1972
TOPPS 75 TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AUCTION
In 1970 and again in 1973, Topps tested small, 1.1 ounce tubs containing “Baseball Stars Candy” (in 1970) and “Baseball Stars Bubble Gum” (in 1973). The inside of the lids of each tub included a 1 7/8” diameter “card” featuring one of the era’s stars. Neither test proved successful enough to continue, and the individual cards are particularly tough to find today. At some point, Topps produced images with the same player selection as was issued in 1973, but with a slightly different layout. Unlike the issue known today as 1973, which included a full-color border around each round player image, the alternate design, which has been catalogued as “1972 Topps Candy Lid Test Issue,” featured player images that went right to the border of the rounded card. The cards were, in fact, produced for 1973 and should be catalogued as such. Several of the player images are the giveaways that these cards were produced for 1973, most notably Willie Mays, who is pictured with the Mets. Mays was traded to the Mets during the 1972 season, so the cards could not have been produced until later that year, at best. Additional recent research has challenged the longstanding 1972 designation, suggesting that these pieces are more accurately understood as developmental production material for the 1973 issue. Presented here is an extraordinary complete set of progressive color proofs from the production process, providing a fascinating look at the printing process behind one of Topps’ most distinctive test issues. Unlike the finished 1 7/8” circular lids distributed atop tubs of Baseball Stars Bubble Gum, these proofs remain in their original square-cornered production format, preserving portions of the surrounding printed sheet that would ultimately disappear when the finished lids were die-cut. Each represents an intermediate stage in the printing process, with the images comprised of a striking green cast, as opposed to the full-color finished product. 604. 1972 Topps Candy Lids Test Issue Complete Production Proof Set w/ Joe Torre Progressive Proofs (58)
“Progressive” proofs were produced during the printing process to examine individual color separations and registration before completing the finished image. As such, these are not simply uncut versions of the issued Candy Lids but artifacts surviving from an earlier stage in their production. Each of these 55 subjects is represented in the same green- dominant printing state, preserving one intermediate stage in the progressive color printing process. Three additional Joe Torre proofs take the story further, presenting his image in magenta, red/orange, cyan and green-dominant states. Together they provide a rare demonstration of how Topps built the image through successive color separations. More than simply a complete proof set, this remarkable archive documents the manufacture of the 1973 Candy Lids themselves: each subject preserved at a common printing stage, accompanied by four different states of a single player that help illustrate the printing process for the Candy Lids issue. 58 cards total.
MINIMUM BID: $5,000
103
CLOSES OCTOBER 31, 2026
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