any information about this oddity. I suppose it could all be a big hoax, but my intuition is that somehow those packs were legitimately distributed without gum, and with a promotional sticker inside. I love learning about hobby oddities like that, so was hoping some "expert" could fill in the back story. So I guess, in the whole scheme of things, whether the packs are authentic or not does in fact affect the legitimacy of my own story- but whether the packs are real or not doesn't affect my desire to learn whether or not such gum free packs ever existed in the first place, and the circumstance behind that. And just how rare are they, if they do in fact exist? Whether my packs were authentic or not, they've been opened now by me, so that horse has left the barn. If they were faked, did they base the decision to reseal with no gum and a sticker inserted on a legitimately produced rarity?

I hope that makes my intent of the posting much clearer.

grote15

From everything you've described, I would say with confidence that the packs were authentic. You would not find any gum residue because there was none. Additionally, a resealer would not be inserting stickers into the packs where there weren't any before just to "manufacture" a rarity that no one would even realize until the packs were opened. If anything, resealers will use the wrong-sized gum if they don't have access to the large-sized gum Topps used in 1982 (typically skinnier sticks of gum found in junk wax from late 80s). The cards in the pack followed correct collation, too, between low and high letter sheet cards, something the vast majority of resealers would have no clue about.