As most basketball card collectors know, the hobby was dominated by the Topps company until the appearance of Star in the early 80’s, so it’s easy to get lost in all the different Topps sets of the 70’s. One way to keep them clear is remembering landmark cards from the set. This 1972-73 Topps set contains the Dr. J rookie. Another way to keep them clear is the number of cards in the set. The 72-73 Topps set was the largest to that point at 264 cards, a number they would stick with for three seasons in a row. And it was a well-organized, fun-to-collect set too that doesn’t get enough credit for it clear structure and design. Cards #1-176 are NBA cards while 177-264 are ABA cards. Within these two halves, there are interesting subsets. You had All-Stars, statistical leaders, and cards dedicated to each game of the championship series in both the ABA and NBA. The set really gives you a feel for what it was like when both leagues were operating simultaneously. And the subsets are nice because there were no insert sets that year.
The design of the base cards also gives you a feel for the times. The colors, whether the background or the team name, and the font that grows in size from right-to-left, have a strong 70’s feel. The cards came in 10-cent packs as well as vending boxes.
Here’s some neat trivia… If it looks like the player on the card has his jersey on backwards, there might be an explanation. An article on the PSA site mentions a possible one. NBA players would lose their fee from Topps if they showed the team name. If the name was displayed, the fee would go to the team. ABA players didn’t have this problem in their contracts.
The highlight of the set is the Julius Erving rookie card, but rookies of Artis Gilmore and Phil Jackson are important as well.
Individual Cards:
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