1969-70 Topps Basketball Cards Were A Landmark

Set Notes

40 years ago, something new and different showed up in the candy aisle - basketball cards.

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Excerpt

For kids who grew up in the 1960s, "basketball cards" wasn't even a phrase. Not unless an older brother just happened to have a few 1961-62 Fleer stuck away in a box. Or an uncle who offered tales of a Topps set produced in 1957. Baseball cards were king. Football was around.

Basketball? You'd have better luck finding hockey card packs.

The arrival of a special player and two marquee teams on each coast changed that.

More set notes

This set consists of 792 standard-size cards. Cards were primarily issued in 17-card wax packs, 50-card rack packs and factory sets. Card fronts feature wood grain borders encasing a color photo (reminiscent of Topps classic 1962 baseball set). Subsets include Record Breakers (1-7), Turn Back The Clock (311-315), All-Star selections (595-616), and Team Leaders (scattered throughout the set). The manager cards contain a team checklist on back.

The 1990 Topps set contains 792 standard-size cards. Cards were issued primarily in wax packs, rack packs and hobby and retail Christmas factory sets. Cards fronts feature various colored borders with the player's name at the bottom and team name at top. Subsets include All-Stars (385-407), Turn Back The Clock (661-665), and Draft Picks (scattered throughout the set). The key Rookie Cards in this set are Juan Gonzalez, Marquis Grissom, Sammy Sosa, Frank Thomas, Larry Walker and Bernie Williams. The Thomas card (414A) was printed without his name on front creating a scarce variation.

This set consists of 792 standard-size cards. The cards were primarily issued in 15-card wax packs, 42-card rack packs and factory sets. Card fronts feature white borders encasing a color photo with team name running across the top and player name diagonally across the bottom. Subsets include Record Breakers (1-7), All-Stars (386-407), Turn Back The Clock (661-665), and Team Leaders (scattered throughout the set). The manager cards contain a team checklist on back. The key Rookie Cards in this set are Ellis Burks, Ken Caminiti, Tom Glavine and Matt Williams.

The 1990 Topps Traded set was the tenth consecutive year that Topps issued a 132-card standard-size set at the end of the year. For the first time, Topps not only issued the set in factory set form but also distributed (on a significant basis) the set via seven-card wax packs. Unlike the factory set cards (which feature the whiter paper stock typical of the previous years Traded sets), the wax pack cards feature grey paper stock. Grey and white stock cards are equally valued.

This set consists of 792 standard-size cards. Cards were primarily distributed in 15-card wax packs, 48-card rack packs and factory sets. This was also the first year Topps offered a factory set to hobby dealers. Standard card fronts feature a black and white split border framing a color photo with team name on top and player name on bottom. Subsets include Pete Rose tribute (1-7), Record Breakers (201-207), Turn Back The Clock (401-405), All-Stars (701-722) and Team Leaders (seeded throughout the set). Manager cards feature the team checklist on the reverse.

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