1970 Topps Baseball: Everything You Want To Know

It’s fitting then that 1970 Topps Baseball fit into this new era.  With a design as simple and as gray as the concrete pillars that supported the new-fangled stadiums, ‘70 Topps had the misfortune of having been released in-between the elegant white-bordered 1969 set and the black-bordered ’71 Topps, with the lack of a strong rookie class – Thurman Munson notwithstanding.

1970 Topps Baseball Cards

1970 Topps was a 720-card set, making it at the time, the largest Topps baseball set ever.  As was custom, the set was released in seven series with Series Six (cards #547-633) and Seven (#634-720) the scarcest.  Cards of Pete Rose, Willie Mays and Ernie Banks can be found in Series Six, while Nolan Ryan and a third-year Johnny Bench were in Series Seven.

Of course, the biggest quirk in the 1970 Topps Baseball set was the inclusion of the defunct Seattle Pilots.  The Pilots were an expansion team that made their debut the previous year, but with less than a week before the start of the season, the team was purchased in bankruptcy court by future MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and moved to Milwaukee.  Yet despite this, Topps continued to issue “Seattle Pilots” cards in the later series.  Even in the fifth, sixth, and seventh series, released long after the ’70 season was under way, Topps continued to print cards for a franchise that no longer existed. Brewers fans would have to wait until 1971 Topps Baseball for the first cards.

1970 Topps Series

At 720 cards, the 1970 set was the largest set produced at that point, and was split into seven series. The front of the cards seemed to lack that special “something”, making them hard to stand out, but the  backs were done in a vibrant yellow, navy blue and white to make the mini bio and stats very easy to read.

Today, although the set was issued in series, the value of common cards from #1-546 is essentially the same.  Prices do increase a bit for commons in the ‘semi high’ numbers (#547-633) and are highest priced for the high numbered series(#634-720).

Some fun facts about the 1970 set include:

• Team cards returned to Topps after a one-year absence.
• For the first time in a Topps regular issue (since 1952), there was no Mickey Mantle baseball card produced.
• Cards of the 1970 Milwaukee Brewers are pictured as Seattle Pilots. The franchise moved too late in the spring for team names to be changed prior to distribution.
• The set marked the debut of “Playoff” cards after MLB went to a four-division alignment in 1969.
• The set featured rookie cards of Thurman Munson, Bill Buckner and Vida Blue as well as Charlie Manuel, who gained bigger fame as manager of the World Series champion Phillies more than three decades later (he’s ‘Chuck’ in the set).
• The managerial rookie card of Sparky Anderson was first featured in this set depicting the player in his first year with Cincinnati.  His airbrushed photo was taken the year before when Anderson was a Padres’ coach.
• Cards featuring members of the Mets and Cubs are in high demand.
• The 1970 Topps Nolan Ryan was ranked 13th on Topps’ 2010 list of the company’s best ever cards.
• Hank Aaron’s card is often off-center, creating a scarcity in cards professionally graded at the highest levels.
• Many of the All-Star cards are off-center including Reggie Jackson’s, which is tough to find in a truly ‘mint’ grade.

1970 Types of Boxes, Packs, and Wrappers

Wax Boxes

Topps released 3 different types of wax display boxes that year.  Each of them contained a unique series and each had a different sales incentive for kids to encourage them to buy the new packs.(Note: For the Canadian collectors, a 4th shows the 1970 OPC wax box with an “extra insert in each pack”)

The wax boxes for the earliest 1970 series offered the Denny McLain poster on the right side of the front panel.  Each pack came with an “All-Star poster” and the box had a Topps production code of 1-401-37-01-0.

The 1970 wax box for the middle series offered a “Scratch-off card in each pack”.  The Topps production code for this box was 1-403-37-01-0.

The final Topps wax box included packs for the last of the 1970 baseball card series.  This offered a “Story Booklet” in each pack and advertised it with an image of Pete Rose.  The Topps production code on this box was 1-405-37-01-0.

