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The first 1976 card I owned was the Twins' Ray Corbin. Don't know where I got it. But for a while in the late 1970s, it was the only one I had. A friend up the street, Dave, who was my age but still had an old shoe box with dog-eared baseball and football cards from 1974, 1975, and 1976 then probably let me have his duplicates. I can recall have a really beat up Rod Carew, and a bunch of weird-looking "Traded Cards".
After I purchased the 1977 set from Renata Galasso at the start of the 1980s, I set about trying to gather more and more 1976s. I think the first show I ever went to - at Platt High School in Meriden, CT. - netted me about a hundred or so mostly commons in better shape than I'd ever seen any '76s before.
I built up a large amount of the cards over the next several years, but it wasn't until much later - perhaps when I was in college in the late 1980s - that I obtained the final card I needed to complete the set, which I THINK was Ron Cey.
1976 cards are quite nice. Beneath a generally colorful, clear image are two horizontal bands of color, the top one containing the player's name and the bottom his team. To the left is a small drawing of a player representing one of 9 possible positions - catcher, 1st baseman, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, outfielder, designated hitter and pitcher (in both right- and left-hand profiles). The position is spelled out in fine type below. These are similar to, but an improvement upon, 1973's black silhouettes. I've always liked the 1976 set, but it never seems to get a lot of love from collectors.
Backs are printed in green and brown on gray. A small cartoon offers a tidbit of baseball history and a bat extends along the left side margin.
Once again in 1976, the Topps baseball set was printed on 5 different sheets, each containing 132 unique cards; there were no short- or over-prints. As shown below, however, to accommodate the late-season issuance of their Traded Set, the sheet above, anchored by Johnny Briggs in the upper left corner, was re-formatted.
Wax packs contained 10 cards (along with a stick of gum) and sold for 15 cents each. They were packed 36 per box and cases contained 16 boxes each.
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1975 had been the first year Topps moved to a 10/card, 15 cent wax pack. In 1976, they apparently felt they needed to test another format and so some wax packs were issued with 7 cards and sold for 10 cents. Boxes containing such packs included an insert advertising this fact. Topps returned to solely issuing 10/card 15 cent packs in 1977. Available imagery suggests the 10 cent boxes were slightly shallower than their 15 cent counterparts, so it is possible that 10 cent cases were also a bit smaller than their counterparts as well.
Wrappers came in 5 varieties: those featuring "1976 Series!" on the front can be found with ads for the sports card locker ($4.75 plus a wrapper), team pennants (40 cents and 1 wrapper for each pennant desired), membership in the Topps Sports Club ($2.50 and a wrapper) and one offering membership but highlighting the opportunity to trade with other collectors by mail.
Wrappers with a "All 660 cards in one Series!" front offered the uncut team checklists (50 cents and a wrapper) as well as the pennants and the card locker.
Topps' wrappers in 1976 were retreads of their 1974 wrappers - the "All 660 Cards" version only differed in the side panels and the "1976" version differed in the side panels and the wording inside the yellow block.
The card locker was the same model that was available from 1975-1982 - it contained plastic tiers for sorting cards by team and included stickers featuring team names.
The team checklist sheet came tri-folded and was printed on white stock which was thinner (and flimsier) than regular cards.
Membership in the Topps Sports Club netted you a periodic newsletter, autographed photos and other perks. The club was marketed across all Topps' sports offerings.
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So-called 'grocery' packs were available primarily at, well, grocery stores. These were simply 3 wax packs overwrapped together on a cardboard tray. These didn't carry a factory-set price but were likely priced at 45 cents in most places.
Because we know they were packaged that way before and after 1976, it is likely that 1976's grocery packs came 24 packs per box and 2 boxes per case.
The cardboard tray advertised the Topps Sports Club.
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Cello packs contained 18 cards (along with a stick of gum) and retailed for 25 cents each. Because 1975 and 1977 cases contained 15 boxes each, it is reasonable to assume 1976 cases contained 15 boxes as well.
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Rack packs held 42 cards and sold for 49 cents each. Packs came 24 per box and, judging from a case box which has survived from 1975 and some from later years, it is reasonable to believe rack boxes came packed 3 per case, and possibly 6 per case as well.
Header cards had a card locker ad on the reverse.
Dealers and other interested parties could purchase 500-count vending boxes directly from Topps. Vending boxes came in cases of 24 boxes each.
