Sometime early in 1980, I went to my friend Dave's house shortly after his family got home from the store. He had purchased several packs of new 1980 cards and had some extras to give me. Up to this point, I had not seen the 1980s yet, and to this day I recall he gave me Mike Caldwell, John Castino, Mike Edwards and Pete Rose (my friends and I NEVER traded cards; if we only had one of a particular card, we were keeping it; if we had doubles, we'd give them away).
Within a few days, my own family had gone to the same Waterbury McCrory's store where I had discovered the 1979s the previous year and I came away with 4 or 5 rack packs. The one card I definitely recall obtaining in that first haul was Joe Nolan of the Braves.
I don't have very many collecting memories from 1980, but one I do have is of my mom being in the hospital for a couple of days for an operation. My dad and I went to visit her and she had a small brown bag on her lap in the bed from which she drew a wax pack. After I'd opened it, she smiled a drew another. This went on for several packs. I recall that I got the Dodgers' Von Joshua that day (mom fully recovered and was fine).
I absolutely love the design of the 1980 set - I've always been a sucker for the use of boldly-colored banners (see 1965 Topps baseball, 1977 Topps football, etc.). Card fronts feature the player's name atop a round-cornered box containing his photo and a facsimile autograph. A small banner in the upper left contains his position, and a large banner across the lower right has the team name. The images are generally very good - posed shots are bright and colorful and action shots are well-framed and interesting to look at.
The backs were printed in blue and black against gray, and featured a small factoid about the player with an accompanying cartoon.
"A" Sheet
"B" Sheet
"C" Sheet
"D" Sheet
"E" Sheet
"F" Sheet
For the third of 4 consecutive years, Topps kept to a 726-card set in 1980 - a number which required the double printing of 66 cards across the 6 sheets which were lettered A-F (each card was marked with its sheet letter near the trademark information on the reverse). So, if you recall having an excess of certain cards this might be the explanation. Those cards which exist in twice the supply as the others are:
12 - John Curtis
32 - Julio Cruz
34 - Jeff Newman
38 - Dan Spillner
47 - Bill Bonham
51 - Joe Ferguson
71 - John Milner
72 - Fred Howard
93 - Dave Roberts
110 - Fred Lynn
122 - Dave Rosello
143 - Bruce Bochte
151 - Tom Hausman
157 - Willie Wilson
158 - Rob Picciolo
183 - Jim Anderson
184 - Steve Renko
198 - Dell Alston
211 - Dave Skaggs
213 - Mike Jorgensen
246 - Tim Foli
254 - Paul Dade
255 - Dusty Baker
263 - Dave LaRoche
270 - Mike Schmidt
271 - Dick Drago
284 - Larry Murray
286 - Darold Knowles
317 - Mike Anderson
327 - Ray Fosse
333 - Jim Norris
360 - Darrell Porter
373 - Dan Petry
391 - Tony Armas
397 - Roy Thomas
399 - Mike Proly
403 - Pete Redfern
417 - Craig Chamberlain
418 - Roger Freed
427 - Tom Hutton
430 - Larry Hisle
459 - Mickey Lolich
462 - Mike Sadek
469 - Randy Niemann
471 - Hosken Powell
486 - Mike Tyson
489 - Preston Hanna
491 - Steve Mura
502 - Rich Wortham
513 - Tom Dixon
524 - Jim Wright
527 - Doug Rau
530 - Jim Sundberg
572 - Jerry Morales
598 - Fred Kendall
603 - Jack Billingham
611 - Jerry Garvin
618 - Bob Montgomery
634 - Glenn Borgmann
642 - Ken Forsch
654 - Bruce Boisclair
687 - Mike Heath
692 - Rawly Eastwick
700 - Rod Carew
717 - Mickey Klutts
720 - Carl Yastrzemski
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Wax packs contained 15 cards (along with a stick of gum) and sold for 25 cents each. They were packed 36 per box and cases contained 20 boxes each.
