1972 Fleer Baseball Cloth Patches Uncut Sheet - Another Piece of the Puzzle

Here is a picture of what I believe to be a 1972 Fleer Baseball Cloth Patches uncut sheet:

 

The reason I believe it is from 1972 is that there are no Senators or Rangers patches, so this would most likely be from the season when the Washington Senators moved to Texas to become the Rangers:

 

 

This sheet comes from the same person who provided a picture of a framed uncut Fleer Baseball Cloth Patches sheet from 1974 which I profiled previously:

 

I dated that sheet as being from 1974 due to the lack of Padres patches as this would have most likely been from the year that they were planning to move to DC.

In comparing the 2 sheets, we can see that the Orioles replaced the Rangers on the 1972 sheet for both the logo patch as well as the cap patch. Presumably the Senators would have been in those positions on the earlier sheets.  The 1972 sheet also allows us to see the Padres, which were replaced on the 1974 sheet by a Yankees logo and a Cardinals cap patches, making those effectively double prints.

Other than these changes, the positions of the other teams all remain the same between the 2 sheets.  We can also see some of the logos that changed, such as the Indians logo and cap, the Braves cap (from a capital "A" to a lower case "a") and the Angels (from the lower case "a" in 1972 to the capital "A" in 1974.

I would like to thank the person who reached out to me and provided these pictures as they greatly enhance our understanding of these cloth patches and some of the changes that occurred over the years.

Amazing Topps 1967 Video Shows Boy On Top of Millions of Dollars Worth of 1967 Baseball Cases

If you haven't seen the 1967 Topps promotional video entitled "The Hidden Treasure", you are in for a treat.  Topps posted this on YouTube a few weeks back, and it is an amazing time capsule:

This is a fantastic look back at kids collecting baseball cards during 1967 as well as look at the new Topps factory in Durya, PA.

 

We get to see kids opening packs of 1967 Topps Baseball:

 

 

Looks like these are 1967 High Numbers based on the Don Clendenon (# 535)!

 

 

We see more high numbers in the packs his sister opened!

 

 

We see kids flipping their cards.  STOP!  Those are '67 High Numbers!!!!

 

What are the odds that one of those cards on the ground is a Seaver or a Carew rookie!

I also like the Topps poster in the widow behind the kid with the blond hair.  I have never seen that before.

The "story" of the "Hidden Treasure" is that the kid who is flipping cards loses all his cards to the "new" kid who for some reason has a diabolical laugh.  After losing his cards, and not being able to get any cards from his sister to use to win back some of the cards he lost, he goes fishing to "brood all alone", at which point he discovers a Treasure map:

 

The map directs him to the new Topps factory in Durya, PA which had started operations a few years before:

 

He plans to sneak in to the factory, and then when everyone goes home for the night, dig for the hidden treasure.

Once inside, he starts exploring, and comes across rolls of wrappers:

 

 

He starts playing with the equipment, including the machines that pack the baseball cards:

 

Here we see the gum getting added to be packaged with the cards as we now see a stick of gum on top:

 

The cards then get put into wrappers.  This is where things get confusing.  The video shows a roll of 1966 wrappers, so presumably this was footage that had been shot a year earlier:

 

We also see what appear to be 1966 packs coming off the assembly line:

 

Our treasure hunter then falls asleep and dreams of being caught by the factory workers and being turned into a baseball card.

 

Once again, we see a 1966 wrapper as the factory workers cover him up with a mock up of the 1966 design.

 

He doesn't realize it, but he has found the treasure and he is laying on top of it!  Those appear to be 1967 Topps Baseball cases.

 

Here is a picture of a 1967 Topps Baseball shipping case (right under the Football case).  Note the baseball player in the bottom left corner - these appear to be similar boxes:

 

 

They also share a similar design to the 1967 wax box:

 

 

There appear to be 4 rows of 9 cases, or 36 cases.  We see from the picture of the case that there are 24 was boxes in a case, so that would mean he is laying on top of 864 wax boxes!

  

I have no idea what an unopened box of 1967 Topps might go for (especially if these were the High Numbers that he was opening earlier), but just throwing some numbers together if you could get $12k per box, you are looking at over $10 million, and that is likely a low estimate!

He didn't need that shovel to dig for treasure!  All he needed was to take one of those forklifts and take the pallet of those 36 cases home!

 

The story ends with our treasure hunter getting punished by his parents for breaking into the factory (double the chores and no baseball cards) while his sister mocks him with more cards:

 

Its not really clear who the audience would have been for this film.  Presumably Topps was hoping it could be shown in schools, perhaps from the angle of showing how candy gets made and factories operate.

 

Here is the video so you can travel back to 1967 and see what it was like in the Topps factory: