TOPPS 75 TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AUCTION
1966
T opps moved their production, warehousing and distribution operations to Duryea, Pennsylvania during the winter of 1965- 66, while leaving their executives, product development, and art departments behind in Brooklyn. The year’s baseball cards were the first packed and distributed out of the Duryea plant and another 598-card set was the result. Their clean design was matched by an extensive 120 subject set of Rub-Offs, with bright colors and a good selection of players offered. The year’s high numbers became elusive and challenging once more, with eleven cards thought to be in much shorter supply than the others. Although seemingly printed in roughly the same quantities as the other cards in the final series, a production issue may have been at fault. Whether due to the move of production and related activities to Duryea or management trying to make further use of their license with Major League Baseball, 1966 marks the start of an experimental period at Topps, as they began to greatly increase their test set efforts. As part of this initiative, a set of game cards called Baseball Punchboards was created as prototypes but apparently never reached the retail test stage. Oriented very much like a playing card, these were meant to be broken in half to pit a National League Player against one from the American League as the evolution of the dice game project continued. Only 14 panels with 28 players overall are presently known, out of an unknown total and these cards are prime rarities today.
313. 1966 Topps Punch-Outs Willie Stargell/Felix Mantilla (HOF) - SGC POOR 1 “Baseball Punchboard Cards,” the set listed in the Standard Catalog as “1966 Topps Punch-Outs” is extremely rare today, with Intended to be test- marketed as
only a handful of surviving examples known. As of this writing the checklist remains incomplete, as just 14 full- card panels have been discovered, featuring 28 players, with each card featuring a player from each league. Speculation remains that the total number of different cards produced was actually 20, which would imply that as many as six cards remain undiscovered. It is highly unlikely, due to the small number of cards that have been discovered and the lack of any used retail packaging having been unearthed, that the cards ever even made it to retail at any level. Presented here is one of the few known examples of any card from the set, featuring Hall of Famer Willie Stargell along with Boston infielder Felix Mantilla. Though technical grade is hardly relevant with an issue this rare, the card has graded POOR 1 due to two of the baseball punch outs having peeled away. Regardless of the numerical grade, this example is one of only 10 of any subject graded by either SGC or PSA, and the only graded example of the Stargell/Mantilla card. Though we have seen an image of another, ungraded example of this card, it remains a true rarity, featuring a Hall of Famer. One of the rarest cards in this entire catalog. MINIMUM BID: $1,000
312. 1966 Topps Complete Set (598) MINIMUM BID: $1,000
64
LOVEOFTHEGAMEAUCTIONS.COM
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online