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Lot # 2: 1966 Topps Test USA Original Display Box

Category: Hockey Cards

Starting Bid: $1,000.00

Bids: 15 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2019 Winter Classic",
which ran from 1/4/2019 9:00 AM to
2/1/2019 10:00 PM



What's rarer, much rarer, than rare? For a steak it's steak tartare, but what do we call the 1966 Topps Test USA Original Display Box? This display box is a dish so rare that we can only term it RAW. Raw in the most exciting sense of the word. RAW meaning an item so unique that only a precious few collectors can ever possess it. First, what is a TEST item? Over the years, Topps would get an innovative idea, but before releasing the idea nationally, or internationally - all out - the company would have a trial run of the cards to determine sales and reactions. Because Topps was based in Brooklyn, often the TEST would involve only a very limited distribution, both in number of cards and in numbers of locations, sometimes only some candy stores in Brooklyn or were other times in more far-flung areas: parts of Michigan for the 1975 Topps minis; or sections of Baltimore for the 1966-67 Punch-outs; Philadelphia, for the 1968 Topps 3-D baseball cards. These test runs resulted in producing rarities of cards. Few collectors have ever seen 1961 Topps Test Dice Game, or a Topps Test basketball card. Any cards on auction from these sets usually have sold for a minimum of five figures - ever for low grade cards. This extremely rare test 1966-67 hockey set was limited to 66 cards, all from the "original six" hockey teams. This Test set contains the most sought after card in hockey: the Topps Test 1966-67 Bobby Orr rookie card. Offered is one of the rarest hockey card" products ever created, an empty box display of the 1966-67 Topps USA Test hockey set. This coincides with what's trending upward in "card" collecting: the boxes containing cards, both for their colorful displays and for their extreme rarity - since most were thrown away. Topps did produce a regular run of the 1966-67 hockey set, cards that were printed both in English and French. However, Topps also produced a small number of sets - some experts calculate as few as only 100 sets - with the backs only in English and distributed in small pockets of the contiguous 48 states. Experts disagree; Some think the cards were distributed only in a few hockey hotbeds of California and in areas of South Carolina; others feel that the cards were only distributed to the usual suspects - the tried and true candy stores of Brooklyn. Either way, the cards are extremely rare and their boxes even rarer. The brightly colored box shows a generic blue-jerseyed hockey player with mostly red and yellow background and lettering. The box held 4 complete sets of cards. A great opportunity to add an extremely RARE item for any collector.

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