1974 Topps

Total Cards: 660

Rating: 7.9 (159 votes)
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Top Sets: #34

Notes: Distributed in one series (#1-660)

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Cards

1 Hank Aaron - New All-Time Home Run King HL Atlanta Braves
2 Hank Aaron Special 1954-1957 HL Milwaukee Braves
3 Hank Aaron Special 1958-1961 HL Milwaukee Braves
4 Hank Aaron Special 1962-1965 HL Milwaukee Braves
5 Hank Aaron Special 1966-1969 HL Atlanta Braves
6 Hank Aaron Special 1970-1973 HL Atlanta Braves
7 Jim Hunter Oakland Athletics
8 George Theodore RC New York Mets
9 Mickey Lolich Detroit Tigers
10 Johnny Bench Cincinnati Reds

Inserts and Related Sets

 

Trivia

  • A factory set available exclusively through the J.C. Penney catalog was available for the 1974 cards. A factory set would not be made available again by Topps until 1985.
  • Fran Healy's card #238 (action photo) includes Thurman Munson sliding into home.
  • The Jerry Reuss card (#116) photo was taken seconds after the photo on his card from the 1973 Topps set (#446). The only difference is the color and logos have been airbrushed on the 1974 card.
  • In card #171, Eduardo Rodriguez is either warming up or intentionally walking Deron Johnson in the bottom of the 7th inning in Oakland on 8/18/73. Bert Campaneris was on third at the time. The A's won 6-3. Reggie Jackson hit #30.
  • Topps Traded cards were randomly inserted into all late-run 1974 Topps packs, and the card number for each player is the same as that player's regular card, only appended with a "T".
  • The entire Topps Traded insert set was included with the J.C. Penny's catalog-exclusive factory set; this factory set was the first time Topps made an entire set available for purchase as a unit.
  • This set contains an infamous Topps blunder when they assumed the San Diego Padres were moving to Washington, D.C. and began producing Padres cards with a team name of "Washington Nat'l Lea.". A late sale to McDonald's founder Ray Kroc kept the team in San Diego, so Topps had to reprint those cards with the Padres name. Any Padres cards produced after #400 weren't affected, so the Dave Winfield rookie (#456) does not have a "Washington" version.
  • "Topps All-Star Rookie" trophies weren't included on the cards of the 1973 winners: Bob Boone (C), Gary Thomasson (1B), Dave Lopes (2B), Dan Driessen (3B), Jerry Terrell (SS), Gary Matthews (OF), Johnny Grubb (OF), Rich Coggins (OF), Steve Rogers (RHP), Randy Jones (LHP).
  • Card backs of the All-Star cards form a picture of Bobby Bonds, the previous season's Mid-Summer Classic MVP.

User Comments

Sep 9, 2023 - 1:47PM
Gunny Musgrove

Absolutely amazing set that I am still building but completely enjoy the design with the large picture and the format of the card backs. Easy to read and catagorize due to the larger numbers on the back unlike some of the latter topps issues. The team checklist cards with the facsimile autographs are top notch also. Probably one of the cleanest sets of the 1970's in my opinion coming only second to the 1971 Topps Black beauties! Again my opinion.

Aug 31, 2023 - 8:07AM
Arby85

This is by far my favorite set by Topps.

Jan 22, 2023 - 2:42PM
John Palleschi

Understanding the 1974 Topps baseball card set.

In 1974 Topps released its baseball card set in Its entirety instead of by series throughout the summer so it would not be competing with its Football set in the fall. Something it took the company 20 years to figure out. All 660 cards released at once. No high numbers any more*. The cards were printed on sheets that contained 132 cards. Five different sheets were printed totaling 660 cards (which is the number of cards in the set). No double printed or short printed cards like in the past.
The set was advertised as
“All 660 cards in one series”
It had an additional 24 checklist cards 1 for each team (These check list cards could be found in two variations; with one*or two**on the back of the cards)
And by the end of the summer traded cards were released randomly in the baseball card packs (43 player cards which numbers were the same as the players regular issued card but had “T” before the number plus an unnumbered checklist card).

Errors & variations
Card # 654 Jesus Alou was originally released without his position on the front of the card(later corrected).

Card # 608 (Rookie Pitchers) misspelled Bob Apodaca as Apodaco (later corrected).
Card # 161 Ray Burris’s card had the card number printed sideways on the back (not corrected).

*”High Number Cards”
Topps had a policy of taking returns on unsold cards so by the end of the summer when most kids interest waned from baseball and and went onto football cards the last series of baseball were not being bought as much as the first few series. Topps would take back the unsold cards. Thus players in the last series would not be as plentiful as others (scarcer “high numbers”).

So this brings us to the San Diego Padre’s debacle.
Before the season started the San Diego team was going to move to Washington so jumping the gun Topps released cards of some (not all?) of the San Diego players on cards that said “ Washington“on the top but not knowing what the team would be called the Knick name was listed as “NAT’L LEA.” ( National League) on the bottom. The move fell through and the team stayed in San Diego.
But hold on here’s the strange part. Only 15 of the 25 Padre cards were printed with the “ Washington” name on them (this included the team card as well as a multi 4 player rookie card).
With this said and the fact that all cards were released at once ( you could get card # 1 & card # 660 in the same pack) why isn’t there a Washington variation for each San Diego Padre player?
Here is a question I could not get anybody to definitely answer for me.
Example: card #173 Randy Jones could be found with both variations. Card #456 Dave Winfield only was issued at San Diego.
Here is my elusive question if card number 173 and 456 could randomly be found in the same package did tops knowingly put out San Diego cards and Washington cards at the same time? Or were they miss leading us in thinking that you could get cards of any number ( 1-660)in each pack? My guess is that although all cards were released at once only cards from each sheet were mixed together in each pack.

Videos

Posted by: Ground Chuck
Mar 24, 2023 - 11:49AM

Forum

SubjectRepliesLast Post
1974 Wrong backs? Trash or variations8Feb 27, 2024 2:48 PM
by arkiehawg
Help with Topps trade checklist 19741Feb 22, 2024 11:18 AM
by BigEd76
Error card 1974???9Dec 24, 2022 6:56 PM
by uthminsta
Team Checklists - One Star vs Two Star10Aug 5, 2022 9:37 PM
by BigEd76
Just Curious9Jan 1, 2022 1:34 PM
by Robbod

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