1956 Topps Pins

Few issues can compare to the 1956 Topps Pins set. The colorful and attractive 1-1/8" diameter pins, just like baseball cards from the era, were packaged with bubble gum. The pins featured a full color photo of the player with a pin clasp on the reverse. Interestingly, some images for the pin set are the same as those on the regular 1956 Topps cards. Even if you don't want to collect the set, if you collect 1956 Topps cards than YOU MUST add at least one 1956 Topps Pin to your collection.

The 1956 Topps Pins set features most of the eras Hall-of-Famers including Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Duke Snider, Al Kaline, Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews and also includes some super tough scarcities such as Chuck Stobbs, Hector Lopez and Chuck Diering. There is not firm opinion as to which of the 3 scarce short prints are the toughest to find.

1952,1953,1954,1955 Red Man TOBACCO

Without the tabs it is difficult to determine which year certain players were issued. It is usually easiest to determine the year by looking at the expiration date on the back. Subtract 1 from the expiration year to determine the year of the card.

Each set is made up of 25 players from each league all personally selected by Editor J.G. Taylor Spink of the "Sporting News". Red Man did not waste much effort once they designed their set. They even used the same artwork for players with different backgrounds, year after year, as long as the player did not change teams. If a player changed teams between years, the new team name and logo were "painted over" the old one.

Managers from each league were included in the 1952 and 1953 sets. The 1954 set had four different variations. If you ignore the many variations of the expiration dates, that brings the total to only 208 cards to complete your Master Red Man Tobacco Baseball Card Set !!! Start collecting now !

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1970/1972/1973 Topps Candy Lids

Topps released their first Candy Lids in 1970. The 1970 Topps Candy Lids are very, very hard to find. The 1970 lids had small photos of Tom Seaver, Carl Yastrzemski and Frank Howard on the top.

They returned in 1973 with some minor changes. The candy was replaced by gum, the mini photo of Frank Howard was gone from the top of the lid and team logos were airburshed off the player's caps. Even the tiny Yaz and Seaver photos had their logos removed. 1973 Topps Candy Lids are hard to find, but not nearly as scarce as the 1970's. There was also a 1972 Topps Candy Lids issue in the works but it was never released although a very few proofs do exist.

Topps released two other test issue sets in 1973 (1973 Topps Pinups and 1973 Topps Comics), each with very limited distribution. The 1973 Topps Comics and 1973 Topps Candy Lids shared many of the same photos. Just like the candy lids, those sets had no team logos. If you're thinking "licensing dispute", you are likely right. Topps received player's union's permission for these test issues, but not Major League Baseball's permission. Apparently issues over rights and fees with Major League Baseball Properties and the player's union resulted in Topps shutting down future production of test issues, supplemental sets and insert sets, putting an end to some of their most "fun" collectibles.

Due to licensing issues, after 1973 Topps released very few "oddball" issues. In 1975 did release a "Minis" set but they reportedly cut production on the regular set to produce the minis, so the players and owners probably got nothing extra. Topps next major test issue was the 1977 Topps Cloth Stickers. Afterwards Topps started producing sets for other distributors like Burger King, Zest Soap and others having the distributors cut the licensing deals, saving them the aggravation.