1973 O-Pee-Chee/OPC #453 Checklist (#397-528)

For the first time in many years, Topps had to share the baseball card market with others. Donruss and Fleer entered the market with their own 1981 sets. When collector's heard they were thrilled. When they saw the Donruss and Fleer cards they were many sighs of disappointment.

1981 will always be remembered for "FERNANDO MANIA" !!!
Fernando did not make the Hall-of-Fame and he even had to share his rookie card with another player, but he had more impact during the 1981 season then anyone.

Other rookies included Hall-of-Famers Tim Raines and Harold Baines. Kirk Gibson's rookie is also here. Not a Hall-of-Famer, but who can forget his home run off the then unhittable Dennis Eckersley ?

WOW ! Few issues compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins were packaged with bubble gum and featured a color photo of player on front with a pin clasp on back. Many of the images for pins are the same as on the 1956 Topps cards. If you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one of these 1956 Topps Pin to your collection.

Packed with stars (no Mickey Mantle), the 1956 Topps Pins set also had a few scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez & Chuck Diering.

In the end, collectors of the day preferred cards to pins and Topps cut back the 1956 Topps Pin set from a planned 90 pins to just 60.

Topps has tried many crazy products, called "test issues". Mostly distributed in limited areas, test issues were scarce. "Candy Lids" were little tubs of candy with player's photos on bottom of a 1-7/8" lid. 10 cents/tub, 24 tubs/box.

Topps first Candy Lids in 1970 and they are very, very hard to find. They had small photos of Tom Seaver, Carl Yastrzemski & Frank Howard.

1970 Topps Candy Lids were called "Baseball Stars Bubble Gum", had 24 players, the 1973 Topps Candy Lids had 55.

Topps planned 1972 Candy Lids but never released it, a few proofs do exist.

Topps 1973 Pinups & Comics share many of the same photos.