Low Series Display Box

1970 Topps Wax Packs

When you think about it, most collectors got their start in baseball card collecting by purchasing a wax pack.

The 1970 wax pack has a nice pack design split between words and graphics.  The top half of the pack has the word “Baseball” repeating across 4 lines in an alternating red and white pattern, while the lower half of the pack consists of two splashes of solid colors.

Topps included 3 inserts in their 1970 baseball wax packs – All Star Poster, Scratch-off Insert or a Baseball Booklet.  Packs were released by individual series (i.e. series 1, series 3, etc.).  In addition, a “high series, “combining series 5,6,7 was released as well. The packs retailed for 10¢ each, which was a 100% increase in price from the nickel a pack price in 1970.

Early Series Version – All Star Poster Wax Pack

The All Star Poster wax pack was issued for the low numbered series and would be purchased from the wax box with the photo of Denny McLain on the far right of the front panel (see photo).

1970 Topps Wax Pack “All-Star Poster Insert”

The interesting thing about Denny McLain in 1970 was that he was a huge pitching star as he headed into the year, which is why Topps presumably chose him to be on the box.  However, after a February 1970 article in Sports Illustrated came out highlighting his gambling, he was suspended for half the season.  When he returned in August, he got in trouble again for dumping buckets of water on two writers and then subsequently, for carrying a gun on a road trip.  Finally, the Tigers had enough and on October 9, 1970 they traded him to the Washington Senators.

Topps also released the All Star Posters in their own wax packs which are very rare.  Those All-Star Poster wax packs are commonly known as a “Test Issue” pack.

Later Series Version – Extra Insert Wax Pack

Clearly Denny McLain’s troubles mounted as 1970 progressed, but that had nothing to do with him being removed from the next display boxes Topps would use to sell middle and higher series wax packs.

Mid & High Series – 1970 Display Boxes

Topps created a new wrapper for both of these middle and late series packs.  As noted earlier in this section, they removed the “All Star Poster” note on the bottom right of the pack and replaced in with a somewhat generic label of simply “Insert”, which given they used two different inserts in these packs, worked out well for their production team. Sometime around late spring 1970, Topps released their “middle series” which offered kids the opportunity to receive an extra scratch-off card in each pack.  As summer came to an end, Topps would close out the year with its high series wax packs and offer a free story booklet as the insert.  As with the All-Star Poster inserts, these story booklets found their way into wax packs for individual sale on a very limited basis.

Wax Wrapper

The early series wax pack with the All Star Poster variation provided kids with multiple panel offers including:

• Whale
• Ring
• Battleship

The later series wax packs with the Extra Insert variation offered:

• Free Camera

Cello Box

Prior to 1970, Topps had issued cello packs in both clear cellophane wrappers and with certain years, they printed up special cellophane wrappers.  In 1970, Topps did something radically different and would repeat the process again in 1971 and 1972.  They produced a cellophane pack of 33 cards that was wrapped both in clear cellophane and again in a nicely designed little green box.  Thus if you purchased a 1970 cello box, it would include 24 packs of little boxes of 33 cards each.  These little boxes functioned very well as a mobile carry case for a kid to keep his cards in.  Each cello pack sold for a quarter a piece.

The cello display box was black with a graphic of what appeared to be an opened cello pack of generic cards with Tom Seaver, the ace of the 1969 World Champion New York Mets on top.

Well, one can say that Topps didn’t do too poorly with its choices of players to feature on their various 1970 display boxes.  Yes – Denny McLain didn’t work out so well on the early series wax boxes, but the other two – Pete Rose on the high series wax box and Tom Seaver on the cello box – had great years.

Cello Packs

There are two production codes associated with the cello pack.  The green box has a production code (1-941-49-01-0) and the display box production code found on the box bottom (1-941-37-01-1).

