1973 Topps

The 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists

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I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m a checklist collector. However, when asked about team checklists, I say I don’t collect them, but that’s only because I need to focus my collection a little. That’s not to say I’m not a fan, though! I think the 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists are pretty interesting.

1973 Topps Football Baltimore Colts Team Checklists

The set has 26 cards, one for each National Football League team. They’re unnumbered and were inserted in packs. The upper quarter of the card is an action photo. Beneath that is a Topps helmet, the team name, and the words “Team Checklist.” Then, the bottom 2/3 of the card is an alphabetical list of players, with the card number on the left of the player’s name, their uniform number, and position to the right.

The backs of the cards form a photo of either Joe Namath or Larry Brown. Unfortunately, as I said, I don’t have these cards, so I can’t piece them all together. However, I did find one of Joe Namath online and a photo of all the backs, but not in “order.”

1973 Topps Football Checklists – Joe Namath
1973 Topps Team Checklist Complete Set – Reverse

PSA has graded 909 1973 Topps Team Checklists; fewer than 10% have hit ultra high-grade PSA 10 or PSA 9 grades. There are 7 PSA 10s and 76 PSA 9s. However, there are a lot of eights and sevens with 320 and 209, respectively. So in ultra-high-end, these are tough cards, but the eye-appealing 7/8 range cards are readily available (and affordable).

The Green Bay Packers, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Los Angeles Rams are the most commonly graded checklists. And the least graded are the Chicago Bears with 21, Atlanta Falcons with 22, New York Jets with 23, and St. Louis Cardinals with 24.

1973 Topps Football New York Jets Team Checklists

A couple of years ago, a few higher-end sales included a PSA 10 Dallas Cowboys checklist for $482 in June 2019, a PSA 9 Atlanta Falcons for $599 in early 2020, and a PSA 9 New York Jets checklist for $214 in mid-2019.

1973 Topps Football Atlanta Falcons Team Checklists

Complete raw sets can be purchased for between $50 and $200, depending on condition and whether they’re marked. Just a few years ago, you could commonly find them for between $25 and $50.

1973 Topps Team Checklists Complete Set

There are also variations where one or two asterisks can be found printed next to the copyright symbol.

Once I check off a few of my bucket list checklists, I’ll probably go after the 1973 Topps Football Team Checklists. As you can see above, a complete set of these looks great together and could make an excellent wall display for a football fan. Let me know in the comments or on X if you have any of these cards, and happy collecting!

A 1973 Topps Test Candy Lid Uncut Sheet From The Hobby Library Archives

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Here’s another cool uncut sheet from the hobby library archives, a 1973 Topps Test Candy Lid Uncut Sheet. This one was offered as lot 389 in Christie’s East Sports Memorabilia Auction in October 1992.

The sheet includes stars like Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Pete Rose, Carlton Fisk, and Nolan Ryan. It was described as being in near mint condition and carried and had an estimated value of $700-800.

The Standard Catalog described the set as “a bit out of the ordinary, the Topps Candy Lids were the top of a product called ‘Baseball Stars Bubble Gum.’ The bottom (inside) of the lids carry a color photo of a player with a ribbon containing the name, position and team. The lids are 1-7/8” in diameter. A total of 55 different lids were made featuring most of the stars of the day.”

Here are a few examples.

There are also several slabbed and unslabbed proofs on the market, so I wonder if someone cut up the sheet.

Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to check out more uncut sheets on the archive. Happy collecting!

Joe Garagiola’s 1973 Topps Business Card: From Bubble Gum Blowouts to Baseball Card Lore

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I only recently learned about this 1973 Topps-style Joe Garagiola card from the April 1986 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine. They wrote that Joe used it as his business card, but there’s a little more to it than that!

The Topps Archives has a series of posts about the card; the first, from February 2009, identifies it as part of “a small but distinct list of baseball issues from Topps that consist of a single card. The most famous of these is Joe Garagiola’s 1976 NBC Business Card that is a dead ringer for a ’73 Topps baseball card.”

Then, in June 2009, The Topps Archives connected the card to Joe Garagiola’s Bazook Big League Bubble Gum Blowing Championship that gave us the classic 1976 Topps card of Kurt Bevacqua!

And from a photo from the event, The Topps Archives pointed out the uncut sheet behind Joe G., writing, “That, ladies and gentlemen is Garagiola’s ersatz 1973 Topps business card. I think it highly likely said pasteboards were created for him to hand out at this event. The card does have a 1976 copyright on it and I have to think the contest was held after the end of the ’75 season based on the Joe G. card copyright date.”

A pair of articles from the Baseball Hall of Fame explain the competition further. You can also watch the event on YouTube, which originally aired on October 14th, 1975, before Game 3 of the 1975 World Series.

The Topps Archives then shared a few photos of Garagiola’s card as reprinted in 1991.

BaseballCardPedia summarizes the entire story of the card as follows:

Sometime in the mid-1970s, Topps produced for former Cardinals catcher and then-current NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola a business card done in the style of a baseball card. The front of the card has the design of the 1973 Topps set, while the back is set up like a 1976 Topps card. 

It is unknown exactly when this card was produced; however, a framed uncut sheet of the card was seen in the background of a 1975 made-for-TV bubble gum blowing contest hosted by Garagiola for NBC. The contest was sponsored by Topps and was commemorated with a card (#564) of winner Kurt Bevacqua in the 1976 Topps set.

A second run of this card was produced in the early-90s, to coincide with Garagiola’s appointment as co-host of NBC’s Today Show. This card is identical to the 70s card, with the addition of both a Topps and Today Show logo to the front.

However, there’s still one more mystery. You can see up above the back of the variation I shared above has a 1976 copyright and Garagiola’s phone number on the back. There’s another version with a different phone number and 1976 copyright along with the 1991 reprint!

Happy collecting!

1973 Topps “1953 Reissue” Test Set: More Than Just a Reprint!

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In July 2000, REA sold two 1973 Topps “1953 Reissue” Test Sets in their internet/telephone auction held in partnership with eBay. The cards are awesome, but I dislike that PSA calls them reprints on the flips; they’re a little more unique than a “reprint!”

I’m not sure if there’s been some more modern research into the cards, but here’s what my Standard Catalog says about them:

Long before Topps reprinted virtually the entire 1953 set in its “Archives” program in 1991, selected cards from the ’53 set had been reprinted in a rare eight-card issue. Some sources say the cards were produced as table favors at a Topps banquet, while at least one contemporary hobby periodical said they were sold on a test-issue basis in Brooklyn. It was said only 300 of the sets were made. Unlike the original cards in 2-5/8” x 3-3/4” format, the test issue cards are modern standard 2-1/2” x 3-1/2”. Three of the players in the issue were misidentified. Card backs feature a career summary written as through in 1953; the backs are formatted differently than original 1953 Topps cards and are printed in black-and-white.

Sounds like something more unique than a re-print to me!

Here’s a complete PSA-graded set that REA sold for $1,140 in the spring of 2018, the description for which hypothesized that the cards came out of Sy Berger’s personal collection of Topps banquet keepsakes, “lending credence to the Topps banquet theory.”

REA also sold the following uncut panel of the cards for $1,080 in the fall of 2018.

I’ll have to do more research on this set; it’s fantastic but still a bit mysterious! Let me know if you have more details.

Check out The Uncut Sheet Archive for more!

1973 Topps Juan Marichal Orginal Artwork

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Ron Oser Enterprises offered this framed and matted piece in April 2000, featuring the original “artwork” (more like a photograph) used for Juan Marichal’s 1973 Topps card, an example card, and Marichal’s autograph.

They described the original artwork as being 3 1/4” x 5”, and the total framed and matted piece as being 10” x 12”

Here’s an example of a PSA 9-graded 1973 Topps #480 Marichal card; there are no 10s in PSA’s Pop Report. You’ve gotta love 1973 Topps photography…

Dynamite Magazine Number 2 With A 1974 Topps 6-Card Panel And A Story Of 1973 Topps Airbrushing

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I’ve been sharing my collection of Dynamite and Hot Dog Magazines on X, highlighting those with 6-card baseball and football panels. Issue two included 1974 Topps baseball cards, but there’s more; it also included a great article called The All-American Card Game. 

Before I share more about this specific release, here’s a bit of a Dynamite Magazine 101 that I had shared in an old article I had written about Dynamite Magzine Issue 47 that included a panel of 1978 Topps baseball cards: 

Scholastic Inc.’s Dynamite Magazine launched in March 1974 and continued to be released through March 1992 (165 total issues). It was Scholastic’s most successful publication and inspired four other magazines you might be familiar with if you were a kid aged ~8-14 at the time; Bananas, Wow, Hot Dog!, and Peanut Butter. It was a bit of a pop culture update and included articles, comics, puzzles, and other interactive content like puzzles, games, masks, etc. They’d often contain inserts like stickers, glow-in-the-dark items, 3-D posters with glasses, and of course, baseball cards.

Ok, back to Dynamite Magazine Issue Two. First, here’s the cover.

Next, here’s the table of contents, with the top two 1974 Topps cards from the six-card panel.

Notice what’s on page 30; it’s the article I referenced, The All-American Card Game: Press runs big hits and some errors in the Baseball Card Series. Page 30 was the visual (first scan in this blog post), and the following page, 31, had the text.

It’s interesting particularly because in it, Sy Berger highlighted to the author that when Topps would send out photographers to take pictures of players for cards, they would snap a few in full uniform and a few others that could be used in case the player got traded, “just-in-case,” like Ken McMullen’s 1973 Topps card that was taken when he played for the Angels. However, Gary Gentry’s cap had to be airbrushed by Topps artists. 

Here’s the next page with the bottom four of six 1974 Topps cards included with the magazine.