Because I started collecting in 1978, the 1977 Topps was, for me, the first 'old' set I was aware of. Though only one year old at the time, to my 10-year-old self they looked to be as ancient as the pyramids. The first I ever possessed was the Phillies' Bobby Tolan. My friend Erik gave it to me, and I was amazed - who was this guy? He didn't appear in the 1978 set I was collecting at the time...he must be really old (at the time, FYI, Tolan was all of 33). Soon, I was finding other cards from 1977 which strongly suggested the game had been played - perhaps for some time - before I became aware of it.
Between my friends Erik, Dave and perhaps a few others I slowly accumulated a couple hundred dog-eared '77s during 1978-1981 or so. Finally, I found the set advertised for perhaps $25 by Renata Galasso out of New York, the company from which I had previously purchased my 1978 set. Probably after working some sort of deal with my mother, I ordered the set and it became the first 'old' set I possessed.
1977 was the last of 4 straight sets with 660 cards - two new clubs were added that year, the Mariners and Blue Jays, and in 1978 Topps expanded its set size to fully accommodate the additional teams. In 1977, most teams had fewer players than usual in the set, and the Jays and M's had the least, with out-sized representation on the 4-player rookie cards in the set. Every Blue Jay and Mariner card is a paint job, since Topps was unable to use spring shots from their 1977 camps until 1978.
1977 cards are distinctive - the team name appears along the top border in large, bold-colored letters. To its right is the player's position in a small colorful flag, and beneath it is the player's name in a large, clear font. The balance of the card is taken by the player's image, inside a double-lined border, and cards feature faux-autographs.
The backs were printed in two shades of green against gray. A small cartoon offers a tidbit of baseball history and the entire reverse image is depicted on two stands with tufts of grass giving the appearance of a large score board.
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Once again in 1977, the Topps baseball set was printed on 5 different sheets, each containing 132 unique cards - there were no short- or over-prints.
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.
Beginning with 1977, wax boxes were configured to accommodate a 2x2 packaging packs rather than the 4x1 format which had been standard for some time.
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Wrappers came with one of 4 advertisements - the uncut team checklist sheet ($0.70 plus one wrapper), the Sports Card Locker ($4.75 plus 75 cents and a wrapper), a 'baseball card t-shirt' ($4.95 and a wrapper), for which you had to send a card of your choice to have it's image printed on a "quality white T-shirt" (card would be "safely" returned), and a general ad for Bazooka bubblegum.
A small number of wax boxes were actually recycled boxes from 1975, with a blue sticker identifying them as containing 1977 cards.
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. With 27 slots and only 26 team cards, the 27th space was taken by a locker offer on the front and a 'baseball card t-shirt' offer on the reverse.
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Grocery packs consisted of 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.
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The cardboard tray advertised the card locker on the reverse. Unlike the ads on the wax wrappers, the uncut team card sheets and the rack pack header card (below), these ads did NOT require the 75 cent handling fee.
Cello packs contained 18 cards (along with a stick of gum) and retailed for 25 cents each. They were packaged 24 per box, and cases contained 15 boxes.
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Rack packs held 39 cards and sold for 49 cents each. Boxes held 24 packs.
Header cards had a card locker ad on the reverse.
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500-count vending boxes were available directly from Topps. Vending boxes came in cases of 24 boxes each.
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Out of 660 total cards, the set contains 588 basic player cards, which includes 18 cards with special All Star banners (red for the AL and blue for the NL), signifying the 18 starters from the 1976 mid-summer classic. These are:
American League:
120 - Rod Carew, Twins 1B
521 - Bob Grich, Orioles 2B*
301 - Toby Harrah, Rangers SS
580 - George Brett, Royals 3B
210 - Fred Lynn, Red Sox OF
240 - Ron LeFlore, Tigers OF
420 - Rusty Staub, Tigers OF
420 - Thurman Munson, Yankees C
265 - Mark Fidrych, Tigers P
National League:
400 - Steve Garvey, Dodgers 1B
100 - Joe Morgan, Reds 2B
560 - Dave Concepcion, Reds SS
450 - Pete Rose, Reds 3B
30 - Greg Luzinski, Phillies OF
347 - George Foster, Reds OF
500 - Dave Kingman, Mets OF
70- Johnny Bench, Reds C
550 - Randy Jones, Padres P
* -Although he was selected and played as a member of the Orioles, Grich appears in the 1977 set with the Angels, with whom he signed during the off-season.
