General Forum

For this exercise, rate the ten 1970s Topps sets purely for design.  This rating has nothing to do with value, scarcity, or the stars or rookie cards that are or are not in the set.  This is just about ranking the sets for their visual appeal and how much you like them.... Here goes:

10.  78.  Boring.

9.  79.  Almost equally boring.

8.  77.  Clean design, but not exciting.

7.  73.  Interesting design, but the next six are so much better.

6.  74.  This is a pretty cool design, with some nice colors.

5.  70.  The grey borders set this apart as something fun and different.

4.  76.  Maybe this is a surprise coming in this high, but I like the colorful horizontal banding on the bottom.

3.  71.  Now we are getting to the really close calls.  The black borders are so sharp.  This might be the best looking design of the decade.

2.  72.  While 71 is so on-point, the crazy 72 cinematic theme is just so imaginative and outside the box.

1.  75.  Too colorful to ignore.  And there are multiple color schemes.  I love color on cards!

This can often just be "which sets did I collect when I was a kid", but...

10) 70. Bleccch. Like moving into a concrete slab apartment building. What were they thinking?

9)  73. Really boring, and still stuck in the era of lame posed pictures.

8)  79. Agreed, kind of boring, but still not bad.

7)  78. Agreed, kind of boring, but still not bad. I like the script team names.

6)  74. I love this set, which says a lot about the rest of these. The colored banners above and below the picture frame are nice.

5)  77. The colorful blocked-letter team names look great and the All-Star banners make it better.

4)  71.  Damn black borders. But the lower case lettering is cool.

3)  76.  Great use of color, and the little images for each position are cool. 

2)  75.  Even better use of color. Iconic.

1)  72.  Like a Peter Max acid-drenched concert poster.

10. 1970 — Just dull. 
9. 1974 — Never got into the little flag things 

8. 1973 — I like the position drawings, but the borders did nothing for me. 
7. 1979 — Again, kinda boring; don’t need the big logo 

6. 1976 — Slightly better than ‘79. No big logo. 
5. 1971 — getting good now. The black is nice 

4. 1978 — love the cursive and especially the all-star shields 

3. 1977 — bold and clean 

2. 1972 — psychedelic, might be first if the player’s position was in the front 

1. 1975 — colorful and fun. 
Proud to own all these sets. Just about all ten are better than the design of almost every Topps set from 1990 to present. 
v3

I'll bite, but you'll be surprised at my rankings.

10 - 1972 - Despise the team lettering
9 - 1971 - Unless ee cummings is in the set, mix the cases like normal people
8 - 1979 - Despite being my first set I put together, it really is a boring set
7 - 1970 - Gray and bland, but I do like the lettering
6 - 1975 - Pick a color scheme and stick with it - this set is lucky it wasn't lower on the list
5 - 1978 - Also despite these being the first cards I ever saw and owned - script for team names is cool
4 - 1974 - Banners are nice
3 - 1973 - Like the silhouettes
2 - 1976 - See 1973 :)
1 - 1977 - Best design, front and back of the 70s - the scoreboard backs and the bold team names make these

10-1976

9-1970

8-1971

7-1979

6-1973

5-1977

4-1972

3-1974

2-1975

1-1978

From worst to best:

With six voters, here are the results:

70.  48 = 8.0 with no top fours.

79.  41 = 6.83 with five bottom fours.

73.  36 = 6.0

74.  33 = 5.5

78.  31 = 5.17 with a first and a last.

76.  31 = 5.17 with a second, third, and last

77.  30 = 5.0 with a first and third

71.  30 = 5.0 with a first and third

72.  29 = 4.83 but the most polarizing with a 1st, two 2nds, a 4th, and two 10ths.

76.  21 = 3.5 in a landslide victory.  Two firsts, two seconds, a sixth, and a ninth....

First, thanks for doing this. It was fun. 

Second, you've got a crucial typo in either First or Fifth, as they both say 1976. I think I know, but you should edit that. 

Best. 

v3

Right you are!

75 was the landslide winner.  Apparently we folks like colorful cards, which apparently eventually led to our current era of parallels....