1974 Topps and 2023 Topps Heritage

[LarryG]

Since 2023 Topps Heritage centers on 1974 Topps, I thought I would take a look at the two sets.

First of all, 1974 is the first year Topps issued the full set in one series. No longer were portions issued over 5-7 series in which the higher series always had lower print runs and can be very challenging to get today. So, if anyone tries to sell you or trade you a "High Number" 1974 Topps, there is really no such thing and there is no difference between card 1 and card 660 in terms of rarity. Clearly, 2023 Topps Heritage didn't follow the pattern of issuing all the cards in one series and will have a "High Numbers" release in a few months.

The 1974 set starts off with the Hank Aaron Special, 6 cards featuring the cards from his career. The 2023 Heritage set starts off with the 4-card Aaron Judge Special, fewer cards for the simple reason that Judge just hasn't been in the league all that long. If Judge didn't have such a historic 2023 season, what would Topps Heritage have done to mimic the Hank Aaron Special? Pujols, maybe?



In all, I do like the 74 design and always enjoy the All-Star and Playoff series cards. The Heritage set matches the design perfectly:




That is Willie Mays' last regular issue Topps card and is one of the iconic cards from the 1974 set. He has no regular card in the set, but made it onto the World Series Game 2 card.

More to come in next post.

 

[LarryG]

The 1974 set and the 2023 Heritage set both feature cartoons on the back. While the 1974 cartoons are often humorous and contain fun facts, the 2023 cartoons seem to all be a statistic or top performance of the year for the player:


Lou Brock operated a flower shop in the off-season?

I like the 1974 multiple rookie cards and good to see them in 2023 Heritage, you got 4 chances for one of those players to become a star:


Top Rookie Card from 1974:


One thing I miss in the heritage cards are the Manager cards:


I don't know why Topps stopped issuing Managers cards, but it would be great to see them again.

 

[LarryG]

The most interesting thing about the 1974 set are the Padres/Washington Nat'l Lea. When it looked like the Padres were going to move to Washington, Topps started printing the team as Washington Nat'l Lea, before switching it back to Padres when the move fell through. Tracking down these cards are to me the most fun about this set.

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One of my other favorite thing about the 1974 set is the odd background on these two cards:


Though I don't have the complete Heritage set, I don't see any Heritage cards with similar blurred background. I always feel it would be a nice touch for Topps to copy some of the peculiar aspects of some of the cards in the Heritage set, but it doesn't seem to happen.

Last, the Heritage set does have a lot of variations with positions and team names switched, color switch and things like that, and some come close to the one which was an actual error in 1974, but they didn't have a variation in which there is a missing position like in the Jesus Alou card:


I will try to add more to this thread over time or if other things catch my eye. If anyone would like to add anything, I'd love to see it.

 

[Criollos]

Very entertaining Larry. To this date, the 1974 Topps set is my all time favorite.

 

[grapler135s]

Really awesome thread! Fun to see the similarities and differences between the two sets. Good eyes Larry!

 

[Dodgerfan74]

I’m putting together both sets