The 1970s were a seminal decade for baseball cards. During this time, complete baseball card sets started becoming highly collectible as the hobby of card collecting began to boom. While individual legendary cards from earlier decades had gained value among enthusiasts, it was in the 1970s when collecting full sets from a given year emerged as a primary objective for many collectors.
Topps ruled the baseball card market throughout the 1960s and their dominance continued into the new decade. In 1970, Topps continued their tradition of issuing affordable wax packs containing 11 cards each. The 1970 Topps set totaled 660 cards and featured all the usual stars of the era like Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, and Roberto Clemente. The design was similar to the prior decade with white borders and player photos in uniform from the previous season. While not considered one of the more iconic sets visually, it remains a key issue that helped fuel interest in chasing complete vintage rosters from individual years.
1971 marked the 50th anniversary of the modern era of mass-produced baseball cards dating back to the iconic T206 tobacco cards. To commemorate the golden anniversary, Topps issued the “Super” style design with thicker colored borders, bigger photos, and stats printed directly on the image rather than a text box. Highlights of the 656-card 1971 Topps set included Nolan Ryan’s debut and the “KC” in Royals standing for Kansas City rather than the Cincinnati Reds as in 1970. This set launched the commencement of intentionally designed milestone issues that collectors eagerly anticipated each year.
The 1972 Topps design showcased a full team logo prominently across the top of each card in addition to individual player photos. At 660 cards once more, the ’72s contained some major stars’ final rookie cards like Tom Seaver and Johnny Bench while also debuting future greats Dave Kingman and George Brett. Due to the popular team branding, many consider this perhaps the most visually appealing set of the early 70s runs produced by Topps.
1973 saw Topps tweak the format again by enlarging the photos further and adding colored borders specific to each team. At 660 cards yet again, the design became a fan favorite known for its bright, graphic styles before borders disappeared altogether the following year. Rookies that season included future Hall of Famers Mike Schmidt and Gary Carter and the set moved away from action shots in favor of traditional posed portraits.
1974 was a landmark year that some call the single most important set in baseball card history. Topps streamlined to pure white borders and individual team word marks beneath each photo, creating the sparse “ball in glove” design collectors know and love to this day. At 660 cards like its predecessors, the ’74s debuted rookie cards for George Brett, Phil Niekro, and several more future stars. Its simplified presentation helped Topps cards fully enter the modern visual era of baseball collectibles.
In 1975, Topps increased the count to 662 cards but retained the iconic bare border design of 1974. They also added a team accomplishments blurb on the reverse. Notable rookies included Eddie Murray, Kent Hrbek, and Jack Morris. Through the mid-70s, completing a set from any given year was certainly achievable for dedicated collectors but required effort due to the sizable counts. Topps reliably pumped out consistently high card production so finding all the pieces of a puzzle was challenging.
1976 marked the beginning of the end of the great run of completeability for early 1970s Topps issues. The set swelled to a then-record 668 cards to include players from the newly-formed Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays franchises. Topps also introduced mini checklists on the reverse following the team write-ups, adding to card counts. While still obtainable with focus and trading, ’76s became the first modern era Topps flagship where finishing a true complete rainbow variation and master set grew progressively more difficult.
In 1977, Topps broke new ground in the hobby by extending sets to a whopping 682 cards each. The brand cited the rise of new franchise expansion teams and larger league rosters as drivers for the increased production amounts. Pictured rookies included Don Mattingly, Wade Boggs, and Rickey Henderson while perennial stars like Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt anchored the checklist. Completion was becoming a greater challenge, especially for younger collectors, but the ’77s remain a fan favorite high watermark of 1970s design.
The 1970s closed out strong for Topps with the 1978 and 1979 offerings. By this point, Topps was issuing near 700-card sets annually to properly represent all teams and players at the time. Rainbow variation completion essentially required group collecting efforts. Notable rookies in the later 70s runs included Ozzie Smith, Ryne Sandberg, and Robin Yount. Topps also started experimenting with oddball parallels including “black border” subsets that further complicated set building.
The 1970s was a formative decade for baseball cards transitioning from mostly individual collections to yearly complete sets as the targeted goal. Topps solidified their hold on the annual flagships while trialing new designs and slowly raising production counts each year. Chasing complete 1970s Topps sets became feasible through 1975 but then progressively more difficult as the decade wore on. Today, full decade runs are quite valuable, particularly early 1970s offerings prior to the huge increase in variation factors like parallels and insert cards during the 1980s and beyond. The 1970s truly established the framework for modern baseball card collecting which remains enormously popular today.
