I picked up three baseball cards at a local flea market recently. The first is a 1998 Topps Opening Day card of David Justice. Justice is shown in a Cleveland uniform where he spent parts of four seasons. The next card is a 1998 Pinnacle of Jason Giambi. Giambi had some decent years as a Yankee. Somehow, he is still playing. Most recently, he played with the Rockies. The final card is most intriguing. At first glance, it looks like a standard 1988 Topps card of Nolan Ryan. However, the border is actually blue instead of white. Also, the card number is “N” which is kind of odd. The card actually looks like it was cut from a sheet or possibly a box of Twinkies. It’s an interesting little mystery card. It’s a pretty good haul and a good time was had by all.
I'm fairly certain that Nolan Ryan is cut from the bottom of the hobby box... each hobby box back then had 4 cards printed on the bottom, if I remember correctly...
ReplyDeleteThere was no distinction between "hobby box" and "retail box" in the 1980s, but yes, the Nolan Ryan card was printed on the bottom of the box that the wax packs were sold in.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be fun if Topps revived the idea.
Paul's right - it is a box bottom, and there was no hobby or retail back then, as far as packs went.
ReplyDeleteTopps did box bottoms for a few years in the past decade, exclusive to HTA boxes, I believe. I guess they weren't popular enough and disappeared again without much complaint. I would love to see them return, but I bet Topps would hate to have to lose one small side panel of advertising to have to move the barcode and other stuff from the box bottom.
Thanks for the info! I figured somebody would have an answer.
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