TOPPS 75 TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AUCTION
1972
M any changes were happening at Topps in 1972. The company had an Initial Public Offering going on as the year’s baseball cards debuted and that had put an end to the pack inserts and most of the supplemental sets. What the IPO didn’t stifle was the design for 1972 cards, referred to today as the “Psychedelic Set” thanks to their adventurous graphics. Topps instead came up with a big batch of In Action cards, a smaller Boyhood Photos subset, a very odd six card run in the fifth series depicting the actual trophies awarded to baseball’s top performers. There was even a brace of seven Traded cards in the final series; all the innovations were created to reduce the sting of no extras being inserted for the first time since 1960. Topps went from seven series to six and ran the total up to 787 cards as efficiency became a paramount concern. A set of twenty-four Baseball Posters, very large and folded several times, was issued as a supplement, all spectacular in appearance, with no borders infringing, just a large player image. Topps revisited their experiments with cloth stickers in 1972, with thirty-three produced in a limited quantity that entered the hobby years later. A limited “reprint” set of eight cards took player portraits from the 1953 set, including Jackie Robinson’s, and combined them with text backs, several of which are erroneous and said to have been produced for a banquet that’s never been identified, are highly sought after. An oddity called Baseball Scratch-Off was test marketed and thought to be from 1972 based upon the design, presented a larger version of these familiar playthings, this time on a thin card with no players depicted and no unfolding necessary.
601. 1972 Topps Complete Set (787) MINIMUM BID: $1,000
603. 1972 Topps #586 Dennis Menke (No Orange on Back) - CGC VG+ 3.5 MINIMUM BID: $50 602. 1972 Topps Cloth Stickers Complete Set (33) MINIMUM BID: $200
600. 1972 Topps #45 Glenn Beckert (Ink Transfer on Front) - CGC EX 5 MINIMUM BID: $25
599. 1972 Topps Print Variations Collection (92) MINIMUM BID: $200
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