1975 Topps Mini Baseball Cards; Flawed, Scarce...& Enamored by Collectors

 

  

                       

Hi Folks,
   Today, we are going to take a fun ride together back to 1975, no bell-bottoms or disco ball required! To that, I promise!

   What started out as a test across a few states, grew into a cult-like following, with popularity among investors that has spiked of late.

   It was literally a carbon copy of the main set, but the cards were approximately 20% the size of the mother/base set.
 
   What cards am talking about? The 1975 Topps Mini Baseball Card Set, of course!!

   Some notable cards stand out on the lips of any baseball card collector when they hear the words "1975 Topps Mini" uttered, and their thoughts sway to the mini George Brett and Robin Yount Rookie Cards. That's followed with a chaser of Jim Rice, Gary Carter, Keith Hernandez, and the Hank Aaron cards that start and end the set, in light of his major Home Run milestone accomplishment of passing Babe Ruth on the All-Time Home Run Leaders list in 1974.

   These scarce cards are tough finds to begin with, and even more-so in mint condition, because, similar to the 1971 Topps solid Black border that chipped and showed cardboard easily, the rainbow of colors that form the borders of the 1975 Topps Minis suffer the same existence. Add to that some bad color mixes and smudging, and also, the imprecise sheet-cutting of the time (making for off-center and diamond-cut cards), and you have a tough find if you are looking for Gem Mint Cards.

   Talk about a test run...you would think Topps would have been more careful, but a lot of these cards left the factory disheveled, in terms of cut and other factory flaws usually weeded out via the old "Inspector #5" method. I believe there was a certain color combination that was more likely to have issues, such as size, but I was not sure of which combo. I believe it was one of the combos with Yellow in it. If you know, please chime in with your comments below.

   One example, per PSACard.com, is the #647 card of Claudell Washington, which at the time they wrote their article, only one PSA 9 was found, and no PSA 10's. Another card is the #16 card of Frank Tanana, of which there are just two in PSA 9 or better. We have an amazing Tanana card, ungraded, and we have made that card available on CardboardandCoins.com

   Some other cards, per PSA, that have been scant in the high-level grades are the George Brett Rookie Card (#228), and also the last card, Hank Aaron (#660), the latter of which shows up often as diamond cut.

   Prices run somewhat higher than the standard size cards from 1975, yet, there are a few players that flip flop between being more expensive as a mini and more expensive as a base set card.

   Overall, there is an inverse relationship, because as more folks are investing in these, the scarcity increases.

   On a personal level, I love the 1975 Topps Minis, and they are truly an Epic part of the baseball card collecting landscape. Within a few more years, I am positive that these cards will be viewed in the category of "Elite" cards, in the company of the 1952 Topps Set and other such pillars of our hobby. Mini cards are issued each year now, but the imitations always pale in comparison to the real father of Minis, the 1975 Topps Mini cards.

   Per PSA's price guide, you can notice some of the more expensive commons, and we have listed a few NM & close to NM rare cards for your review, including:

#16 Frank Tanana (Rookie Card) 

#246 St. Louis Cardinals Team Card with Red Schoendienst (Deceased)

#253 Jesus Alou

#306 1974 Batting Leaders (Carew/Garr)

#545 Billy Williams, a HOF'er


What are your thoughts on the 1975 Topps Mini set?

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Have a great weekend, enjoy, and be safe!!

Many thanks and Regards,
Rob Eisenstein and your friends at CardboardandCoins.com

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Why Card Sleeves contribute to Low Population!!

Hello Everyone,
   Welcome to CardboardandCoins.com, a site that was created to join two great hobbies, Card collecting and Coin collecting.

   I've been in the hobby, or "hobbies" I should say, for close to 30 years. I grew up during a time when Saturday meant cartoons in the morning, bowling with the Cub Scouts, a trip to the arcade, and baseball cards on the way home. Later in the day, it was time to go through the big change bucket from the past week, and to sort through all of the years of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, and to put them in the Whitman folders I was filling for each type of coin. Yes, I was...and I still am...a proud dork!

   As far as baseball cards, I remember laughing at some of the cards from the 1983 Topps baseball set, and in particular, the Wade Boggs card (his rookie). Well, as the title of this post reads, let me explain and use the Boggs rookie as the perfect example.

   Just last week, I decided to remove some old school sleeves off some cards and replace them with the new Penny Sleeves. Simple enough, right? I get to good ole' Wade and the darn penny sleeve lifted up the first layer in the lower left corner of the card! Really? How could these little plastic slips cause such destruction? It makes me wonder that if this happened to me (it does happen from time to time), then think of how many others are having the same issue.

   Perhaps some of you were trying to sleeve a 1977 Don Money card, but then this mishap prevents the card from fetching a 10. The end result is the 1977 Topps card of Don Money (a lifetime .261 hitter) being more valuable than the 1977 Topps card of Rod Carew (a lifetime .328 hitter). Oh, bittersweet population. For those of you who are not aware of population, it means the total amount of a certain card that was graded a "10" for example, by a specific grading company. So when you see a low population of high-grades for a specific card, just blame the Sleeves!

   Now, the alternative would be life without the penny sleeves. Think of all of the cards out there with scuffed up surfaces and greasy finger marks. No thanks. Penny sleeves are very important, and when used properly in a controlled environment with some peer supervision, they can prove to be quite helpful.

   Remember: do NOT top-load your card without putting the card in a sleeve first. It pays to have an extra layer of friction to hold the card in place, or you might have the same incident that happened to me with the 1985 McGwire Rookie (It's too painful; I don't want to get into it, but let's just say cards slide out of top loaders when they're not sleeved). Cards also have a tendency to fall with precision accuracy right onto one of their 4 corners. I know what you are about to ask; Yes, it did happen to me. Learn from that sad incident. Sorry, Mr. McGwire. I know you'd probably pick me up by the throat with one hand. Umm, but please kindly refrain.

   So, with all of that said, welcome to our site. Going forward, you'll probably notice I refer to our hobbies as our "industry". In the coming months, we have a lot of surprises planned for you here, including some Blog posts written by (and also written about) some pretty influential folks in our industry. We are in talks with a few different webstore providers, and our inventory should start appearing on the site within a few weeks. Be sure to bookmark us and check back often!

   In closing, who's going to the National at Hofstra University in Long Island this weekend?

Best Regards,
Rob Eisenstein
www.CardboardandCoins.com



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