Rack Box

It is believed the invention of real Topps rack packs began in 1960, so by 1970, this was a fairly familiar item for kids to purchase.    When considering each series had 132 cards or less, theoretically, a kid could buy three packs and get the entire series (assuming perfect collation) for about $1.17, or less than half the cost of purchasing a wax box.  In addition, kids could pick and choose the racks they wanted by the cards that were showing through the front and backs of the packs.  Kids loved these but parents seemed to prefer to purchase 10-cent wax packs versus spending (or wasting, depending on the parents’ perspective) 39 cents for baseball cards.

Rack Pack

The ironic thing is that from a business perspective Topps was offering parents a 28% discount when purchasing a rack pack – consider this:

• Purchase a wax pack, 10 cards for 10 cents – kid pays .01/card
• Purchase a cello pack, 33 cards for 25 cents – kid pays .0076/card (about ¾ of a penny per card)
• Purchase a rack pack, 54 cards for 39 cents – kid pays .0072/card (a little less than ¾ of a penny per card)

By 1970, Topps shifted from a six pack wax tray to what eventually became their standard, a three pack wax tray.

These tray packs were and are still very popular among collectors, especially the older ones as they are significantly harder to fake or reseal.  This item got its name from the way it was distributed.  Remember, Topps was always fixated on marketing, so here is the marketing question: where are you almost certain to make your product visible to parents?  How about the grocery store!  Every parent has to pass through there at some point during the week.  Thus Topps made a special pack for grocery stores. This pack was actually a group of three packs that sat on a cardboard tray (complete with cross selling panel offers on the bottom), and the entire package was wrapped in a cellophane wrap with a green pricing logo.

OPC

1970 also marked the first year that OPC wax packs contained eight cards instead of four or five.

Packs were sold from two different wax boxes.  As with Topps, the different boxes noted different offers on the lower right side.  One offered “Extra Insert”, while the second one offered “Extra Scratch Off Card In Each Pack.”

OPC Wrappers

OPC baseball wrappers are actually pretty tough to come across.  They follow the same design as the Topps wrapper but the OPC logo replaces the Topps logo and the pack only offers 8 cards, not 10.  While multiple wrapper panel offers may exist, we’ve never seen one except for the “Wonder Camera”.

There were certainly a lot of choices of items to purchase from Topps during the 1970 baseball season.  Some were available almost anywhere, while others were only issued on a test basis.  Kids back then had their choice of what they wanted to purchase, just as you have your choice of what you want to purchase today.

——————————–

We thought we would take a shot at sharing what we would buy if we could only purchase one of each item category. Please note, we are not providing investment guidance here.

Wax Pack – Given the scarcity of the Topps Test Issue Story Booklet packs, our choice would be to buy with a close second choice being a Topps All Star Poster pack.

Cello Pack – Since Topps was the only one making cello packs, our choice would be to purchase a 25-cent cello pack.  Now if we could get lucky enough to find an authentic one with a favorite player showing just inside the cello box, we would jump on that purchase.  There seems to be an adequate supply of these today but perhaps these will dry up again over the next five to ten years.

Rack Pack – Again, the only choice is a Topps rack.  These are actually pretty hard to come by.  For an authentic rack, expect to pay somewhere between $2,000 – $4,000 depending on the series and the stars showing.  In an average year, perhaps less than a half dozen come up for sale.

Empty Display Box – We would jump on the 1970 Topps Poster Box.  Actually, we sold one a couple of years ago and would love to have it back.  Over the last ten years, we have only seen two.

Wax Pack Tray – Only choice is the Topps tray.  The 1970 trays are pretty rare and finding one may take a while.

Full Set – We might focus on the challenge of the OPC set.  Given its limited production, and its lack of collector interest on the US side of the border, perhaps this set will find a resurgence that could be reflected in its price.

Interested in reading more? – Click here for the Ultimate Guide to Collecting 1970 Baseball Card