It’s often been rumored that back in the good old days, baseball card companies would release a series of cards with one card nowhere to be found. That is to say that a “complete” set would contain 150 cards, but they would actually make ONLY 149 cards, in the hopes that kids and hardcore collectors would keep buying more cards in the hopes of finding that last non-existant one.
Sounds pretty sleazy, but did this ever happen?
I was never a baseball card collector, but some of my friends were fanatics. I seem remember that many sets contained index cards, listing all the cards in a set. So, I don’t know how such a scheme could have been pulled off.
Great story. But not true.
2 words: False Advertising.
I know that some companies will promise you a trip to ___ if you are the lucky one to collect all 150, but they’ll only print 1 copy of that #150 card.
That was the point, see? The index card would list 150, but in actuality, there would only be 149.
Maybe the index card was #150!
I find this story dubious. Baseball cards are widely collected and the makeup of each set of cards is carefully cataloged by collectors. If there was a set of cards that was always a card short, there would be some problems.
For years, Topps had a monopoly on trading cards. During the 1970s, a complete set usually ran around 660 cards. My brother would buy a complete set from a dealer and the cards would all be there.
Prior to around 1974 (I’m not sure of the exact date) Topps issued its cards in series and by the time you got to the very high numbers, stores wouldn’t carry the cards anymore because not as many people were as interested in buying baseball cards in August and September. But you can likely find all the cards.
I know of no “missing” cards from any series. Look at any baseball card price list – every number is listed and can be bought (though they can be expensive).
There was really no point in doing this anyway. Most casual buyers didn’t expect to get complete sets and lost interest as the summer wore on. Those who wanted complete sets bought them as complete sets.
They stopped with the “series” releases in 1972.
There are a few sporadic examples of this in recent years, but the knowledge is readily available. Any price guide and the company themselves will tell you that there is no card xxx, which lends itself to the fact that it is a genuine oversight, not shady marketing.
Manny years ago, I collected baseball cards. I used to buy the complete sets. All the cards were present and accounted for. That was from 1968 thru 1973. Topps of course.