What happened to 1975 Topps Baseball Minis?
 

Back in the day, they commanded a nice premium over the regular cards? Now, not so much. Anybody know why?

One dealer was sitting on a bunch of them. When he died his collection was sold and there wasn't enough demand to prevent prices from dropping.

Yep; supply of fresh new cards overwhelmed demand.
Here's an interesting thread if have a couple of hours: [url]https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/825902/official-1975-topps-mini-thread[/url]

Not good news for me... just found these plus the rest of the set.
[IMG]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20210618/1ab51113c816b2a8b0381436c846af4f.jpg[/IMG]


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Those bring back such memories. I spent most of my collecting years in a very tiny south-central Washington town where we basically could not get outside radio and had to drive 25 miles for any shopping more than basics. What cards I collected were what cards the local store sold, and whatever I might snag on shopping trips. A wax box of 75 minis was the only such box I ever got (Christmas present).

Thing was, at first, I did not know they were a variant until we happened to get to a larger city and I bought some cards, which were standard size. I didn't learn the full reality until much later: the minis had mainly been marketed in a few areas, mine had just happened to be one of them, and as a result they were just a little hard to come by in most places.

I think there is a lot of room for growth for highly graded well-centered minis.


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I think the fact that minis are less popular in general, and that nobody make sheets specifically for minis anymore may also be a factor.

They're definitely more scarce than the regular size cards, but I'm not sure anybody really cares anymore.

Over time, I think the mini's will hold value better due to scarcity. My mini:
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51262177832_62d0627fc3_h.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=rats60;17424396]One dealer was sitting on a bunch of them. When he died his collection was sold and there wasn't enough demand to prevent prices from dropping.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I regularly see set breaks on Greg Morris ebay store

I really like the whole concept of the '75 mini set. Back in the late 80s it sure did carry a premium over the 75 base set. The rule of thumb back then was the minis were worth 2x the full size. At least that's my recollection of the scuttlebutt at the time.

I took a look at PSA registry and compared the Brett Rookie card and the numbers don't really make sense. The regular size card has around 10,000 grades posted, whereas the mini has 2,500-3,000. Recognizing that there are numerous issues with this data it's still a conservative 1:3 ratio. And yet the PSA 7 of the full size is selling for ~$300 right now and the Mini is in the $200 range. Doesn't really make sense to me. I guess size does matter, but these minis are so dang cute.

[QUOTE=rats60;17424396]One dealer was sitting on a bunch of them. When he died his collection was sold and there wasn't enough demand to prevent prices from dropping.[/QUOTE]

Do you recall which dealer it was by chance?

[URL="https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1975-topps-baseball-cello-case-comes-to-market/"]https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/1975-topps-baseball-cello-case-comes-to-market/[/URL]
"While a stash of Topps ’75 mini cases from the estate of long-time collector/dealer Charles Conlon made it to the market in recent years"

[QUOTE=VanLingoMungo46;17446700]I really like the whole concept of the '75 mini set. Back in the late 80s it sure did carry a premium over the 75 base set. The rule of thumb back then was the minis were worth 2x the full size. At least that's my recollection of the scuttlebutt at the time.

I took a look at PSA registry and compared the Brett Rookie card and the numbers don't really make sense. The regular size card has around 10,000 grades posted, whereas the mini has 2,500-3,000. Recognizing that there are numerous issues with this data it's still a conservative 1:3 ratio. And yet the PSA 7 of the full size is selling for ~$300 right now and the Mini is in the $200 range. Doesn't really make sense to me. I guess size does matter, but these minis are so dang cute.[/QUOTE]

Supply is only half of the equation. Demand is much lower. Collectors want their cards the same size, so there is more demand for 75 cards that are like 74 & 76.

i bought a case of the unopened mini wax from the original conlon auction years ago.
i sent the whole case to gai to encapsulate each box and mark on the holders from a full case. i did manage to keep a box from back then.

[url=https://ibb.co/61PWNCR][img]https://i.ibb.co/cCFrxnc/1975toppsmini-BBwaxbox.jpg[/img][/url]