Also included in the 588 basic card count are 10 All Star Rookie cards, featuring members of the 1976 Topps All Star Rookie team. Cards were marked with small gold cups.
291 - Jason Thompson, Tigers 1B
359 - Willie Randolph, Yankees 2B
161 - Garry Templeton, Cardinals SS
549 - Jerry Royster, Braves 3B
93 - Tom Poquette, Royals OF
397 - Larry Herndon, Giants OF
58 - Chet Lemon, White Sox OF
175 - Butch Wynegar, Twins C
265 - Mark Fidrych, Tigers RHP
577 - Jerry Augustine, Brewers LHP
Cards 1-8 are 1976 League Leader cards and feature images of the AL and NL leaders in 8 different statistical categories on the front, with a list of the top 10 from each league on the back.
Cards 231-234 feature record-breaking performances from 1976. Card backs present details of the accomplishments in a faux-newspaper format.
Cards 276-277 provide highlights from the 1976 ALCS (276) and NLCS (277). Card backs present the series stats for the winning clubs.
Cards 411-413 feature highlights of the 1976 World Series - Games 1 and 2 on card 411, Games 3 and 4 on card 412 and a series summary on card 413. Series batting stats for the Reds are on the reverse of card 411, for the Yankees card 412, and pitching stats for both clubs card 413.
Cards 433-437, titled "Turn Back the Clock", highlight significant occurrences from 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years before, with depictions of the player in involved on the front and a description of the event on the reverse.
Cards 631-634, "Big League Brothers", profile current pairs of brothers active in the major leagues. Reverses provide a story describing some aspect of their youth.
26 team checklist cards are scattered throughout the set. With 2 exceptions (below), each features a team photo and small inset image of the club's manager on the front (the Cubs' again uses small player portraits instead of a team photo) and a checklist of all the players depicted from that club on the reverse.
Because the Mariners and Blue Jays debuted in 1977, there was no chance for Topps to secure team photos to include in the set. Instead, the front of each card featured a larger image of the manager and four smaller portraits of the teams' coaches.
The notation "Founded in 1976" may have confused young collectors - they knew the teams hadn't played in 1976 and they were probably not thinking in terms of the clubs' legal status as organizations.
Cards 472-479 and 487-494 each feature four rookies with little to no major league experience that Topps thought showed promise. Each card is categorized by player 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 1977 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
Hall of Famers Bruce Sutter (144) and Andre Dawson (473) make their debuts in the 1977 set.
Also appearing for the first time are Garry Templeton (161), Mark Fidrych (265), Dale Murphy (476), Jack Clark (488), Denny Martinez (491) and Tony Armas (492).
Baltimore lifer and Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson (285) appears on the final of his 21 Topps cards in 1977.
Others taking their bows include Bill Freehan (22), Mike Cuellar (162), Jim Wynn (165), Boog Powell (206), Tommy Harper (414), Joe Torre (as a player, 425) and Willie Davis (603).
The 1977 set contains no known variations. However, a number of proof images are known to exist showing some players with their prior teams before the Topps artists got to work on updating them for the set. The most famous is Reggie Jackson, shown here with Orioles. Jackson was signed by the Yankees in late November, 1976.
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Up your nose with a rubber hose! Scholastic's 'Dynamite' magazine again offered small uncut strips of Topps cards to its readers in a spring issue.