Context (More Cards and Subsets!): 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 the number of cards in the set. The 72-73 Topps set was the largest to that point at 264 cards. In fact, it started a series of three sets in a row that were fixed at 264 cards. And it was a well-organized, fun-to-collect set too. Cards #1-176 are NBA cards while 177-264 are ABA cards. Within these two halves, interesting subsets were introduced. You had All-Stars, statistical leaders, and cards dedicated to each game of the championship series in both the ABA and NBA. So the set really gives you a feel for what it was like when both leagues were operating simultaneously. The subsets are nice because there were no insert sets that year.
The design 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. 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.
The Card: The Julius Erving rookie card is the highlight of this set! (Dr. J also appears on an All-Star card and a Rebound Leaders card in this set). Also note that since Topps was the only company on the scene at the time, it is the only Dr. J rookie card. This card is an ABA card. Erving entered the NBA only when the leagues merged for the 1976-77 season. The white border and yellow background makes print defects common. The most common of these is a white bubble/fisheye by his left elbow, although similar to the black line on the 1980-81 Topps Bird/Erving/Magic rookie, this doesn’t really affect grading. People do pay more for versions with a clean yellow background though.
Don’t overlook the back. It captures memories from the 1972 ABA playoffs where Erving set a variety of playoff records including most 2-point field goals made in one game, best rebounding average and most points in one game. It also features his size 15 sneakers!
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