There’s nothing quite like the allure of an old unopened pack. There’s the obvious dilemma... to rip or not to rip? There’s the obvious question…what’s inside? And there’s the ‘wow’ factor as in “I can’t believe this has never been opened.” When it comes to vintage rack packs, you can multiply those questions by three because that’s really what it is -three packs of cards in one big, long package. We’re just back from the National Sports Collectors Convention with one of the coolest packs football card collectors will ever see - a 1968 Topps rack pack with Joe Namath on the front. The scarcity of packs like this can’t be overstated. It’s a genuine Topps pack, not a re-make or “Christmas” rack as you often see online. Topps didn’t produce a lot of football packs in the ‘60s and even fewer racks. There are 36 cards inside in all and back in ’68 you could buy a pack for 29 cents. As popular as the Jets were among fans at this point in time, it’s not likely the packs featuring Jets players on top or bottom lasted long in the stores. Somehow, this one made it all the way to 2012 without ever being cracked open by collectors who couldn’t resist. For Namath, the 1968-69 season is the one that launched the legend. Tired of hearing talk about how the AFL would lose its third straight Super Bowl to the mighty NFL, Namath predicted victory a few days before the game and then, as we all know, the brash playboy made good on his promise. The AFL had won its first Super Bowl and Namath was suddenly a household name. He never returned to the Super Bowl, but today, he’s one of the most collectible players in any sport. You can only imagine how many kids carried their ’68 Topps Namath cards that winter. Fortunately, at least one lone survivor remains encased in its original state, preserving a period in history just before #12 turned the world on its ear.