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Out of 660 total cards, the set contains 581 basic player cards, a total which includes 18 cards with special All Star stars in place of the player silhouette (AL stars contain red type, and NL stars contain green type) signifying the 18 starters from the 1975 mid-summer classic. These are:
American League:
165 - Gene Tenace, A's 1B
400 - Rod Carew, Twins 2B
580 - Bert Campaneris, A's SS
169 - Graig Nettles, Yankees 3B
380 - Bobby Bonds, Yankees OF
475 - Joe Rudi, A's OF
500 - Reggie Jackson, A's OF
650 - Thurman Munson, Yankees C
140 - Vida Blue, A's P
National League:
150 - Steve Garvey, Dodgers 1B
420 - Joe Morgan, Reds 2B
48 - Dave Concepcion, Reds SS
370 - Ron Cey, Dodgers 3B
10 - Lou Brock, Cardinals OF
240 - Pete Rose, Reds OF*
395 - Jim Wynn, Dodgers OF*
300 - Johnny Bench, Reds C
60 - Jerry Reuss, Pirates P
* -Pete Rose was selected as an outfielder, although he appears as a third baseman on his 1976 card; Jim Wynn was selected as a member of the Dodgers, but appears on his 1976 card as a member of the Braves.
Also included in the 581 basic card count are 10 Rookie All Star cards, featuring members of the 1975 Topps Rookie All Star Team. Cards were marked with small gold cups.
* - Mike Ivie was selected as a first baseman although on his 1976 card he is depicted as a third baseman.
134 - Mike Ivie, Padres1B*
229 - Jerry Remy, Angels 2B
432 - Tom Veryzer, Tigers SS
141 - Larry Parrish, Expos 3B
50 - Fred Lynn, Red Sox OF
313 - Dan Ford, Twins OF
340 - Jim Rice, Red Sox OF
441 - Gary Carter, Expos C
30 - John Montefusco, Giants RHP
407 - Tom Underwood, Phillies LHP
Cards 1-6 highlight record-breaking performances from 1975. Card backs offer descriptions of the events.
Cards 191-204 document the top 3 performers from each league in 7 statistical categories from 1975. Card backs provide the top league performance in that category back through 1901.
Card fronts have alternating bands of color at the top, with magenta at the top on NL cards, and blue on AL cards.
Card 205 was a combined leader card featuring the top relief aces from each league from 1975. On the back are listed the top relief performances from each league back through 1960.
Card 462 gives a quick summary of the 1975 World Series. For the first time since 1961 (with the exception of 1966) the previous year's Series didn't receive a game-by-game card treatment. The back has the cumulative stats from the Series for both the Reds and Red Sox.
Cards 461 recaps both the 1975 NLCS and ALCS, with line scores from each game on the reverse.
Cards 341-350 depicted the all-time all stars of the game, by position, as selected by The Sporting News in observation of the 100th anniversary of Major League Baseball:
341 - Lou Gehrig, 1B
342 - Rogers Hornsby, 2B
343 - Pie Traynor, 3B
344 - Honus Wagner, SS
345 - Babe Ruth, OF
346 - Ty Cobb, OF
347 - Ted Williams, OF
348 - Mickey Cochrane, OF
349 - Walter Johnson, RHP
350 - Lefty Grove, LHP
Cards 66-70 depict images of current players along side of older Topps cards featuring their fathers.
Card backs contain the current players' reflections on the impact their dads had on their baseball journeys.
What has to be one of the most unique cards in Topps' history is card 564.
In 1975 Joe Garagiola had an idea to hold an MLB-wide bubble blowing contest. All the clubs, with the exceptions of the Tigers and Pirates for some reason, participated.
The reverse of the card provides the final bracket. The eventual champion, Kurt Bevacqua, reminisces HERE about the experience.
24 team checklist cards are scattered throughout the set. Each features a team photo and small inset image of the club's manager on the front. The Cubs' uses small player portraits instead of a team photo, and the A's doesn't have a manager depicted (they were between Alvin Dark and Chuck Tanner at the time). Card backs have a checklist of all the players depicted in the set from that club and an ad for the uncut checklist sheet.
Cards 589-599 each feature four rookies with little to no major league experience that Topps thought showed promise. Each card is categorized by position - rookie pitchers, rookie catchers, etc.
5 checklist cards marked the set off in increments of 132: 1-132, 133-264, 265-396, 397-528 and 529-660.
A full checklist of the 1976 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
As they had done in 1974, Topps printed a "Traded" series of 44 cards. The set features 43 players who changed teams too late to be reflected in the base set and a checklist card.
Cards were number with the player's base card number followed by a "T". Card backs offered newspaper-like accounts of their trade.
To accommodate the Traded cards, one of the basic printing sheets was rearranged into two alternate versions, each with 22 cards, half the set, printed 3 times. Topps likely reduced the print run of the basic sheet to ensure the same number of each card was produced.
Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley (98) made his debut in 1976 as did Lyman Bostock (263), John Candelaria (317), Chet Lemon (590), Willie Randolph (592) and Ron Guidry (599).
Home run king Hank Aaron (550) and fellow Hall of Famers Tony Oliva (35) and Billy Williams (525) appear for the final time in 1976.
Others taking bows include Tommy Davis (149), Vada Pinson (415), Dick Allen (455), Claude Osteen (488), Nate Colbert (495) and Tony Taylor (624).
Ayyyyyy!!! For the second straight year, Scholastic's 'Dynamite' magazine offered small uncut strips of 6 Topps cards to its readers in their April issue.
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