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Some wax packs came in a alternate version, advertising the "Hit to Win" game, for which a game card was including inside the pack. It is uncertain whether these packs were issued throughout the season or only towards its end, but it seems clear from their availability today that they were less plentiful than the standard "15 Cards Inside" variety.
Standard wrappers came with one of 4 advertisements - the traditional uncut team checklist sheet ($0.50 plus one wrapper), a baseball covered in facsimile autographs from the team of the purchaser's choosing ($4.25 plus $0.50 for postage and one wrapper), personalized baseball cards for which the bearer could send a SASE for more detailed information and the standard sports card locker ($5.25 plus $0.75 and one wrapper).
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 an ad for personalized baseball cards on the front (a photo, biographical data, and $6.95 would get you a deck of 20) and a card locker on the reverse.
The card locker was the same model that was available for several years in the 1970s - it contained plastic tiers for sorting cards by team and included stickers featuring team names.
This young man from Boston took up Topps' offer and obtained his own personalized baseball cards (in actuality, it is likely a dealer submitted images of Hobson and at least some other Sox players to get his own novelty cards to sell before Topps got wise).
'Hit to Win' wrappers had a description of the game and its potential prizes.
'Hit to Win' game cards featured 3 lottery-ticket style scratch-off spaces - uncover a 'single' and you'd win a Topps Baseball Guidebook, a 'double' would net you a little league baseball, a 'triple' got you a bat and a 'home run' a Spalding glove.
A total 8,875 prizes were available - 125 gloves, 750 bats, 1,500 balls and 6,500 books.
Game cards indicated that every thousand game cards would result in 2 prizes. By this math, over 4 million packs were issued with game cards, these packs contained more than 66 million cards, resulting in more than 91 thousand of each card, available in just these packs alone, to say nothing of the standard wax packs, cellos or racks.
By sending Topps 10 game cards and $0.70 cents, you could receive one of 6 different assortments of 'Supersize Glossy Photo Cards' - the same cards which were issued 5-per pack as their own stand-alone 60-card set that year. Unknown is whether the cards obtained from the 'Hit to Win' game were the standard gray back versions or the rarer white backs.
The Topps Baseball Guidebook measured about 3"x5" and contained 1980 rosters as well as standings and statistics from 1979
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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 75 cents in most places.
Grocery packs were packaged 24 per 'box'. Cases are known to have included 192 packs (which would come out to 8 boxes if they were packaged that way inside the case) and likely were also shipped with 2 or 3 boxes as in previous and later years.
The cardboard tray advertised the card locker on the reverse. Curiously, 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 25 cards (along with a stick of gum) and retailed for 39 cents each. They were packaged 24 per box. Cases likely contained 15 boxes, as in 1979, or 16 boxes as in 1981.
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Unlike in 1979, Topps widely distributed super packs in 1980. Packs contained 28 cards along with a 3-piece package of soft 'Major League Bubble Gum'. Packs retailed for 59 cents and were backed by a card with a scratch off baseball game on one side and an ad for the card locker on the other. Boxes contained 24 packs and cases held 8 boxes.
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Rack packs held 42 cards and sold for 69 cents each. Racks were packaged 24 per box and cases contained either 3 (left) or 6 (right) boxes. In 1980, Topps began phasing out the use of header cards and some racks were issued with a plain plastic header section, which became the norm in later years.
Header cards had either a card locker or personalized baseball card ad on the reverse.
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3-card mini packs were available at K-Mart stores and at locations that sold Squirt soda.
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Some retail outlets stocked special large packages that contained 80 cards and a cardboard collecting box. The back of the package contained a checklist of the entire set.
Oddly, even though the package contained 80 cards, the box only held 50.
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Dealers and other interested parties could purchase 500-count vending boxes directly from Topps. Vending boxes came in cases of 24 boxes each.
