1981 Topps/Coke Baseball

By Patrick Mondout

Topps produced 11 regional sets of 11 cards for distribution by Coke in 1981. The cards are identical to the '81 Topps cards with the exception of the Coca-Cola logo on the front and some minor changes on the back.

You math majors may wonder what happened to the other 11 cards on the 132 card sheet (11x11=121, but Topps generally printed 132 standard sized cards on a an uncut sheet). They were promo cards for Coca-Cola with the team name and a promotion on the back.

The promo allowed you to purchase uncut sheets of regular 1981 Topps cards for $4 per sheet! This was the first time Topps extended such an offer at any price to the public.

As was so often the case in this era, dealers got their grubby little hands on these cards from Coke distributors and what could have been an interesting and scarce collection of regional sets has become a cheap collection of sets that some dealers have seemingly had "in stock" for over 20 years.

Coke cards of Yankees Rich Gossage, Reggie Jackson and Rick Cerone have been floating around the hobby for years (such as the one you see on the upper right of this page). Since they feel like a real card and have proper backs, they appear to be final proofs of a Yankees set that was never produced. Their existence begs the question: what happened to the other eight cards?

1981 Topps/Coke at a Glance Back Header Schmidt

Below is a complete checklist for these 11 team sets. Our main article on 1981 oddball sets is here.