1974 Topps Evel Knievel Cards & Stickers

After reading the great post by Jim on the Sports Design Blog about Evel Knievel, I had to dig out my old Topps Evel Knievel cards and reminisce about the good old days of being a kid growing up in the 1970s.



Jim's post does a great job of describing what it was like being a kid back then with all the Evel Knievel toys that we had to play with as well as discusses the media coverage of Evel's exploits that showed that Evel had a strong sense of marketing and self promotion.

The one thing that Jim didn't mention is one of the first things I remember when I think back to how big Evel was at the time - the 1974 Topps Evel Knievel card set.


The card set was a "test" issue as it did not have extensive nationwide distribution. I was fortunate enough to be in an area where the cards were available, so I fondly remember buying packs and trying to complete the set. Unfortunately I wasn't able to complete it, and still need a number of cards to finish the 60 card set.

Interestingly, the cards only came in cello wrappers. Wax wrappers were never used.


Here is a look at the uncut sheet that was recently up for auction by The Topps Vault:


In addition to the 60 card set, there was also a set of 22 stickers, which each had 16 small square stickers depicting logos and names of various automobile companies and auto related products.

The sticker design was actually recycled from an earlier Topps release from 1970 that was included with the Way Out Wheels set, which is why they are called Auto Stickers and why there is no mention of Evel Knievel on the stickers.

Here is the 1970 Way Out Wheels wrapper mentioning the Auto Stickers:


The stickers also are in the same format as the 1971-72 Topps Basketball stickers:


Here is a look at an uncut sheet of the Auto Stickers:


It appears that packs sometimes had the sticker on the front instead of the card:


This is how I recall the packs as I remember checking out the packs to see which stickers I wanted.


Given this was a test issue, the cards aren't that easy to find. They're not impossible to locate, but you don't see them for sale all that often.

1985 Fleer NFL Team Action Football Sticker and Card Sets

For its 10th annual NFL Team Action Football cards and stickers in 1985, Fleer greatly increased the number of cards in a pack (going from 7 cards in 1984 to 15 cards in 1985 as they so prominently mention on the pack), but unfortunately cut the number of stickers in a pack from 3 to only 1. Since 1979, Fleer had always included 3 stickers per pack (and actually had 4 in 1978). The 1985 sticker set is probably the most challenging to complete given the sticker count went down by 67%. The stickers once again feature the same design as the 1982, 1983, and 1984 sets, with the only difference on the front being the border color which changed to blue. Otherwise, the helmet designs are the same, and the 5 sticker variations found in the 1982 - 1984 sets are once again included (Colts small / large letters, Bengals facemask, Packers ear hole, Giants TM, and Seahawks helmet color).   SEE UPDATE BELOW - I don't think the Giants missing TM version exists) I'm still looking for the Packers variation with no black outline around the earhole and I'm also still trying to track down the Giants helmet without the TM (see update below - I don't think this variation exists) As I said earlier, this is a very hard sticker set to put together! The backs changed in 1985 as they no longer feature the team's schedule but rather a contest form: For the first time there were 3 cards per team instead of 2. Along with the Offense and Defense cards that had always been part of the set (now labeled as "On Offense" and "On Defense"), each team got a 3rd card which simply was called "In Action". These "In Action" cards had schedules on the back that used to be on the backs of the stickers. While it was good to have a 3rd team card with the schedule, and the 3 cards per team layout looks good in 9 pocket sheets, in order to accommodate the additional card for each team Fleer abandoned the subset which they had produced each year since 1976 which featured all previous Super Bowls and instead only devoted 3 cards to the previous year's Super Bowl as well as one card for the Pro Bowl. The set size remained at 88 cards which is where it had been since 1981. Here is a look at the card backs, where you can see the schedule cards mentioned earlier: One interesting thing to note is that the card design bares a slight resemblance to the classic 1972 Topps Football set: 

 

Update Feb 2022: 

I'm come to the conclusion that there isn't a 1985 Fleer New York Giants helmet sticker with a missing TM. 

When I indicated that I thought that all of the 1982 -1984 variations were continued in the 1985 set, it was an educated guess.  I assumed it existed because all of the other variations from the 1982 to 1984 sets carried over to 1985, and I didn't think Fleer would have bothered to fix the missing TM issue, but perhaps someone caught it and they did fix it for 1985.

I've been looking for it for over 12 years and haven't found one.  Other collectors who have been looking for the variation haven't found one either. 

While the 1985s are a bit harder to find than the other years, they aren't that scarce.  One certainly should have turned up by now.  Since nobody seems to have found one, I think its safe to say that it doesn't exist.

1984 Fleer NFL Team Action Football Sticker and Card Sets

Fleer released its 9th annual NFL Team Action Football cards and stickers in 1984:




The 1984 stickers are almost identical to the 1982 and 1983 sets except for a slightly different colored border (yellow instead of gold) and the fact that the Colts were now from Indianapolis instead of Baltimore. The 5 variations that were present in the 1982 and 1983 sticker sets (Colts small / large letters, Bengals facemask, Packers ear hole, Giants TM, and Seahawks helmet color) are once again repeated in the 1984 set:









The sticker backs changed from red in 1982 & 1983 to to blue for 1984:


The card set is once again 88 cards as in previous few years with the same format of an offensive and defensive card for each team, a subset of all Super Bowls played up to that point, and a subset of various aspects of the game like the huddle and the kickoff. Here is a look at the full set:













Here is what the backs look like: