Redeeming Topps Lineage #5 – comparing Topps Cloth Stickers

Cloth Stickers – 50 cards (1:12)

The next comparison for Topps Lineage is in the 1970′s.  Specifically, the Cloth Stickers insert is supposed to pay tribute to the 1972 set, but since the design on the front is the same as the Lineage base set – it’s really doing so for any of the years of Cloth Stickers – 1970, 1972, 1976, or 1977.  The 1972 test set was a basically a printing sheet of cloth sticker cards that was never released to the public.  The 2011 Lineage is a 50-card monster set with both retired and current players.

From the 1970 set, there are two guys who have a card in the 2011 Lineage set.  The first one is Nolan Ryan - who is on a card depicting his save in the 1969 World Series.  I’ll show the Ryan card here – he was a reliever just getting started in the ’69 season, with a wild arm and a lot of potential.  Note – I couldn’t actually find a picture of the cloth sticker, so I just went with a picture of the 1970 card.  A view of the young and the old Ryan Express.  Boog Powell, Willie McCovey, Phil Niekro and Juan Marichal also have cards in the 1970 test set (according to the Standard Catalog).

From the 1972 set, there is just one player who is in both sets.  Hank Aaron is all over Lineage and the sets it pays homage to – he seems to be in every current year insert set, and the old sets are all right in his career span.  The 72 Cloth set shows him toward the end of his career, this time with the Atlanta Braves, while the photo in the Lineage set is when the Braves were still in Milwaukee.

I’m not doing the comparison for 1976 – there were only two cards created in this test set, in an attempt to set up for the main set the next year.

Finally, my favorite comparison is that of the 1977 cloth sticker set.  I picked Tom Seaver for this one – his Reds picture is the one they put in the cloth sticker insert, but I thought comparing the ’77 Cloth Sticker to Seaver’s other base card from this year’s Lineage set was the more interesting look!

2011 Lineage & related sets – Big Red Machine

There are plenty of Reds in the 2011 Topps Lineage product, and 3 of them are Big Red Machine players – Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.  In total, they had 5 base cards – as Morgan and Bench both were included in the All-Star Rookie subset.

This means there are 15 regular parallel inserts – 1 each for 1975 Topps mini, Platinum Diamond and Diamond Anniversary.  This also means there are 25 “1 of 1″ parallels – a canary parallel for each and 4 colors of printing plates.

Bench was included in the cloth stickers insert set, and he also has a 1975 mini relic card – which means there’s a canary version of that out there numbered out of ten.  He also has a jumbo relic #’d out of 25, which Chris from Nachos Grande was fortunate enough to pull.  Perez also has a card and a canary version in the ’75 mini relic set.

Morgan was included in the Autograph reprint set.  It’s inserted as a redemption, and like the others, should have a canary version, though I’ve only seen the regular redemption up on eBay.

So, all told – if you wanted to collect every single Big Red Machine card I mentioned above, you’d have 52 cards to find.  If you didn’t want the 1/1′s – that number would be 27, and if you didn’t want any parallel versions of cards, you’d have 9 (I’m not counting the relics of the cloth sticker as parallels, though you could make the argument they are).  Me?  I’m collecting the complete set, the full ’75 mini set, and the cloth stickers set - so I’ll end up with all 11 of those cards.  Specifically, I’ll collect the other 10 non-numbered parallels of the BRM guys, both the Perez and Bench ’75 mini relics, and I’ll try to find the Morgan auto for a decent price.  I hope he’s pictured as a Red!  The Bench jumbo relic is probably a little out of my price range.

