The above pic shows the extent of my collection of the first series of Star Wars cards released by Topps back in 1977. As a child I had many more, but as I’ve mentioned on this blog before I glued them into a scrapbook 🙂
At the antique fair last year I purchased the above ‘repacks’ of vintage Star Wars cards. Here’s some of what was inside the one on the left:
In total the repack contained one sticker and 28 cards. They’re all original Topps cards, but they’re from the fifth series released in 1979! In Australia we only ever got one series of Star Wars cards, and had I known American kids saw five different sets on shelves all the way up the release of The Empire Strikes Back I would have been green with envy! I’m happy to have added these to my collection 🙂
Speaking of Empire, I still own my complete set of cards, which you can see above. These are in excellent condition since by that age (8, in 1980) I had stopped destroying my cards! As with Star Wars, Australia only had one set of Empire cards, but America had four, and the second repack I bought at the fair was from the third series:
There were 33 cards in the box, all different, and all in remarkably good condition considering they’re 45 years old. Again, I’m pleased to add them to my collection, but one in particular I was quite surprised to see.
The one on the left – which was also in the repack – is card #1 from the first Topps Empire set. On the right is my card #1 from my childhood set. I’ve circled the differences.
These are typically referred to as ‘Topps’ Star Wars cards today, but the truth is that Topps only sold them in the USA, and they were licensed and sold in other countries by different companies. In Australia it was a gum company named Scanlens, as you can see on the top left of the card shown above. I suspect this is the reason we only ever got one set for each film. Interestingly the Scanlens cards have a slight premium over the Topps ones, and a full set of Scanlens Empire cards in good condition can easily sell for over $100. The stickers are quite a bit rarer (I have most, but not all of them) and a Scanlens set can sell for several times the cost of the card set!
And what about Return Of The Jedi? Ive got a few dozen cards from the first Topps set, as well as about a half dozen unopened packs, including no-doubt rancid gum.
Should I open them?