Mario Alejandro introduced me to this card in his tweet from March 2024, and then I ran across the following picture of it in Issue 15 (Summer 1993) of Topps Magazine.
First, here’s a screen capture of what Mario wrote about the card
And here are the images he attached to the tweet.
Unfortunately, in their Topps Magazine blurb, Topps doesn’t add much more to the story. Mario alluded to the back of the card, which invited folks to show up at the Nikon House on Tuesday, April 13th, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. after RSVPing to Rebecca Kirisits. But that means the card had to have been distributed before then.
Perhaps it was handed out by Topps’s “paparazzi,” whose photos were displayed at Nikon House.
By the way, PSA has a single example, a gem mint 10, in its Pop Report.
Let me know if you have any more info about this card.
Bob Cousy helped revolutionize the point guard position while playing for the Boston Celtics between 1950 & 1963, contributing to six NBA Championships. During this time, Cousy was a 13-time NBA All-Star and received the MVP award in 1957. Beloved as a player, his retirement ceremony became known as the “Boston Tear Party.” His legacy is extraordinary, encompassing the organization of the National Basketball Players Association, the popularization of modern guard play, the elevation of the NBA’s profile, the reception of a Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the naming of numerous basketball awards in his honor. Additionally, Cousy was well-known for his public stance against racism. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have many basketball card options, with only ten items needed to complete his PSA Master Set Registry. While many collectors target his 1957 Topps or 1951 Berk Ross cards for their collections, my favorite is the 1963 HP Hood Dairy oddball.
Bob Cousy retired in 1963 and went to work doing promotions and clinics for the H.P. Hood Dairy Company. These 2 3/8″ x 3 7/8″ cards were distributed during this time period. Bob Cousy confirmed to a collector friend of mine that he used these cards during the period from 1963-1966. One of the Massachusetts-based company’s slogans during this period was “Schoolboy or Celtic, they both get energy to burn from Hood Milk!” The cards come in two variations. The most common variation has a blue ink facsimile signature and says “yours for better fitness, Bob Cousy”. At the bottom of the card it has the Hood logo and below that, it has the “Boston Traveler” logo. The Boston Traveler was a newspaper that is now defunct. The other variation is in black ink and only has the Hood Dairy emblem. Currently, the reason for the difference in cards is unknown. The Boston Traveler newspaper did go out of business in 1967, so maybe Hood had plans to use these cards longer?? We may never know. The black ink Hood card appears to be the rarer of the two. Twenty years ago, it was believed that these cards were exceedingly rare. However, as time has gone on, we have seen a few small finds of these, which have brought the price down slightly. I’ve also included an image of an 11 x 17 advertisement for John Alden fine foods that uses the Cousy graphic from this card.
1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Card Variations From VintageBasketball.com
Bob Cousy John Alden Contest Featuring The Same Cousy Image
I’m unsure when that overview was written, but regarding the black ink variation, Heritage Auctions sold a lot of nine of them in June 2022 for $1320.
1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Cards – Fronts
1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Cards – Backs
PSA doesn’t appear to differentiate between variations in its Pop Report, which contains 22 cards and six autographed copies; SGC has graded six.
Despite the cards’ relative scarcity, they’re not that expensive. In 2021, Probstein sold a trio of them on eBay: a PSA 5 sold for $202 in March, a PSA 6 went for $472 in April, and a PSA 4 for $143 in July. He also sold a PSA 2 for $406 in June 2014.
1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy Cards
That said, a PSA 7 (the highest graded) sold for $2,247 on eBay in November 2024.
1963 HP Hood Dairy Bob Cousy PSA 7
Lelands sold the original photograph used for the card in November 2023 for $3,540.
Bob Cousy Original Photograph – Front
Bob Cousy Original Photograph – Reverse
Interestingly, I found an advertisement for Hood Milk for sale on eBay a while ago. It was described as coming from the Saturday Evening Post and is dated March 10, 1962, in the upper-left corner. The image looks like it could have been taken on the same day as the PSA Type 1 photo that Lelands sold, and the timeline fits the description of the Cousy card being used from 1963 to 1966.
Hood Milk Ad
The same image used on the 1963 HP Hood Diary Cousy card was also used for the souvenir program for “Bob Cousy Day” at Boston Garden on March 17, 1963, aka The Boston Tear Party. In April 2021, SCP Auctions sold the following team-signed copy for $3,769.
