Cool 1970 Topps Trade Ad featuring Wacky Ads and more.

[JasonLiebig]

Shared this to my social media, but since it features a nice array of 1970 Topps goodies including Wacky Ads, and I'm fairly certain this trade ad (from the convenience store trade) has never been published anywhere online before, I wanted to share it here.

From my posting of it:

Here’s a beautiful and rare Topps convenience trade ad (an ad found in magazines exclusively sold to convenience store owners/managers/distribution partners) from 1970, highlighting the profitability of their offerings.

Even in 1970, shelf space profitability was an important metric and Topps generated profits for retailers when they were given the shelf space.

They would typically offer a 35-40% margin on their trading cards/ candy offerings, when purchased in enough bulk.

Some wonderful classics seen here: Topps 1970 Football Cards, Big Buddy bubblegum, Bazooka, Gold Rush, Big Tooth and even Wacky Packages. Love it all!

[Paul_Maul]

Awesome! Jason, do you remember an image that had a glass fish bowl filled with Topps products? I can’t remember where I saw that.

[MoldRush]

It sounds like you’re describing an article from Dynamite magazine, from the scholastic book days, circa 1974.  As I recall there was also a cello pack of 1974 Baseball, various gum packs, a few bubble gum cigars and a whole mess of gumballs in that photo.

[JasonLiebig]

Awesome! Jason, do you remember an image that had a glass fish bowl filled with Topps products? I can’t remember where I saw that.

Yeah, I've got that page scanned in somewhere.  I own a full run of Dynamite and that IS a standout image.  I'll see if I can dig up the scan and post it here. 

Here you go, from Dynamite Issue #4, June 1974:

[Paul_Maul]

Awesome, that’s it, thanks!

[Liptorn]

Does this extend the timeline for Wacky Ads? This ad makes it seem like the 2nd print run was active until
the summer/fall of 1970 because football cards would come out around August back then.

[Paul_Maul]

Does this extend the timeline for Wacky Ads? This ad makes it seem like the 2nd print run was active until
the summer/fall of 1970 because football cards would come out around August back then.

I don’t think we can conclude that, because these trade publication ads didn’t seem to always feature current items. This one that Jason posted a long time ago is supposedly from mid-1974, yet has 1972-3 Hockey and Basketball packs.

[JasonLiebig]

I don’t think we can conclude that, because these trade publication ads didn’t seem to always feature current items. This one that Jason posted a long time ago is supposedly from mid-1974, yet has 1972-3 Hockey and Basketball packs.

What David says here is right.

As provocative as this image may be, you cannot take it as an solid indicator of distribution window.  The promo folks were not always pulling from stuff on-shelves right then, especially when doing promotions to the trade, rather than consumers.  Advertising for consumers would require you to show stuff that you can sell them right then, but part of promoting to the trade could be reminding them what has sold well for them already. It's just not as necessary to be timely, if that makes sense. 

It IS interesting to be sure, but is a too easily refutable piece of evidence. 

Still, something to add to the pile of interesting data. 

[MoldRush]

I don’t think we can conclude that, because these trade publication ads didn’t seem to always feature current items. This one that Jason posted a long time ago is supposedly from mid-1974, yet has 1972-3 Hockey and Basketball packs.

(Image removed from quote.)

This image, with the Bazooka packs containing a massive slab of gum sandwiched between a pair of cards, brings to mind a collector’s conundrum that I haven’t been able to solve all these years. If there are any former Bazooka Joe collectors here, maybe someone knows.  There were two 66-card sets containing the same four puzzles on the backs. In no particular order:

1) Herman in a pie-eating contest at a picnic table, sitting under a banner reading “Hungry Herman”
2) Pesty juggling baseballs and block letters spelling out his name while airborne
3) Bazooka Joe riding a bike and holding a flag reading “Bazooka Joe”
4) All the kids riding on a carousel under the banner “Bazooka Joe and his gang”

The comics on the card fronts were different in each set I think, and while one set was numbered from 75-1 through 75-66 indicating it was from 1975, the other was unnumbered.

My dilemma is this - various sources have consistently identified the unnumbered set as being from 1972, but I collected them voraciously, was able to go to a candy store blocks away, on my own, to get them, nearly completed the set with many dupes, and was able to buy far more at 15 cents a pack than I was ever able to with Wackys at 1/3 the price, and all of this a year before Wackys even started, when I was just 5 years old?  Impossible.  By my estimation they must be from 1977, but I have nothing to prove it other than these recollections.  I saved a few wrappers because we used to use the comics and wrappers to send away for the advertised prizes back in the day, but the wrappers all have 1975 codes.  Further evidence - I have a small amount of cards from 1975 and 1976 (with magic trick lessons on back), and a ton of the undated set, which would be consistent with a kid of increasing resourcefulness and freedom of mobility as he approaches 8, 9, 10 years of age, further suggesting the undated set was the latest of the three.

