Here are two examples:
But this set of stamps wasn't just a stand-alone set, like the baseball stamps they'd produced in the '60s. No, these stamps were directly connected to that year's hockey cards.
How directly?
Well, here are two cards from the 1969-70 Topps hockey set that I recently picked up. They're the first two cards from the set in my collection.
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| 1969-70 Topps #8 Jacques Lemaire and #10 Jean Beliveau |
Classy cards featuring even classier players, eh?
Here are the card backs. Pay close attention to Beliveau's.
PLACE JEAN BELIVEAU STAMP HERE!
I had no idea Topps brought two collecting worlds together like this.
You'll note, however, that Jacques Lemaire's card does not have a space for the stamp. That's because out of the 132 cards in the set, only 26 were given the treatment. Stars like Phil Esposito, Rod Gilbert, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Stan Mikita, and Bobby Orr received a corresponding stamp, as well as a few lesser-known players. But that's it. (This can help explain why a collector like me might not have been aware of such a thing.)
The stamps were issued in pairs, one pair in each pack of cards.
Now, sticking stamps on the back of hockey cards isn't exactly the smartest thing to do, condition-wise. And even back then, before trading cards were assigned much monetary value, Topps must have thought better about repeating the design. 1969-70 appears to be the only season they did it.
Regardless, think about kids back then who collected stamps and hockey cards. Imagine combining two of your hobbies like that. Must have been pretty cool.