Out of 726 total cards, the set contained 655 basic player cards, which included 17 cards with special All Star banners (purple for the AL and black for the NL). These included:
American League:
700 - Rod Carew, Angels 1B
45 - Frank White, Royals 2B
570 - Roy Smalley, Twins SS
450 - George Brett, Royals 3B
110 - Fred Lynn, Red Sox OF
200 - Jim Rice, Red Sox OF
720 - Carl Yastrzemski, Red Sox OF
360 - Darrell Porter, Royals C
580 - Nolan Ryan, Angels P
National League:
290 - Steve Garvey, Dodgers 1B
560 - Dave Lopes, Dodgers 2B
630 - Larry Bowa, Phillies SS
270 - Mike Schmidt, Phillies 3B
230 - Dave Winfield, Padres OF
310 - Dave Parker, Pirates OF
400 - George Foster, Reds OF
215 - Steve Carlton, Phillies, P
Each of these players were starters on the 1979 squads, but for some reason Bob Boone's card (470) was not marked even though he started at catcher for the NL.
Yet again, the set did not recognize members of the previous season's All Star Rookie Team with small gold cups or trophies. The 1979 Topps All Star Rookie Team as it might have been designated in the 1980 set consisted of:
(Danny Ainge, the 1979 All Star Rookie second baseman from the Blue Jays, did not appear in the set for some reason)
22 - Pat Putnam, Rangers 1B
558 - Alfredo Griffin, Blue Jays SS
137 - John Castino, Twins 3B
106 - Jeffrey Leonard, Astros OF
458 - Billy Sample, Rangers OF
574 - Scot Thompson, Cubs OF
519 - Steve Nicosia, Pirates C
638 - Mark Clear, Angels LHP
138 - Ross Baumgarten, White Sox RHP
Cards 201-207 are 1979 Leage Leader cards and feature images of the AL and NL leaders in a particular statistical category on the front, and a list of the top 10 from each league on the back.
Cards 1-6 feature highlights from the 1979 season, with newspaper-like descriptions of each on the reverse.
26 team checklist cards are scattered throughout the set - each featured a small inset photo of the club's manager on the front and a complete listing of all that team's players included in the set on the reverse. The Cubs' again features a collection of small player portraits, and the Royals' lacks an image of manager Jim Frey on the front, though his name does appear.
Cards 661-686 are "Future Stars" cards, one for each club, each depicting 3 promising youngsters.
Unlike in 1979, Topps mercifully used color pictures.
A full checklist of the 1980 set, including printable formats, can be found at the Trading Card Database HERE.
5 checklist cards marked the set off in increments of 121: 1-121, 122-242, 243-363, 364-484, 485-605 and 606-726.
Card 557 - Mark Lee - exists with the proper print sheet designator (E*) as well as with an incorrect variant (E*F*).
Recurring printing flaws exist with certain player names. As with Fred Stanley, below, names which were supposed to have been printed in red somehow missed the red ink pass resulting in almost invisible 'ghost' names. This flaw occurred over all 6 printing sheets, in different locations, and to cards not necessarily adjacent to each other.
Also, some cards printed at the top of print sheets can be found with missing or partial names, as with Tom Donohue and Greg Pryor.
Three Padres cards - Bob Shirley, Gene Richards and Randy Jones - were erroneously printed with a red border around the image on the front instead of the proper blue border.
Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson (482) made his debut in 1980 on a really nice looking card.
Also making their first appearances in 1980 are Blue Jay stalwart Dave Stieb (77) and 20+ year pitching veterans Mike Morgan (671) and Jesse Orosco (681). .
20+ year Hall of Fame veteran Willie McCovey (335) took a bow in 1980, as did Rico Carty (46), future broadcaster Tim McCarver (178), George "Boomer" Scott (414), former Tiger Terrors Mickey Lolich (459) and Willie Horton (532), Alou 'triplet' Jesus (593), Met favorite Ed Kranepool (641) and Yankee long-timer Roy White (648).
Scholastic's 'Dynamite' magazine again offered small uncut strips of Topps cards to its readers - but for some reason in 1980 they waited until their June issue to do so.
Order your supply of 1980 Topps baseball today!
Choose from wax (left) or cello packs!