Set Description:
Issued in three separate series this 526-card set featured a mix of veterans, rookies and retired greats in the general style of the classic T-206 set issued more than 90 years prior. Series one consists of cards 1-180 and went live in February, 2002, series two consists of cards 181-307 - including 96 variations - and went live in early August, 2002 and series three consists of cards 308-456 - including 15 variations and a total of 55 short prints seeded at a rate of one per pack - and went live in January, 2003. Each pack contained eight cards with an SRP of $4. Packs were issued 20 per box and each case had 10 boxes. The following subsets were issued as part of the set: Prospects (131-140/261-270/399-418); First Year Players (141-155/271-285/419-432), Retired Stars (156-170/286-298/433-448) and Reprints (171-180/299-307/449-456). The First Year Player subset cards 141-155 and 277-285 were inserted at stated odds of one in two packs making them short-prints in comparison to other cards in the set. According to press release notes, Topps purchased more than 4,000 original Tobacco cards and also randomly inserted those in packs. They created a "holder" for these smaller cards inside the standard-size cards of the Topps 206 set. Stated pack odds for these "repurchased" Tobacco cards was 1:110 for series one, 1:179 for series two and 1:101 for series three.