There are also some Big Red Machine guys in the sets that Topps Lineage pays tribute to.  There two 1964 sets (Giants, Stand-ups) are too early, and the 1980′s Topps Rookies sets are too late, though a BRM-er’s son – Griffey Jr. – is included.  And the

Topps Venezuelan

1960 Topps Venezuelan – #34 – Sparky Anderson

1964 set - #125 – Pete Rose,

1966 set – #30 – Rose, #72 – Perez, #195 – Morgan

1967 set** – #89 – Dave Concepcion**, #270 – Rose, #308 – Morgan, #327 – Perez

1968 set – #130 – Perez, #144 – Morgan, #230 – Rose, #247 – Bench, #364 – Morgan AS

* – I didn’t discuss the 1967 Topps Venezuelan set in my earlier post on the history of that set, as it wasn’t a parallel of the base set.  The first 138 cards feature players from the Venezuelan Winter League, including Concepcion – whose rookie card wouldn’t come for 4 years after this one.  Cards #’d 139-188 are retired all-stars, while the rest of the 338-card set are cards with the same photo as the regular Topps set.  The card backs just have write-ups in Spanish – no statistics.  I tried to find a picture of the Concepcion card, but I couldn’t dig anything up.  I decided to throw in a picture of the retired players – which includes card #175, Johnny Vander Meer.  In addition to being the only pitcher to throw consecutive no-hitters, Vander Meer also was part of the 1940 World Series Champions.  He’s the card on the far left in the 2nd row below.

Topps 3-D

Tony Perez was included in the 1968 test set.  A gem 98/100 version graded by SGC sold for almost $4,000 last year.

Topps Cloth Stickers

Dave Concepcion had a card printed in the 1972 test set.  The photo below shows his card.  Davey is probably the most recognizable name after the 4 Hall-of-Famers, also shown below.

1975 Topps Mini

#532 – Anderson (MG), #260 – Bench, #560 – Perez, #180 – Morgan, #320 – Rose, #17 – Concepcion, #284 – Ken Griffey, #41 – Cesar Geronimo, #87 – George Foster

#208 – Powell/Bench (’70 MVP), #210 – Allen/Bench (’72 MVP), #211 – R.Jackson/Rose (’73 MVP), #260 – Bench, #308 – Bench/Burroughs (Leaders)

As the ’75 Topps mini set is a full parallel of the regular set, and this set was in the middle of the peak of the Big Red Machine, this set has a boat load of Big Red Machine cards.  Each of the 8 players and manager Sparky Anderson are included in this set.

Up tomorrow – I’ll look at the one player from the Reds most recent World Championship included in this set.

A look back at 1972 Topps Cloth Stickers test

The next set I’ll look at with ties to 2011 Topps Lineage is from the 1970′s – specifically the 1972 Topps cloth sticker set. 

After doing a little research, I’m surprised they singled out the 1972 set – as Topps has had a number of test sets called Topps cloth stickers.  Here’s a list of the sets – I’ll do 1972 last because that’s what Topps says they modeled the Lineage set after:

1970 Cloth Stickers Test

These are apparently very rare, and appear to have been material tests that Topps intended to send to the scrap heap.  Every sticker that’s been found (less than 44, including some that are only partials) corresponds to the 2nd series of Topps cards from t(#133-263).  Here’s a couple of posts on this issue from the blog “Topps Archives”.

1976 Cloth Stickers Prototype

Another materials test – there were only 2 cards printed for this test issue – Duff Dyer (Pirates) and Bob Apodaca (Mets).  Topps was likely testing for the full-blown set they would release in 1977 – these cloth stickers can be found in a couple of different versions.  I’ve seen a couple of lots for these on eBay from time to time.

1977 Cloth Stickers

This set consisted of 55 players and was issued in packs along with 18 other cards that formed 2 9-piece puzzles.  When you put the puzzles together, they form a photo of each All-Star squad.  Here’s a write-up of this set on sports collector’s daily.

1972 Cloth Stickers Test

33 cards in the set – usually coming in 33-card or 132-card sheets.

• Subsets: As the sticker set is essentially a sheet of cards from the ’72 set in sticker form, some of the same subsets are represented that are in the 1972 Topps flagship set.  There are 3 “In Action” cards, a “Boyhood Photo” card of Jim Fregosi, the Red Sox team card, and even a checklist.
• Set Design: Exactly the same as the recognizable arch design from 1972, these was one of the more unique designs in Topps history.  Like all the other sets above, these cards have blank, stickered backs.  If you see a single card – that means it was hand-cut.
• Hall of Fame: There are 4 Hall of Famers in this set.
• Hank Aaron, Luis Aparicio (IA), Roberto Clemente (IA), Willie McCovey
• Last Active player: Dave Concepcion, who played his final game in September of 1988.