1980 Topps Print Runs

How many 1980 Topps card #482 were printed? I've been looking for this answer. I saw lots of estimates between 600,000 and 2,000,000. I found two pieces of evidence that give solid anchors for the 1980 Topps print runs.

Topps has never been open about their print runs, but due to legal disputes, they have had to share sales and sweepstakes odds on multiple occasions. Two of these occasions can give a decent idea into how many 19890 Topps cards were printed and or sold.

1983 Sports Collectors Digest Article

I was not able to read the original article. But allegedly a 1983 Sports Collectors Digest (SCD) article estimated that 750,000 prints were made of each card in 1983. The odds of winning a sweepstakes was written on the back of the packs. Then Topps had to legally release how many prizes were available. Using the odds and released information from Topps produced the estimate. 

This is a great anchor for the 1980 Topps print runs. The biggest change in 1983 was that Donruss and Fleer were also producing baseball cards. It's unclear how much those other two card companies would have affected the production of Topps compared to 1980. I assume they printed and sold less. 

(If anyone reading this has the 1983 SCD article, I'd love to read it! Please comment, email, or message me.)

Fleer v Topps Antitrust Lawsuit

I found another anchor. During an antitrust lawsuit between Fleer and Topps, Topps had to release their sales information for 1978. We can estimate the 1978 print runs based on the data shared from the lawsuit. Read the findings from Fleer Corp. v. Topps Chewing Gum, Inc., 501 F. Supp. 485 (E.D. Pa. 1980) here. There is a lot of interesting information shared. The following is the relevant information for the 1978 print run estimates:

"In 1978, the standard Topps baseball card package consisted of 14 baseball cards and a slab of gum weighing 4.30 grams. The normal retail price was 20 cents per package."

"In 1978, sales of Topps's baseball cards with gum in the primary twenty cent package accounted for $6.6 million in sales out of Topps's total baseball card sales of $9.2 million. $2.6 million dollars of sales were achieved with products such as "Rack-packs" (a large number of baseball cards sold alone) and 500-card vending packs."

There were 726 unique cards in the set. 66 cards were double printed because of the 132 card printing sheets. Printing wise that is like having 792 cards

1978 Topps Estimates Based on Sales Information

• Gum Packs
• 14 card per packs 
• $0.20 per pack
• $6.6 million in sales
• ~ 462,000,000 cards sold
• ~ 583,333 cards per single print, ~1,166,666 cards per double print
• Other Packs
• $2.6 million in sales
• Larger packs without gum
• Assuming sales at $0.01 per card
• ~260,000,000 cards sold
• ~328282 cards per single print, ~656,565 per double print
• Estimated Total Cards Sold
• ~722 million cards 
• ~911,616 cards per single print

Deductions for 1980 Topps

The 1980 Topps baseball cards print runs are likely more similar to the 1978 than the 1983. In 1978 and 1980 Topps had a monopoly on baseball cards and player licensing, which the courts found illegal. By 1983, Topps had two major competitors which likely decreased production and sales.

Either way, the 1978 and 1983 print run estimates fall nicely within the commonly cited and estimated print runs for 1980 Topps.

I would put ~750,000-1,200,000 prints as a safe range for the Rickey Henderson rookie cards printed, leaning closer to 1-1.2 million based on the 1978 print run estimates.