So 1972 just makes zero sense to me.  Could Topps have printed and dated massive rolls of wrappers years before using them for a product release?  I remember the gum always being super fresh, so I can’t imagine that they were fully produced and packed in 1972 only to sit in a warehouse for five years.

[JasonLiebig]

So 1972 just makes zero sense to me.  Could Topps have printed and dated massive rolls of wrappers years before using them for a product release?  I remember the gum always being super fresh, so I can’t imagine that they were fully produced and packed in 1972 only to sit in a warehouse for five years.

I just sat on a panel discussing Bazooka Joe a month or so ago. And one remarkable story is how the artist of the comics, Wesley Morse, had produced so much that they they were able to keep releasing new comics of his long after he had passed away.  One of the reasons for that is that Woody Gelman at Topps wanted to continue to be able to pay the man, so he just had Morse continue illustrating new comics, even when Topps had plenty for what they needed at the time. 

It turned out to be prescient in a way, as it did create a stockpile of ready-to-use new and "original" comics for many years. 
 
So, a part of what you're saying here rings true to that idea... that they had stuff "ready to go" for years before it was actually used. At least the artwork. Not sure of anything else on that front, though. 

[MoldRush]

I just sat on a panel discussing Bazooka Joe a month or so ago. And one remarkable story is how the artist of the comics, Wesley Morse, had produced so much that they they were able to keep releasing new comics of his long after he had passed away.  One of the reasons for that is that Woody Gelman at Topps wanted to continue to be able to pay the man, so he just had Morse continue illustrating new comics, even when Topps had plenty for what they needed at the time. 

It turned out to be prescient in a way, as it did create a stockpile of ready-to-use new and "original" comics for many years. 
 
So, a part of what you're saying here rings true to that idea... that they had stuff "ready to go" for years before it was actually used. At least the artwork. Not sure of anything else on that front, though.

Wow, interesting Jason.  I never knew who the main illustrator was.  Despite the existence of collector websites and the Abrams book on the topic, I think we’ve yet to see the definitive, comprehensive cataloguing of the entire small and dollar-sized comic history from inception through say sometime in the 80’s.  After that I think it got simpler but also had a greatly diminished following.  There were hyphenated number series, ‘D’ series, different sizes and “comic values” (for prize redemption program), color changes corresponding with grape and cherry gum, and on and on.  Perhaps a massive art backlog could explain the difficulty in cataloguing.  Maybe comic series were issued and then replaced too rapidly for even dedicated collectors to keep up with. 

[Swiski]

There was an early 1970s photo of a candy aisle with a mother and her son showing Wacky Packages on the shelf.

[Paul_Maul]

There was an early 1970s photo of a candy aisle with a mother and her son showing Wacky Packages on the shelf.

[MoldRush]

That photo has been posted here before.  Such a concentrated display of collectible goodness is beyond belief all these years later.  And boxes stacked 3- and 4-deep no less.

[quas]

Awesome.

[JasonLiebig]

Yeah, that epic photo originates from a Topps annual report. It's a gloriously stacked image. 

[Swiski]

Yeah, that's the photo! Takes me back to what I used to see at Woolworth's and Walgreens in the mid 1970s.

[Paul_Maul]

Yeah, that's the photo! Takes me back to what I used to see at Woolworth's and Walgreens in the mid 1970s.

I love the look on the mother’s face in this picture. That look says to me “I’m tired and not really interested in this stuff, but you are excited about it and I love you so I’m happy too.” My mother wore that look many times.

[RawGoo]

I love the look on the mother’s face in this picture. That look says to me “I’m tired and not really interested in this stuff, but you are excited about it and I love you so I’m happy too.” My mother wore that look many times.

Very well said!!

[Alexeirex]

Such a small shopping cart. My 5 person immediate family would have to have shopped every other day if the grocery store had such small carts.
My mom worked at a large Woolworth's in the late 60s to 90s and I don't remember Wackys being for sale there unfortunately...
A

[MoldRush]

Such a small shopping cart. My 5 person immediate family would have to have shopped every other day if the grocery store had such small carts.
My mom worked at a large Woolworth's in the late 60s to 90s and I don't remember Wackys being for sale there unfortunately...
A

I’m guessing this was probably some kind of drugstore or sundry store, possibly a Woolworth’s or similar chain store.  I remember those types of store having smaller carts, sometimes none at all, just hand baskets.  I could be wrong, but I never saw this type of card/candy setup in a supermarket.

[ToadallyDude]

Dang... all these cool ads & photos are awesome.  Great to see new Wacky stuff coming out of the woodworks.  How crazy were we all not to pick up those stacks of full Wack boxes and buy them all for $2.50 ea. instead of saving up for a remote-control car or something that broke a month later?