The 1970s began with a glaring absence from packs of baseball cards: Mickey Mantle. Mantle’s final playing-days Topps card appeared in 1969 , closing a run that made him the face of baseball card collecting throughout the 1950s and 1960s. His departure from the baseball card world ended a familiar annual chase for collectors.

Even though the 1969 Topps was Mickey Mantle’s final card from his playing days, he continued appearing in sets like this 1977 TCMA. TCMA cards were created by Tom Collier and Mike Aronstein in the 1970s and these sets specialized in vintage reprints and minor league cards. | Card Ladder

As a new generation of stars arrived in the 1970s, the hobby itself began to change. Small collector gatherings held in 1969 helped lay the groundwork for a larger public card convention in Detroit in 1970.…