Bob Cousy Day Souvenir Program
The scarcity of basketball card options for iconic figures is an unfortunate reality of the hobby. However, Bob Cousy played a big part in the growth of basketball in America, which led to the abundance of basketball card options that emerged in the late ’80s.
It may be because I recently published The Uncut Sheet Archive, but I’ve been seeing a lot of awesome uncut sheets lately while perusing old catalogs lately, like this 1962 Topps uncut proof!
Ron Oser Entperises offered it in their April 2001 catalog and included the following description:
With 43 cards appearing on a 21″ x 28″ blank backed partial process proof sheet. Includes: Bunning, Snider, Kaline AS, Aparicio, Ford AS, Zimmer, etc. Only includes the actual photos used for the cards without the baseball card information. There is some moisture damage around the edge on the front with heavier damage on the reverse. Of the stars only the Bunning is affected. Minor creasing is also apparent.
Here’s an example of the final 1962 Topps Snider (top right corner of the sheet) and Ford All-Star cards for comparison (bottom row, third over).
There are quite a few production proof sheets in the archives of the major auction houses, but just a handful are actual photo-based. For example, REA sold this one, which included a handful of photos from the 1959 Topps set. It sold for $1,860 in the summer of 2019.
On the football card side of the house, Heritage sold this 1962 Topps Football Player Portraits Uncut Proof Sheet with 44 Players, including the Tarkenton Rookie, for $1,920 in December 2024.
The 1967 Topps Stand-Ups are one of the scarcest Topps test issues, though Topps likely intended them as a 1968 release. Anyway, I ran across a December 2004 auction that featured both the Mickey Mantle proof and die-cut versions!
First, here’s what The Standard Catalog has to say about the set:
Never actually issued, no more than a handful of each of these rare test issues have made their way into the hobby market. Designed so that the color photo of the player’s head could be popped out of the black background and placed into a punch-out base to create a stand-up display, examples of these 3-1/8” x 5-1/4” cards can be found either on thick stock, die-cut around the portrait and with a die-cut stand, or as thin-stock proofs without the die-cutting. Blank-backed, there are 24 cards in the set, numbered on the front at bottom left.
In 2010, they priced the thick stock, die-cut set at $75k, and the thin stock, proof set at $60k. As for the dating, SABR has a great article explaining the likely intended release of 1968. Mantle is the set’s key player, followed by Clemente, Mays, and Aaron.
I’ve only found one other sale of a Mantle Stand-Up card when, in April 2005, Memory Lane Inc. sold the following GAI-8.5 graded die-cut example for just under $10k.
For SA, PSA has a single example of each Mantle variation in their Pop Report.
And since I run The Unopened Archive, here’s the lone wrapper example: Lelands sold it for $3k in November 2008.
TCDB includes this photo of what’s likely the only display box; the same one, I believe is shared in the article Standing Tall on The Topps Archives who shared a few more unopened items from the set in a piece called Yaz Sir!
In the spring 1983 issue of Baseball Cards Magazine, Big League Collectibles advertised their 1982/83 Diamond Classicsand 1983 Original All-Stars collector sets, which were limited to 10,000 sets.
The only thing I need clarification on about the advertisement is whether the Diamond Classics offer was for both series that made up a set – I suspect it was just Series 1, but more on that thought another time! Series 1 had 56 cards (including the checklist) and came in a numbered, boxed set.
The cards were printed on thick stock in a 2 1/2” x 3 3/4” format. Here’s an example of DiMaggio’s card.
The other key cards in the first series were Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinso, and Mickey Mantle.
Big League Collectibles released the second series of Diamond Classics cards in 1983, also in individually numbered boxed sets. The key cards were Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, and Hank Aaron.
The Original All-Stars From the Game of the Century set honored players from the first modern All-Star Game, which was held in conjunction with Chicago’s World Fair in 1933.
The boxed sets were also individually numbered out of 10,000.
Unless autographed, all these cards are super affordable.
