Well, if you are not aware of it, I spend a lot of time researching and now writing about old Topps sets and the history of the company and its affiliates. I suspect I do this because I am a frustrated historian but it is something I enjoy doing, so much in fact I created a blog: http://toppsarchives.blogspot.com/ I am also trying to put together a full type run of every card or object they ever issued in a pack or vending machine from 1948-80, a project that ebbs and flows with my disposable income and mood of my wife. I collect a lot of Topps ephemera too.

I was primarily interested in just their baseball issues for a long time but over the last couple of years have pretty much embraced anything Topps produced in the pre-Fleer/Donruss era (I leave the New Wave years to others). Right now I am grokking on their hockey sets.

What I am wondering, since it is clear hockey cards are much less of a known quantity than baseball or NFL football when it comes to how they were marketed and sold, can any of you chime in on what you believe to be the toughest Topps and OPC sets from the pre-81 period? It can be regular issue, inserts, secondary sets, whatever. Just curious as to what the top five or six toughest issues are considered to be by you guys.

Thanks!

Oh boy! Since I am first to respond (I think!) I have the easiest job. My 3 choices for toughest topps/opc issues, are:

3. 1940-41 O-Pee-Chee (this is probably an O-Pee-Chee issue, no?)
2. 1935-36 O-Pee-Chee Series C
1. 1971-72 O-Pee-Chee Bazooka

Actually, I hope to learn a lot from the other responses. Oh, honorable mention: 1966-67 Topps USA Test

good question dave.

here are my picks:::::::

1- 1971-72 o-pee-chee bazooka box bottom mini cards.

2- 1960-61 topps insert stamps in pairs.

3- 1969-70 o-pee-chee or topps insert stamps pairs.

4- 1966-67 topps test set.

5- 1964-65 topps set now with 22 short prints.

6- 1972-73 o-pee-chee set with all 3 series.

7- any pre war o-pee-chee set from 1933 to 1940.



i think all these sets are some what of a challenge if you start by scratch.

I vote for the 1960-61 Topps Stamps inserts set (26 pairs of stamps), it is very hard to find one unperforated.

Dan, I give you the Bazooka box bottom, but dont you think the V304 sets must be before the 1972, the tall boy,the 69 stamps and the 67 test issue sets ?? the 62 topps bucks are worth a mention too.

phil your right the pre war sets are a lot tougher to put together than my lower numeric picks,i just quikly picked 7 sets i thought was interesting to make or a challenge to put together.

your right about the 1962-63 topps bucks,those would be tough to put together too.
also the 1969-70 o-pee-chee inserts of the 4 in 1 quad cards would be tough too!

This may be a bit afield, but how about the 1930's mail-in O-Pee-Chee games catalogued in Bobby's book? Certainly those are tough!!!!

3. 1966 test
2. 1960 stamp pairs
1. 1971 bazooka
the bazooka is by far the hardest but there are other non topps/opc issues that are tougher than the other 2.ie the cowan tiles or sprite caps.

Thanks everyone. I'm just collecting an example of each but those Stamp pairs seem pretty difficult and the Hockey Bucks as well. I stopped collecting full sets a while ago so those SP's in '65 don't scare me

That '71 OPC Bazooka sets seems crazy difficult. We'll see if I score a card from it at some point. I can't recall another Bazooka set in nay sport where the regular Topps card design was used.

Dave:Since many or most of you guys are more on top of this sort of thing than I am you've probably heard this story before. If memory serves me correctly the issue was the 54/55 Topps set but I could be wrong. Anyway, the set in question for some reason didn't sell well or else there was some other problem. The story I ready said that cases of the cards were dumped in a river to dispose of them. I'd sure like to have those cases now. Ted

Ted:

I know that happened to 52 Topps high numbers-Sy Berger himself dumped them around 1960 off of the New Jersey coast most probably. I once tried to estimate how many he dumped and came up with like 500,000 cards or so. It would be pretty interesting if they did that with their first hockey cards too.

Dave:My brain cells are being depleted faster than I can replace them so you might be talking about the same cards that I was trying to recall although I could have sworn that they story I read mentioned the Detroit River. It's amazing what events trigger such stranged results way down the road later. When we were kids every time we cracked a pack of cards and found checklist cards we grimaced and threw them away. Now, in most cases, those checklists are among the most valuable cards in a set if they are unmarked. Remember how we used to rip the packs open in our hurry to see the treasures inside. Now, those wrappers themselves are high end collectibles and the old boxes are out of sight. If only we'd have been smart enough we could have filled our Dad's garage up with all this good junk. Ted