Between the Baseball Writers’ Association of America and the Veterans Committee selections, the 1984 Baseball Hall of Fame was among Baseball’s strongest. Luis Aparicio, Don Drysdale, and Harmon Killebrew were voted in, while the Veteran’s Committee added Rick Ferrell and Pee Wee Reese. A player had to be on 75% of ballots to be inducted to the Hall of Fame; Aparicio was on 84.6% of ballots, Killebrew on 83.1%, and Drysdale on 78.4%. Seven players received votes but failed to make the 75% cutoff but were elected in future elections: Hoyt Willhelm, Nellie Fox, Billy Williams, Jim Bunning, Orlando Cepeda, Bill Mazeroski, and Joe Torre.
Here are some standout cards celebrating the 1984 Hall of Fame inductees.
Luis Aparicio
Aparicio was the first Venezuelan inducted into the Hall of Fame. He was an excellent defensive shortstop who was a 13x All-Star, a 9x Golf Glove Award Winner, a 9x AL Stolen Base Leader, and a member of the 1966 World Series Champion Baltimore Orioles team. He finished his career with 2677 hits and 506 stolen bases.
Key Cards: 1956 Topps, 1964 Topps, and 1971 Topps
1956 Topps #292 Luis Aparicio
1964 Topps #540 Luis Aparicio
1971 Topps #740 Luis Aparicio
Don Drysdale
Don Drysdale played his entire career with the Dodgers organization. He was a 9x All-Star, 3x World Series Champion, and 1962 Cy Young Award Winner. He finished his career with 209 wins, 2486 strikeouts, and a 2.95 earned run average.
Key Cards: 1957 Topps and 1963 Topps
1957 Topps #18 Don Drysdale
1963 Topps #360 Don Drysdale
Harmon Killebrew
Over his 22-year career, Killebrew was a 13-time All-Star, 6-time AL home run leader, and 1969 AL MVP. He was a prolific home run hitter, finishing his career with 573.
Key Cards: 1955 Topps, 1963 Topps, and 1967 Topps
1955 Topps #124 Harmon Killebrew
1963 Topps #500 Harmon Killebrew
1967 Topps #460 Harmon Killebrew
Rick Ferrell
Over his 18-year career, Ferrell was one of Baseball’s best catchers. He was an 8x All-Star and patient hitter, logging only 277 strikeouts over his career compared to 931 walks. He was super durable and, to this day, still ranks 12th all-time in games played as a catcher.
Key Cards: 1933 Goudey and 1940 Play Ball
1933 Goudey #197 Rick Ferrell
1940 Play Ball #21 Rick Ferrell
Pee Wee Reese
Reese was a member of the loaded 40s/50s Dodgers teams. He played 16 seasons, making the All-Star Game 10 times while winning 2 World Series. Reese also made the top ten in MVP voting eight times over his career. He was consistently productive, scoring 1338 runs in his career while playing great defense.
I ran across this awesome point-of-sale sign featuring halfback Charley Trippi and QB Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals in Mastro’s December 2005 catalog; since Christman only played for Chicago until ’49, It must be from the ’40s despite being titled as a ’50s piece.
Here’s Mastro’s complete item description:
Check out this awesome display for “Wilson Sports Equipment!” Wilson has been a worldwide leader in the sports industry for decades due to the quality of their products and the effective promotion of their equipment. Years of using athletes and teams to endorse new product lines elevated Wilson USA into its unique, elite position in the sporting goods industry. Offered here is a football “cradle,” counter sign utilizing images of halfback Charley Trippi and quarterback Paul Christman of the Chicago Cardinals. Entitled “It’s a Wilson,” the 16″ x 14″ x 6-1/2″ display has a working stand-up back showing off the fantastic NM condition of the artifact. This 1940’s-1950’s point-of-sale advertisement possesses beautiful, bold colors and shows only the slightest signs of aging and use. What a spectacular piece!
I’ve been looking for other examples of this piece online or across The Hobby Library but haven’t seen another, so I thought it would be cool to look at the cards of the two “famous stars of the National Football League” instead.
Trippi, a Pro and College Football Hall of Famer, has the slightly more coveted cards and a deeper run of them since he played until 1955. He has two rookie cards from 1948, a Bowman and Leaf.
However, my favorite among his cards is the 1952 Bowman. However, his exhibit is fascinating in the context of the cardboard ad sign since the image is similar.
Christman, a College Football Hall of Famer, also has 1948 Bowman and Leaf rookie cards.
